Why is bitcoin better than fiat

[fatjohn]

So i tried to convince someone of this today.

The only thing what really stuck is that a lot of functions performed by the banking industry would be automated. Therefore releasing people bpto become productive in another way.

For the rest it was said that its the same as fiat. I tried to make the point that it was inherently deflationary, and then she said, they can just decide to raise the limit. I said they dont have an incentive to do that, but realized thats not true. Why would the miners once bitcoin is the main currency and the economy cant swich to ether or ltc easily anymore, why would the miners then not be able to come together and say we need to have more bitcoin?
It would be beneficial for them. Price would not crash significantly as long as they dont overdo it, kinda like the government now with fiat. If you say people would swamp to an alt as soon as they tweak bitcoin, then i think you're wrong. Now yes, and in a society with competing currencies, but at some point you would probably have governments favoring one crypto over the other therefore making it arteficially difficult to be overtaken as the main crypto.

So the only thing left is the inability to do fractional reserve banking. And thats though to sell amongst non anarchists.

So what will enable bitcoin in the future that fiat cant do?

[kfarnan]

Nobody can change the protocol. To add more bitcoin, miners would start a new protocol. Then the people would have to dump btc for a different protocol.

[kfarnan]

Nobody can change the protocol. To add more bitcoin, miners would start a new protocol. Then the people would have to dump btc for a different protocol.

Fiat is gov. enforced currency.

[Kords21]

If the miners or anyone considered influential in the Bitcoin community ever started talking about raising the 21 million limit, it cause a crap storm of epic proportions. Look at the scaling debates that go on now. That hard cap is a huge difference between Bitcoin and fiat. It would be disastrous for everyone involved with Bitcoin. That's the biggest difference for me, the fed can print up however much it wants, you can't just create how ever much Bitcoin you want.

[kpitcher]

It's not just the miners that would need to change, it's also all of the clients requiring a change too. It is not a realistic option.

I have been involved with some alt-coins. A small one changed the algorithm a year after launch, even with a few month warning and the few sites using the coin all switching right away there was still something like 20% that never switched. Sure there's a difference between $#@!coins and bitcoin yet 20% was still a few BTC on the exchanges. People don't like change!

[fatjohn]

If the miners or anyone considered influential in the Bitcoin community ever started talking about raising the 21 million limit, it cause a crap storm of epic proportions. Look at the scaling debates that go on now. That hard cap is a huge difference between Bitcoin and fiat. It would be disastrous for everyone involved with Bitcoin. That's the biggest difference for me, the fed can print up however much it wants, you can't just create how ever much Bitcoin you want.

The point is that this healthy mechanism is in place because there are competing currencies. The moment bitcoin is the de facto global currency and everyone including government accepts it and has it. There will no longer be efficient competition because society will be reluctant to change (first and foremost governments) so then a lot of uproar may occur but pretty much like implementing the first QE I could see it happen.

[Bruehound]

People keep speculating what will be bitcoin's "killer app", well it already has one built into the protocol and it is world changing. Evasion of capital controls.

Whenever a nation state faces a debt crisis they tighten capital controls to prevent capital and talent from leaving the country. Try crossing a border with a suitcase full of fiat or gold and see what happens. Now try crossing that same border with a pass phrase memorized in your head.