Coinbase CEO urges Bitcoin legal tender for Brazil, Argentina — Reaction
As Brazil and Argentina started preparatory work for a potential common currency, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong floated the idea of the two countries moving to Bitcoin (BTC). This sparked various discussions over the viability of BTC as a national currency.
On Jan. 22, the two South American countries announced their preparations to discuss a plan for a common currency that will run parallel with the Argentine peso and the Brazilian real. The move could potentially create the second-largest currency bloc in the world.
As the news broke, Armstrong took to Twitter to suggest that BTC may be the right choice for the project. The Coinbase CEO described BTC as the “right long-term bet” and wondered if the two countries would consider it.
Global Macro Investor founder and CEO Raoul Pal opposed the idea. According to Pal, having a national currency that "declines 65% in the down part of the business cycle and rises 10x in the up cycle" is not ideal. The executive pointed out that businesses would have difficulties in planning and hedging in this situation.
A few community members supported Pal's sentiment and argued against Armstrong's idea. According to a Twitter user, the only use case for BTC is a store of value like gold. They tweeted:
Anyone who thinks #Bitcoin can ever be a fiat replacement doesn't understand what $BTC is.The ONLY real world use case #Bitcoin can have: A store of value to back currency valuation, like Gold used to be.And this guy is the CEO of @coinbase ♂️. Says everything really. https://t.co/4AvwwmfIRv
Meanwhile, one Twitter user brought up the speed of transactions in the BTC network and argued that it would take too long to have BTC for daily use. However, this was immediately countered by another
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