Bitcoin is more than just a commodity with an ever changing value, and some Red Deerians believe it will one day be used as a currency and a medium for transactions.
Buying in to the cyrptocurrency Bitcoin Cash in 2011 may be part of the reason Matthias Bos supports it. Since that time its value has grown significantly in value and despite a recent drop, it is still worth much more than it was in 2011.
Bitcoin Cash is a split from Bitcoin in 2017 to increase the number of transactions its ledger can process.
Bitcoin’s value is driven by demand, both transaction and reservation. It is a highly volatile commodity, but the longer term trend of Bitcoin shows an increase in value. It is not set by a central bank or a single administrator.
Bos, who is a street performer in the summer and but also relies on his YouTube posts for income year round, said Bitcoin has advantages traditional currencies do not. YouTube does earn him some money, but it is less than a dollar a month at this point.
“We’re building a new financial system,” he said in a detailed video. “We don’t know if its going to work, but I think it will.
“I’m an artist and I thought it would be cool to not have to use PayPal or banks any more. It gives me more independence and more control.”
He uses yours.org, a site that earns him more money for the content he does post, increases that income and allows it to come to him in the form of Bitcoin.
“Most people in Alberta are going crypto crazy because of speculation and price and many are going to lose money and some will become rich,” he wrote in an email. “But hardly any people use Bitcoin as the utility it was designed to be.”
He has used Bitcoin to purchase items including a hard drive from a friend. He pointed out that recently Kentucky Fried Chicken Canada offered a promotion that accepted Bitcoin as payment for $20 bucket meals.
In 2013, Bryce Kander, a local realtor, advertised that Bitcoins would be accepted as payment for a Gasoline Alley acreage he’d listed.
mcrawford@reddeeradvocate.com
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