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Bitcoin Can Be Bought With Cash At Swiss Railway Ticket Machines (techweekeurope.co.uk)
In what is seen as a move that could help boost the spread of Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency will be available to purchase from Swiss railway ticket machines starting next month. Reader Mickeycaskill writes: Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) has more than 1,000 ticket machines and has partnered with regulated financial intermediary SweePay to distribute Bitcoin. Customers need to select mobile top up on the machines, scan the QR code on their Bitcoin digital wallet and enter the number of Swiss Francs, up to 500 CHF, in to the machine, confirm the offer of Bitcoins they receive then identify themselves using a mobile number and a security code sent to their smartphone. While the machine can pay out Bitcoin, for the time being, it will not accept payments made with the cryptocurrency. Furthermore, credit card cannot be used with the machines to buy Bitcoins, SBB is effectively providing a way to swap local currency for a digital version that can be used anywhere around the world, thereby bypassing unfavourable exchange rates"From 11 November 2016, customers will be able to obtain Bitcoin at all SBB ticket machines. Until now, there have only been limited opportunities to purchase Bitcoin in Switzerland," the company was quoted as saying.
If you have cash, why do you need bitcoin? I'd be more excited about a machine that accepts bitcoin and dispenses cash.
You were working towards a point and then undermined your argument with a bad example: Venezuela.
Yes, Venezuela is a shit hole. But in terms of economics it is plenty proximate to the wealthy nations because it has oil and that is easy enough to cart around. The reason Venezuela is a shit hole is not a matter of geography but its own self-inflicted politics (even if geography is part of the history that shaped those politics).
I would add that Norway, Canada, Australia are peculiar examples for the same reason. Their economies are significantly dependent on selling raw materials, and can okay on the world market as long as demand for their raw materials is growing in Asia.
I would further add that geography does not make the internal politics better automatically, e.g. Mexico, Italy.
Volatility is a negative for most things most people use money for. So when enthusiasts for bitcoin strays into hand waving arguments about bitcoin being a vastly superior form of money, then it is correct to bring up volatility as a counterargument. (I am not claiming that the topic is simple as any one or two factors, but that volatility is one of the several important factors.)
To make this argument more concrete, a typical non-rich person should hesitate to ever accept a large contract/employment for bitcoin. Here volatility can kill you both ways. If the bitcoin goes way down, you cannot live off your pay. If the bitcoin goes way up, suddenly there is a significant increased risk that your contract will not be fulfilled on the other side, because the other party is getting killed by the shift in bitcoin and might be going bankrupt.