Camosun’s Bijan Ahmadi is taking a pro-Bitcoin stance for the debate (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nDespite the many advantages, Ahmadi states that there are some problems that would have to be solved before bitcoin could operate as a normal currency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe concern is that it\u2019s really volatile in its exchange rate with US dollars. I think the first major transaction that people knew about was thousands of bitcoins for a slice of pizza, and it\u2019s been on kind of a downward trend for a while,\u201d says Ahmadi. \u201cIt\u2019s just that high volatility has led people to hold on to their bitcoins.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the other side of the debate, professor Francis Michaud isn\u2019t so optimistic about bitcoins, and he says they shouldn\u2019t be considered a currency at this time.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy side of the debate is that bitcoin is not, or should not, be considered currency right now,\u201d says Michaud, who will be facing off against Ahmadi. \u201cBasically, in economics we define money as having three characteristics, and I feel that bitcoin essentially lacks two of these characteristics. The first one is that money should be a reserve of value, and the other one is that it is a medium of exchange. I think that bitcoins don\u2019t satisfy these two characteristics that money has; I don\u2019t think it\u2019s actually useful as money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michaud goes on to enforce his argument, basing it on the concerns that Ahmadi previously mentioned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the fluctuation of the price of bitcoin right now, who wants to pay in a currency that can lose hundreds of dollars of value in the span of one hour? You can make a payment in the morning and by the time the person you were trying to pay can receive it and transfer it back into dollars, it\u2019s lost hundreds of dollars of value,\u201d says Michaud. \u201cWho wants to accept that as a currency?\u201d<\/p>\n
With both sides making some excellent points, the debate promises to be an exciting event for both those going and those debating.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve never had debates, [Ahmadi] and I,\u201d says Michaud. \u201cWe work together and we talk often, so I know he\u2019s a pretty smart guy, but I have no clue how he debates. Our goal is not to destroy each other, it\u2019s to better inform students on large. We don\u2019t see this as a battle between him and me, but more as a nice activity to try to teach everyone a bit about what crypto currencies are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ahmadi agrees that the debate should be an interesting event for the Camosun community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to debating [Michaud],\u201d says Ahmadi. \u201cHe\u2019s very well read on the subject as well, and it\u2019s promising to be a fun event.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bitcoin speaker debate
\n5:30pm Monday, September 22
\nCampus Centre, Interurban campus, Room 124 A\/B<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most postsecondary students have at least heard of bitcoin currency. Though a popular topic in the media for the last year, what bitcoin actually is has remained an unclear concept for many people. To help inform Camosun students who wish to learn more, a debate has been set up for mid-September between two of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-september-3-2014"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9428"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9450,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9428\/revisions\/9450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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