[GNC] Bitcoin is legal currency in El Salvador - why not add BTC?

[Dustin Henning]

On 12/10/21 10:14 AM, Dr. David Kirkby wrote:
> Now, in 2021:
> * Hundreds of millions of people own bitcoin
> * Multi-billion dollar exchanges such as Coinbase exist, which trade in
> bitcoin.
> * Bitcoin is traded on the Swiss Stock Exchange
> * Multi-billion dollar companies are accepting bitcoin as a payment method.
> * Charities are accepting bitcoin.
> * bitcoin is huge - the circulating supply is currently $936,632,823,929
> * Bitcoin is legal tender in one country.
> * Some accounting software works with bitcoin. For example Quickbooks
> https://quickbooks.intuit.com/app/apps/appdetails/blockpath/en-us/ although
> it seems to need a bit of a hack.
>
> Do you not consider it worth just accepting that
>
> * ISO 4217 standard is not relevant
> * bitcoin is here to stay for the foreseeable future
> * bitcoin is not just for geeks, as it used to be, but now is very
> mainstream.
> * People are currently using gnucash for bitcoin, but have to use
> workarounds.
>
> A Google indicates the ISO 4217 maintenance agency (MA), SIX Interbank
> Clearing <https://www.currency-iso.org/en/home/tables/table-a1.html>, is
> responsible for maintaining the list of codes. If I search their website,
> there's lots of references to bitcoin - that's where I learned bitcoin was
> traded on the Swiss Stock Exchange.  😂😢
>
> With not many mainstream accountancy packages directly supporting bitcoin,
> GnuCash has the chance to be almost a leader here, although it seems you
> have been beaten at least somewhat by Quickbooks, although that needs an
> add-on which is extra cost.
>
> Dave
If you were to trade a chicken for three loaves of bread and had 
considered the chicken to be an asset, how would you record that in 
GnuCash?  AFAIK, assets can be "sold" directly to expense accounts, the 
same way currency can be "transferred" to them.  The fact that a 
separate, purchase-able plugin exists hardly means QuickBooks is 
treating it as a currency.  With no investigation at all, it seems more 
likely the plugin is necessary because QuickBooks is not doing not 
that.  I have previously pointed out that that any charity or company 
accepting it is likely still accounting in some other fiat currency, and 
that the term "legal tender" may be getting used loosely at best.  I 
seriously doubt any company accepting BTC "payments" is pricing in BTC 
due to its volatility, and that again implies something other than 
currency.  Given that option, most, if not all, companies "accepting" 
BTC (accepting in quotes because many of them likely insta-convert with 
their payment processors) also "accept" other cryptocurrencies that 
behave more like currency.  To be frank, considering all of that makes 
it look to me like you have an agenda here.  The team has already given 
you an appropriate answer, and now you are resorting to ad hominem and 
shotgun argumentation.  All of your new points are equally refutable, 
but there doesn't seem to be much reason for continued discussion at 
this point.  It seems to me that it would be advisable for you to drop 
it or go build your own software at this point (and GnuCash is FOSS, so 
you could always fork it).  Barring that, you could at least try to show 
why you think you need this instead of continuing to try to convince the 
developers that they do.