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

[davidcousens49 at gmail.com]

Dustin and Dave,

As always with GnuCash the priority accorded to an item is a weighted decision
based on the need and the availability of developer time against other
priorities. The principal weighting is the availability of someone in the
development team (by no means a fixed resource outside the core developers of
the project and even the volunteer core developers are a time limited resource)
with enough familiarity with the areas of code affected with both the time and
the interest in making the necessary changes. It is not simply a matter of
management assigning an appropriate resource as it is in a commercial
application. 

Discussions such as these are a useful and a necessary part of building up the
momentum for introducing such changes and defining the issues involved but until
someone self identifies to take on the task of implementation, it remains just a
topic of discussion. John Ralls has defined the conditions which would raise the
priority for him to consider taking up the issue of BTC as a currency and it is
highly likely that most of the other core developers are going to have similar
priorities

Ultimately it gets down to if you want it badly enough and non-one else is
prepared to or has offered to implement a desired change, then you either put on
your developer hat, learn the necessary skills and get it done yourself, or
forget about it for the moment, until someone is prepared to make the offer to
implement it or your need becomes a sufficient motivator. 

The GnuCash user forum has had many such issues raised over its history, many of
which are still languishing after more than 20 years waiting for someone with
the necessary skills and interest to take them up, particularly the case for
issues which only affect a minority of the jurisdictions in which GnuCash is
used.

My personal judgements is that at present BTC is not yet a universal currency
and is not regulated enough to be usefully recorded as a currency but I do
recognize as Dave Kirby has pointed out that this position is rapidly changing.
Yes standards lag behind practice, but their introduction usually signals the
process of regulation and control is underway that will change BTC from a
primarily speculative medium of exchange to a regulated currency.

David Cousens

On Fri, 2021-12-10 at 11:12 -0500, Dustin Henning wrote:
> 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.
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