Usually a currency is tied with a geographically and politically constrained economy. There is an economy served by the currency as a tool and the exchange rate of the currency gradually becomes a proxy for the health/belief in the health of that economy. Money exists to satisfy a need.
The economy I see bitcoin serving is all the nasty stuff I don’t want in my neighborhood - drugs, contract killings, people avoiding taxes. It’s often stuff we don’t talk about in relation to bitcoin. If we take away that economy bitcoin is backwards to all the other currency out there - some one created a “currency” in the hope an economy would rise up around it.
Right now, looking at this scheme, I’m thinking, a few people are going to get very rich and a lot of people are going to get a bit poor. So, what else is new?
The economy I see bitcoin serving is all the nasty stuff I don’t want in my neighborhood - drugs, contract killings, people avoiding taxes.
This is silly. There’s no evidence that these things constitute a substantial part of the bitcoin economy. (Well, drugs definitely used to, but circumventing the “drug war” is a plus in my opinion.)
The vast majority of bitcoin-accepting vendors these days are perfectly harmless, even by the most Puritan standards. I’ve made a few purchases with Bitcoin recently, including a purism laptop and a hard drive from Newegg. And for some people, Bitcoin is more than just secure and convenient. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/venezuelans-bitcoin-boom-survival-speculation-51769668
a few people are going to get very rich and a lot of people are going to get a bit poor
I for one got “a bit poor” by selling all my Bitcoin for profit some years ago, because if I’d held them, I might enjoy a year of vacation by selling now.
Now I just need to come up with enough liquidity to buy myself back in and not sell some years down the line, then I’m sure to “get very rich” a few years from that.
Doesn’t mean much, but for what it’s worth, I run a business involved in cryptocurrency and we pay taxes honestly and correctly as we do with all other transactions.
We find it really cool to be able to do “permissionless innovation” in regards to economic transactions. Bitcoin started that. Open source p2p networks instead of banks is a really cool prospect.
Pretty amazing that someone I consider a leading mind in fuzzing and security can manage to start a post on currency with the barter system fiction. It would be like starting a discussion of unicode with its origins in the need for emoji… eek. which is to say I should’ve taken the ride through that to the next paragraph. I still disagree with some of the angles concerning the origins of coinage but overall it’s relatively solid.
Usually a currency is tied with a geographically and politically constrained economy. There is an economy served by the currency as a tool and the exchange rate of the currency gradually becomes a proxy for the health/belief in the health of that economy. Money exists to satisfy a need.
The economy I see bitcoin serving is all the nasty stuff I don’t want in my neighborhood - drugs, contract killings, people avoiding taxes. It’s often stuff we don’t talk about in relation to bitcoin. If we take away that economy bitcoin is backwards to all the other currency out there - some one created a “currency” in the hope an economy would rise up around it.
Right now, looking at this scheme, I’m thinking, a few people are going to get very rich and a lot of people are going to get a bit poor. So, what else is new?
This is silly. There’s no evidence that these things constitute a substantial part of the bitcoin economy. (Well, drugs definitely used to, but circumventing the “drug war” is a plus in my opinion.)
The vast majority of bitcoin-accepting vendors these days are perfectly harmless, even by the most Puritan standards. I’ve made a few purchases with Bitcoin recently, including a purism laptop and a hard drive from Newegg. And for some people, Bitcoin is more than just secure and convenient. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/venezuelans-bitcoin-boom-survival-speculation-51769668
Who is going to get “a bit poor”? Bankers?
Indeed. I estimate Bitcoin’s value is 10% drugs and other illegal commerce, 30% money laundering, and the rest pure speculation.
Haha, that’s funny.
I for one got “a bit poor” by selling all my Bitcoin for profit some years ago, because if I’d held them, I might enjoy a year of vacation by selling now.
Now I just need to come up with enough liquidity to buy myself back in and not sell some years down the line, then I’m sure to “get very rich” a few years from that.
Doesn’t mean much, but for what it’s worth, I run a business involved in cryptocurrency and we pay taxes honestly and correctly as we do with all other transactions.
We find it really cool to be able to do “permissionless innovation” in regards to economic transactions. Bitcoin started that. Open source p2p networks instead of banks is a really cool prospect.
Pretty amazing that someone I consider a leading mind in fuzzing and security can manage to start a post on currency with the barter system fiction. It would be like starting a discussion of unicode with its origins in the need for emoji… eek.which is to say I should’ve taken the ride through that to the next paragraph. I still disagree with some of the angles concerning the origins of coinage but overall it’s relatively solid.And then the next paragraph starts:
I fail fast? 😳
Ah, someone’s read David Graeber.