Economics Questions

Re: Bitcoin DO NOT WANT!?

Christian Sherriff — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 04:42:48 GMT

Yes, it's silver. It occurred during the Hunt brothers buy up a few years after Nixon broke from gold. Remember it only came to a end due to a short ban. The point I'm making here is that silver (or any free market money such as bitcoin) are not immune from market forces. They are however ultimately immune to fiat decree.. which is our goal.

Bitcoin does satisfy the definition of a free market money and we shouldn't let its novel crypto form distract us from its real attributes as a money. There seems to be some confusion between a bitcoin (money) and the bitcoin network (medium or market). The network shouldn't be confused for a counter-party.. It's like saying that the market which demands gold is the counter-party. Obviously a party needs to buy the gold but you wouldn't say that is a counter party.

The question is could bitcoin authentication (via the bitcoin network) be a similar concept to the market authenticating you have real gold??

Re: Bitcoin DO NOT WANT!?

shackleford — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 03:09:05 GMT

Prime:

Yes, it is silver, I didn't even look at the y-axis.

I just looked at the file namein "View Image."

Re: Bitcoin DO NOT WANT!?

Prime — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 03:06:47 GMT

Yes, it is silver, I didn't even look at the y-axis.

Re: Bitcoin DO NOT WANT!?

shackleford — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 03:04:49 GMT

Prime:

That chart is the price of gold. That was his point, the similarity between the two.

Isn't that silver?

Re: Bitcoin DO NOT WANT!?

Prime — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 03:03:03 GMT

That chart is the price of gold. That was his point, the similarity between the two.

Re: Bitcoin DO NOT WANT!?

Anenome — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 02:51:34 GMT

I'm pretty sure he or someone made that chart and just fuzzed up the years.

Re: Bitcoin DO NOT WANT!?

MoonShadow — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 02:08:13 GMT

Christian Sherriff:

Would you invest in a money with a chart like this? :) I pretty sure most of you did..

I thought that you were talking about Bitcoin, and was about to respond with "I did!", but I'm certain that Bitcoin didn't exist before 2009, so I have difficulty understanding how it had a value in January of 1968.

Re: Bitcoin DO NOT WANT!?

Andris Birkmanis — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 10:47:30 GMT

Would you invest in a money with a chart like this?

What happened to this money at the end of 1979? ;)

Re: Bitcoin DO NOT WANT!?

Anenome — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 10:38:01 GMT

Btw, here's what it looks like, price since inception to present day:

Re: Bitcoin DO NOT WANT!?

Anenome — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 10:32:30 GMT

I forget where I read this, but that chart is exactly what you'd expect from uptake and mass acceptance. This same shape has been noticed in so many new things that it's become characteristic. Even the Dotcom boom follows this same chart, with an early explosion of hype that broke and then lead to continuing growth over time.

Before the spike is early adopters. The spike is where it suddenly becomes big news and investors rush in hoping not to miss the boat. This caused overvaluation and the resulting selloff, which then settles into a relatively calm slow-growth shape.

If anything, this chart adds credibility to bitcoin. It's been stable for a long time now.

Re: Bitcoin DO NOT WANT!?

Christian Sherriff — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 09:56:19 GMT

Would you invest in a money with a chart like this? :) I pretty sure most of you did..

Re: Bitcoin DO NOT WANT!?

Anenome — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 05:33:35 GMT

I'll just leave this here...

You Can Now Buy And Sell Bitcoin By Connecting Any U.S. Bank Account

Good news! Our bank account integration feature finally launched.

You can now connect any U.S. bank account to buy or sell bitcoins on Coinbase! The process is fast and simple, and we’d love to have you try it out.

Here are the steps after you sign in:

Add and verify a bank account (for most large banks in the U.S. we’ll be able to instantly verify the account - smaller banks or credit unions may take a few days to verify while we credit two small amounts to your account and wait to see if you can verify the amounts).

Now you can buy or sell bitcoins, and the USD amount will be debited or credited to your bank in 2-3 business days.

Re: Bitcoin DO NOT WANT!?

Seraiah — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 04:13:13 GMT

@Malachi
You stretched my metaphor and I'm supremely offended.

Assuming that today everyone were using swiss army knives to butter their bread. (Unlikely, I know!)

The butter knife is better for buttering bread, swiss army knives are great for lots of things, but they're not as good for buttering bread. Butter knives will replace swiss army knives in all instances where buttering bread is the objective since butter knives are blatantly better at buttering bread. Yes it makes sense that if all of the sudden no one wanted to butter bread, you would still have the swiss army knives other features, whereas the butter knife would become pretty much useless. But what circumstance would lead everyone on Earth from not wanting to butter their bread? The value of the butter knife for buttering bread can't just be repudiated rationally. Sure, people could discard all of their butter knives tomorrow and go back to buttering bread with the pocket knives, but why?
Never underestimate stupid people in large quantities, but I still have a hard time believing this could ever happen. There will always be some people that will retain their butter knives for buttering bread, because it makes their lives easier. Butter knives make the user more productive, and when people realize this, butter knives will regain their appropriate market share in the area of buttering bread.

Saying that the "swiss army knife"-knife is better because it can be used for other purposes completely misses the point of the metaphor.

Translation:

Assuming that everyone is using gold to facilitate exchange. (Unlikely I know!)

Bitcoins are the better medium of exchange, gold is great for lots of things, but they're not as good as a medium of exchange. Bitcoins will replace gold in all instances where facilitating transactions is the objective since bitcoins are blatantly the better medium of exchange. Yes it makes sense that if all of the sudden no one wanted to facilitate exchange, you would still have golds other features, whereas bitcoins would become pretty much useless. But what circumstance would lead everyone on Earth from not wanting to facilitate exchange? The value of bitcoins for facilitating exchange can't just be repudiated rationally. Sure, people could discard all of their bitcoins tomorrow and go back to facilitating exchange with gold, but why?
Never underestimate stupid people in large quantities, but I still have a hard time believing this could ever happen. There will always be some people that will retain their bitcoins for facilitating transactions, because it makes their lives easier. Bitcoins make the user more productive, and when people realize this the bitcoins will regain their proper market share in the area of facilitating exchange.

Arguments like, "Well what if the internet around the globe is shut down!?" is a red mark against Bitcoins, but an insignificant one. It would be cool if Bitcoins had industrial uses, but it doesn't reduce Bitcoins value for its intended purpose, it just means if Bitcoins were renounced for their intended purpose they'd have no industrial value to fall back on. When you're saving billions in transaction costs, who's really going to be afraid of that?

Re: Bitcoin DO NOT WANT!?

MoonShadow — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 03:30:06 GMT

Malachi:
All it needs is a secure front end and a few years of devo then. Somebody start writing code

Somebody already is writing code, and the front-end is the easy part.

Re: Bitcoin DO NOT WANT!?

Malachi — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 02:21:20 GMT

All it needs is a secure front end and a few years of devo then. Somebody start writing code