Bitcoin (Potential Social Lounge Debates Topic)
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Young_Chitlin
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http://bitcoin.org/en/
Why Bitcoins are Just as Viable as Any Other Currency
The true value of any currency is a reflection of how much people believe it's worth, according to CIO blogger Constantine von Hoffman. But it's wise to remember just how fast beliefs can change.
A lot of very smart people say a lot of very silly things about the online currency Bitcoin. For the most part the silly things can be summed up with the following statement: Bitcoins aren’t a real currency. Bitcoins only exist online. They are not issued by any government, and they can be used totally anonymously. (That’s the short explanation; you can find a longer one here.) Since their introduction in 2009 Bitcons have sold for around $10 each.
The price lately, however, has been staggering around more than a ? after last call. As of last Wednesday, the trading exchange Mt. Gox was selling them for $266 each. Later the value collapsed to $105, then rebounded to $180 and then dropped again to $120. And as of Saturday, April 13, Bitcoins were going for around $114.
Here’s what Joe Weisenthal of Business Insider has to say about Bitcoins:
"There's a popular meme going around that fiat currencies (like the dollar, the British pound, the euro, and the yen) have no intrinsic value, and that they're only accepted because they're accepted, and that at some point, people will see through the "illusion" of the value of paper money, and realize that wealth lies somewhere else. Usually this argument is made by gold bugs. But fiat currencies have tremendous intrinsic value because governments say they do."
Weisenthal explains that the U.S. dollar has intrinsic value because the government says it does; it is backed by the power of a government that compels people to pay it in dollars.
But the history of money shows it's not just fiat currencies that have no intrinsic value. None of the things people traditionally think of as money, including gold and jewels, actually have intrinsic value. If they did then cowrie shells and huge stone wheels (among other things) would never have been used as currency. These items were used for one simple reason: Money is the greatest, longest-lived collective illusion in humanity’s history.
The idea spread so far and so wide that a nation's collection of gold eventually determined how much money it would print. This created economies that went boom and bust with amazing regularity. Most industrialized nations cut the link between gold and currency around World War I because if they didn't they wouldn’t have been able to afford to keep fighting the war. (What a shame that would have been.) The United States didn't make the separation until 1971, when Richard Nixon, who was also trying to pay for a pointless war, took America off the gold standard. Economies based on fiat currencies, until the last decade or so, significantly decreased the frequency of boom/bust cycles.
The value of money today is determined by how much faith people collectively have in a nation, its government and its economy. That’s why exchange rates fluctuate. This method, while effective, is even more irrational than it seems. The European financial crisis has been fueled by investors who were nervous about countries' debt levels. Well, at least some countries. Japan’s debt dwarfs that of any E.U. nation that went belly up, yet its currency is just fine. Why? Because Japan will eventually do better...or at least that's the common belief.
Comments
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I say we go back to using coins and shillings and ? . That would be dope.
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This sounds like a terrible idea. Spending real money to have 'bit coin money' ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jp22_M8wNQ -
Going back to bartering and trading: currency is anything the other party is willing to accept as payment or trade. I'm not accepting bitcoins, I don't many other people will either...thus its worthless.
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seems like a great way to launder money IMO
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They aint nearly as valuable as any other currency & I guarantee you this will be crash & burn. This is gonna be another "tulip mania" but I'll let Wall Street whittle away in it's ignorance. What separates true currencies from Bit Coins is that true currencies actually have productivity & other factors behind them which determine purchasing power, etc., whereas BitCoin are only moved by what people's opinions of them are worth for the time. Similar concepts, NOT the same underlying principle. One has economic importance the other doesn't. I would strongly advise against them but I know it's gonna be folks who will put their life savings or what they have in them not understanding them & lose all they got. Seen it all too many times....
Keynesian economics killed any real stability our currency once had. What really determines the value of our currency nowadays is peoples belief that it has value.
Bitcoin has it flaws sure, but our current fiat currency isn't much better, if at all. It just has history on its side.
And it'd be dumb for anyone to put their life savings in any one thing, even a bank. Cyprus taught us that.
There's risk in everything. -
kids today grew up in the digital world so there may be a future for bitcoins. Now they even have 'digital drugs'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpPgpitZdUY -
this is the ultimate fiat currency
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Anyone can answer the following if they want:
Do you think eventually, Bitcoin can be a strong currency?
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Right now I only see it as an alternative should the banking system shut down completely. The people that criticise bitcoins says that it's too risky but so is the stock market, short selling, day trading etc... We are dealing with money here. Money is something that was invented to take advantage of other people. So it doesn't matter what form of 'money' you deal in -the bitcoin or the dollar. Somewhere down the line there is potential for people to take advantage of you.
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the streets dont take bitcoin
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Whoever did this is a genuis. According to wikipedia there is no known way of cracking that kind of cryptographic code. The governments would have to get at the person that created the code.
I need to start learning cryptography so I can create my own peer to peer currency or maybe even a peer to peer language. Writng in a new unknown language using this cryptography method is probably the only way to have a little bit of privacy on places like Facebook and google. -
If big governments around the world see this peer to peer currency as a threat to their power structure then over course it will be dismantle. That's the only thing investors have to look for. If Obama label the creator of bitcoin a terrorist.
However there's no way that they can stop another peer to peer currency from forming. Say I'm in my 50s with a wife and two sons. My two sons or in the twenties both married with kids. I can in theory create a currency that only our families can use and maybe over time trusted friends can use as well.
bitcoin is nothing more than shareware software that's been encrypted. Anyone can do it. -
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It's deep web not dark web.
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Wow. Last time I checked in the summer the price was about 110.00 now it's up to 135.00
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If you ? w/ Silk Road you know damn well Bitcoins aren't "worthless" lol.
Everyone just need to chill and keep some perspective. Anybody betting the farm on Bitcoins is ? fool because betting the farm on anything is Bad Business 101. Anybody thinking Bitcoins will vanish overnight and won't hold value in the Internet Age is kidding themselves. -
Young_Chitlin wrote: »http://bitcoin.org/en/Why Bitcoins are Just as Viable as Any Other Currency
The true value of any currency is a reflection of how much people believe it's worth, according to CIO blogger Constantine von Hoffman. But it's wise to remember just how fast beliefs can change.
A lot of very smart people say a lot of very silly things about the online currency Bitcoin. For the most part the silly things can be summed up with the following statement: Bitcoins aren’t a real currency. Bitcoins only exist online. They are not issued by any government, and they can be used totally anonymously. (That’s the short explanation; you can find a longer one here.) Since their introduction in 2009 Bitcons have sold for around $10 each.
The price lately, however, has been staggering around more than a ? after last call. As of last Wednesday, the trading exchange Mt. Gox was selling them for $266 each. Later the value collapsed to $105, then rebounded to $180 and then dropped again to $120. And as of Saturday, April 13, Bitcoins were going for around $114.
Here’s what Joe Weisenthal of Business Insider has to say about Bitcoins:
"There's a popular meme going around that fiat currencies (like the dollar, the British pound, the euro, and the yen) have no intrinsic value, and that they're only accepted because they're accepted, and that at some point, people will see through the "illusion" of the value of paper money, and realize that wealth lies somewhere else. Usually this argument is made by gold bugs. But fiat currencies have tremendous intrinsic value because governments say they do."
Weisenthal explains that the U.S. dollar has intrinsic value because the government says it does; it is backed by the power of a government that compels people to pay it in dollars.
But the history of money shows it's not just fiat currencies that have no intrinsic value. None of the things people traditionally think of as money, including gold and jewels, actually have intrinsic value. If they did then cowrie shells and huge stone wheels (among other things) would never have been used as currency. These items were used for one simple reason: Money is the greatest, longest-lived collective illusion in humanity’s history.
The idea spread so far and so wide that a nation's collection of gold eventually determined how much money it would print. This created economies that went boom and bust with amazing regularity. Most industrialized nations cut the link between gold and currency around World War I because if they didn't they wouldn’t have been able to afford to keep fighting the war. (What a shame that would have been.) The United States didn't make the separation until 1971, when Richard Nixon, who was also trying to pay for a pointless war, took America off the gold standard. Economies based on fiat currencies, until the last decade or so, significantly decreased the frequency of boom/bust cycles.
The value of money today is determined by how much faith people collectively have in a nation, its government and its economy. That’s why exchange rates fluctuate. This method, while effective, is even more irrational than it seems. The European financial crisis has been fueled by investors who were nervous about countries' debt levels. Well, at least some countries. Japan’s debt dwarfs that of any E.U. nation that went belly up, yet its currency is just fine. Why? Because Japan will eventually do better...or at least that's the common belief.
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BTC could be at 1k before the end of 2013
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Well i lost money but it was a few huned. People really put their savings in that. SMH..
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Why purchase when you can just mine and trade?
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Once you purchase bitcoins can you sell them back for dollars? Seems like it could have been a decent short-term investment.
