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Bitcoin => Press => Topic started by: n8rwJeTt8TrrLKPa55eU on July 08, 2013, 03:02:58 PM



Title: 2013-07-08: Cato Unbound: It’s Just Money
Post by: n8rwJeTt8TrrLKPa55eU on July 08, 2013, 03:02:58 PM
Long (& good) essay on the nature and history of money.

Quote
When cows were used as a medium of exchange, nobody called it “biocurrency.” In the cultures that traded seashells to escape the inefficiency of barter, they didn’t call it “calcicurrency.” It was just money.

New forms of money such as bitcoin are exciting for their technical underpinnings, but we might not want to make them more forbidding by calling them “cryptocurrency.” Cryptography is an important part of many digital currencies’ administration, and it is central to bitcoin, but at their core they are all just money.

Quote
The choice is not whether to have digital currencies. The choice is between adopting digital currencies the hard way or the easy way. The hard way is trying to outlaw banking, payments, and other financial services denominated in new currencies. The easy way is embracing them, making them part of mainstream financial systems, and accepting the greater liberty, power, and privacy they accord to individuals.

http://www.cato-unbound.org/2013/07/08/jim-harper/its-just-money


Title: Re: 2013-07-08: Cato Unbound: It’s Just Money
Post by: cypherdoc on July 08, 2013, 07:23:23 PM
gold doesn't fit 3 of those bullet points.


Title: Re: 2013-07-08: Cato Unbound: It’s Just Money
Post by: Mota on July 08, 2013, 07:29:33 PM
gold doesn't fit 3 of those bullet points.
And which ones are those oh great wise cypherdoc?
keep in mind that gold was indeed used as money until recent times.


Title: Re: 2013-07-08: Cato Unbound: It’s Just Money
Post by: cypherdoc on July 08, 2013, 09:09:01 PM
gold doesn't fit 3 of those bullet points.
And which ones are those oh great wise cypherdoc?
keep in mind that gold was indeed used as money until recent times.

    -wide or universal acceptance
    -resistance to replication/counterfeiting
    -divisibility into standardized units
    -transferability, such as on delivery
    -amenability to holding securely
    -high ratio of value to weight or volume
    -transportability
    -durability
    -high holdings relative to new creation; and
    -low storage costs.

take a guess.


Title: Re: 2013-07-08: Cato Unbound: It’s Just Money
Post by: Mota on July 08, 2013, 10:15:50 PM
gold doesn't fit 3 of those bullet points.
And which ones are those oh great wise cypherdoc?
keep in mind that gold was indeed used as money until recent times.

    -wide or universal acceptance
    -resistance to replication/counterfeiting
    -divisibility into standardized units
    -transferability, such as on delivery
    -amenability to holding securely
    -high ratio of value to weight or volume
    -transportability
    -durability
    -high holdings relative to new creation; and
    -low storage costs.

take a guess.
It fits all of the above.


Title: Re: 2013-07-08: Cato Unbound: It’s Just Money
Post by: marcus_of_augustus on July 09, 2013, 12:51:57 AM
This is a great article, well worth the read.