Bitcoin Forum

Hi all,

Just wanted to let people know if they're interested that I've been debating about Bitcoin and whether money needs a consumption use with some of the people on the vforvoluntary forums, including Nielsio (the author of the famous 'Don't Buy Bitcoins' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoK8HXMSsNg) video).

Here's the link to my first post:
http://www.vforvoluntary.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=77&pid=343#pid343

some good discussion in that thread. 

It's important work, but so frustrating to me. I wish I could write the magic to make him and others with the same idea understand.

Yes, gold bootstrapped from useful good to awesome thing to barter to money. But that doesn't mean it's the only way!

And how much non-money value does a thing need to be money? Is it enough for one person to have one small use for it?

Nope.

Just read about the story of The Island of Stone Money, 1910

Money is a product, just like a car or a hot dog.

Money's usefulness lies in its ability to act as a neutral medium of exchange that everyone is willing to accept.
As such anything could be money, but with greater or lesser usefulness.

He argues that for a commodity to become money it would need to be useful. It has to answer the question; what do I do with this.
Gold is currently at $1500 give or take. If we take his argument and ask what is gold good used for? We get dental work, maybe. There is perhaps not one industrial use of gold that some other element cannot fulfill, and very, very few for which gold is the cheapest choice (if any). So how does he explain gold's insane value?

Bitcoin is sound money. It is a good product in the market of current money options. It is rare (thus not easy to debase), divisible, transferable and durable. Being money is what Bitcoin is good at, and that is not circular reasoning.

The people need sound money like they need reliable automobiles. They are willing to pay for sound money in terms of the things they produce or the skills they deliver.