I kept looking at the OP's poll, and the only available answers were 'yes' and 'no'.
Can we edit the poll to add a 'That's a Stupid Question' button?
Well, I agree that this is a rather stupid question, but I think it would be a wise thing to do to explain to him why it really doesn't matter whether those coins are still available or not. Also it is very important to understand why this really wouldn't hurt Bitcoin by undermining one of it's key principles. Central banks hold 1/3 of world's gold reserve, should they destroy them? What if they dump all the gold on market and crash the gold price to cents? Even central banks decided to dump small amount of gold, they would still do it gradually, to not affect the market price too much |
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IMO, the major waves of bubble are always planned and driven by institutional traders, now after MTGOX went down, and chinese exchanges heavily restricted, where should these whales drive the next wave? Bitfinex might be the right place to look at, but they are still too young to facilitate a 100x speculative bubble
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Great point! That's the reason I don't really believe in totally free market, since the rule of "winner takes it all" applies not only to power, but also to intelligence. In a totally free market, the less intelligent people will become the slaves no matter how hard they work/think
And awareness can only reach certain level. Today's financial system is too complicated for normal people to understand, I have met several professors from different economy school, almost none of them really understand the essential of the fiat money system
So a better solution is to give people choice: People have the freedom to select whatever monetary system they like, so that if one system is total slavery, the opposite system might be the way to total freedom. No matter how rosy picture the central banks paint about their fiat money, if people using bitcoin get much better life, then the fiat money will get less and less attractive
If people have tried both alternatives and none of the choices will give them freedom, then most likely the problem is not located at the monetary system, but some other area. But at least they can give it a try for an alternative system, and I doubt most of the social problem is caused by fiat money, since it involves action of crime: Stealing and robbery, at GDP scale
HOW IS THAT NOT A FREE MARKET? Wtf are you talking about. That is exactly the definiteion of free market. People voluntarly choosing between the products and services they want to use. If 1 product turns out to be a scam they can embargo and boycott it. If you introduce a regulator into the market then that itself will take advantage of it, as its much easier to corrupt the regulator than the market itself. Easier to pay off 1 state bureocrat than 10000000 customers dont you think? Please rethink your logic, because its nonsense. I understand your point, and if people really select bitcoin, it will be like the free market as you described. But the reality is that average people still don't choose bitcoin, maybe never will, because of the fiat money's domination in people's life: As long as they unconsciously use fiat money to measure value, it means fiat money is already rooted deeply in their thoughts. The free competition phase has already passed long time ago And now when fiat money is dominating, it will use all the possible tools to crash the bitcoin if it ever becomes some kind of threat, currently banks don't care since bitcoin is just too small |
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Well the main challenge really is increasing the awareness of humans, but there are so many forces that benefit from having an ignorant population. We have a bullshit education system that maintains that ignorance, where the values and grading system are almost upside down. Look at a group of ultra successful people - it's interesting to see how many dropped out of school, likely because they didn't see value in it.
I'm afraid this won't work. If you somehow increase the awareness of humans at large, this should also increase the cunning of your "sociopaths" and their skills at fooling the general populace. So, in the end, we will most likely have absolutely the same result as we have today... Great point! That's the reason I don't really believe in totally free market, since the rule of "winner takes it all" applies not only to power, but also to intelligence. In a totally free market, the less intelligent people will become the slaves no matter how hard they work/think And awareness can only reach certain level. Today's financial system is too complicated for normal people to understand, I have met several professors from different economy school, almost none of them really understand the essential of the fiat money system So a better solution is to give people choice: People have the freedom to select whatever monetary system they like, so that if one system is total slavery, the opposite system might be the way to total freedom. No matter how rosy picture the central banks paint about their fiat money, if people using bitcoin get much better life, then the fiat money will get less and less attractive If people have tried both alternatives and none of the choices will give them freedom, then most likely the problem is not located at the monetary system, but some other area. But at least they can give it a try for an alternative system, and I doubt most of the social problem is caused by fiat money, since it involves action of crime: Stealing and robbery, at GDP scale |
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Currently the biggest spending for me is SSD, upgrading to 500GB SSD will cost a whole lot  |
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By 2050, we will be having dozens of bankrupt nations, not just Greece and Cyprus. Top candidates are the United States, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia. And we will be having many more bank savings account "hair-cuts". And who knows.... Germany may be able to achieve what they failed to do in the two world wars, as a result of these bankruptcies.  With each hair-cut, bitcoin's value will rise by 100 times, after a couple of hair-cuts, bitcoin is enough to buy the whole ECB |
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The entire problem will disappear if Greece can print their own money, giving up the right of money creation was the fatal error of Greek government
In majority of citizen's eyes, money is wealth. Lose the power of creating money, then you lose the power of creating wealth
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This thread has become so interesting now when many other aspects like politics and psychology have entered the discussion. I tends to believe the enlightening of the knowledge of money is the way to a more just society, and with the help of internet, human are much better positioned than 300 years ago, when John Law first designed his fiat money system and failed
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Actually nowadays people have the right to elect the government, however they don't have the right to elect central bank, therefore central bank is called dictatorship by some protesters
The interesting thing is, this dictatorship is not enforced by violence, but by ignorance and no knowledge about money creation. People can think it is important to select a government that supports gay marriage, while they don't think it is important to select a central bank without printing more money (thus they become the slave)
Central bank only need to setup a Nobel price of economics and tell people: If they don't print money then economy will fall into recession. Then people will accept it. Money creation is a topic that is too far from average Joe's life, and although long term wise he is affected by it, in a couple of years' time frame he will not feel any difference between two different monetary policy
The central bank will never be elected, right or wrong. The defining feature of this system is a grand alliance between the political and financial elites to jointly take wealth from everyone else by issuing financial assets and using public power to prop up their values. Since these two groups don't trust each other, central banks are set up to institutionalize the terms of the alliance, to keep everyone honest. If the central bank were fully elected, it might give in to populist instincts of every politician: refusing to bail banks out or to guarantee bank debt, for example. Or it could indulge the government by allowing it to issue unlimited debt and endanger the whole system. It's also not unheard of for governments to seize bank assets outright. If no banker could be found to want to enter into this public/private partnership, the whole system would be seriously limited in scope, if not jeopardized. The government needs the financial savvy of bankers to dream up assets that investors might believe in (however temporarily), and base them on government-issued assets (money and public debt), both to protect and to greatly increase the demand for those state assets. The central bank also restrains bankers by regulating them and deciding to bail out or abandon a bank in trouble. Of course, the very success of this system encourages the buildup of financial assets and eventually the weight of the buildup will break investor confidence, one way or another. Major busts with serious consequences for the core country (US) happened just before the Great Depression and in 2008. Those so called financial assets are just a scam to rob average people off their money, when majority of the people were robbed, there will be depression and recession. But now when money can be created out of nothing at will, banks don't need to do this kind of scam any more, they can raise those financial assets' value forever using money out of thin air. And as long as people are still using fiat money to measure value, that game can last forever There is a live show of central bank election: Greece crisis. Greece must decide if they still honor ECB to be their central bank, or they can say bye bye to ECB and setup their own central bank. The Greek people did not elect their central bank, but they elected a government who might be capable of setting up a new central bank thus totally reset the whole system My guess is that ECB will never let them go. Print tons of euro and give it to Greece is much easier than set them free and become financially independent. However, ECB will never gain anything from enslaving Greece: They are so cunning that they just default If Greece are set free from ECB's control, they will be as good as heaven, then everyone will understand what is the root cause of Greece's problem |
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If so, we should first delete central bank's fiat money, currently they are holding more than 80% of USD in existence. If they dump all those USDs then USD's value will crash to single satoshi  |
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Fiat in the central bank age is not about central authority and control but protectionism. The government does not control the amount of money created by private banks, nor does it control the flow of money. The central bank tries to influence via monetary policy, but it does not control anything either. The fiat protectionism is the result of a deal between a private banking cartel and a government.
Exactly, unless in communist country, western government do not control fiat money, they are prohibited from influence the central bank's decision. What they are interested is getting endless credit line from central banks. For them it is no difference between bitcoin or fiat money, both not in their control. Government can only force some policies to audit banks/bitcoin business but the effect is very limited since they don't have access to these business' core data. In fact, they could gain more control over bitcoin than banks, due to its transparent ledger |
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All the countries can not repay their national debt, that is impossible by design. The only way is to print more and more money and borrow more and more to pay the debt. But the problem with Greece is that they lost the power to print money to pay for their debt as other countries like US, Japan, UK
To regain that power they must quit EMU and issue their own money, which is the best solution for them, but other countries will follow suit thus the EMU will be dismissed
The essential of Greece crisis is not something about fiscal policy but a fight for the right to create money. Once Greece have the right to create their own fiat money, the fiscal problem will disappear since they can provide endless credit line from their own central bank
However, I doubt that even Greek government do not control their central bank, their central bank might belongs to some guy from ECB, just like FED never belongs to US government
There is on going talk about Greek government creating their own currency, an IOU from Greek government that can be used to pay tax
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Decentralization is a new concept just appeared during the latest decade, people have always been living in a centralized and hierarchical environment since thousands of years ago, even today most of the countries are managed in a centralized way. It takes time for them to adopt to new way of managing things
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The concept of "backing" is what makes fiat money weak: Gold or bitcoin does not need anything to back it, because the value of the currency has already been paid when it is produced
Any form of "backed" currency is just a promise of redeeming the currency with backing assets, and that promise brings some risk of default. Since once the currency is in circulation, the redeem action seldom happens, that backing only need to be a oral promise, thus give those currency value out of nothing
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Without fiat money, people will quickly find other substitutes, be it gold, silver, or bitcoin, but will never use some thing that is produced out of thin air
thats sounds a bit utopian, doesn't it? whatever like this happens, it's not a revolution, it's a new era and no one knows what it would lead to The sad truth is that if the US government didn't ally with bankers to create money and debt and enslave the world, some other government would. In a more-or-less well managed paper money system that is well-defended by its beneficiaries, the "virtuous" cycle of financial and military power reinforcing each other and creating a global top dog can last a while (and historically this "while" has been measured in decades, if not centuries.) The imperial system also distributes its benefits wider than we might imagine. Every person in the imperial power (currently the US) and its close allies benefits from the exploitation. The middle class and other productive members of the real economy in these countries benefit even more. The elites in developing countries are also major beneficiaries by working with the empire (in effect, selling out their own people -- but who would know?) There is an entire ecosystem of defenders of the status quo. The real victims of the system are the masses in poor and developing countries, and those in rich countries who fall prey from the social diseases that are the natural consequences of "free" wealth -- addiction, mental illness, alienation, etc. So what we seek is not revolution but a gradual popular awakening. If it takes centuries, it would be fundamentally better than a violent change that would replace one set of masters with another. We have to do all we can to facilitate this process. Actually nowadays people have the right to elect the government, however they don't have the right to elect central bank, therefore central bank is called dictatorship by some protesters The interesting thing is, this dictatorship is not enforced by violence, but by ignorance and no knowledge about money creation. People can think it is important to select a government that supports gay marriage, while they don't think it is important to select a central bank without printing more money (thus they become the slave) Central bank only need to setup a Nobel price of economics and tell people: If they don't print money then economy will fall into recession. Then people will accept it. Money creation is a topic that is too far from average Joe's life, and although long term wise he is affected by it, in a couple of years' time frame he will not feel any difference between two different monetary policy |
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Saving will be done in bitcoin and spending in fiat currency, you only get fiat currency when you try to spend
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Competition is a good thing. Everyone that saw bitcoin's rise will try out some alt-coin in an attempt to mimic the success of bitcoin. But after the excitement of starting their own coin, the project will fail, then they will realize that bitcoin's success is not based on technology alone, then they will become the true believer of bitcoin and focus on bitcoin in future
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Less than 1 million definitely. Due to security concern (loss of coin, loss of encryption password), people that putting serious money in bitcoin must have some IT security competence, that limited the number of active users, that won't change over night
It's still very early stage of adoption and the main drivers are entrepreneurs, since bitcoin will enable many things that they can not do at a bank. But for average consumer, the only meaningful use is to act as a medium of saving, or speculation, because their income is received in the form of fiat money
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I think the system is devised SO that you are a debt slave from day one, regardless of whether you're an idiot or not. How many people are able to pay, in full, for their house, car, education, and healthcare? Please tell us how you save(d) for these things with rampant inflation.
In this fucked up system, one could argue that "idiots" actually do better, since they clamor for assets, while "smart" people try to save in a currency not meant for saving.
The real "smart" people are those who make lots of money and can afford paying for the things you mentioned. Have you watched the movie "Margin Call"? Or what about Alessio Rastani's famous Youtube video? Alessio said "Goldman Sachs rules the world", they tell the government what to do, they control so many things and make billions of $$$ on a monthly basis. When you study business you learn that organizations and firms are companies ranging from small to big - but institutions - these are very large organizations ... educational institutions such as universities and colleges dictate our lives when it comes to studies ... and financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs dictate our financial lives. Is it fair? No. But what can you do about it? If you can't beat 'em join 'em. To defeat the evil, you must become the greater evil Today's system is transformed from a legit and honest system little by little 1. Use fractional reserve on gold (40%) to create partially backed fiat money 2. Over decades, slowly reduce that reserve ratio 3. Eventually remove gold backing, replacing it with debt backing 3. Increase the money supply slowly following the GDP development 4. Over decades, increase the money supply faster and faster 5. Eventually dramatically increase the money supply and increase the debt exponentially during a crisis, so that everyone is heavily debt laden If you want to invent an alternative system, better take the same approach, do little change at a time. Most of the people are short sighted and ignorant, they will adopt to changes without question when the change takes decades to happen |
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Bitcoin needs to first start doubling its value year over year... for now the price is too unstable and only those that actually understand the technology support it, which benefits people like us.
By design, bitcoin's value should double every 4 years if the number of users do not increase (reward halving), but since we are in early expansion phase, the number of users are increasing at 4 times per year, it should be easy to double the value each year. I don't think there are millions of active users like claimed, more likely one magnitude lower, there are plenty of room for growth for coming years The previous two bubbles are caused by large shift in mining technology, but now when the technology has more or less stabilized, I don't think that we will have that kind of huge speculative bubble in the near future. A slow and steady rise is more likely, doubling the price each year |
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