It's a slightly eccentric concept, but you've only described one of the traits that goes along with gold being and existing in an open entropy system.  You see, it's not actually required we dig up gold from the ground.  Mining gold by attacking each other with shovels is just as viable.  It doesn't matter if the entire ground reserve was exhausted, mining still exists in a...different form.  

If it was not possible for gold to change hands through force after all the ground reserves were gone, then it would be equivalent to Ethereum proof of stake and be just as valueless.  It appears you have involuntarily stumbled upon the fact that force is the only valid consensus mechanism in the universe.

You can't be serious.  You're basically making the argument that anything where someone has not double spent *YET* or *CONSTANTLY* is automatically decentralized.  That's not how this works.  You are not automatically proven to be decentralized with a functional Nash equilibrium until mass armageddon begins.  It is ironic that the ASIC factory sunk cost is the only reason there is not constant double spend, but those same ASICs also make the system inherently worthless and the equivalent of a closed entropy system at the same time.

Now that's a fine perspective:

I'm not really a huge fan of Ethereum so if the devs decide to bring it down like the Hindenburg it's not going to be a big deal to me, but I'm sure some people will mind.  In this post I explain in detail why proof of stake has no value, and of course neither does proof of work once ASIC are created:

http://steemit.com/steemit/@r0achtheunsavory/the-r0ach-report-14-defining-if-cryptocurrency-has-a-value-or-zero-value-from-a-fundamental-scientific-perspective

Mob rule to change the traits on the fly is not money, nor are oligarchs colluding behind the scenes to try and impose their will upon you like China miners and Barry Silbert.  That's why gold and silver have value, because people like that have no power to screw with it and change it into something else. 

Then you don't understand what the traits of money are in the first place.  If something just transforms from one thing to another at random, it's NOT FUNGIBLE, and this is something required of money.  The fact any transformation also causes a rough consensus attack is also another nail in the coffin.

It's blatantly obvious bitcoin is not "money".  Could it be a currency?  Yea, just about anything can be a currency.  Is it a store of value?  No.

But forget all that.  Just about everything in deciding if cryptocurrency has any value or not only revolves around 2 subjects:  entropy and Nash equilibrium.  In relation to these two traits, I explain here why proof of stake has zero value, and why bitcoin with ASICs doesn't either.  I don't think you will have any valid argument against this:

http://steemit.com/steemit/@r0achtheunsavory/the-r0ach-report-14-defining-if-cryptocurrency-has-a-value-or-zero-value-from-a-fundamental-scientific-perspective

Ok, people.  I'm tired of fucking around with ambiguous definitions:  Is bitcoin decentralized?  Does bitcoin have value? etc.  I have decided to address these issues from proof of work to proof of stake where a normal human can easily quantify if Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency has value and whether it will live or die:

http://steemit.com/steemit/@r0achtheunsavory/the-r0ach-report-14-defining-if-cryptocurrency-has-a-value-or-zero-value-from-a-fundamental-scientific-perspective

It's relatively short to read, but if you want the TLDR version, my stance is that proof of stake has no value whatsoever and I explain why, and proof of work with ASIC is almost functionally the same thing (externalized proof of stake) in practice and would also have no value.  I don't think anyone will find a valid argument against this post.

Feels like I'm talking to a bunch of millenial transgender children.  First of all, only cuckolds go to Starbucks.  Secondly, bitcoin is:

1) a currency, not money
2) does not remove counter party risk
3) is not a store of value

Just because you want to live a barbie fashion millenial lifestyle doesn't mean the laws of physics share your delusion about what constitutes a fungible commodity currency that actually removes counter party risk and can't be counterfeited.  The governance of bitcoin is simply mob rule.  Even if you totally ignore the fact that it's value prospect is supposed to be based on decentralization while not being decentralized at all, with no nash equilirbium - invalidating it's entire purpose in the first place - the mob rule crowd can even come together to increase the coin limit at random if they so choose.  

It's likely the 21 million count even has to be removed to combat adversarial mining strategy at zero block reward:

https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2016/10/21/bitcoin-is-unstable-without-the-block-reward/

So please, stop being complete idiots and pretending bitcoin is in some way superior to gold and silver.  The noble metals are the only viable candidate for sound money on this entire planet at the moment if you do not want to live under central bankers - which are the one of the main tenets of (((communism))).

No, I'm the only honest person on the entire forum that doesn't make up lies claiming bitcoin is a more sound form of money than gold and silver.

Vermin like Larry Summers and Ben Bernanke are promoting "cryptocurrency" now.  Do the math.  The main purpose of bitcoin is currently regulatory arbitrage, which is something the state would never allow on a long timeline.  They will claim volatility is too high + too many people are laundering money or not paying taxes and will force something like chain anchor on people, or create a fixed address alias system wrapper to go around bitcoin and mandate everyone use it or be considered a launderer.  

Bitcoin is stupidly easy for the state to co-opt, that's why they WANT you to use it.  They want all the cattle herded into this bullshit and out of the gold and silver market so they can then slam the door shut on the slaughterhouse with everyone trapped inside.  You are basically helping them enslave you by using it because it's inevitable they will turn this into their cashless society slave system in one way or another.  It's also clear all the R3 banker scum own far more Ethereum than Bitcoin, which is why they are constantly trying to pump completely useless and centralized Ethereum too.  

Regulation does nothing.  Link courtesy of anonymint:

http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=984

Basically what it means is, regulatory agencies are always doomed to enter regulatory capture and be controlled by the entity they are supposed to regulate.  So with no regulation, you usually end up trading against the house (the exchange owners) as they buy or sell coins that don't even exist, gox-style, to squeeze all the longs and shorts, or just flat out steal them (like Bitfinex) because there's no penalty for them doing so.  When you bring in regulation, it becomes captured by the same people and you are still trading against the house, just they now have the legal system backing them to boot.  

The only way to mitigate this effect at all is to take physical possession of the commodity/currency yourself.  Such a thing is not really even possible with bitcoin because even if you own the private keys, it still has far higher counter party risk than metals.  A random bitcoin dev could wake up one morning and decide to try and fork the network, or a random chinaman could try and do a 51% attack, etc.  Bitcoin counterparty risk is still enormous even if you hold the private key because...the coins still reside on the blockchain and you didn't actually take possesion of anything...

It's a good thing.  If you could play god and decide whether silver or bitcoin will be the main monetary instrument of the common man on the planet and get to insider invest beforehand, there is ZERO reason anyone should choose bitcoin.  Metals are a better store of value, lower counter party risk, just as much or higher upside potential as bitcoin (for silver), and it's 100% inevitable if bitcoin doesn't die it would be completely co-opted by the state and turned into a cashless society slave system.

New quote added:

It just broke into the $1800's on BTCE

The bitcoin market has never taken money from me besides the occasional transaction fee and whatnot, so I can't even imagine what it would feel like buying a $2800 bitcoin and the price immediately going to $2000, but I'm sure that guy is in this thread somewhere.

Well, there was no reason for the price to even skyrocket in the first place.  The whole thing was just a short squeeze from Bitfinex turning off withdrawals forcing all sellers to become buyers, and forcing people who didn't even want to buy to buy more just to withdraw.  Then even with those absurd circumstances, there was still no actual volume.  The whole damn thing was predicated by a giant Bitfinex scam as usual:

You're just flat out lying.  Bitcoin's value prospect is entirely based on it being decentralized, yet it's fucking designed to centralize LOL.  Both proof of stake and proof of work are erroneously labeled when they should both just be called proof of monopoly.  And I have already explained numerous times why bitcoin does not function as a store of value either, even if it actually was decentralized in the first place.  

Then you have the other undeniable outcome of bitcoin only having two possible endgames:  either it goes to zero or completely co-opted by the state.  This is the only current reason someone should invest in bitcoin, if you believe it's a trojan horse and want to front run the government, otherwise it has no future.  Yes, it could be pump and dumped to $10,000 or more before it dies from not being decentralized at all, but it has no value as a centralized or cartel controlled payment system and still has way higher counterparty risk than gold and silver no matter what you do to it.

You also must have forgotten there's no reason for bitcoin to exist if the common man can't even mine it through commodity hardware.  It's not really an open entropy system in practice if you have a fixed, static cartel and the cartel are the only people who can mine.

I would like to thank everyone for attending the Barry Silbert and Winklevoss exit pump.  Please do make sure you come back next year to attend the Elwar & Marcus exit pump as well.