Well to my mind the one glaring difference is that bitcoin supply is unlimited. Because anyone can split the block chain, you can create an infinite number of bitcoin analogs: Bitcoin1, Bitcoin2... each with an arbitrary 21,000,000 coin limit, but functionally identical. No digital anything is supply limited. As if that isn't enough, the historicity and popular perception is determinant in this kind of thing.
Alternate blockchains would be fools-bitcoin. Actually, the 21M BTC can be infinitely divided to assure endless supply of value as demand increases. |
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@Synaptic
There was a Wikipedia article about how the US government in the 20th century forced everyone to hand over their gold, and if I remember correctly, it was for no compensation either.
People were paid for the gold they turned in. It was FDR, and I'm almost counting on something like this to happen. |
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I googled 'overlay currency' and found nothing. Currency Overlay is a strategy conducted by a firm. So if this is the case, then it's unlikely that firms will use bitcoin for this type of strategy. I don't see how this will affect bitcoin in any way.
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Also I think someone wrote a book about island countries. Not having any luck remembering the author or title name, though, so hopefully it all comes back to me.
"Lord of the Flies" - William Golding |
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So i still use one of these and have for 3 seperate computers and probably will till somehting horrible happens to it.
I'm too abusive with keyboards, but I enjoy them while they last. I guess I could say the same about everything else; cars, women, and keyboards, not necessarily in that order. |
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Has anyone written a fictional story about what it would be like to live on a libertarian island that was intentionally built that way? I'm having a difficult time with understanding how it would work. After the headache Ayn Rand left me, I would hope that this idea has improved in the last several decades.
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I'm a socialist and im very interested in the emergence of bitcoin. And I see that many libertarians, and ayn randbots are likewise intrigued.
What interests me at the moment about the bitcoin approach, is that it appears to be a 'worker owned' financial system that unites some disparate globe spanning ideologies.
economic secessionist movements is one way to move forward together into the new global age of socialism? a 1000 years of socialism, helped by bitcoin emergence?
Socialism and every and all other "isms" are reifications and silly nonsensical words that allude to an idea that is too vague to imply anything specific. The fact is, bitcoin has powerful attributes that provide necessary functions for trade better than other types of "money." Getting goods and services to our family members around the world is important for people that love peace. Bitcoin is a step in the right direction until we have something even better one day. You can call it Socialism, but all men are brothers or at least distant cousins. |
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...
The potential Achilles heel of Bitcoin—that each server in the network contains a complete record
of all transactions—will almost certainly be addressed in future systems that distribute transaction
information so that no single server or small collection of servers contains a complete transaction
record. It is also possible to envision systems in which the transaction records are not only
distributed, but evanescent, so that even the collective information stored on all the servers in the
system at any given time would not enable a complete reconstruction of transaction history.
It'd call this predictive programming, an attempt by it self to inject this idea ("terrorist cell" split-up of the blockchain) into the bitcoin community. This attempt may even the whole purpose of the paper. If they are successful it would be easier to demonize bitcoin. We are already under attack and this is the first strike in the psywar. Really? The blockchain size is the Achilles heel? Who do these people think they are? Oh right, never-mind. They do not understand bitcoin, nor the internet. It's a good thing we have actual smart people *doing* the work that makes technology possible while the anti-intellectuals write silly papers that do nothing. As far as competing multiple blockchains go; I'm all for them. As a psywar assault, this paper is an epic fail. I'll give the Brookings Institute a hint. If you want to attack bitcoins, passing laws against free speech won't work. Just buy them all up like Roosevelt did with gold. QED. |
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*snip* like the guys who are so smart and say silver and gold are bad investments. yes they might be in a bubble right now... but in the long run they are going to make you the most... second to bitcoins of course.
+1 |
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The OP wasn't really about the hard math, more or less just a general opinion. But hey, if the math is tight, who am I to argue? As far as the economic qualities of bitcoin, I have to finish my tea and read the leaves to know for sure.
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It tells you something when the intellectuals see the qualities of bitcoin, while the "experienced" economists claim skepticism without any valid arguments against it. None. Zilch. Nada.
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you guys can shit on TED all you want but im pretty sure they removed the bitcoin posting because of the general immaturity and bellicose postings, if you want to be taken seriously be the utmost professional you can... what was exhibited on that page before being taken down was not professional, invoked a flame war... yada yada yada
If it was anything like this forum, it makes sense that they removed it. We'll never know now, will we? |
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In my opinion, the most important contribution (by far) of bitcoin is that it enables true 2 party transactions to occur over the internet. That has profound social implications and might be something that the TED crowd would would be interested in hearing about. The fact that bitcoin isn't issued by a central authority is of secondary importance.
This is TED. The problem isn't "promotion", it is that you are trying to promote the wrong thing. Try rewriting it in the language of self-promotion. You explain the social implications, but the subtext needs to be that you are totally awesome because you understand this cool new thing, and by extension the audience will be much cooler than all of the dumb proles out there because now they know it too. And before anyone flames me, go watch a few talks. TED is about rich people finding new shinies that will "change the world." There have been some great things brought to light through TED, but they are all too often then developed as weapons or buried as IP. Bitcoin can be neither. |
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The Saga continues.... And some thought he was being serious *fo' shame* http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/buffett-irs-back-taxes/2011/09/01/id/409520?s=al&promo_code=CF64-1But it turns out that Buffett’s own company, Berkshire Hathaway, has had every opportunity to pay more taxes over the last decade. Instead, it’s been mired in a protracted legal battle with the Internal Revenue Service over a bill that one analyst estimates may total $1 billion.
Read more on Newsmax.com: Report: Buffett's Berkshire Owes $1 Billion In Back Taxes
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!
Absolutely shocking.  |
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An simplified evolution of economy:
1. Barter was commodities traded between individuals.
2. Money was decreed, issued, and valued, still ultimately by an individual used to trade commodities.
3 Bitcoin is the first socially decreed and issued money that is itself a virtual commodity with as yet undetermined value.
N. The next evolutionary stage will probably be algorithms that intelligently manage resources. Bitcoin may be the first stage that allows this to happen because it is decentralized, scalable, secure, and yet completely transparent.
You can already create programs that trade commodities without the need of money. But using money is convenient because it simplifies a lot the economic calculation. For example, when you are planning something is easier to think in terms of just one thing, money (I need 300 bitcoins for this project), than a list of commodities. It also allows for unexptected contingencies (I need 250 bitcoins plus 50 to be safe). Money is useful and makes things easy helping human development. Thats why we use it. Also, your point 2 is wrong. Money is not decreed. The decree comes later when people is already using it as a means of creating a monopolly. Gold, silver, etc... were socially selected. I won't get into the debate about who issues money. Historians and coin collectors might have better opinions about that. Of course we trade commodities with money, but fiat money has problems with local currency regulation. I wasn't aware of "programs that trade commodities without the need of money." This electronic barter is common? Here's my point about the next step in the evolution of money. At some point, this technology will eliminate economic tribalism. Efficiency and security will replace trust. This technology will help create a global economy independent of nations, because it eliminates the need for trust of tribal leaders. |
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An simplified evolution of economy:
1. Barter was commodities traded between individuals.
2. Money was decreed, issued, and valued, still ultimately by an individual used to trade commodities.
3 Bitcoin is the first socially decreed and issued money that is itself a virtual commodity with as yet undetermined value.
N. The next evolutionary stage will probably be algorithms that intelligently manage resources. Bitcoin may be the first stage that allows this to happen because it is decentralized, scalable, secure, and yet completely transparent.
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Heh, I finally noticed the ignore button on the left.  |
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Interesting question: should people be tolerant to trolls and scammers to ensure free speech and other natural rights?
Without the ability to squelch the s/n ratio, we depend on moderators to do so. If this forum becomes too noisy for our use, then we will go elsewhere. |
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The outage has been fixed and my transaction has been processed.
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It is very difficult for most people to acquire bitcoins. Using exchanges is very slow. Even if average joes manage to get bitcoins, security is difficult for them for things like backups and lack of encrypted wallets. What it will take is well developed smartphone and pc clients that allow geeks to sell bitcoins to the masses safely and securely. I still don't trust the exchanges, I prefer a decentralized approach, but the bitcoin smartphone apps are still too primitive to be very useful. I'm glad to see vendor tools being developed, but they won't be much good until there are people with bitcoins out there to use them.
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