Deflation = falling prices in an economy.  And as stated above my hunch is an increase in popularity that is out pacing the growing supply of bitcoins.

Regardless of the reducing reward size, with exception of the bubble last summer, the currency has been deflating for a while.


And people are more comfortable having a savings account that makes less interest than inflation?  Why does the only way to avoid inflation have to involve the risky/complicated stock market?  I think it makes a lot more sense to be able to put money in a savings account & have it worth the same or more later even w/o interest.  You shouldn't have to take on so much risk to save your hard earned money.  This only allows the rich to keep getting richer because they are the only ones w/ access to stock advisers & financial planners to make sure their savings doesn't become worthless.  At the very least I should be able to stash cash in my mattress & have it be worth the same years later.  People are stuck with the mentality that if my savings is going to be worth less tomorrow I might as well spend it today.  Now none of these people have safety nets in case things go bad.  And for critics that claim this will cause people to hoard their money, I still have to buy things.  I can't live without food, water, safety, shelter, transportation, etc.

I couldn't agree more.  The videos just seemed to focus on fractional reserve banking being one of the main culprits which I highly disagree with.  The main culprits are our government's ability to print money, control interest rates, and disallow competing currencies.  The videos do touch on these issues as well - they just don't feel like the main focus.

I haven't tried importing private keys into bitcoind(-qt) yet, but its pretty easy to sha256sum a phrase & feed it into brainwallet or bitaddress to get the private & public keys.  There's also a few transaction makers out there that will even give you the raw transaction (most only support sending the full balance tho - be careful or you might end up giving the miner a huge fee).  Now I just need to figure out how to send that transaction out.  I think bitcoind(-qt) is working on it since I saw they have a sendrawtransaction method.  I also heard electrum will do it.  I think blockchain will send it for a fee.  Then you don't even ever have to import or create a wallet & the private key can be stored on an offline computer the whole time.

I love these videos, but wish they focused more on fact than speculation.

Even with bitcoin, fractional reserve banking will most likely exist.  I realize that if I have extra bitcoins, I can make money off them by lending them out.  And some will choose to give it to a bank who will lend it out for them in return for interest.  And yes there will be a risk that they will make bad loans.  You will have to choose a reputable bank with an interest rate that matches your level of riskiness or not invest at all.  Obviously today with the FED controlling rates & everything being FDIC insured, the interest rates aren't much better than stuffing your mattress.  But w/o that regulation & those safe guards, lending will show its true colors of riskiness.  And the ability to get a loan will be much more difficult since the government won't be able to bail anyone out.  Then people will start living a lot closer to their means.  And these financial bubbles will disappear.

I wouldn't mind being in a financial state where I wouldn't have to rely on one.  Once I have the equity of a house, I could be there.  But to be honest, as long as credit card rewards exist, I'll have one regardless if I need it or not.  Although if someone is offering product X for 3-5% less using bitcoins/cash, I'd choose that option over credit card rewards.

Sure


Although I personally believe governments greatly magnify our current issues, a crisis could still form that negatively affects bitcoin.  Bitcoin can't escape natural disasters.  Insurance companies could crumble in those situations because they can't afford the payouts.  Now policyholders of those failed companies are forced to spend money that would have gone towards vacations, jewelry, or investments on repairing their house/vehicle or medical expenses.  The housing & medical fields may temporarily boom while other industries falter.  Then college students may over-saturate those markets just as people are done repairing their homes or getting out of rehab.  Now there's a shortage of other industries, temporarily driving prices up.  The cycle is never ending.

What's wrong with a credit score?  For the people that rely on credit, I think it is a good/effective system.  When I got my first job, I couldn't afford to pay cash for a reliable vehicle to get there.  Thanks to the credit score system, I was able to get a reliable vehicle because the bank trusted me with the money due to the transactions I had with previous people.  And my credit score was only based on having credit cards that I paid off every month.  I personally think it has benefited me a lot.

The economy also benefits from it by matching riskiness w/ interest rates & not loaning money to people that have had issues paying it back in the past.

I'm not going to lie, your post isn't very coherent.  But if your question is what do people see in her books, I might be able to answer that.  I personally can relate with her books.  In Atlas, her vision of the future is my vision of the future.  I don't think our current government operates in the best interest of its people.  Too much regulation crushes productivity & innovation.  When less than 100% are in charge, it makes it easier & easier for them to be bribed or just plain bias.  Her dream world is my dream world.  And bitcoin gets us that much closer in my opinion.  But you'll definitely find people on this forum that detest her ideals.  I'm not sure if they dislike bitcoin as well or see it as a way to promote their own society.

Why wouldn't it be in the oil company's best interest to cap the well?  If I'm losing money every day because of it, I'm going to repair it ASAP so I can continue making money off of it.  Even if my company is too broke, I'd sell it to another company for a price that would make it worth salvaging.  An oil spill is also bad press.  I don't want people to stop using my product because I've ruined their beaches.  There are a lot of incentives for the company to fix it as soon as possible.

Assuming the explosion makes it unsalvageable and I don't care about my reputation because my company is broke or I'm in a remote area, then there is a higher likelihood the problem would not be fixed.  But the citizens of the beaches that are affected could come together and donate money to an operation to try & cap the well or filter the water coming into the beach.  Or companies could buy the beaches, filter the water, and charge a fee to use it.  I believe natural oil spills occur as well where there is no one to blame & the same problems would arise.

Most of the paper is devoted to bitcoin's legal status.  I personally don't think it matters so I didn't care much for the paper.

Couldn't agree more.  In fact, I'd argue trade has always been more profitable.  Why would you give money to war when you could buy more food, shelter, etc?  Because you previously didn't have a choice.  Bitcoin changes all of that.  Gold can be stolen, bank accounts can be frozen, but bitcoins can be stored in my mind!

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=20603738&postcount=2095

But doesn't look easy.  The poster should setup shop.  I'd pay double to have it automatically turn on/record with power.  I've found a few dash cams on Amazon for $60 that probably use the same parts, but are too large & obvious because they have IR lights & LCDs.  Just asking to have your car broken into.  No one would think twice about a tiny key chain remote on my dash.

Well, I hate to say it, but in a bitcoin world, a "preexisting condition" clause will still exist.  Although, I'd argue healthcare in general would be cheaper (because the govt won't exist) so people could afford to live w/o insurance.  Otherwise you better hope bitcoin dies a quick death so you can continue to ride the wave of socialism.  In the meantime, if I had a preexisting condition that prevented me from getting insurance, I'd move to Canada or Europe.

+1

Will taxing people still be possible?
Will all other currencies suffer a hyperinflation death?

I've heard a lot of bad ideas on this forum, but this one takes the cake.

Since when is insurance socialism?  When I think of socialism I think of a monopolized system I'm forced to pay for.  There are multiple insurance companies & and in most industries it is optional.  How is that socialism?  I'll agree that they share similarities that you previously pointed out, but the similarities stop there.  I definitely agree that most healthcare is very socialized, but insurance companies are one of the few reasons it isn't.

I was wondering where this meme came from.  Definitely taken out of context.  Regardless, what was he even getting at?  His job is to represent me.  If he really wanted to represent me, he'd set up a website where I could vote for myself.  I will never understand why we still vote for people to "represent" us.  No one in the world can represent me.  I'm tired of voting for the best fundraiser, speaker, debater, etc.  Those people aren't qualified to decided anything.

Cool, but $300?  I'll pass.  Just get a $35 808 #16 cam instead.

I wasn't assuming the elimination of localized currencies as much as anonymity & full control over your money.  And the taxes/fees I was referring to were the mandatory ones imposed by current governments onto its citizens for its services.