Counterfeited gold coins HAVE to be made of gold to a (not small) degree. If not then alloy density will simply mismatch too much. USG scanners show structure of insides; even wolfram based fakes will not pass such a test.

For a comparison, paper currencies are counterfeit to a much higher degree already. And found fake banknotes lose all their value immediately. So gold coin (even when faked) is much safer.


Even today we have catastrophes of many kinds; people die and/or lose all their wealth. Do you mean that because there is always some kind of risk we should dismiss ways of wealth preservation?


No - gold as physical element has enough unique properties to be 100% sure it's gold. Unless an assayer is completely incompetent.


Every time you are going to use cash there is chance it may be stolen. Every time you are making credit card transfer there is a chance it may be stolen. Basically every time you are getting out a house you may get robbed, too. So what you really says is that bad accidents do happen? Yes they do - it's just life like it is...


?

Then I don't understand your previous statements... As anything else BTC has it share of associated risks too.

Yeah - there three ways: by a civil war which is quick and necessarily bloody affair. Alternatively work on organizing, funding and lobbying for such separatist idea on a political background. With enough persistence and sufficient mindshare it may pay off. But it will not be quick nor easy.

There is an another way though; by rapid technological advances where the very current social fabric will become obsolete. Than things like states will have to be redefined.

No less sense than adopting a scheme (a fiat money) that has historically proven 100 percent ratio of failure.
Of course BTC could choke when handling transactions traffic at the scale of whole country. But that could be improved for sure; it's important to not dismiss such possibilities. Eventually a technology may grand many great things.

Nothing wrong for savers but many people are notorious debtors. Especially those who can force others to spend (governments with deficits) so deflation is dreaded as it makes servicing debt much harder in real terms.


You are managing your assets in a sound way; you have savings. Unfortunately, majority of people aren't capable of such thing and most of their possessions are debt based. So politicians make propaganda that "inflation is essential".


Collective will of humanity, eh?

If there is a common "will" shared by all homo sapiens that is that of animals: to eat (preserve itself), to kill (reduce competition) and to copulate (propagate the specie). Popular culture reflects that very well indeed...

We yet have to do a herculean work first, to be able to claim that we have something resembling "the collective (intelligent) will".

It would be preferable to have a prospering BTC based economy, obviously. However, Bitcoin as such already had realized an important purpose; it is a successful proof that we can depend on and trust in mathematically fabricated commodity. Monetary use is just the beginning...

What a big entity (like a government) could do is to use its funds to fabricate dedicated hashing ASICs. However such move could be viewed as being BTC positive; you don't react to things which are supposedly meaningless (or pretend them to be as such). Bitcoin is in competition with fiat currencies so attacking it would mean it REALLY has started to be a viable alternative.

So... as long most people stick to fiat, pay taxes using fiat (and stay ignorant to debasement) there isn't reason to try actively suppressing BTC.

And what will protect people from a government "sanctioned" failures?
(like mindless government overspending resulting in debasing of a currency to dupe its own creditors?)

There is always risk. Only you can protect your assets. That is the idea behind bitcoin: a digital commodity which we can actually control by ourselves.
(at least to much higher degree than anything else)


Then don't get involved in btc banks or third parties. Bitcoin is self sufficient to function on its own merits (not unlike gold). If you want to make a loan then demand a sensible collateral first.

Not necessarily if we could make hypothetical selfdestructible property. Then any effective robbing would be only possible by forcing original owner to release private keys... Plausible denial could be used as defense with keys which prolonged property's existence for limited time only.


Signing property with visible keys seems to be pretty good deterrent. It will lower worth of stolen things considerably.

Unless mined bitcoins would be worth enough to make the whole affair profitable. But then it would mean that btc is officially recognized by government(s) as viable currency; a thing that the establishment is likely to avoid as long as possible...

If you don't know what will happen then try to averaging your exchanges. Just agree on given amount per week to sell or spend. That way you'll get your worth of btc and you'll have some saved for latter.

And twice of that amount for related bureaucratic expenditures...
 

Not "so bad" for now but be assured that in future it'll get worse. People should be responsible for themselves - If you want to fund charity then just get involved privately. There is no reason to be taxed at such whim whatever the excuse may be. Unless someone wants to end up like the horse from Orwell's Animal Farm. I DON'T.

That idea is sound but unlike virtual world and mathematics (which are enough to allow bitcoin to function) claims on real property may need to be enforced well... physically. For that you will need some kind of authority (like police) but then we're back to statism.

Basically what is needed is a decentralized state...

In fact, we are forced by governments to use their paper money by legal tender laws. Unless someone wants to go to a jail rather quickly... So the only thing we can have trust in is that: "Trust us and we won't hit you too hard (probably)"...

Trust have to be earned. When doing a business with new entity it's advised to be cautious. Companies (and individual people as well) can fail from time to time for myriad of reasons. I'm yet to have any sizable sum in BTC but from what I could understand about its protocol it is safer than conventional banking ever can be. (especially considering todays political risks...)

I learned about Bitcoin few months ago. Just recently decided (finally) to take part in it.