2012-10-17 GoldMoneyNews - Mike Hampton and Dominic Frisby on sound money and cu

[Stephen Gornick]

Mike Hampton and Dominic Frisby on sound money and currency competition

GoldMoney host Dominic Frisby interviews trader and author Michael Hampton.

Frisby: The other beauty of global metallic money is that it is hard for people to print.  That would be one independent currency.
Frisby: I have never bought a bitcoin.  It is one of those things I keep meaning to do so, just on principle really. I don't understand the algorithm whereby bitcoin is created but I'm assured it is legitimate. So Bitcoin is another independent currency.
Hampton: But I think whatever currency you have you need some backing for it.  Because, partly it's a question of confidence.  The other is if the currency starts to get wobbly as we are seeing in various currencies now there is a way of taking that wobbly currency and transforming it into something else, whatever is backing it.  So if you have gold backing, then you can convert it into gold and take it to another country which is less wobbly and spend it there.  So you probably need backing for the currency of the future.

 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=FcixJcObCFc#t=861s

Frisby: One form of independent money is metal.  Another form is Bitcoin.  If some institution were to follow Hayek's book on competing currencies, the denationalization of money, any old institution can issue any old paper.  But if the marketplace decides that their happy to use that as money [interrupted...]
Hampton: Do you mean like Ron Paul's idea of competiting currencies?
Frisby: I suppose I do.  I'm a big believer in the power of the free market and the free market comes up with natural, organic solutions to things rather than having it imposed on you.   
[...]
Frisby: Why don't you outline Ron Paul's competing currencies idea.
Hampton: At its most basic level, he'ld like to allow people to use not only dollars in settling transactions in commerce in the U.S., but also gold and even other currencies as well.  The idea is that for some reason people don't want to store their wealth in dollars they can store it in gold and use that currency for their businesses for their economic transactions.
[...]
Frisby: We need currencies that are international and non-national.  The big issue comes, with competing currencies, in tax.  Government wants payment in its national currency.

 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=FcixJcObCFc#t=931s

Here's was the most interesting comment, in my opinion:

Hampton: The idea of backing up the currency with something other than a dead asset like gold.
[...]
Hampton: One idea that I've seen kicked around [..] would be to actually store wealth in equities.  So you might have for example a currency whose value is linked to the S&P 500 or the FTSE 1000 and then people who are putting money into that asset effectively are putting more money into the stock market where it can help generate wealth for the country.
[...]
Frisby: A problem with that is that it might encourage malinvestment and excess speculation.

 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=FcixJcObCFc#t=1285s


The entire interview is well worth the time to listen!
 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcixJcObCFc

Frisby is crowdfunding his book, Life After The State:
 - http://unbound.co.uk/books/life-after-the-state

[Dusty]

Frisby is crowdfunding his book, Life After The State:
 - http://unbound.co.uk/books/life-after-the-state

+1

Frisby did two of the best ever made videos introducing the enormous problems of fiat money:
Gold: Independent Money
Fiat Money

But I find worth of mentioning also the fantastic strip Debt Bomb video ;-)

[molecular]

friggin' goldbugs (hampton) want everything backed by gold, otherwise they don't trust it.

They should understand that bitcoin (Bitium?) IS LIKE gold and doesn't need a backing and that we could back the USD with bitcoin no problem.

I want to yell into their faces: "And what is your gold backed by?". They understand value is about trust/confidence and I think they have no confidence in bitcoins scarcity because they do not understand it.

We should really stop calling bitcoin a currency,.. it's a commodity money. The Bitcoin Foundation got it: on their frontpage it says: "cryptographic money".

[sunnankar]

Frisby: I have never bought a bitcoin.  It is one of those things I keep meaning to do so, just on principle really. I don't understand the algorithm whereby bitcoin is created but I'm assured it is legitimate.

How long has Bitcoin been around and how long has Frisby known about it? 3.5 years and at least 12-18 months.

Perhaps if these commentators, Frisby is not the only one others include Turk, Wenzel (who engaged in two bitcoin transactions after the interview), etc., actually took some time to use and understand what they are commenting about then they would not appear as such ignoramuses making pronouncements from theoretical ivory towers.

[molecular]

Frisby: I have never bought a bitcoin.  It is one of those things I keep meaning to do so, just on principle really. I don't understand the algorithm whereby bitcoin is created but I'm assured it is legitimate.

How long has Bitcoin been around and how long has Frisby known about it? 3.5 years and at least 12-18 months.

Perhaps if these commentators, Frisby is not the only one others include Turk, Wenzel (who engaged in two bitcoin transactions after the interview), etc., actually took some time to use and understand what they are commenting about then they would not appear as such ignoramuses making pronouncements from theoretical ivory towers.

true that. It's amazing how "actually getting your hands dirty and trying shit" can change your perspective radically. This is true even if you understood completely beforehand how something works.

btw: I would add David Birch to the list of "celbrities" that should actually try bitcoin. Have you seen this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jgbk9BIVlQ (David Birch and Adrianne Jeffries on Bitcoin)

[allthingsluxury]

They definitely need to learn quite a lot about bitcoin. But at least frisby is mentioning bitcoin and not in a purely negative way. At least bitcoin is being talked about in more and more circles.

[Wekkel]

Frisby is crowdfunding his book, Life After The State:
 - http://unbound.co.uk/books/life-after-the-state

I pledged, but for now it had to be done through Paypal 

[cypherdoc]

Frisby: I have never bought a bitcoin.  It is one of those things I keep meaning to do so, just on principle really. I don't understand the algorithm whereby bitcoin is created but I'm assured it is legitimate.

How long has Bitcoin been around and how long has Frisby known about it? 3.5 years and at least 12-18 months.

Perhaps if these commentators, Frisby is not the only one others include Turk, Wenzel (who engaged in two bitcoin transactions after the interview), etc., actually took some time to use and understand what they are commenting about then they would not appear as such ignoramuses making pronouncements from theoretical ivory towers.

you should use their ignorance to accumulate more Bitcoin for yourself.  they will be forced to buy at higher prices. 

[sunnankar]

you should use their ignorance to accumulate more Bitcoin for yourself.  they will be forced to buy at higher prices. 

That is the great thing about markets. Opinions are backed by money and the winners take all.

Maybe they are feigning ignorance so they can accumulate more bitcoins!

[molecular]

Frisby: I have never bought a bitcoin.  It is one of those things I keep meaning to do so, just on principle really. I don't understand the algorithm whereby bitcoin is created but I'm assured it is legitimate.

How long has Bitcoin been around and how long has Frisby known about it? 3.5 years and at least 12-18 months.

Perhaps if these commentators, Frisby is not the only one others include Turk, Wenzel (who engaged in two bitcoin transactions after the interview), etc., actually took some time to use and understand what they are commenting about then they would not appear as such ignoramuses making pronouncements from theoretical ivory towers.

you should use their ignorance to accumulate more Bitcoin for yourself.  they will be forced to buy at higher prices. 

as always: priceless practical investment advice by cypherdoc