Why couldn't they?
Because they have already done that and it failed. The USD was pegged to gold up until 1971, at which time the Nixon administration arbitrarily decided to cease USD convertibility into gold. The USD has lost 83% of its value since that time. This is the entire problem bitcoin solves.
That doesn't make any sense. You're saying the USD was pegged to gold until 1971. That's true. So that means that they
can in fact peg it to gold. Just that it will fail eventually. I wasn't saying it won't fail, it will, but it will take decades to fail. Maybe even 100+ years just like how the USD is still around.
So again, why can't they?
Well yes, technically they could, but there is no point in trying something that has already failed when you have a far superior system.
Oh yeah, and I totally agree. But would the general public agree?
I think BigJohn has many valid points: there is precedent for a gold-backed currency (original fiat currencies) and eGold actually was fairly successful for a time ($2 billion per year in velocity, $20 million monetary base).
But I think HeliKopterBen and BitTrivia have the right idea: "We've solved a real-world problem that's never been solved before and that changes how things will unfold in the future."
Indeed, the pendulum of public perception has swung. We now distrusts powerful banks, government bureaucracy, and centralized organization. The future of money is a decentralized cryptocurrency like bitcoin.
