2012-11-13 businessinsider.com - Currencies of the Future

[Akka]

Currencies of the Future

Many people complain about government control of currency, but only a few do something about it. I’m not talking about movements to “audit the Fed” and such. I’m talking about real innovation that makes an end run around the government’s iron grip on the monetary system.

A few of us old folks might like to return to the days of slapping a silver dollar on the bar for a shot of whiskey, but the younger techno-savvy generation sees paying for their Negroni cocktail with virtual currency from their hand-held device. To serve this market, a new world of virtual currencies has popped up spontaneously.

...These might be considered currency entrepreneurs. They anticipate consumer needs and demands, and as is the case with any other good or service, these entrepreneurs recognized more salable goods before the majority of people...

...So while people contend that money must be this or must be that, or come from here, or evolve from there, Menger, the father of the Austrian school, seems to leave it up to the market. When a money becomes uneconomic to use, it loses its marketability and ceases to be money. Other marketable goods emerge as money. It’s happened throughout history and likely will continue, despite government wanting to freeze the world in place to its liking.

Which brings us back to Bitcoin, what the European Central Bank (ECB) calls in its latest report “the most successful — and probably most controversial — virtual currency scheme to date.”...

Here at LFB, we don’t know what tomorrow’s money will be. Digits and computer algorithms? Silver and gold coins engraved with someone wearing a hoodie, perhaps? What we know for sure is that we’re rooting for enterprising entrepreneurs to give the government a run for their money in the money business. Watch this space.

Read the Full article (It's one of the better ones): http://www.businessinsider.com/currencies-of-the-future-2012-11

[hazek]

(It's one of the better ones): http://www.businessinsider.com/currencies-of-the-future-2012-11

Yeah it's a pretty decent one.

[lonelyminer (Peter Šurda)]

What is remarkable about this one is that it comes from Doug French, the former president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, in my opinion the most important organisation for the promotion of the Austrian School of economics. Until now, people associated with the Mises Institute were reluctant to comment on Bitcoin, and in some cases were very dismissive.

Doug French did a master's thesis on "Early Speculative Bubbles And Increases in the Supply of Money", which was later expanded and published as a book (available for a free download). He described the tulip mania, the Mississippi bubble and the South Sea bubble. The thesis was done under supervision of Murray Rothbard. Also, Doug French used to be a banker. So he knows a thing or two about money.

While I'm cautious in interpreting this article as French supporting Bitcoin, he seems to recognise that it is a market phenomenon and not "only" a bubble (if I may be so bold and to guess on what he's thinking, he probably came to the conclusion that if it was only a bubble, it would have already collapsed). I commented several times on the Mises Blog in the past on posts made by Doug French, asking if the institute accepts donations in Bitcoin. Maybe in the future they'll start doing that.

[molecular]

What is remarkable about this one is that it comes from Doug French, the former president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, in my opinion the most important organisation for the promotion of the Austrian School of economics. Until now, people associated with the Mises Institute were reluctant to comment on Bitcoin, and in some cases were very dismissive.

Doug French did a master's thesis on "Early Speculative Bubbles And Increases in the Supply of Money", which was later expanded and published as a book (available for a free download). He described the tulip mania, the Mississippi bubble and the South Sea bubble. The thesis was done under supervision of Murray Rothbard. Also, Doug French used to be a banker. So he knows a thing or two about money.

While I'm cautious in interpreting this article as French supporting Bitcoin, he seems to recognise that it is a market phenomenon and not "only" a bubble (if I may be so bold and to guess on what he's thinking, he probably came to the conclusion that if it was only a bubble, it would have already collapsed). I commented several times on the Mises Blog in the past on posts made by Doug French, asking if the institute accepts donations in Bitcoin. Maybe in the future they'll start doing that.

You may have set quite a ball rolling there .

It may or may not have to do with the ECB paper, but this is the kind of thing I was hoping it would trigger: discussion and awareness among a wider audience that hasn't been seriously tapped yet.

[lonelyminer (Peter Šurda)]

It may or may not have to do with the ECB paper, but this is the kind of thing I was hoping it would trigger: discussion and awareness among a wider audience that hasn't been seriously tapped yet.

I hadn't realised this, but it looks like you're right, the ECB paper managed to popularise Bitcoin. Almost like the Streissand effect. Good job ECB. To paraphrase Walter Block: I used to be an anarchist, but now I think that there should be a state and have only one purpose: to force everyone to read the ECB report on Bitcoin :-)

[molecular]

You might think these people are crazy. After all, to be a proper money, a currency must have a nonmonetary value,

here we go again, the famous Regression Theorem ;>

EDIT: oops, I read on and I think I will have to revise...

allright, Peter, I read your comment here: http://lfb.org/today/currencies-of-the-future/

It's good to see your analysis in such prominent location (early comment)

[molecular]

It may or may not have to do with the ECB paper, but this is the kind of thing I was hoping it would trigger: discussion and awareness among a wider audience that hasn't been seriously tapped yet.

I hadn't realised this, but it looks like you're right, the ECB paper managed to popularise Bitcoin. Almost like the Streissand effect. Good job ECB. To paraphrase Walter Block: I used to be an anarchist, but now I think that there should be a state and have only one purpose: to force everyone to read the ECB report on Bitcoin :-)

It's very favorable that the ECB paper is quite accurate in its analysis, too, since it will be quoted a lot. It's truly a present from the enemy, at least it looks like it is at this point.

[nobbynobbynoob]

It's very favorable that the ECB paper is quite accurate in its analysis, too, since it will be quoted a lot. It's truly a present from the enemy, at least it looks like it is at this point.

Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

[Seal]

It may or may not have to do with the ECB paper, but this is the kind of thing I was hoping it would trigger: discussion and awareness among a wider audience that hasn't been seriously tapped yet.

I hadn't realised this, but it looks like you're right, the ECB paper managed to popularise Bitcoin. Almost like the Streissand effect. Good job ECB. To paraphrase Walter Block: I used to be an anarchist, but now I think that there should be a state and have only one purpose: to force everyone to read the ECB report on Bitcoin :-)

It's very favorable that the ECB paper is quite accurate in its analysis, too, since it will be quoted a lot. It's truly a present from the enemy, at least it looks like it is at this point.

+1

Well written article, it reads reasonably neutral too and is from a solid source. I hope others link to it.

[Zangelbert Bingledack]

What is remarkable about this one is that it comes from Doug French, the former president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, in my opinion the most important organisation for the promotion of the Austrian School of economics. Until now, people associated with the Mises Institute were reluctant to comment on Bitcoin, and in some cases were very dismissive.

This is big. I suggest mentioning this at every opportunity, because the LvMI is ground zero for the intellectual side of the libertarian movement. If the Austrians come around that alone would be huge, and it would open the possibility of Ron Paul endorsing Bitcoin, if such a thing can happen.