2013-03-03 - Monetary Metals - Is Bitcoin Money?

[marcus_of_augustus]

http://monetary-metals.com/is-bitcoin-money/

Solo talk by Keith Weiner, Austrian 'expert' on monetary stuffs apparently.

Here's some fresh meat for the grill boys ... summary quotation "... bitcoin is just another irredeemable currency".  

Be kind.  

[hazek]

Oh dear... "..when I exchange something that I had to risk my time and capital to produce I want something tangible in exchange that's why gold is money because it was the most marketable tangible good.."


Riiight. Most marketable sure.. Tangible? Yeah, back when they didn't know we'd have something called the digital world, sure. I wonder when these people will wake up to the reality they're living in? Is a digital picture not tangible? If it's not, is it a figment of my imagination? If not, then what is it?!

[Wekkel]

Irredeemable Bitcoin is. The second question - what are its other purposes and features - is much more interesting. In essence, gold is irredeemable too (gold is just gold).

Keep an eye on Keith and you will learn a lot.

[MrVivaldi]

Bitcoin is not tangible thats that.

Some might see this as a disadvantage whilst others see this as an advantage.  In our world today generally the people are very much afraid of their governments. And they really wan't to be able to save their money in a way they percieve to be a secure way without anyone interfearing with it.

Gold has storing costs to it it can also be stolen if the location is known.

[Gabi]

Gold sucks, it is irredeemable

[kiba]

Gold sucks, it is irredeemable

Thinking about money is hard! It's one of the strangest fiction ever invented by mankind.

[cbeast]

I wonder how much metal speculation is backed fraudulent paper? If there was a run on gold, how much would anyone get delivered? I suspect that much if not most of the gold trade is fictional. At least with Bitcoin, fraud is limited to exchanges and it is cheap and easy to move to more trusted exchanges if desired. This keeps Bitcoin exchanges honest. Gold is only honest money if it is in your hand.

[Prattler]

I wonder how much metal speculation is backed fraudulent paper? If there was a run on gold, how much would anyone get delivered? I suspect that much if not most of the gold trade is fictional. At least with Bitcoin, fraud is limited to exchanges and it is cheap and easy to move to more trusted exchanges if desired. This keeps Bitcoin exchanges honest. Gold is only honest money if it is in your hand.

If for whatever reason people chose to trust bitcoin banks, those banks would be regulated and required to prove they really own the amount of blockchain bitcoins they claim to own. Such audit is near impossible with gold.

[Jutarul]

I wonder how much metal speculation is backed fraudulent paper? If there was a run on gold, how much would anyone get delivered?

0%. The day there's a run on gold, governments will intervene and declare a stop on all gold trades.

[ShadowOfHarbringer]

I wonder how much metal speculation is backed fraudulent paper? If there was a run on gold, how much would anyone get delivered? I suspect that much if not most of the gold trade is fictional. At least with Bitcoin, fraud is limited to exchanges and it is cheap and easy to move to more trusted exchanges if desired. This keeps Bitcoin exchanges honest. Gold is only honest money if it is in your hand.

If for whatever reason people chose to trust bitcoin banks, those banks would be regulated and required to prove they really own the amount of blockchain bitcoins they claim to own. Such audit is near impossible with gold.

+n, n->∞

I wonder how much metal speculation is backed fraudulent paper? If there was a run on gold, how much would anyone get delivered?

0%. The day there's a run on gold, governments will intervene and declare a stop on all gold trades.

QFT.

//So much truth about how this fucked up system works in just a single topic.

[apetersson]

all money is not real. it is just a social construct that helps us exchange real goods and real services.
the value of gold is not intrinsic it is just in our heads.

[runeks]

I've asked all the questions raised here wrt. Keith's comments on Bitcoin in the comments section of his blog post. Let's see if he answers.

[odolvlobo]

I was very disappointed when he claimed that Bitcoin is based on the Labor Theory of Value. I hope somebody can show him his mistake.

[Jutarul]

I was very disappointed when he claimed that Bitcoin is based on the Labor Theory of Value. I hope somebody can show him his mistake.

I would, but the eyebrows keep distracting me.

[BkkCoins]

People still debating whether Bitcoin is money? Crikey. That was so last year. There are stores and services actively accepting bitcoins and people using them world wide. Bitcoin is in fact money. So they better adjust their theories do deal with that.