Slashdot Poll (27k users so far) on Bitcoin

[oakpacific]

What *do* you trust as a store of value?

Real estate, gold. There's little chance that you wake up and your house or gold bars will have zero value. Although it's quite possible with bitcoins.

Zero value may not, but there is a chance that your gold bars would not be worth much more than what you need to spend on securing them.

[Melbustus]

What *do* you trust as a store of value?

Real estate, gold. There's little chance that you wake up and your house or gold bars will have zero value. Although it's quite possible with bitcoins.

Agreed regarding real-estate.

And in the short/medium term regarding gold. Not so sure long-term. Bitcoin is a monetary superset of gold. If years go by without a superior alt, or a fundamental failure, the monetary properties should shine through, and the case for gold becomes more difficult in the face of something that does the same thing, yet also provides a means for (near)frictionless transactions over any distance. Gold *wants* to be money in modern society, but it can't be, since we need to transact over distance quickly. Gold can't do that without a peg to something else, and pegs get messed with by those in control. Bitcoin, on the other hand, really is a near-ideal money for modern times (though admittedly unproven with regard to staying power).

[slush]

Zero value may not, but there is a chance that your gold bars would not be worth much more than what you need to spend on securing them.

The chance that bitcoin will cost $0 tomorrow is a bit higher than the gold price will drop to its "industry price" anytime soon. Especially when bitcoin requires hi-tech environment (electricity, internet access), but gold doesn't.

[slush]

Bitcoin is a monetary superset of gold.

I agree. As a money, bitcoins are much better than gold. But Bitcoin is too young, currently it is still a wild speculation to future value and it isn't smart to use it as a *store* of value.

I'm bullish in bitcoin, but I still keep in bitcoins only money which I'm afford to lose.

[oakpacific]

Zero value may not, but there is a chance that your gold bars would not be worth much more than what you need to spend on securing them.

The chance that bitcoin will cost $0 tomorrow is a bit higher than the gold price will drop to its "industry price" anytime soon. Especially when bitcoin requires hi-tech environment (electricity, internet access), but gold doesn't.

We have much bigger problems to worry about in a world without electricity and internet access, besides, we can just store our blockchain until the day everything resumed. And I doubt internet is so fragile, that thing was first designed to work under nuclear attack.

[slush]

we can just store our blockchain until the day everything resumed

It won't work like this. Network split will cause more blockchain branches, impossibility to move coins (so technically you'll have coins, but you won't be able to spend them for bread) and also panic on markets and price drop. Gold: unaffected :-P.

[oakpacific]

we can just store our blockchain until the day everything resumed

It won't work like this. Network split will cause more blockchain branches, impossibility to move coins (so technically you'll have coins, but you won't be able to spend them for bread) and also panic on markets and price drop. Gold: unaffected :-P.

It's possible to make the system supporting off-the-chain transactions: http://gavintech.blogspot.com/2012/07/off-chain-transactions.html

Besides, I am sure something else can be worked out during the time of peace to avoid the problems you mentioned, like: merchants rejecting any transaction which is not confirmed in a number of geographically separated nodes.

[sounds]

I see two problems with gold that bitcoin doesn't have:

First, people claim they "have gold" when all they have is an IoU from a gold holdings company. That's got to be the best "fractional reserves" scam ever. Do they really have gold to back that paper?

Second, if people do actually take delivery of their gold holdings, they will quickly discover the physical drawbacks of gold. It's heavy. It's hard to manipulate. Scammers will try to fool you and take your gold.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were a way to trade gold IoU's but guarantee that the holdings companies aren't lying about their holdings? That is starting to sound a lot like bitcoin! And that is my point: bitcoin is like a gold IoU. If you really want gold, there are merchants who will sell you gold in exchange for bitcoins.

[b!z]

I see two problems with gold that bitcoin doesn't have:

First, people claim they "have gold" when all they have is an IoU from a gold holdings company. That's got to be the best "fractional reserves" scam ever. Do they really have gold to back that paper?

Second, if people do actually take delivery of their gold holdings, they will quickly discover the physical drawbacks of gold. It's heavy. It's hard to manipulate. Scammers will try to fool you and take your gold.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were a way to trade gold IoU's but guarantee that the holdings companies aren't lying about their holdings? That is starting to sound a lot like bitcoin! And that is my point: bitcoin is like a gold IoU. If you really want gold, there are merchants who will sell you gold in exchange for bitcoins.

But if Bitcoin becomes worthless, then you can't buy any gold..

[sounds]

If the government declares it illegal to have gold and confiscates it all, you can't buy any bitcoin either...

[oakpacific]

If the government declares it illegal to have gold and confiscates it all, you can't buy any bitcoin either...

I will just settle for OTC, people can sell it under all kinds of fancy names online, how is the government going to find out what's really being sold?

[sounds]

And that is the second point I was making: gold is hard to exchange freely.

To be fair, I don't think gold is very hard to exchange right now, but we're dealing completely in hypothetical situations here so I'm imagining a world where the US president declares a "war on gold" and gold traders get sent to jail for longer than murderers.