And, most importantly, it would work with, rather than against, today’s established monetary institutions. Yes, it would be disruptive, and could cost them quite a lot of money in terms of lost interchange fees from plastic cards and ATMs. But it wouldn’t aspire to delegitimize them – quite the opposite. Because it turns out that financial-services companies are a very important part of any democracy.
It’s because we place so much trust in banks, after all, that they are forced to take on a great deal of responsibility. Banks and central banks are given an important job to do, are regulated and scrutinized, and can be held responsible for their actions. The population of the entire country, as represented by the government, stands behind bank deposits and promises to honor them even if the bank goes bust. Money, in other words, is a key ingredient in the glue which keeps the social compact together. (What we’re seeing in Cyprus is in large part a demonstration of what happens when that compact starts becoming unglued.)
Bitcoin, in that sense, is anti democratic. It’s based on mistrust rather than trust, it refuses to take any responsibility onto itself – indeed, it doesn’t even have a self to take responsibility onto. It’s nihilistic, and an attractive alternative only to things which are downright bad.
I refrain from quoting his fallacy on deflation. I won't comment further other than that one could not possibly be more disingenuous in failing to correctly address the core reason of society's current breakdown; exactly the trust in broken fiat money that's evaporating in spades. Putting this forward as a reason against Bitcoin shows that this guy is ready to grow old.
Irrelevant.
