2013-04-05 LewRockwell.com: The Money-ness of Bitcoins

[n8rwJeTt8TrrLKPa55eU]

In conclusion, virtual monies, of which bitcoins seem to be the most perfected specimen up to date, do not allow acting individuals to manage the uncertainty of the future as well as material monies do. They could serve to intermediate exchanges among those who invest in the technology that creates them, stores them, and transfers them. Nevertheless, they could never achieve that degree of universality and flexibility that material monies carry with them by nature. Thus, on the free market, commodity monies, and presumably gold and silver, still have a great comparative advantage.

http://lewrockwell.com/orig14/gertchev1.1.1.html

[Rincewind]

I bet if I walked into a bank lobby and announced I'd give either 5 ounces of silver or 1 bitcoin to anyone that can hand me $140USD, I'd unload the bitcoins faster.

[thezerg]

Like all other goldbugs he seems to ignore the validation/ counterfeit detection time that would be required to actually use PMs as a daily currency.  The time value required to execute the validation of PM coins on every transaction would be significantly higher then the purchase of a smart phone (or other bitcoin capable device).

And he also conveniently steers the conversation to address only face-to-face transactions as if that is a absolutely necessary component for a currency.  Even if PMs (or fiat) were solely used for face-to-face (and here he completely ignores the PM divisibility problem) BTC could be incredibly successful in the "niche" market that includes every online transaction, every international remittance, and every B2B deal (like a retailer-distributor-factory supply chain), etc.  At the same time, the progression of technology does imply that a vast majority of available money will be owned by people carrying BTC capable portable devices in the near future (if not already).

[mai77]

http://mises.org/daily/6399/The-Moneyness-of-Bitcoins



now even the Ludwig von Mises Institute can no longer keep it a secret

[mai77]

so these geniuses  were smart enough to realize that virtual money cannot be used with no technology like a metal coin.

how very profound an insight. 

[MikeH]

I bet if I walked into a bank lobby and announced I'd give either 5 ounces of silver or 1 bitcoin to anyone that can hand me $140USD, I'd unload the bitcoins faster.

I think that would depend on whether they were in on the silver manipulation and knew when or if it may be lifted.