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Author Topic: 2013-04-05 Bloomberg Btc Really "Existential Threat to the Modern Liberal State"  (Read 4158 times)
em3rgentOrdr (OP)
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April 06, 2013, 08:53:59 AM
Last edit: April 06, 2013, 10:45:32 PM by em3rgentOrdr
 #1

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-05/bitcoin-really-is-an-existential-threat-to-the-modern-liberal-state.html

Quote
So far, Bitcoin is not a big deal. Its total value in circulation was $1.4 billion as of this week. That's equivalent to the currency stock of a small nation -- somewhere between Iceland and Uruguay -- and just one-thousandth of the total value of U.S. dollars in circulation. The volume of transactions in Bitcoin is growing only slowly, relative to the massive increase in demand for the currency: This discrepancy is strong evidence that Bitcoin’s rise is a speculative bubble.

Nonetheless, Bitcoin raises some interesting questions. One is whether it might undermine the modern state -- which, for many of its libertarian-anarchist advocates, is the whole idea.

Technology enabled governments to grow more powerful and more centralized in the 19th and 20th centuries, as Tyler Cowen, an economist at George Mason University, has argued. The intriguing possibility is that technologies of the 21st century -- such as Bitcoin -- might push the other way.

...

"We will not find a solution to political problems in cryptography, but we can win a major battle in the arms race and gain a new territory of freedom for several years.

Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks, but pure P2P networks are holding their own."
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April 06, 2013, 09:24:28 AM
 #2

Badly formatted date !

Kiba is going to come in storming any minute now...

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April 06, 2013, 09:33:32 AM
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At this point, I'm beginning to wonder if Bloomberg has recently started receiving clear direction as to the type of coverage bitcoin gets in their media.

Dankedan: price seems low, time to sell I think...
em3rgentOrdr (OP)
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April 06, 2013, 10:19:21 AM
 #4

Badly formatted date !

Kiba is going to come in storming any minute now...

haha!!!  Hey good to hear from you...I had voluntarily disconnected from bitcoin forums for a year and a half!

At this point, I'm beginning to wonder if Bloomberg has recently started receiving clear direction as to the type of coverage bitcoin gets in their media.

yeah...I've been very frustrated with all the news attention recently...so many incorrect facts by writers who don't fully understand bitcoin technical details, or just plain biases in reporting.

"We will not find a solution to political problems in cryptography, but we can win a major battle in the arms race and gain a new territory of freedom for several years.

Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks, but pure P2P networks are holding their own."
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April 06, 2013, 12:12:17 PM
 #5

NO DATE IN FORUM TOPIC?HuhHuh

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April 06, 2013, 12:55:43 PM
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NO DATE IN FORUM TOPIC?HuhHuh

Mmmph.

Dankedan: price seems low, time to sell I think...
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April 06, 2013, 12:58:05 PM
 #7

The state will never go away completely.  Have a massive haircut?  Probably.  But it will never go away.  Nature abhors a vacuum and a power vacuum in society is one of the fastest that gets filled.  This makes it that much more important to hold the government accountable and to replace the clowns in government when they start (continue) to break the laws that govern them.

Quote
1. Taxation: How do governments collect taxes on transactions in Bitcoin?

The same way that Walmart and your employer collects taxes on cash transactions.  Bitcoin will just prevent the money you already have from being confiscated without your approval.  It doesn't mean that you can't be thrown in jail for not paying your taxes.  (Not that I really agree with the level of taxes currently in force....)

Quote
2. Police:It would be almost impossible for states to detect certain crimes.

With the right incentives and disincentives in the law, it won't really matter what monetary system is in use.  Unfortunatly, there is always going to be some crime that goes unpunished.  This is true even in an authoritarian dictatorship.  It is more a question of holding crime down to a reasonable level given the freedoms that we have and are (supposed to) be guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.  The only alternatives that would make crime noexistant is for everybody to be dead or in jail or there to be no law at all, and none of these are attractive.

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3. Macroeconomic policy:A Bitcoin economy would undermine the power of real-world central banks to make monetary policy.

That's the real point.  This is what it appears that Bloomberg is really worried about.  "They are going to take away my money printing tools!"  Good.  Then they will have to actually work for once instead of just leaching off of the hard work of everybody else.

Also, in the spirit of kiba I add: DATE!  Also, https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=76487.0

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April 06, 2013, 01:05:28 PM
 #8

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3. Macroeconomic policy:A Bitcoin economy would undermine the power of real-world central banks to make monetary policy.
Given how the real-world central banks are ruining the economy with their monetary policy, this is a big REASON to use bitcoin! Undermining banks that steal funds to cypriots? Hell, YEAH  Angry

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April 06, 2013, 01:38:49 PM
 #9

"Liberal State" is an oxymoron.

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April 06, 2013, 02:18:53 PM
 #10

I really don't like the headline because it will tend to make liberals be opposed to bitcoins when they should be welcoming it.

And as far as taxes, yes bitcoin can eventually lead to the elimination of transaction based taxation, but real estate taxes are pretty much inescapable so I foresee governments switching most taxes over to that. They will probably have to lower overall taxation though.

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April 06, 2013, 02:31:26 PM
 #11

I really don't like the headline because it will tend to make liberals be opposed to bitcoins when they should be welcoming it.


If one were to draw a Venn Diagram of the points of intersection between Liberals, Progressives, Anarchists, Libertarians, Conservatives, and Teabaggers, bitcoin might be the only point of intersection.

Maybe beer...

Dankedan: price seems low, time to sell I think...
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April 06, 2013, 08:16:46 PM
 #12

Favourite part of the piece:

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And by displacing governments as currency issuers, Bitcoin also threatens their ability to finance public debt. In a world where many transactions are anonymous, it’s unclear how governments could even compile accurate economic data, without which macroeconomic policy is impossible. Economic depression in a Bitcoin regime could be an insoluble problem.

 Cheesy Cheesy Cheesy
kiba
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April 06, 2013, 08:28:28 PM
 #13

PMed the OP. Hope he changes the DATE!

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April 06, 2013, 10:30:39 PM
 #14

bloomberg = jewish

I suggest we cut the crap
em3rgentOrdr (OP)
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April 06, 2013, 10:40:42 PM
 #15

PMed the OP. Hope he changes the DATE!

I fixed the title...sorry I didn't know the policy.  I've disconnected from bitcoin forums for 1.5 years.

"We will not find a solution to political problems in cryptography, but we can win a major battle in the arms race and gain a new territory of freedom for several years.

Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks, but pure P2P networks are holding their own."
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April 06, 2013, 10:42:41 PM
 #16

bloomberg = jewish

I suggest we cut the crap

We can't.  This forum doesn't work like that.  There's only the ignore button.

Dankedan: price seems low, time to sell I think...
mai77
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April 06, 2013, 10:45:12 PM
 #17

let's try that then
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April 07, 2013, 01:55:14 AM
 #18

let's try that then

OK.  You're right.  Consider yourself ignored, crap.

Dankedan: price seems low, time to sell I think...
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April 07, 2013, 02:08:16 AM
 #19

welcome
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April 07, 2013, 01:05:43 PM
 #20

And as far as taxes, yes bitcoin can eventually lead to the elimination of transaction based taxation, but real estate taxes are pretty much inescapable so I foresee governments switching most taxes over to that. They will probably have to lower overall taxation though.

+1

Land tax is the super efficient and the only sensible way to tax. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax#Efficiency
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