2013-04-16 Forbes - Bitcoin: Whatever It Is, It's Not Money!

[Zomdifros]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2013/04/16/bitcoin-whatever-it-is-its-not-money/

The basic reason: it has no fixed value. It trades like a stock or commodity. In recent days it has been crashing after a spectacular rise in terms of dollars. Such volatility makes it useless as a means to do transactions. Money has only one purpose–it makes doing transactions, that is buying and selling products and services and securities, infinitely easier than barter. All the other purposes of money flow from this basic function.

Here's an article from none other than Steve Forbes himself, yet regretfully, he's too old to understand Bitcoin. It amazes me that this guy, who is obviously quite smart, lacks the vision to look beyond the current volatility, which exists mainly because of the low dollar value of the total Bitcoin supply. There is absolutely no reason to assume Bitcoin will remain volatile once it gets to a certain critical mass and even if it does, there are many (financial) instruments available to hedge the risk for merchants.

[nebulus]

He is right... Bitcoin needs commerce.

[jwzguy]

He is right... Bitcoin needs commerce.

And Bitcoin is getting commerce.

Another big announcement makes a Houston property management company the 4th in the USA to accept Bitcoin for rent. Now we have Las Vegas, Memphis, NYC, and Houston.

I don't get how these people think this thing is just going to happen overnight. It's a process. Steve Forbes should be smart enough to realize that.

It won't be stable globally until we have met some kind of saturation point, which we are nowhere close to. And it won't be "stable" against the USD until the USD is "stable", which my grocery receipts say is absolutely not true.

[The Bitcoin Catalog]

He is right... Bitcoin needs commerce.

Exact.
One of the main reason we are launching a catalog is to ease commerce.

[Rygon]

International commerce needs bitcoin more than bitcoin needs it. Bitcoin really needs long term contracts for buying/selling hard assets and services. Everyone is selling goods based on the last 1 minute exchange rate at MtGox and only speculators are willing to trade futures. Stability will happen when we see more people willing to take part of their salary in BTC, allowing the exchange rate to float. Yes, that requires risk for both sides, but the long term planning will add some stability.

[Gabi]

Remember that gold too IS NOT MONEY

Bitcoin is digital gold, so of course it is not money.

[Stephen Gornick]

he's too old to understand Bitcoin.

His age has nothing to do with it, but his target market that reads his words certainly does.   He's simply using a tired argument that exchange rate volatility is bad for a currency.  He's not incorrect, but that doesn't mean bitcoin won't succeed as a currency.   There's a difference.  He probably knows that but is describing to his audience what they want to hear.

Now what is surprising is that Steve Forbes isn't making the connection between Bitcoin catching on and that helping his cause of moving to a flat tax.   If bitcoin essentially makes income tax something voluntary (since the state will have a much harder time with enforcement of the tax laws) then a flat tax is about the only solution. 

For some reason, either he hasn't made this connection or doesn't want to share it.

[Zomdifros]

he's too old to understand Bitcoin.

His age has nothing to do with it, but his target market that reads his words certainly does.   He's simply using a tired argument that exchange rate volatility is bad for a currency.  He's not incorrect, but that doesn't mean bitcoin won't succeed as a currency.   There's a difference.  He probably knows that but is describing to his audience what they want to hear.

Now what is surprising is that Steve Forbes isn't making the connection between Bitcoin catching on and that helping his cause of moving to a flat tax.   If bitcoin essentially makes income tax something voluntary (since the state will have a much harder time with enforcement of the tax laws) then a flat tax is about the only solution.  

For some reason, either he hasn't made this connection or doesn't want to share it.

I have to disagree with you on that, I do believe he simply doesn't understand Bitcoin or, just as likely, hasn't bothered to understand it. I believe this has to do with having a conservative point of view, which doesn't allow him to think outside the box and wrap his mind around concepts that are new and foreign to him.

Steve Forbes is a man who has been immensely successful in life, so he is accustomed to people sharing his point of view, just because of his authority. He has earned a lot of money and has certain ideas on what money should be, not what it could be. Fortunately there are many people who are never too old to learn and are even on a great age forward thinking and open to ideas. This guy however, is not.

Edit: come to think of it, another excellent example of a very intelligent man who can be described in the same manner is Paul Krugman. He obviously knows a lot about economics, was one of the first of them to look into and comment upon Bitcoin, yet is too fixated on his beliefs on how the world works, that when something comes along that doesn't fit, his mind plays tricks on him and starts to think of reasons why he must be right. These guys lack vision and can't imagine how a world without them would look like. They're dinosaurs and history will laugh at them.

[odolvlobo]

This statement shows how little he understands:

We don’t really know how this coin is created. You can’t have a functional money without a basic transparency. 

[Anonymouss]

Start developing ways to spend btc instead of buy and sell. Use it for what its meant for, not to get rich quick. Greed only leads to failure.

[n8rwJeTt8TrrLKPa55eU]

That was a suprsingly poor and unoriginal article.    Very short repetitions of two or three (wrong) fallacies already mentioned in many other places.  No value-add whatsoever, even for people looking for bearish arguments.

If it had been written by anyone not named "Forbes", 100% guaranteed it would have been rejected.

Particularly sad given the quality of posts being turned out by Matonis and Lee under the Foobes umbrella, which he clearly hasn't bothered to read.

[aigeezer]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2013/04/16/bitcoin-whatever-it-is-its-not-money/

... regretfully, he's too old to understand Bitcoin.

Please don't conflate age with lack of vision. There are dolts, dullards and bright people everywhere in the age spectrum.

If age is a factor in these issues, it is because some people have accumulated a stake in the status quo and might resist change as a result, whereas some younger - uninvested - people might be inclined to hitch their wagon to a new idea hoping to upset the status quo. There are plenty of counter-examples to each of those platitudes.

Steve Forbes was born in 1947. He's just a dumb rich kid from my perspective.   

[beckspace]

Bitcoin: Whatever It Is, It's Not Just Money!

FTFF Fixed That For Forbes

[Zomdifros]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2013/04/16/bitcoin-whatever-it-is-its-not-money/

... regretfully, he's too old to understand Bitcoin.

Please don't conflate age with lack of vision. There are dolts, dullards and bright people everywhere in the age spectrum.

If age is a factor in these issues, it is because some people have accumulated a stake in the status quo and might resist change as a result, whereas some younger - uninvested - people might be inclined to hitch their wagon to a new idea hoping to upset the status quo. There are plenty of counter-examples to each of those platitudes.

Steve Forbes was born in 1947. He's just a dumb rich kid from my perspective.   

That is true, it doesn't depend on age as much as it depends on their familiarity with new technology. There is strong correlation however.

[sangaman]

I'm not sure what he means by "fixed" value but I don't think any other currency has it either. Also he says we don't know how it's created - actually we know EXACTLY how it's created.

[molecular]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2013/04/16/bitcoin-whatever-it-is-its-not-money/

The basic reason: it has no fixed value. It trades like a stock or commodity. In recent days it has been crashing after a spectacular rise in terms of dollars. Such volatility makes it useless as a means to do transactions. Money has only one purpose–it makes doing transactions, that is buying and selling products and services and securities, infinitely easier than barter. All the other purposes of money flow from this basic function.

ahahahahaaa. lol. I bet by "fixed value" he means fixed in USD terms? By that definition only the US Dollar is money. Obviously that definition is crap.

"It trades like a stock or commodity" <- doesn't this guy know about forex?

[molecular]

I'm not sure what he means by "fixed" value but I don't think any other currency has it either. Also he says we don't know how it's created - actually we know EXACTLY how it's created.

We know, he doesn't. That's why we trust it, he doesn't.