Ron Paul on Bitcoin: "I do not think it fits the definition of money"

[Severian]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/23/ron-paul-slams-stability-of-u-s-dollar-and-bitcoin-in-pro-gold-rant/

...With regards to the collapse of the Internet currency venture Bitcoin, Paul said he wasn’t interested.

“To tell you the truth, it’s little bit too complicated,” he said. “If I can’t put it in my pocket, I have some reservations about that. But it has been designed in the free market. If it is a means of exchange, it would not ever be illegal. You shouldn’t regulate it in the free market, but I do not think it fits the definition of money, which has been around for 6,000 years.”

Dr. Paul is blinded by his own emotional and financial investment in gold. Money is anything that people agree upon, not what goldbugs or the political class say it is.

[myrkul]

Yeah, sadly, like many of the Mises old guard, he just can't wrap his head around a "hard" currency that you can't put in your pocket.

[Lethn]

I think it's one of those analogue vs. digital moments, I despise touch screens for example on mobile phones and I'd be perfectly happy with just using buttons, but for whatever reason there are people out there who go mad for them now, I think we need to find more practical ways of demonstrating to people the way Bitcoin operates or just get them to go and download the Bitcoin client and try it.

Disclaimer: I will always fucking hate touchscreen and when I can afford to I will buy a proper phone with buttons on it that do stuff when you press them, sometimes it's better to just leave us old guys alone with what we're comfortable with

[Severian]

Yeah, sadly, like many of the Mises old guard, he just can't wrap his head around a "hard" currency that you can't put in your pocket.

I think Ron is smarter than that but playing a role here. He knows very well that if Bitcoin keeps rising, we're going to take his gold away from him someday.

He's playing dumb to scare off those that might listen him from Bitcoin.

[Severian]

Disclaimer: I will always fucking hate touchscreen and when I can afford to I will buy a proper phone with buttons on it that do stuff when you press them, sometimes it's better to just leave us old guys alone with what we're comfortable with

+1.

But Dr. Paul does need to upgrade his internal software.

[wolongong]

For most people money is what the political class makes you pay tax with.

[Hawker]

Yeah, sadly, like many of the Mises old guard, he just can't wrap his head around a "hard" currency that you can't put in your pocket.

I think Ron is smarter than that but playing a role here. He knows very well that if Bitcoin keeps rising, we're going to take his gold away from him someday.

He's playing dumb to scare off those that might listen him from Bitcoin.

He may also be trying to do the right thing.  He has strongly advised people to invest in gold.  Many of those people are now out of pocket as a result.  If he talks up gold, then those people are made good.  Of course they are responsible for their own losses just as they were entitled to their own gains but Ron Paul may feel obliged to try to help them.

[canada]

he does say that he doesn't understand it - this is really what it comes down to. also said he doesn't oppose it. definetly a hard sell saying he slams bitcoin.

[Richy_T]

I quite like Ron Paul but he has been wrong on some things (I'm probably not thinking what you think I'm thinking) and, truly he is an old man in the twilight of his political career. I'd be more interested in what Rand thinks at this point (though Bitcoin doesn't care what anyone thinks, of course).

[Severian]

He may also be trying to do the right thing. 

I'd like to think so. But Ron is heavily invested in gold mining so he has an interest in getting people to like gold.

[Hawker]

He may also be trying to do the right thing. 

I'd like to think so. But Ron is heavily invested in gold mining so he has an interest in getting people to like gold.

Ah - did not know that.

[Severian]

Ah - did not know that.

I discovered rather late into the last Ron Paul campaign. I stopped supporting him because it made me realize that he's as blinded as any other member of the political class by his own investments.

I also found it a little shady that he was stumping for public policies on gold so hard while in office and while invested in gold concerns.

[myrkul]

Ah - did not know that.

I discovered rather late into the last Ron Paul campaign. I stopped supporting him because it made me realize that he's as blinded as any other member of the political class by his own investments.

I also found it a little shady that he was stumping for public policies on gold so hard while in office and while invested in gold concerns.

To be fair, that's a silver round he's holding up, not a gold one:


(A Silver Circle "Rebel Round," to be precise.)

[JimmiesForBitcoins]

To me it just looks like simple ignorance. I don't suspect malice.

Dude is old, probably not very computer savvy, and I doubt he even has much time to wipe his own behind with as busy as he is. Much less spend a chunk of the remainder of his time left looking into some new-fangled cryptogizmo on a computer that he hardly knows how to send emails on. Temporal preference; gold is his weapon of choice. He's familiar with it and he knows how it works. He stands to gain little (supposedly) from paying attention to Bitcoin.

[Severian]

To be fair, that's a silver round he's holding up, not a gold one:

Ron didn't issue "The Case for Silver". ; )

[myrkul]

To be fair, that's a silver round he's holding up, not a gold one:

Ron didn't issue "The Case for Silver". ; )

Fair point. So he did not. Gold is the poster child.

[ffernandex]

In any case Ron Paul was the guest speaker in a seminar held by sovereignman.com in Santiago, an organisation that has been supporting bitcoins, and gold.

[Spendulus]

Yeah, sadly, like many of the Mises old guard, he just can't wrap his head around a "hard" currency that you can't put in your pocket.

"Ron my good friend, it's like this.  You know how the calculator's been made an app on your phone?"

"Sure."

"You know how the typewriter's been made an app called a word processor?"

"Everyone knows that.  Get to the point.  We're talking about mon-"

"Okay, well, money's been made an app on the phone in your pocket.  And they can't inflate or print more of this kind of money."
"Oh, you mean that bitcoin thing.  I tried to run that, but it was always updating and never finished.  Of course my pockets are full of American Eagles, and so the phone doesn't get very good reception in my pockets."

"You buried your phone in gold?"

[myrkul]

Yeah, sadly, like many of the Mises old guard, he just can't wrap his head around a "hard" currency that you can't put in your pocket.

"Ron my good friend, it's like this.  You know how the calculator's been made an app on your phone?"

"Sure."

"You know how the typewriter's been made an app called a word processor?"

"Everyone knows that.  Get to the point.  We're talking about mon-"

"Okay, well, money's been made an app on the phone in your pocket.  And they can't inflate or print more of this kind of money."
"Oh, you mean that bitcoin thing.  I tried to run that, but it was always updating and never finished.  Of course my pockets are full of American Eagles, and so the phone doesn't get very good reception in my pockets."

"You buried your phone in gold?"

lol....

You forgot one thing:
"You buried your phone in gold?"

[Elwar]

As long as I can use my bitcoins to buy things, I do not care what people call it.