similarities between bitcoin and esperanto

[grondilu]

It just occured to me how similar are these two projects.  Somehow, I wonder if one can not consider bitcoin to be to money what esperanto is to language.

I just hope I'm wrong, because I wish bitcoin gets more success than esperanto did.

Anyway, here are the similarities I'm talking about.

First, it's an artificial construction from one person.  Zamenhof for esperanto, Satoshi for bitcoin.  The "artificial" aspect is what most opponent of esperanto and bitcoin are willing to advance when rejecting them.  Esperanto is not a "real" language, and bitcoin is "backed by nothing", will they say.

Second, both have the same empire as an opponent.  English for esperanto.  Dollar for bitcoin.

Finally, both are international projects.  They are designed to put every countries on the exact same level.

Esperanto is more than an hundred years now.  It's quite an efficient language and it has shown many times that it is a better language for international communication.  Unfortunately, people are still not much convinced by it.

I'm afraid something similar could happen to bitcoin.  A few millions people will use it and will prove that it is a better money than any other else, but they will just fail in convincing other people about that.  Even after an hundred years.

Again, I hope I'm wrong.

[genjix]

Esperanto took me 2 weeks 24x7 all day to learn. Bitcoin took me 5 mins to start.

I can communicate with English fine everywhere. I cannot pay for things on the net, or withdraw money abroad without bending over to take it in the ass without even a kiss or a reach around.

Big difference.

Lastly, Esperanto is undergoing a modern revival due to the internet. Now 2 million speak it, which is comparable to a small European country like Estonia.

Using your analogy I can conclude that Linux or Free Software would've been a failure... But it clearly is not!

[The Madhatter]

What do you guys think of lojban? Some say it is better than esperanto, and it is easier to learn.

[tyler]

What do you guys think of lojban? Some say it is better than esperanto, and it is easier to learn.

Lojban seems cool because it doesn't have the western bias of esperanto

[theymos]

I don't like the "latin" sound of Esperanto (as well as Spanish, French, etc.). Lojban sounds better.

Bitcoin probably will always be niche, but that doesn't really matter. As long as it exists, people can use it if they want to. Bitcoin is useful even with just 1,000 users, unlike Esperanto.

[tyler]

two more things cool about lojban

it has an irc channel on freenode #lojban

it is meant to be machine readable and is engineered to be non-ambiguous

[grondilu]

two more things cool about lojban

it has an irc channel on freenode #lojban

it is meant to be machine readable and is engineered to be non-ambiguous

I've just been reading the introductory brochure
http://www.lojban.org/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=Lojban%20Introductory%20Brochure
and it seems interesting enough for me to start trying to learn it.

Who knows, maybe in short time I'll translate the bitcoin main page into lojban