Do you really want a Currency or a Speculation vehicle?

[NO_SLAVE]

Bitcoin is currently a speculation vehicle. If the community really wants a currency, or even a good way to "wire" funds, I believe BTC has to be pegged to something.

Theres several things you can peg it to:

-Peg it to the actual average cost of mining. Data can be gathered from stats to arrive at an actual cost of mining, or a producer cost index (PCI). Take the higher value of the range, that way all the miners make something on the effort. Also this insures there will be miners in the distant future working to get the last of the BTC. The price of BTC will rise with the cost of living.  This will of course make mining in some areas more lucrative than other areas, and this is where the invisible hand will come in and dictate the logistics.

-Pick a commodity, silver for instance and peg it to that (but I would suggest that we create a free market exchange to base the silver price off of because the comex is jobbed by              pigs)

-Pick an existing currency and peg it to that as some ratio, china has successfully done that with the RMB to the USD. Why not peg it to the Brit pound or Canadian dollar. . I would say USD or Euro, but those are having lots of trouble.

as a speculation vehicle BTC is a joke.  Ive traded in about every kind of thing you can name, and trading BTC compares with the very worst of the worst penny stocks, topped off with very bad mechanics of money deposit and withdrawl. The volume is thin, large orders goose the market up or down. No real trading is possible as only 6.6 mill BTC exist and most of those are not traded, meaning that the trading pool  is essentially some small percentage of the actual float, Im guessing 10%.

My conclusion; Peg it to something. And use it as a real thing.

[koin]

Bitcoin is currently a speculation vehicle. If the community really wants a currency, or even a good way to "wire" funds, I believe BTC has to be pegged to something.

yet it isn't pegged to anything and keeps rising nearly every month.  is it possible you might be wrong?

[CurbsideProphet]

My conclusion; Peg it to something. And use it as a real thing.

I agree and even said the exact same thing in a previous post.  How do you get people to see the light though?  That's the difficulty.  Too many people are think BTC's will be worth $100 or more per coin someday despite having no logical explanation as to how that will happen under current conditions. 

[FreeMoney]

Bitches at comex for messing with price of silver and wants to set the price of bitcoin. Nice.

Okay let's do it, tell us how to start.

[kwukduck]

You can't peg it to anything, there's no authority that can decide this, people will just trade as the market flows.
Bitcoins have their own 'intrinsic' value thru their properties as a currency.

[twobits]

Bitcoin is currently a speculation vehicle. If the community really wants a currency, or even a good way to "wire" funds, I believe BTC has to be pegged to something.

Theres several things you can peg it to:

My conclusion; Peg it to something. And use it as a real thing.

It is very tough to peg something that is also decentralized.   Also, in order for it to be pegged, someone has to be credible offering to guarantee to always buy the btc for the peg price.     Go ahead  and do this if you want to peg it to something. Offer to always buy bitcoin at some pegged rate of something.

[FreeMoney]

My conclusion; Peg it to something. And use it as a real thing.

I agree and even said the exact same thing in a previous post.  How do you get people to see the light though?  That's the difficulty.  Too many people are think BTC's will be worth $100 or more per coin someday despite having no logical explanation as to how that will happen under current conditions. 

Of course it won't happen under current conditions. It will happen if conditions are different in the future.

[twobits]

My conclusion; Peg it to something. And use it as a real thing.

I agree and even said the exact same thing in a previous post.  How do you get people to see the light though?  That's the difficulty.  Too many people are think BTC's will be worth $100 or more per coin someday despite having no logical explanation as to how that will happen under current conditions. 

You don't get people to see the light, you either put up your money or find someone who will.  (though you won't)

[andes]

This is a ridiculous idea, it would not work.

If you peg the currency you will limit the total size of the bitcoin economy to whatever value you choose. You want to peg 1 BTC to 1 Dollar? Thats a 6 million economy, ridiculous. You want to peg 1 BTC to 1000 Dollars? Allrighty, and who will pay that right now for 1 BTC?

There is no way to peg BTC because you cannot control the quantity of bitcoins to suit the size of the economy. You must understand that.

As long as there is no central entity that can control the supply (amount of coins), there is no chance of pegging it to anything.

[jackjack]

Stop feeding it guys

[twobits]

Bitches at comex for messing with price of silver and wants to set the price of bitcoin. Nice.

Okay let's do it, tell us how to start.

You create of stockpile of what you will peg it to,  document and prove you have those reserves and insure you will do not liquidate it for anything but btc  and and put in a non revokable standing offer to buy all btc for the price you want to peg it at.

[Rassah]

People with absolutely no economics or finance experience/education can sometimes make some pretty cute, if misinformed, comments...

[error]

BTC does not need to be "pegged" to anything, and that's impossible to do anyway. To be useful as a currency, BTC merely requires a value on which a buyer and seller agree. That currently exists.

[CurbsideProphet]

To be useful as a currency, BTC merely requires a value on which a buyer and seller agree. That currently exists.

That's fine if you want Bitcoin to be some geek currency accepted by .001% of the populace.  However, if you really want BTC to take off, it needs to become mainstream and widely accepted.  This cannot happen under such volatile conditions.  People are screaming at MtGox over $1 and $2 price movements, yet somehow your average joe business owner will somehow act differently? 

[MeSarah]

I think BTC is as much an experiment as it is anything else. As such I think it should be left to develop its own dynamics. I think most of us can agree that BTC in 10 years is going to look very different then it does today. As far as we know BTC might have a tomb stone. Im of the oppion the BTC should be left to develop its own unique path.

[error]

To be useful as a currency, BTC merely requires a value on which a buyer and seller agree. That currently exists.

That's fine if you want Bitcoin to be some geek currency accepted by .001% of the populace.  However, if you really want BTC to take off, it needs to become mainstream and widely accepted.  This cannot happen under such volatile conditions.  People are screaming at MtGox over $1 and $2 price movements, yet somehow your average joe business owner will somehow act differently?  

So far the only "solution" to market volatility that I've seen anyone put forth is to eliminate the "market." This is obviously ridiculous and unworkable. Got a better idea?

[NO_SLAVE]

Everyones cornflakes were pissed in.   

Talk to china about pegging, I suppose you all know more than china.
Study how the dollar was pegged to silver and gold early on, and you say it cant be done. Where do you think chinas prosperity came from? THE DOLLAR PEG.

pick up a book.

everyone one of you fired off a right hook before you even thought about what was wrote, youre preconcieved.
Basing the value on the mining costs is a real basis of value, but you dont want to hear that,  so tough luck.

My guess is BTCs days are numbered, whos going to keep pushing it up? Where are the greater fools? They were mostly scared away by the boogie man media and all these "my BTCs were stolen threads".  Idiocy I tell you, Idiocy!  You dont even want to consider making a basis of the mining costs! 

[NO_SLAVE]

To be useful as a currency, BTC merely requires a value on which a buyer and seller agree. That currently exists.

That's fine if you want Bitcoin to be some geek currency accepted by .001% of the populace.  However, if you really want BTC to take off, it needs to become mainstream and widely accepted.  This cannot happen under such volatile conditions.  People are screaming at MtGox over $1 and $2 price movements, yet somehow your average joe business owner will somehow act differently? 

curbside, they dont want to get it. They seem to want this thing to stay an experiment, that eventually blows up in their face.  Based on this reaction, general acceptance WILL NOT happen. 

[error]

Everyones cornflakes were pissed in.  

Talk to china about pegging, I suppose you all know more than china.
Study how the dollar was pegged to silver and gold early on, and you say it cant be done. Where do you think chinas prosperity came from? THE DOLLAR PEG.

pick up a book.

everyone one of you fired off a right hook before you even thought about what was wrote, youre preconcieved.
Basing the value on the mining costs is a real basis of value, but you dont want to hear that,  so tough luck.

My guess is BTCs days are numbered, whos going to keep pushing it up? Where are the greater fools? They were mostly scared away by the boogie man media and all these "my BTCs were stolen threads".  Idiocy I tell you, Idiocy!  You dont even want to consider making a basis of the mining costs!  

I don't want to consider unicorns either. I prefer reality to fantasy, at least when it comes to money.

[SgtSpike]

Trying to peg bitcoin to something is like trying to peg gold to something.

Good luck.