Had a conversation with my Democrat friend today.

[Jaime Frontero]

Libertarian.

they won't win anything major.  not for several elections, if ever.

and the tiny numbers in the Bitcoin community are meaningless, when looking at the possibilities of national influence.  no offense - but let's stick to the art of the possible...

[1713994615]

1713994615

[1713994615]

1713994615

[myrkul]

Libertarian.

they won't win anything major.  not for several elections, if ever.

and the tiny numbers in the Bitcoin community are meaningless, when looking at the possibilities of national influence.  no offense - but let's stick to the art of the possible...

Well, if you must stick to the official red/blue us/them narrative, The republicans are usually the ones worried about money.

[billyjoeallen]

People might be weakened and beaten but they are usually never stupid.

"usually never"?   You can't qualify an absolute statement.   It's sometimes always retarded.

[Jaime Frontero]

Libertarian.

they won't win anything major.  not for several elections, if ever.

and the tiny numbers in the Bitcoin community are meaningless, when looking at the possibilities of national influence.  no offense - but let's stick to the art of the possible...

Well, if you must stick to the official red/blue us/them narrative, The republicans are usually the ones worried about money.

that's true.

unfortunately, they are usually worried about money on behalf of the financial community, and their wealthiest donors.  i don't see that as ideal.

the dems, of course, want to control the pie - rather than splitting it up for their masters (spare me schumer - a rogue operator).  also not ideal.

i suspect that targeting specific politicians could be the way to go - there are plenty of rather odd alliances forged in the heat of battle.  for example: ron paul and barney frank co-sponsoring the legalization of weed...

consider how amazingly successful the take-over of san francisco by the gay community has been.  my hat is off to them.  not my cup of tea, but a most encouraging political success story.

[evolve]

Libertarian.

they won't win anything major.  not for several elections, if ever.

and the tiny numbers in the Bitcoin community are meaningless, when looking at the possibilities of national influence.  no offense - but let's stick to the art of the possible...

Well, if you must stick to the official red/blue us/them narrative, The republicans are usually the ones worried about money.

yeah, the money of their corporate handlers.  everyone else in the country can fuck off as far as the repubs are concerned.

 

[myrkul]

unfortunately, they are usually worried about money on behalf of the financial community, and their wealthiest donors.  i don't see that as ideal.

the dems, of course, want to control the pie - rather than splitting it up for their masters (spare me schumer - a rogue operator).  also not ideal.

i suspect that targeting specific politicians could be the way to go - there are plenty of rather odd alliances forged in the heat of battle.  for example: ron paul and barney frank co-sponsoring the legalization of weed...

consider how amazingly successful the take-over of san francisco by the gay community has been.  my hat is off to them.  not my cup of tea, but a most encouraging political success story.

Which is why I said Libertarians. You might be able to convince a paulite by comparing it to electronic gold. I think I've seen somewhere Ron Paul brushed BTC off, though.

[Jaime Frontero]

unfortunately, they are usually worried about money on behalf of the financial community, and their wealthiest donors.  i don't see that as ideal.

the dems, of course, want to control the pie - rather than splitting it up for their masters (spare me schumer - a rogue operator).  also not ideal.

i suspect that targeting specific politicians could be the way to go - there are plenty of rather odd alliances forged in the heat of battle.  for example: ron paul and barney frank co-sponsoring the legalization of weed...

consider how amazingly successful the take-over of san francisco by the gay community has been.  my hat is off to them.  not my cup of tea, but a most encouraging political success story.

Which is why I said Libertarians. You might be able to convince a paulite by comparing it to electronic gold. I think I've seen somewhere Ron Paul brushed BTC off, though.

i understand.  and i do believe that if someone sat ron paul down for a few hours and ran it all by him, he might change his mind.

on a national level though, i don't think that would matter.

as i said (almost), politics is the art of the possible.

[Alex Beckenham]

People might be weakened and beaten but they are usually never stupid.

"usually never"?   You can't qualify an absolute statement.   It's sometimes always retarded.

I read it to mean "The majority of them are never stupid", which makes perfect sense.

[Sovereign]

Asking what is bitcoin backed by is like asking what is gold back by. Gold is not backed by anything. It doesn't need to be. And neither does bitcoin.

[hugolp]

Which is why I said Libertarians. You might be able to convince a paulite by comparing it to electronic gold. I think I've seen somewhere Ron Paul brushed BTC off, though.

I have been promoting Bitcoin among libertarians (including paulites) and with quite success (discount the people stuck with "only gold can be money", these people infuriate me and I am a goldbug...).

But at the end, I dont think its useful to target a political group for Bitcoin. I think its better to create useful applications. That will attract people no matter their ideology.

Consider the uncle of one of my best friends. He is a social-democrat and he talks about the need to pay taxes and accuses the people who dont of being selfish and inmoral. Well, one day my friend explained to me that his uncle was telling them how cheap he got his new TV. It turns out he bought it through the Internet from a shop in Andorra, which is a little country that has very low taxes. So basically he got it so cheap because he avoided paying taxes. When my friend pointed him that and asked him if that was inmoral, the uncle dodged with excuses. A lot of people have ideologies as a selfish way to feel good, not to help others (even if they claim so). 99% of the people will use whatever is useful and cheaper.

Conclussion: Build useful applications with Bitcoin (and I would not bother looking at political groups).

[dinzy]

Asking what is bitcoin backed by is like asking what is gold back by. Gold is not backed by anything. It doesn't need to be. And neither does bitcoin.

Gold is backed by being, relatively rare, pretty and being useful in some technological applications.  If gold jewelery were not desirable then it's value would be far less than it is today.   

Gold is again being used in semiconductor packaging due to it's unique material properties.  But then again semiconductors use even rarer and more expensive materials too. 

What else it bitcoin used for?

[Sovereign]

Bitcoin is relatively rare aswell. No person can suddenly and rapidly produce a large amount of bitcoins as to drastically alter total supply.

[David M]

I explained Bitcoin to my 72 year old father several weeks ago.

His response?

He bought 1000 of them.

[myrkul]

Smart man.

Let me guess: "Gold, the government can't take away? Where do I buy?"

[David M]

Smart man.

Let me guess: "Gold, the government can't take away? Where do I buy?"

Almost.  He read Satoshi's paper and was in awe of the solution to the double spending problem.

He reckons that alone is worth a "couple of hundred million".

He wants everyone to hurry up and build a decent client program before the next iteration of the concept is implemented by some mega-corp.

[David M]

Right. Don't forget to encrypt the wallet with a strong pass phrase (combine one from a line of a song or something):
http://www.truecrypt.org

He fires up KeePass, then fires up TrueCrypt, mounts his drive then runs Bitcoin, then routes Bitcoin via Tor when he buys something....

He's been using computers since 1978.

[evoorhees]

Believing the falsehood of our money being backed by gold has absolutely nothing to do with (R) or (D).

exactly.

I'd say believing that falsehood has everything to do with (R) and (D). Both parties are the reason the country is so ignorant.

How many (L's) would make such a silly mistake? Fewer.

[Cluster2k]

I'd just like to say I guess I'd be a libertarian if I had to label myself and don't really buy into the left right paradigm of things. 

Anyways I brought up the topic of bitcoins to her and she said she's heard of it but its not a viable currency because there is nothing backing it. 

I asked her what was backing up the dollar and she said gold. lol.  She was amazed when I said.. um no its not.

Yes, that's quite common.  Many people in the USA believe the dollar is backed by gold, or at least the gold at Fort Knox.  No one has independently checked on the Fort Knox stash since the 1950s, so who knows how much (if any) is still there.

There are three things backing the US dollar:
1. Trade in oil.  Need to have dollars to buy it (although that's now less so than in the recent past)
2. USA is the world's largest economy.  You'll get dollars for your goods.
3. Guns.  Lots of guns.  With nukes on top.  World's best military buys a lot of respect.

[hugolp]

There are three things backing the US dollar:
1. Trade in oil.  Need to have dollars to buy it (although that's now less so than in the recent past)
2. USA is the world's largest economy.  You'll get dollars for your goods.
3. Guns.  Lots of guns.  With nukes on top.  World's best military buys a lot of respect.

I would say that ultimately reason #3 is the part that is holding all together. Without the army the dollar would collapse. Oil is still sold in dollars because the USA has the biggest military, and the USA economy is still working after so much abuse only because it has the world reserve currency that again is thanks to the military. There is a reason why the USA has bases all over the world and the rest of the countries dont.

[niemivh]

Democrats are cute.  Fuzzy little naive children.  They are like kittens.  They want to be progressive and stand for something but they identify themselves with a party so milktoast and flaccid that they get pushed over by a minority party in congress while having a majority in congress and 'their' president in office. 

Too bad very few heeded my warnings about Obama.  The "I told you so" just doesn't do it for me.