2013-11-25 NYTIMES: Render Unto Caesar, but Who Backs the Bitcoin?

[zeroday]

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/25/render-unto-caesar-but-who-backs-the-bitcoin/

Bitcoin, in the short or even long term, may turn out be a good investment in the same way that anything that is rare can be considered valuable. Like baseball cards. Or a Picasso. That’s because there are only so many of them.

But bitcoin aspires to be much more than a collectible, or frankly, even gold. It aspires to be a universal electronic currency. On that score, it is unlikely to succeed.

In truth, the best bitcoin can hope for is to be a second-rate version of gold, if that. And Warren Buffett once described gold this way: “Gold gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.”

[Rygon]

Let’s start with bitcoin’s value — or more accurately, the volatility of its value. Which merchants in their right mind are going to accept a currency that seemingly changes its value in wild swings every other day? Mr. Branson’s experience with bitcoin is instructive: While he happily accepted bitcoin as a form of payment, he quickly converted the payment into dollars.

...Which Mr. Branson quickly converted to fuel, or salaries, or a building. He wouldn't just leave value sitting in dollars for very long. Eventually he'll just skip the middle step when more businesses and people accept bitcoin.

[LiteCoinGuy]

If it all feels a bit like a 1999-style craze, that’s because it is. Peter Leeds of the Penny Stock newsletter put it to me this way: “In a matter of months you won’t be hearing about it. It will go the same way of Paris Hilton. People will move on to the next thing.”


72 months to be correct


Whether the government ultimately seeks to regulate bitcoin is an open question. It seems hard to believe that the government would allow the growth of such an unregulated market in which moms and pops, widows and orphans, and other individuals may be subject to all kinds of fraud

of course it will be regulated at some point. is this the end? no.

[marcus_of_augustus]

A bashing from a NYTimes column rag is about the best endorsement one could hope for ... this is the "then they fight you" phase being signalled by the establishment.

There is nothing that runs in this shitty excuse of a 'newspaper' that isn't propagandising drenched in war blood money or cynical old wealth oppression dressed up as socialistic pablum for the masses and their other useless idiots in academia, surveillance state drones or paid for politicians ...

NYTimes ... GFY! Bitcoin is here ... 

[creekbore]

...Warren Buffett once described gold this way: “Gold gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.”

You can't argue with that though...gold is also massively resource intensive and polluting in its extraction...the sooner its replaced by BTC the better.

[smooth]

"In a matter of months you won’t be hearing about it."

LOL

[burnum]

If it all feels a bit like a 1999-style craze, that’s because it is. Peter Leeds of the Penny Stock newsletter put it to me this way: “In a matter of months you won’t be hearing about it. It will go the same way of Paris Hilton. People will move on to the next thing.”


72 months to be correct


Whether the government ultimately seeks to regulate bitcoin is an open question. It seems hard to believe that the government would allow the growth of such an unregulated market in which moms and pops, widows and orphans, and other individuals may be subject to all kinds of fraud

of course it will be regulated at some point. is this the end? no.

So they are going to build an army of computer science graduates to hunt down scammers when 300 million people realize the benifits? just wondering, ha
I personally look forward to the flip flop here, it will be like Sanjay Gupta and Weed. 

[Fusion]

"Finally, there is the question of what happens if other alternative digital currencies also rise. More than a dozen digital currencies are trying to compete with bitcoin. Can you imagine a world in which we all transact with dozens of different currencies every day with different rules? Neither can I."

Frankly I am surprised by Sorkins lack of research and understanding of the topic.  This quote says it all for me.  Does he not understand the current F/X market?  Different fiat systems from various central banks all manipulated for inflation, employment, trade balances etc...by governments financially, morally and ethically bankrupt.  Bitcoin or any digital currency for that matter eliminate these externalities.