2013-12-16 wired.co.uk - What the arrival of Bitcoin means for society...

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http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-12/16/bitcoin-demos

"In truth, no-one can be sure what will happen. Chinese authorities have in the last few days banned their banks from handling bitcoin and, anyway, it may not be bitcoin that eventually triumphs. Peercoin, Anoncoin, Zerocoin, Litecoin are all bring different strengths and benefits, from privacy and anonymity to the efficiency of the transaction. What bitcoin is however showing us is that Vires in Numeris is not ringing hollow. We will likely wake up to a world that uses currencies secured by cryptographical systems, and it is time that our social and political institutions seriously consider what this will mean for them and the people they protect and represent."

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[nate008]

From the article:
"It now stands at a crossroad: will it be a currency or commodity?"
This is going to be the question of the century. Good luck finding the answer.

Also , this:
"The task now is to ensure that if cryptocurrencies creep into our lives, they make them better; that they encourage innovation, business freedom, consumer choice, without undermining the key functions of the state"

[Carlton Banks]

From the article:
"It now stands at a crossroad: will it be a currency or commodity?"
This is going to be the question of the century. Good luck finding the answer.

This is probably not an original observation, sure someone has said what I'm about to say before:

It is both, simultaneously.  Depending on your point of view, it's either. So we have two groups in our world, one that says commodity and one that says currency. It is Schrodinger's Coin.

Also , this:
"The task now is to ensure that if cryptocurrencies creep into our lives, they make them better; that they encourage innovation, business freedom, consumer choice, without undermining the key functions of the state"

It's too late. Cryptocurrency (and it's numerous yet-to-come spin offs) undermine the key functions of the state in a way that is too powerful to combat and too powerful to eschew as an individual. The state is going to spend the rest of this century writing the worlds longest suicide note.

[meanig]

From the article:
"It now stands at a crossroad: will it be a currency or commodity?"
This is going to be the question of the century. Good luck finding the answer.

Also , this:
"The task now is to ensure that if cryptocurrencies creep into our lives, they make them better; that they encourage innovation, business freedom, consumer choice, without undermining the key functions of the state"

All the western nation states are bankrupt. They've done a good job at undermining their key functions all by themselves.

[e521]

The task now is to ensure that if cryptocurrencies creep into our lives, they make them better; that they encourage innovation, business freedom, consumer choice, without undermining the key functions of the state; to promote basic social goods without washing this promising and fragile new asset away in a sea of regulation.

Is he suggesting that the state shouldn't issue a currency buy a currency should be something above all States?
That's a very interesting utopia