How to fix bitcoin

[Alex Beckenham]

In that scenario, I'd prefer to own bottled water and tins of creamed corn.

[eMansipater]

i talk with other big investors in gold and silver like me and one theme about silvers advantage is that its smaller value will allow it to be traded in the streets if it comes to that.  this is why i own junk silver; dimes, quarters.  if Armageddon does hit, how are Bitcoins going to address this very practical matter?

We're also only about 5-10 years away from the possibility of a fully p2p internet based on long-range wireless mesh networks.  In fact, within 25 I'd bet the internet will be essentially armageddon-proof.

[memvola]

if Armageddon does hit, how are Bitcoins going to address this very practical matter?

If we don't have a world-wide mesh network and bucket sized fusion reactors, I don't think it can be helped. Better to keep some silver beside your paper money and/or bitcoins. You could invest in guns and bullets, though. Or food and water. All of these are investments you make based on your predictions about the future. Investing in Bitcoin is not a good idea if you are preparing for Armageddon.

[cypherdoc]

personally, i'm preparing for very hard times here in the US.  i don't think we avoid the austerity that the Europeans and Middle Easterners are facing right now.  our debt is just too big and the banks just won't let us off the hook.  my bet is that Ben reverses the liquidity spigot right here right now to wrong foot every inflationist on the planet (which is just about everybody).  in that case, bitcoin values plunge.  but that doesn't mean its a doomed concept.  ppl are just plain sick and tired of the Fed yoyoing the economy with their hairbrained policies regarding the cost of money.  bitcoins promise is that it gets rid of money manipulators like Ben.

[MoonShadow]

if Armageddon does hit, how are Bitcoins going to address this very practical matter?

If we don't have a world-wide mesh network and bucket sized fusion reactors, I don't think it can be helped. Better to keep some silver beside your paper money and/or bitcoins. You could invest in guns and bullets, though. Or food and water. All of these are investments you make based on your predictions about the future. Investing in Bitcoin is not a good idea if you are preparing for Armageddon.

Investing in any currency is a bad idea if you think Armageddon is near.  Even gold has near zero utility under such chaos, but at least silver still has antibacterial properties that makes it worthwhile to keep some of it around.  Before the modern era of safe city supplied water, most people had cisterns.  Americans would take a 50 cent silver piece and drop it into the cistern.  Powdered silver was used on wounds during the Civil War, and up until WWII, field surgical devices were often plated in silver to reduce the need of disinfecting of the devices between surgeries in a combat situation.

No currency is useful without a functioning market, and that requires a civilization.  Bulletts are a good idea, though, even if you don't own a gun.  22lr, 38special and 9mm are the best choices.

[MoonShadow]

personally, i'm preparing for very hard times here in the US.  i don't think we avoid the austerity that the Europeans and Middle Easterners are facing right now.  our debt is just too big and the banks just won't let us off the hook.  my bet is that Ben reverses the liquidity spigot right here right now to wrong foot every inflationist on the planet (which is just about everybody).  in that case, bitcoin values plunge. 

So would every other currency as compared to the US $, so long as a functioning federal government exists and people continue to expect that to persist.  This isn't an issue unique to Bitcoin.

[Alex Beckenham]

Bulletts are a good idea, though, even if you don't own a gun.

Especially if you can throw them, really fast.

[MoonShadow]

Bulletts are a good idea, though, even if you don't own a gun.

Especially if you can throw them, really fast.

Funny!

I ment that they are a good bartering item, and those three calibers are the most commonly used in the United States.  22lr is the king by a wide margin.  And if the future ever looks anything like Zombieland, finding a handgun in one of the two latter calibers should be relatively easy.  At least in the land of 'Life, Liberty and you can have my gun when you pull it from my cold dead hands'.  Places other than the US are probably going to have more difficulty, but those places don't let civilians buy bullets to begin with.

[cypherdoc]

"So would every other currency as compared to the US $, so long as a functioning federal government exists and people continue to expect that to persist.  This isn't an issue unique to Bitcoin."

you're right about that not being an issue unique to Bitcoin but as you said everything would tank while the USD does a moonshot.  this is how i foresee Ben saving the Fed and their franchise of the USD as a reserve currency.

[MoonShadow]

"So would every other currency as compared to the US $, so long as a functioning federal government exists and people continue to expect that to persist.  This isn't an issue unique to Bitcoin."

you're right about that not being an issue unique to Bitcoin but as you said everything would tank while the USD does a moonshot.  this is how i foresee Ben saving the Fed and their franchise of the USD as a reserve currency.

I doubt it; since the FedReserve is functionally owned by the membership banks while also being beholden to the federal government due to it's charter monopoly.  If BB ever openly screws either side, the game is up.

Personally, I keep a significant portion of my savings in things other than US $ denominated assets, but admittedly not a majority.  I have silver rounds (no gold, can't use gold, can use silver for it's antimicrobial properties), more guns & bullets than everyone in my family could use at the same time, a well stocked pantry, tools and the means to make other tools, (makerspaces are an awesome resource) and a relatively small value in bitcoins.  I actually buy stuff in bitcoins, but save in material objects.

[cypherdoc]

creighto:  you're very much like me in what you've stocked.  however, i believe in stock mkt cycles and we've way over reflated the last 2 yrs and its time for Ben to let alittle deflation in.  you're starting to see it today i stocks.  anything but USD cash is very risky right now.

[BitterTea]

creighto:  you're very much like me in what you've stocked.  however, i believe in stock mkt cycles and we've way over reflated the last 2 yrs and its time for Ben to let alittle deflation in.  you're starting to see it today i stocks.  anything but USD cash is very risky right now.

What action exactly do you think the Federal Reserve is going to take?

[memvola]

No currency is useful without a functioning market, and that requires a civilization.  Bulletts are a good idea, though, even if you don't own a gun.  22lr, 38special and 9mm are the best choices.

Existing currencies would of course be useless, but I think some form of currency would likely emerge even with only a handful of people. It's a pretty useful technology. To be fair, digital currencies have a disadvantage there (say, to gold), with the usual post-apocalyptic scenarios. However, this may actually change in the future, as eMansipater said. Maybe we will discover a low-energy way to communicate in large distances before this Armageddon. Millions of such solar powered handheld devices will be lying around... Then Bitcoin could be the best option.

[MoonShadow]

No currency is useful without a functioning market, and that requires a civilization.  Bulletts are a good idea, though, even if you don't own a gun.  22lr, 38special and 9mm are the best choices.

Existing currencies would of course be useless, but I think some form of currency would likely emerge even with only a handful of people. It's a pretty useful technology. To be fair, digital currencies have a disadvantage there (say, to gold), with the usual post-apocalyptic scenarios. However, this may actually change in the future, as eMansipater said. Maybe we will discover a low-energy way to communicate in large distances before this Armageddon. Millions of such solar powered handheld devices will be lying around... Then Bitcoin could be the best option.

Search the forum for the term, "Dash7"

[MoonShadow]

creighto:  you're very much like me in what you've stocked.  however, i believe in stock mkt cycles and we've way over reflated the last 2 yrs and its time for Ben to let alittle deflation in.  you're starting to see it today i stocks.  anything but USD cash is very risky right now.

Perhaps, but deflation requires a more deliberate act on the part of the Fed to invoke than inflation, because it's harder to mop up the water than to pour it out of the bucket.

[cypherdoc]

the Fed is clearly indicating a stoppage of QE and they've performed a couple of reverse repos in the mkt (selling assets which pulls liquidity).  i think their goal is to keep the markets off balance.  with everyone betting on inflation, they will do the opposite b/c the economy is in better shape and they can afford to.  forget this one world currency theory; the Fed will NEVER give up their franchise of the USD hegemony.  what do u think all the bankers wealth is denominated in?  USD!  are they just going to let Ben destroy that?  plus inflating the debt away only saves the American ppl, whom they don't give a hoot about.  they want to force us all to default with another secondary deflationary wave and then take the underlying assets away and OWN America.  besides, if u don't buy the conspiracy theory, i can make an argument that its time for a reversal from an overbought standpoint as well as an uberbullish sentiment standpoint.

[cypherdoc]

i'm watching the stock mkt in real time right now.  i would caution everyone to look out.  i think we may be topping.  huge reversals in MANY stocks. Silver Wheaton making a big reversal. time to raise cash.

[cypherdoc]

IMHO, the best investment right now is shorting stocks.

[MoonShadow]

the Fed is clearly indicating a stoppage of QE and they've performed a couple of reverse repos in the mkt (selling assets which pulls liquidity).

I think that has more to do with the change in the political climate than any far reaching stragedy.  BB probably drank himself stupid after learning that Ron Paul would be the new chairman of the house financial oversight board.

That doesn't mean that QE3 wouldn't happen in a heartbeat if the political winds changed.

  i think their goal is to keep the markets off balance.  with everyone betting on inflation, they will do the opposite b/c the economy is in better shape and they can afford to.  forget this one world currency theory; the Fed will NEVER give up their franchise of the USD hegemony.

This statement assumes that the FedReserve wouldn't functionally be in control of said one-world currency.  Tell me, what countries dominate the UN?

  what do u think all the bankers wealth is denominated in?  USD!  are they just going to let Ben destroy that?  plus inflating the debt away only saves the American ppl, whom they don't give a hoot about.  they want to force us all to default with another secondary deflationary wave and then take the underlying assets away and OWN America.  besides, if u don't buy the conspiracy theory, i can make an argument that its time for a reversal from an overbought standpoint as well as an uberbullish sentiment standpoint.

I'm not willing to contradict your conclusions, as I think that you might be right in the end; I'm just not quite as certain as you seem to be.

[cypherdoc]

of course i'm not certain but one cannot fault the logic.  i understand the inflation logic too but deflation makes more sense to me right now.