[–] RiverWind 1 point 0 points 1 point (+1|-1) ago
You are correct in stating that OP is wrong regarding the belief that "sound money" ie gold or silver, will "save us from debt slavery".
Firstly, so much of the gold has already fallen into the hands of a small group of private hands that it is not viable as a guarantee.
More importantly though, OP raises the issue of money and debt. This is a huge problem which underlies most of the world's woes and which few understand. I can try a quick explanation for people, that hopefully will shed light.
Instead, the government could remove the power to create money from the Fed, and create it itself. This money would not be created as debt! It could be spent by the government into the economy as and where it is needed, on infrastructure projects, for example.
Find out more:
[–] EyeOfHorus 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
is like saying that the internet will diminish and go away
I said this in 1994 after hiding a physical server on the University of California backbone, hacking my own DNS IP and being offered money to advertise collector cars on my automotive website. Fuck me.
[–] go1dfish 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
It gets its value the same way beanie babies do. People demand them.
The difference is that the supply is mathematically limited in a way that cannot be centrally gamed.
Also bitcoin as a network/currency has much more utility than beanie babies, like killing the fed in the long term.
[–] Cantilever [S] 1 point 0 points 1 point (+1|-1) ago
Except the white paper admits that the entire system depends on the majority of nodes being run by "honest" miners
You think most miners are honest today?
[–] KoKansei 1 point 1 point 2 points (+2|-1) ago (edited ago)
How does anything get value? By having it bought and sold in the market place.
The whole concept of "intrinsic value" is bunk. The most objective definition of value is purely whatever someone is willing to pay for something.
Bitcoin (Cash) and other cryptos have value because people are willing to exchange a certain amount of other goods or services for them. This is because bitcoin has properties / features as a money that cannot be obtained anywhere else.
[–] Cantilever [S] 2 points -1 points 1 point (+1|-2) ago
Good luck with your cryptos in a power outage
[–] AinzOown 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
So I don't know how anyone can get into bitcoin if they have no idea what its worth. I also don't know how it originated. It's digital right? Someone made it? Why can't they just give themselves a trillion bitcoins whenever they want?
Like how does it get issued?
[–] Canada_is_gay 1 point -1 points 0 points (+0|-1) ago
Right now all the shadow entities mining bitcoin are pushing it to be a thing because they can effectively create free money as long the market value is greater than server costs to mine. What happens when that taps out? Who is going to be there to prop up the market every time some hacker disappears with millions? Are the big players currently pushing it going to have any interest when they can't make free money anymore?
[–] [deleted] 1 point 2 points 3 points (+3|-1) ago
[–] talmoridor-x 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
https://substratum.net
https://powerledger.io
There's already work being done aimed at decentralizing the internet and electric power alone using the blockchain, same technology that cryptos use.
It's also worth looking at IOTA, a technology that could support both internet and power.
https://iota.net
[–] Baconmon 1 point -1 points 0 points (+0|-1) ago
Yeah it does need internet, which is a disadvantage of it compared to fiat or gold, but enough people feel like they will always have internet access save for an apocalyptic disaster so I guess most people don't mind that disadvantage..
There are already many businesses that will accept cryptocurrencies (rakuten, overstock, newegg, etc) despite the volatility, maybe because they convert it to fiat quickly as soon as they receive it? (Although I know overstock keeps 50% of the crypto it receives for the purpose of investing in them..)
But yes, the volatility is a current issue with cryptocurrencies, and it will continue to be that way until they become mainstream and the price finally levels off and stabilizes.. The more wide-spread a particular coin is, the more stable the price tends to be.. This is why bitcoin is the most stable coin price-wise compared to all the other coins (although compared to fiat like USD, bitcoin is still wildly unstable)
It will continue to be mostly an asset class until it becomes very mainstream.. Over time it slowly morphs from an asset/currency class to just a currency class..