I was hoping for a currency where I can use a pass or device to pay for my coffee, rail card top up, buy something on Amazon from the US, then fly to Singapore and buy a freshly baked pork bun from a hawker stand without touching physical currency and without loss of money in transfer fees.
If we're getting technical, your bank account doesn't contain U.S. dollars (physical or digital) in the first place; it's a bank IOU.
U.S dollars in the strictest sense come in two forms - digital accounts at the Fed (bank reserves) and physical notes.
However, while it's true that you may be exchanging IOUs and not "U.S. dollars" when you make a transaction, that doesn't mean you aren't exchanging money.
Indeed, all fiat currencies are inherently debt-based; their reliablity comes from the reliability of the debtor.
I was hoping for a currency where I can use a pass or device to pay for my coffee, rail card top up, buy something on Amazon from the US, then fly to Singapore and buy a freshly baked pork bun from a hawker stand without touching physical currency and without loss of money in transfer fees.
Unified currency is not a good idea unless you also have unified government - just look at the results of the Euro. In the meantime, I think the current system is good enough.
I can't remember who said it, but it went something like this: The best part about bitcoin is watching Libertarians discover one by one why each banking regulation exists.
I can't remember who said it, but it went something like this: The best part about bitcoin is watching Libertarians discover one by one why each banking regulation exists.
I can't remember who said it, either, but it's making the rounds because it's deliciously true.
On the one hand, I want to feel bad for the people who sunk their entire livelyhoods and earthly possessions into BitCoin. But at a certain point, it became "Helping someone who doesn't want to be helped".
Watch out for a run of rare Magic the Gathering cards being purchased with BitCoins...
When I was a kid, I wanted to trade my diglet card for other better cards, but everyone else had tons of diglets and said it sucked because it was so common. So I stole the plot from an episode of Tail Spin, got them to give me all of their diglets, then burned all but a few. Then I traded my locally rare diglets for better cards.
TL:DW: This isn't a problem with bitcoin! It's because other people that we hailed as heros and as being better than the banks were actually completely incompetent! It's everyone else's fault! Bitcoin is better than ever! Now a whole bunch of businesses are taking bitcoin and immediately cashing them out to cash, because they know that bitcoin people will buy goddamn near anything if they can do it with bitcoins!
Script-reading monotone replaced with exclamation points so that you don't fall asleep while you're reading.
Also, I found that exact quote I mentioned before. From Twitter user Pocius Pocius: "The best part about bitcoins is that you get to watch libertarians slowly discover why financial regulations exist to begin with."
Doesn't matter; even if they can manage to get Mt. Gox to court (probably difficult, as they're based out of Tokyo), they're not going to have much in the way of assets to pay damages with, particularly after paying for the lawsuit. It is, amusingly enough, pretty much just a waste of money on the claimant's part.
Doesn't matter; even if they can manage to get Mt. Gox to court (probably difficult, as they're based out of Tokyo), they're not going to have much in the way of assets to pay damages with, particularly after paying for the lawsuit. It is, amusingly enough, pretty much just a waste of money on the claimant's part.
These are Bitcoiners we're talking about here. This isn't the biggest waste of their money.
For purposes of the lawsuit how is the value of the bitcoins set? Are they locked to the price on the date the site closed? If bitcoin were to crash to $1 could Mt. Gox just buy 750,000 and give them back?
Comments
U.S dollars in the strictest sense come in two forms - digital accounts at the Fed (bank reserves) and physical notes.
However, while it's true that you may be exchanging IOUs and not "U.S. dollars" when you make a transaction, that doesn't mean you aren't exchanging money.
Indeed, all fiat currencies are inherently debt-based; their reliablity comes from the reliability of the debtor.
It's all the filthy fiat economy's fault! They wanted the bitcoin dream to fail!
Script-reading monotone replaced with exclamation points so that you don't fall asleep while you're reading.
Also, I found that exact quote I mentioned before. From Twitter user Pocius Pocius: "The best part about bitcoins is that you get to watch libertarians slowly discover why financial regulations exist to begin with."
They're aiming too low with that figure.