Here’s What Critics Miss about Bitcoin’s Long-term Potential

The Washington Post ^ | December 3, 2013 | Timothy B. Lee

[Star Traveler]

On Sunday, Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal admitted he was rethinking his former view that Bitcoin was a "currency for clowns." But Matt Yglesias still isn't convinced that Bitcoin is anything special:

Bitcoins are more portable than either suitcases full of $100 bills or diamonds. So there's some use there. And even though I think inflation paranoia is dumb, it's certainly a real phenomenon. And anything gold can do Bitcoin can do better. In essence you've combined the smuggling utility of pieces of paper with pictures of Ben Franklin on them with the inflation hedging properties of gold. That's a decent achievement. But it's not going to set the world on fire.

I don't know if Bitcoin is going to set the world on fire, but I think this analysis overlooks the characteristics that give the financial network the potential to do so. To see what Matt is missing, it's helpful to go back to an analogy I made a couple of weeks ago: the early Internet. The Internet of the 1980s was a small, strange and inhospitable place. Reading Bart Gellman's dispatch from the Internet circa 1988, it's easy to imagine sober-minded people wondering why millions of dollars of taxpayer money are being spent so a few thousand nerds can argue about their favorite science fiction franchises and send each other glorified telegrams.

[MrB]

The real reason that the left/government is trying to torpedo bitcoin is that it can’t be controlled centrally.
One leftist commentator even let that slip that that was a major “problem” with BTC.

[grania]

re: bitcoins vs paper money

I'd much rather go back to a situation where that money represented silver or other valuable reserves. It's true that it's based on government trust. But there's a difference....that money is something I have for a reason...I earned it or invested or sold something to get it. If I want more of it, those are the things I'd have to do.

How do I go out in the real world and earn a bitcoin? I'm a long way from being convinced.

PT Barnum would love your argument, though. <^..^>

[Scotswife]

I spent the weekend researching the mining. I get the feeling the opportunity for meaningful profit is past - using this route.

[SVTCobra03]

Bitcoins is a Ponzi Scheme

http://economiccollapsenews.com/2013/12/02/will-bitcoins-go-down-as-the-second-largest-ponzi-scheme-in-history-gary-north-says-yes/

[Star Traveler]

I heard about Gary North back in the 70s and in regards to reconstructionism. Knowing how “whacked” he is on Israel and being against Israel as in “God has nothing to do with Israel any longer”, saying that Jesus Christ already came back in the first century and thus he is not returning again, and how all this plays into anti-semitism - I wouldn’t listen to him on any other topic, considering how far off he is on these things.

I didn’t have anything to do with Gary North back then, nothing to do with Reconstructionism back then, nothing to do worth Replacement Theology back then, nothing to do with anti-semitism back then, nothing to do with the false theology that he propagates that Jesus has already come to earth and is not coming again - and I certainly have nothing to do with these things now, either.

AND ... I want nothing to do with Gary North’s reasoning on any other subject, since he’s SO WHACKED on these things that I’ve known about for decades.

Try someone else who isn’t so whacko!

[Star Traveler]

Here’s someone’s comments on Gary North’s “economics” (who apparently used to follow Gary North) ...

10 Problems with Gary North’s Economic Commentaries
http://journeyofalifelongdisciple.wordpress.com/2013/06/14/10-problems-with-gary-norths-economic-commentaries/

[Cato in PA]

For Bitcoin, maybe. Try Litecoin (LTC) or Peercoin (PPC) - they’re the #2 and #3 cryptocurrencies, respectively, and both have plenty of room for miners.

A couple of weeks ago, 1 LTC went for $4. Over the weekend, it shot up to $40. It could go considerably higher once mainstream bitcoin exchanges like Mt. Gox and Coinbase start accepting it.

[Scotswife]

I did see some articles about lite coin.
One problem I saw was that the machines everyone has ordered for mining are taking months to get shipped out.
By the time you get your algorithm - churning machine, the difficulty of the algorithms has increased significantly, making the machines less profitable.