Posted on 11/17/2013 2:04:56 PM PST by Errant
One day before the Senate's digital currency hearing titled "Beyond Silk Road: Potential Risks, Threats, and Promises of Virtual Currencies", Bitcoin is largely oblivious to any potential regulatory threats, either at the legislative or the city level, where as reported previously the New York superintendent is in a rush to enforce BitLicenses on businesses that accept BitCoin, and moments ago crossed $500 for the first time ever. Instead, it appears that as we also reported previously, the Chinese Bitcoin craze has reached the parabolic threshold, going so far as making Bitcoin an acceptable payment for real estate, which means that while for the time being Bitcoin becomes the alternative inflation protection medium for hundreds of millions of Chinese, all bets on how high it can get are off.
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
That’s economic nonsense. Services create wealth just as well.
/johnny
/johnny
I just $522 on Gox.
Services certainly do contribute to productivity -- that's why they exist. But with no underlying production of a tangible good, there would be no reason for them nor, indeed, a means to pay them for said services.
That is not economic "nonsense".
They do not, in and of themselves, create wealth.
The wealthiest man currently in the world rode to that position on the back of exactly the same thing that bitcoin is made of: computer code consisting of 0's and 1's. And if you think a bitcoin is easy to come by, please go get yourself a copy of CGminer and start mining them. :-)
Ping me in about 20 years when you've mined a whole bitcoin on your Intel 7 processor based computer.
I get a kick out of people who trash the dollar (and the Fed) while defending bitcoin. The dollar has a native constituency of 300 million and the largest military the world has ever seen. Bitcoin is the Ponzi hobby of people who can’t find a way to earn dollars.
“People REALLY don’t like to hear that Federal Reserve Notes are fiat currency. They like to think they are different, somehow.”
Well, they are different. They’re printed green. And they’re the global reserve currency. For now.
Interesting that this new fiat currency is trading for so much. Sounds a bit like tulip-mania to me, but it does have some aspects that make it unique.
You are so right. Though I would perhaps even go farther, saying there is no value without an underlying extractive or raw good, such as oil, metals, and including crops and forests and beasts and fish, wild and domestic. And probably even wind and sun, among other natural materials and elements that I can't think of here.
Without the raw good there is no product. Without the product there is no exchange. Without exchange, there is no profit, no added value, no refinement, no advancement.
Of course we all live so far from those facts now...but facts, like the laws of nature, will assert primacy at some point.
Am I wrong in this?
And I get a kick out of those who would rather bury their head in the sand, Mr. Bird (no pun intended), than face reality. How are you going to pay for the largest military in the world after China stops loaning you money? No offense, but I suspect your observations of Bitcoin are little better than what you know about the state of the dollar. Even our military Chiefs have called our massive debt a threat to national security. It’s not rocket science, and history is filled with examples of nations who’ve all followed the same chute to the dust bin thereof. Our only hope, if we have one, is to face the facts and make the necessary corrections - as painful as they may seem at the time, not hide our heads.
Your points are well taken, honestly. I’m not stating that US monetary policy is the best conceived policy; I’m stating bitcoin is worse, and anyone who wants to declare bitcoin a better value than the dollar is insane.
I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree as I'm unsure where Bitcoin will wind up, but not about the fate of the dollar. Insanity is doing the same thing every time while expecting a different result (i.e., see history of fiat).
With the “value” rising so quick, it looks like self-inflation to me.
Oh, that's just the "free market" at work. It's just been so long since we've seen it, nobody recognizes it. ;)
$575
right
$605.99 and Ltc > $5
some guy in Norway bought $27 worth in 2009 for a computer course project...logged in a few months ago into his account and it grew to $870K...yeah — worthy investment - he cashed out part of it and is living nice!
With the recent price increase, he should be about able to cash out a little more now. :)
Absolutely not; that was implicit in my comment. But you are correct to highlight it.
It's why I laugh [well, smile sort of] at those who tout the information economy. Now, information is very important -- but it is only economically productive when it is used to make the process of turning raw materials into finished goods.
Without that, it's just, well, Facebook.
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