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As a side note: can we please stop using cryptocurrency and start using cryptocommodity? Bitcoin et. al. are not currency.

• knocte 11y ago
  Or rather crypto-network-for-value-transfer, which is more correct and doesn't include law-jargon on it.
• Retra 11y ago
  I can't find any interpretation of the word 'currency' that would prevent it from applying to bitcoin. As far as I can tell, it's a "commodity money" kind of currency.
  • dools 11y ago
    Currencies have their value nominally defined by a sovereign power. Some currencies in the past used precious metals in coinage, but that didn't determine it's value. Value of currency can be changed according to policy. As such gold has never been a currency, but has been a commodity used in some coinage. The discussion is "nominalism" versus "metalism". Nominalism wins by a country mile! Gold backed currencys, similarly to currencys who tie their value to a different currency (such as pegging exchange rates) only serve to reduce the capacity of the issuing body to pursue domestic policy in the interests of the populous. In that sense, a commodity can be a store of value that's not a currency, and can be used as material to represent currency, but cannot be a currency.
    • Retra 11y ago
      Where are you reading that currencies require sovereign powers?
      • dools 11y ago
        Taxation (or any other liability imposed on a population by a sovereign) is what drives the value of money. This is a good macroeconomic and historical overview http://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=0zEbo8PIPSc http://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=0zEbo8PIPSc also check out A Primer on Modern Money by Randall Wray and anything by Bill Mitchell (including his blog).
• brighton36 11y ago
  Good luck with that
  • dools 11y ago
    Thanks!