3 ms·
Bitcoin is a great example. Indeed, many (but not all) economists, particularly those of the Keynesian persuasion, said Bitcoin was economically untenable. And
by wyager 10y ago
Bitcoin is a great example. Indeed, many (but not all) economists, particularly those of the Keynesian persuasion, said Bitcoin was economically untenable. And they were obviously wrong; Bitcoin is vastly more successful in every respect than nearly anyone would have predicted six years ago. The only way we found out was because some programmer said "I don't know if this matches the worldview of professional economists, but I'm going to try it anyway." If he'd taken your approach, we'd never have bitcoin in the first place.
(Wrt scaling, there is no theoretical reason the Bitcoin network couldn't scale to handle any number of transactions in a bounded spacial volume much larger than Earth. There are only surmountable practical limitations like processing power.)
- jude- 10y agoIt's also a long, long, long way from becoming a currency with properties most people actually care about. Wild price fluctuations don't help it's cause, for example.
- wyager 10y agoMost people prefer some variance mostly in the up direction (Bitcoin) to a steady decline (Dollar) or a rather precipitous decline over the last few years (Euro, GBP). And those are the most "first-world" currencies. People seem to use even more unstable currencies without issue.