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Bitcoin and Ordinary People: This Is Gonna Be Hard Work
- anigbrowl 9y agoIt'll be harder when you keep projecting the shortcomings into the minds of your listeners. This is a problem with evangelists. I'm not as old as this person's Dad nor a professional economist, but I get crypto just fine. I was arguing for Phil Zimmerman's right to distribute the source code to PGP back in the day, so understanding blockchain concepts wasn't especially difficult for me. But I'm not so convinced about the desirability of having an ever-expanding wallet file or the long-term viability of a currency that isn't formally backed with anything; scarcity alone does not confer economic value. Fiat currencies issued by governments are ultimately proxy ownership certificates for resources under said government's control. Speculative money can flow in to inflate the value of Bitcoin, but the problem is that it can just flow right out again too. If people decide they like some other means of exchange better in the future, doesn't the market for Bitcoin have only as much value as the total of futures contracts that specify payment in that currency at the spot price? I was able to explain to him that it's like I took $20 out of my wallet, passed it to him, and he put it in his wallet EXCEPT that Bitcoin instantly "teleports" the money from my wallet to his. But also everyone can see that happen. But also no one can see that it was me and him who did the transaction. Then why do mixers exist?