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Perhaps if the author had researched the tulip episode, the article would be different. The massive price rises were in _futures_ not actual prices. There is l
by KaiserPro 9y ago
Perhaps if the author had researched the tulip episode, the article would be different.
The massive price rises were in _futures_ not actual prices. There is lots of academic work around this which is spectaculally interesting.
Second, to say that bitcoin has "intrinsic value" is the same rubbish thats applied to gold. Value is _always_ subjective.
The noise about competition for "fiat currency" is just that, noise. At best its equivalent to a bond, worse coffee futures.
Exchanges are perfectly able to do fractional reserve banking, so bitcoin is very much a fiat currency. Its basically what bitcoin exchanges do
- lifty 9y agoI fully subscribe to the subjective theory of value. There are other theories which might be good approximations in specific scenarios, but fundamentally, value is subjective. But following that reasoning I believe that if enough people agree on a new means of value storage or value exchange, critical mass can be achieved where the new medium is fully adopted while the old one is abandoned. I think the same thing happened when we transitioned from gold to fiat, and it happened largely under the direction governments around the world. As long as we all agree on it, a new medium can be adopted. Now, will Bitcoin replace fiat? That would be difficult, and I think people have different perspectives and motives for adopting Bitcoin. I suppose that is why there are so many heated debates where people don’t agree on the valuation. Actually, if you look at the world, people have opposing views on many topics, including on how our economies are run and on how we do monetary policy. Just accounting for that chunk of people that want a hedge or alternative to the mainstream system can explain at least a part of the valuation.