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Errrrr.... Bitcoin is a fiat currency, so be careful with your generalization. And whose job is it to investigate bitcoin fraud and theft? No one.
by bluetwo 9y ago
Errrrr.... Bitcoin is a fiat currency, so be careful with your generalization.
And whose job is it to investigate bitcoin fraud and theft? No one.
- wallace_f 9y agoBitcoin might turn out to be one of the markets where free market dynamics work well. Whose job is it? Anyone who has a stake in trusting and maintaining bitcoin's value. So the rich are incentivized to safeguard the poor in some sense here.
- bluetwo 9y agoRubbish
- wallace_f 9y agoWell so far it has none of the taxpayer-subsidized funding as the US currency and banks have--which are very expensive to fund. The 2008 crisis was estimated to cost around $9,000-35,000 per US citizen, even by the Fed itself! For just that one incident...
- bluetwo 9y agoExactly. Who is going to bail out the first big BTC crisis? No one.
- wallace_f 9y agoThink about what bailing out means. It was a transfer of wealth from taxpayers and money-balance holders to Wall St banks, the US gov't and a few select private corporations. Now I don't mean to be patronizing, but it is useful for us to ask ourselves, "how were we convinced that this was desirable?"
- bluetwo 9y agoNo amount of debate over the validity of the 2008-2009 financial crisis and resolution makes bitcoin any less of a fiat currency.
- wallace_f 9y agoWhat? It seems like you are just changing the subject here? I thought you disagreed with the idea of my grandparent post, but it seems that now you want to say that bitcoin is a fiat currency?
- bluetwo 9y agoLet me make it easy: I disagree with everything you posted.
- zxcmx 9y agoFiat means by decree, or order. Typically we mean by government when we use this word. Essentially, the government creates it by law and then forces you to use it. I'm struggling to see how this applies to bitcoin.
- programmarchy 9y ago> Bitcoin is a fiat currency Please expand. Which state is forcing people to pay their taxes in Bitcoin, and/or authorizing it as legal tender?
- bluetwo 9y agoThe key quality of a fiat currency is that it is spun out of air without intrinsic value.
- magpi3 9y agoHonest question: why does gold have intrinsic value? My understanding is that it's scarcity is the prime driver of its value, at least in monetary terms, and bitcoin shares that quality. Of course gold does have physical qualities that are useful, but so do many other metals that are not used as stores of value.
- dleslie 9y agoGold is used to make physical things, like jewelry and electronics.
- magpi3 9y agoI am aware of that of course, but gold jewelry itself generally has very little intrinsic value (it's only valuable because people agree it is, just like bitcoin), and most elements (such as silicon) in electric components are much cheaper than gold. The prime driver of gold's value is clearly its historical role as a commodity and its scarcity, neither of which are related to any kind of intrinsic qualities. My point is that the two things gold has going for it (scarcity and the fact that people believe it is a good place to store value) can now be said about bitcoin as well from what I can see. Full disclosure: I do not own any cryptocoins. Too volatile for my tastes.
- newman8r 9y agomany other metals are used as stores of value, but gold is probably the most iconic. From a historical standpoint, It's easy to identify, it's easy to break up into smaller units or consolidate into larger ones, easy to form into coins. It has a global distribution, it's relatively inert so you don't need to worry about degradation. scarcity is only one factor to consider - demand and fungibility are also important factors among others.
- pmorici 9y agoAny police organization that investigates ordinary theft would absolutely investigate a theft of Bitcoin.
- placeybordeaux 9y agoBy bitcoin fraud do you mean frauds that are 'settled' in bitcoin or counterfeiting? The protocol stops counterfeiting, the miners stop individuals from failing to fulfill a payment (i.e. stops double spends) and theft is governed by whatever jurisdiction the crime happens in. The US government does not prosecute thefts of USD in other countries.