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Labor is a sacrifice of ones time, and one expects to receive compensation for that sacrifice. The medium of compensation could be anything, and is certainly no

Labor is a sacrifice of ones time, and one expects to receive compensation for that sacrifice. The medium of compensation could be anything, and is certainly not limited to regional monopoly currencies. The key distinction between the currency and Bitcoin is the government's use of force to mandate that people accept the currency as a unit of payment for services (and use it to pay taxes). There is no intrinsic value. After all, it is merely paper or digital numbers. It's amusing that anti-bitcoiners will use the government force argument to try and push people away from bitcoin. "Bitcoin is no good because it is not backed by government force." When people hear that, they say. "Oh my god, really? How can I get some?"

stillbourne 8y ago
Cool dude, you've invented Anarcho-capitalism. Go you. Let's also privatize everything like roads and education and police and prisons and all of the things because taxes are theft and if I plug my ears and scream loud enough then they can't educate me on everything that went wrong in the Gilded Age.
- vitaliksghost 8y ago
  You have zero clues and speak for others. Go away.
  - erulabs 8y ago
    It seems like you're new to HN so you might want to check out the community guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Unlike other news aggregation sites, people try fairly hard here to let the sort of accusational, off-topic screed you're replying to either a) get a thoughtful reply or b) fade away into oblivion, instead of boiling over.
XorNot 8y ago
If Bitcoin is not backed by government force, then why is it worth anything? Because no one can be compelled to accept Bitcoin to extinguish my debts to them (i.e. by the courts) and I can't pay my taxes in Bitcoin to my local government (no, "just-in-time currency exchange doesn't count). So given these problems, what is the exchange rate of Bitcoin into anything else supposed to be? Given, again, that eventually, everyone transacting in Bitcoin needs to transact out of Bitcoin in order to meet local obligations like taxes, or just to acquire goods someone actually wants to accept payment in. Bitcoin is a lot like gold, in that people might find some cosmetic and novelty value in it which gives it more then 0 value. But unlike gold, it consumes a lot of real world resources (electricity, structured silicon) in order to continue existing.
- feanaro 8y ago
  Not all commercial transactions involve debt.
  - stillbourne 8y ago
    As all commercial transactions are literally called either credits or debits and the definition for debit according to Webster's debit noun Definition of debit (Entry 2 of 2) 1a : a record of an indebtedness specifically : an entry on the left-hand side of an account constituting an addition to an expense or asset account or a deduction from a revenue, net worth, or liability account I would say yes all transactions involved debt.
    - feanaro 8y ago
      See my response on a sibling comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18805017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18805017
  - XorNot 8y ago
    Care to give any examples which aren't just examples of very short-lived debts? (i.e. when I buy something at the corner store, we immediately resolve the debt).
    - feanaro 8y ago
      A fair enough terminological point, but in this case, I'm not sure it is much more than a play on words. The parent was clearly talking about longer-lived debt and debt financial instruments, where the debt changes hands so the debt-closing parties aren't necessarily the same as the parties that formed the debt. To quote: > Because no one can be compelled to accept Bitcoin to extinguish my debts to them (i.e. by the courts) and I can't pay my taxes in Bitcoin to my local government (no, "just-in-time currency exchange doesn't count). In the edge cases of (almost) immediately resolved debt, this is a non-problem, given that we can simply agree not to complete a transaction in case one of the parties involved doesn't want to accept Bitcoin. Hence, the fact that you cannot be compelled to accept Bitcoin is irrelevant in this situation.

stillbourne 8y ago

Cool dude, you've invented Anarcho-capitalism. Go you. Let's also privatize everything like roads and education and police and prisons and all of the things because taxes are theft and if I plug my ears and scream loud enough then they can't educate me on everything that went wrong in the Gilded Age.

vitaliksghost 8y ago
You have zero clues and speak for others. Go away.
- erulabs 8y ago
  It seems like you're new to HN so you might want to check out the community guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Unlike other news aggregation sites, people try fairly hard here to let the sort of accusational, off-topic screed you're replying to either a) get a thoughtful reply or b) fade away into oblivion, instead of boiling over.

XorNot 8y ago

If Bitcoin is not backed by government force, then why is it worth anything? Because no one can be compelled to accept Bitcoin to extinguish my debts to them (i.e. by the courts) and I can't pay my taxes in Bitcoin to my local government (no, "just-in-time currency exchange doesn't count). So given these problems, what is the exchange rate of Bitcoin into anything else supposed to be? Given, again, that eventually, everyone transacting in Bitcoin needs to transact out of Bitcoin in order to meet local obligations like taxes, or just to acquire goods someone actually wants to accept payment in. Bitcoin is a lot like gold, in that people might find some cosmetic and novelty value in it which gives it more then 0 value. But unlike gold, it consumes a lot of real world resources (electricity, structured silicon) in order to continue existing.

feanaro 8y ago
Not all commercial transactions involve debt.
- stillbourne 8y ago
  As all commercial transactions are literally called either credits or debits and the definition for debit according to Webster's debit noun Definition of debit (Entry 2 of 2) 1a : a record of an indebtedness specifically : an entry on the left-hand side of an account constituting an addition to an expense or asset account or a deduction from a revenue, net worth, or liability account I would say yes all transactions involved debt.
  - feanaro 8y ago
    See my response on a sibling comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18805017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18805017
- XorNot 8y ago
  Care to give any examples which aren't just examples of very short-lived debts? (i.e. when I buy something at the corner store, we immediately resolve the debt).
  - feanaro 8y ago
    A fair enough terminological point, but in this case, I'm not sure it is much more than a play on words. The parent was clearly talking about longer-lived debt and debt financial instruments, where the debt changes hands so the debt-closing parties aren't necessarily the same as the parties that formed the debt. To quote: > Because no one can be compelled to accept Bitcoin to extinguish my debts to them (i.e. by the courts) and I can't pay my taxes in Bitcoin to my local government (no, "just-in-time currency exchange doesn't count). In the edge cases of (almost) immediately resolved debt, this is a non-problem, given that we can simply agree not to complete a transaction in case one of the parties involved doesn't want to accept Bitcoin. Hence, the fact that you cannot be compelled to accept Bitcoin is irrelevant in this situation.