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You miss the big picture. Digital currencies will exist as an instrument to hedge against currency fluctuations, commodity manipulation, and to let you deploy l

You miss the big picture. Digital currencies will exist as an instrument to hedge against currency fluctuations, commodity manipulation, and to let you deploy liquid money into assets with calculable appreciation/depreciation rates. It won't take much more than a large industry coalition to settle the price fluctuation around bitcoins, which will follow the basic organic market coalition... i.e. vendors accepting bitcoins. In the future, we may not be using bitcoins, but you can bet we're going to be using coins made of bits. I don't know if my bitcoins will be worth anything eventually, but they will be an artifact of great change at least.

dragonwriter 14y ago
> In the future, we may not be using bitcoins, but you can bet we're going to be using coins made of bits. Well, in that most sovereign currency denominated accounts in the modern world exist as digital records, sure, we have been for many years.
- andrewljohnson 14y ago
  I mean that it will be useful to have currencies allocated by computer programs in predictable fashions, and to be able to track the history of each "dollar." Today, we only have politically controlled currencies, and we can only track transaction history, not dollar history.
michaelochurch 14y ago
Digital currencies will exist as an instrument to hedge against currency fluctuations, commodity manipulation, and to let you deploy liquid money into assets with calculable appreciation/depreciation rates. National currencies are much less volatile than Bitcoins have shown themselves to be. In the future, we may not be using bitcoins, but you can bet we're going to be using coins made of bits. I think we can agree there. "Bits" have nothing to do with it. It's this: Money pre-1800: metal (usually gold or silver) that can be used to pay taxes and hire killers to defend land. Money 1800-2075[?]: debt of large institutions, with equity a small player. Money post-2075: access to talent (the new limiting factor on getting ideas into implementation). We're starting to see that. I put that at 2075 because people are very conservative when it comes to money, so even though that will be the definition of wealth decades before that, I think it will take a long time before we can come up with a reasonable talent-based currency. What would the proof-of-work model be? It's hard to say.
- mattm 14y ago
  > National currencies are much less volatile than Bitcoins have shown themselves to be. I think Zimbabweans, Argentinians, Russians, Mexicans, Romanians and a handful of other nationalities would disagree with you.
- dreamdu5t 14y ago
  > National currencies are much less volatile than Bitcoins have shown themselves to be. Huh? Based on what data? Timeframe? What's "volatile"? BTC hasn't even been around for more than a couple years, and isn't even accepted by merchants yet.
michaelochurch 14y ago
Digital currencies will exist as an instrument to hedge against currency fluctuations, commodity manipulation, and to let you deploy liquid money into assets with calculable appreciation/depreciation rates. National currencies are much less volatile than Bitcoins have shown themselves to be. In the future, we may not be using bitcoins, but you can bet we're going to be using coins made of bits. I think we can agree there. "Bits" have nothing to do with it. It's this: Money pre-1800: metal (usually gold or silver) that can be used to pay taxes and hire killers to defend land. Money 1800-2075[?]: debt of large institutions, with equity a small player. Money post-2075: access to talent (the new limiting factor on getting ideas into implementation). We're starting to see that. I put that at 2075 because people are very conservative when it comes to money, so even though that will be the definition of wealth decades before that, I think it will take a long time before we can come up with a reasonable talent-based currency. What would the proof-of-work model be? It's hard to say.

dragonwriter 14y ago

> In the future, we may not be using bitcoins, but you can bet we're going to be using coins made of bits. Well, in that most sovereign currency denominated accounts in the modern world exist as digital records, sure, we have been for many years.

andrewljohnson 14y ago
I mean that it will be useful to have currencies allocated by computer programs in predictable fashions, and to be able to track the history of each "dollar." Today, we only have politically controlled currencies, and we can only track transaction history, not dollar history.

michaelochurch 14y ago

Digital currencies will exist as an instrument to hedge against currency fluctuations, commodity manipulation, and to let you deploy liquid money into assets with calculable appreciation/depreciation rates. National currencies are much less volatile than Bitcoins have shown themselves to be. In the future, we may not be using bitcoins, but you can bet we're going to be using coins made of bits. I think we can agree there. "Bits" have nothing to do with it. It's this: Money pre-1800: metal (usually gold or silver) that can be used to pay taxes and hire killers to defend land. Money 1800-2075[?]: debt of large institutions, with equity a small player. Money post-2075: access to talent (the new limiting factor on getting ideas into implementation). We're starting to see that. I put that at 2075 because people are very conservative when it comes to money, so even though that will be the definition of wealth decades before that, I think it will take a long time before we can come up with a reasonable talent-based currency. What would the proof-of-work model be? It's hard to say.

mattm 14y ago
> National currencies are much less volatile than Bitcoins have shown themselves to be. I think Zimbabweans, Argentinians, Russians, Mexicans, Romanians and a handful of other nationalities would disagree with you.
dreamdu5t 14y ago
> National currencies are much less volatile than Bitcoins have shown themselves to be. Huh? Based on what data? Timeframe? What's "volatile"? BTC hasn't even been around for more than a couple years, and isn't even accepted by merchants yet.

michaelochurch 14y ago