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In the worst case, white market Bitcoin transactions will be no more tracked than cc/paypal/swift/sepa transactions. On the bright side, people will have much h

In the worst case, white market Bitcoin transactions will be no more tracked than cc/paypal/swift/sepa transactions. On the bright side, people will have much harder money and state will have much less power (no deficit spending whatsoever). In reality though, the contamination of the market by Bitcoin will happen much faster than anyone could set up a framework of tracking it. Black markets will grow huge. A lot of intellectual work can avoid taxation easily. Especially, when younger generation finds itself in a situation of economic disaster that was created by their parents and grandparents. Teens will be less likely to tolerate all this banking nonsense.

sliverstorm 13y ago
Bitcoin, at least right now, is literally the antithesis of hard money. It has no backing, either political (e.g. Fed) or economic (e.g. gold-backed). Value fluctuates wildly. A week from now it could be worth $1,000 or it could be worth $1.
- oleganza 13y ago
  1. There's no problem with "backing". Gold is backed by gold. Bitcoin is backed by Bitcoin. Bitcoin is not broken while being in the open for plenty of people to exploit it. Just like anyone interested may try to synthesise gold at a cost lower than the market price. 2. Every early venture is also very volatile. Facebook, Twitter, Google, the web itself and the internet were volatile in the beginning. A lot of uncertainties, legal issues, security issues etc. Only when they reach half of the potential market, they start looking stable and glorious. I bet when gold was started to be used as a currency it was uncertain, competing with previous currencies and prices were fluctuating a lot. 3. Bitcoin can't be suddenly worth 1$ tomorrow for economic reasons. Only for technical reasons (but then it is more likely to become worthless). Economically, no big holder of bitcoin is going to crash the price by cashing out publicly if there is a way to sell steadily and/or privately. Which happens already. SecondMarket's BIT gets all its coins and money purely privately, without anyone noticing much changes. Since almost no one is holding Bitcoin-denomitated debts, no one is hurt by having Bitcoin price rising unexpectedly. It only boosts interest. So if it stays around $430 for the months or grows to $1000, no one will be hugely disappointed. Even if drops now to $300, only a fraction of holders will suffer losses, while majority of others is still well in profit.
- mseebach 13y ago
  The price of gold is not exactly static either, and many people are predicting its imminent collapse. In the end, despite some inherent value, gold is valued for a unique and rare atomic structure in much the same way Bitcoin is valued for its cryptographic foundation giving it many of the same properties.

sliverstorm 13y ago

Bitcoin, at least right now, is literally the antithesis of hard money. It has no backing, either political (e.g. Fed) or economic (e.g. gold-backed). Value fluctuates wildly. A week from now it could be worth $1,000 or it could be worth $1.

oleganza 13y ago
1. There's no problem with "backing". Gold is backed by gold. Bitcoin is backed by Bitcoin. Bitcoin is not broken while being in the open for plenty of people to exploit it. Just like anyone interested may try to synthesise gold at a cost lower than the market price. 2. Every early venture is also very volatile. Facebook, Twitter, Google, the web itself and the internet were volatile in the beginning. A lot of uncertainties, legal issues, security issues etc. Only when they reach half of the potential market, they start looking stable and glorious. I bet when gold was started to be used as a currency it was uncertain, competing with previous currencies and prices were fluctuating a lot. 3. Bitcoin can't be suddenly worth 1$ tomorrow for economic reasons. Only for technical reasons (but then it is more likely to become worthless). Economically, no big holder of bitcoin is going to crash the price by cashing out publicly if there is a way to sell steadily and/or privately. Which happens already. SecondMarket's BIT gets all its coins and money purely privately, without anyone noticing much changes. Since almost no one is holding Bitcoin-denomitated debts, no one is hurt by having Bitcoin price rising unexpectedly. It only boosts interest. So if it stays around $430 for the months or grows to $1000, no one will be hugely disappointed. Even if drops now to $300, only a fraction of holders will suffer losses, while majority of others is still well in profit.
mseebach 13y ago
The price of gold is not exactly static either, and many people are predicting its imminent collapse. In the end, despite some inherent value, gold is valued for a unique and rare atomic structure in much the same way Bitcoin is valued for its cryptographic foundation giving it many of the same properties.