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$1000, for 1/12000000th the total current supply of bitcoins in existence? Sounds like a deal to me. The same fraction of USD is $100,000. There are 313 mill

$1000, for 1/12000000th the total current supply of bitcoins in existence? Sounds like a deal to me. The same fraction of USD is $100,000. There are 313 million people in the US. These are the majority of people using the dollar. There are 1.35 billion in China and another 1.2 billion in India. The former has already started using bitcoin. But only just barely. The market for bitcoin is enormous. Now let me ask you: do you really feel a global currency is worth less than $12 billion USD? The market cap for Facebook is $113 billion. Call me crazy, but I think there is more long term value in a digital currency with the properties of Bitcoin than a social network. In order for bitcoin to be useful, it's going to have to grow. If it grows fast (network effects) then you'll get instability. I don't think there is a solution to this unique problem. The fiat solution of printing more money doesn't apply here. There has never been a sudden rush to USD like there is to bitcoins. If you can even call a few billion dollars a "rush". If bitcoin is to be used, then it's going to see $1000/coin and beyond.

fat0wl 13y ago
my god this is psychotic. i'm sorry, i try to be polite but.... jesus. i am 1000% confident that this particular bitcoin implementation of global currency is worth less than $12 billion USD. you are treating this currency like we are dividing up slices of the world money supply. We are not. People are paying $1000 and basically receiving an IOU from no one, with the hope they will be able to sell to future speculators. If Bitcoin succeeded as an actual currency, it would be trivial to implement new blockchains and many such systems would exist in parallel (Litecoin, Ripple?). But so far, Bitcoin has proven nothing regarding stability, it is just wowing naive investors by increasing in value rapidly. The problem in your analogy is that Facebook never sold accounts for $1000 because people are not that stupid, except when they start seeing $$ signs flash in front of their eyes. And why does it need to keep increasing in value if its divisible to like 6 decimal places? It's perfectly usable as a currency now. This is the internet, who the fuck needs WHOLE NUMBERS. Just....... jesus, man.
- skinnycow 13y ago
  Is there any chance of you giving it a rest? We get it. You think Bitcoin and Bitcoiners are stupid. You passed Intro to Econ in college. You've drawn completely arbitrary lines in the sand and given nothing to justify them but emotional appeal. You, like many others, seem to waltz into every thread thinking that you've just independently come up with the fatal flaw of Bitcoin as it chugs along it's third year of existence. You display a nearly D-K effect when you act as if these are foregone conclusions with your "Just....... jesus, man." Especially after the catastrophe that was the last paragraph about price&divisibility. It's completely nonsense from an economic perspective. And there are clear benefits in using a highly divisible currency (and especially since it can be represented as a whole number... rather than a float. Ironic, whoops).
  - fat0wl 13y ago
    Eh I get where you're coming from, but I'm tired of this shit too. this one really got to me. It's not that I think Bitcoiners are stupid, it's a combination of a few things -- All these threads are "Yay Bitcoin reached a new price plateau, proof that it's perfect!". So finally they pick an article that says it's a mess, but the thing is it's pretty much the dumbest article ever. So then the Bitcoiners use it as a straw man, coming on saying "See this article's author is dumb he doesn't have our enlightened view of economics.... If you divide all the world's money by the number of Bitcoins I'm so rich!!!" I'm sorry but even 3 years existence proves nothing, as there are many screwed up things in history with longer lifespans than that. So yeah I'm frustrated as hell because this is pretty much the spam of the tech world now but it's front page news on HN every 20 minutes with some new story like "Researchers believe Bitcoin founder once visited zoo in Denmark". One could argue that it is a cargo cult, one could argue that it is a success, a failure. Many things could be argued. The one thing that I think is for sure is that this whole phenomenon is tabloid-esque garbage that is mostly servicing greedy arrogant Bitcoin holders and their machine, since publicity seems to be one of the only true price correlates (nothin odd about that, huh?). I'm probly gonna get off this bent just because it's not worth the time but without the detractors Bitcoin is just like a digital Jonestown - every post is met with more mindless optimism and every criticism with a response that is a complete non-sequitur followed by boo-hooing about hurt feelings and poor etiquette. I'm not on an online forum to get popular agreeing with everyone I'm here to test the waters and see what kind of knowledge is floating around. Those I've had arguments with fail to articulate even simple points. For example -- I agree that using a highly divisible currency is good. That was, in fact, my point. My issue is that a frequent explanation for the rapid price increase is "Well it's natural that the coins are going to gain a lot of value. Heck, maybe Bitcoin will surge in the real estate market and 1 coin will be worth a whole house!". With a highly divisible currency, why would the unit price have to increase to represent some arbitrary figure in the market (a house in this case). Because it seems logical to people? Because there are only a limited number of Bitcoins in circulation so of course there is scarcity and rather than using a different currency that can release more we simply have to bid the price up because "well, SN is god after all"? If anything the fact that I want to argue should show that I do respect the potential of the community in that I actually want to take my time to interact with them. It shows that I give them the benefit of the doubt that even though I disagree I still think "well let's not write it off as a cult just yet". But when I get responses that are as cock-eyed and zombie-ish as the one above ("why analyze supply and demand curve when soon the entire planet will soon be bitcoin?!! i will own your country merely for investing now.") i will probably continue to lose my shit. So yes, I will need to stop looking.
waps 13y ago
But the value floor for the USD is effectively the tax obligations denominated in USD, which is 5.5 trillion. Meaning a hell of a lot of powerfull people have a legal obligation to collect -at least- 5.5 trillion USD. This provides a much higher value floor, no ?

fat0wl 13y ago

my god this is psychotic. i'm sorry, i try to be polite but.... jesus. i am 1000% confident that this particular bitcoin implementation of global currency is worth less than $12 billion USD. you are treating this currency like we are dividing up slices of the world money supply. We are not. People are paying $1000 and basically receiving an IOU from no one, with the hope they will be able to sell to future speculators. If Bitcoin succeeded as an actual currency, it would be trivial to implement new blockchains and many such systems would exist in parallel (Litecoin, Ripple?). But so far, Bitcoin has proven nothing regarding stability, it is just wowing naive investors by increasing in value rapidly. The problem in your analogy is that Facebook never sold accounts for $1000 because people are not that stupid, except when they start seeing $$ signs flash in front of their eyes. And why does it need to keep increasing in value if its divisible to like 6 decimal places? It's perfectly usable as a currency now. This is the internet, who the fuck needs WHOLE NUMBERS. Just....... jesus, man.

skinnycow 13y ago
Is there any chance of you giving it a rest? We get it. You think Bitcoin and Bitcoiners are stupid. You passed Intro to Econ in college. You've drawn completely arbitrary lines in the sand and given nothing to justify them but emotional appeal. You, like many others, seem to waltz into every thread thinking that you've just independently come up with the fatal flaw of Bitcoin as it chugs along it's third year of existence. You display a nearly D-K effect when you act as if these are foregone conclusions with your "Just....... jesus, man." Especially after the catastrophe that was the last paragraph about price&divisibility. It's completely nonsense from an economic perspective. And there are clear benefits in using a highly divisible currency (and especially since it can be represented as a whole number... rather than a float. Ironic, whoops).
- fat0wl 13y ago
  Eh I get where you're coming from, but I'm tired of this shit too. this one really got to me. It's not that I think Bitcoiners are stupid, it's a combination of a few things -- All these threads are "Yay Bitcoin reached a new price plateau, proof that it's perfect!". So finally they pick an article that says it's a mess, but the thing is it's pretty much the dumbest article ever. So then the Bitcoiners use it as a straw man, coming on saying "See this article's author is dumb he doesn't have our enlightened view of economics.... If you divide all the world's money by the number of Bitcoins I'm so rich!!!" I'm sorry but even 3 years existence proves nothing, as there are many screwed up things in history with longer lifespans than that. So yeah I'm frustrated as hell because this is pretty much the spam of the tech world now but it's front page news on HN every 20 minutes with some new story like "Researchers believe Bitcoin founder once visited zoo in Denmark". One could argue that it is a cargo cult, one could argue that it is a success, a failure. Many things could be argued. The one thing that I think is for sure is that this whole phenomenon is tabloid-esque garbage that is mostly servicing greedy arrogant Bitcoin holders and their machine, since publicity seems to be one of the only true price correlates (nothin odd about that, huh?). I'm probly gonna get off this bent just because it's not worth the time but without the detractors Bitcoin is just like a digital Jonestown - every post is met with more mindless optimism and every criticism with a response that is a complete non-sequitur followed by boo-hooing about hurt feelings and poor etiquette. I'm not on an online forum to get popular agreeing with everyone I'm here to test the waters and see what kind of knowledge is floating around. Those I've had arguments with fail to articulate even simple points. For example -- I agree that using a highly divisible currency is good. That was, in fact, my point. My issue is that a frequent explanation for the rapid price increase is "Well it's natural that the coins are going to gain a lot of value. Heck, maybe Bitcoin will surge in the real estate market and 1 coin will be worth a whole house!". With a highly divisible currency, why would the unit price have to increase to represent some arbitrary figure in the market (a house in this case). Because it seems logical to people? Because there are only a limited number of Bitcoins in circulation so of course there is scarcity and rather than using a different currency that can release more we simply have to bid the price up because "well, SN is god after all"? If anything the fact that I want to argue should show that I do respect the potential of the community in that I actually want to take my time to interact with them. It shows that I give them the benefit of the doubt that even though I disagree I still think "well let's not write it off as a cult just yet". But when I get responses that are as cock-eyed and zombie-ish as the one above ("why analyze supply and demand curve when soon the entire planet will soon be bitcoin?!! i will own your country merely for investing now.") i will probably continue to lose my shit. So yes, I will need to stop looking.

waps 13y ago

But the value floor for the USD is effectively the tax obligations denominated in USD, which is 5.5 trillion. Meaning a hell of a lot of powerfull people have a legal obligation to collect -at least- 5.5 trillion USD. This provides a much higher value floor, no ?