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For any remotely plausible definition of "worthless," bitcoins are just as worthless as any representative money, which inclues fiat money (like a USD) and comm
by bumbledraven 12y ago
For any remotely plausible definition of "worthless," bitcoins are just as worthless as any representative money, which inclues fiat money (like a USD) and commodity-backed money (like a gold certificate).
The US government is a powerful entity that levies taxes and accepts tax payments only in dollars. Gold has various uses in industry and fashion and therefore a certificate entitling one to ownership of gold would have some value independent of gold's use as a currency. None of these are true for bitcoin.
- baddox 12y ago> The US government is a powerful entity that levies taxes and accepts tax payments only in dollars. Right. That's just a more detailed explanation for why most people are willing to accept USD in exchange for their goods. There are similarly detailed explanations for why people are willing to accept bitcoins. The reasons are different, but they still (obviously) exist. If no reasons existed, then people would not be willing to accept bitcoins in trade.
- pessimizer 12y agoBut sometimes those reasons are that speculators think that a future speculator will be willing to pay more for them. That only ends one way.
- baddox 12y agoYou just rephrased what I said, except that you replaced "person" with the scarier sounding "speculator."
- a8000 12y agoThey actually have to at least in some countries, you can't just only accept a made up currency and not legal tender.
- 13throwaway 12y agoPeople's need for a decentralized, pseudononymous currency gives Bitcoin value.