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It would have been a better joke if the author had pointed that that if it's controlled by the Federal Reserve, you don't need a proof of work distributed block

It would have been a better joke if the author had pointed that that if it's controlled by the Federal Reserve, you don't need a proof of work distributed blockchain and you could simply allow all parties to connect to the Fed in some kind of Automated Clearing House network. This hypothetical system would allow debits and credits to be settled electronically at very low transaction costs and could be scaled to billions of transactions, and anyone could participate in such a system by spending 10 minutes and opening a free "checking account" at a local credit union.

kaonashi 12y ago
I think the problem (from a BTC hoarder's perspective) with that is that BTC is neither required nor desirable from an operational perspective in such a system.
- Ironchefpython 12y ago
  From the perspective of the government, Bitcoin is only for Cowards, Crazies, and Criminals. Cowards, who want to find technological solutions to social problems. Crazies who are terrified that Satan will take over the Fed and decide to suddenly make dollars worthless, and in the process destroy the county. And of course criminals who use it to buy drugs. ===== Luckily we know better, that assuming you are one of the technical 1% who can keep your wallet from being hacked, you can (for a little extra money in conversion costs) use bitcoin to shop at overstock.com.
nhaehnle 12y ago
Precisely. It is kind of amusing to see people write something like > The Fed would create a new blockchain called Fedcoin. Or it might create a Ripple style ledger by the same name. Do they not realize that if a central bank or any other entity wanted to create a convenient electronic currency system that is publicly accessible, it would be much simpler for them to just set up a boring old webservice with a REST API? With an efficient implementation, the amount of hardware required to replicate a Bitcoin level of transactions is miniscule.

kaonashi 12y ago

I think the problem (from a BTC hoarder's perspective) with that is that BTC is neither required nor desirable from an operational perspective in such a system.

Ironchefpython 12y ago
From the perspective of the government, Bitcoin is only for Cowards, Crazies, and Criminals. Cowards, who want to find technological solutions to social problems. Crazies who are terrified that Satan will take over the Fed and decide to suddenly make dollars worthless, and in the process destroy the county. And of course criminals who use it to buy drugs. ===== Luckily we know better, that assuming you are one of the technical 1% who can keep your wallet from being hacked, you can (for a little extra money in conversion costs) use bitcoin to shop at overstock.com.

nhaehnle 12y ago

Precisely. It is kind of amusing to see people write something like > The Fed would create a new blockchain called Fedcoin. Or it might create a Ripple style ledger by the same name. Do they not realize that if a central bank or any other entity wanted to create a convenient electronic currency system that is publicly accessible, it would be much simpler for them to just set up a boring old webservice with a REST API? With an efficient implementation, the amount of hardware required to replicate a Bitcoin level of transactions is miniscule.