I find the terrorist argument to be a real yet moot point.. They use US dollars just fine.. sometimes through "legitimate" banking institutions Having access to bitcoin would be no different
What a fantastic idea, use a finite resource as a currency for a growing economy. So let's say there are 10billion bitcoins that will ever be mined (no idea what the actual number is, but as long as its finite). For simplicity, the economy that only uses Bitcoin only produces and consumes cars, and the economy grows from producing 10 million cars to 20 million cars, while the money supply stays the same. What happens to the price of cars?
I believe the current derivatives market is worth about $1.2 quadrillion. Obviously few of this will be settled in cash and a lot of it is probably offset by hedges, but stil if you ever deal in finance, billions and trillions aren't that far off. Also, deflation anybody? Europe ATM, Japan for the last 20 years? Yeah we'd definitely want a finite money supply, what a great time when inflation was low but had a high standard deviation.
The other part of this, already discussed way back earlier in this thread, is that not only is there no inflation, but there is long-term deflation in bitcoins. Once they are lost, they are lost permanently. And they have been getting lost at an alarming rate. It's just like printing a finite amount of dollar bills, and then as they get torn up or destroyed or fall to the bottom of the ocean, you don't replace them. You have a problem in that a deflating currency should increase in value over time (thus encouraging hording instead of transacting) and you'll have a liquidity problem at some point if bitcoin ever were to become widely used.
Yeah that was something else I wanted to address. I saw an article from earlier this year that said 35% of bitcoins haven't been used since 2011. I have no idea how this is determined but I'm guessing it is easily accessible info.
I don't think anyones really talking about replacing fiat totally.. I mean some people are but whatever. realistic optimists are looking at this as technology that can satisfy many requirements for money but has a multitude of other applications. on a long time horizon
postin some embeds.. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>"I like the Blockchain, just not Bitcoin" = "I like the Internet, just not the WWW".</p>— Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) <a href="https://twitter.com/balajis/status/526749510995673088">October 27, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/Bitstein">@Bitstein</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/balajis">@balajis</a> And to this "old" man, I've seen it all before: First they ignored Linux, then laughed, ... ending in worldwide adoption</p>— Jeff Garzik (@jgarzik) <a href="https://twitter.com/jgarzik/status/526749329952735232">October 27, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>UBS CIO ($1.96T in AUM): "Blockchain Technology Can Massively Simplify Banking" <a href="http://t.co/BtSlMQGWY0">http://t.co/BtSlMQGWY0</a> <a href="http://t.co/YR1SPbXkDD">pic.twitter.com/YR1SPbXkDD</a></p>— Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) <a href="https://twitter.com/balajis/status/526728451991285760">October 27, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Who is creating the new bitcoins? If one of the benefits of this is a non-centralized currency with no single entity that can exert control over it, then are the bitcoins somehow being created as like a group effort and introduced into the fold? I'm just asking because my concern with electronic currency would be people "counterfeiting" the currency somehow. The thousands of separate ledgers that must all agree help prevent that, presumably, but then how does the new bitcoins get introduced into the world?
A coin is generated by the system (the genesis node in the ledger) at a set rate. When the coin is generated it is given to a miner (the ones who certify transactions).
So is it a weak point that someone could hack this genesis node and create a bunch of bitcoins for himself that weren't intended?
Raven brings up good questions. I'm not a programmer, but this is a pretty good explanation of why the Bitcoin protocol can't be hacked http://www.michaelnielsen.org/ddi/how-the-bitcoin-protocol-actually-works/
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/deepakshenoy">@deepakshenoy</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/balajis">@balajis</a> the blockchain is validated by miners who work for incentives. In your alternate universe, what's the incentive?</p>— Ben Horowitz (@bhorowitz) <a href="https://twitter.com/bhorowitz/status/526833908654944256">October 27, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/deepakshenoy">@deepakshenoy</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/balajis">@balajis</a> a) you did not answer the question and b) the protocol enables incentives to adjust over time <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/transactionfees?src=hash">#transactionfees</a></p>— Ben Horowitz (@bhorowitz) <a href="https://twitter.com/bhorowitz/status/526836439758036996">October 27, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>.<a href="https://twitter.com/EmaadP">@EmaadP</a> Yes, but also saying you no longer need to be a Fedwire participant to move dollars efficiently. Long term, anyone w/ computer can.</p>— Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) <a href="https://twitter.com/balajis/status/521387332994215936">October 12, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Bitcoin now judged a foregone conclusion in Israel. Israeli Central Banker: Bitcoin is a matter if when, not if. <a href="https://t.co/8W570EahIa">https://t.co/8W570EahIa</a></p>— Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) <a href="https://twitter.com/balajis/status/528529943454437377">November 1, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
