bitcoin is good for people, based on all the reasons listed in my post. if it is not currently a good currency because it is volatile, so what? it can be used for it's intended purpose just fine despite the volatility.
Also: see above, the Euro being cut by up to 80% in some Cyprus accounts. I guess we can add the euro to your list of volatile currency. Where does that leave the world economy?
A couple years back I saw an image that had four circles. The middle one was bitcoins and the others partially intersected with it, like ignorant of currencies or whatever, with bitcoin overlapping all these shortcomings. Can anybody remember that?
How do you even plan business around such wild fluctuations? You can't!
Believe it or not there are more currencies than just the Euro. Again, the Euro is a poor currency because it locks every country into the currency and no country has independence over their own currency.
Huh?
The USD is a poor currency because it locks every state into the currency and no state has independence over the currency.
Time to find a new currency exchange, guys!
Are you fucking serious? 93,000 is NOTHING. Good lord you're delusional.
Except the problem with the Euro was that the European union is a monetary union but not a fiscal union. The US is both a monetary AND fiscal union.
You don't know what you're talking about.
I'm going to play the pedant and note that this isn't quite right. The dollar is one of history's most successful currencies, I think it's fair to say, and yet it, like virtually every floating currency, is prone to wild volatility. In the late 1990s, the trade-weighted dollar soared nearly 50%. It then turned on a dime, dropping 30%. Then, in a matter of weeks in late 2008 it jumped nearly 20%. Once again, that's the trade-weighted dollar, not an individual currency pair (which can be much more crazily volatile).
The United States is a country that uses the Dollar. They have the power to print more money.
The Euro is a monetary union where each country has no power over their own currency. They cannot print more Euros.
Huge difference.
Lets assume I worked at the NYSE, and I created a stock symbol in their computer system with no actual company or commodity behind it, and just let people trade on it with real money. There are no press releases, reported earnings, etc to provide any kind of underlying value to the stock. How is bitcoin different than this?
Okay, now you have just gone past the point of logic. I'll do whatever you want in this thread, including calling you a monetary genius, for $90,000. Since $93,000 is nothing I'm sure this is a wonderful deal for you. Pay up or shut up.
Also: that is $93,000 for 12 days. This is a company that started up a few months ago, and holds no inventory. Doesn't seem bad to me. Care to share your company invoices proving you make more sales?
A few hours ago you said "the Euro is a poor currency because it locks every country into the currency and no country has independence over their own currency."
Now you are backpedaling already? What is the point of even talking to you if you change your mind by the hour?
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/04/exchange-rates?fsrc=rss
Proof you are completely wrong on all counts
Wild volatility does not disqualify a currency from being successful, QED.
In the grand scheme of things, it's nothing. Try organizing a several trillion dollar economy around bitcoin and see what happens. Answer: The economy will crash because it's deflationary.
What i'm a backpeddling on? Show me where i backpeddled. THEY DON'T have independence over their own currency. THAT'S WHAT A MONETARY UNION IS.
I can post articles too. Proof you're completely wrong on all counts:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-11/bitcoin-s-wild-ride-shows-its-not-real-money.html
No deflationary currency has ever failed as you describe, ever.
Theory and reality differ sometimes, especially when the one giving the theory is paid to keep the status quo.
Which US states have the right to print USD?
None of them. Quit posting lies.
lol, just look at the great depression, the countries that got out of the depression the quickest were the ones that dropped the gold standard the fastest.
Deflationary currencies encourage hoarding, discourage taking out loans, and thus discourage economic expansion. Basic macro econ 101.
lol, you still don't get it. The US is both a monetary AND Fiscal union. We share the same culture, the same language, and most importantly, we get taxed by the same federal government and the government spends its money on all 50 states. This is not what the European Union does.
Why don't you drill deeper and say that no town or city can print their own money? That's just as worthless a statement as the one you made.
Again: You are unqualified to talk about economic matters.
Yeah, printing a ton of money with no backing got us out of a depression, temporarily. And it also created a lot of debt. What are the going to do for this depression, with the debt limit as it is? Print more money? Going to an inflationary money was just a way to turn the problem into debt and let a future generation deal with it.
I don't get your point. Language, culture, WTF are trying to say?
Are you trying to say that a difference of culture or language justifies THEFT of money?
Earlier you implied the problem was that Cyprus can't print it's own money. Well, neither can Texas or Arkansas. What is the difference, please tell me oh great one.
What exactly makes you qualified? Do you have any credentials you can actually prove?
You know that really doesn't apply to something like bitcoin right?
<snip>
Deflation is toxic for any economy, but particularly for an alternative one like Bitcoin. No matter what kind of currency we're talking about, deflation causes hoarding -- why buy something today if you can buy it for less tomorrow? -- that crushes economic activity.
Woo! Speculation noobs. Hooray!
You can't really get rich off this shit, its just luck.
Despite the hilarity of people losing their shirts on bitcoin, i'm thinking of 'investing' a few thousand in bitcoin myself, that i can afford to lose. What i think will happen is that there are still a few more boom/bust cycles to bitcoin before it becomes completely worthless and there's still a lot of suckers who haven't yet bought into this ponzi scheme yet (it's only beginning to hit the mainstream). I'm just going to have to realize my profits sooner when the next run-up happens. Anyone who is buying into bitcoin, holding it, and hoping it turns into a utopian libertarian cryptocurrency is an idiot.
Phokus, thanks--I had forgotten they were called venn diagrams.
momeNt re. Deflationary Spiral
Sure it can. Wiki: Since reductions in general price level are called deflation, a deflationary spiral is when reductions in price lead to a vicious circle, where a problem exacerbates its own cause.
If a Bitcon is worth $100 today and I believe it will be $110 tomorrow, I'll do my best to not spend it. This is logical, and it will result in a reduction of the velocity of money. Leads to:
GDP = Money Supply x Velocity of Money
Given Bitcon's very slow growth of supply, a deflation's impact on velocity you can see why it would not be supportive of an economy, and why, Phokus' link:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/bitcoin-is-no-longer-a-currency/274859/
Repeat after me: Bitcon will never be widely accepted as a currency. EVER.
From that same article:
The more Bitcoin is worth, the more worthless it is as a currency.
As LegendKiller said, it's not a currency, but a commodity with even less value than gold, which has some industrial uses and for jewelry.