Quote from: amspir on February 07, 2015, 11:18:47 PM

Quote from: R2D221 on February 07, 2015, 09:17:56 PM

Let's see what the Internet says about it:

Quote from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money

Fiat money is currency which derives its value from government regulation or law.

Completely wrong. Governments can regulate commodities and tell you how much they are worth, but it doesn't make it a fiat currency.

Quote from: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fiatmoney.asp

Currency that a government has declared to be legal tender, but is not backed by a physical commodity.

Legal tender, meaning that you can pay a government debit with it. A generally accepted definition of fiat currency, in that it is not backed by a commodity.

Quote from: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fiat%20money

money (as paper currency) not convertible into coin or specie of equivalent value

That makes no sense. Misquote?

Quote from: http://lexicon.ft.com/Term?term=fiat-money

Paper money or coins of little or no intrinsic value in themselves and not convertible into gold or silver, but made legal tender by fiat (order) of the government.

Sounds close.

Quote

To be fair, from my quick search, there's one site (Merriam Webster) that mentions nothing about the government; but others do. So, you can't just say That's not the definition of fiat when most people disagree with you.

Here is the rub: If you classify currency as EITHER fiat OR a commodity or commodity-backed currency (USD before Nixon), then I think bitcoin is a fiat, with the "government" being the consensus of miners regulating the issuance of bitcoin. You just can't go back to the miner and ask for some electricity and hardware in exchange for the bitcoin they mined that you currently hold.

The term "government" in relation to fiat currency is vague. US dollars are issued by a private bank AKA the Federal Reserve that is not really controlled by the US government. Euros are not issued by one government, but rather a cartel of governments.

I agree with you. I find it especially annoying that these bitcoiners just learned the word "fiat" and they keep using it all the time. Nobody goes around calling modern money fiat unless they're a conspiratard. We just call it "money"

The word fiat is just Latin for "let it be done", "it shall be" aka created from thin air. Which is Bitcoin. Created from thin air. Big difference is USD derive the price from Treasury bonds (future debt of USA). Bitcoin price derived from millennial speculators