Quote from: chaord on August 23, 2010, 10:05:33 PM

I'm not sure I agree with this, unless you mean that the stakeholders will likely still consider their bitcoins to have value temporarily.

All valuations are temporal.

Quote

And I'm just pointing out that this is not the case with a physical currency/commodity like gold. Even if the entire world abandoned gold as a marketable commodity, the person left holding all the gold could still use the gold for something. Gold still has a, albeit limited, use value even in the absence of an exchange value. I can't come up with a use value for bitcoins if there is no exchange value.

This is one of the best descriptions of intrinsic value that I have ever seen outside of academia, and by far the most susinct even within academia.

Quote

So does this mean that by investing in bitcoins, we are basically betting on our collective ability to write bug and exploit free software? Wink

No. As evidenced in the recent transaction overflow attack that required the upgrade to .3.10, the system is designed to be as secure and autonomous as is reasonably possible, but there is always someone watching the flow of funds. There is always the human element. If that human element is ever completely removed, *then* we will be betting on a collective ability to write exploit free software.