Quote from: deisik on November 13, 2015, 11:17:11 AM

Quote from: johnyj on November 13, 2015, 10:53:58 AM

Quote from: deisik on November 10, 2015, 09:22:06 PM

Quote from: Nemo1024 on November 10, 2015, 08:21:23 PM

Once must understand that halving is an essential part of the Bitcoin protocol, aimed at approximating the natural increase in scarcity, observed in other money systems, like gold (as opposed to currencies, like dollar, which can be printed ad infinitum)

The problem is that Bitcoin itself is not natural. As I have said elsewhere (and been attacked by assclowns of all stripes and denominations, lol), Bitcoin, in this aspect, is no different than any other fiat money out there (or currency, if you please), my point being that mimicking scarcity (or any other quality) of its counterparts such as gold doesn't endow it with the resilience and robustness due to their inherent value (entrenched deep in the minds and nature of people)...

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

None of the money is natural, even gold has to be coined into unique form and weight to circulate as money. People usually do not accept gold bars/nuggets because they can not tell the purity without professional equipment. Then the trust falls on the quality of those gold coins and the issuance of those coins, so they are usually made by authorities (gold smith centuries ago then later coinage organization). That's the key to money's value: An authority that people can trust

Using gold as money is an effect not a cause of gold's appeal to people. Bitcoin, like other fiat monies, doesn't have this attractiveness through its own existence per se, i.e. beyond the function of being money. In fact, its very existence is a result of conscious effort...

That was my point (natural vs artificial)

Gold is also an attempt to abstract value. During early Egypt time, gold was only used for decoration, the money at that time was grain. The move from grain to gold is one step further in the process of abstracting value. Gold have many good properties to act as a value abstraction, but eventually it becomes limited by its weight, now bitcoin is much better in this regards

The color and feeling of gold is irrelevant, there are other metals with better physical properties, for example platinum, but they never worked as money due to they are similar to alt-coin, too late into the new standard