Quote from: The MadHatter on September 21, 2010, 03:12:40 PM

Not exactly.

As a commodity; gold and silver are backed by the labour/energy that has been expelled to mine and refine it. They also have inherent value because these metals are rare. (Well, rare for now. There are some situations that *could* change that.)

It is not really correct to say that.
First, there is no inherent value in anything (I explained that in another thread). The value of everything is subjective, it is not a characteristic of stuff... it's an opinion people have of stuff. But anyway, I understood what you meant.

And also, the labor/energy spent on the production of something does not determine the price of this something. That's by the way the labor-value theory used by Marx to justify his theory, which, obviously, is wrong.

Something may be worth less than what was spent to produce it (that's why many business have losses!). Actually, I think that the current value of bitcoins is below what we spend in energy to generate them, but I never tried to calculate it.

Quote from: The MadHatter on September 21, 2010, 03:12:40 PM

Now, if the power/internet went out for an extensive period of time, and I needed to buy something, I'd rather have gold/silver. (Food and other supplies would be even better actually, but I'm trying to limit the scope of my post to gold/silver/bitcoins.)

Ok, point taken, without computers/internet, no bitcoins. But if these things cease existing, bitcoins will be the least of our problems! Grin

(unless you meant like people who do not have access to these things... that is not a problem... I think that if bitcoins ever get enough popular, there will be physical means to exchange little amounts easily... )