Quote from: molecular on February 17, 2013, 03:07:24 PM

I didn't watch the whole thing, but can someone explain their rationale on this:

Quote from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6uuAupT4AQ&t=48m26s

We hope that the money as debt series has given you insights into why our money system functions the way it does. We also hope that we have demonstrated that a return to gold or a switch to any single uniform commodity as money does not solve the fundamental problems with money.
Manipulation of single commodity money has milked productive people of their life energies and prosperity for millennia.

What? I see bitcoin as a commodity money. So what are the problems they are pointing out in the video?

I'm currently of the opinion that gold could well be used as a global money (as medium of exchange and store of wealth), if only it could be transacted only without the need for a central authority. Does Bitcoin as a solution to this suffer from the same problems as gold does in the minds of the autors of "money as debt"?

As far as I understand, the authors by "commodity money" mean some kind of money backed up by a commodity with all the fractional reserve inevitably built on top of it and as such turning into a debt based money anyway. They think that use of gold and other commodities directly is impractical for all the obvious reasons. If only there was something that is just like gold but also cannot be confiscated easily, can be transferred instantly and at very low cost over The Internet and that could have practically unlimited divisibility, easy to transport and identify, hard to counterfeit and easy to store Roll Eyes

I would say Bitcoin + Ripple is a perfect combination that has all the properties needed to eventually become worldwide currency. That would mean monetary freedom for all.

Molecular: maybe this helps http://paulgrignon.netfirms.com/MoneyasDebt/disputed_information.html (not saying that I agree or disagree with this)