GAVIN ADRESEN: Bitcoin is really a pure money. It's a store of value and a means of exchange and that's all it is. It's almost a plutonic ideal of what money is, in that there is nothing backing it beyond the fact that it's useful as a money.
+1. Very insightful. Indeed, bitcoin is the
plutonic platonic ideal of what money is...
correction: I just realized that I just copied abc.net.au misspelling of "platonic"...
Not quite. The platonic ideal of money would keep private transactions between individuals private NOT make them explicitly a matter of public record.
Very big difference.
What about transactions that are criminal in nature, designed to deceive and rip off people?
I'm not necessarily talking about paying for drugs, hookers or extra-marrital love children here - all of which is a sin solely against God more than anything else (morality), but what about pure larceny and deception between humans (ethics/legality)?
Are you sure you want to keep ALL transactions private? That's the dubiousness of BitCoin's benefit.
There's nothing WRONG with Bitcoin in and of itself - much as there is nothing wrong with money or with sex in and of itself - but rather than with the DESIRE of any one of these items/activities in order to compensate for something that is missing at the core of all humanity. What do you think that is? Cause once you have enough money to live and a partner to have sex with - what more do you really need that money or sex or drugs can fill?