Quote from: r0ach on July 30, 2017, 01:46:15 AM

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This is false. Bitcoin has zero value as a settlement layer because far better alternatives for settlement existed before it's creation (noble metals). For bitcoin to have value as a settlement layer it would need to be able to compete as the base of Exter's pyramid, but it can't for numerous reasons I've stated before:

1) Bitcoin has built in middlemen (transaction validators) and counter party risk, negative traits that are typically found among "currencies" and never found among "money". The entire purpose of the base of Exter's pyramid is to remove counter party risk so that even if everyone else on the planet dies, you are not left holding a worthless coupon. This is why something is required to be an actual commodity, not a fake psuedo commodity (bitcoin) to be real money. Bitcoin will always be just a currency alone and not money, and currencies derive value from transaction flow (scalability) not stock.

2) Money is an abstract concept that represents goods or the ability to do work (services). This means the ideal form of money would be energy based since it represents both a commodity and service at the same time. The problem there is that humans don't have the technology to do so and remove counter party risk, and the free market time after time has signaled removing counter party risk is even more important, so it utilized metals. The fact that anything you do in bitcoin is going to make you a 1 of N participant means there is no removing counter party risk in bitcoin and it's dead on arrival for competing as a settlement system, aka money, aka the base of Exter's pyramid.

3) All forms of money and currency have elements of a pyramid or ponzi scheme to them, meaning it's all about me finding some resource and hoarding a bunch of it to try and create a master/slave relationship where I now rule over you because I got what you need. Such a paradigm doesn't actually work with a "virtual" commodity. If Elwar or Jimbo corners the entire 21 millioin coin market, it really doesn't mean shit to me. Under no circumstance do I need their coins when they have no intrinsic real world use, so I can completely ignore them and thus no master/slave relationship is formed. This is also a good reason why gold may lose a lot of it's market cap to silver in the long run due to gold having far less use.

You are, of course, welcome to your opinion, but I fail to see, unless you are going to sleep on top of your pallet of silver with an AK47 while it crosses the Pacific ocean, how physical delivery does not have counter party risk.

Don't get me wrong, huge physs fan here, if it weren't for that dammed boating accident we could get together and try and out macho each other curling our stacks, but yeah, I guess I am a lunatic...I think teleporting the equivalent value of that pallet in an hour or so, securely, does in fact have value.