Quote from: mintaka on June 13, 2011, 08:55:05 PM

Quote from: Neyo on June 13, 2011, 08:12:10 PM

The Economist - "Virtual curreny:Bits and bob"

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/06/virtual-currency

This article is excellent.

I think he swung widely and missed at the end...

Quote

The difference is that established fiat currencies—ones where the bills and coins, or their digital versions, get their value by dint of regulation or law—are underwritten by the state which is, in principle at least, answerable to its citizens. BitCoin, on the other hand, is a community currency. It requires self-policing on the part of its users. To some, this is a feature, not a bug. But, in the grand scheme of things, the necessary open-source engagement remains a niche pursuit. Most people would rather devolve this sort of responsibility to the authorities. Until this mindset changes, BitCoin will be no rival to real-world dosh.

Does he not understand that with Bitcoin, people can choose who to trust regarding the software? Perhaps there is no such service today, but there could a marketplace for code auditing to which users could subscribe. Also, there will eventually be a multitude of Bitcoin clients, and users could use those from developers they trust.