Quote from: relative on June 20, 2011, 11:43:34 AM

Quote from: ~~~~~ on June 20, 2011, 11:39:26 AM

No, that's not my claim. Value is in the exchange, but saying bitcoins are created out of thin air is fucking ridiculous. They are ade out of shit-hot graphics cards, electricity and processing time, applied specifically to the purpose of creating a good form of money. The value comes from trade. The more people trade for them, the more value.

that's not true either.
bitcoins are created by a predetermined function over time.

the whole hashing exercise is just a way to determine their distribution (and to verify transactions) but bitcoins aren't really created by hashing power. the rate of creation stays the same, no matter how much "shit-hot graphics cards" are online.

one lawn-mower could mow the whole world.

A predetermined function over time whose impact on the real world is the employment of physical resources as described above. You're missing the point. Creating something out of nothing means that you are not bound to the use of any physical resources. At one time this was more the case, but by definition, the more people that decide to attribute some form of value to bitcoin, the more physical resources are required to produce them. The same amount are produced every day, but the requirements are a more or less direct physical reflection of the amount of people valuing them.

The more they are valued, the more they are certainly not made out of nothing.