Quote from: Giraffe.BC on July 07, 2011, 08:06:35 PM

I have no problem with speculators, but they will kill / have already killed Bitcoin as a currency. Obviously, if there's money to be made, people are going to try to make it, so the trick is to set up the system so that speculation can't make it so unstable as to be unattractive to new adopters.

Speculators make markets MORE stable, not less. Or perhaps I should rephrase that - they make markets more rational, because when a speculator sees a price he deems "irrational" he can take a financial position in the other direction and profit if he's correct. This incentive encourages people to critically asses the market in question. A market in which speculation was difficult would be a market I'd be less confident in.

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Oh dear, I suspect you might be one of the nutter-butters I was referring to. Here, write this down: The USD isn't going anywhere. It's not 1895, you don't need to trade your greenbacks for shiny metal anymore. Controlled inflation is a good thing, not a bad thing.

It's puzzling to me that so many people involved with a cutting-edge electronic currency project are so economically primitive.

Protip: name-calling is unnecessary. I'm not going to call you a "nutter-butter" just because you believe economies should be centrally-planned.

People have this impression that the dollar has been around for hundreds of years and has proven its trustworthiness. They do not realize that it has only been a mere 35 years since it was disconnected from gold. The USD, in its current form, is only 35 years old, and given the fact that the US Gov is in debt far beyond what it can repay without printing the money (especially if interest rates rise), and that other nations are growing increasingly skeptical about its place as the world reserve currency, you will see the dollar in a long-term decline over the coming two decades. This decline could turn into a collapse very quickly as the vast sums held in reserves are sold by nations who increasingly prefer to trade without US dollars.

And let us not forget that the US is already defaulting on its debt by buying its own Treasuries with printed dollars from the Federal Reserve (euphemistically referred to as "quantitative easing"). It is paying back creditors with devalued currency - that is a default by any honest assessment.

It was not so long ago as 1895 as you jest that the Dollar was backed by gold. It was the 1970's, good sir. And so you're certainly welcome to put your trust in politicians who understand nothing about economics - for god's sake they listen to Bernanke who was unable to predict the greatest housing collapse and recession in 80 years - but I do not trust them as you do.

You make fun of gold, because you do not understand why it is good money - you do not understand why it is preferable to paper fiat. You claim that "controlled inflation" is a good thing... not realizing that what you advocate amounts to "controlled theft of property" by the Federal Reserve for the benefit of the US Government and at the expense of all holders of US Dollars. Money itself - the very core commodity of an economy - is a monopoly product and service of the US Government, and yet school children spout that we live under free-market capitalism?! How silly is this! The price of money itself (interest rate), is fixed!

You call me "economically primitive" because I think money, like all goods and services, should be chosen and priced by the free market, instead of by politicians? That's primitive? Is someone who believes in gravity primitive, merely because such a theory is hundreds of years old? The laws of markets, like those of apple trees, do not change over time. And do you think your beloved fiat is a new invention? Governments have been inflating money supplies for thousands of years, trying to bolster the wealth of a nation by printing it. THAT, in my opinion, is not only primitive but highly immoral and profoundly destructive.

You admit to being "puzzled" that so many Bitcoin advocates are "economically primitive." It would do you well to check your premises.