Quote from: kwhcoin on July 09, 2011, 03:33:57 AM

Quote from: RandyMarsh on July 09, 2011, 03:18:59 AM

I agree without this as a "feature" there could essentially be a bit-currency backed by the dollar, ie. the Bitdollar, for use in exactly the same secure, convenient, fast, cheap, online, and semi anonymous way as the Bitcoin, but exchangable for a dollar at your local bank and vice versa... and of course with value controlled by the value of the dollar

Yes the dollar could also be a possible way to back a Bitcoin-like currency. It would actually be easier to back with a dollar because instead of having to pay to store the gold backing the "goldcoins" you could earn interest storing the dollars that back your "bitdollars". I didn't want to use the dollar in my example of backing a Bitcoin clone-like currency because people would probably attack the dollar aspect instead of thinking about the concept of a Bitcoin clone being backed by something.

If the bitcoin-like currency had to be backed by anything, the dollar would pretty much be a bad idea. Why would you back a currency with another currency? An inflationary currency that's now only worth 4% of its original value, no less. Exchanging, say, a GBP for USD is one thing but you don't have one backing the other.

Also, if you're backing this new clone coin with gold, are you're suggesting a move towards centralization too? Who stores the gold? Who administers the auctions?