Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: Whats wrong with speculation?
by
Giraffe.BC
on 13/07/2011, 15:25:24 UTC
Greed is coloring many Bitcoin supporter's perceptions.  They think "wow, if Bitcoin went up to $200 next week, I'd make a ton of money!  So that's obviously a good thing!"  They're forgetting that Bitcoin was originally intended to be a currency, not a get-rich-quick scheme. 

Speculation is fine for commodities, because it helps the market determine the price.  It's terrible for fledgling currencies.  There's a reason that new currencies have traditionally been backed by something else (gold, other established currency, etc.):  you want people comfortable that the value is based on something other than people's perceptions and you won't get screwed if you hold on to them in exchange for goods and services.  Otherwise, why would anybody use the new currency?  This problem is magnified tenfold for Bitcoin, since it's not backed by any institution and has a much higher barrier to entry for the casual user than little slips of paper with numbers and pictures of dead people on them. 

I suspect Bitcoin will provide some useful lessons for the next cryptocurrency, but that's about it.