Quote from: benjamindees on November 29, 2013, 12:43:16 PM

Anyone who uses "paper" Bitcoins deserves to absorb the risk of loss that obviously implies.

Gold was a pretty crappy currency. There was at least some argument to be made that paper was more convenient to use. The same can't be said of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin also has some crappy attributes. The anonymity is not ubiquitous thus coin taint is an incredible problem, meaning that if your identity is known to the authorities (which it will likely be over time!) then you better know the identity of whom you bought and sold, else you are culpable for all upstream and downstream activity associated with the coin. Try using an exchange when the price is rising very fast. Sometimes the transactions take an hour or more for 1-confirmation. The transaction fees appear to be increasing as the price of Bitcoin rises, because security of the proof-of-work needs to rise with the value of the Bitcoin economy.

Thus the OP remains valid.

Altcoins are not the same as fractional reserves. Altcoins only have value if they are difficult to mine and a lot of work has been applied to mining them. To expand debt requires creating money out of thin air, i.e. fractional reserves.

Quote from: niothor on November 29, 2013, 01:39:16 PM

Quote from: deisik on November 29, 2013, 12:54:41 PM

Quote from: niothor on November 29, 2013, 12:31:48 PM

I gave you a much better reason:
Everything will fail sometime , even bitcoin , but it's not that time yet

This logic is infallible in itself and you can always turn to history for examples proving your position as a last resort. But the question is still there. Is it really worth doing the same mistakes all over again?

How about you come up with something perfect, GOD!?

No we only need to come up with a base money that can't be out-competed by the funny money. Then the funny money users can't get 99% of us to use it and create the social failure outcome of desiring a central bank to backstop the frequent bank runs.

If perhaps 20% of the population uses our decentralized base money and if we are the smart ones who are driving the technology economy which has become 80% of the global economy's GDP, then they can't dictate to us.

A recent Oxford study says 45% of existing jobs will be lost to hitech automation by 2033. The dummies (also the capitalist hoarders) are going to fall away in relative economic importance. Because the industrial age is dying, and we are moving to a new virtual economy.