Quote from: AmnesicWeasel on February 14, 2011, 05:42:58 PM

Quote from: jav on February 14, 2011, 05:35:32 PM

Isn't the whole point of Bitcoin that you can move the _actual_ Bitcoins around. If you are going to give that up, what have you won?

What makes you think you've given anything up? You can still move bitcoins around yourself through the network. All we're saying is that high-speed, on-the-spot transactions will still need a trusted third party to facilitate.

I can also move my gold around today. But my salary is paid in a currency that isn't backed and so is everyone's salary around me, so the gold doesn't really help in preventing a crash.

I guess Nefario has a good point about audits being easier with Bitcoins and that is definitely and advantage compared to gold. But it also requires a bunch of people to be vigilant and to understand all the pitfalls of money systems. I'd much rather see these protections against money creation baked into the system that will actually be in use by everyone.