Quote from: devphp on March 06, 2014, 09:42:21 AM

Quote from: deisik on March 06, 2014, 08:46:02 AM

I can't agree with that. Money as such doesn't make you the owner of anything (save for the money itself). I don't think bitcoin is any different in this aspect. I think you are unintentionally confusing bitcoin as money and bitcoin as a commodity here. If the latter, I don't see how you can't fix its price now for future delivery just like you do with a foreign currency (which can be easily shorted though it obviously doesn't have delivery problem)...

No confusion here. Bitcoin is a commodity at this point, digital commodity. It does act as money too, but not many merchants and limited liquidity, so I wouldn't refer to it as money yet.

You can't manipulate its price a lot, because you can't issue paper derivatives against it. You either own bitcoins and sell them or you don't own them and can't sell them. Other commodities have storage and transporation issues, thus making possible the practise of trading paper contracts only (which exactly is what 95% or more traders do at commodity exchanges), which in turn opens possibilities for naked short sales, which is used for price manipulation

Okay then. So, if bitcoin is a commodity, why do you think you can't really enter a contract "between two parties to buy or sell a specified asset (bitcoin) of standardized quantity and quality for a price agreed upon today with delivery and payment occurring at a specified future date, the delivery date"?

This futures contract (the definition of which is given above) is just one among many other possible types of paper derivatives