beads and feathers were replaced so that everyone could have a fair shake in the market... not everyone was a hunter so not everyone could get the goods.
What are these amazing advantages you speak of?
Over FIAT
=============
- No capital control
- No third party required for international or domestic transfers
- Trustless system
- Not inherently fractional
- Favors a commodity rather than an IOU
- Not nearly as susceptible to theft compared with carrying cash
Over Gold/Commodity Backed
=============
- Gold is cumbersome
- Gold notes are fractional
- Gold notes require trust
- Gold is highly susceptible to theft
- The true value of gold will be remarkably close to what it was pre-fiat (very cumbersome to carry)
- Coinage is property of the issuing government and can be seized easily as history has shown
- Subject to capital controls, tariffs, tolls, or any other inspection that reveals how much you are carrying
- Regularly debased as opposed to a tax increase (it's shady to debase currency rather than increase tax but serves the same purpose)
- The list goes on and on
1. So BTC value isn't currently influenced by speculation?
2. see point 1
3. Trustless? Define trustless because that statement means nothing
4. I agree there but the dollar wasn't always fractional either and it was that very function which killed it
5. what commodity? it isn't tied to anything, unless we have gold bitcoins now
6. ok, because we don't see these exchanges getting ripped off for however many btc
as far as gold goes well there are obvious benefits but I'll dispel it all in one simple statement.
In the event of a major economic collapse you all have the assumption you will be able to afford the internet and power. I'm doubting that anyone could in the event of a collapse. Once those two factors are gone, BTC dies a quick death.