Quote from: brucewagner on April 25, 2011, 10:33:45 AM

After a recent radio interview, I received a phone call from a guy in brazil who said he had bought bitcoin for half a cent each.

Love Leo Laporte.... but OnlyOneTV plans to be much larger that TWiT.

Someone proposed an idea to me today. The idea was intended as a way to solve the problem of the volatile value of a bitcoin ...for merchants who just want a US dollar. The idea is a Bitdollar. A new separate network, forked off of the Bitcoin code... but one where the value is locked in and tied to the USD.

I see lots of problems with this idea. What about you? Thoughts about this idea?

Anything resembling the name "dollar" will get shot down in the US. They don't want people to confuse it for FRN dollars.

Merchants don't want a "US dollar" in the literal sense. They just want a unit of measurement of value that's relatively reliable over time, like a measuring stick that doesn't change its length. If you peg your fork to the FRN dollar, it will experience the same fate as the FRN dollar, whatever that fate may be. You would be doing the merchants you talked to a disservice if you offer them anything that depreciates in value over time. Offering them the same thing as a FRN dollar and giving it a different literal name isn't much of a real solution since the only thing different is the name.

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"
and phonetically
"Arrows by any other name would pierce as sharp"