Quote from: jtimon on June 25, 2012, 02:48:15 PM

Quote from: MoonShadow on June 25, 2012, 02:22:08 PM

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Why do we need to rely on faith? Why can't we discuss it using logic and praxeology.

If we did, we would all be austrians. Praxeology (which includes logic, so that statement is redundant) is uniquely related to Austrian Economic theory. It's not much of a stretch to say that Praxeology is Austrian Economic theory as applied to all of human intereactions, and not just value exchanges.

I teach Praxeology to middle shool aged homeschoolers at a local coop, and from what I've read of your arguments (admittedly, less than before when we had our debates a few months ago) I question your understanding of Praxeology. I question mine as well, as it applies to Bitcoin. I don't think that there is enough available data to make any judgements. The great risk is letting your own prefrences color your conclusions. just because you (or I) might consider one perspective the logical reaction, does not necessarily make it so.

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I think that austrians are very accurate in a lot of things, but their prejudices against everything public don't allow them to see anything negative in gold as money, because that could lead to the need of public money.

Take this statement for example. You misrepresent the Austrian persepctive, likely because you don't understand it; which implies that you don't understand the praxeological argument behind it. Austrians don't oppose all things public, nor do we oppose public monetary systems because they are public. Simply put, we oppose central banking because it's an affront to the free market system. When a central bank sets intrest rates, it's engaging in price controls of half of nearly every private exchange. Gold is favored by Austrians because it's historically money, not because it is perfect.

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Fortunately bitcoin technology makes free market money compatible with demurrage today.

You still havn't shown how to do that without breaking autonomy, as far as I know. Also, the praxeological argument trips up the idea of demurrage. Demurrage is a forced loss, but Bitcoin exists. So there is no logical reason (that I can see) that such a cyrptocurrency with demurrage would be favored by savers. Like it or not 'hoarders' contribute to the value of the currency.