81–90 of 306 posts
Bitcoin is not an investment scheme. It's a payment system. Unfortunately people are looking at it as an investment scheme. Even if it was an investment scheme it hardly fits the definition of a ponzi scheme. In any new investment whether it's a startup or bitcoin the early investors make out better than later investors. That is not the definition of a ponzi scheme.
Bitcoin is not an investment scheme. It's a payment system. Unfortunately people are looking at it as an investment scheme. Even if it was an investment scheme it hardly fits the definition of a ponzi scheme. In any new investment whether it's a startup or bitcoin the early investors make out better than later investors. That is not the definition of a ponzi scheme.
The problem is that the heavily restricted money supply and inherent deflationary pressure built into the currency make it a poor medium of exchange, since they provide an incentive to hoard Bitcoin rather than spend it. Something that is scarce, restricted in future supply, and of high demand will tend to serve as a magnet for speculation.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. Sometimes he's good but definitely not on this topic.
This is maybe a stupid question but what does it mean to be Austrian in this context? Is he born in Austria or is this a reference to the Austrian School of Economics?
Bitcoin is not an investment scheme. It's a payment system. Unfortunately people are looking at it as an investment scheme. Even if it was an investment scheme it hardly fits the definition of a ponzi scheme. In any new investment whether it's a startup or bitcoin the early investors make out better than later investors. That is not the definition of a ponzi scheme.
The problem is that the heavily restricted money supply and inherent deflationary pressure built into the currency make it a poor medium of exchange, since they provide an incentive to hoard Bitcoin rather than spend it. Something that is scarce, restricted in future supply, and of high demand will tend to serve as a magnet for speculation.
Given easy convertibility, bitcoin's deflationary effect is spread over the whole economy, not just bitcoin. So far, bitcoin's not big enough for that to be noticeable.
He focuses on one usecase of bitcoins, while completely ignoring the other. Yes, bitcoins are being bought with the expectation that their price is going to raise in the future, and this clearly is not sustainable. But they are also being used to transfer money between individuals. There the price fluctuation doesn't matter that much (if the merchant immediately converts into USD). Lately there have been many people…
The people who set the price will be those who are interested in holding bitcoin. People who hold bitcoin instantaneously do not affect the value almost by definition.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Curious, how does Litecoin solve the 51% problem? Is this related to its 2.5 minute confirmation time, vs. Bitcoin's 10 minutes?
Litecoin does not solve any problem, just the proof of work algorithm is changed. The block time has nothing to do with it really, it just makes people believe one confirmation is as strong as any other (Litecoin's are actually just 4 times weaker).
Clearly a litecoin confirmation is weaker than a bitcoin confirmation, but 4 or 12 litecoin confirmations should be much stronger than 1 or 3 bitcoin confirmations.
Important to note: The author of the article, Gary North, is the same guy who predicted a "failure of the global Information Technology (IT) infrastructure and that it would precipitate severe disruption and the complete collapse of the international economy, leaving American Christians to restore society following the collapse." Also, he "favors capital punishment for a range of offenders; these include women who li…
I'm wondering where all the up votes came from though.
The author completely omits the two main advantages of Bitcoin over traditional currencies/banking: 1) it's blazing fast. Ten minutes and someone deep in African desert can wire money to a researcher on one of those scientific outposts. Try to do that with a bank. 2) If done right, Bitcoins are anonymous like cash. In light of the recent NSA scandal, I don't believe a second that the NSA/other governments will reduce…
Square Cash is faster than that, and the money on your debit card is significantly easier to spend than Bitcoin.