Re:Bitcoins up another 42% since August 1st
by eli_gottlieb on Thursday August 16, 2012 @11:50PM
(#4394982)
Now go try and see how many bushels of wheat you can get your hands on with just exchanging tally sticks. Then try to buy some using gold.
No farmers near me take payment in anything except United States Dollars.
Re:Bitcoins up another 42% since August 1st
by w0utert on Friday August 17, 2012 @04:19AM
(#4395517)
Well I think they would if you actually tried, but anyway, this is going nowhere. I was just making the point that gold has always had value, and has outlived every form of currency that has ever existed, and will continue to do so, just because there are no real alternatives for it.
With that said, I'd recommend you to lookup some history of monetary systems, and see what systems survived for how long, and how they came to collapse. Just because bitcoins are digital, a product of technology, doesn't make them any different from tally sticks. It's just a way to exchange stuff without having to barter. Maybe bitcoins are much harder to counterfeit then tally sticks, but then again, it is probably also much easier to sabotage the systems required to trade them. In the end, the currency that sticks around the longest when all the other systems fail, will be the most reliable one to preserve wealth. It's a self-reinforcing process even.
Now go try and see how many bushels of wheat you can get your hands on with just exchanging tally sticks. Then try to buy some using gold.