Re:Coinbase Is Now Selling Over $1M USD Of Bitcoin Per Month
by anigbrowl on Friday February 08, 2013 @09:00PM
(#5191198)
The problem with all fiat currencies is they have no inherent value; it is all in the eye of the beholder.
Apart from the claim on a country's treasury which is implicitly backed by a country's resources. Sure, this isn't always reliable, as in the case of countries like Zimbabwe, but they're very much the exception rather than the rule. Bitcoin's fiat value is posited on the artificial scarcity of something that doesn't have any particular utility in the first place. Gold at least has the virtue of looking nice and having useful physical properties (malleability, non-reactivity, high conductivity).
Apart from the claim on a country's treasury which is implicitly backed by a country's resources. Sure, this isn't always reliable, as in the case of countries like Zimbabwe, but they're very much the exception rather than the rule. Bitcoin's fiat value is posited on the artificial scarcity of something that doesn't have any particular utility in the first place. Gold at least has the virtue of looking nice and having useful physical properties (malleability, non-reactivity, high conductivity).