Ask HN: Would you use Bitcoins backed by the US Treasury?

Posted by stevewilhelm on Wednesday November 27, 2013 @09:34PM
from the ask-hn dept.

I am wondering, it is possible for the US Treasury to start a Bitcoin Network using an Alternative Chain [1]?

If they could and they backed each of their Bitcoins with the full faith and credit of one dollar, would you buy them?

[1] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Alternative_chain#Handling_your_new_block_chain

( 7 comments | 8 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Would you use Bitcoins backed by the US Treasury? by jacob_smith on Wednesday November 27, 2013 @10:54PM (#6812931)

Wouldn't the US Treasury backing them kind of take away from the decentralized nature? Obviously it wouldn't be printing more money, but I appreciate how it operates outside of a government.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Would you use Bitcoins backed by the US Treasury? by jacobmarble on Tuesday December 03, 2013 @02:11PM (#6842376)

It would be really nice to send a dollar to a friend quickly and without any fee. Like cash, but electronic.

The current banking system has a built-in interest in preventing the existence of this kind of currency, so this kind of change would have to be propelled by government. It isn't likely that the Bitcoin community would be excited, but the rest of us would be.

Of course, they can't get healthcare.gov to work, so...

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Re:Ask HN: Would you use Bitcoins backed by the US Treasury? by gizmo686 on Thursday November 28, 2013 @12:15AM (#6813135)

They wouldn't need to start their own chain. The treasury can simply declare that they will always buy Bitcoins at $1.

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Re:Ask HN: Would you use Bitcoins backed by the US Treasury? by malandrew on Thursday November 28, 2013 @07:15PM (#6817235)

Another question to ask is if such a government backed system is deflationary like Bitcoin, of if they would engineer it so that can still perform quantitative easing.

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Re:Ask HN: Would you use Bitcoins backed by the US Treasury? by rajacombinator on Thursday November 28, 2013 @04:51PM (#6816642)

The most attractive feature of bitcoins is that they are NOT associated with the US Govt. (Or any other.)

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Re:Ask HN: Would you use Bitcoins backed by the US Treasury? by james4k on Thursday November 28, 2013 @12:10AM (#6813119)

Why would these bitcoins be better? What would they be protecting you from?

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Re:Ask HN: Would you use Bitcoins backed by the US Treasury? by jacobmarble on Tuesday December 03, 2013 @02:14PM (#6842396)

The would be protecting you from the volatility of the price of Bitcoin.

I propose that the value of the Fed's eDollar would be tied to the value of a paper dollar. This isn't a "mined coin", rather the Fed would issue eDollars the way it issues paper dollars.

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