Bitcoin - is this the end?

[Professor]

I mean - I did a paper back in grad school. Basically, it was about biometrics and how it would revolutionize our culture. No more keys, as your thumb or eye could unlock any door. No ID cards, as your a basic scanner linked to a database could verify your identity and pull up info on you. No credit/debit cards, cash or checks as all of your accounts could be linked to your bio signature. And, this was all in 2003, so it's only become more of a reality since then.

But, thus far I have only heard of 1 supermarket (somewhere in upper NW, Seattle or Portland) that has put in biometric scanners and allowed customers to use them to access funds and rewards programs. There may be more by now, but they are by no means widespread. Until we allow unfettered electronic access to our current monetary system, I don't see the system changing.

For instance, can I get my paycheck direct deposited into BCs? So many hurdles . . . so little time.

[The Dharma Bum]

[The Dharma Bum]

hmm btc back to 650, imagine that.

[The Comrade]

[The Dharma Bum]

Not saying that at all. Just noting the price has been rising steadily back to where it was.

BTC is the "honeybadger" of currencies.

Unfortunately my mintcoins aren't doing well at all at the moment, however, so ya'll have that you can be happy about.

[Vlad Putin]

[The Dharma Bum]

also bitcoins aren't untraceable. You can follow every transaction on the blockchain. I wouldn't even say they are really anonymous because many addresses are well known.

the point of them, though, is more to achieve fungibility and neutrality. This is the best way for the human race to reach true economic consensus, which is the end game.

economic activity is communication, as point of fact, and in the current situation there are a lot of people whose voices are getting squelched because these factors are lacking in the currency currently being used.

[The Dharma Bum]

basically speaking money has to have the following characteristics:
durability, portability, fungibility, scarcity, divisibility, and recognizability

traditionally this has transpired via exchange for materials that possess certain physical characteristics, like gold and silver

in time the world got bigger and that system broke down and was replaced with another system that could produce money with these characteristics via trust in a central authority

There is another possibility, currency that is secured through application of the the laws of mathematics. If it attains the aforementioned characteristics it becomes money.

Fulfilling the first five characteristics simply by it's nature, as "bitcoin" becomes recognizable to more and more people as a valuable asset it becomes monetized.

At it's basis all money really is an ad hoc system of figuring out one's social position relative to everyone else's. Since an electronic ledger system that doesn't require trust in tokens promulgated by a central authority that very possibly could be corrupt, "bitcoin" is clearly a better choice to fulfill this need of human society.

So that is the direction we will go. Stating opposition to it is bit like claiming the electric light bulb, the microwave oven, or computers will never catch on.

[Winchester]

I see the charts have perked up a bit today. It's somewhat interesting, there seem to be a lot of true believers out there.

[Dylan]