Wall Street set to pour money into Bitcoin (NY Times)

[The Dharma Bum]

[Gremlin]

Ive been a proponent of bitcoin, but not because its network, or encryption structure.
Ive been a proponent of bitcoin because of the idea that you can/should trade without bombing brown people overseas or pointing a gun at your neighbors.

Thats it, all that said i am kicking myself because i decided to buy a trinkets nd trash and yummy food when i went to Porcfest 2012 instead of those physical bitcoins just laying around..... those things are friggn gold now.

[Kane]

I've been under the impression that the convertibility of the currency has always made this highly problematic. Getting your investment from bitcoins back to dollars can be an arduous process that doesn't net what the "market" has valued in terms of your investment. It's been one of the leading problems with the currency in the first place. Not only that, but bit coins values are HIGHLY erratic. What was one bit coin worth at the beginning of this year? How about now?

And it's pretty f**k funny to see Libertarians supportive of a currency that's pretty much fiat. Yes, supply has been limited out to 2040 or whatever but...the future of this currency ultimately rests in people's perception of the safety of any given investment in the currency right?

So there you have it.

[The Dharma Bum]

It's not in any way "pretty much fiat".

[Kane]

[The Dharma Bum]

Certainly not executive fiat, which would be what would be required to make it a fiat currency.

[The Comrade]

how can you possibly argue it's not a fiat currency

[The Dharma Bum]

However, I know what you are trying to ask and the answer is that the intrinsic value is derived from the fact that is is a ledger that solves the double spending problem without using trusted third parties as go betweens. Also the difficulty and expenditure of electricity and processing power+ hardware required to solve a block and unlock the units of account that are the reward for doing so.

[Kane]

[The Dharma Bum]