Topic: 2013-08-30 Forbes - 10 Reasons Bitcoin Is The MySpace Of Money And What Might Sa - page 2. (Read 3924 times)

It is also good to listen to our critics so that we can better craft the antitoxin messages.  The truth is a great disinfectant.  The author also seems to hate Liberty Dollars so here we go...

1) Marginally legal.  There is nothing illegal about owning/bartering Liberty Dollars, gold or Bitcoin.  Fraud is always illegal, so don't lie about money, no matter the type.
2) East to shut down  Easy is a relative statement.  Is the Internet easy to shut down?  None of the things he claims is easy to shut down has been shut down, they just (usually) route around the legal barriers to avoid the parts of the network where they are legally prohibited.
3) It fluctuates  Yes, mostly up.
4) It’s scarce, by design No problem. Unlike NY taxi medallions it is divisible and spendable at any fraction of a whole, 1/1000000 bitcoin is still money.
5) It’s deflationary The requirement for inflation is a myth.  Economies do not require it to exist, quite the contrary, variable inflation has crashed economies through hyperinflation.
6) Nobody cares Hi, meet nobody.  Pleased to meet you.  
7) It’s more complex than Linux  So was Linux, you should have seen Debian in '93, seems to be doing ok after a few decades.
8) Benefits to merchants are marginal  I'm happy with +3% margin, thank you!
9) It’s online only psst... heard of Amazon, or Google?  Most money is digital these days 1.2Trillion USD is physical, 44Trillion is digital, so maybe there is some use for it.
10) Sketchy origins and security  Has Jeckyll Island beat there (origin of the Federal Reserve).

Sure, Bitcoin is an experiment.  So was the automobile.

(Not going to read any article with "MySpace of money" in the title, but...) If the USD stopped inflating, the US would be completely fucked. Can you even imagine the implications of houses without that strong upward pressure on nominal value, and loans actually costing money? The housing market would tank from all the new underwater housing loans, setting off an economic shitstorm. The global economy would falter and possible enter a global depression for a decade or more. USG default would be unavoidable if the USD quickly moved from being inflationary to deflationary. We'd lose all that effective revenue from devaluing our national debt, so it'd probably be necessary to cut off the vast majority of welfare, and while it might be nice that the price of bread isn't increasing a few % each year, they won't be buying any bread with no job, decreasing equity in their house, and no welfare.

The USD isn't popular just because it's legal tender. Huge USD loans are practically free, often value-generating for consumers and businesses. A BTC-denom mortgage might sound cool, but it'd be a flat-out stupid choice by the lendee, and that's why I doubt BTC will ever successfully kick a fiat currency out of any country without an ideological uprising. Parents Against Inflationary Numismatics?

ETA: liberatarians love to talk about inflation and the national debt separately, but tend not to connect the two. Our national debt is right around $17t. In FY2012, we paid ~$360b on that. If we achieve 5% annual inflation, that $17t debt devalues by $850b. The USG would effectively generate $490b by having issued a shit-load of debt while inflating the currency and still maintaining confidence in that currency and the USG. The USG debt GENERATES REVENUE, and we make other countries pay for it. That's the most awesome Jew-fu out there.

"This article says bitcoin won’t work, just like the internet didn’t work, or email didn’t work. I’m sure there was some monkey somewhere saying, “Don’t go out of the trees, it won’t work. Don’t waste your time.”


 

Put people in imaginary boxes, exaggerate and attack things that aren't there. It's a classic approach.

From my point of view, the author's comments reveal the most:

"The fact that dollars lose value makes you spend or invest them. That is what drives economic activity"

I think a lot of Bitcoin enthusiasts got ahead of this old way of thinking. If depreciating dollars would drive activity, our economy would be booming for the last 30 years non-stop.

Good luck holding on to your dollars (and shaky ideas), Sir!

True. And it was overwritten. But there were some funny jokes, at least. +1 OP

In an attempt to conceal his ignorance he indulges in way too many bad analogies, allegories and mixed metaphors. Insecure, techno-phobe no doubt. The style is designed to invite controversy while adding nothing of substance. Notice how he juxtaposes libterteers with criminals in his kindergarten pie-chart ... Statist money stooge protecting his lunch money, the longer these kind of guys are out of bitcoin the better. Suck it up chumps, we ain't going nowhere. 

(NB: he'll be buying in at the top ... and worrying all the way up that he missed out on the biggest step change in monetary usage in 3 centuries.)

First paragraph smear words: "disciple, PETA, jihad, apostles" - so you know what the game will be.

The author says about himself "I have a small obsession with solving big problems. After the economy tanked and my portfolio looked like a tip jar in Tikrit...." In other words, he didn't see it coming.

I think you're right about the articles that get posted here. I try to Google the news for bitcoin to see what's new, then usually come back here for discussion. It seemed to me that the articles have become genuinely better and or more positive over the summer, so it's ones like this that stand out to me.

The problem I have is with the first half of the article with the 10 problems he outlines. They seem so narrow-minded that I had a hard time trying to keep the interest to read the rest of the article. Erik does a great job in the comments addressing these points.

The suggestions he has are not entirely bad, but they come after having to wade through so much tripe.

Actually that article is not completely negative and makes some valid points about bitcoin's risks. The title makes it sound more negative then it is.  

For better or worse, it’s Bitcoin or bust. The mission for entrepreneurs is clear: 1) Fix Bitcoin’s flaws – if you can. 2) Win over regulators. 3) Build a business on top of Bitcoin’s open architecture... This whole experience will accelerate The Bitcoining of the US Dollar and the death of cash. That will create some big opportunities and hairy challenges.

There are many, many deplorably poor articles on Forbes re:Bitcoin/cryptocurrency. Perhaps we've just been introspectively selective in our choice of those that have been posted on this sub-board. Contemplating buying into something you don't understand at $130 must be hard on the minds of these people    Penning disparaging articles is the only action they can take to soothe their febrile indecision 

Wow... what an appalling bad article.  In fact, the only reason I am posting it here is really so that you shouldn't even waste your time reading this.  Unfortunately I read it - although the comments that attack the author's "points" are quite entertaining.  Sadly, the author still defends his position to the end...

Hard to believe the level of ignorance still around (unless its just a targeted hatchet piece).  Sad to see from Forbes, when I have become so used to seeing John Matonis' fantastic articles.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevefaktor/2013/08/30/10-reasons-bitcoin-is-the-myspace-of-money-and-what-might-save-it/