http://www.openmarket.org/2011/06/06/bitcoins-four-objections/
The bias is obvious with statements like:
"The unbridgeable gap here is the transition from being used by a small group of hobbyists in barter to being used by financial institutions and the man on the street as a proper money."
I think he means currently existing "financial institutions" and MY "proper money"
Maybe we can help him as a gold/BTC trader.
I left him this response:The bias is obvious with statements like:
"The unbridgeable gap here is the transition from being used by a small group of hobbyists in barter to being used by financial institutions and the man on the street as a proper money."
I think he means currently existing "financial institutions" and MY "proper money"
Maybe we can help him as a gold/BTC trader.
I really think this is a misunderstanding of the regression theorem. As I understand it, the regression theorem can only be used to explain the exchange value of a good that is being used in indirect exchange. It can not be used to disqualify any good from becoming money once it has actually established an exchange value. Even Rothbard said that once a good has exchange value, it does no longer need a use value, quote "On the other hand, while money had to originate as a directly useful commodity, for example, gold, there is no reason, in the light of the regression theorem, why such direct uses must continue afterward for the commodity to be used as money" (http://www.econlib.org/library/NPDBooks/Dolan/dlnFMA12.html).
Bitcons have an exchange value today and is being used in indirect exchange to some degree. I don't think there is anyway to deny that. So the only thing we can do with the regression theorem here, is to apply it to bitcoin and trace back it's (still somewhat limited) current exchange value in time to see where it originates from.
So bitcoin has an exchange value today since it had an exchange value yesterday. It had one yesterday since it had one the day before that and so on. If we go far enough back in time we will come to the first bitcoin exchange that ever took place (a 10.000 BTC pizza as I understand it). Why someone would actually exchange a pizza for bitcoins with no exchange value we can only guess, but reasonably the ownership of bitcoins gave him some sort of utility. According to the regression theorem (as I understand it), this very first transaction is where all of todays bitcoin value originates from. Bitcoins had some use value to someone, and this was enough to also give it an exchange value.
I think austrians should be very excited with bitcoin. It does not derive it's value from any other good (I've heard some people call it a dollar proxy). Bitcoin is the regression theorem in action, from the beginning.
It doesn't seem to be at the web site though. Does he read through the comments before accepting them?
