Topic: George Selgin discusses privatization of the money supply based on Bitcoin - page 2. (Read 3505 times)

i consider this to be significant endorsement for Bitcoin.  for someone of Selgins reputation to be advocating for the USD monetary system to be based on a computerized concept such as Bitcoin is highly relevant.

he advocates a hard target for 5% spending which i don't see meshing well with Bitcoin's set supply.  whats wrong with a fixed supply of money?  prices will just decrease over time as the economy grows. there is nothing wrong with this.  the main bullish argument for a fixed supply of money is that businesses and savers can count on their money retaining its value.  i, being an inherent saver, would be more than willing to lend out my savings for additional return or even for investing in risk assets such as stock.  with the exchange value of my money whipping all over the place under the current regime, i am LESS willing to speculate with my money b/c now i have to worry about exchange value along with speculative risk.

he also misunderstands the part where he says that alt cryptocurrencies can appear alongside the "original" Bitcoin which will "always survive".  if an alt chain rises up that is better than Bitcoin, it will take over and eliminate Bitcoin.  he should describe this market based phenomenon as a "democratic" voting process whereby the best product will win.  this is a good thing.  if a gov't tries to subvert the Bitcoin code to re establish an advantage for itself, the rest of the open market will reject the code and the longest chain will prevail essentially thru a democratic voting process to adopt the code or not.

all in all he's on the right track in endorsing an automated system that eliminates the "discretionary" printing press that favors crony capitalists for a system that is inherently democratic and favors no one group.  this is the essence of Bitcoin and we now can see that the establishment is beginning to come around.

the Bitcoin pessimists here will say that gov'ts will fight Bitcoin and establish their own server farms to destroy it.  i say that the collective will of humanity will not reject a good idea like Bitcoin but will in fact over time embrace it.

Isn't the problem that the money supply is an oligopoly/cartel of private central banks?

Basically, money is already privatized.  The important order business is breaking up the cartel and the monopolies that each cartel member holds in their respective countries.

Paid £3 for the skyfire browser just so I could watch this flash video on my iPad:). I'll contribute 1btc to anyone who makes a transcription of this.

...except the part about calling it a "uniquely American phenomenon"

was worth watching for me for sure. thanks for posting.

he got the part about bitcoin quite right (surprisingly to me) and I got the impression he suggests that central banks schedule their open market interventions and announce the rules and limits in advance so that the amount of base money is predictable over time. no emergency direct lending. interesting

edit: no graphs, could be a podcast

Thanks for finding this. I read all of George's work.

From the Market Monetarist, economist George Selgin discusses a privatisation of the money supply based on what he calls a Quasi Commodity Standard (QCS). QCS is inspired by the technological development of Bitcoin. Basically he sees a three step procedure for the privatisation of the money supply and going from the present fiat based monetary monopoly to what he calls a Free Banking system based on a Quasi Commodity Standard rather than gold.

http://twitcam.livestream.com/8eouu

You need a bit of patience if you want to watch the whole thing. It starts out in Italian but at the 5 minute mark switches to English. The presentation lasts around 45 minutes. He talks about QCS at 37 minutes and Bitcoin at 40 minutes.