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Topic: If Bitcoin was backed by Gold, how would it change its adoption? - page 2. (Read 2889 times)

full member
Activity: 378
Merit: 100
If Bitcoin was backed by gold, it would be merely a token for gold. An IOU, literally. And whoever physically held/controlled the gold could alter the exchange rate on a whim. Or remove that backing on a whim. Or by Presidential decree, if you get my gist. A central issuer would decree that it has value, and thus, necessarily, what that value is, in relation to gold.

Bitcoin backed by gold, or backed by anything else, would not be Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is backed by Bitcoin.

Bitcoin the 'currency' is backed by bitcoin the protocol.

It's value lies in the secure record of transactions called the blockchain, and it's value is derived from the work required to effect that security, i.e. the work involved in 'mining', the cryptographic securing of the blockchain. Proof of that Work is implicitly proof of bitcoins value.

Or to put it another way, the faith in Bitcoin's value is inextricably linked to the faith in the security, that is provided by the work required to ensure that security.
sr. member
Activity: 448
Merit: 250
As Andreas Antonopoulos says: "What is backing gold?"
newbie
Activity: 42
Merit: 0
if bitcoin is backed by something,i think bitcoin will go into a failure
newbie
Activity: 41
Merit: 0
buy and hold bitcoin is the most wisdom choice
newbie
Activity: 24
Merit: 0
it's still a long and tough way to go in the next decade
full member
Activity: 330
Merit: 100
it would definitely attract a lot more peoples attention , although in the long run i dont think it needs that , that would also require some sort of centralization to back it
sr. member
Activity: 448
Merit: 250
I think will be a good thing,most of the skeptical people will see it with better eyes a correlation between gold and bitcoin. Bitcoin and Gold price will go up.
newbie
Activity: 27
Merit: 0
I believe it wouldn't change a bit. You can exchange now gold for bitcoin and vice versa. The problem of long not accepting bitcoin is that it's hard and scary for ordinary people to understand how it works..like all brand new technologies it needs good marketing!
hero member
Activity: 672
Merit: 500
My fear is google just does a pre-mine and backs a coin with a certain number of their shares. The GOOGLE COIN.....the coin that doesn't fluctuate madly and is instantly accepted everywhere.

That's a very interesting idea, except this "gcoin" need not be a crypto anymore. No mining, no blockchain... Google will be the issuer, exchange and clearing, behind closed doors (but open for FBI/NSA).
full member
Activity: 180
Merit: 100
Apparently, one altcoin already has precious metal backing:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=598224.0;topicseen

That alt-coin is not "backed" by gold. I can not trade my coin for a piece of gold from them. They are no different from the federal reserve.

Bitcoin however can be exchanged freely for gold.
legendary
Activity: 1372
Merit: 1014
You do the backing, the FBI will come for you and steal your gold, so simple. Google Liberty Dollar.
hero member
Activity: 667
Merit: 500
Backing just re-introduces counterparty risk and we're back at square one with this whole thing. The emergent awesome of crypto is that Bitcoin itself behaves as an asset.

A subjective theory of value makes the whole premise boil down to infinite regression reminiscent of a child asking "if god created everything the who created god?". If a crypto were backed by gold, then what backs gold?
legendary
Activity: 1414
Merit: 1000
HODL OR DIE
If a crypto is backed by gold, then the gold reserve would need to increase by the same amount as the block reward each and every day. If not, the price of the crypto would just fall in proportion to the increase in the supply of the crypto. Is this possible to implement? Yes, I guess so, but who would want to implement it? It takes a lot of investment with no real profits.

It would just be a pre-mine. Each coin would be worth say, 1oz of gold stored in a vault and audited by a third party every x number of months. It's not an insane idea. There are ETFs that at basically the same thing such as http://www.centralfund.com/. My fear is google just does a pre-mine and backs a coin with a certain number of their shares. The GOOGLE COIN.....the coin that doesn't fluctuate madly and is instantly accepted everywhere.










STT
legendary
Activity: 4088
Merit: 1452
See my avatar, that was a coin backed by silver.   It didnt take off for whatever reason, so far as I know.  It was from last summer but as you avatars cannot be altered now


Bitcoin cannot be paired with gold, they are dissimilar.  Gold if stored is a means to disrupt and confiscate value of the network and it would cause a failure unfortunately.   Gold is still used mostly by very large entities such as governments which have the military to guard its centralised value nature.
   The simple answer is if you pair btc to gold, it will be taken for taxes as history has shown many times over very many years.    The only way thats not true is if the gold is distributed and the word for that medium is gold coins, just doesnt add up sorry


You can pay a jeweller or bullion dealer in btc, its been done for a while. no reason why not, the exchange rate varies of course.  If you wanted a genuine link it would be oil as alot of energy is used to extract gold, so they are naturally paired
hero member
Activity: 672
Merit: 500
If a crypto is backed by gold, then the gold reserve would need to increase by the same amount as the block reward each and every day. If not, the price of the crypto would just fall in proportion to the increase in the supply of the crypto. Is this possible to implement? Yes, I guess so, but who would want to implement it? It takes a lot of investment with no real profits.
hero member
Activity: 667
Merit: 500
Ripple is centralized. Also, have yet to see it properly explained, least of all by its backers.

Reading Ripple forums is truly a scary experience. Anyone who thinks Bitcoin is a crazy cult ought to look at those people!
legendary
Activity: 2268
Merit: 1278
Ripple is centralized. Also, have yet to see it properly explained, least of all by its backers.
legendary
Activity: 2268
Merit: 1278
It's not possible. It wasn't the last hundreds of times people thought halfheartedly about it and it won't be the next ten thousand times either. It's not part of the design.
hero member
Activity: 546
Merit: 500
I would rather have gold on deposit in a leveraged trading account than gold in my hands. I would trust 1broker.com with my gold just like I trust them with my bitcoins today.


Merica is just going to go steal the gold and silver from whoever is holding it to back the crypto, zero questions asked.  They use the word terroism and everything is a green light.
Shocked
It's scary to think that storing/hiding gold could become a risky endeavor due to US government monitoring in the near future:

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department sent a civilian aircraft over Compton, California, capturing high-resolution video of everything that happened inside that 10-square-mile municipality

Even if you have gold in a brokerage firm, you can count on US government surveilance.
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