The satellite allows those people to also be able to get the Blockstream's approved version of the blockchain (well part of it, only new blocks right now)
FTFA
You people need to stop pretending it's even possible to create a decentralized cryptocurrency in the first place. Nothing resembling a Nash equilibrium will EVER exist in these things, only an exposed power vacuum to be taken over by a monopoly man or cartel.
To use silver as currency you need to mint them, and you need consensus so that the merchant might accept it. Also silver coins are defined by purity, less pure coins value less and so are used to buy cheaper stuff. In the past silver coins minted by foreign authorities were weighed by merchants and were valued according to their weight. However you can't carry too much silver coins inside your pockets, and they call attention from people who might steal them from you.
With bitcoin you can carry a chest full of silver inside a cellphone. And you can put a password on it so nobody can steal it. You will still need consensus, which is the primary requirement for any currency.
Nice false equivalence tactics you shills. You start with the premise that bitcoin is actually valid when it's not because it's designed to centralize and it's value proposition is supposed to be based on decentralization. Therefore it has no actual value if going by fundamentals alone. It's also not fungible, has built-in middlemen, and doesn't remove counter party risk, so the most it can be is a currency like dollars or airline miles and not money.
As for silver, in the old days people transacted in coins minted by the state usually. At this point in history people didn't have access to knowledge and technology to verify if the silver was real or not so they were transacting entirely on the basis of the state's insignia. In other words, they were still using the equivalent of fiat. However, in the 21st century the state's insignia is now irrelevant because it's very easy for the common man to test if the silver is real or not such as resonance test, specific gravity test, magnet test, etc. There are even free phone apps where you can just ping the metal and the microphone picks it up and tells you if it's real .999 silver by the resonance.
This means metals in the past were no different than fiat, but now metals are no longer fiat anymore. Technology has allowed them to be assessed by anyone without the state's seal being required. Worst case scenario, places like grocery stores would just use handheld xray units like this to detect metal content in seconds:
http://www.bruker.com/products/x-ray-diffraction-and-elemental-analysis/handheld-xrf/s1-titan-series/overview.htmlSo yea, welcome to the 21st century you fools, where metals became an even stronger form of money due to technology, while it's still impossible to create a decentralized digital currency, thus digital currency has no value.
