The Implications of Bitcoin: Money Without Government

Coin Desk ^ | 23 January 2014 | Jon Matonis

[Errant]

One of my favorite things about bitcoin is how it’s such an all-inclusive tent.

Bitcoin attracts political idealists from the right, political idealists from the left, Silicon Valley technologists, social science academics, philosophers, capitalists, socialists, and even apolitical speculators.

Alex Payne kicked off this latest round of analysis with his blog piece: “Bitcoin, Magical Thinking, and Political Ideology”. A self-described programmer and secular humanist, Payne worked as an early engineer at Twitter building the service’s developer platform and backend infrastructure.

[Errant]

Excellent piece with insight on the implications if crytocurrencies go viral.

[Errant]

Click to be Added / Removed.

[dfwgator]

Or it will provide an excuse for government to get even more intrusive.

[narses]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-21/bitcoin-no-bargain-as-47-of-investors-go-bearish-in-poll.html

Bitcoin No Bargain as 47% of Investors Go Bearish in Poll

[Pearls Before Swine]

It sounds enticing. But, money without electricity? One desirable property in money is as an anonymous bearer instrument. Does cash fit into the Bitcoin paradigm?

[ClearCase_guy]

A lot of science fiction operates in this realm. If money is anonymous and untraceable, taxes become impossible. Governments cannot be funded and they cease to exist. The marketplace continues, and violence and coercion (the primary task of government in the past) continues, but not as before.

Bitcoin doesn't take us to that world, but I think we will get there before too long.

I also think that governments may be willing to crash the existing system and impose full-scale tyranny if they think the concept of government may be approaching its expiration date. In fact, I think this is what is currently going on.

[Errant]

You think government had Bitcoin in mind when they ordered a billion bullets, armored vehicles and etc.? At most, they’ll just add Bitcoin to their laundry list of perceive threats to their power or authority. ;)

[ClearCase_guy]

Think thumb drive. Cash on a chip. You need to plug it into a system with electricity, but you walk around with cash in your pocket. If it’s keyed to a phrase only you know, then the cash is yours and no one else’s. It can’t be stolen, but it can be spent.

[sten]

last January, bitcoin was USD$12 per coin and it’s now trading at USD$800/btc ... an increase of 6600% in a single year.

that level of ‘volatility’ I’ll take any day... especially when the USD has decreased in value during the same time frame

[Errant]

Cash has its niche. Bicoin creates a new one that has its advantages. Likewise both have disadvantages. A big disadvantage for Bitcoin is it’s the new kid on the block. Anybody remember when we didn’t have credit cards?

[Errant]

I tend to agree with you. I do believe we will soon enter a new age or epoch far different from the one we’re living in now.

[narses]

Madoff went years making people money. Scamsters often do.

[Pearls Before Swine]

I can see how a thumb drive can be cash-like, if the grid is up. I’m not pooh-poohing the whole thing; just saying that physical cash has some attractions that bitcoin doesn’t seem to fill yet.

[ClearCase_guy]

I won't even begin to write a full explanation, but for many, many reasons, I think the "Modern" period of history (which has been in place since the 1600s or so) is ending, and we are going to into a wrenching change that will re-invent just about everything. Much of the foundation of our modern age is wearing thin in one way or another.

Or else we'll just go straight to The Rapture and nothing else will matter.

[dfwgator]

So what happens when the government takes down the Internet? (And don’t think they don’t have the capability).

[Pearls Before Swine]

No net, no power—a problem. That’s why I asked about real cash.

[Jet Jaguar]

What are your thoughts on litecoin? Is mining for them feasible for an individual?

[Errant]

Sure, and PMs even more important to have some of, incase of a grid down world. If the grid goes down or even the internet for any length time, it will be a cataclysmic event. It’s why I find it pretty stupid of us to put a internet kill switch into the hands of one person. Worse, one we really don’t know a lot about and from observation, isn’t too wise or even stable.

[ClearCase_guy]

physical cash has some attractions

Completely off topic, but an old family story. My grandfather graduated from Princeton in 1929 (not good timing, but that's another matter). Some time before graduation he was taking a physics class and the teacher was discussing magnetism. The teacher explained that several metals were magnetically attractive -- nickel and cobalt, for example.

"But," the professor said, "There is no metal more attractive than iron."

My grandfather dug out a $20 gold piece and said, "Here is metal more attractive." He ended up going into banking.

[Errant]

IMO, we'll have a period of major tribulation and even war before the elect are transformed/raptured, if that be the case. Even if this isn't that time, I still look for much turmoil on the horizon as the mistakes of the last few decades come home to roost.

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