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Nice article from Forbes:
When governments undermine faith in their currencies people turn to alternatives. Weak as the dollar has been in recent years, for example, it is still seen in many parts of the world as infinitely preferable to the local money, which is why most of our physical currency- especially our hundred dollar bills– circulate outside the US. So it is no surprise that as the Fed readies another round of money printing, more and more Americans want to experiment with alternative currencies. Hence the intense interest in the digital phenomenon called the Bitcoin. Online trading has mushroomed. Alas, the Bitcoin is not the answer to the Federal Reserve’s depredations against the dollar.
The basic reason: it has no fixed value. It trades like a stock or commodity. In recent days it has been crashing after a spectacular rise in terms of dollars. Such volatility makes it useless as a means to do transactions. Money has only one purpose–it makes doing transactions, that is buying and selling products and services and securities, infinitely easier than barter. All the other purposes of money flow from this basic function.
Money is most optimal when it is fixed in value just as commerce is facilitated when we have fixed weights and measures. When you buy a pound of hamburger you expect to get 16 ounces of meat. An hour has 60 minutes. A mile has 5280 feet. These measurements don’t “float.”
So too money best lubricates commerce when it has a fixed value. This is best seen in investing. When you make a capital expenditure or a buy an equity, you are obviously taking a risk. With stocks, you are buying future streams of income. Same with that new factory. But the risk is increased exponentially if you don’t know what you will be paid back with. Is it a 100 cent dollar, a 20 cent, or a 115 cent dollar?Comment -
Man.. im just reading all this bitcoin stuff now .. and i can't read fast enough to satisfy my anxiousness.
I used to have bitcoin when it was $5 - 2 years ago... I was shocked when i saw it reached $250
I had about $200 ... however i was using it to buy somethin... that would have been $8000 at its peak.
thus.. im going to search for some bitcoin alternative and lob some small investments.Comment -
rip milwauker mikerComment -
There is not currently, at least in my opinion, a valid alternative that would justify some speculative money other then bitcoin.
All the "alternatives" are essentially the same thing, based on the same open source code, with a few tweaks, the rise and fall of their price is essentially identical to the rise and fall in the price of bitcoin, except with smaller networks and less media coverage.
The smaller networks also make them very vulnerable to attack, keep in mind that what keeps the bitcoin network so secure is the amount of computing power used by the miners to maintain the network. With all the bitcoin derivatives, they lack the large network of miners.
If there ever is a "bitcoin alternative", it will be based on new code, more of a spiritual successor to bitcoin then a derivative, and right now it does not exist.Comment -
Yeah I gotta hit those up again, my schedule has changed so I might have some mornings free again. I got a windows laptop to use on the side so I can play poker and shit, it was about the only thing that I was missing after switching to Linux.Comment -
Why don't u install some VMWare on ur windows machine so you can run on it any OS's that you like, including Linux.Comment -
No, my whole point in switching to Linux was that on an unpartitioned hard drive, it is LITERALLY about 300 percent faster then running windows, extremely secure, almost completely virus proof, free, and has significantly better software.
Running it in a virtual machine is pointless, as it nullifies all of these points, its like playing a game in an emulator.
I honestly have no use for windows, at all, except for some poker software, just picked up a cheap netbook for a couple hundred to dick around on if I need it, but it is absolutely atrocious to use.Comment -
I should clarify: I do not use Linux because I need access to special software that it supports, I use it because it is significantly better then any other operating system out there, in LITERALLY every possible way, with the only exception being the lack of support for high end proprietary specialized software, I made the switch several months ago, I will never go back.
Somewhat related: I bought my mom a Netbook for her birthday, she is almost 60, I had Linux installed on it and set it up with a bunch of good open source software. She is not tech savvy, at all, says she has never had a computer work so well in her life, will never use Windows again.Comment -
Well my point was, if my 60 year old mother can figure this shit out, anyone can, literally.Comment
