[...]

*"what good is it? " *Finally, a useful comment on cryptocurrency. When
all is said and done, it is just a pattern of magnetic fields in a thin
film of magnetic material. Now, you can say the same thing for the work I
do. Looked at in simplest, physical terms, I get paid to make patterns of
tiny magnetic fields on films on disks. But that patterns that I help make
reduce down to new programs or firmware to make our customer's equipment
work better, designs for new, better hardware or equipment, instructions on
how to use our hardware and/or software. In short, for our customers at
least, the patterns do reduce down to something of real, intrinsic value,
and the amount of value is determined by the quality of the pattern of
magnetic fields.

But in a bitcoin or other cryptocurrency, although the pattern of magnetic
fields is designed so that no one else can copy it and claim whatever value
it has for me, the pattern has no meaning, use, or value other than
proclaim that it is. Bitcoins have value only because people think they are
cute or fun or whatever, and are willing to trade things of real value for
them. And even pieces of paper with patterns of ink on them have real value
in this sense, because so many, many people will gladly trade them for
items that are of intrinsic value. If suddenly people lost interest in
buying bitcoins (fraud, scandal, etc), then there would be no bottom to the
real world value of those patterns of magnetic fields, because they don't
correspond to anything of intrinsic value. Accept maybe the ones where you
generate special sequences of prime numbers to mine the coins. The sequence
of primes may have some slight value to mathematicians. Or maybe not.

So if you want to have fun with virtual money and have grown tired of
playing with Monopoly money, then bitcoins may be something to play with.
But you are not likely to see me exchanging real money for patterns of
magnetic fields that do nothing more than proclaim that they are patterns
of magnetic fields.

[/soap box]

Mike


> From: Michael Havens <bmike1@gmail.com>
> To: Main PLUG discussion list <plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org>
> Cc:
> Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 17:04:38 -0700
> Subject: Re: bitcoin mining
> never mind.... I just looked at their 'market place'. I think that it
> probably is going nowhere. I mean if you can't buy food *what good is it?*
>
> :-)~MIKE~(-:
>
>
> --
"Creativity is intelligence having fun." -- Albert Einstein
---------------------------------------------------
PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss