Thu Mar 20 15:17:42 MST 2014

people investing in Bitcoin are nuts.

On Thu, Mar 20, 2014 at 3:15 PM, Paul Mooring <paul at getchef.com> wrote:

> I find this to be a rather interesting view point.  Paper money is
> generally used for something vastly different than the primary reason
> people want bit coins.  Paper money (or digital money on a debit card/bank
> account) is a stand in for wealth, it's value is meant to be fairly static
> and fluctuations in it's value are consider inflation of the economy as a
> whole.  That's why it's the primary vehicle used for trade, it's sole
> purpose to to facilitate in the transferring of already accumulated wealth.
>
> Bitcoin on the other hand is generally desired more as an investment
> (without making judgements on how prudent of an investment it is, you more
> than likely would desire bitcoin because you hope it will be worth a larger
> portion of overall wealth in the future).  With this in mind, saying "what
> good is it?" is the same as asking what good are non-voting shares of a
> public company.  If you have non-voting shares in say APPL or GOOG, the
> fact that you can't reasonably trade them for food doesn't make them devoid
> of value.  Also the fact that the value of those shares fluctuate
> independent of the economy/dollar is the only reason you would want them at
> all.
>
> I don't particularly think bitcoin is worth investing in, but regardless
> of it's original intent it's mostly used as an investment now.
>
>
>  On Thu, Mar 20, 2014 at 2:16 PM, Eric Cope <eric.cope at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> just an FYI - there is no intrinsic value in paper money either... Its
>> only value is that others will accept it for trade with goods... they only
>> accept it for the same reason. Gold coins have intrinsic value (gold is
>> used in electronic components and jewelry).
>>
>> Bit Coins are a fiat currency, just like federal reserve notes. The only
>> difference, is there is a maximum number of coins that can exist (not so
>> with federal reserve notes), and they aren't backed by debt...
>>
>> Eric
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 20, 2014 at 12:42 PM, Mike Bushroe <mbushroe at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> *"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 at gmail.com>
>>>> To: Main PLUG discussion list <plug-discuss at 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
>>>
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>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Paul Mooring
> Operations Engineer
> Chef
>
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