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1 kirkspencer  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 6:33:15am

I think I need a drink - Kudlow’s right for a change. (Some of his reasons are stupid but the main point…)

that said, I’d like to make a minor correction. Bitcoins are money. What they are is bad money, but they are money.

Money is any token that is trusted as a medium of exchange between two parties (so long as the medium isn’t a recognized substitute for other money). In other words, I can exchange bitcoins for goods and the recipient doesn’t consider them a promissory for later receipt of dollars or ducats from me.

But yeah, they’re bad money and at root the reason is that they are insufficiently trusted. The reason they’re insufficiently trusted are the reasons Kudlow and Krugman and their peers have pointed out.

2 Dark_Falcon  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 12:30:04pm

re: #1 kirkspencer

I think I need a drink - Kudlow’s right for a change. (Some of his reasons are stupid but the main point…)

that said, I’d like to make a minor correction. Bitcoins are money. What they are is bad money, but they are money.

Money is any token that is trusted as a medium of exchange between two parties (so long as the medium isn’t a recognized substitute for other money). In other words, I can exchange bitcoins for goods and the recipient doesn’t consider them a promissory for later receipt of dollars or ducats from me.

But yeah, they’re bad money and at root the reason is that they are insufficiently trusted. The reason they’re insufficiently trusted are the reasons Kudlow and Krugman and their peers have pointed out.

What reasons of Kudlow’s do you think are in error?

3 kirkspencer  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 2:40:59pm

” It has no central-bank regulation, network operations, or even centralized issuance.”

None are requirements for money to be money.

Historical example: shell money.

4 Dark_Falcon  Mon, Mar 3, 2014 4:30:40pm

re: #3 kirkspencer

” It has no central-bank regulation, network operations, or even centralized issuance.”

None are requirements for money to be money.

Historical example: shell money.

For that money to function properly on the global financial network, those are requirements. You have a point that Kudlow could have clarified, but given that Bitcoin is online-only he likely felt he didn’t need to.

5 harlequinade  Tue, Mar 4, 2014 1:47:24am

But that ignores that we use other things as currency.

Air miles, super market points, farmville coins are all currency to the people that use it. There is an implicit trust in the system that allows this to work.

Sure, it’s not great money. There is massive fluctuation, but it’s a currency that its users trust in.

Also - Dudebros? I see this being bandied around a lot. Why not just say “You crazy kids and your new fangled things. That just scares me. I’ll mock you” and then shake your fist.

A generation that has grown up on sci-fi and computers have generated a currency that they are controlling and using amongst themselves.
Sure, I’m not going to get a mortgage with it, and it’s still the gold rush out there, but as a first iteration currency, they could be doing a lot worse.


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