re: #182 Romantic Heretic

I’ve been sort of following this. Mostly on Business Insider’s Facebook page. The anarchists, sorry, libertarians are loving Bitcoin. Because it’s free of government interference. Some believe it’s a new gold standard.

I point out that private currencies have major problems and then comes the being shouted at by the true believers: The Fed!!! Gold!!!! You don’t understand!!!! Commie!!!!!!!!!

The similarity between ‘libertarians’ and Marxists couldn’t be more plain.

I’m dabbling in bitcoins mostly to see if I can make some money on its volatility, but I have serious doubts it’s going to be around very long. For one thing, governments and law enforcement agencies hate anonymous, or semi-anonymous currencies. Bitcoin fans live in their own little libertarian fantasy world, imagining that their pet currency can survive free of government interference. It’s not going to happen. Outfits like Coinbase are already following FinCEN regulations. Eventually, everyone will have to provide some ID to buy bitcoins, or trade online, and then it will become just another electronically traded commodity.

On the other hand, it does seem to be shaking up the normally torpid banking world. JP Morgan Chase may introduce its own digital “currency.” Western Union seems rather non-plussed, and PayPal has made it impossible to use PayPal to buy crypto-currency.