tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192670.post4408211859621565325..comments2023-08-29T08:55:28.986-07:00Comments on Too Beautiful: Today's fake: Speculators pursue the Bitcoin, but ... whaaaat?Mark Pritchardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00062334663040882278noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192670.post-64541573276898468432011-06-18T18:19:35.855-07:002011-06-18T18:19:35.855-07:00I sometimes feel like I'm autistic, not that I...I sometimes feel like I'm autistic, not that I am, but just that I tend to look at systems like this on their own terms, without looking at them from other contexts.<br /><br />I guess I'm curious as to what other's value, but don't trust myself, because I'm consistently wrong. I'd be rich now, if I had gotten that people value Twitter.I don't get why people like to read grocery store magazines. One of the most visible names on the planet sells diabetes-inducing sugar water, which my relatives suck down endlessly while wondering how I can 'like' to drink water, and then go to the doctor for the problems.<br /><br />I do get the millennialist thing, at least a bit. Growing up poor with one smart parent, I saw a lot of blue-collar dismay at 'the system'. I think there's a cultural echo of our rebellious past here - we restarted society once, founding the country. That's cliche, but it is powerful. The slavers wanted to do it again, and failed. There's a lot of liberation theology, self-help academic stuff, revisionist history, and so on, that promotes this sort of thing. It isn't right or left - we're soaking in it. So nuts that castrate themselves before the mothship arrives may be outliers, but I don't see them as all that different than people I know who stockpile.<br /><br />Sleep, food, and sex. Everything else is indirection.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192670.post-81243974626103510282011-06-18T12:42:12.285-07:002011-06-18T12:42:12.285-07:00Thanks for the info, Jamie!
I guess it's not ...Thanks for the info, Jamie!<br /><br />I guess it's not currency per se that I'm interested in, except to the extent that it feeds into the conspiracy theories of collapsitarians and gold speculators. I'm more interested in how people ascribe value to all sorts of things, and how this ascribed value, whether it's generated as a result of scarcity, a marketing campaign, or laws, contrasts with the object's real value. The interesting thing about Bitcoin to me is the contrast between this ascribed worth and its real worth, which would have to be non-existent. If the Big Collapse does happen, never mind those who "possess" Bitcoin or other virtual currency; there are going to be a lot of hungry people holding big fat gold coins that are useless for anything in the post-collapse world except, maybe, ballast. <br /><br />I myself live in a San Francisco house whose value has more than doubled since we bought it, due almost entirely to real estate price inflation. Fortunately we like it and don't want to sell it, but even if the real estate market in San Francisco collapses, at least we can live in it. Unless, you know, it literally collapses, like, in the Big One.Mark Pritchardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00062334663040882278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192670.post-58567141820097999082011-06-18T12:25:11.467-07:002011-06-18T12:25:11.467-07:00Mark -
A couple of comments.
Bitcoin does not u...Mark -<br /><br />A couple of comments. <br /><br />Bitcoin does not use IP restrictions to profit. The software is open source, released under the MIT license, which is similar to the Apache and BSD licenses (and not similar to the GPL - the difference being that someone can take the Bitcoin code and make proprietary software, unlike the Linux kernel or Emacs.) To the extent that people are making money off of it, it is on transactions. It really isn't much different than what the bankers are up to with 'real' dollars. Basically, if someone is selling and someone else is buying, there's endless opportunity to "help". I don't think it matters if it is dollars, euros, strings of bits, magic swords, or what.<br /><br />It reminds me of a bitter joke. You like art? Make a lot of money, and buy it.You like to make art? Join a monestary. You want to be appreciated for your art? Make enemies.<br /><br />A key difference between magic swords and bitcoin is that BC is not centralized, and a database administrator can clone a thousand new swords, whereas the authors of the BC client can't make new money, except in the same way anyone else can. You have to understand the crypto behind it to see why this is true, which isn't easy. But it is true. Basically, whereas dollars depend on special paper and chemical pens to detect forgery, BC depends on an audit log that is ruthlessly democratic and accretes honestly as a byproduct of using it.<br /><br />Bitcoin does seem ludicrous. But so does any currency, until it is normal. The only way to judge a currency's value is to look at everyone else - will they take it in exchange for useful things? So, by this metric, it currently fails. That could change, though. It has happened before. If you're curious about currency, reading Isaac Newton on the topic (yes, really - he turned around England's currency problems) is vital.<br /><br />Bitcoin has some issues. I don't think the wild nuttiness of the first movers is one of them. The exponential effect in 'mining' is, maybe - I can't really tell if that is a bug or a feature. It does guarantee deflation. This makes speculators want to get in early, giving it a pop. It also reinforces the worst aspects of the monied class, leading to a conservatism that will get messy when the security of the underlying system has problems. Which always happens. <br /><br />BC probably will fail. But people value it, at least enough to steal it. I guess I don't spend a lot of time trying to understand why people value what they do, which leads me to not get a lot of pop culture references, for instance. But I don't see any reason to trash BC because it is made out of math. Frankly, it reminds me of conversations about the value of Usenet I had with my mom, in about 1990. "Why would I want to buy a computer to answer other people's questions? Seems dumb." She now pressures me to use Facebook, which I categorically refuse to do.<br /><br />A virtual currency that doesn't involve third parties is going to happen - people always want cash. It probably won't be bitcoin, but it will happen.<br /><br />JamieAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3192670.post-16696023701007097402011-06-17T13:12:04.263-07:002011-06-17T13:12:04.263-07:00Life is infinitely less stressful and more enjoyab...Life is infinitely less stressful and more enjoyable post-Farmville. While it makes an effective alarm clock, it really is a waste of time... and obsession.voncookiehttp://onetoughvoncookie.comnoreply@blogger.com