[ExI] Bitcoin

[spike]

From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Aleksei
Riikonen



>.When I wrote those words above, I was alluding to the possibility that
although bitcoin is ingeniously structured to ensure scarcity of bitcoins
over the long run, analogous to what nature has done for gold, the
proliferation of alternative digital currencies might nonetheless inflate
the overall digital money supply into the indefinite future. Just as central
banks can "print money" out of thin air, so too can anyone create a new
bitcoin-like digital currency. If am correct about this then the scarcity of
digital money is illusory and it loses an important advantage over ordinary
fiat money. I would rather be incorrect. What is wrong with my thinking
here?...--Aleksei Riikonen - http://www.iki.fi/aleksei 

 

 

There is nothing wrong with your thinking Aleksei, it is perfectly
legitimate.

 

The closest analogy I can think of is Amazon.  When they started up, I
refused to buy stock in it, for it seemed to me that anyone could do
something analogous to it, and capture arbitrarily much market share.
Someone did to some extent: CraigsList is a free version of Amazon.  But to
my surprise, the number of online sales organizations did not replicate
wildly.  There are several of them, but Amazon is a good way to go if you
want something that is reputation-controlled, and CraigsList for free
listing services, after all these years.

 

BitCoin, I don't know.  I think you have a good point there however, and the
Amazon argument is much stronger.  The first guy who starts up a BitCoin
clone makes a lot of money off of it.  So it might be there is a contining
market for new digital currency.

 

spike  

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