[ExI] Bitcoin

[Eugen Leitl]

On Fri, Apr 05, 2013 at 05:52:30AM -0700, Gordon wrote:

> If I'm not wrong then another question comes up: is a  decentralized fiat

There are many definitions of fiat money. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money
BTC is not government backed to be legal tender nor state-issued.
It is without intrinsic value, but it can be argued that intrinsic
value of gold is negligible in regards to its utility as
universal store of value.

A key difference between state fiats and BTC is that you can't
print latter at will, since it's proof of work backed. The
laws of cryptography are fundamentally more trustable than human
institutions, since they cannot be gamed.

> currency created somewhat haphazardly by the people better than one  created

You say somewhat haphazardly, I say algorithmic and self-adjusting.

> by a central bank? Offhand I would think not, but it's a possible argument. 

Money is not created just by the central bank, with fractional 
reserve banking any bank can create it. And guess what: it does.
The reason why BTC is doing such an apparently good job is because
the managed currencies are doing such a lousy job everybody is
fleeing into naturally or artificially scarce items.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/04/the-future-of-bitcoin.html