[ExI] Is Bitcoin a betting game - not money?

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of BillK via extropy-chat
Subject: [ExI] Is Bitcoin a betting game - not money?

The Gamification of Bitcoin
J.P. Koning – November 7, 2019

<https://www.aier.org/article/the-gamification-of-bitcoin/>

Quote:
What is now apparent is that bitcoin was never a monetary phenomenon.
No, bitcoin is a new sort of financial betting game. It is a digital, global, highly-secure, and fairer version of the old-fashioned chain letter.

The premise behind bitcoin-the-game is that the current wave of buyers must guess when (or if) a subsequent wave of buyers will emerge, this second next wave’s participation being contingent on when (or if) they believe a third wave of buyers to emerge. If they guess right, the early birds win at the expense of the late ones.
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BillK

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Ja, BitCoin is a pyramid scheme of sorts, but not necessarily one which will crash.

Consider tradeable baseball cards (any limited production-run collectable, but baseball cards work really well for this.)  As soon as the guy's rookie year was over, they stopped production of that series of cards, so that series had a hard limit of supply and that card became collectable if the player did well for any reason, or became famous for anything not connected to baseball (consider Joe DiMaggio rookie cards, which have been traded for decades and still hold plenty of value.)

BitCoin is in some ways analogous to baseball cards, for a reason which recently emerged.  BitCoin is the ideal vehicle for bribing politicians.  It can't be tracked, it can't even be taxed.  A politician can be bought using rare valuable baseball cards or some other form of wealth which cannot be tracked.  BitCoin makes the process convenient.

Consider: the current situation where the US government is waging a bitter war against itself.  This internal war has far-reaching consequences, perhaps the most notable of which is that the current president and all future presidents are functionally disabled from negotiating with foreign governments to which the US extends foreign aid.  If a president is functionally disabled from negotiating with foreign governments to which the US extends foreign aid, congress is also functionally disabled from negotiating with any foreign government to which the US extends any foreign aid for the same reason: their motives are questioned (and are reasonably questionable.)

Note carefully: this is a meta-observation.  There is no need to even mention names of current, past or future US politicians, for this concept is universal: the power structure of the US government suddenly and fundamentally altered itself.  Now, the US government has disabled itself from negotiating any direct or indirect benefit from foreign aid.  It looks suspicious to even talk to the recipient government.

If anyone is tempted to write a post which mentions a person, any event or any political party, I do urge you to jump at the opportunity to not do it.  This concept is universal: the US government has disabled itself from negotiating benefit for foreign aid.  No need to invoke parties or individuals.  Ja?  Thanks.

OK then.  BitCoin provides an ideal vehicle for bribery of politicians.  Foreign aid is granted by the US House of Representatives.  No US politician may negotiate anything in return without putting self in political peril.  But all the politicians might accept payoffs for their votes without putting self in political peril, for BitCoin cannot be tracked.  Ja?

Consequence: all foreign aid must now be viewed with a renewed suspicion.  Any representative who votes to give away US taxpayer money without conditions must be viewed with justifiable suspicion.  

Consequence: US representatives will now demonstrate a new and understandable reluctance to vote for any form of foreign aid.

Consequence: BitCoin will undergo a renewed round of scrutiny and may well become illegal in the US.

Consequence: BitCoin becomes even more valuable than it already is.  Reasoning: the only traceable activity in BitCoin is BitCoin mining.  If that activity is made illegal, then the amount of BitCoin mining goes down (theoretically) which reduces the supply of new BitCoins, which raises the value of BitCoin.

BillK, you are one of the lads from England as I recall.  Would not the same phenomenon apply to your parliament?  Why or why not.

Do spare us please from political discourse if anyone here is tempted to write such tiresome and repetitive screeds.  The above commentary needs no politicians or parties, but is completely above that.  Please ignore your own political address and stay up here with me: comment from an altitude of 10k meters.  We are Extropians.

spike