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Comment by rmc | Hacker News Reader

BitCoin i svery similar to a gold backed currency. The fact that nearly all (?) currencies moved off the gold standard should tell you something of how economists view the gold standard.

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If you are a subscriber to Peter Schiff's views then moving off the gold standard was actually a big mistake. The comparison to the gold standard is actually what makes me think bitcoin has some legs

How is bitcoin like the gold standard? Bitcoin is backed by what? It's more like a purely speculative currency. It's artificially scarce and worth nothing apart from it's perceived value. At least with gold there are many industrial uses for it. You can't do anything with a bitcoin other than trade it.

It's artificially scarce and worth nothing apart from it's perceived value.

Are there any official currencies that this doesn't apply to?

You have to pay taxes and also settle debts in the official currency. That alone gives it more than mere 'perceived value'. Oh, needing it to buy oil also helps.

Precisely. Holding an official currency gives you the ability to stop the government from putting you in prison for nonpayment of taxes. This is a real tangible value that is a sort of baseline value store for official currencies that does not exist for other currencies.

So, it's just a combination of money = power, and "All power comes from the end of a gun."

Power doesn't come from the gun, but from public legitimacy. In the same manner that it would be considered legitimate for someone to defend themselves with a gun.

That was a reference to Mao.

So, we need a gun store that uses bitcoins.

Governments moved their currencies off the gold standard. Mostly for the self-interest reason of establishing greater control over their currency, often to inflate their way out of debt.

Whether a gold (or Bitcoin) standard is good for the world economy as a whole is irrelevant, since the governments hold the power to implement it (or ban Bitcoin) and will act in their self-interest.

and economists are always right?, how come so few saw the 2008 crash coming?

bitcoin is born out of a distrust with the current global economic status quo

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