$10k bet that bitcoin will outperform gold/silver/stock by 100x over two years
longbets.org
longbets.org
No. It would take about 15 minutes for the block chain to verify and even that would be with a commission. Maybe 4 days delay if you didn't do a commission.
Seems like more of a publicity stunt by someone who knows that nobody with $10k to throw around is foolish enough to agree to such ill-defined terms.
This 'bet' is nothing more than a publicity stunt to convince people that Bitcoin is a no-brainer investment.
Assuming no corresponding productivity gains occur.
> Once Bitcoin use is wide spread, the people in favor of the wars will no longer be able to force the people against the wars to pay for them.
Yes they can. First of all, nobody keeps all of their assets in fiat currency. Most people have houses, cars, and other valuable property that could be physically seized to pay taxes due.
Second, the government can use "rubber-hose cryptanalysis" [1] -- if you refuse to pay, threaten to prosecute and jail you (or for more oppressive governments, torture and kill you). Nonpayment of taxes is certainly something that can send people to jail in the US. (In practice, if you're delinquent, AFAIK usually they just let you get away with paying back taxes, interest and penalties, and have a procedure where you can set up a payment plan if you can't afford to pay when they're due; prosecution is reserved for more outrageous cases like deliberate fraud.)
Third, even if you have no non-Bitcoin assets and you're willing to go to jail for your anti-tax stance, you still presumably economically interact with others, who might not be willing to go to those extremes. In the US, for example, I believe "backup withholding" is a procedure the tax authorities can use to make an employer send a portion of a tax delinquent's paycheck directly to the government for unpaid taxes. (By default, in the US most people's paychecks have regular withholding, which I believe is voluntary, but if you reduce it or turn it off then you're supposed to make payments manually during the year. Most people go with the automatic system as the path of least resistance.)
To address this statement: "First of all, nobody keeps all of their assets in fiat currency"
1) Bitcoin is not a fiat currency, which is the point.
2) The dollar is a fiat currency, and plenty of people (and countries) keep all their assets in the form of dollars
Of course property is not fiat currency, but lots of property these days is not owned but instead is either leased or bought using debt.
The point about torture is well taken, but torture can't be used on you if the government can't identify who you are.
I don't believe Bitcoin is a "fiat" currency. Gold has value as a currency because of its properties as a metal. Bitcoin has value because of its properties as a P2P network: anonymity, guaranteed not to hyperinflate, free transactions, and the other things the author mentioned.
So, I think as these properties become more and more valueable, so will Bitcoin.
The point I was trying to make is that most people's assets include some physical items like food, shelter, clothing, appliances, vehicles, computers...regardless of what currency you hold, these physical items can all be physically seized.
Oh wait-