- It's not a pyramid scheme. It is designed to work just like other currencies do. The idea that Bitcoin is some kind of scam comes from ignorance on the topic of mediums of exchange. This talk was my attempt at showing how all currencies work, so that you can compare Bitcoin to all other currencies, and see that similarity.
- You are correct that it is not designed to be a stable store of value. Gold shares a similar problem. Price stability is probably not going to be one of Bitcoin's strong suits, for sure. It's primary role might be simply as a highly liquid store of value that cannot easily be controlled by a central authority, which is still incredibly profound.
- A lot of things caused the fall of the Roman empire. I don't see devaluation of Roman currency as -the- reason, but I do see it was major component. It's pretty hard to run a stable empire when economic exchange breaks down.
- Regarding Rothbard: I am not an Austrian (school of economics). I like a lot of their older macroeconomic works, but I think that the school has (in the last 30ish years) been hijacked by hard-core libertarians to justify things that I would never agree with. There are some things that markets seem to do a worse job at than governments, and as a citizen with access to clean drinking water, I am perfectly comfortable with that compromise.
- I think the "jury is still out" as to whether it will be a better store of value to the US Dollar. But the store of value of the USD is simply that our government exists, and is stable. And I don't know if you've paid attention to the recent ineptitude (like the fiscal cliff), but it's not a strong vote of confidence. That's the question: Do you believe more in your government, or in a predictable, documented software algorithm? Either could fail. We'll find out which fails first.