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Comment by bdfh42 | Hacker News Reader

The protagonist felt that his "wealth" was tied up in MT. Gox.

Surely that is/was an illusion. Wealth is rather more tangible than some encrypted code in (wow this will upset some folks but it is still true) a glorified ponzi scheme.

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I suppose he could sell his MtGox account on ebay. Presumably he should get his money back, discounted by the risk of MtGox not being able to pay.

I don't think you upset anyone although it seems you hope you did. Many businesses accept Bitcoins for legal or illegal goods. Whether you think these transactions are moral or not doesn't cause Bitcoin to become a "ponzi" scheme. Maybe you're relating it to one since those who got in really early had potential to become millionaires? The same thing can be said about stocks. Bitcoin has actually gone the opposite direction of a ponzi scheme for quite some time now.

"wealth" is subjective.

For my father it's a Range Rover he can't afford but can show people.

For me it's solving a problem (intellectual wealth).

For him, it's the promise of exchanging some electronic fairy dust for a different kind.

(all money on this scale is fairy dust and promises which scares me away from it all)

A dictionary might define wealth as "an abundance of valuable possessions or money".

We who are working on start-ups of various kinds, seek wealth for ourselves perhaps but certainly if we are successful to increase the total wealth of the world.

At least the fairy dust of the dollar or euro is backed by the wealth of nations.

Euros and dollars are backed by guns and ammunition, not the wealth of nations.

A short peek at history will show you that.

Agreed! But at one point there was a 'gold standard' which was backed by an actual thing. Although that thing was to a great extent backed by guns and ammo as well.

Serious question: Could a 'crypto-currency' run on a gold standard? IE MtGox (or whoever) having enough of an actual thing to cover all of the coins? I hadn't thought about that but it is an interesting thought to me.

It wouldn't work in the major current cryptocurrencies, as you'd have to have some way of mtgox issuing new coins for gold deposits. That would seem to be against the current sets of rules, which only allow miners to create coins.

I'd assume it would be possible to have a cryptocurrency where a central authority stores gold/dollars/etc, and allows people to exchange it for coins and vice versa - basically, have special transactions that can create coins. Miners would have to mine for transaction fees, or maybe they could be paid out of the interest produced by the giant money pile.

It would require a lot of trust in the central authority - and once you have that trust, it's not clear you need a cryptocurrency at all.

The fact of the matter remains that somebody will give you a nice car if you give them some encrypted ponzi-coins. Sounds pretty tangible to me.

   tangible
   ˈtan(d)ʒɪb(ə)l/
   
   adjective
   
   1. perceptible by touch.

Not all wealth is perceptible by touch.

Its value is a lot more connected to other people's trust in there being an underlying economic process supporting a value, than it is to do with it being something you can perceive with your hand.

Classic example: the value held in the Coca Cola trademark.

And of course we have accounting for this exact thing: intangible assets.

If you have two million dollars in your bank account, that is also an intangible asset. Its physical representation is a series of numbers in the bank's database (and perhaps a number of backups of this database). You certainly can't touch it. Or I suppose, more accurately your wealth in this case is your bank's debt to you of two million dollars, which is an abstract notion of which the numbers in the bank database are the physical evidence.

Either way, whether you can touch this source of value seems like a moot point ;) Any economy is deeply based on trust.

Tell the Greeks that:

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/03/16/cypriots-frantic-...

Or citizens of the EU:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/12/us-eu-banks-saving...

This type of event is in no way unique to bitcoin.

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