Below is an excerpt from the attached article.
“…We just established that bitcoins are not financial instrument, but let us, for the sake of argument, continue to assume that they are. This means that they must have a fair value. Now what is the fair value of a bitcoin? It does not provide any income (Y = 0), it has no maturity given that it is not a financial instrument. For the sake of argument, we might assume that their maturity is infinite because we are stuck with them forever once they are created. So their fair value as financial instrument is…A BIG FAT ZERO (you can use whatever unit of account you want). A BTC 1 coin should circulate at a 100% discount (BTC 0) if it was a monetary instrument, which means of course that it would not pass hands…This would have been different if there had been an issuer who took back bitcoins at face value in payments. As bitcoins would have come back to the issuer, they would have been destroyed (like any pizza restaurant destroys free-pizza coupons that are returned to make sure they are not stolen and reused to get another pizza). Unfortunately, nobody issued them (and they are not edible like Easter eggs) and so we are stuck with them. This was actually a mistake made throughout history. Kings would issue coins and never promise to take back them in payment! Private Banks issued notes that they would not accept in payments! Fair value fell and coins would disappear as people melted them down to extract the gold and sell it as bullion. Bitcoins have not intrinsic value so their fair value would drop to zero…”
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2013/12/fair-price-bitcoin-zero.html
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http://www.businessinsider.com/the-fair-price-of-a-bitcoin-is-zero-2013-12
Sorry disagree with your post and your followed article. Bitcoin does have a value, offering alternatives that the Fiat system failed to offer. Still some issues to be solved but indeed it has tremendous value. If I take to the other point and agree with your opinion and the followed article, a dollar or any other Fiat currency does not have a intrinsic value too. Either system in this selfish intelectual approach is a failure. The difference of the digital currency is that we are changing the monetary and financial landscape. Prove to us supporters of the digital currencies, the crypto ecosystem. Prove to us that since the first issue of a bank note, it had intrinsic value. Fiat system got it's intrinsic value through time , acceptance and Central banks centralization. The same thing, I mean almost, the digital currency again is changing the financial landscape and Devin Smith post does not convince us.
With respect, what sets the value of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies?
The value of a sovereign fiat currency directly relates to the productivity and real resources of the particular sovereign’s economy, this cannot be said of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies.
1USD will always have a value 1USD, 1AUD will always have a value 1AUD, 1YEN will always have a value 1YEN within their respective economies, but this cannot be said of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies.
What has a fiat currency failed to offer that Bitcoin and other crypto currencies can offer?
How does one pay their tax with Bitcoin and other crypto currencies?
Please don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that country’s that are currency sovereigns are using their respective currencies for the public good, indeed I would argue they are not.
I put it to you the solution is not Bitcoin and other crypto currencies; rather it is controlling existing sovereign currencies to serve the public good.
Just a side comment, are you aware that only a small percentage of sovereign currency is not digital. Only about 3% to 4% is actual coins and notes. Contemporary fiat currencies are for all intent and purpose digital.
I look forward to your answers!
Sure respect to each other is necessary, in the end this platform is about interaction.
Sorry but you still did not convince me and as an example you mention:
'The value of a sovereign fiat currency directly relates to the productivity and real resources of the particular sovereign’s economy, this cannot be said of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies.'
How could not Bitcoin or any other crypto currencies does not directly relate to productivity. Lets look at Mining as an example. (remember I mentioned that there are still some issues to be resolved about crypto currencies as a whole ecosystem.) Do you really think the mining activities does not relate to some sort of productivity? All the infrastructure and solutions designed to lower energy consumption. If you refer to productivity only about activities related to manufacturing, farming, etc... it is another thing, and it is just a question of time. One could not compare digital currencies which has a decade with Fiat currencies which works over centuries. Time is the answer. Look at the development towards faster CPU mining, again directly related to productivity in this ecosystem. We are still in the ecosystem adjustment phase of digital currencies.
'What has a Fiat currency failed to offer that Bitcoin and other crypto currencies can offer?'
In one word. Decentralization & Transparency. Look at the actual conditions of most sovereign states as you put it. Most sovereign states have a debt to central banks which control the Fiat system, to the privilege of few shareholders who profit gains by the interested paid from sovereign government (people tax contributions) )towards Central banks. This circle in my view killed the Fiat currency system. You are probably aware about that. It is a problem that none politician was ever able to resolve and will never will. Looking at it's aspect, your suggestion that controlling existing sovereign currencies to serve the public good as a solution is not attainable because the Fiat system itself is a system already set up to favour Central banks shareholders, only. Who are those shareholders? How much are they worth of? You see. No transparency, we are never able to look at their financial dealings, while in the digital ecosystem it is possible (although some crypto currencies like Zen Cash & Monero works to erase this transparency caracteristic but those crypto will fail with time). Cryptocurrencies cut those deficiencies right at the start. This is just one and the main characteristics that Bitcoin and crypto currencies can offer. The issue about Tax, comes to the point that we are still in the development phase, I would say and all of those things will adjust itself. To end this feedback I will forget about Bitcoin and mention another cypto currency called Ripple. Ripple payment system will change the landscape of the digital currency which will eventually affects productivity in its core. You guys, the opposition of cryptocurrencies play unfair. This is just the beginning. The market capitalization of Fiat currencies = trillions every single day, while the market capitalization of digital currencies = 200 billion. By the market capitalization itself we are able to see that digital currencies did not influence all sectors of productivity yet. I do respect your insecurities about how much digital currencies affect production as a whole, but it will, it definitely will because it is possible. Give us time because as the poet songwriter sang to us...The Times They are a Changing.
Fiat money is driven by the threat of punishment, as it relates to ones tax liability. That's why people want it - it's the only thing that the Government accepts for the payment of taxes.
If Bitcoins aren't accepted to extinguish ones tax liability, then their usefulness comes from them being a kind of scam.
That's why people wants it? Not sure... The majority does not want it, they are imposed to it, which is another manner, and something which you and I are unable to change, but for the sake of discussion, Tax was never an agreement between tax payers and governments, it was an imposition from the government to the people. Primarily (you probably aware about it) tax was a collection to provide public services to the tax payers which has been completely distorted over the centuries. Again the amount of Tax payers money that Central Banks received from governments (tax money) to pay interests shows clearly that Fiat system is The Scam system not Bitcoin. By the way , do you self vote your posts? lol
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