Willie: “There will be a 50% dollar devaluation [and] a doubling of gold price"

[ximmy]

Let Hypertiger roam free...

[Horn]

It's going to be fun for gold holders. Gold has to sky rocket against all other asset classes to balance the books.

Gold FTW!!!

Somedays I think only Silver can save Gold.

[mick silver]

bitcoins are taking the place of all paper and metals get in before it to late

[mamboni]

bitcoins are taking the place of all paper and metals get in before it to late

A lot of money to be made in bitcoins...a lot to be lost. IMHO, bitcoin is a speculative play because price is driven entirely by demand and usage. Supply of bitcoins is virtually static as the bulk of them have already been mined. That should be a good thing for price. But at the end of the day, they are currency with no intrinsic value and vulnurable to government attacks and potential hacking. Their main attraction is as an anti-dollar, a competing currency. To that extent they are a good thing. But as store of value, I think not.

[Ares]

A lot of money to be made in bitcoins...a lot to be lost. IMHO, bitcoin is a speculative play because price is driven entirely by demand and usage. Supply of bitcoins is virtually static as the bulk of them have already been mined. That should be a good thing for price. But at the end of the day, they are currency with no intrinsic value and vulnurable to government attacks and potential hacking. Their main attraction is as an anti-dollar, a competing currency. To that extent they are a good thing. But as store of value, I think not.

Eh, I wouldn't bother trying to explain the usefulness of free market alternatives to some of these clowns. I've tried, you'll just get mocked and ridiculed with moronic absurdity with a mix of sarcasm because of their lack of understanding, or outright refusal to even see other alternatives.

No one ever said Bitcoins were a store of value, at lease no one I saw here promoting it. It's value is derived on its ease of use, limited supply and virtually unable to be duplicated. Government attacks are expected, but they only have jurisdiction within their own borders. If it continues to grow in size to where their tax revenue slides substantially, you'll see one pissed off beast who will attempt to remove bitcoins from the face of the planet.

Gold is a store of value, but it's not easy to use in a digital age where you try to buy a book from Amazon from a warehouse in California. The moronic gold and silver only fools will keep preaching to themselves and the remaining vestige hold outs that this is the way, this is the way, all the while being left behind as the free market looks for other means to be what it inherently is... Free

I will tell some of you here and now, and you can quote me. The free market use for gold is OVER. It will NEVER return to what you hope and dream it will be. The free market has deemed gold and silver stores of value, but are not easy transferable units of account. Even in a digital age government currencies are having trouble keeping up with a global economic world. Try doing an international wire transfer and see how long it takes as well as the fee's attached to it. Gold? Might as well forget about it unless you're a nation state, you're never going to get any large quantity of gold sent from one country to the next without insane insurance premiums against theft and transportation cost will render it not worth the effort.

So good luck thinking gold and silver are going to thrive in a globally connected economy.

[chad]

Eh, I wouldn't bother trying to explain the usefulness of free market alternatives to some of these clowns. I've tried, you'll just get mocked and ridiculed with moronic absurdity with a mix of sarcasm because of their lack of understanding, or outright refusal to even see other alternatives.

No one ever said Bitcoins where a store of value, at lease no one I saw here promoting it. It's value is derived on its ease of use, limited supply and virtually unable to be duplicated. Government attacks are expected, but they only have jurisdiction within their own borders. If it continues to grow in size to where their tax revenue slides substantially, you'll see one pissed off beast who will attempt to remove bitcoins from the face of the planet.

Gold is a store of value, but it's not easy to use in a digital age where you try to buy a book from Amazon from a warehouse in California. The moronic gold and silver only fools will keep preaching to themselves and the remaining vestige hold outs that this is the way, this is the way, all the while being left behind as the free market looks for other means to be what it inherently is... Free

I will tell some of you dumb asses here and now, and you can quote me. The free market use for gold is OVER. It will NEVER return to what you hope and dream it will be. The free market has deemed gold and silver stores of value, but are not easy transferable units of account. Even in a digital age government currencies are having trouble keeping up with a global economic world. Try doing an international wire transfer and see how long it takes as well as the fee's attached to it. Gold? Might as well forget about it unless you're a nation state, you're never going to get any large quantity of gold sent from one country to the next without insane insurance premiums against theft and transportation cost will render it not worth the effort.

So good luck thinking gold and silver are going to thrive in a globally connected economy.

i guess china, hong kong, switzerland, germany, and venezula didn't get the memo.

[Ares]

i guess china, hong kong, switzerland, germany, and venezula didn't get the memo.

Or maybe you didn't even bother reading what I said?

What nation wouldn't want to hold a store of value? Having gold and silver is a sign of wealth always has been, ALWAYS WILL BE!! However, how do you purchase a widget in china with your gold and or silver in Wisconsin?? Ok, more locally, how do you purchase items from Amazon, eBay, or a discount tire chain with Gold or Silver? How easy is it? What type of transaction and conversion fees are involved? See the difficulty in making a purchase in an increasingly digital world with a physical asset?

[mamboni]

i guess china, hong kong, switzerland, germany, and venezula didn't get the memo.

As erudite as Ares is vis-a-vis bitcoin, I would award the debating points to Chad in this instance. Of course I make no claim of totally objectivity. But Ares, you are forgetting the political dimension and the cultural underpinning of money. Money must have the confidence of the mass of people. And in this regard gold fits the bill. In the end of the day, bitcoin is a virtual construct with no tangible link to the real world excepting a tenuous one vis-a-vis the electric bill generated in creating one - hardly useful. Also, I think you are discounting the greatest weakness of bitcoin: it can be mimicked ad infinitum. There is nothing preventing others from creating a similar virtual currency with the same attributes as Bitcoin. You can't do that with physical gold.

[Son-of-Liberty]

i guess china, hong kong, switzerland, germany, and venezula didn't get the memo.

Ares didn't say Gold and silver don't have value just that they are awkward for day to day transactions. These countries are using gold to back their currencies which are primarily digital in nature.

[Ares]

As erudite as Ares is vis-a-vis bitcoin, I would award the debating points to Chad in this instance. Of course I make no claim of totally objectivity. But Ares, you are forgetting the political dimension and the cultural underpinning of money. Money must have the confidence of the mass of people. And this this regard gold fits the bill. In the end of the day, bitcoin is a virtual construct with no tangible link to the real world excepting a tenuous one vis-a-vis the electric bill - hardly useful. Also, I think you are discounting the greatest weakness of bitcoin: it can be mimicked ad infinitum. There is nothing preventing others from creating a similar virtual currecny with the same attributes as Bitcoin. You can't do that with physical gold.

Gold plated tungsten?

Yep, and there are quite a few digital currency alternatives as can be seen here: http://coinchoose.com/ It's up to the free market to determine what coin wins in the end, or if at all. We're all along for the ride.

And to correct you, no I have not forgotten what the underpinning of money is. Money has 3 very specific functions, a store of value, easily transferable, and cannot be easily counterfeited. Bitcoin has 2 of those functions, easily transferable, and unable to be counterfeited. It however is not, and never will be a store of value due to it's very nature of being purely digital. I think a lot of people and I was too at first is mixing the digital connected world with the physical world. They are intertwined and incredibly complex, as my example above stated, how do you have money in a global economy without state and government manipulation? Without a competing currency you are left the subject of market manipulation and abject poverty with tax slavery mixed in with a good salt in the wound measure.

With alternative solutions you can conduct business on your own terms cutting them out of it. Do I think Bitcoin will win out against it's rivals? Hell if I know, honestly could care less if it does or doesn't. I see it and utilize the advantages it has as a check on government and state corruption and power.

The definition of money should be, the medium of exchange 2 parties deem appropriate for a transaction without outside interference of subjugation.