<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">even paper money is not 'money'. Gold is a money, silver can be but since the Hunt Brothers from TX cornered the world silver market (and got in deep trouble for it), gold is the only true money. It is rare enough and hard to mine/make, but plenty enough so lots of folks can have some (platinum is to rare, silver is really to available).</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">Our currency was a money when it was backed by something other than the 'good faith' of the US Govt. Anymore it is just a currency. (Go to a coin shop and they can show you 'gold certificates'... back then there was $1 in gold in the US Treasury for each $1 in circulation. Then the Govt wanted to spend more, so they moved to a 'silver standard' then eventually (since I was born) to the 'good faith' basis. If you trust the Govt to not inflate your currency, then it could be your money. Just not mine.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">I do have most of my savings in US$ investments, including some US treasuries, but I am not deluded enough to think it is anything more than a currency, that just makes barter easier.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">Money historically has just been a 'easy' way to enable barter over distances. Currency has been a tool to make that even easier.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">In God We Trust, all others pay cash.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">
But that is just my viewpoint.</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div>><> ... Jack<br>Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart... Colossians 3:23<br>"If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the precipitate" - Henry J. Tillman<br>
"Anyone who has never made a mistake, has never tried anything new." - Albert Einstein<br>"You don't manage people; you manage things. You lead people." - Admiral Grace Hopper, USN<br>Life is complex: it has a real part and an imaginary part. - Martin Terma</div>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 11:33 AM, Federico Lucifredi <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:flucifredi@acm.org" target="_blank">flucifredi@acm.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
I am not sure either way. It could be that Bitcoin takes its place as a real currency (in some ways, it already is for the Internet black market). It may fizzle as a fad. It may be deemed illegal and driven underground. it will crash again (it is a currency, so it will - trivially true statement) - will it always recover, like a real world currency?. Who knows - I had no time to think about this.<br>
<br>
The BitCoin paper is here, that should explain how the scheme works:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf" target="_blank">http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf</a><br>
<br>
Best -F<br>
<br>
PS: Satoshi Nakamoto is somebody's secret identity. Most likely a team of Quants in London or NYC, but even that is uncertain.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On Apr 17, 2013, at 1:36 PM, Kurt Keville <<a href="mailto:kkeville@MIT.EDU">kkeville@MIT.EDU</a>> wrote:<br>
<br>
> Well, if it walks and talks like a pump & dump scheme ...<br>
><br>
> There are no math answers to give (as there are in, say, the GIMPS project)... this is just gratuitous CPU burdening for it's own sake. I have been to a couple of the Bitcoin Club meetings at MIT and I still don't get it... seems to me to be a currency musical chairs; you don't want to be holding this currency when the bottom drops out again... there is another one this Friday if you are interested... I still go even though I still haven't figured out what the hubbub is all about.<br>
><br>
> At 10:33 AM 4/17/2013, Greg London wrote:<br>
><br>
>> >> Bitcoin has been all over the news this past week.<br>
>><br>
>> I don't understand. It sounds like someone set up a<br>
>> company to trade in virtual money, and all I have to<br>
>> do to mint my own money is do some math?<br>
>><br>
>> I do some math, show them the answer, and they... do what?<br>
>> They give me money? They act as a trader and take a<br>
>> commission off on anyone trading money?<br>
>><br>
>> Can someone explain how this works at the transaction level?<br>
><br>
> _______________________________________________<br>
> Hardwarehacking mailing list<br>
> <a href="mailto:Hardwarehacking@blu.org">Hardwarehacking@blu.org</a><br>
> <a href="http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking" target="_blank">http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking</a><br>
<br>
_________________________________________<br>
-- "'Problem' is a bleak word for challenge" - Richard Fish<br>
(Federico L. Lucifredi) - flucifredi at <a href="http://acm.org" target="_blank">acm.org</a> - GnuPG 0x4A73884C<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
Hardwarehacking mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Hardwarehacking@blu.org">Hardwarehacking@blu.org</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking" target="_blank">http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking</a><br>
</blockquote></div><br></div>