On Thu, 2011-06-16 at 15:21 +0200, Eugen Leitl wrote:

Bitcoin fails on point 2 above as someone will be able to figure out how to counterfeit a digital quantity. Let's see you counterfeit a 1 ounce Gold or Silver piece.

1. Take rock 2. Paint gold 3. Sell to "Anon Mus" <my.green.lantern@googlemail.com>, who almost certainly is not capable of detecting whether or not something is actually gold or silver on their own Alternatives to steps (1) and (2) include: * Buy pyrite * buy any silverish metal * buy plastic, form around weight The moral here is, it's almost certainly not the case that a piece of gold or silver can be verified cheaper than the Bitcoin block chain can be verified. [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]