[cryptography] bitcoin scalability to high transaction rates

[Alfonso De Gregorio]

On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 1:08 PM, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 11:56:06AM +0200, Alfonso De Gregorio wrote:
>
>> I'd better rephrase it in: expectation to have "money backed by
>> bitcoins" exhibiting all the desirable properties of a perfect
>> currency (ie, stable money) are greatly exaggerated.
>
> The question is not whether it's perfect, but whether it's good enough.

The acceptable distance from a stable currency, as the concept of good
enough, depends again on what you are trying to achieve.

As a digital currency, and distributed system, Bitcoin is nothing less
than truly ingenious. I'm enthusiast about it.

However, Bitcoin it's neither local nor should be confused with a
system ready to be a sound alternative to the gold standard. And in
the debate was rised a question about the eventual effect of having
money backed by BTCs instead of gold. My argument stems from there.

Btw, there's a nice article published few weeks ago by Nathan Lewis on Forbes:

  A Return To Basics: What Is Stable Money?
  http://www.forbes.com/2011/06/30/stable-money-gold.html

> --
> Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org


alfonso
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