by KaiserJeep » Wed 10 Jan 2018, 12:06:01
Tanada, I know and I was alluding to the epheremal nature of electronic currencies in general, you clarified it nicely. I would make the further point that they are all of them useless if we don't have an ever-present network to support online trade.
Once reduced to barter, I'm no longer interested in trading my food and liquors and spices and herbs for anything else, including printed pieces of paper with pictures of dead presidents on them, or little disks of precious metals with images stamped on them. So physical currencies also lose value, because due to the understanding of the true nature of money brought about by online commerce, we all of us understand all too well what used to be termed "fiat currency". It's another side effect of an electronic network, this new understanding of the nature of money.
Now let me share with you the sure and certain reason why this is a problem we Middle Class folks don't need to worry about. That would be the much-maligned 1%. Because you see they have SO MUCH MORE TO LOSE than do you or I.
I'm not confining my observations to Bitcoin, in case that was not clear already. We already have virtual currency and credit and even virtual securities. Every time you use a credit card, a debit card, make an online purchase, or an online trade in a stock or commodities exchange, you are using digital currency. The fact that we choose to keep score in US dollars in most places is why the rest of the World hates the USA. That's also the true nature of Bitcoin - a new digital currency, more resistent to counterfeiting, that is appreciating due to unfounded speculation. Believe me, I made a career out of building trusted hardware to keep track of virtual money, and "bits is just bits".
The basic elements of life are the only things that have true value. Food, clean water, and clean air. Warmth and a place to rest comfortably. The presence of friends, either physical or virtual, and preferably BOTH physical and virtual.
What brought about this revelation was the death of a "friend", or perhaps "slave" would be a better term. Our 14-year-old, well-used, and comfortably familiar refrigerator-freezer died yesterday, and took a couple of hundred dollars in fresh food with it. We lost the contents of the refrigerator section, and the stuff in the freezer went to about -10 degrees F, because a little motor that operated a flapper door seperating the two sections died, and the cold air was confined to the freezer only. So today we have the surviving chilled items, mostly pickles, condiments, and carbonated drinks, in a Coleman cooler while we rotate blue ice packs through the over-performing freezer.
The small replacement assembly is not available online or at local appliance suppliers. So we are shopping for a new unit that will cost at least $1000 in 2018 fiat currency - but they will get our business only if they deliver and carry off the appliance "corpse". We are also restricted in what we buy by the fact that in our 10-year-old kitchen remodel, we wrapped custom cherry cabinetry around the existing appliance. So now we are shopping for something in a stainless finish to match the other appliances, and within an inch or two of the same height and width as the old unit.
Call it a reminder of the nature of our economy and the value of currencies.
KaiserJeep 2.0, Neural Subnode 0010 0000 0001 0110 - 1001 0011 0011, Tertiary Adjunct to Unimatrix 0000 0000 0001
Resistance is Futile, YOU will be Assimilated.
Warning: Messages timestamped before April 1, 2016, 06:00 PST were posted by the unmodified human KaiserJeep 1.0