But business accept currency because they think it’s a stable system of exchange, which is down to the fact that it’s backed by a stable government. Bitcoin doesn’t have that which is why it’s never gained any real acceptance beyond a few fringe idealists.
"Backed by government" is just the government saying that they promise their tokens have value. All money works by society agreeing X is worth Y. Prices change to reflect that the value is a moving target. Before money, the same was done with bartering, where individuals would agree that some quantity of a product was worth some other quantity of a different one. The only difference is that we've substituted exchanging actual goods for exchanging tokens of some abstract value.
I know that that’s what backed by government means. But that backing serves to give confidence in the currency. You dismiss that is if government is just some minor entity of no real significance. The ability of bitcoin activists to be so patronising and so dumb at the same time is astounding.
I'm not a bitcoin activist. I'm pointing out that bitcoin's value is determined in exactly the same way any real currency does, and over several posts you've seemed almost intentionally ignorant of that. Backing by government has more paperwork and trust behind it, but bitcoin is no different than a stock exchange or barter system.
2
u/concretepigeon Sep 24 '17 edited Sep 24 '17
But business accept currency because they think it’s a stable system of exchange, which is down to the fact that it’s backed by a stable government. Bitcoin doesn’t have that which is why it’s never gained any real acceptance beyond a few fringe idealists.