Bitcoin payment button

You're correct, Flora, vast corporate movements of monies is digital. the money that is in our Bank accounts is digital and many have been the Doom sayers prophesying the end of cash whether it be paper or metal........but there is no sign of that yet. Some very realistic and intelligent people use cash because they have more control over it, feel freer in their dealings rather than trusting Computer Servers to hold their their complete finances. We all have to use some sort of digital currency

That may be so in some countries where the trust in computers, cloud servers, corporation banking, is considered to be total and has a grip on lower economies within their societies. But those countries are, in the main, few against those countries who put part of their trust into cash as well as digital. No form of currency is the complete answer whether it be the Dollar, Pound, Yen, or some form of digital.

Not really a good example as that is "happy conjecture" rather than reality in inflation rather than value.

I think most people understand that conventional stocks and investments are still recovering from the global financial collapse but that does not make the argument that Bitcoins are the solution/panacea for that. Bitcoins only have value, like other currencies, by being compared against known standards of value.....such as other currencies. A countries currency has that country's backing, along with the standing it has on Stock Markets etc, and is recognised at a value level. Bitcoin is neither bullet proof or immune to devaluation, inflation, etc. It works, it is digitally fashionable in some countries but that does not mean that those people or countries that prefer to use cash partially in their economies are short sighted, lack vision, or are unintelligent............just the opposite.

 

Fiat money is a currency established as money by government regulation or law. The term derives from the Latin fiat ("let it become", "it will become") used in the sense of an order or decree. It differs from commodity money and representative money. Commodity money is created from a good, often a precious metal such as gold or silver, which has uses other than as a medium of exchange (such a good is called a commodity), while representative money simply represents a claim on such a good.

The first use of fiat money was recorded in China around 1000 AD. Since then, it has been used by various countries, concurrently with commodity currencies.

Definition
Fiat money has been defined variously as:

• Any money declared by a government to be legal tender.
• State-issued money which is neither convertible by law to any other thing, nor fixed in value in terms of any objective standard.
• Intrinsically valueless money used as money because of government decree.

While gold- or silver-backed representative money entails the legal requirement that the bank of issue redeem it in fixed weights of gold or silver, fiat money's value is unrelated to the value of any physical quantity. A coin is fiat currency to the extent that its face value, value defined in law, is greater than its market value as metal.

 

Agreed, Harry, but I think Flora was trying to get more converts to Bitcoin by her enthusiastic opinion of it.

 

Well, I guess we learn everyday about new things, but knowing and using that "new thing" is a personal choice. People get enthusiastic about certain things, like me with Astronomy, and try to inspire other people.........but, I guess, it's up to us to make up our own mind. Me?, Bitcoin is a tool that I can see no real value or use for........and, to me, it's fatal flaw is that it is completely computer driven.......and there are a lot of folks out there that [a] don't have a computer or don't trust computers.

 

Does that mean I have to stop storing it under my bed?

Oh! I forgot . I don't have a bed

 

@HarryS You've been a member long enough to know that the original topic rarely lasts more than the first page

 

Gobbledeegook Alert!!!!

Having had a lifelong interest in fiat, commodity and representative money I have a sceptical view on the efficacy of all of them. They all work and some work better than others, depending on the multifarious aspects of the local and worldwide economy at the time.

There are so many factors to take into account but it comes down to what you can understand and what works for you. For most people, they don't have any spare money to bother about it.

Someone, that I know and respect, told me in 2004 that I should buy gold because he could see a recession coming (he's spent his whole life in the financial markets). Since then it has tripled (quadrupled around 2012).

I told him that I could see that it would be a good investment (if I had sufficient money to play with ) but that I could see many obstacles. The first was, of course, the commission rate that would have to be paid when buying. The law at the time precluded you from actually having gold in a tangible form apart from in coins. So if you bought gold bullion it would have to be stored for you - at a 'small' cost. The commission rate for bullion, at the time, varied from 7% - 12% but if you bought it from Switzerland it was 1.5%. Sounds good, but - if you wanted to bring it to this country you would have to pay VAT.

Gold would be a good commodity if there was an enormous crash in the markets where you might lose a lot of your savings, if you had them, in banks etc. The major problem would then be accessing your gold for barter purposes. An even bigger problem would be, who would want your gold if the economy went belly up?

So, I stick with the system I know and keep an eye on what is happening around me. If BTC looks as though it would be worth it to me then I would consider my options.

In the meantime I'm happy growing my own food, looking for bargains when shopping (nowhere near as well as @Scrungee), am happy to go to some of the local pubs for a very good, and substantial, two course lunch (with coffee) for £7.50 and use my savings to pay for holidays.

 

It's in gardener's genes to wander about.

Go outside with best intentions of mowing the lawn but then you see some deadheading that needs to be done, so off to find the snips and a bucket. In the shed you spot some onion sets that simply must be planted today, so get the rake and spade and start making for the bed you had in mind, but you discover last year's brussels are in the way and need pulling up and composting. Getting to the compost heap, it's full, really you should empty it, now would be a good time to dig it in, off to get the wheelbarrow .... etc etc ...

Maybe the lawn will get mown tomorrow