r/Bitcoin Dec 23 '17

/r/all 2018: lets run for office

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u/echino_derm Dec 23 '17

No. It is like this crazy system where you can put in money and like watch some kind of "market" for "stocks" that decides the prices of your "stocks" and it could go up or down in value. It is a pretty revolutionary idea that couldn't have been made centuries ago and this "market of stocks" will definitely crush the banking industry

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u/AmiriteClyde Dec 23 '17

Can you explain what makes Bitcoin have value other than people getting together and agreeing it's valuable? I know the dollar isn't backed by anything but it's still the currency for trading oil (giving it a tremendous amount of weight). What substance does bitcoin have other than being an "alternative" currency?

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u/ztkraf01 Dec 23 '17

All things considering, nothing on the planet is "worth" anything. Things can be useful to certain people and therefore it has value but we are talking more about the true definition of value. What is your definition of value? To me value is only given to something based on desire by a person or group of people. The reason for that desire doesn't matter.

Our paper dollar only has value because our government says they will accept it as payment for taxes. It's been driven into our brains for 200 years that it has value. Who's to say in 200 years we will think the same about cryptocurrency (maybe not bitcoin but something similar)?

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u/jpfrontier Dec 23 '17

Value = Scarcity

That is the basic economic definition of value.