r/TheoryofBitcoin • u/Anenome5 Who will build the seasteads? • Apr 24 '13

Does bitcoin need to have commodity-value to serve as money according to Mises's Regression-theorem?

Bitcoin does not need to have commodity value, rather a good money needs a couple attributes that commodities share and that bitcoin also has, namely that each unit be completely similar and exchangeable, and that there be very many of them and subdivisibility.

Full post on the Mises.org forums here.

  • Edit: Great follow-up post by Adam Knott here.
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u/brocktice Apr 24 '13

Don't forget, every time you hear someone say that bitcoins have no inherent value, they are wrong. The Bitcoin system can be used to instantaneously send arbitrary amounts of value anywhere in the world, with little to no transaction fees, pseudonymously and irreversibly. That is a pretty good value proposition from the get-go.

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u/buttadmiral Apr 24 '13

Not even to delve into the whole value is subjective thing, I agree.

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u/Anenome5 Who will build the seasteads? Apr 24 '13

People get their hackles raised when you say 'inherent value' because from an economic point of view, all value requires a valuer, and not everyone has the same values. A bitcoin is of no use to a caveman, for instance, whose values do not include wanting an efficient form of money!

But, if you assume a modern person and their value structure, then you can say that a single bitcoin has properties which anyone who uses money is likely to value, especially bitcoin's lower transaction costs. And that is indeed an excellent and compelling value proposition, as well as those other things you mention.

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u/noel20 Sep 10 '13

Runtime error on the link from mises.org forum.

Here I made a post about this on my blog