— Covering digital currencies, precious metals and online payments
Bitcoin – poorly understood and frequently talked about ignorantly – is a wonderful new financial tool… and a very timely one. But because of its virtues, it is about to be attacked.
Read More about Freeman’s Perspective: Bitcoin Should Get Ready For an Attack
GoldMoney and Bitcoin Magazine have worked together to produce a documentary that attempts to capture the thoughts and feelings of Cyprus residents after their bank accounts were frozen in March 2013.
I very much sympathize with the old school goldbug scepticism about Bitcoin. It’s very reassuring to feel the weight of your money in your hand, and I don’t believe that Bitcoin meets with Mises regression theorem. But even if you don’t see Bitcoin as a sound form of money, you have got to admit that it’s damned useful! Bitcoin is perhaps the best alternative available at the moment for those suffering under the fiat banking system. As such it’s great to see an increasing number of traditional goldbug institutions, such as GoldMoney, embrace Bitcoin.
In a new podcast GoldMoney’s Andy Duncan discusses Bitcoin with the Bitcoin Foundation’s Jon Matonis. They discuss Bitcoin’s volatility, it’s dependence on the internet, 1 yr and 10 yr predictions for the currency and the ongoing Bitcoin vs Gold debate.
Listen to the podcast here.
The Cyprus “bail-in” model of bank rescue, which seems to be gaining popularity, is simply frightening. Fractional reserve banking is built upon depositors trust in their banks, “for fractional-reserve banking can only exist for as long as the depositors have complete confidence”. Financial regulators are destroying their own system by making depositors fear for the safety of their money… they’re either that stupid or that desperate. Frightening.
Joseph T. Salerno sees the silver lining here arguing that Cyprus may bring about the unravelling of the current banking system and expose “the true nature of fractional-reserve banking for all to see.”
Read More about Mises.org: Cyprus and the Unraveling of Fractional-Reserve Banking
Commercial banking is a money making endeavour; literally. Sure there’s a complex set of rules, but the short story is commercial banks create money. A button is pressed and congratulations, your loan has been approved and $50k of brand new digital Dollars are now sitting in your bank account.
As you might imagine, creating new money is a very handy little trick for banks. In fact, the commercial banking business model is dependent on the variable nature of national fiat currencies which makes this possible. But this trick only works on fiat currencies, replace the US Dollar with Bitcoins, and the banking system as we know it today ceases to exist.
Read More about Bitcoin & The Banking System: Not Just Different, But Entirely Incompatible
Like most of Europe, Cyprus and it’s banks are in trouble.
In a bailout deal with the Eurozone Cyprus’s bank account holders are being forced to pay the bill…not troubled bank bond holders, depositors. “The illusion that depositors don’t need to yank their money out of threatened banks because they’ll be protected has been shattered.”
Come Tuesday morning Cyprus’s bank account holders could see their balance shrink as much as 10%.
Read More about Bank robbery in Cyprus; depositors set to have up to 10% of funds seized
A brief history of gold confiscation that “might make gold investors sweat” in one infographic…
Read More about Mining.com: A History of Gold Confiscation the Infographic
In an excellent interview with FutureMoneyTrends.com, GATA’s Chris Powell and Bill Murphy answer common skeptic’s questions. Why don’t more gold miners support GATA? How do you explain similar trading patterns in other commodities? Why aren’t there more whistle blowers? etc.
“Owning physical gold is like having a put option on your government and the financial system. And when you don’t have confidence in these things, the paper price of a gold contract that trades in a government-regulated commodities exchange is… irrelevant.” An important reminder from the SovereignMan.
The price of gold has taken a hit in the last few weeks dipping down to the $1,500’s. If you own gold and silver as ‘a put option on the financial system’ this temporary dip is of little concern, what you own is real money. And this week Patrick Barron explained why it is the dollar and not gold that is overvalued.
The Bitcoin vs. gold debate frustrates me; these are incredibly valuable monetary tools, why should I limit myself to just one?
Both these currencies share many characteristics that make them great …limited supply, internationally accepted, non-political, etc. but they are however, very, very different creatures. As such, this argument isn’t entirely without merit, but what we’re arguing about are the pros and cons of ‘real’ vs. decentralized exchange mechanisms.
