James Turk Discusses Gold, Bitcoin and Competing Currencies
In the below video GoldMoney’s James Turk and Félix Moreno de la Cova discuss gold, Bitcoin and competing currencies.
As always, Mr Turk has some interesting comments. But I think what he is really saying here is: Hey guys, Bitcoin is cool, I get it. …but I still prefer gold. Fair enough.
Excerpts from the video:
“What I really like about Bitcoin is it’s pushing the edge the of envelope. Its causing people to think, it’s causing people to understand that hey there is more out there than just something that comes from a government central bank.”
“The market can create alternatives …unleashes the forces of the free market, unleashes entrepreneurial spirit and thinking to create different alternatives to come up with a currency that reduces the impediments to interacting with one another so in that regard I think Bitcoin has been in the forefront of creating something new and creative and therefore I take my hat off to it.”
“It’s a very valid experiment.”
“But for the time being I still have this stumbling block, it’s a computer program as opposed to a tangible asset that has a 5000yr history that I can put in my hand and know how to value. I’ll probably be looking at it more and more and watch its growth and see how it grows and how it deals with the issues of become a new currency and competing in this world where government regulation is becoming more and more of an impediment to the free flow of money and capital across borders.”
“I distinguish between money on the one hand and currency on the other. [Money] enables us to communicate value with one another. When we interact with one another in society. So that’s what money does, it’s a mental tool as Mises described it.”
“[Currency] evolves and changes and up until 1694 with the creation of the bank of England currency was always a tangible asset but after that currency became a financial asset which has counter party risk and payment risk and all these other issues. So you know currency continues to evolve and I think Bitcoin is an important step … in bring modern technology to bear in a form of a payment mechanism that the world has never seen before. I think that is a very, very positive step.”
“The question I have in my own mind is going back to what we had prior to 1694 when currency is once again a tangible asset and ultimately that is the vision that I have for GoldMoney.”
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Good interview. It will be interesting to see how Bitcoin further develops in the face of increasing impediments.
Bitcoin can also be looked at as being a representation of energy as it takes an increasing amount of energy in the form of processing power over time to produce more bitcoins in circulation as per how the algorithms are set. There is also a voting mechanism that allows a simple majority (51%) of producers to make software changes.