
Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme: The Internet currency will collapse. - eplanit
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/view_from_chicago/2013/04/bitcoin_is_a_ponzi_scheme_the_internet_currency_will_collapse.html?google_editors_picks=true
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tokenadult
Previous submission of canonical URL (with more comments than here):

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5534971>

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Intermernet
I'm not involved with Bitcoin in any way, but I did find the comment "Felix
Salmon and many others have pointed out that a currency cannot succeed with a
supply that is fixed, or if it grows too slowly." a little confusing.

Isn't gold a perfect example of a currency that has a fixed supply? Moreover,
isn't the value of a currency often based on it's scarcity?

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wmf
AFAIK many economists now believe that gold caused many depressions in the
past and thus is not a good currency. Also, when the value of gold increases
it creates an incentive to mine more, but Bitcoin has no such feedback loop.

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Intermernet
Interesting, I hadn't heard the theory of gold causing depressions
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_Great_Depression#...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_Great_Depression#Gold_standard))
. It seems that it's still a topic of much debate.

The incentive to mine more gold is, IMHO, not a good or sustainable thing.
Both gold and Bitcoin are a limited resource, and increasing value is an
incentive to mine more of both (look at the sales of ASIC miners).

On one hand, gold has practical purposes (medical, electronics, etc.) but on
the other hand Bitcoin doesn't involve digging enormous holes in the ground.

Maybe there's a real fear that if Bitcoin becomes a viable currency, then gold
will be devalued somewhat. The a fore mentioned gold standard may be replaced
with a Bitcoin standard. But, I'm no economist, and I have neither gold nor
Bitcoins, so I almost certainly have no idea of what I'm talking about.

