Re: Let's Play: Announcement of a new skype group

>
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>> Cryptocurrency adoption, however, has largely been driven by game
>> dynamics that most closely relate to money, namely spot trading and online
>> betting. This has often been critiqued as "criminal" or "speculation."
>>
>
> I actually think game dynamics are important and positive, rather than,
> negative.
>
>
Just for clarification, I agree. "Fun" is a net positive. I agree with
Huizinga's mid-century assessment that fun (homo ludens) also has
possibility of delivering us from the mechanistic tendencies of
totalitarian or Marxist (homo faber) defined outputs.

That said the games that tend to be most strongly integrated with money
tend to be "casino style" games in which one assumes a certain amount of
risk for a near immediate reward. This is exciting, which is why many
people buy lottery tickets and folk to casinos. It's not clear that it's
conducive for net societal good.


> Bitcoin is the only system out there that is getting merchant acceptance,
> so imho the best candidate for a new currency.  And one that is fostering a
> large amount of innovation.
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>
There is an article of mine in Issue 16 of Bitcoin Magazine entitled, "John
Law gambles with Bitcoin" which discusses the parallels between this
historical moment and the birth of the stock markets and creation of paper
money in France.


> I think this is the reason that Dr. Bernanke described it as having "long
> term promise".  It seems to me, at this point, that an alternative would
> have a gargantuan task in trying to become a commonly accepted means of
> payment.
>
>

Keep in mind that merchants (Zynga, Overstock) aren't actually accepting
Bitcoin, they are handling things through a third party payment processor
that immediately converts Bitcoin into fiat. Anyone can provide that
service, and if there is sufficient demand any of the third party payment
processors will also integrate other currencies. As far as I'm concerned,
the shift towards digital currency has just begun and the ultimate winner
will be the one that provides the most value to the users of the currency.

Perhaps I'm being stubborn here, but I also don't see encouraging
speculation as a necessary on-ramp to currency adoption.