Not a bad analogy, except that you can't convert data back into energy. Bitcoin might be the scent of elephant shit...a hint of something being there that really isn't.
Here's an interesting analogy. Suppose someone made a currency from ice medallions on which beautiful miniature paintings have been made on them from water-soluble ink, each one unique. You trade them by moving them quickly from one refrigerated wallet to another. There must be continuous refrigeration power to keep them intact and valuable. And then the power system blows out and there is no power. All your currency melts away, worthless. (People sometimes make the utterly ignorant statement that "information cannot be destroyed." Burn a book in front of them sometimes and see if they think it has not been destroyed.)
You just described our entire current economic system.
The only part you forgot to mention is that crypto is a far superior option compared to our current economic system for transacting quickly over long distances.
The superiority of physical money for local transactions doesn't change this.
Anybody can make electronic Monopoly Money. And if you want to believe it has value (because you paid for it) you are welcome to that delusion.
You can have electronic money transfers without sending a courier with a pouch of gold coins. I don't know where you've been for the past century. The stock markets are able to make frighteningly rapid transfers made on the basis of equally rapid transfers of information.
A rapid transfer of something that has no commodity value is like a signal bounced off the Moon. Impressive...but insubstantial. I don't see that rapid international monetary exchange solves many problems of ordinary people, who are more concerned about the stability and permanence of their funds.
Rapid? You mean it takes a couple of days, and is controlled by big daddy government and the corporations they're in bed with. The fact that they change the numbers on your end doesn't actually mean that the funds have been sent.
And you're missing the point. It's about self custody of your money. Holding silver is great, but silver can't be used online. If you want to use money online, you have to trust the centralized system, whereas with a commodity backed crypto, you have coins backed 1:1 with something real, and you can actually hold the money in a wallet that only you control. And assuming the blockchain used is not controlled by a centralized group, like the government, no one can stop you from transferring your money to other people.
Most people buy things online. You living out in Bumfuck, Alabama does not change this fact. Your entire argument is ignorant of reality and based on your total lack of understanding of the technology at play here.
I can't recover the path back on our exchange. I presume you are disparaging systems like Western Union. No, it only takes as long as it takes to execute the transfer message. My relatives can pick up the money as soon as they can get to a Western Union outlet. Sometimes there are hangups, but those are often imposed by the country you are sending to, and mysterious banking regulations (I have encountered this). When I have submitted cash and they pick up cash, the funds have been sent, period. You have a highly theoretical (and incorrect) idea of something that is practiced daily by lots and lots of people.
Do not get too enamored of an imaginary world. This world will be one of the first things to break and vanish if "hard times" come to pass. You tell me how many people out there who are willing to accept cryptocurrency and that will be the size of your market. And it has to be international? A very specialized market. And you have to assume that the blockchain is not controlled by a centralized group? My goodness, that is at least as bad as the fact that I must also make the same assumption.
I buy things online, when I want to and it is convenient. For other purposes, it is inconvenient. I do fine with credit and debit cards, from multiple vendors. And since I live in the Seattle-Tacoma corridor, I don't know why you want to throw shade at me for living somewhere else. Maybe you don't know that Alabama was where our Apollo vehicles were designed or all of our Army ballistic missiles, but that wouldn't surprise me.
Not a bad analogy, except that you can't convert data back into energy. Bitcoin might be the scent of elephant shit...a hint of something being there that really isn't.
Here's an interesting analogy. Suppose someone made a currency from ice medallions on which beautiful miniature paintings have been made on them from water-soluble ink, each one unique. You trade them by moving them quickly from one refrigerated wallet to another. There must be continuous refrigeration power to keep them intact and valuable. And then the power system blows out and there is no power. All your currency melts away, worthless. (People sometimes make the utterly ignorant statement that "information cannot be destroyed." Burn a book in front of them sometimes and see if they think it has not been destroyed.)
You just described our entire current economic system.
The only part you forgot to mention is that crypto is a far superior option compared to our current economic system for transacting quickly over long distances.
The superiority of physical money for local transactions doesn't change this.
Anybody can make electronic Monopoly Money. And if you want to believe it has value (because you paid for it) you are welcome to that delusion.
You can have electronic money transfers without sending a courier with a pouch of gold coins. I don't know where you've been for the past century. The stock markets are able to make frighteningly rapid transfers made on the basis of equally rapid transfers of information.
A rapid transfer of something that has no commodity value is like a signal bounced off the Moon. Impressive...but insubstantial. I don't see that rapid international monetary exchange solves many problems of ordinary people, who are more concerned about the stability and permanence of their funds.
Rapid? You mean it takes a couple of days, and is controlled by big daddy government and the corporations they're in bed with. The fact that they change the numbers on your end doesn't actually mean that the funds have been sent.
And you're missing the point. It's about self custody of your money. Holding silver is great, but silver can't be used online. If you want to use money online, you have to trust the centralized system, whereas with a commodity backed crypto, you have coins backed 1:1 with something real, and you can actually hold the money in a wallet that only you control. And assuming the blockchain used is not controlled by a centralized group, like the government, no one can stop you from transferring your money to other people.
Most people buy things online. You living out in Bumfuck, Alabama does not change this fact. Your entire argument is ignorant of reality and based on your total lack of understanding of the technology at play here.
I can't recover the path back on our exchange. I presume you are disparaging systems like Western Union. No, it only takes as long as it takes to execute the transfer message. My relatives can pick up the money as soon as they can get to a Western Union outlet. Sometimes there are hangups, but those are often imposed by the country you are sending to, and mysterious banking regulations (I have encountered this). When I have submitted cash and they pick up cash, the funds have been sent, period. You have a highly theoretical (and incorrect) idea of something that is practiced daily by lots and lots of people.
Do not get too enamored of an imaginary world. This world will be one of the first things to break and vanish if "hard times" come to pass. You tell me how many people out there who are willing to accept cryptocurrency and that will be the size of your market. And it has to be international? A very specialized market. And you have to assume that the blockchain is not controlled by a centralized group? My goodness, that is at least as bad as the fact that I must also make the same assumption.
I buy things online, when I want to and it is convenient. For other purposes, it is inconvenient. I do fine with credit and debit cards, from multiple vendors. And since I live in the Seattle-Tacoma corridor, I don't know why you want to throw shade at me for living somewhere else. Maybe you don't know that Alabama was where our Apollo vehicles were designed or all of our Army ballistic missiles, but that wouldn't surprise me.