All currencies are fiat currencies.

Nothing has value unless persons think it has value. It really is all in your head.

Gold has value only because persons think it has value. Bitcoin has value only because persons think it has value.

All this is a roundabout and deliberately provocative way to lead into this:

Man skates on money laundering charge because Florida, USA, judge rules that Bitcoin is not a real currency.

The judge is quite right, you know.

Bitcoin is mortgage derivatives in electronic form.

Gold has value in circuits or gilding &c...

IMHO moving away from actual money is not a trend but evolution and will always have it's steps back.

Lets face it: only currencies that matter are knowledge, food, shelter, love so on...

I agree with that. Add diamonds, etc. also.

I disagree because bitcoin is unique in that there is no central authority. You and I can actually make our own bitcoins. You and I can exchange bitcoins without anyone else to "bless" the transaction.

The judge is not quite right because he's partially truthful and a half-truth is a full lie.

Bitcoin is what's called a barter currency. It is mis-named, however, because it is not a coin and cannot be exchanged for one.

Governments do not recognize it, and will not exchange it for any other currency. But, the US Government also does not outlaw it, because if two people agree among themselves to use any sort of token, "scrip," or even numbers as a way of keeping score as they trade with one another, that's allowed. The value of the scrip is whatever they agree among themselves that it is. If they're willing to buy and/or sell the scrip for money, that's their personal decision.

The man was in fact quite shrewd by refusing to accept "credit-card numbers" as payment, because, if he had, he would have been guilty of a crime. As it is, the judge is right: the undercover agents merely bought a product, no matter what they said they intended to do with it thereafter. It's not illegal for me to sell you a tank of gas for use in your getaway car. It's not illegal for me to sell you something that could be used to obscure a financial transaction because it could also be used for many lawful purposes. ("If you subsequently choose to use what I sold you in that way, that's your decision, not mine. I did nothing wrong. You did.")

Similar cases have unraveled when people said that their bitcoins had been stolen. "Keep a closer eye on your things next time, but they did not take money, and your claim of their 'value' is only your opinion."

I don't think alcohol should be "legal" (pot yes) but I have a drawer full of drink chips from my time as a waiter...

The problem with bitcoins is there is no standard, no relation to work or output or any metric that currencies use. Making your own money doesn't sound fair does it? Kinda illegal in most places. How is that freedom? A world wide fools venture.

$?.

No, Time... Time is the only currency. Theft is the only sin.

What is time but those? Life is currency to us who enjoy it (plus try, have fun) or ones "scamming"* it, whether they think helping or not.What of killing? If you ask me the only sin is believing( or teaching with perhaps a p &c( sum pun)) we can't evolve past it... :rolleyes: LL

Because it's a bit.

I U

Back in the day, I hadda tell a Tolkienesque hippie who told me my Ganga was overpriced that he was mistaken.

"Your dollars are worth less everyday while my stock's price rises. What's more, which would you rather smoke?" He scored the sack.

I'm still a commodities-based currency supporter every way I can be. Wanna trade?

Actually, to me, it's all very simple.

I do not expect to have to "mine anything-at-all" before I can get my Starbucks® Fix. (Or, before I can pay way-too-much for a piece of chicken at Chick-Fil-A®.) Don't tell me that I can't fill up my gas-tank tomorrow. And, so on. I personally have an immediate and pressing need, every day, for liquidity(!) And, I implicitly expect to have it.

The paper and/or disc-shaped tokens in my wallet and on my night-stand are merely an expression of a very small portion of my liquidity. Whether I "deposit a check" or "cash a check," I fully expect the impact upon my personal net-liquidity to be exactly the same ... and I also expect the two financial positions to be fully interchangeable at my pleasure.

"The world's present financial systems" are quite capable of providing this very-fundamental daily service to me." Whereas, "BitCoin is not," and, "what the hell do 'gold coins' have to do with any of the things that I want every-day to do?" More often than not, I swipe a piece of plastic to get my Cuppa Joe ... and what matters most to me at that time is that the barista hands it to me, even though I am barely awake. I frankly see no reason to buy Mason jars and to start digging holes in the ground.