Bitcoin is no Dinosaur, Doomed to be Extinct, it’s Something Else Entirely
First, you call Bitcoins a “throwback to an earlier era”, where government-sponsored money had competition. Which, to be fair, is a somewhat valid statement. However, what you draw from it is wrong. The era in which other currencies were physically being minted as alternatives to the dollar, was one of early formation for the country, and unification under a singular currency was needed. This era, however, is a whole other bag of beans. We’re established as a nation. We have a (reasonably) stable currency and economy. Bitcoin is a natural return to a time of competition. Many people, including the Libertarians which are frequently associated with the virtual currency, say that the government is becoming sloppy, especially with the dollar.
When something is overstepping its boundaries and becoming sloppy, what do you do? One frequent answer is overthrow said person/organization, but we’re going to take the metaphorical high road. So, what do we do? We create an alternate entity, one that fits the needs of the people dissatisfied. The dollar is being regulated in restrictive ways, being minted all willy-nilly, so the Bitcoin arose.
Bitcoin is direct response to the global approach to handling money. Many people are becoming uncomfortable with the interference government injects into the market. We already have a massive, decentralized (truly decentralized, unlike Bitcoin, more about that another time though) network for international communication, on which we already make purchases and exchange money. So, one step further, why not make a currency that is literally transferred via the web, and isn’t controlled by anyone but you. Talk about freedom of the market.
I’ve kind of gotten lost on my track there, so we’ll bring it back to the original article now. If we skip past the long history lesson on how private mints and currencies were phased out in the US, we get one of Mr. Mihm’s final statements. He says “Anyone who thinks that Bitcoin will triumph has to believe that it will succeed where earlier generations of private currencies failed — that Bitcoin will, improbably, manage to overthrow more than century’s worth of accumulated state power, jealously guarded and ruthlessly enforced.”
I don’t want to rain on parades, but if anyone is actually deluded enough to think that Bitcoin will destroy the dollar, then you are actually delusional. I will concede that one to you, Stephen. However, that’s not what Bitcoin is trying to accomplish. Bitcoin is simply trying to act as a new type of currency, one that is truly digital, not rooted to any one country, but is free to be exchanged and transacted anywhere. Bitcoin isn’t going to overthrow things, except maybe a few small currencies in Africa, but let’s be honest, they were going to fall with the next gust of wind anyway. That’s in the future though. For now, we’re just here. We’re no dinosaur, and if we are, we’re a shiny new one, nowhere close to extinction. If I could draw an infinitely divisible dinosaur to drive this home, I would. But for now, Mr. Mihm, I say to you, your article doesn’t have two feet to stand on. You don’t get what Bitcoin actually is trying to accomplish, you’re listening to those way out in left field, who have no hold on reality.
