U.S Gov needs to stop shooting themselves in the feet

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-16/putin-responds-us-sanctions-will-boomerang-and-cause-very-serious-damage

My opinions are spreading like wildfire:

Technology has advanced to the point where we can use things like bitcoin instead of heavy, easy-to-steal physical commodities like gold.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-07-16/gold-dreamers-face-harsh-reality

This thread is what is awesome.  Just started catching up on it today.  Thank you, cypherdoc!

actually, just to be accurate, this thread is an extension of this one from August 2011 :

Gold: I Smell a Trap

most of the heavy academic debate occurred there between miscreanity and myself. What ever happened to that boy anyway? 

https://twitter.com/EdmundCMoy/status/489185805382868992

"Edmund Moy, 38th Director of the US Mint, just tweeted his first purchase of bitcoin"

Epic. It is catching on like...wild fire coming soon.

Gold went back above $1300 and was spiking until the fed managed to get it back under control. You'll never see any stock acting the way gold does. After $3B+ of short selling over a couple of days, people are still buying. The reason investors buy gold is as a hedge against out of control inflation or because of conflict/war. Thus the vertical spikes followed by an urgent take down. BTC price is currently slightly sagging so investors' perception is not yet equivalent to digital gold.

When profitability is scarce and difficult to obtain, capital tend to compete for appreciation opportunities.

Given its properties, and since there are not many people who borrowed in order to buy bitcoins, btc would be seen as one of the goods with greater potential for appreciation.

I agree, I've pondered both of the possible scenarios (mega btc rally vs. mega btc dump/crash) and either one are equally valid.  Bitcoin would have to establish itself as a SOLID asset deemed better than fiat in the short term for a rally, otherwise a mega market crash would be inevitable.  In a financial crisis, people run to the safest asset in the short term.  That's why stocks get dumped for fiat and gold, even stocks of companies that are solid.

I mean, what would stop a mass public run on liquidating bitcoin for hard cash?  The only thing I could think of is capital controls on bitcoin conversion (especially if by that time, major world financial markets actually depended on Bitcoin to some degree).  Perhaps the world banks wouldn't even have enough fiat to cover all the selling, because there might be a bank run at the same time?  Negative interest rates on bank fiat deposits to deter sellers, perhaps?

I'm not sure a hard financial crash would even be possible anymore, now that the world's central banks know that they can just fire up QE and confiscate savings in the short term.

We're still the largest consumer economy.  I'm not sure the rest of the world is willing to give up their biggest customer.  They are certainly trying to lessen the impact of such a move for when it comes, but I don't think that time has come yet.  The BRICS need a bit more time to strengthen their consumerism.  Their middle classes are rapidly growing, but they are more sensible so it takes 2 middle class Chinese to consume as much as 1 middle class person from the US.  But they have the numbers, so it is only a matter of time.