No. Local voucher schemes in several towns are well publicised, transparent, known to the Bank of England, and fully backed by sterling reserves. They are also microscopically tiny, compared to UK currency.
Can someone please explain what tax is to the Scotsman? It's where the money comes from that we send to the North of the wall.
Except gold's real value comes from it being a scarce resource that has a demand, whereas currency is fiduciary.
Would I swap Swiss francs for Bitcoin? No. That probably tells you as much as you need to know about the relative confidence in the Swiss franc vs Bitcoin.
The main advantage of bitcoin is that it can't be debauched by government for it's own ends. By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. JM Keynes
Except cash's real value comes from it being a scarce resource that has a demand. But hang on, governments can produce as much of it as they like, does that mean it has no value ?
All this stuff only has the value that people invest in it. Like a bike. Some models have more value, some less. Some with dodgy history are worth less. So it is with money. It's only trading tokens after all. Will it be worth as much tomorrow as it is today if I decide to keep it rather than trade it? That's the sort of question people implicitly ask. With bitcoin, it doesn't matter what the intentions are, it's the reality of its trading value that counts. You may not like governments, but who is behind bitcoin and who are they accountable to? Answer: (a) you don't know and (b) no one.
... but instead it was created and can be debauched by anonymous private persons who can cheat, steal, and defraud for their own ends, who answer to no-one, and who have tried to place themselves beyond the reach of laws and beyond the control of anyone.
