economic equilibrium
15:46 | 15-11-2011 | Economics, Internet, Lifeform | 1 Comment
к слову, если про биткойны, то штука выходит жутко интересная: когда еще можно было воочию увидеть зарождение новой экономики? особенно если учесть тех китов, на которых она держится[1]:
- полная анонимность; неподконтрольность ни банковским, ни политическим системам;
- ограниченное количество денежных единиц (не более двадцати одного миллиона);
- отсутствие банковских сборов;
- конвертируемость.
что в сумме практически воссоздает золотой стандарт, не меньше.
однако, и тут не без подвоха, разумеется — как напрямую следует из вышесказанного, в связи с последними событиями биткойны оказались идеальным объектом для инвестиций (копия):
<...> as people learned about Bitcoin, the value of bitcoins, in dollar terms, skyrocketed. In July 2010, after the website Slashdot ran an item that introduced the currency to the public (or at least the public enthusiastic about new technologies), the value of bitcoins jumped tenfold in five days. Over the next eight months, the value rose tenfold again. This attracted an enormous amount of publicity. More important, it also made people think that buying and holding bitcoins was an easy way to make a buck. As a result, many—probably most—Bitcoin users are acquiring bitcoins not in order to buy goods and services but to speculate. That’s a bad investment decision, and it also hurts Bitcoin’s prospects.
возьмите любой учебник по экономике — и все, о чем там пишут, можно сегодня наблюдать вживую:
Successful currencies are used to transact day-to-day business and lubricate commerce. But if you buy bitcoins hoping that their value will skyrocket (as anyone investing in bitcoins would), you’re not going to be interested in exchanging those bitcoins for goods, since then you’ll lose out when the value of bitcoins rises. Instead, you’re going to hold onto them and wait until you can cash out.
<...>
It’s easy to imagine a scenario in which the vast majority of bitcoins are held by people hoping to sell them to other people.
вопрос в другом — что же будет дальше:
The best thing for bitcoins would be for people to stop thinking of them as an investment and start thinking of them as a currency. That probably requires the bubble to burst, as it may be doing right now. But if the bubble bursts, it’s possible that people’s interest in Bitcoin will just fade away.
дух захватывает, натурально, — а вы говорите, “Барочный цикл”.
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[1] — кстати, заработать некоторое количество биткойнов можно, предоставив вычислительные мощности компьютера сети Bitcoin. чем и не преминули тут же воспользоваться:
A newly identified Mac OS X Trojan bundles a component that leverages the processing power of video cards (GPUs) to generate Bitcoins, a popular type of virtual currency.
[…] еще об интернет-валютах (из очередной статьи о биткойнах): More recent examples of online currencies include Linden Labs’ Linden dollars, which were used in its online game world Second Life. The reward points customers earn for spending with their credit cards are also becoming an online currency, as e-commerce sites like Amazon.com Inc. have begun to accept points as payments. […]