Does the Ecuadorian commissary accept Bitcoin?
How much change do you get for a Mars bar and a can of Redbull?
Endurance couch-surfer and WikiLeaker-in-chief Julian Assange has thanked US authorities for the banking blockade that made it hard to donate fiat currencies to his organisation, because it inadvertently enriched the organisation. The blockade first appeared in 2010, after the United States expressed its ire at WikiLeaks' …
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"Without the Plunge Protection Team, normal currencies would be as prone to severe fluctuations as Bitcoin is."
Even with that team, today's announcement that the UK is ~£450billion pounds worse off than it thought it was will have similar effects.
"Backing" is a euphemism. There is no "backing" of any currency. There is only faith and coercion. I must pay my taxes to the government with fiat currency, thus I must obtain it and so it has value commensurate with scarcity. Beyond that, faith in its value underpins its utility in commerce. All essentially ephemeral, like Bitcoin et al. Volatile? Sure, relatively, at present...
So what does the Director of the IMF think? Well...
https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2017/09/28/sp092917-central-banking-and-fintech-a-brave-new-world
"All of this will be seriously disruptive to the traditional banking system: The days of fractional reserve banking (and sanctions) are numbered. Currency is far too important to trust to any one entity."
Uh huh. So let's hope you never have to pay any taxes. The country you are in generally gets to decide the currency in which you pay them. That's why there's always a demand for each currency. As for your pretend stuff, there's no intrinsic demand for it. It really is only of value because it's convertible into something useful. If you really think that the international community is going to let you and your IT project threaten the entire global economy, think again.
Daily Telegraph article: "'Bitcoin is broken', researchers warn". I've forgotten how to do html tags, so this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10430079/Bitcoin-is-broken-researchers-warn.html
There have been other such warnings, and JPMorgan Chase chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said the currency is a "fraud" that will blow up. This too from the register, which used strike through html to voice the opinion that it's a Ponzi scheme: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/11/bitcoin_currency_meltdown/
I still feel sorry for the poor bloke who hadn't backed his bitcoin savings up, put his PC/HD on the tip by mistake, and lost millions. I bet he doesn't drink Carling Black label.
That would be JP "no ulterior motive" Morgan (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10510933/JPMorgan-files-patent-for-bitcoin-killer-currency.html") and The Daily "totally unbiased" Telegraph (https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/feb/19/telegraph-250m-loan-hsbc-editorial-changes-yodel) would it?
Not that The Grauniad has better credentials, just the first link that came up.
If Wiki was "forced" to dip its toe in the BTC world, it won't actually make any profit from Bitcoins until it cashes them in. But since it is prevented from doing that whatever value it thinks it has, in its Bitcoin wallet(s) is purely theoretical. And so long as it is embargoed from using proper money it will remain asset rich, but illiquid.
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"WikiLeaks is a not-for-profit media organisation."
Could have fooled me ...