Bitcoins and Gold Coins: ‘They’re All Just Digital Score Sheets’

Arwa Mahdawi’s explainer on bitcoins is the first thing I’ve read about the digital currency that I’ve actually understood. I think you should read it. This is the money quote (“money quote”):

“It’s worth bearing in mind that while Bitcoin operates outside the parameters of governmental control and is often used to dubious ends, so too is a lot of the money we see around us. The US Treasury printed 3bn $100 bills in the 2012 fiscal year and, 80% of them go overseas, according to Federal Reserve estimates. As Nicholas Colas, ConvergEx Group chief market strategist, notes, “many of them simply facilitate the global drug and arms trade, not to mention tax evasion and human trafficking”. Bitcoins fit into the world of real currency more than anyone would like to think.”

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