[mikeash]

I understand that perfectly. You seem to be missing my point that using volatile assets as currency makes things really complicated because you can't easily plan based on their value.

It doesn't matter if I hold a bitcoin or an oil certificate or a share of AAPL or a futures contract for polar bear fur, I don't want to use stuff as currency where I don't know how much groceries it'll buy next week.

[smokeyj]

It might be difficult to imagine but there's countries where the official government issued currency leads to the exact situation you're describing. Unpredictable buying power and economic uncertainty. That was the whole point of my comment - check the original.

There's places in this world where the idea of an apolitical central bank is unimaginable. If you don't have an imagination I can't help you there. Or maybe you don't car about humans from non-western countries. Either way, this innovation clearly isn't for you.

[mikeash]

I specifically said "stable currencies." If you were talking about unstable currencies then this whole subthread is just pointless....