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by neilwilson 3199 days ago
The banks are in debt to trillions of dollars to people who are 'in credit'. That's what 'in credit' means. It is the accounting term for a liability.

Does that keep you awake at night too?

For every asset there is a liability - even with cryptocurrencies.

What you are missing with government 'debt' is that it creates safe private assets that keep the pension system going.
2 comments
beefield 3199 days ago
> For every asset there is a liability - even with cryptocurrencies.

I would think that bitcoin is no-ones liability? I mean, there are a bunch of bitcoins that you may or may not be able to sell someone with a price, but there is no-one who has any kind of legal or even moral obligation to give you anything in exchange of a bitcoin.

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option_greek 3199 days ago
Liability will start once you start loaning them out to others and package the loans to other investors who them show them as assets to borrow something from someone else :).
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beefield 3199 days ago
Sure. But it is not the bitcoin that is the liability, it is the loan contract.
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SuoDuanDao 3199 days ago
If I understand your argument, you're saying that I'm a 'creditor' to my bank when I deposit money there that they are obliged to return on demand. Fair enough, but the reason I deal with banks is that it's cheaper than protecting my assets personally. Cryptocurrency is cheaper than dealing with the banks.

So if I find a dollar on the beach and pick it up, what liability has been created by my having a new asset? Are you saying that the potential to find the dollar was some sort of collective asset that I've turned into a liability? That seems like an unnecessarily complicated way of looking at things.

The only thing that can keep the pension system going is a growing population paying into it. Pensions are the ultimate pyramid scheme, the idea that bonds are a safe private asset... safe compared to what, and how safe on an absolute basis?

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marcosdumay 3199 days ago
> So if I find a dollar on the beach and pick it up, what liability has been created by my having a new asset?

That dollar bill is a title of government debit.

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