Finding a use for the underlying technology supporting bitcoin is very different than saying bitcoin as a fiat currency is worth the value at which it is currently trading.
That's a strange thing to say. I think of a "fiat currency" being one which 1. is not backed by a physical good, like gold, and 2. is recognized by a government, so you can pay taxes and fines with it. Why would it be beneficial that you cannot pay your taxes with Bitcoin?
My understanding is that the mining metaphor is supposed to be reminiscent of gold's scarcity.
It is also my understanding that the crypto- in cryptocurrency enables anonymous trade. This would seem to preclude the need to even pay taxes since no government could even track the transactions. As I understand it this is the primary value proposition of Bitcoin.
Why would you want to pay taxes to the US government in any currency other than the US Dollar? I really don't understand the value there. Do people pay US income taxes in Euros? Why? How?
fiat - an arbitrary decree or pronouncement, especially by a person or group of persons having absolute authority to enforce it.
The amount fiat currency can be doubled overnight by the authority over the fiat currency. Stealing, in effect, from all of the people holding that currency. Non-fiat, like gold or bitcoin (at least this is what the true believers believe), have a high amount of work that needs to be done to just get a little bit more of it. No grabbing half the currency overnight.
Well, they could but the entire community can just fork. Miners are under no obligation to stick with a crazy change like that. The core developers would only shoot themselves in the foot and make themselves never to be trusted again.
And with Bitcoin Cash gaining in popularity, a fork is not an impossibility. In fact, BCH is popular because it's actually usable unlike BTC at the moment (extremely high fees, slow confirmation times).
Undoubtedly. My comment was only meant to frame that he may have a vested interested in lambasting one implementation of the tech while promoting his own, and that he wasn't merely acting as informed commentator.
He can't be merely a skeptic when he's selling his own version to some of the largest banks in the world.