[hippich]

The reason why people should get excited about Bitcoin is not a bubble or money, but rather a something completely new. Large group of people put financial rules into software and agreed that they are going to use these rules without external central entity and enforcement.

If this continue to roll, same might be applied to many other areas I believe.

It is just my random fantasy at this moment, but why we will need enforcement, if we will have guarantied income in bitcoins and laws system built same way as bitcoin (i.e. opensource and agreed to use by most people) and law enforcement as a function of guaranteed income amount.... Just random thought.

or finally having AI which can exist on its own, buy components of its environment (i.e. machines, networks, etc)

I believe what is emerging right now as a Bitcoin is much wider phenomena than just a way to avoid pay taxes and inflation.

[pron]

But now you're putting a libertarian political agenda into Bitcoin again, and this is what makes many people (including me) very nervous. You see, many people think about the terrible pain and suffering the US experienced about a century ago when the economy and law were largely unregulated and unenforced. Much of the country became quickly enslaved to a small group of individuals; terrible exploitation and rampant poverty ensued. It was through a lot of hard work that Americans were able to place government regulation to free themselves from the tyranny of the robber barons. So when many people today hear the words "without external central entity and enforcement" the horrors of the gilded age flash before their eyes.

Also, your ideas about an AI-directed or general-consensus utopia are nice but naive. People don't usually agree on what utility function you'd want to maximize, as there is no "right way" for a lot of things that matter to people. Would your Bitcoinish utopia allow late-term abortions? Or school prayer? Or same-sex marriage? Politics is a constant battle of values, many of them are deeply emotional.

But Dixon's idea of Bitcoin as internet pocket-money is actually something I can live with.

[waterlesscloud]

There's nothing about what he's saying that precludes the rules of the network being decided by a representative democracy or what have you. Which is part of the beauty of the network.

He's just saying that regulations can be implemented and enforced by the network itself.

Different thing altogether.

[hippich]

I am not trying to put any agenda. It was a mistake to include random idea off top of my head.

My excitement comes not from being able to get free from government, but rather from the fact humanity found a way to agree on complex topic (money) and set these rules in open source software.