petition: official currency code for Bitcoin (BTC?)

[Daniel Pocock]

On 12/11/12 11:17, David Gerard wrote:


>> I don't want to belittle your point of view - it is always good to look
>> at any new inventions with a critical eye, especially when money is
>> involved.  But what do you see as safer alternatives to Bitcoin?
> 
> 
> This is the politician's fallacy:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politician%27s_syllogism "We must do
> something; This is something; Therefore, we must do this." Your
> question does not imply an answer of "FSFE must therefore lend its
> good name to Bitcoin."


Actually, I don't think that was my question at all.

To put it in context, if you were making a new physical currency, you
could go to a chemist and ask him is it better to use silver or sodium.
 The chemist may well tell you that sodium is too soft for coins.  He
would likely go on to explain that it is highly reactive and likely to
explode in your pocket, while silver is durable and reacts with few
things.  A geologist may tell you that silver is rare, also making it a
good choice.  Neither the chemist or geologist is telling you to invest
your life savings in silver though, they are just giving scientific facts.

In the same spirit, I think that organisations concerned with free
software do have some contribution to the debate, e.g. to answer
questions like whether it is better to have critical technology (e.g.
the payments system) built on transparency (open source and open
standards).  A further step may be to classify the qualities of such
systems to help people distinguish the better ones, just as a geologist
can tell you about the relative scarcity of gold vs silver, without
actually endorsing a particular financial model or giving anything that
could be perceived as investment advice.