[P2P-F] "If the global economy goes kaput, what role will virtual currencies play?"

[Michel Bauwens]

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From: Quora <noreply at quora.com>
Date: Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 4:27 AM
Subject: New answer to "If the global economy goes kaput, what role will
virtual currencies play?"
To: michelsub2004 at gmail.com


  [image: Quora]  New answer to "If the global economy goes kaput, what role
will virtual currencies play?"
*Stan Stalnaker*:
Most of this discussion presupposes that currency as a form of measure will
maintain its current structure. There is some evidence that increasing P2P
digitization of information and money will enable virtual currencies of many
stripes to gain traction - especially as the economy begins to regard
non-traditional value sets as valuable.

While it is unlikely that private virtual or digital currencies will ever
replace nationalized currencies, even in a meltdown, it is also likely that
private virtual currencies will gain in usage and value around emerging
areas of the digital economy, and thus become more important. As these
currencies proliferate, they will gain exchange value against each other,
eventually giving rise to a factor we call Singular Value - a point where
the Internet itself determines values of nodal points (whether goods,
services or information) in relation to each other, in a form of realtime
market - which will also serve as an exchange. This will signal the end of
currency as a function of different 'languages' and the rise of a single
value language that determines the price/value of nodal points in the
economy. Math.

The Ven currency is already being used to advantage in financial, commodity
and carbon credit trades because it is relatively stable when compared to
single national currencies, and includes a carbon component that makes
transactions 'greener' at the theoretical and practical level. While these
transactions are currently small, they point the way to diffusion of value
and the opportunity for such currencies to gain wide acceptance. The key is
always how usable and relatively valuable a currency is and how easily it
can be liquified. If the user set, whether local or global, finds value in
the use of the currency, it can gain traction. As the dollar is currently
the most liquid and largest currency, it holds dominance, but even if other
currencies become more accepted, their convertibility to dollars and other
currencies make them part of the same system.

The real question here might be whether the dollar would hold its value
against other such currencies, commodities and 'real goods' -- and that is a
question for any currency engaged in quantitative easing. The purely
mathematical answer, the answer of a truly free market, would be 'no',
because the math doesn't allow it.

*To see the question page with all answers, visit:
http://www.quora.com/l/O78k9s2aeP*

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