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lennier writes "Has Magic the Gathering Online Exchange tapped all its mana? MtGox, the first and best known Bitcoin exchange, has abruptly shut down, and CEO Mark Karpeles has resigned from the Bitcoin Foundation after rumors of ongoing theft related to the transaction malleability issue reported several weeks ago. According to the latest news reports, Bitcoin has hit a three-month low of $465 USD per coin."
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MtGox Shuts Down, CEO Resigns From BTC Foundation
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You are a fluke of the universe; you have no right to be here.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday February 25 2014, @08:03PM
No it isn't. Not even close.
One way to look at it is to compare its price with substitutes like copper (for electronics) and brass (for jewelry) as of this writing:
- Gold: $43181/kg
- Copper: $7/kg
- Brass: $5/kg
I'll grant you that gold is better than copper and brass in some ways: Gold is more conductive than copper, and brass can tarnish in a way gold doesn't. But still, you'd be hard-pressed to explain why anyone would pay 6000 times more than a conveniently available substitute commodity for most purposes.
So why is gold so expensive?
- Because of its social value as a sorta-currency. Gold jewelry is more prestigious than brass jewelry, precisely because of the expense and difficulty of acquiring gold. The reason that kings started wearing the stuff is the exact same reason that gang leaders wear bling - if you can sit there with great wealth and nobody tries to steal it, you must be powerful.
- The fears of goldbugs (people who are thinking that owning gold will save them when the revolution comes). These fears are stoked by people like Glenn Beck, who just so happens to have a financial interest in gold trading companies.
- The greater fool theory - Commodities traders can always sell gold to the general public, who are more easily hoodwinked than other professionals.
But none of this has anything to do with gold's actual uses.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by adolf on Tuesday February 25 2014, @08:44PM
Nope. Gold is worse than copper -- it is between copper and aluminum.
This, by most measures, makes it a very fine conductor indeed. But the top of the chart rests with silver.
I'm wasting my days as I've wasted my nights and I've wasted my youth