User:Geremia
About Me
I'd consider myself an Austrian economist. I realize that, although there is more to sound currency than the logistics of the currency itself, Bitcoin will help citizens of the world free themselves from the slavery of fractional reserve banking and usury and rekindle in them the sense of justice, which St. Thomas Aquinas defines as the "rendering to each one his right."[1]
- My favorite economics book: Return to Order by John Horvat II
(cf. his article "The Problem with Local Currencies," whose comments mention Bitcoin)
- My favorite economist: Bishop Nicole Oresme (1320-1382). He wrote, in the first monetary treatise, that inflation caused by tampering with money's value, as in fractional reserve banking, is worse than usury:
Bitcoin does not have this problem because of its controlled money supply.The usurer has lent his money to one who takes it of his own free will, and can then enjoy the use of it and relieve his own necessity with it, and what he repays in excess of the principal is determined by free contract between the parties. But a prince, by unnecessary change in the coinage, plainly takes the money of his subjects against their will, because he forbids the older money to pass current, though it is better, and anyone would prefer it to the bad; and then unnecessarily and without any possible advantage to his subjects, he will give them back worse money. . . . In so far then as he receives more money than he gives, against and beyond the natural use of money, such gain is equivalent to usury; but is worse than usury because it is less voluntary and more against the will of his subjects, incapable of profiting them, and utterly unnecessary. And since the usurer’s interest is not so excessive, or so generally injurious to the many, as this impost, levied tyrannically and fraudulently, against the interest and against the will of the whole community, I doubt whether it should not rather be termed robbery with violence or fraudulent extortion.
I'm also available on BitcoinTalk.org and Bitcoin StackExchange.
About Bitcoin
Bitcoin is the future. The technology behind it (esp. the blockchain concept) is very ingenious, and it's revolutionizing finance and even democracies (some countries are even considering using blockchain-based voting, where everyone can verify his vote is counted and there can be no fraud without breaking the chain; the powers of cryptography! cf. "Alternative chain").
Coinbase (join here) is the easiest way to convert between USD and BTC. Of the many Bitcoin wallets to choose from, I prefer the Bitcoin-Qt / Core wallet for desktop computers and GreenAddress wallet for mobile devices.
Learning More
Excellent introduction to Bitcoin by cryptographer Zulfikar Ramzan: Bitcoin Video Series (Khan Academy)
References
BTC tip jar: 1FyW7qCuuh1zAudAwa9sEEvjdaS4XE11n8
Join CoinBase.
God bless Bitcoin. ☺