The Bitcoin Revoluton and Capitalism

[robbo203]

http://moneyweek.com/join-the-bitcoin-revolution/

 

I have recently been crossing swords with a bunch of anarcho-capitalists over on the Anarchism FB page. Seems the Ancaps have jumped  on the Bitcoin bandwagon, confidently declaring that it promises to deliver a mighty blow against …er …statism, fiat money, central banking and all of the other accoutrements of "corporatism" (apparently according to our Ancap friends, we dont live in a capitalist society but a corporate one)

 

Of course, given that there is no obvious roadmap to this anarcho capitalist utopia of theirs  – they can't hope to pit small businesses against the giant corporations  in mortal competiton and win  and nor would they deign to dirty their hands by capturing the state to introduce anarcho capitalism – you can sort of understand the exultant fervour and glee with which they have latched on to bitcoin revolution

 

The above link is just a taster of what this "revolution" is supposed to be about.  Personally, Im highly skeptical of some of the grandiose claims made about it.  But I wonder if folks here have any thoughts on the subject or indeed any useful links that might put the matter in perspective and in particular a socialist perspective

[Anonymous]

You need money to start the ball rolling. I can see some obvious advantages, if one was participating in economic activity, working on the side say and wished to disguise this, by not banking cash. Kind of 'weboffshoring' smaller transactions and deals in black economic activity. I haven't a clue beyond that so sorry re. your main question.

[robbo203]

Matt wrote:

You need money to start the ball rolling. I can see some obvious advantages, if one was participating in economic activity, working on the side say and wished to disguise this, by not banking cash. Kind of 'weboffshoring' smaller transactions and deals in black economic activity. I haven't a clue beyond that so sorry re. your main question.

 Matt, I think the argument that the Ancaps are making is that bitcoin enables you to bypass the mainstream financial insititutions, thus depriving them of the ability to take a cut of your hard earned cash. So the argument ties in with a wider argument about debt and financialisation of the economy.  The Ancaps seem to be saying that we are living in a rentier economy not a truly capitalist economy and that developments like bitcoin which they passionately support will collapse the whole bloated surperstructure of corporatism and deliver a free market utopia I think they are talking bollocks frankly and engaging in pure wishful thinking.  Meanwhile back in the real economy the concentration of wealth is extreme and getting more pronounced.   Impoverished workers who imagine they are stepping on to some magical escalator to significant  material improvement by escaping the perils of what is called "secondary exploitation" forget that there is still primary exploitation and that the means of prpduction are still massively concentrated in the hands of the capitalists.  Moving around a few bitcoins between ourselves aint gonna make a blind bit of difference to the wider picture

[jondwhite]

Best thing I read on it was a critisticuffs pamphlethttps://gegen-kapital-und-nation.org/en/bitcoin-finally-fair-money

[ALB]

You beat me to it, JohnD ! That's the definitive article on it. Its analysis is also referred to here.

[Anonymous]

Of course you are quite correct re primary exploitation to get the wherewithall for most of us.. I think Jon and Adams posts are what I need to update my info as well.

[jondwhite]

In my very limited understanding, isn't every commodity traded for speculation (ie. not used for what it produces as such), a (potential) 'bubble' where exchange value is largely divorced from use value.

[Author]

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