Australian gold sector firing at just the right time
It’s been a challenging few years for gold miners in Australia but the group now looks poised to capitalise on record prices.
Bitcoin is not the world’s only alternative currency enjoying success.
Paul Kemp-Robertson in his excellent Ted talk last month notes three other alternative currencies that are gaining traction.
Kemp-Robertson says people are opting for alternatives because governments are falling out of favour and technology catching up.
“People are actually trusting business people more than they’re trusting governments and leaders,” says Kemp-Robertson.
“So what’s happening now, in the digital age, is that we can quantify value in lots of different ways and do it more easily, and sometimes the way that we quantify those values, it makes it much easier to create new forms and valid forms of currency.”
Bitcoin
This spring Bitcoin’s total market worth hit $1 billion.
Starbucks Star Points
In its recent quarterly filing, Starbucks reported 30 percent of transactions are carried out through points cards rather than cash.
Amazon Coins
Amazon coins are used for buying apps and games. Anyone who buys a Kindle Fire in the US is given $5-worth of the currency or 500 coins. Amazon is the number two player in the tablet space and is estimated to have sold 1.7 million tablets during the March quarter alone.
Tide Detergent
New York Times Magazine broke the story about bottles of Tide detergent being used to buy and sell drugs. Liquid gold, as its known, has a strong brand recognition, and it is something everyone needs. And if thieves shoplift it, the criminal penalties are lower compared to other property crimes. Thieves will go to great lengths to get their hands on Tide. Last year the detergent was on the National Retail Federation’s list of most-targeted items.
Image of bike rider by Radu Razvan
6 Comments
BananaDesires
F**k you all
bitcoinmoney
> This spring Bitcoin’s total market worth hit $1 billion.
Technically, over $2 billion (April 9th, 2013).
Today the market worth (well, its total dollar valuation) is $1.1 billion.
Incidentally, the Tide as currency was pretty much debunked on Snopes as being a myth: http://www.snopes.com/media/notnews/tide.asp
Alastair Lings
Interesting. I think the best currency would be something we all use, energy. This could be in the form of food, fuel or electricity.
Finn
Except it doesn’t fit into the definitions of money; it is not a store of value because it gets destroyed in the transaction.
John C. Turmel, B. Eng.
Jct: Great, more alternative currencies where each transaction costs the bankers some interest. But sadly, they fail to mention China’s QQoins, Japan’s Fureai Kippu health care timebank, Kenya’s mobile-phone minute transfers, LETS timebanks, all costing the banksters interest. Nice to see big operations setting up their own, no doubt since the more transactions done without their interest-bearing money is like more and more pin-pricks. Though a pin-prick is but a pin-prick, a series of pin-pricks creates a wound. Bankers are bleeding aroung the planet and their system is crashing as people get onto the interest-bearing ones as much as possible.
A Muslim Brother
Currencies should stay Gold & Silver as mentioned in all abrahamic religions..
Currencies where the value of the currency being used is able to change SHOULD NOT BE USED AS A CURRENCY.. and WILL cause a accumalation of wealth rather than creating a healthy flowing economy ..
PEACE –