Further, some investors tend to buy gold as an alternative currency when the dollar sags.
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But, at some point, people might like to buy something with this alternative currency.
Market participants often buy gold as a hedge or alternative currency in times of dollar weakness, and vice-versa.
If Bitcoin is truly an alternative currency to to the US dollar, then it cannot eliminate or prevent credit card fraud.
On that front, Shannon says the group is considering alternatives like using some sort of alternative currency or donating winnings to charity.
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Or, possibly, they will demand to get paid in the alternative currency.
In the past several years, gold has been seen as an alternative currency by some investors and this research underlines that view.
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If Bitcoin were truly to become an alternative currency, it would have to be able to be convertible into credit, including credit cards.
Gold remains in favor as a safety play or alternative currency among many investors despite a correction from the late-summer highs, analysts said.
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All of this means it makes sense to think of Bitcoin less as an alternative currency than as a new platform for financial innovation.
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Governments that view it as an alternative currency and as an official means of payment can discourage people from holding it via the tax code.
Dollar weakness tends to help gold by attracting buying as a hedge or alternative currency and since it makes all commodities cheaper for holders of other currencies, and vice-versa.
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They have even created an alternative currency, the "Totnes Pound", which can only be spent within the town in an attempt to localize the economy and reduce reliance on imports.
The yellow metal is holding up better than most commodities due to its role as a safe haven and alternative currency, while platinum has been hit by worries about industrial demand from the auto sector in a slowing economy.
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Historically platinum has had a price premium over gold, but that changed around late September last year when a poor world economic outlook pinched industrial metals like platinum and buyers sought gold for its safe-haven status or its role as an alternative currency.
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One alternative is a currency basket reflecting the pattern of its trade.
Other gold investors believe that continued weakness in the dollar will attract more gold investors like the central banks of China, Russia and India, who see the precious metal as an alternative to paper currency.
With a currency board, there is always the ultimate alternative that you can break the currency board.
Giving citizens a choice of currencies was proposed in a Conservative government Treasury paper in the late 1980s, as an alternative to the single European currency.
Since the rules were introduced in November 2011, Paypal has been used as an alternative means of obtaining the US currency close to the official exchange rate, which currently stands at about 4.7 pesos per dollar.
The current stampede of industrial and emerging countries alike toward floating-cum-inflation targeting, and away from exchange-rate and monetary anchors, suggests that this combination is the only real alternative to giving up a national currency in favour of monetary union or dollarisation.
The merest hint of infidelity would send currency users fleeing to an alternative issuer.
Lastly, under Bretton Woods there was no real alternative to the dollar as a reserve currency.
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The third alternative is for Greece to leave the currency union and then devalue the New Drachma.
The euro also now offers a new and viable alternative to the dollar as a global currency.
The U.K. isn't a member of the 17-member euro zone and has been an attractive alternative for investors whenever worries about the currency bloc's finances flare up.
Mr Geithner has suggested deficit or surplus targets of less than 4% of gross domestic product as an alternative to pressing China to allow its currency, the renminbi, to appreciate faster.
The Swiss franc has rallied over the recent quarters as just about the sole European alternative to the 17-nation single currency unit whose weaker deficit-ridden nations have raised angst for the euro.
The obvious alternative was to abandon the fight and let the currency fall.
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