Bitcoins online currency

[elster]

Like many things web related, expect many proclamations of the "success of Bitcoin" and "the death of Bitcoin" long before a sustainable trend is established. The Bitcoin economy I believe is currently estimated at several tens of millions of dollars annually, but growing at a fast rate. Also remember that the vast majority of fiat currencies have failed (and those that have not are devaluing quickly), mostly because of devaluation and often because the issuer of that currency has crumbled (often from loss of military power). So the appeal of a hypothetical non-fiat (by fiat, I mean government fiat), decentralized, private currency are great across the world.

Money systems are about control & taxes. Bitcoin is supposedly about more freedom. The US dollar system for example is controlled by a cartel of banks and affiliated companies that take a cut of the economy with every transaction.

I believe I heard that Amazon for instance, pays about a billion dollars a year in transaction fees for example. If I was in charge of Amazon, I am sure it would be interesting to accept payments in a system that negates the need for all kinds of middlemen in the simple act of accepting payments. Of course if you are a government collecting taxes, you are going to pressure large corporations to not use Bitcoin. You will do everything in your power to vilify alternative currencies, it is the only thing they can do to prevent most people from using it. The government could make Bitcoin illegal for use, but that would simply cause an appreciation in value of Bitcoin. Without a way to enforce use of Bitcoin, it may be a losing gamble for said government, especially since their main business and control is their competing fiat currency.

In the long run, over the next few decades, I think a private, decentralized open source currency is bound to become pervasive, especially as the Euro and other fiat currencies decline in value, as have the vast majority of fiat currencies before them. Whether Bitcoin is THE currency to replace, remains to be seen. It may be one of a host of similar currencies with similar concepts used in different ways for different uses (store of wealth, vs. value transfer vs. investing, etc.)

Here is a rather comprehensive introduction from a libertarian source:
http://evoorhees.blogspot.com/2012/0...roduction.html

[elster]

KimDotCom and friends might find a home in Bitcoin - http://www.btcwallet.org/2012/07/11/...ockers-market/

[Clinton]

News: Bitcoin site goes off-line after $250K stolen because of user error (the user being the Bitcoin founder who left "unencrypted keys" lying about!)

[Clinton]

BBC News today: Bitcoin virtual currency reaches all-time high price

Online currency Bitcoin reached an all-time high price of more than $32 (£21), a sign the virtual money fortunes have reversed

Some people trust the Bitcoin concept more than others. A lot more.

I have my entire retirement and savings invested in Bitcoin.

I am not a wealthy man. I am actually quite poor and have a lot of student loan debt. But I have good credit. I have applied for, and received over $30,000 USD in credit card 0% balance transfer cash, which I have slowly been investing in bitcoin for the past two months. I started when it was $14/BTC. At this second, it is $25.10/BTC. I have invested some of it in satoshidice, and the rest will be stored in an offline wallet.

[nokkieny]

BBC News today: Bitcoin virtual currency reaches all-time high price



Some people trust the Bitcoin concept more than others. A lot more.

I have actually played my hand in "mining" BTC. I had 4 mining rigs that I ran for about a year, but recently sold them off. When I started early last year the price if bitcoin had gone as low as $5, I had actually sold about 300 coins in the $5-$8 range. Now I am in the process of selling of my existing coins (I buy amazon gift cards), and the price is $30+, to think if I would have just held on to those coins I sold for dirt...
Also, for me this was never a true profit venture for me, but rather a hobby, I learned a lot in the process, and it was a fun experience. I made a few thousand, but never considered scaling up. Now the technology has evolved, I may jump back in the game if I have some spare cash.

That guy is an idiot for investing HIS RETIREMENT in bitcoin. There is so much uncertainty in the price you are basically rolling dice. Not to mention any day it could drop to zero, for some unforseen reason, maybe if it was made illegal by the governemt (the us FBI has and is probably still actively investigating the currency).

[cash ninja]

I was looking at bitcoins the other day. From what I understand, you need fairly serious computing power in order to mine them, is that not the case? What sort of hardware where you using for your rigs nokkieny?

For the average person wanting to get hold of bitcoins, presumably they have to buy them using regular currency? The whole process strikes me as a bit problematic at the moment...

[nokkieny]

I was looking at bitcoins the other day. From what I understand, you need fairly serious computing power in order to mine them, is that not the case? What sort of hardware where you using for your rigs nokkieny?

For the average person wanting to get hold of bitcoins, presumably they have to buy them using regular currency? The whole process strikes me as a bit problematic at the moment...

Well up until december when the difficulty doubled, which means it would be twice as hard to "mine" the same amount of coins. The common minning hardware used was video cards like so:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nDTBN_cPs0

However, video cards are no longer profitable because the cost of power (in most areas) is more than the coins you would mine. However they do make great heaters in the winter.

The new hardware is FPGA and ASIC, I have no idea what this means, but check out: http://www.butterflylabs.com/ they have been in the development "pre-order" stage for months, they were supposed to deliver last november and I am not sure if they have made any deliveries to date. So it is either a big scam or they really have production issues. But the idea is low power consumption, high output.

Yeah, I agree, part of the reason it is not more popular is because buying coins and spending them is not idiot proof, it takes some learning just to get started. Also, the concept is confusing and seems under the law. In essence it is a way to make untraceable transactions, of course the governments wont like that.

[Clinton]

... of course the governments wont like that.

Governments don't like Wikileaks either, but this is the internet and they'll eventually figure they can't control everything!

Especially money.

The fiat money of world governments is under attack. Despite the normal looking trading happening in currency markets everyday, there is a big black cloud looming. Currency wars - intentional devaluation of a nation's currency by their central bank - goes only so far to debase your currency, cause inflation and reduce the value of the massive mountains of unsustainable debt on government balance sheets. Financial armageddon will happen and the day of reckoning will make the 2007-8 financial crisis seem like a storm in a teacup. Some of the world's top economists have been talking seriously about this possibility. Keeping some of your savings in gold / Bitcoins / productive assets makes more and more sense as the days pass.

Governments can ban Bitcoins, but that doesn't make it go away, it just moves it offshore. Americans are banned from various gambling, spreadbetting and trading activities. They've found increasingly inventive ways around these problem.