Bitcoin

[thermionic]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

 

[zebra50]

I've looked into this a couple of times but find it quite unfathomable!

I like the idea of an alternative currency, but the whole bit mining thing just confused me!

 

[Rochey]

Inflation is connected to how quickly bits can be "mined".

That means that those peple willing to spend money on hardware, and smart people that have FPGA's etc can be rich in no time.

Until value can be derived on a physical object, or real physical effort, no other currency will really work.

 

[thermionic]

I've looked into this a couple of times but find it quite unfathomable!

I like the idea of an alternative currency, but the whole bit mining thing just confused me!

It makes me feel better knowing I'm not the only one who found it somewhat confusing.

Daffyd seems to have a good grip on it. Must be his Welsh roots : )

 

[pucho812]

so what exactly is it? a type of digital money? can it be converted to real money?

 

[Rochey]

[Daffyd seems to have a good grip on it. Must be his Welsh roots : )

Every time I land at Heathrow, and start driving westbound, I hear this ringing in my ears
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKPUbyfIOPM

Yes, we Welsh know a thing or two about mining.

 

[barclaycon]

Yeah. I wasn't impressed with the whole Bitcoin thing.
It seemed overcomplicated and overblown to me.
I was even less impressed to hear that the whole system was compromised recently and hundreds of thousands of dollars went missing!
Guess I'll stick to PayPal.

 

[Hank Dussen]

People use it to buy drugs on the tor-network.
I thought that was it's main reason for existence?

 

[gyraf]

I find the whole idea very very interesting - specially because it's a universal currency with built-in integrity because it's not (and can't come) under national-state (and thereby indirectly under private-banking) control.

But I fear that exactly these features will eventually make it so much of a competitor to existing monetary systems, that it will be outlawed if ever really successful..

If you take your time and read through the ideas and concepts behind the project, you'll see how beautifully it's constructed (but also how primitive current systems are in comparision)

As for comparing against paypal and such - this is not a money-making scheme that will make certain companies or individuals rich by monopolizing the handling of payment - quite the opposite. The transaction fees in the system are a reflection of needed processing power, and orders of magnitude lower than what any bank will do a transaction for.

Jakob E.

 

[thermionic]

But I fear that exactly these features will eventually make it so much of a competitor to existing monetary systems, that it will be outlawed if ever really successful..

This is a sentiment I've heard many times when I've mentioned the system to people. Banks have politicians in their pockets. Depressing.

 

[barclaycon]

From what I 've heard, it was turning out to be the currency for some very dubious activities.

It probably won't be around for much longer if they can't replace the 250,000 dollars that got stolen.

 

[dmp]

How does a bitcoin have any intrinsic value? It seems more like money in a video game - only has value to a small group of people playing the game.

 

[thermionic]

People use it to buy drugs on the tor-network.
I thought that was it's main reason for existence?

People usually buy drugs with cash. Maybe we ought to outlaw cash?

 

[abechap024]

It is a fascinating idea. I second Gyrafs comments that if it does get more successful it will no doubt be made illegal, or taxed or regulated.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Yawn, another alternate currency. These can be attractive to facilitate barter, so individuals can avoid taxation, but are more likely to involve fraud.

Some would argue that modern official (fiat) currencies are not free of funny business. After the US dollar was decoupled from a gold standard it has inflated (lost value) a bunch.

The main difference these days as the would economies get more closely coupled, every central bank is pedaling as fast as they can, to stay in the same place (I'm sure there's an Alice in Wonderland joke there somewhere).  In the past a country could win a relative export advantage by devaluing their currency, but if every country does it at the same time it mostly nets out to no change.

The central banks have a somewhat justified fear of deflation... The classic argument from central bankers is "we know how to fix inflation (raise interest rates), but we do not know how to fix deflation" (like japan in the '90s). So inflation is the lesser evil. I don't trust government to resist the temptation to inflate their way out of the current debt burden all of the western nations are struggling with, allowing them to pay back debt with cheaper currency, so this needs to be watched.

If you want to really piss off China try that. It could be worth them going to war over. Right now China is playing games with Japan over small islands in the Pacific, but I suspect this is to distract the Chinese public from the coming transition in leadership and weakening export economy. There were recent worker riots at Foxconn (apple/dell vendor) but this may be over reported in the western news. These companies have factory compounds as big as a small (medium) sized town so stuff happens. But worker pay has been going up and some companies are getting squeezed by worker expectations for more increases in the soft global economy.
-------
While I am not a fan of time banks or alternate currency, I would support internet postage for email. Charge 1/100th of cent for email postage (with credit for every email you accept), and the economic viability of spam would go away instantly.

The spam/phishers are getting more brazen... lately I've seen emails claiming to be from the BBB, now that takes cohones. With a mac, I can just hover over the link, and it shows the real internet link address...  easier to not click on obviously bogus link addresses.

JR

 

[thermionic]

Last year a single Bitcoin traded at $4 USD. Today that rate's nearer $50 USD.

Secondly, unless the Internet is shut down, how could you stop Bitcoin? Even then, people could use RAM cards. Hundreds of countries would have to collude to outlaw BC. It ain't going to happen. Rumours are circulating that the big banks are dipping their hands (covertly) into the BC water, so to speak.

 

[Kingston]

Rumours are circulating that the big banks are dipping their hands (covertly) into the BC water, so to speak.

Look at the way the market works to day, how do you conclude that (I assume) as a positive thing?

 

[SSLtech]

Now that Thatcher's gone, maybe they can re-open the Bit-mines?

(sorry, it was low-hanging fruit!)

 

[qmp audio]

i understand it as basically a pyramid scheme.  the values only increase as long as there are new people buying in.  just like any ponzi scheme / pyramid scheme... the ones at the top will make out great... but the late adopters will loose their money to the ones on the top.

 

[thermionic]

Rumours are circulating that the big banks are dipping their hands (covertly) into the BC water, so to speak.

Look at the way the market works to day, how do you conclude that (I assume) as a positive thing?

I've yet to see evidence that the big parasites (sorry, banks) contribute anything positive to society, to be honest. I mentioned the 'rumour' simply to illustrate that BC is becoming thought of as credible. Maybe the greatest threat to BC would be the banks buying a large stake of available BCs, hence undermining (no pun intended) its independence?