Posted: 10/1/2012 7:49:46 AM EDT
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I have use Bitcoin for buying and selling for about two years now. It really is the best money for use online. Unlike fiat currency bitcoin is open source and is owned and operated by it's users. Some call it the most dangerous project on the internet. That is true if you are Pay-Pal or a big bank.
If you like gold and liberty dollars you are going to love this. When I first started buying bitcoin I paid about $0.74 / coin. Since then they have taken off and are used worldwide, today they are about $12.30. Yesterday I bought 350 rounds of 5.56 for $0.35 per. Check it out. http://bitcoin.org/ EDIT: here are some examples of where to buy gun stuff with bitcoins. http://bitcoingunparts.com/ https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=83381.0 https://www.bitmit.net/en/ |
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Unlike fiat currency bitcoin is open source and is owned and operated by it's users. You do realize that Bitcoin is still a fiat currency, right? It's an interesting concept, but it's mostly a novelty. The majority of people are not going to put their faith in a digital currency system that is not backed by a major world government, or other regulatory body. It will always have a niche market of users, but won't gain widespread support for day to day use. |
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Well bitcoin is NOT a fiat currency. Fiat currencies derive their value from government regulation or law. Bitcoin is totally unregulated. For comparison US dollars are a fiat currency. That allows the government to change the value or circulation as they wish. With bitcoin the supply fixed and no one has the ability to print more money. Any increase in demand means higher valuation of bitcoins. That's why the $ money in my wallet is worth less this year than last, but my bitcoins are up like 600 %.
Bitcoin can be difficult to get one's head around. It is growing stronger every day and you can buy just about anything with bitcoins now. I use it for everything from paying the phone bill to buying gun stuff. It makes the whole world a garage sale. For example; my wife likes cooking exotic dishes. She wanted an unusual Chinese recipe to try. So I found a student in China who gave me a family recipe as a PDF file. Using google translate I sent him about $0.50 worth of bitcoin and he emailed me the recipe. That was a WOW moment. I just bought something directly from a Chinese national without a middle man! He's probably in jail now, lol. |
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Well bitcoin is NOT a fiat currency. Fiat currencies derive their value from government regulation or law. Bitcoin is totally unregulated. For comparison US dollars are a fiat currency. That allows the government to change the value or circulation as they wish. With bitcoin the supply fixed and no one has the ability to print more money. Any increase in demand means higher valuation of bitcoins. That's why the $ money in my wallet is worth less this year than last, but my bitcoins are up like 600 %. That may be the "Wikipedia" explanation of a fiat currency, but it is not the economic definition of a fiat currency. A fiat currency is any medium of exchange that has little to no intrinsic value, and only holds economic value because members of the economy choose to accept it in exchange for goods and services. Bitcoin is a fiat currency. It has no value by itself. The entire reason that Bitcoin has value is simply because others choose to accept it. If noone was willing to accept your bitcoins for purchase, they're competely worthless. The USD is also a fiat currency, and even Arfcom's precious gold is a fiat currency. There's nothing wrong with fiat currency either. In fact, using fiat money is signifcantly more efficient for an economy and facilitates more frequent and larger economic transactions. For an economy to grow and prosper, fiat money is almost a necessity. As for it's popularity, I'm not doubting that there are several thousand people worldwide who accept it as a form of payment. But on a large scale, no economy is going to accept a digital currency that is not regulated or backed by a major world government. It's not that we need a government to endorse the currency, but society as a whole has gotten to the point that they do not trust an unregulated digital monetary system on a large scale. It will be used, as you called it, like a big garage sale. Easy payment for small, infrequent purchases and minor bills. Bitcoin will never be used for major purchases like homes, cars, etc. |
Using your definition of a fiat currency having no intrinsic value, then I suppose it is. Calling it that at a bicoin forum would get 10 pages of rants; but I'm not into that stuff.  It's true that bitcoins(BTC), like gold or paper money or diamonds, have little value on their own. The second ingredient for a sucsessful currency is acceptance. That has happened for BTC and it's getting bigger all the time. Items like cars and homes are not frequently bought, but regularly. You can see all transactions here: http://www.bitcoinmonitor.com/
All transactions are public record in bitcoin. What is not known is who is transacting and for what. For reference, currently $12.40USD = 1 BTC I also agree about some of the the market limitations. However there are certainly many billions of dollars of transactions that can not be done better any other way. As far as trusting the system.The reason many people come to bitcoin is because of their lack of trust in what they call "fiat currencies". Many governments around the world mismanage their monetary systems. They do things like print more money to fix budget holes, lowering the value for everyone. Bitcoin is trusted because there is no one to trust. It is an open source software that follows it's code. @graysonp , you seem kinda into money things, you may like it the more you read. |
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Quoted: Using your definition of a fiat currency having no intrinsic value, then I suppose it is. Calling it that at a bicoin forum would get 10 pages of rants; but I'm not into that stuff. It's true that bitcoins(BTC), like gold or paper money or diamonds, have little value on their own. The second ingredient for a sucsessful currency is acceptance. That has happened for BTC and it's getting bigger all the time. Items like cars and homes are not frequently bought, but regularly. You can see all transactions here: http://www.bitcoinmonitor.com/ All transactions are public record in bitcoin. What is not known is who is transacting and for what. For reference, currently $12.40USD = 1 BTC I also agree about some of the the market limitations. However there are certainly many billions of dollars of transactions that can not be done better any other way. As far as trusting the system.The reason many people come to bitcoin is because of their lack of trust in what they call "fiat currencies". Many governments around the world mismanage their monetary systems. They do things like print more money to fix budget holes, lowering the value for everyone. Bitcoin is trusted because there is no one to trust. It is an open source software that follows it's code. @graysonp , you seem kinda into money things, you may like it the more you read. Wow. $12=1BC? Sounds kinda like the temple tax that pissed off Jesus. Why not just buy things in dollars instead? Otherwise, you are just making a middleman out of the BC folks, who no doubt get a cut from changing your money. |
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Some clarification. In bitcoin there is no "middle man". bitcoin is not a business, it is a monetary system. If I were to buy a BTC at current price (now $12.70) the money would go to whoever owned that coin. There might be a fee of like .0005 to the exchange website, if you use one.
As far as Jesus, he might like bitcoin. It is not a debt based system like US Dollars. Jesus seems to have had a problem with lending. Lending was a sin until recently in Christianity because you profit from suffering rather than work. Some people come to bitcoin specifically because of their belief about the immorality of debt and fractional reserve banking. |
| Hold on there partner, you went a bridge to far. To go and say that lending was considered a sin in the bible is not true. It was considered stupid to be in debt and to borrow money but not a sin. If you wish for a specific example look up the parable of the talents. The master tells the wicked servant he should have at least given his money to the bankers so he could collect interest but instead he did nothing. Not the other way around. Muslims find it a sin to loan money for interest. As for the bit coin stuff, I looked it up a few months back and decided it wasn't worth my time. Each to there own though. |
| True, place it in context and jews were not allowed to charge interest to one another. They also had to free there jewish slaves, and give back purchased or rented land during the year of jubilee. The jew was able to charge interest to the foreigner. And now I will shut up and never bother this thread again. |
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all you need to know about bitcoins http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/09/05/top-us-bitcoin-exchange-hacked-250000-btc-stolen/ |
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all you need to know about bitcoins http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/09/05/top-us-bitcoin-exchange-hacked-250000-btc-stolen/ That's not the first or even the biggest heist. Bitcoins are valuable and some people use the same passwords to protect their coins as their FaceBook account. Security is up to you in bitcoin. Personally I would not keep my coins online in an exchange, I keep most of mine on a USB stick in a safe deposit box. Then a few local on my computer to buy things with. EDIT: here is a safe way for new users to buy bitcoin. 1). Set up an MtGoX account: https://mtgox.com/ 2). Follow the direction at bitinstant to fund your account with cash at one of 700,000 US locations: https://www.bitinstant.com/ 3). Buy coins or place a low bid and try for a deal. You can now spend directly from MtGox, or withdraw to your computer using a bitcoin client. I would keep no more than $200 in an online account. |
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Article about bitcoin in Scientific American:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=3-years-in-bitcoin-digital-money-gains-momentum A reasonable overview of the current state of BTC. |
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Please help this noob understand how Bitcoin is any different than Monopoly money. It's not, other than the fact that people accept it as a currency, to pay for goods and services. It's just a medium of exchange. It's no different than trading WOW gold, or baseball playing cards. Bitcoin has value because people choose to accept it as a medium of exchange. That's it. But it will never be a widely accepted currency like the USD, the Euro, etc. |
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No offense, but you seem to be spamming for Bitcoin pretty hard. Any reason why? Only 18 total posts and almost 1/2 of them are in this thread, defending bitcoin? None taken. I guess it's because my AR project is on hold while I save up for high quality optics, and I thought some here might be into it. I see "gold bugs" here and liberty reserve dollar users. Bitcoin has a lot in common with those things. I just think it's an awesome project that is worth some thought.
To the poster who thinks of it as "monopoly money", well I have found that my $200 is worth 5K this morning. That is better than my "real money" investments. I must be very good at monopoly. |
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all you need to know about bitcoins http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/09/05/top-us-bitcoin-exchange-hacked-250000-btc-stolen/ The concept is good, but the above explains why I won't participate. Anything on computer is vulnerable. |
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do you mine at all if so i would like some help in bitcoin mining i have several highend computers that are idle about 50 days out of every 2 months and would like to put them to use mining via CPU is dead. triangle arbitrage is where it is at. http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1196853__ARCHIVED_THREAD____Anyone_thought_of_creating_an_ARFcom_BitCoin_Pool_Mine__Update_in_OP.html&page=4#i28920366 ar-jedi |
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this is quickly turning into advertising  hey man, you lookin' to score some bitcoins? 
cause, i like know a guy, a connected guy, ya know? ar-jedi 
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