BitCoins - a real, alternative currency with a market?
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BitCoins - a real, alternative currency with a market?
1–10 of 47 posts
Re: BitCoins - a real, alternative currency with a market?
#2Not sure how I missed BitCoins, but I'm trying to get a read on whether this is a real currency or not. As in: something to watch or something to ignore.
I also don't understand why the # of coins is limited to 21M. Given that there are going to be 10B people on the planet that means that, on average, a person will have about 0.002 coins. Maybe I'm just too used to having thousands of units of currency, but it seems odd to consider that prices will be in milli- or nano-BitCoins...
Re: BitCoins - a real, alternative currency with a market?
#3Where do I start selling pickaxes?
Re: BitCoins - a real, alternative currency with a market?
#4Where do I start selling pickaxes?
By which you mean: this bitcoin thingy is analogous to the gold rush in which the miners make no money. Is this an educated assessment or a quick bit of sarcasm? Happy either way, just trying to understand whether Bitcoins are worth paying attention to...
Re: BitCoins - a real, alternative currency with a market?
#5Not sure how I missed BitCoins, but I'm trying to get a read on whether this is a real currency or not. As in: something to watch or something to ignore. I also don't understand why the # of coins is limited to 21M. Given that there are going to be 10B people on the planet that means that, on average, a person will have about 0.002 coins. Maybe I'm just too used to having thousands of units of currency, but it seems…
There is a finite amount of gold on the planet as well, and in all of human history we've only mined something like $7-8 trillion dollars worth.
That's only half the GDP of the entire U.S. for 2009, and we don't even control most of it (something like 12-15% in various reserves).
Look at the price of gold now, it's over $1,000 an ounce. Either the USD has inflated dramatically since 1970 when an ounce of gold was only worth $40, or gold has skyrocketed because of scarcity (or both).
Point being, bitcoins could very well end up being worth $10 or even $100 each as the years go by, or higher. At a factor of 100 that's $2.1 billion USD worth of bitcoins.
Are they worth that much? Maybe, gold and USD aren't worth anything at all until someone is willing to accept them in trade, and people are definitely accepting bitcoins in trade right now.
Re: BitCoins - a real, alternative currency with a market?
#6Where do I start selling pickaxes?
Sorry, ATI/AMD has that market sewn up.
Re: BitCoins - a real, alternative currency with a market?
#7Not sure how I missed BitCoins, but I'm trying to get a read on whether this is a real currency or not. As in: something to watch or something to ignore. I also don't understand why the # of coins is limited to 21M. Given that there are going to be 10B people on the planet that means that, on average, a person will have about 0.002 coins. Maybe I'm just too used to having thousands of units of currency, but it seems…
There is a finite amount of gold on the planet as well, and in all of human history we've only mined something like $7-8 trillion dollars worth. That's only half the GDP of the entire U.S. for 2009, and we don't even control most of it (something like 12-15% in various reserves). Look at the price of gold now, it's over $1,000 an ounce. Either the USD has inflated dramatically since 1970 when an ounce of gold was onl…
Fair points.
I guess I would be paying 0.001 ounce of gold for a candy bar, so why be concerned about paying 0.001 bitcoin.
w.r.t. worth: gold is backed by being shiny, pretty, desirable; USD is backed by the US Government (cue cries of "fiat money! fiat money!") which provides huge implicit inertia; Bitcoins would be backed only by inertia. I guess the answer to my question is: Bitcoins will be interesting if they get transaction inertia. Of course, as an entrepreneurial minded fellow, the next question would be: would it make sense to help build that inertia?
Re: BitCoins - a real, alternative currency with a market?
#8So...what can I buy with BitCoins?
Also, from the link, "Donations are accepted at 1Nqr3MqVyUp6k3o3QPePAdn4Yg4tzgB9kw." Somehow I think that's going to present an obstacle for most people.
Is this something that is really targeted at the general public, or at programmers who are bored of dollars?
Re: BitCoins - a real, alternative currency with a market?
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a finite amount of gold on the planet as well, and in all of human history we've only mined something like $7-8 trillion dollars worth. That's only half the GDP of the entire U.S. for 2009, and we don't even control most of it (something like 12-15% in various reserves). Look at the price of gold now, it's over $1,000 an ounce. Either the USD has inflated dramatically since 1970 when an ounce of gold was onl…
Fair points. I guess I would be paying 0.001 ounce of gold for a candy bar, so why be concerned about paying 0.001 bitcoin. w.r.t. worth: gold is backed by being shiny, pretty, desirable; USD is backed by the US Government (cue cries of "fiat money! fiat money!") which provides huge implicit inertia; Bitcoins would be backed only by inertia. I guess the answer to my question is: Bitcoins will be interesting if they g…
From the Bitcoin FAQ:
How divisible are Bitcoins?
Technically, a Bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimals, so 0.00000001 BTC is the smallest possible amount. For convenience, the program currently accepts only 2 decimal places.
Re: BitCoins - a real, alternative currency with a market?
#10[deleted]