If anyone's in SF and wants to stop by Noisebridge, we're having a BitCoin party today until 5 pm.
What exactly goes on in a BitCoin party?
I'm not totally sure. I hear there will be BitCoin-shaped cookies and some games.
Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
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Re: Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a bitcoin veteren, what, if any, do you expect will be the US reaction once it becomes big enough to cause problems?
What sort of problems?
well, I'm not a bitcoin veteran, but I lost a few bucks to the e-gold thing; what's to keep bitcoin from suffering the same fate?
Re: Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
#33So say I'd have a blog with a huge reach. I hear about bitcoins. I buy a million for $4 each. I blog about it. Next day it's at $8. I'd sell the bitcoins, maybe 10000 a day to not let the market crash, and in 3.5 months I've got $4 million more than I used to.
To be fair, the same happens in the stock market:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_stock#Artificial_Inflatio...
Re: Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
#34Four days ago, Bitcoin was under $2 USD. Now it's over $4 USD (depending on when you refresh the page). There are 6 million bitcoins in existence, and trade volume is only about 54,000 according to the biggest exchange. There aren't enough bids/asks to soak up more than about $100 USD without throwing the exchange rate one direction or the other. For example, right now (as I write this) exchanging $1000 USD for some…
Mining is supposed to fade away in importance - it was just a way to bootstrap. And huge computing power applied to mining means that it's so much harder for a hostile entity (hello, US government) to plug in a supercomputer and steal control.
Re: Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
#35Re: Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
#36Four days ago, Bitcoin was under $2 USD. Now it's over $4 USD (depending on when you refresh the page). There are 6 million bitcoins in existence, and trade volume is only about 54,000 according to the biggest exchange. There aren't enough bids/asks to soak up more than about $100 USD without throwing the exchange rate one direction or the other. For example, right now (as I write this) exchanging $1000 USD for some…
Mining is supposed to fade away in importance - it was just a way to bootstrap. And huge computing power applied to mining means that it's so much harder for a hostile entity (hello, US government) to plug in a supercomputer and steal control.
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Re: Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
#37This is either a bubble or probably the most awesome J-curve of the decade. Either way, I am waiting to see what happens. I have more than enough bitcoin for a black swan hedge. I am also going to be with bitcoin to the bitter end or the ultimate victory over state-controlled monetary system.
"This is either a bubble or probably the most awesome J-curve of the decade." The average American isn't smart enough to understand what bitcoin is, how it works, how to buy them, how to spend them, etc. In five years bitcoin is going to be just another failed standard like i-names or GPG, something that doesn't ever get used except for in very niche enterprise usecases or when nerds are trying to impress other nerds…
1. Average person knows how to use paypal (or thinks they know).
2. Setup paypal like web-interface for bitcoin e-wallets.
3. ...
4. Profit!
Have a look at the official bitcoin application and the paypal panel. There is not much difference and bitcoin panel actually is simpler since you can do less actions there.
Re: Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
well, I'm not a bitcoin veteran, but I lost a few bucks to the e-gold thing; what's to keep bitcoin from suffering the same fate?
There's nobody with an off-switch.
yeah; this is what scares me more about bitcoin than e-gold.
With E-gold, the government went after the owners, and they were able to shut the whole operation down; I lost maybe two hundred bucks worth of gold.
Now, when the government decides to shut down bitcoin, what happens? there is no central 'off switch' - just like drugs, they will have to go after the users, or like illegal information, they will have to go after the viewers.
I mean, I think I'm being a little bit paranoid here, but I just don't see the government leaving a system that works so well for money laundering in place, and all the things I can think of the government doing to dismantle bitcoin seem like they would be quite unpleasant for the users, over and above just losing the money invested.
Re: Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
#39Re: Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
What sort of problems?
well, I'm not a bitcoin veteran, but I lost a few bucks to the e-gold thing; what's to keep bitcoin from suffering the same fate?
e-gold was a centralized system. When they got shut down, you no longer had the ability to receive value for your holdings.
Bitcoin is decentralized. The ability to spend is protected by the private crypto keys in your wallet stored locally (assuming you store your bitcoins on your own computer.)
As long as there is a network of nodes out there ( current view: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=https://smsz.net/btcStats/bitc... ) and your software can reach one or more of them means: 1.) you still have the ability to spend your bitcoins at any time 2.) the recipient has the ability to know that those coins were not spent previously
Shutting down e-gold involved taking down the center. Bitcoin has no center, no "master node" -- only peers.
The most central aspect of bitcoin is found in the exchanges. Those worried about an e-gold situation happening again do not have amounts of any significance (either USD or bitcoins) held by an exchange.