Earlier quoted context omitted.
What exactly goes on in a BitCoin party?
I'm not totally sure. I hear there will be BitCoin-shaped cookies and some games.
Maybe also run it as a key-signing party? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_signing_party
Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
51–60 of 94 posts
Re: Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
What sort of problems?
Potential issues with anonymous currency include money laundering and assassination markets.
Link for those not familiar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_market
Personally, I think assassination markets could be a net benefit (think of the bounties on someone like Kim Jong-Il), but then, I like them enough that I write stories about them so I'm biased: http://www.gwern.net/fiction/The%20Ones%20Who%20Walk%20Towar...
Re: Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's pretty much the same as saying: What? $3 for a Big Mac? (I'm assuming they're $3). There will only ever be 21 million BTC. Considering that according to the US deficit, there exists at least 13 trillion USD, that would put the final exchange rate at $620K USD per BTC. That is only possible, mind you, if BTC actually catches on.
I wonder why they decided to make it 21 million BTC total instead of a larger number. It seems like you'd run into a situation like when I bought a shirt in Bahrain for some low-ish number of Dinar, not realizing that it was much higher in USD. Spending 0.1 BTC doesn't seem like it should be a lot, even though it could eventually be worth quite a bit.
It's just that people have become accustomed to price inflation so things should just "cost more". Does it make more sense for candy to cost $0.05 or $1.50? Given improvements in efficiency, you'd think that the price of candy would have gone down from what it was years ago.
However, due to inflation from the monetary system, everything keeps going up.
The advantage of BTC is that it is infinitely divisible (to the limits of floating point, which will be interesting).
In the USD system, hoarders lose, in the BTC system, hoarders win.
I'm not sure which I prefer. I'd like a decaying cryptocurrency that guarantees money remains in circulation.
Re: Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
#54And I thought bitcoin wasn't going to go anywhere, I made about 3000BTC back in 2009 and just over time forgot about it and lost my 'wallet' id (a hash), kicking myself in the ass now.
Re: Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
But isn't bitcoin supposed to not just work but actually be somehow better than ordinary currency? Wouldn't that include being more stable? Or am I missing something?
Exchange rates are set by supply, and demand. Bitcoin has through technical means controlled the supply part of the equation, but how can it control demand? So fluctuations in demand will cause changes. In the growth period, Bitcoin can't be stable, and it would be impossible for any currency to do so without extremely precise statistics on how a currency was being used and control over inflation (so you could, say,…
Imagine Amazon starts accepting bitcoins. The rate will probably skyrocket to more than 100 USD.
Actually, digital currency is inevitable, it's only a matter of time till there's some global currency not controlled by one government. Bitcoin is a pretty good candidate.
Re: Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
#56Four 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 $1000 USD for some…
Mining is supposed to fade away in importance - it was just a way to bootstrap. And huge computing power applied to mining means that it's so much harder for a hostile entity (hello, US government) to plug in a supercomputer and steal control.
Right now it is trivial for a government, botnet owner, or even a sysadmin with access to several thousand machines to completely corner the bitcoin market and actually use a cartel to "steal" bitcoins from others.
Bitcoin is not controlled by a central authority. Instead it is controlled by any specific individual or group that is able to get about 30% of the computing power of the network. While this is very expensive for your average middle class person, a typical millionaire or billionaire (not to mention government) could completely dominate bitcoin overnight.
Bitcoin is NOT democratic. It's ruled by people who are wealthy in conventional currency because those are the people with access to the most computing power.
Re: Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
So far the US reaction has been positive. The CIA is paying BitCoin members to give talks about it. As someone pointed out in a Bitcoin forum, unlike Liberty Dollars or E-Gold, Bitcoin could prove to be a useful way of securely and anonymously paying people off
> The CIA is paying BitCoin members to give talks about it. A BitCoin developer to give a talk about it to them .
I wouldn't make much out of CIA doing something. They have done crazier shit before.
Re: Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Potential issues with anonymous currency include money laundering and assassination markets.
Link for those not familiar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_market Personally, I think assassination markets could be a net benefit (think of the bounties on someone like Kim Jong-Il), but then, I like them enough that I write stories about them so I'm biased: http://www.gwern.net/fiction/The%20Ones%20Who%20Walk%20Towar...
think of the bounties on someone like Kim Jong-Il
Now think of the bounties on average folks like you and me in comparison.
That's right, our lives will instantly be worth pennies and there'll instantly many folks around with incentive to murder.
Re: Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder why they decided to make it 21 million BTC total instead of a larger number. It seems like you'd run into a situation like when I bought a shirt in Bahrain for some low-ish number of Dinar, not realizing that it was much higher in USD. Spending 0.1 BTC doesn't seem like it should be a lot, even though it could eventually be worth quite a bit.
It's just that people have become accustomed to price inflation so things should just "cost more". Does it make more sense for candy to cost $0.05 or $1.50? Given improvements in efficiency, you'd think that the price of candy would have gone down from what it was years ago. However, due to inflation from the monetary system, everything keeps going up. The advantage of BTC is that it is infinitely divisible (to the l…
Actually, it is only 8 decimals: http://www.bitcoin.org/de/node/1#How_divisible_are_Bitcoins
"Technically, a Bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimals, so 0.00000001 BTC is the smallest possible amount."
So instead of talking about "0.001 BTC", we could say "1 mBTC" or "1000 μBTC". The smallest amount is then 0.01 μBTC. The total amount is 21 trillion μBTC. For a comparison: As of december 2007, there were 829 billion US dollars in circulation.
Re: Bitcoin hits US$ 4, after being mentioned on CNN yesterday
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's just that people have become accustomed to price inflation so things should just "cost more". Does it make more sense for candy to cost $0.05 or $1.50? Given improvements in efficiency, you'd think that the price of candy would have gone down from what it was years ago. However, due to inflation from the monetary system, everything keeps going up. The advantage of BTC is that it is infinitely divisible (to the l…
Actually, it is only 8 decimals: http://www.bitcoin.org/de/node/1#How_divisible_are_Bitcoins "Technically, a Bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimals, so 0.00000001 BTC is the smallest possible amount." So instead of talking about "0.001 BTC", we could say "1 mBTC" or "1000 μBTC". The smallest amount is then 0.01 μBTC. The total amount is 21 trillion μBTC. For a comparison: As of december 2007, there were 829 billio…
Ah, you are correct. But I think that limit was said to be arbitrary and I think it is only set currently due to FP limitations. I am probably wrong though.
In any case, I think the terminology will evolve as you have suggested.
In your example of money in circulation, you have to include the debt money as well though because that is traded as if it exists.