> Please make it possible to use milli- and microbitcoins as soon as possible Bitcoin supports transactions as small as 0.00000001 (1e-8).
What shall we call those? Micro-cents?
nanocents I guess
Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin
191–200 of 201 posts
Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know much about economics, but... Gold isn't really a non-consumption commodity. It's used in things like jewelry and compter circuits. In other words, it doesn't just work because everybody agreed that it's a good mechanism for trade. It works because it actually has underlying value. Or, at least, I can't rule out that possibility, because it DOES have underlying value.
Gold isn't really a non-consumption commodity. It's used in things like jewelry and compter circuits. Yes, but... (you know the drill) World gold reserves are 60 times its annual production, which means that gold is mostly a non-consumption commodity.
Yes, and there is a simple reason why gold is mostly a non-consumption commodity: because it is more useful as a monetary commodity. It has a distinct combination of physical properties which give it monetary properties. It is durable, malleable, divisible, rare, compact, portable, easily recognizable, and beautiful.
There are many good reasons to use steel instead of gold for flatware, kitchen sinks, and refrigerators, in spite of the fact that steel corrodes and gold does not. This does not make gold "useless", it just means that gold has better uses.
Emeralds are very durable and far more rare than gold, but they are generally unsuitable as a monetary commodity because they are not malleable and easily divisible.
One distinct advantage of gold over bitcoin is that transacting in gold does not require a network connection of any kind, nor even the existence of computers.
Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin
#193Bitcoin has aggravated the "layman talks out his ass about economics" problem again. 1. Gold is a proof of work system just like bitcoin. When someone accepts gold as payment for some other commodity or service they are doing so under the assumption that the value will be stable because it takes at least X amount of time/labor/ingenuity/money to "create" more gold by mining it. This is what backs non-consumption comm…
But surely the condition that it's hard to make more of something is necessary but not sufficient to make that something a good "money" candidate. People expect e.g. gold to continue to be money-like mostly because of its multi-thousand year history as money. So in that very large respect, gold is quite different from bitcoin. I am interested in bitcoin, though, because of the obvious fact that it has something that…
... can be used anonymously over the internet
Bitcoin transactions are easily traceable, so to achieve anonymity you must take care to avoid associating your IP address with spend locations.
You can use gold over the internet as well, using a system such as https://loom.cc to handle the accounting. But again, to achieve anonymity you must take care to avoid associating your IP address with spend locations.
Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin
#194Bitcoin has aggravated the "layman talks out his ass about economics" problem again. 1. Gold is a proof of work system just like bitcoin. When someone accepts gold as payment for some other commodity or service they are doing so under the assumption that the value will be stable because it takes at least X amount of time/labor/ingenuity/money to "create" more gold by mining it. This is what backs non-consumption comm…
Several countries are trading oil directly with each other in non-USD currencies now.
Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin
#195The fundamental question is whether enough merchants will accept it in exchange for valuable goods and services that people want. A currency is as valuable as the tangible benefits you can trade it for. It seems unlikely that it will replace the major systems of exchange, nonetheless, I still hold a small amount of my portfolio in bitcoin denominated assets because you never know. Twenty years ago no one could have predicted the impact of the internet on the banking system. Hell, ten years ago most people were still reluctant to use the online banking services offered by their financial institutions. And now we are at a point where a cryptography based ecurrency is the content of this discussion, which seems to be evidence of the validity of the concept. It's just a matter of whether it will catch on.
Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin
#196Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
The government doesn't need collateral, they use yours. Seriously, government debt is backed by the fact that the government has the legal right and the practical ability to confiscate as much of its population's wealth as it feels like. I don't like US government debt at all, but it's nowhere near the point at which the don't have the ability to pay it back.
Are you sure? He government can try to tax everything and use my PlayStation and house in Ohio to settle a debt to a Chinese citizen, but if it ends up destroying the US economy, there won't be any new wealth creation to tax, and that is where most government revenue comes from. It is far more likely that US government will do what it and every other government always has done: either inflate the currency or default…
If the Feds start confiscating Ohioan playstations to payback chinese citizens, how long would it be until the states themselves revoke thair consent to be governed by the Feds? (See American Revolution, Articles of Confederation, and Confederate States of America),
Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
Knowing Rick, this is exactly the kind of thing he would do. You gotta give him credit for putting money where his mouth is, though. He previously took all his savings, and a bank loan to start the Pirate Party, and that worked out pretty well.
There's nothing more dangerous than a confidant gambler. Taking one high risk may wipe you out or make you rich, but taking a series of high risks will almost certainly wipe you out. His past success has nothing to do with this wager he's making now. It's like playing russian roulette 10 times in a row.
Yep. But it is those kind of people that end up making a difference in this world (for better or worse).
Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin
#199Its hard to accept the author dismissing the threat of bitcoin being banned and then admitting it is difficult to buy bitcoins. If it is difficult to buy bitcoins, its most likely hard to get useable currency from bitcoins. Until you can buy groceries or other real life things in bitcoins, I'd say it is a a very real threat.
You can buy groceries with Bitcoin: http://bitmunchies.com/
Bitmunchies probably pays its suppliers using usual currency.
I'd guess its is just a way to trade money for bitcoins and that they don't really convert those bitcoins to dollars to pay their suppliers. Just a guess.
Re: Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does anyone know of any balls-out investments that paid off (or didn't)? (I'm referring to "if this investment doesn't pay off, I'm jumping out a window" risk.) I'm just looking for interesting stories, and that sounds promising.
Bob Parsons had already made tens of millions from an earlier startup, and he put all of his money into starting up GoDaddy, to the point where he would have been broke if it had been failed and he was almost out of funds to keep it going, before it turned profitable. He wrote an article about it but I can't find it right now.
Good interview which goes into this.
http://www.npost.com/blog/2005/12/07/interview-with-bob-pars...