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Coinbase Is Now Selling Over $1M USD Of Bitcoin Per Month

blog.coinbase.com

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Re: Coinbase Is Now Selling Over $1M USD Of Bitcoin Per Month

#131

Post by betterunix »

Jd wrote: post #22
unix-dude wrote: post #18

I think bitcoin is an extremely interesting concept, and the economics around it are equally interesting. I bought a tiny amount when the prices were around the $11 mark, and its insane to think of the price-shift. I made a couple bucks off the price shift, but now I'm honestly thinking that the price will fall back down. Despite serving the needs of many SR/SatoshiDice people, I dont think they're quite at the point…

The problem with all fiat currencies is they have no inherent value; it is all in the eye of the beholder. So what is an "appropriate" price is quite difficult to determine. Most currencies are driven by being effective monopolies wherever they are issued, so the market price remains somewhat stable. Even so, many professional economists have opined that the exchange rates even between major currencies are way too vo…

"The problem with all fiat currencies is they have no inherent value; it is all in the eye of the beholder"

We'll see if you really believe that is true if you ever find yourself having to pay taxes but lacking the money needed to do so. Fiat currencies do have value: their value is in their ability to cancel debts (like taxes).

Re: Coinbase Is Now Selling Over $1M USD Of Bitcoin Per Month

#132

Post by pixie_ »

oijaf888 wrote: post #128
pixie_ wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As noted above, Bitcoin is not fiat currency. It can't be created on demand by any person or government.

What backs it?

Mathematics. Which makes it a lot harder to mess with - as opposed to government backed currencies. It's also harder to forge and easier to transfer than material currencies like gold.

Re: Coinbase Is Now Selling Over $1M USD Of Bitcoin Per Month

#133

Post by betterunix »

eitland wrote: post #49
unix-dude wrote: post #18

I think bitcoin is an extremely interesting concept, and the economics around it are equally interesting. I bought a tiny amount when the prices were around the $11 mark, and its insane to think of the price-shift. I made a couple bucks off the price shift, but now I'm honestly thinking that the price will fall back down. Despite serving the needs of many SR/SatoshiDice people, I dont think they're quite at the point…

The fact that there are fewer possible bitcoins than inhabitants on this planet should tell us that bitcoin should be a good investment at the current excange rate... ...given that bitcoin is still around when all blocks are exhausted, legal to most of the worlds population by then and not outcompeted by something better (better marketed?) by then. Warning: I am no economist, I still don't know what a fiat currency i…

"I still don't know what a fiat currency is although I might have an idea after reading this thread."

Fiat currencies are currencies whose demand is created by a legal system. The US Dollar, for example, has demand that is created by law: tax laws, bankruptcy laws, etc. Like anything else, the value of money is determined by supply and demand.

Re: Coinbase Is Now Selling Over $1M USD Of Bitcoin Per Month

#134

Post by pixie_ »

tedunangst wrote: post #126
pixie_ wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Show me a fiat currency the appreciates over time and maybe I'll look at it differently. Have you ever thought of that the root of our over-consumption society might be caused by the need to keep our money always moving to prevent it from depreciating?

Sure. Bitcoin is a fiat currency that has, so far, generally appreciated.

It's not fiat because you can't create Bitcoins from nothing. If you can then create one. I dare you to create a single Bitcoin.

Re: Coinbase Is Now Selling Over $1M USD Of Bitcoin Per Month

#135

Post by pixie_ »

tedunangst wrote: post #127
pixie_ wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin is created by rules of mathematics and mined by problem solving. Gold is creating by mining and refining and governed by the rules of physics.. What does any of this have to do with the definition of fiat? It's already defined, lookup the latin - 'it shall be'

Exactly. Somebody said "it shall be" and behold, there were bitcoins. Fiat currency means no physical asset backing it. Bitcoins have no physical backing.

Please, go ahead. Create some Bitcoins. I'm waiting..

Re: Coinbase Is Now Selling Over $1M USD Of Bitcoin Per Month

#136

Post by betterunix »

nym wrote: post #75
centro wrote: post #55

Notice how their success is measured in USD.

Instead of what, gold?

Instead of BTC. You know, when US banks talk about how much business they are doing, they speak in terms of dollars. When Japanese banks talk about how they are doing, they speak in terms of Yen. The funny think about Bitcoin is that its success is measured in terms of other currencies, although that should not be too surprising since its utility is absolutely dependent on the existence of other currencies and on the existence of exchanges.

Why might that be, you ask? Simple: everyone still lives in the real world, where taxes and other debts have to be repaid, and nobody can use Bitcoin for that. So any business that accepts a Bitcoin payment, even if it is an illegal business, does so with the intention of trading Bitcoin for another currency later.

Re: Coinbase Is Now Selling Over $1M USD Of Bitcoin Per Month

#137

Post by [deleted] »

pixie_ wrote: post #108
tedunangst wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have made the Internet-libertarian/goldbug mistake of thinking fiat is a dirty word.

Show me a fiat currency the appreciates over time and maybe I'll look at it differently. Have you ever thought of that the root of our over-consumption society might be caused by the need to keep our money always moving to prevent it from depreciating?

[deleted]

Re: Coinbase Is Now Selling Over $1M USD Of Bitcoin Per Month

#138

Post by MacsHeadroom »

tlrobinson wrote: post #122

But not to me :( "Unfortunately, we have decided to cancel this order because it appears to be high risk. We do not send out any bitcoins on high risk transactions, and your bank account will not be charged." I have no idea why I was flagged as "high risk", I'd be interested to know.

>I have no idea why I was flagged as "high risk", I'd be interested to know.

Email their customer service and they'll whitelist your account.

Of course they won't tell you why their automatic risk algorithm flagged you. But they will be helpful and make sure that you aren't flagged again.

Their customer service is seriously top notch.

Re: Coinbase Is Now Selling Over $1M USD Of Bitcoin Per Month

#139

Post by MacsHeadroom »

nate_martin wrote: post #68
zokier wrote: post #23

But where are the bitcoins going? Are people actually spending over $1M of bitcoins on something else than buying back dollars?

silk road

Negative.

Silk Road only accounts for about 3.4% of Bitcoin's total monthly transactions. (about $6mil right now)

Bitcoinstore.com, BitPay's 3000 business clients, the dozens of casino/gambling sites processing millions of USD equivalent every month, etc.

Re: Coinbase Is Now Selling Over $1M USD Of Bitcoin Per Month

#140

Post by cookiecaper »

nullc wrote: post #106
cookiecaper wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The network has too many fundamental inaccessibilities" Just because I didn't rattle all of these off doesn't mean "I don't have any actual reasons for it". I suggest you ask more politely for exposition next time. The blockchain is huge, and splitting it is ad-hoc patchwork. The network was obviously not designed for such a thing and I'm not really optimistic about it. At this point it takes 6+ days to bootstrap a…

> and splitting it is ad-hoc patchwork What are you talking about here? > The network was obviously not designed for such a thing Are you talking about Section 7 "Reclaiming Disk Space" and section 8 "Simplified Payment Verification" in the initial design document, which have a profound influence on the design— as Bitcoin uses a hash tree to aggregate transactions instead of just a simple hash in order to accommodate…

>The most important difference between Bitcoin and your hypothetical perfect digital currency is that Bitcoin exists and it works. Satoshi didn't waste time waxing philosophical on the internet, he shut up and wrote code. If there is one thing you could learn from Bitcoin, this should probably be it.

You're taking a lot of offense here over a disagreement. I do write code, and I respect bitcoin a lot, as I've said already three times now. I have and use bitcoins and think it's a cool thing they're doing. I'm glad Sathosi coded it despite its issues. I just don't believe these issues are as minor as the btc community believes they are, and I don't believe the proper response to criticism is "oh yeah well you can't do any better so shut up".

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