Thoughts on Bitcoin
blog.samaltman.com
Thoughts on Bitcoin
1–10 of 213 posts
Re: Thoughts on Bitcoin
#2Why distinguish between legal and illegal transactions? I guess the assumption is that value grounded in illegal transactions is inherently volatile due to the risk of it getting shut down?
Re: Thoughts on Bitcoin
#3If a receiver of bitcoins sells them for dollars right away, that isn't necessarily money laundering or tax avoidance. I don't know if you've tried to transfer money overseas lately, but banks tend to make it difficult and expensive. An international wire transfer is not a trivial thing to set up; in many cases it still involves faxes.
If bitcoin succeeds only as a payment network, where users convert from and to dollars at both ends, it can still provide a very valuable and legal service.
Re: Thoughts on Bitcoin
#4The post assumes that Bitcoins will fail if they are not suitable as a store of value. It overlooks the fact that a currency can succeed as a medium of exchange, even if it is not suitable as a store of value.
Re: Thoughts on Bitcoin
#5I'm going to buy a bitcoin after the bubble has passed. What do we think the real price is. Like $10 or $100? What's the projected bottom? I'm hoping for less than $10, because cheaper is better. The thought that I would never be able to afford an entire bitcoin has a negative psychological effect, which may be silly.
What I like about alt-coins is how one can use that for games. Imagine making a game where a custom alt-coin, a bitcoin-fork coin that has no value outside of the game, used for transactions. Seems like a cool idea to me anyway.
Re: Thoughts on Bitcoin
#6Why distinguish between legal and illegal transactions? I guess the assumption is that value grounded in illegal transactions is inherently volatile due to the risk of it getting shut down?
> people that make their money in the underworld still need money that can buy regular things, and so whatever is used to track exchange still needs to be pegged to dollars or whatever
I guess the implication is that "illegal stuff" isn't a large enough market to cover people's general needs.
Re: Thoughts on Bitcoin
#7Even if it just becomes the primary mechanism for moving money around, that's a multi-billion dollar industry. Think Western Union, ACH, Paypal, etc. To me, that seems like a safe(ish) bet.
Being able to buy bubble gum, well, we'll see :)
Re: Thoughts on Bitcoin
#8I think this is spot on.
All sorts of people I rarely speak with have been coming out of the woodwork to ask about Bitcoin. These people are invariably regular folks that have heard about this thing that has been appreciating at an unbelievable clip. This is extremely alarming for me.
Re: Thoughts on Bitcoin
#9I'm going to buy a bitcoin after the bubble has passed. What do we think the real price is. Like $10 or $100? What's the projected bottom? I'm hoping for less than $10, because cheaper is better. The thought that I would never be able to afford an entire bitcoin has a negative psychological effect, which may be silly. What I like about alt-coins is how one can use that for games. Imagine making a game where a custom…
To be honest I think the bottom is going to be around $500. Pretty much everyone I know who is even the slightest bit interested in bitcoin is waiting for this crash to happen so they can jump in. Just a guess though.
Re: Thoughts on Bitcoin
#10I'm going to buy a bitcoin after the bubble has passed. What do we think the real price is. Like $10 or $100? What's the projected bottom? I'm hoping for less than $10, because cheaper is better. The thought that I would never be able to afford an entire bitcoin has a negative psychological effect, which may be silly. What I like about alt-coins is how one can use that for games. Imagine making a game where a custom…
Most alt-coins are thoroughly uninteresting and far less secure from 51% attacks than Bitcoin itself. It may be better to use the concept of "colored coins" on top of the Bitcoin blockchain to transact in other currencies.