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Bitcoin

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I understand about creating a new currency for a digital age and all, but the fact that you can't easily explain how Bitcoin works to the masses in any simple fashion keeps it as a toy for the technologically astute. Or for people who need to hide financial transactions for obvious reasons. I'm particularly concerned about the volatility of the currency, with no guarantee of consistent purchasing power. Of course that matters mostly if the value goes down.

Now in the science fiction world, they often used some amorphic system known as "credits," which I suppose might have been a source of inspiration for Bitcoin. Regardless, I can see the potential if they can just get past the marketing difficulties and can offer more dependability. Yes, I suppose if you acquired some Bitcoins at $20 each, you stand to make a bundle. But how long will that last, and is this a scheme that has staying power?

Of course, people are so disgusted with existing monetary and banking systems, that you never know. Don't bank customer support departments rate as badly as politicians, car salespeople and insurance companies?
 
Gene Steinberg said:
But how long will that last, and is this a scheme that has staying power?
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That's akin to asking 'How long will the Internet last, and how much staying power does it have'?

You and I are old enough to remember when people said personal computers hooked together over phone lines were merely toys for nerds without any practical use for the common man. At that time those people were correct, but other people foresaw the potential in that new development for radical societal transformation.

The critical, critical thing that differentiates P2P currencies from previous currencies like precious metals, government notes, and sea shells is that they are open-source and uncontrollable. Like the first transistors in 1954, it's never existed before. This is the beginning.

Remember this?...

 
I was considering investing in bitcoin until silk road went down. It was hard to have much confidence in something that the "powers that be" could swoop in and shut down in a heartbeat right after they lost one of their biggest (if not the biggest) marketplace that dealt in their currency. It has gone up though, so I'm surprised. Maybe there really is a need for a de-centralized currency. Does anyone know if the rumors about bitcoin being a darpa project have any truth to them?
 
manxman said:
how much is it to mine them
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The days of mining Bitcoins are over.

I mined my Bitcoins back when the computation was easy. I generated six of them by leaving the client running for two months on my old Pentium III in the garage.

Today it cost more in electricity to mine them than the Bitcoins are worth. New Bitcoins are only created incidentally now. Even people who get "free" electricity like college students and IT administrators of computers left running all night are leaving mining because the calculation has grown so difficult.
 
Charlie Prime said:
The days of mining Bitcoins are over.

I mined my Bitcoins back when the computation was easy. I generated six of them by leaving the client running for two months on my old Pentium III in the garage.
Click to expand...

How long ago may I ask was that? to be honest I've only become aware of the concept since Feb of this year
 
That was in 2009. The Bitcoin client was ugly and sucked up all my RAM. (still is/does) I only used that computer to listen to my Awesome music collection while I worked in the garage, so I didn't mind that it sucked.

I once lost several Bitcoins when Windows XP wadded itself up and I had to reformat the hard drive to reinstall it. Since the Bitcoins were only worth like three dollars, I didn't care.

Now I have a cron job that saves my wallet.dat file to the cloud religiously! :D
 
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Good sized post today on the Etsy forums about someone that felt he had been ripped off by someone in a Bitcoin transaction. Evidently someone has been scamming people on Ebay and other places and doing this very thing.
 
All I know is whatever can be encrypted can be eventually hacked. As the stakes go up, the power and expertise brought to bear on manipulating this to someone's advantage will increase. If you think any algorithm on your desktop is going to keep the wizards in the black world here or abroad out of your business--good luck.
 
That's the cool thing about Open Source. As the stakes go up, millions of people are motivated to improve the security against government threats, versus corporate government proprietary software like Apple and Microsoft with back-doors already built in.
 
Bitcoin fluctuates wildly relative to various government currencies.

Today it's $600. Tomorrow could be $800, or $300.

The only certain thing is that the U.S. dollar will continue to evaporate.
 
charlie its a flash in the pan, a novelty in the big scheme.

Governments will crush it with legislation, just as china has done, utopian dreamers however will jump at the next novelty, and next and the next, its the way it is.
 
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