Bitcoins

[f1pokerspeed]

I'm unsurprised. Bitcoin is decentralised. If these owners told them lies, let us hope they will tow the line - but I have no hope they'll give us a sign. People will whine, maybe they should drink some wine and realise that shoddy Viagra just is not fine.

But seriously, how would Mersenne coins be "useful"? If I am truthful, will its loins be fruitful or is the pursit of progress more crucial?

Note to self: stop rhyming!

[ewmayer]

Mod. note: Religious-tangent root-of-some/most/all-evil material moved to its own thread here. Please continue those aspects of the discussion there, or risk post deletion.

[chalsall]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Mod. note: Religious-tangent root-of-some/most/all-evil material moved to its own thread here. Please continue those aspects of the discussion there, or risk post deletion.

Jesus flying fscking Christ!

How do you perform such satiricals?

[ewmayer]

Temper, temper ... well, chappy liked it, at least. And after all, a separate venue was suggested by our esteemed sen~or Carlos Grandecasas. Dos contra uno, viva la democracia!

Zerohedge breathlessly reports that somewhere en la República de California, a Tesla Model S - one not yet of the self-immolated variety, no less - has been bought entirely with bitcoins. Exciting times, these.

[jasong]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Mod. note: Religious-tangent root-of-some/most/all-evil material moved to its own thread here. Please continue those aspects of the discussion there, or risk post deletion.

Nice, I love how you waited until I posted a legit way to ask God a question before you moved it to a new thread entitled something along the lines of "useless posts."

You're running from God like I've been for years, except I'm man enough to admit it. Who knows, maybe you're lucky enough to be an apostate rather than a full on non-Christian.

[TheMawn]

Originally Posted by jasong

Nice, I love how you waited until I posted a legit way to ask God a question before you moved it to a new thread entitled something along the lines of "useless posts."

The title is perfectly appropriate. An easy way to find the religious discussion that arose from the Bitcoins discussion! I certainly don't see it as a mockery in any sense.


While we're on the topic of bitcoins and the thread has been bumped, I'd like to point out Bitcoin has been having it's daily crashes. I say crashes because it suddenly loses 20%-40% of its value on a regular basis and if any legitimate stock did that we'd all be laying eggs. It's stayed within a $200 USD range for almost two days though so fluctuations are down to less than 33% . Pretty stable lookin'!

I don't think very many people are crazy enough to buy in. It's too volatile to be a legitimate currency. It's value is derived entirely from its demand and its usefulness as a currency and the exchange rate will continue to plummet as neither criteria for value are exactly being met...

Originally Posted by jasong

You're running from God like I've been for years, except I'm man enough to admit it. Who knows, maybe you're lucky enough to be an apostate rather than a full on non-Christian.

"Jesus flying fscking Christ!"

-Some guy who once said exactly what I want to say now

[Mini-Geek]

Originally Posted by TheMawn

I don't think very many people are crazy enough to buy in. It's too volatile to be a legitimate currency. It's value is derived entirely from its demand and its usefulness as a currency and the exchange rate will continue to plummet as neither criteria for value are exactly being met...

I agree that it's too volatile. However, as far as I can see, Bitcoin (or alternatives) is technically a pretty good way to make a virtual currency. Is there anything that all major cryptocurrencies are doing wrong, or what? Why are they failing as currencies?

It reminds me of Esperanto: when you get down to the facts, it seems to be a better auxiliary language (e.g. in terms of proficiency learned per hour spent learning), and it would be good if everyone learned it to be able to communicate globally. And yet, it's never really caught on.

Even if Bitcoin is a fundamentally better currency than existing currencies, it still may never become a stable currency (which is the only way that it can be useful as a currency, instead of something that's only bought and sold at the instant you wish to exchange goods and as a vehicle for speculation).

[TheMawn]

It's a very good way to make a digital currency. Untraceable, highly impossible to forge, decentralized... Give it some time. It's not the first currency or stock or whatever to go through a period of massive instability. People are always on the lookout for a get-rich-quick scheme and this was certainly one (anyone who has owned bitcoins for a continuous period of more than two months has made a serious profit already) but when Bitcoin settles down, it will work. Very well, I might add.

I would give serious consideration to a service (let's call it BitPal) that takes your money and internally converts it to BitCoin and uses that instead to make an online purchase. It's interesting how the middle man continues to phase in and out of common use as the tendency sways repeatedly between convenience and security...

[kladner]

Whoever took on the "BitPal" task would have to be resigned to being one of the first stops law enforcement would make when trying to break up the next Silk Road. Acting as the Anonymizer interface between Bitcoins and conventional currencies is just begging to be a target.

[Mini-Geek]

Originally Posted by TheMawn

I would give serious consideration to a service (let's call it BitPal) that takes your money and internally converts it to BitCoin and uses that instead to make an online purchase. It's interesting how the middle man continues to phase in and out of common use as the tendency sways repeatedly between convenience and security...

A big problem with a service like that is that traditional financial transactions are reversible (including e.g. waiting for a check to clear), while Bitcoin transactions are instant and irreversible. You'd have to be careful about what transactions you accept, and how long of a delay to instate between when the person pays you and when you actually use your bitcoins to make their purchase. You can see a real-life example of how this can work at coinbase.com, with their levels of authentication. Since it doesn't appear they show many details without registering, here is some info:

Enable Instant Buy
Regular buys take 4 days — enable Instant Buy and get your coins in seconds

Link a bank account
Add a Credit Card
Verify your identity

Level Daily Buy Limit Daily Sell Limit
0 0 BTC 0 BTC
1 10 BTC 50 BTC
2 50 BTC 50 BTC

Level 1

Verify Your Email Address
Click a link in the confirmation email

Verify Your Phone
Enable two-factor authentication and increase your account security

Link a Bank Account
Link and verify at least one bank account

Level 2

Complete A Purchase
Buy some bitcoin and wait at least 30 days

Verify Your Identity
Complete identity verification

Basically, this is a high-stakes case of chargeback fraud, since it could easily involve thousands of dollars worth of bitcoins (and the merchandise you buy with that).

[Mark Rose]

Originally Posted by Mini-Geek

I agree that it's too volatile. However, as far as I can see, Bitcoin (or alternatives) is technically a pretty good way to make a virtual currency. Is there anything that all major cryptocurrencies are doing wrong, or what? Why are they failing as currencies?

It reminds me of Esperanto: when you get down to the facts, it seems to be a better auxiliary language (e.g. in terms of proficiency learned per hour spent learning), and it would be good if everyone learned it to be able to communicate globally. And yet, it's never really caught on.

Even if Bitcoin is a fundamentally better currency than existing currencies, it still may never become a stable currency (which is the only way that it can be useful as a currency, instead of something that's only bought and sold at the instant you wish to exchange goods and as a vehicle for speculation).

Much of the value of Bitcoin and the lack of value in Esperanto come from the network effect. Lots of people use Bitcoin, making part of the value of Bitcoin the Bitcoin network. Even if there are better currencies.

I agree Esperanto is very easy to learn. The grammar takes only an hour. But after learning it in the 90's, no one else I knew spoke it and I promptly forgot almost all I knew.

Network effects. Metcalfe's Law.