Bitcoins

spacey2012

Satoshi wrote: »

The main thing to bear in mind is how threatened the USA and other governments are by BitCoin, .

Make absolutely no mistake, the USA will not let a virtual fresh air currency threaten 1 cent of the dollar.
All this talk of encryption experts would be better remembering who wrote the operating systems.
All it takes is one wipe out scare and Bitcoin is in free-fall.
Anything stored on the internet in servers can be hunted down and eradicated or corrupted.
How you going to prove how many bitcoins you had when they vanish in to thin air.

csm888

Satoshi wrote: »

Is it possible to write this on an ebay item I wonder?

I may try offering a few DVDs for a few thousand Satoshi's. Then no paypal fees

Will ebay allow it? Will customers who have bitcoin want to spend them? With paypal the buyer is protected, what happens if the seller takes the bitcoin and does not send the product?

People do sell things on Ebay using Bitcoin, as all transfers are final when using Bitcoin, it would of course be much better if Ebay/Paypal took care of the escrow.
Paypal is well aware of Bitcoin and is 'keeping it under constant review' what ever that means.
There are clear advantages in using it (no CC charges) but I guess they are holding back to assess the disadvantages.

BoracicLint

spacey2012 wrote: »

Make absolutely no mistake, the USA will not let a virtual fresh air currency threaten 1 cent of the dollar.
All this talk of encryption experts would be better remembering who wrote the operating systems.
All it takes is one wipe out scare and Bitcoin is in free-fall.
Anything stored on the internet in servers can be hunted down and eradicated or corrupted.
How you going to prove how many bitcoins you had when they vanish in to thin air.

The USA are a small fish when you consider the global potential of bitcoin. If USA regulate the currency, that will only hinder those in their jurisdiction from trading.

As a matter of fact, the massive amounts of bitcoin that the US seized from Silk Road actually make it in their interest to support bitcoin!

For bitcoin to fail, every single one of the million computers that store the 'block chain' (the bitcoin ledger) would have to fail, which you're talking about an entire internet black-out. If that happens, you can pretty much say goodbye to your way of life altogether, regardless of what currency you choose to use.

csm888

spacey2012 wrote: »

Make absolutely no mistake, the USA will not let a virtual fresh air currency threaten 1 cent of the dollar.
All this talk of encryption experts would be better remembering who wrote the operating systems.
All it takes is one wipe out scare and Bitcoin is in free-fall.
Anything stored on the internet in servers can be hunted down and eradicated or corrupted.
How you going to prove how many bitcoins you had when they vanish in to thin air.

US may well take a stand against Bitcoin, but Bitcoin is designed specifically to make it almost impossible to take down. Your money isn't store on a server, its stored on a block chain. A chain of transactions where each one can't be altered once put it place. This block chain is stored by anyone running a Bitcoin program on their own computer, There are currently 100,000's of users, in all the countries in the world.

BoracicLint

The guardian have just published an interesting article about the consequences of America trying to regulate Bitcoin:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/18/bitcoin-senate-hearings-regulation

It would clearly be in their interests to embrace it, rather than try stifling its progress.

csm888

Tweaker wrote: »

If it was any good currency traders would be tripping over themselves to buy in to it.

They are.... a $7Billion market doesn't represent just a bunch of nerds. High risk, high reward, that fits most of the city boys perfectly.

Marazan

csm888 wrote: »

US may well take a stand against Bitcoin, but Bitcoin is designed specifically to make it almost impossible to take down. Your money isn't store on a server, its stored on a block chain. A chain of transactions where each one can't be altered once put it place. This block chain is stored by anyone running a Bitcoin program on their own computer, There are currently 100,000's of users, in all the countries in the world.

This is horrifyingly naive. All that it takes to break Bitcoin is some entity deciding to purchase enough computing power to execute a 51% attack.

"But..." you are saying "that would require a vast amount of computing power". Yes it would, but if the financial benefits of doing so are high enough then even paying the commercial rates of Amazon EC2 pricing to rent out enough computing power to commit a sustained and continuous double spend attack would become worthwhile.

grey_gym_sock

Tweaker wrote: »

my argument is simple it is fantasy money

all money is fantasy money, in the sense that its value is not intrinsic, but is based on confidence.

and buying it is nothing more than gambling.

that's about right. though i'd prefer to call it wild speculation.

If it was any good currency traders would be tripping over themselves to buy in to it.

no. a good currency trader means somebody who can profit from short term moves in exchange rates. so a good trader (if such ppl exist, and they're not just the traders who've been lucky so far) might trade in or out of bitcoin, depending on their estimation of its shot term trajectory. (or, if they have skills for predicting the dollar-pound rate, but not for the dollar-bitcoin rate, then they'd stick to what they know.)

dryhat

Tweaker wrote: »

Just an observation but BitCoin is not the first alternative curency to pose a threat to the US economy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1966290.stm

.... and luncheon vouchers were around even before airmiles.


Bitcoin is unique and original in that it doesn't need a third party to administer transactions, as the other two examples above do.

This was never possible before Bitcoin was invented and is what makes Bitcoin special.

dryhat

Marazan wrote: »

This is horrifyingly naive. All that it takes to break Bitcoin is some entity deciding to purchase enough computing power to execute a 51% attack.

"But..." you are saying "that would require a vast amount of computing power". Yes it would, but if the financial benefits of doing so are high enough then even paying the commercial rates of Amazon EC2 pricing to rent out enough computing power to commit a sustained and continuous double spend attack would become worthwhile.

Oh, please, not this again.