Bitcoin

Has anyone got any experience playing with Bitcoin (http://www.bitcoin.org) or anything similar? I'm looking for some opinions about it. It's an interesting concept, and one that I'd like to see explored further, particularly academically. I can only seem to find one white paper on it - it doesn't seem like it's really been academically studied at all, which is a shame.

It purports to be a sort of decentralized, peer-to-peer currency system. Thoughts?

I smell bipolar disorder.

wolf;701139 wrote:

I smell bipolar disorder.

eh?

The Nigerian Princes will love it.

wolf;701139 wrote:

I smell bipolar disorder.

sad_winslow;701151 wrote:

eh?

Meaning this sounds very much like an unmedicated manic guy's plan to save the world.

As the guy said to me the other night ... "I'm manic. I'm brilliant. I should be the fucking ruler of the free world."

"That's nice, sir. Your room is right this way."

wolf;701211 wrote:

Meaning this sounds very much like an unmedicated manic guy's plan to save the world.

As the guy said to me the other night ... "I'm manic. I'm brilliant. I should be the fucking ruler of the free world."

"That's nice, sir. Your room is right this way."

ahhh, I see. i think the word you were looking for was "libertarian" :D
(oh god don't hang me libertarians, I'm joking)

it does have a bit of that sort of tinfoil-hat-ness to it, though, I'll agree. on the other hand, I can't help but support experimenting with new social and economic systems via technology, broadly speaking, and the technology behind this is fairly fascinating to me and is absolutely real, and semi-feasible enough that it's got a (VERY small) economy going, at least for now.

generally any given experiment may or may not work (and personally I figure the Bitcoin concept probably won't go anywhere, honestly, but maybe i'll be proven wrong), but it's more the idea that counts. making a change, good or bad, large or small, has never happened because someone had an idea and immediately said "this is stupid and i shouldn't even try".

Sounds like Cap and Trade.... :lol:

Bitcoin is a fiat currency just as the US dollar is. Bitcoin is a virtual currency which is an interesting idea and virtual money is becoming more common; most of our money is already virtual.

I can see merit pulling away from scarce currency which was originally invented to keep the merchant class down.

Dead thread revival: how are we feeling about bitcoin six months later?

I shoulda invested. I saw an article this morning that says the value of a bitcoin went up %800.

My wife is, in fact, looking for a way to exploit this.

I read an article in Bank Tech last week. Some senators want to take a serious look at Bitcoin. Their reasoning is that it has become a tool for drug purchasing.


http://www.banktech.com/regulation-compliance/230500041

It is also a way to evade their scrutiny on your transactions. If they can't see it, they can't tax it.

I think we will see the first assault in the form of antiterrorism.

Bitcoin is like any other currency, moreso than the people realize.

Since it's not regulated by government-controlled corporations, it will be tied to illegal activities and demonized. Remember e-Gold and how it was tied to child pornography?

If you're not tied to a country or a bank, you've got an uphill battle, and you will probably be relegated to be another failed utopian experiment referenced in a future academic publication.

BrianR;739674 wrote:

I shoulda invested. I saw an article this morning that says the value of a bitcoin went up %800.

My wife is, in fact, looking for a way to exploit this.

It is *extremely* unstable - I wouldn't use the deed to the farm to buy in. While it has climbed in the past several months from near parity with the dollar to highs over $20, it's also crashed quite heavily at times. In the past couple days alone it's swung from around $25 to $10 and everywhere in between multiple times.

https://mtgox.com/trade/history

but you've hopefully already seen this if you're at all seriously considering it.

I'm still enamoured of the idea of "crypto currency", but I'm *extremely* wary of it now that it's starting to be said outside of certain (mostly tech) circles. There's no telling quite what will happen to it in the short or long term.

I'd like to see this become the bedrock of a new barter system.