Bitcoin Forum

In this twitter (https://twitter.com/SilkRoadDrugs/status/309238128097517568) which I am sure a lot of you have seen, the Silk Road has announced that they are taking record breaking profits. Are we still calling for the top? How many big players with big investments will it take before a majority of the coins are in strong hands?

I certainly hope the coins are going to strong hands right now. Otherwise we're in for a very cold shower at some point. :)

Are you a strong hand by the way? :)

Well the driving force behind bitcoins is crime, there is really no point in the system besides being paid anonymously. So it's quite logical silk road has a large impact.

You might want to read up some more on bitcoins, bro.

lol

Thanks!

As you may want to as well sir.

But.... I.... Hm. I'm doing that as much as I can. Believe me! I only made the suggestion to you because I've already identified several points beyond the one you presented, for using bitcoin, so I can only assume you are behind me in your reading assignments.

if your not using bitcoins for crime then what is the point

I've never bought anything illegal with bitcoins.

Here is a canadian quarter for you  ;)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/37/Quarter_Reverse_2010.png/220px-Quarter_Reverse_2010.png

Just wait, you'll see.

+1
LMFAO

ITT: flavius demonstrates amazing depth in his understanding

Who let flav out of the newbie forum, he obviously hasn't a clue about bitcoin.

I doubt SR deals with GOX but who knows.

+1

Silk Road helped gain traction for bitcoin because it got people involved who otherwise would not have the mental capacity to understand bitcoin. Now, the true amazingness of bitcoin is starting to be recognized by larger numbers of people every day.

I don't disagree with this, but the fact of the matter is you can't walk into a store and buy something with bitcoins (unless it is some type of specific store etc). You can't sell on ebay with bitcoins, you can't keep bitcoins in your physical wallet and use them like normal cash.

They are a hassle to buy legitimately, a wire transfer is sketchy and not convenient, or even practical for most people. Send a wire transfer (of money) to obtain a different type of money? Why...? is the mindset the average person takes.

Bitcoins are not REMOTELY designed for online purchases. They have to be reversible and not completely anonymous for it to become a government endorsed successful currency. If I bought someone online with bitcoins and it never shows up, I just get fucked? Good luck ever making that a serious currency.

I don't think you realize how much fraud and darknet transactions goes on. Until you have been on all of the websites and seen what happens, you don't know. Bitcoins are a fraudster's DREAM. You can turn bitcoins into cash from an ATM 100% anonymously with no BS that regular financial institutions offer.

In the regular world where fraud doesn't exist, what the fuck are you supposed to do with a bitcoin? Ultimately all you end up doing is turning it into cash, you might as well just keep your money in the first place. If you're using it as an investment that isn't really "using" it, mining does not do anything for it either. Unless you are actively spending 5 figures of bitcoins a year that somehow gives you an advantage over real money, it's pointless for the common man.

I think the ultimate problem is people trying to build currencies based off of real currencies, being USD/EU/etc. A bitcoin is worth x dollars, so it in essence is x dollars, so why not just keep your dollars? Until you can say a bitcoin is not worth a certain amount of dollars (directly) then it is just inferior to real cash.

No, fucking idiots that can't form a critical thought if their lives depended on it are a fraudster's dream. The average American investor, for example.

I can buy BTC directly via online banking for a low fee and receive my bitcoins within 48-72h. In my opinion it's only a matter of time before brick and mortar stores accept them. It's been cheaper, safer and more convenient for me to sell legal items online with BTC than using PayPal.

Anything is more convenient than paypal, that is just logical. However paypal is the only way to sell on ebay and run a very popular business online. It would be great if everyone paid with bitcoins but the popularity isn't there yet, plus as I mentioned before, if someone pays you in bitcoins, aside from morals, it's almost entirely useless to ship them anything.

Brick and mortar stores will have to go through a nightmare of accounting to ever accept bitcoins in a significant amount. I can't even begin to think about how taxes would work in this situation.

But my point remains, I realize you can buy bitcoins with your online banking, but what is the point? Why not just keep it in your bank account?

Severian: Ok, 5 years ago if you wanted to sell stolen credit card information on the internet, how do you get paid?

Credit card thieves might use credit cards. Just a hunch.

Bitcoin may bring out every two-bit grifter that's walking the earth but it's still chump change compared to the fraud perpetrated by the Fiat Gang. I believe you're straining at a gnat by worrying about the fraud in Bitcoin when a much larger one is being pulled on all of us while being marketed as "economic policy".

u wot m8

You have my hash pipe.

Your reply was equally incomprehensible.

Ya get it or you don't, eh wot?

who is the fiat gang

In the US, they're headed up by Captain Bloody Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve.

With gold you have a hard time buying at a store, too.

What kind of interest rate does your bank pay for a savings account?  Mine only pays .25% per year, meanwhile bitcoins have been increasing in dollar value by an average of 1.96% per day for the last year.

Buying something as an investment is not equal to using it, it doesn't give you some type of advantage that the money in your bank account didn't give you unless there are rare circumstances. If you expect people to jump on the bitcoin train as an investment then good luck.

I'll bet you a bitcoin that, in the years ahead, there are going to be a whole lot of people who would prefer to get out of a currency whose supply is expanding in this fashion:

http://stutteringmessiah.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/fed-reserve-money-supply-chart.jpg

and into a currency that is being created in this manner:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Total_bitcoins_over_time.png

I completely agree that Bitcoins are a better investment than USD, but that wasn't the point I was making.

You previously said that "If you expect people to jump on the bitcoin train as an investment then good luck."

I don't expect people to jump on the bitcoin train as an investment.  I expect them to jump on the bitcoin train in the future in order to escape the higher prices that will result from inflating the supply of dollars and all of the other fiat currencies around the globe.

If the world was intelligent people then yes that would happen, but you aren't going to convince a large population of people to invest in a decentralized digital anonymous currency they currently know nothing about. The act of taking dollar bills out of their wallet and turning those into bitcoins is not going to be an easy one.

Also you have to realize inflation of the dollar bill is still inflation to bitcoins because bitcoins are based off of the dollar, their value is in the fact you can exchange them for dollars, nothing else.

Flavius, it is obvious that bitcoin is excellent for crime and, until now, fairly useless for anything else except speculation. It may be becoming slightly useful for gambling, especially where gambling is unlawful. It's extreme volatility renders it unsuitable for pricing. Indeed almost all tangible transactions in bitcoins are really priced in fiat.

However, if you want to be popular here you will repeat the party line.

Some people just cannot and will not accept this.  That is until it is too late. They will call us all ponzi supporters, spread the FUD, then they will break down and buy some BTC and I will be smiling.

the fact that I was able to purchase parts for my computer, clothes for my back, and even a few foreign snacks for my belly... Bitcoin is far from useless.
The deflationary aspect of it over the past 2 years has been wonderful, honest, but that isn't why i got involved in bitcoin.
I don't have paypal, I don't have a bank account, I don't have a credit card, and I don't intend to get any of them any time soon. I still pay my taxes and buy things I need, but bitcoin has allowed me to buy things easier and cheaper than in the past.

There is a valid point - that all items sold for BTC are actually priced in fiat now, just converted using whatever the current exchange rate is. So you are not buying anything with coins yet - you are buying with fiat, the processor just obscures the exchange of your coins. The only things priced in bitcoins are, so far, purely virtual - like bitcoin services subscription.

And this is not changing until bitcoin economy is self contained - i.e., there are iron mines accepting bitcoins in exchange for ore, smelters working for coin, and all the way up to warehouses which have prices set in bitcoin.

This will take a very long time to achieve, if ever. Much longer than most speculators here are willing to wait - ten years at the very least. Until then, bitcoin will be slowly growing in price, because once bitcoin economy is self-contained, it will quickly suck in all other economies (due to its obvious superiority), and so coin value should be up to the task.

If this happens in the next ten years I'll be laughing the whole way there  ;)