Bitcoin Forum

The idea of a worldwide internet currency has been around for quite a while. In 1998, the management team from Beenz managed to raise over $100 million to create a new digital currency to challenge the world's major currencies. Despite well-funded marketing, technical, and legal teams, Beenz was defunct by 2001.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beenz.com

Why will bitcoin succeed when Beenz failed?

They had the wrong perspective; this isn't a currency, it's reward points.

Also it was centralized

Also

It had a silly name.

it was not swarm-driven.

I will +1 this.

Beenze were about as much like bitcoin as frequent flier miles. They were centralized, closed source, and open to any manipulation the authority wanted. They were not currency. They were crappy coupons.

It was like swagbucks. Comparing swagbucks to Bitcoin is extremely daft.

"global money that would challenge the world’s major currencies"
"beenz management and its legal teams had to meet with finance ministers across Europe to assure them that Beenz would be categorized as virtual points"

Ridiculous.

What the fuck is this.

The end?? :o

The centralization of Beenz is what killed it. They had to bend over backwards to try to keep the banks and governments happy. And while the banks initially seemed to be on board, mainly to keep from being called anti-competitive, they would never allow a system like Beenz to grow big enough to  challenge their monopoly on money.

From this history I predict:

Banks and their allies will eventually declare war on Bitcoin, but it will not be an open declaration.

With no central organization to attack, the war will rely on propaganda and ever-tightening regulation designed to stifle legitimate use.

Bitcoin will enjoy varying levels of legality depending on the country it's used in.

Eventually the population will reach critical mass of acceptance and vote to deregulate.

OMG. Bitcoin isn't digital gold. Bitcoin is digital pot.

No wonder why it was Defunct   2001. The whole concept is crap.

It was centralized and in 2001, it was too early for a digital currency.

The attack already started with "science" papers describing "flaws" in Bitcoin like

It's never as effective as cutting off the head :P

10 years ago people would of been like "Wtf is Bitcoin". 10 years ago people wouldn't of traded a piece of dust for a bitcoin.

Peer to peer file sharing technology also know as BitTorrent was here already in 2001:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent

So there was chance for Bitcoin to start sonner, no doubt

In 2023 you can look back at this thread.

BTC will either be in the $1000's by then, or it'll be worthless most likely.

It will either be worth $100 000 then, or $50 000.

We need a better cryto currency... too many hacker going around Bitcoin, inputs...... :(

I would of said, your out of your mind. But you might be onto something lol.

I would say it being centralized was the problem

Better? You're implying there is something wrong with Bitcoin because hackers exist?

I saw on the news a man robbed a bank.  We need a better dollar, too many robbers, robbing banks.

You sir have my like (Y).

i saw someone who stole bread. we should stop making bread, too much bread theft going on.

the truth is that there will always be scammers. there is nothing anyone can do to stop it... and i doubt any other "crypto currency" could solve this problem. the only way to reduce scams is to make bitcoin more transparent and less anonymous.. which would defeat the purpose.

What hath you done?

Did the bank ever tell you that, we got robbed so we only pay you back half....

Inputs.io wasn't hacked.
Besides, you WERE warned that online wallets aren't safe. That was a KNOWN fact. Get over it.

Bitcoin is a universal language, it is certainly not controlled by a group of people looking to control the market and manipulate it to book profits. So, unlike "Beenz's currency" this has to succeed.

You got that right.
They are not comparable.

Look at everyone beating each other off on syntax and minor wordings here.

There's nothing to say Bitcoin has or will succeed. We, the users of it, are the predictors of that. Before the concept of fiat, if no one used money, it would always be worth that value because it has intrinsic value. Bitcoin's value is driven off collective speculation of the market, in a concept distinct from, but not unlike, fiat.

Let's not look at Beenz as an earlier analog to Bitcoin, but more of a step in the way. Even though Bitcoin isn't centralized, if the majority of BTC users don't smart up (cough cough, all the n00bs complaining on the anti-BFL threads), you could watch many of the things that happened to Beenz. Just because it's defunct doesn't mean that you can't learn from what happened.

Inputs.io got hacked.. I trust TF :)

That's why he kept running the site for 2 weeks even though he knew that it was "hacked".

Inputs.io is still alive. :o