Bitcoin Forum

Let's face it - we're all geeky idealists here. We love the mathematical beauty of bitcoin and its concept of true financial freedom and we try to promote it that way. But masses don't really care about any currency's fundamentals, they just want to go to a store and buy things. Wheter it's for greenback, btc or some loyalty program points, they don't care. Majority of people will never understand bitcoin, or fiat; most of them don't even know what inflation is.

Why do I write all this? I found promoting bitcoin quite hard and I think it's because my explanation of it always starts from what I personaly like about it (no central banking, cryptography). Fail. The story must be told from listener's perspective. So what would impress these people? That they can go to a store and actually buy things with btc in a simple way, like with cash.

So I would like to create a real-life scenario, step by step, to make sure this is possible. It starts with customer entering a store and ends with him leaving with the stuff he bought. I want to only include technologies that already exist or are in a final stage of development, so this scenario would be feasible lets say bu teh end of mid 2013. We can then use this story when introducing bitcoin to non-geeky people.

I'm kicking off: It's June 2013, Adam enters a store, picks up some snacks and takes it to the counter. What happens next?

pulls out his mobile and sends the required amount of bitcoin to the merchant, the address would be handed on the counter. But wait, how to handle the confirmations?
The guy would eventually have to wait 30 minutes to leave the store, this sucks indeed.

Definitely leave cryptography out of it.  For me, the three main selling points are:
- I can send any amount of money anywhere in the world absolutely free and it is confirmed in an hour.
- No government can print more Bitcoin.
- No company or bank controls Bitcoin.

Things like lack of government control sound great to libertarians, but not to every else.  Likewise, the cryptographic methodology and other geeky details are amazing to, well, geeks, but no one else understands or cares about it.  But I think the above 3 points, pretty much everyone can relate to as being a good thing.

to spread bitcoins i am doing this:

i borrow small amounts of money at bars from people i know,
i then send them the same day that money in form of bitcoins + a little tip + instructions

When you borrow this money, do they know you intend to repay them with BTC? Or is that a fun little surprise? ;)

i offer them to take it this way, or return me the coins and i give em cash next time we meet.

so they are kinda forced to do at least one bitcoin transaction ;)

If this is true and that the vast majority don't care to ponder things so fundamentally important like money/value then we've got bigger problems than innovations such as Bitcoin can address.

If people in general are so incapable of independent critical thinking any unscrupulous, entitled entity can dangle a carrot or wage a misinformation campaign to maintain the status quo.

Any meaningful change has to be fostered from the bottom-up by a mass of critical thinkers.

Just leave it at zero confirmations unless it's a really big purchase. How often does someone try to perform a double-spend?

I love it!

I've told people how amazing Bitcoin is / why it has such enormous potential, and the reaction is sometimes a genuine but less-than-completely-sold "well, that sounds kind of neat." And then I tell them I'll send them some free coins if they set up a wallet and send me their address. When the transaction goes through and the money shows up almost instantaneously, you can sort of see it click. The abstract system that I'd been describing suddenly becomes much more "real." And the amount doesn't really matter. I usually send about 50 cents worth.  But even if it's a tiny amount, you can say truthfully that it might be worth thousands someday if Bitcoin ever really takes off.

He tries to transfer coins from his online wallet only to realize that once again the entirety of his savings has been taken by a hacker -- another Chinese relics dealer, he assumes.  He sighs and smiles, apologizes to the store clerk for the inconvenience and walks to his car. 

"What will I tell my wife now?"  Adam ponders.  "I already sunk her 401k with the promise that we won't need fiat investments because bitcoin." 

He looks across the parking lot past the freeway to a field with a single oak tree standing tall in the middle.  It's a warm fall day and the sun and air slow his pace allowing him to appreciate the natural beauty of the world as he makes his way toward that tall oak.  His phone is vibrating in his pocket, no doubt his wife realizing that Mt.Gox froze their account again after the latest troubles.  He ignores her.  As he approaches the tall oak, he checks his .22 caliber pistol that he always keeps on him in case he has to defend himself, his property, or the terms of a contract.  He sits beneath the tall oak, looks up to see the sun glinting through the falling leaves.  It's beautiful. He raises the .22 to his temple and begins to weep. 

What about a bounty challenge??
The user(s) who gets the most stores to adapt bitcoin as payment on the counter gets the jackpot. Any btctalk user would be free to donate.
Maybe we can gather such an interesting amount that people really start engaging.
I would donate 1btc right now to such a project.

Those that don't do currency will have it done to them.

Fuck the retard masses, they can get with the program or starve.

He grabs a pack of chewing gum, checks his shotgun is fully loaded, then leaves the store through the busted glass front, stumbling back into the postapocalyptic wasteland, shaking his head and muttering "No water here either" to his parched wife.

He pulls out his BitInstant card and swipes it in the credit card machine.

He leaves and eats the snacks.

While driving (and eating snacks) he sees that Best Buy is having a sale on TVs. He pulls out his phone (while driving) and transfers some Bitcoin to his BitInstant card.

He walks into Best Buy and buys a new TV.

When he gets home, after setting up the new TV he checks his ING account and see that his paycheck has been deposited. He does a p2p transfer to BitFloor of his paycheck and sets up an auto-exchange from USD to BTC at a desired price.

He sets up an auto transfer to send some spending money to his phone and BitInstant card account.

1) No need for confirmation for such a small transaction. (Sure, trying to double spend while purchasing a snack would be fun for most geeks, but regular people are not considering this as much fun)
2) Let's assume he's using a full client with private keys stored on his device only. (Please don't advertise web wallets to newbs and tell your friends not to use an exchange like a wallet for all their money)

Would you please share those instructions with us here? To me this turned out to be the sticking point.

Dog eat dog world.

He reaches for his Woolong Device, fumbles and drops it.  "Fuck, this will be the second time I've had to replace my Woolong this week."  The store clerk looks apathetically up from his newpaper and points to the sign that reads, "No Woolong, no service," then continues reading the breaking news about the Illuminati plot to assassinate President Johnson. 

the end

You make an excellent point. There's no reason to convince anyone about the merits at bitcoin. IMO it will continue to rise in use and value due to it's nature. Those who disregard it do so at their own loss. When I buy things I offer to pay in bitcoin whenever possible and those who have ears will want to know more.

I bought several products this past week this way. I spend bitcoin only because I earn a good portion of my income in bitcoin and I have to liquidate some to cover day-to-day expenses. With that said, I save as much as possible and only spend what I have to.

Bitcoin can be useful even if a store point-of-sale system is never implemented.

But to go with your scenario, I see two options:

1: The clerk scans his items, he goes to the payment device (the thing people swipe credit cards with now). The screen gives options for the buttons indicating types of transactions, one of them says "Bitcoin". Adam presses the button by bitcoins. The screen brings up a QR code bitcoin amount, store name, and address (all in a bitcoin standardized format). Adam pulls out his smartphone, opens the bitcoin app, zaps the code, presses the confirm button on his phone. After a second the screen says "transaction received" or something like that, Adam takes his stuff and walks out. (The store name is not nescesary for the bitcoin transaction, but it makes record keeping nicer so when you look back at your wallet you know what that transaction was from.)

2: The clerk scans his items, Adam swipes a card just like he would a credit card. This is linked to an account with bitcoins, but the store clerk doesn't need to know about all that, since everything happens in the backend to do the conversion and the store is electronically sent dollars, just like a credit card.

Why I say bitcoin can be useful without this setup is that bitcoins can function as a savings tool, like gold does today. People who want to save money convert it to bitcoin on an exchange or with somebody local in person, and when they are done saving they convert it back on the exchange. Bitcoin has the advantage over gold in that it is harder to fake and it is easier to trade with people farther away.

Bitcoin is also very nice for internet purchases. And for doing long-distance work (like programming or digital artwork) where there is no reason for the employer and employee to be restricted to dealing only with people in their own country.

Follow-up comment:

If you want to increase acceptance, make it a point to always offer to pay for products and services with bitcoin and then provide your favorite link to get more bitcoin information. They will most likely decline but you will accomplish 3 things:

1. You will convey to them that there is a market demand to pay in bitcoin from their customer base.
2. You will introduce them to bitcoin and give them links where they can learn more.
3. You will pave the way for them to say "yes" to the next customer who offers to pay with bitcoin.

When I first heard about bitcoin I dismissed it outright and ignored it for 6 months before I decided to take a second look. Now it is my preferred method of being paid. I never accept credit cards or PayPal. I accept only physical cash (gold, silver, FRN's) and digital cash (bitcoin). When I receive FRN's I quickly convert them to one of my 3 favorite commodities: Gold, Silver or Bitcoin

People will come around eventually - it's good for business!

A guy goes to mtgox and is allowed to cash out as many btc as he wants because free markets don't put hard limits on that kind of thing.

Wait, I have another one.

A guy tries to buy a Snickers bar and waits 30 minutes for the transaction to verify.  It doesn't because the transaction fees have gone up, so he has to raise his bid and wait another 30 minutes and just hope.  Also, the btc price of the snickers bar is inflated by 150%.

Alternately, he uses fiat cash because who sells candy bars for bitcoins?  He goes home and buys drugs and child porn off of silk road, because besides scamming, that's about all you can do with bitcoins.  He never receives either.  He then smugly posts about how only retards don't use bitcoin before losing everything to LiterallyAPonziSceme run by venerated forums member PonziMan.  He is legitimately surprised.

 It's June 2013, Adam enters a store, picks up some snacks and takes it to the counter.

Oh hi Adam," the cashier greets him. "Snacking away some of the gains your tab has made this week?"

"Oh gosh no!" Adam replies. "My bitcoin tab is only for emergencies. I still get paid in fiat at work so of course I am dumping fiat before touching my tab. How much is it up, by the way?"

Cashier consults screen. "Only another few bucks a coin this week. Ok, let me ring that in in fiat for you... You know, you really should keep your bitcoins on your own machine at home, not leave them all in your tab here..."

"Yeah yeah," Adam replies as he leaves. "But I trust you. And besides they aren't all here, I have tabs all over town. See ya."

-MarkM-

Due to a random unpredictable glitch, Adam's hard drive is corrupted.  He loses everything, there is no way to ever get it back.  Bitcoiners tell him this is entirely his fault, then insist that the rest of the world convert to Bitcoin and wonder why everyone is ignoring them.

first step is finding a company that accepts loyalty points or foreign currency's instead of just native currency, then ur 99% able to sell them into BTC.

for the rest of the world that only likes native currency. here is wat id try. no mention of cryptography or government power instead its using the loyalty points scenario to make them understand

"so shop owner ur still accepting credit cards i see.. that must be bummer waiting to get reimbursed by the card issuer. i bet your employee's hate the 3-5 day delay in receiving their wages along with all them fees u have to pay for just to use that feeble system.

have u ever considered bitinstant payment system?

wats that

well so far there's 100,000 known regular users of it. and probably millions that arnt so regular. but lets just stick to wat you need to know first.
well they give u a prepayment card to get reimbursed within the hour, and u offer customers ur products for a loyalty point system thingy called bitcoins. the funds show up instantly as a payment is taken. the system is so robust it would take a supercomputer to fake them so don't worry about that from customers walking into ur shop with only a hand full of points in their wallets. but if u do care, the system also has a validation confirmation which takes under an hour. so by the time they have used their super computer to fake them, walked to ur store its already rejected them inside the customers wallet to not allow payment.

the important thing is that you get paid instantly by the customer and still have access to normal money to buy new stock, pay wages or whatever else all in one. and if you are part of a chain of stores you can send them funds instantly too across the world even, in seconds.

its simply electronic cash without the headaches of your credit card issuers. and without the headache of cashing up each evening and needing a security company to walk it over to the bank to deposit

quote from starship troopers: would you like to know more?

It's June 2013, Adam enters a store, picks up some snacks and takes it to the counter.

The pretty young cashier knows Adam but he doesn't know her.  She smiles shyly as she rings up the snacks.  "Hi, Five dollars and Sixty Seven cents."  She is embarrassed that Adam doesn't know who she is.  Adam was in her brothers class back in High School.  She was a year behind.  It's not that she liked him or anything its just that most boys in town find her pretty and Adam never seems to notice.  She is convinced that there is something wrong with her.  Adam does remember her though, he remembers her really well.  He has had a crush on her ever since she first started going to his high school way back in 2007.  Adam is ridiculously shy, way more so than the cashier.  He pulls out a Visa card and says, "here".  She says thank you and swipes the card for him.  Adam never noticed the card swiping machine right in front of him despite shopping in this store every Friday afternoon for the last year.  Friday afternoon is her normal shift.

Two young souls lost in their own insecurity and hopelessly separated by their shyness and a Visa card.

Adam leaves the store, opens the soda and slowly drinks it as he drives away.   The chips and chocolate bar join the growing snack collection in the back seat of his car.  He will eventually use them to bribe his nephews when he sees them Sunday.

You see, Adam like most non-bitcoiners has never heard of bitcoin.  His brother uses them to buy drugs but he has never told Adam about them.  Adam loves his brother but can't take too much of him at a time.  Adam just wishes his brother was around more for his kids.

aswell as keeping a data backup also write the private keys into a word document and print it out..

Awesome, I had a feeling this thread would be fun. Thanks for some really interesting suggestions. So it seems the main issue (apart from people's ignorance) is that the clerk is forced to make a choice to either risk double-spend or make Adam wait fo X minutes for at least 1 confirmation. That kindof sucks. I heard proposals that, in theory, this could be solved by using a bitcoin bank where Adam would deposit some of his bitcoins and this institution would be responsible for preventing double-spends of Adam's deposits. Clerk would recieve btc form bank, not directly from Adam. Or do you have other ideas?

Bank`s - isnt that what we trying to avoid?
Ok, well, lets call it excrow. But still, you would have an instititution that handles the bitcoin transactions, most probably for a fee as nobody works for free.
Then the same thing as with mtgox would probably popup, people would need to verify their identity.

Adam is eight years old! He goes into the sweet shop, and pays with his bitcoin card, on which he receives a monthly allowance of BTC from his parents. The shop owner appreciates the ease of use, not being required to deal with physical cash or find the correct change, yet without the charges of a bank card.

Later, Adam pays for a new monthly subscription to his favourite online game, by swiping his card into the built in reader on his games console (or even typing in the amount and receiving a unique payment code using a keypad and display built into the card itself).

Of course, all this would be impossible for Adam using a regular bank card, since he's probably not old enough to own one, or maybe his parents simply didn't want the hassle of setting up a bank account for him. It doesn't matter if he loses it either, since it only contains pocket change and his parents can just pick up a new one for almost nothing (or the price of a small preloaded amount) at the nearest shop.

That is because using bitcoin for shopping candy is the wrong solution for the wrong problem.  There is literally no advantage to bitcoin here - but not much of a disadvantage either, since the risk of a double-spend is probably below the risk of accepting counterfeit cash or stolen visa cards.

The good use-case is Adam buying something on the net (preferably something legal!).  That is where bitcoin - even probably with escrow - will be competitive.

Why is everyone ignoring the obvious BitInstant card?

BTC to local currency in the form of a debit card transparent to the merchant.

Adam enters the store, buys some candy, and pays with cash. He walks out, runs into a buddy, they go for coffee in the local cofffee shop. At the register his buddy pulls out the phone, fires up Bitcoin Spinner 1.8, scans the qr code, and pays the bill (BTC0.05). Few hours later, Adam gets in the taxi, and - being happy with ride - pays bitcoins. Just tap his NFC phone against the driver's phone, and he is done. Both Adam and his friend received receipts for their purchases denominated in the local currency.

 He gets home, and refills his phone wallet from the dedicated savings wallet (based on Cranberry Pi). He also sends to his daughter - who studies abroad - coins for the next few months, which she will mostly exchange into local currency, and small part of it she will spend directly online. Where she is, Bitcoin hasn't really caught up yet.

I wanted to add my number one reason for preferring BTC:  identity theft.

When you use a CC, you are giving the merchant your credit card number.  Technically, they can charge it as many times as they want.  They store it on their system and hackers get millions of credit card numbers when they breach the merchants' systems.  How many times have I been notified that my CC number might have been compromised and I have to get a new card?  I even had fraudulent purchases on my CC before and spent hours on the phone with the CC company explaining that I'm single with no kids -- why would I be buying $1,500 worth of baby supplies?  Even PayPal has automatic payments that I have found myself struggling to "cancel" in the past.

With BTC, you authorize each payment.  There is no way to do automatic payments.  In the absence of someone compromising your personal computer, there is no risk of someone hacking a merchants' system and getting your BTC private key -- you never gave it to them.

This isn't exactly a real-life scenario, but it's a real-life consideration in a world with accelerating levels of identity theft.  If the economy grew such that Bitcoins were frequently accepted online next to fiat, this is a clear advantage for Bitcoin that many consumers can tangibly understand.

Bitcoin is nothing but a fun currency or a way to purchase things illegally. Face it, even if it were to "take off" the govt would shut it down. The ones who disagree with me are just being naive.

Which govt... ( there are more than one and they tend not to get along too well most times. )

And how do you turn off something that doesn't have an "off" switch?  Bitcoin doesn't even require "the internet". 

First world govt's. You dont "turn it off" you make it illegal. It wont stop completely obviously but no real business will touch it ever if its illegal. Most people will also stop using bitcoin if it becomes illegal. Bitcoin does require the internet. How do you think coins originate?

Perhaps, but it won't be shut down. If first world govts make it illegal some second or third world govts may just adopt it as their official currency.
If first world govts get too draconian in their controls they could end up driving more and more people to use alternative underground systems...


There are many more networks, and methods of information exchange, than what is known as "the internet".

I always get a chuckle when I hear people talk about making bitcoin illegal.  What part could they outlaw?  ECDSA?

IF bitcoin "took over" how do you think the govt would fund road repairs and every govt expenditure etc etc? I mean be realistic. You honestly think a deregulated currecny woudl be good in the long run??? I dont think the federal reserve is any good but you need regulation and law enforcement.

Probably with taxes.

So then it would have to be regulated.

Huh?

Were you thinking that the dollars in your wallet are in some way instrumental to tax collection?  Because they aren't.

If he's in the USA he pays with USD in some form. Fiat money works very well as a medium of exchange and as a unit of account. I think the main function that BTC can do better than fiat currencies is that it can, and hopefully will, serve as a better store of value than fiat currencies which lose value due to the increase in supply of fiat currency created by central banks and their fractional reserve banking systems.

You really need to re read my comments.

Heh, I did.  Maybe you should read them again.

Adam is eight years old! He goes into the sweat shop, where he works his 10 hour shift. He then goes to the shop manager, hands over his ID card (which has a bitcoin QR address), the manager scans the card and sends 0.5 bitcoin to that address. He then thanks Adam for the productive workday and sends him on his way.

Then learn to read. And then go re re read them. You are saying the exact opposite of what  I am saying so clearly you arent reading them.

Or maybe I just disagree with you.  To be honest, I'm not sure.  As far as I can tell from what you've actually written, you think that dollar bills have magical properties that build roads and employ policemen.  I certainly disagree with that.  Here on Earth, it is commerce that is regulated and taxed, not so much the unit of accounting used in that commerce.

And it isn't like there is some thing that lawmakers could point to and say "That thing is a bitcoin, and possession of bitcoins is now against the law!".  About the best they could do is make it illegal to solve the equations that make up an ECDSA signature.  And their law would have absolutely no effect on the equations or the solutions.  And private keys are just arbitrary 256-bit integers.  Any 256-bit integer is a private key.  I guess they could try to make it illegal to cause a computer to know 256-bit integers, but something tells me that not even they are that dumb.

You must live a pretty sheltered life.

a alternative currency by default is not illegal. but if that currency's use is predominantly used for illegal activity and has not actual value of to the general public to buy commodities such as vegetables, milk, etc then it can be considered illegal.

as such there have been cases in china and other countries that instead of hauling around FIAT capital. they would trade 'tickets' which were authorised as IOU's by the head of merky drugs cartel to be of value to the holder.

a recent movie 'premium rush' features such a ticket which basically is a receipt with a smiley face on it to represent that it has been authorised. this system is illegal.

if any of you want to get bitcoin completely legal here is two steps.

1) stop the god dang drug dealing being the main use of it. this doesn't have to be blocking silkroad but instead getting some reputable merchants to accept bitcoin to dilute the high percentage of trade being done by silk road. to atleast only 1/2% of use so that it is atleast on par with FIAT.
yes FIAT can be considered drug money but it has so many other uses, that FIAT is accepted by all as a currency of value.

2) learn how LETS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Exchange_Trading_Systems (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Exchange_Trading_Systems) became an accepted alternative currency term. and then after reading the link. consider how to make bitcoin a term such as GETS (Global Exchange Trading System).

but point 2 cannot be done easily without point 1 being done. and on the flip side point 1 can't be done easily without point 2 being done. both due to the lack of positive reputation and understanding.

the other alternative is to use Litecoins to become a GETS and leave bitcoin for the merky business.

The fact that many people use BTC to buy the things they want ( drugs ) shows that it is already successful... so who needs it to be legal?

What damn good is litecoin if you can't even buy drugs with it?   :-\

lol spoken like a true drug user that only sees if for their selfish purpose and only ever wants to use it for that purpose..

litecoin is another crypto that has just celebrated its first birthday. its being traded largescale on BTC-E where other cryptos and virtual currencys have slipped off of BTC-E's radar. EG solidcoin.
litecoin is still fighting strong and many users all have the same mind set of learning from bitcoins mistakes. so far the strength of litecoin to bitcoin trades has prompted BTC-E to add russian and Euro currencies into the options to by. instead of just USD. thus expanding Litecoins reach.

in relation to learning from bitcoins mistakes by getting something big to the litecoin market, worthy of alot of press coverage to advertise litecoin. BUT, (big but) instead make it a LEGAL merchant so it is not drugs as its flagship market.

Imagine a domino's pizza TV advert, advertising 10% discount if paying by litecoins 20 times a day across with world. good product, good press, positive rep.

bitcoin has a supposed 100k population but with a smaller population for regular users.

for instance this link http://bitcoinstatus.rowit.co.uk/countryHosts.html (http://bitcoinstatus.rowit.co.uk/countryHosts.html) shows that a year ago there was 75k of regular users. which now seems to be only 30k..

bitcoin isnt currently a success because of silkroad. but WAS a success due to silkroads publicity. Now its its' own downfall.

many passionate people wanting bitcoin to expand have tried pushing it to their local real world legitimate merchants. and end up returning home with head banging against a brick wall because merchants mention the propoganda of ponzi's scams and drugs.

so why would litecoin be a zombiefied sheep and become a drugs pushers best friend. i have nothing against stopping silkroad my actual mind set is to leave bitcoin to the drug pushers. and start afresh with lean, clean fighting machine known as litecoin.

none of the 'going mainstream' matter much to drug users beyond having more ways to launder tainted coins. so i wont explain more. enjoy your drugs, stick with bitcoin. i and many others will divert our passion of a crypto competing against fiat by using litecoin.

hope you enjoy buying your weed online so you can hide from mommy and daddy by not having to trawl the streets for a shady dealer. enjoy ur mind altering drugs. take care now. bye

Or someone who doesn't judge others nor tries to dictate what they should or shouldn't use... whether it is only for their own
pleasure or a necessary medicine that happens to be in competition to what Big Pharma is pushing, for 'their' own purposes.      :P

Bitcoin was not meant to be some get rich quick scheme for shrewd speculators but something that is useful for everybody
no matter what their class, subculture, or other status as human beings.

It doesn't need to be legal; mainstream; or "moral" according to this or that arbitrary standard... it just needs to be useful.  
It is that already and will continue to be no matter how you or others judge how certain people use it.  

as i said i aint saying stop silk road to make bitcoin clean.. so i wasnt dictating what people do with their money. its their own business..

but if a crypto has any chance of going mainstream then a drugs cartel being the main trade of it, is not helping.

so all those drug traders for pleasure or medical use, continue to use bitcoin.

while many of us get litecoin promoted. as i see that as the most fair way to win the arguments about anonimity vs legitimacy

Btw, I am flattered and proud that at over 50 years of age I can still come across as young and immature and annoy uptight asshat moralists like yourself.   :D

Oh and I have also noticed in those many years that a lot more commerce takes place under the table than over it...  

sure you can have your legal litecoin just the way you want...  lite as in lite beer...  for those who can't handle the real stuff...  LOL  

"Litecoin: silver pyrite to Bitcoin's gold"

glad we both have a sense of humor.

i am not someone to wants to police bitcoin. so lets see how litecoin goes in the future. see you in 2 years time to compare litecoin to what bitcoin is today.


"Litecoin: silver carbon to Bitcoin's gold"

many more uses worldwide for carbon, and oneday it can be made into diamonds lol

Lol 

foolscoin

flash in the pan

 :D

If Litecoin becomes popular, it will be used for drugs.

It will have scandals too.

I'm going to make a prediction here, maybe I'll quote this in ten years: No first world government will make Bitcoin illegal. Probably, it'll be given special notice in legislation of some kind (i.e. We know it exists, and we want tax from any profit you make using it). And organisations that provide financial services with it will be regulated, much like banks. Anonymously operated and unregulated exchanges or e-wallets might be cracked down on (but good luck with that).

Well, geez, it's not quite that bad. I think the ratio for the price of an ounce of gold to an ounce of carbon is around 2700 to 1. Bitcoin to Litecoin value is only around 125 to 1. On the other hand, the analogy isn't terrible. Litecoin is basically a carbon copy of Bitcoin. And I guess you could also compare it to a lump of charcoal. It's still smoldering, but it will burn itself out before too long. Or take atmospheric carbon. Some people consider that to be pollution. Some might say that Litecoin is the equivalent of pollution in the cryptocurrency space. Heck, even your diamond comparison sort of works. After all, diamonds ARE a pretty poor currency (due to a lack of fungibility and divisibility).

(And by the way, dude. I'm just messing with you. I mean, I AM a Litecoin skeptic, but I wish it, and you, good luck. ;) )