Bitcoin Forum

Hi everyone,

I want to introduce myself: my name is Caitie Lustig and I am a graduate student in the Informatics department at the University of California, Irvine.  I am just beginning my research on the bitcoin community and am excited to be a member of this forum.  It seems like there's a lot of research about the bitcoin community that's been focused on the technical aspects of bitcoin but not the community aspect, and there's been a lot of news articles about bitcoin that are a bit sensationalist.

So, I want to do something different.  I really want to learn from you guys about what's actually happening in the community and why you're drawn to bitcoin.  I really want to hear your stories and what you like about it.

Anyway, I'll also be making another post in the next day or two that links to my survey about bitcoin.  It's for the first part of my research project and if you have a chance to fill it out, it'll help me a lot.

Looking forward to getting to know all of you here :)

There is no "community". There is however a pack of starving wolves fighting tooth and flesh to get the first bite out of a cute widdle adorable baby girl dangling over the pit of wolves.

With that last name you'll fit right in.  ;)

Let me give a real answer to one your questions. What drew me to bitcoins in the beginning was how easy it was to start accepting payments on a web site. With credit cards it is very difficult to accept them, and if you use a framework you are at the mercy of them. Bitcoins gets rid of that, I can freely and very easy programmatically send and get bitcoins. Also another headache is saving all that credit card information, if you get hacked you just let your whole community be exploited. Bitcoins I can save an address in a database link it to an account and that hacker can't do anything with that information, as long as my private keys are safe in cold storage. Credits cards require a bank account and bitcoins don't, this allows younger developers to get paid for their work. I had a great idea at 14 or 15 that I didn't build out cause I couldn't get all the accounts that would be required for me to accept payments, due to my age. These are very small yet things that impact greatly on a community.

Idealism (freedom) or greed (finance) or both.

Hello Caitie Lustig, we are currently monitoring and researching your activities on the forum.

Lord of the Flies

Welcome here.

Here a survey you can use to start with. (a bit old though)

http://simulacrum.cc/2013/02/26/the-demographics-of-bitcoin-part-1/

I am astonished to discover I have somehow overlooked this survey...thanks for the link.

Thanks for the link! I'm writing a paper for one of my courses as well, and this was really helpful!

Thanks!  I actually ran across that post a week or so ago and found it really interesting and helpful.

Hi!  Thanks for the input, that's very interesting.  I hadn't really considered how bitcoin might be more accessible for young people than other forms of online payment!

what a nice funny picture.

Wow, there really is a department of infomatics at UC-Irvine! 

I like bitcoin because of its use in micropayments and its potential for anonymity.  I also think as a deflationary currency it will be a good store of value.

Good Luck with your research!

Good luck with your studies Catie Lustig.

I don't think it's great for anonymity. It's only pseudonymous. The gov managed to catch the criminals in SR, so you CAN be tracked.

From pennies to $260 in a relatively short time period.

The hunt was real good, and now all the hunters are coming.

Well Mrs Lustig (funny) i guess in the Bitcoin Community you will find people who are interested in technology or people who are interested in free money and free speach.For me a very interesting study,just suggestion,would be that media all over the world calls bitcoin "hacker money",that is obviously used for Platforms like Silkroad.The interesting thing is,last week US shot down Silkroad,a platform where hundreds of millions of dollar in bitcoins were used to trade.So if the theory would be right the bitcoin price must go down now,but in fact the price is rasing the last days

Oops i just noticed that she is actually a girl... And she is really interested in bitcoins! Imo thats a milestone.  :-X

I think you are on to something interesting. In the three years I have been here I have watched several new waves of immigration. Initially it was hackers and math geeks giving way to fiscally political libertarians. More recently, serious investors have shown up. Using BTC as a financial instrument. Currently I see a lot of more mainstream Internet users arriving.
Each group has contributed something to the bitcoin culture that has evolved. I can't wait to see who is coming next. 

The last time someone said that, Eternal September happened.

lol  :D

Oh yeah, I agree that it's an interesting issue.  I know a lot of people who predicted that bitcoin would go down a lot in price now that SR has been shut down.  But obviously that wasn't the case at all.  It's an interesting time for bitcoin for sure.

Lol, yes, I am actually female.  There definitely are other women interested in bitcoin, though!  I'm definitely not the only one :)

I primarily got interested in bitcoin because people I knew were into it, but as a computer science geek, I also thought it was pretty technically interesting.  I think this was probably during the second wave that you mentioned.

I'm curious what the future will bring for bitcoin as well!  I get the impression that there may be some mixed feelings about more mainstream internet users getting involved with bitcoin.

Could you elaborate a little on what you think the different waves have contributed to bitcoin culture?  Also, do you feel like people from the different waves interact together well?

(Feel free to PM me a response if you'd prefer to talk in private.  And of course, please don't feel obligated to respond if you don't want to answer my questions!)

Hm, I wonder what the Eternal September would look like for bitcoin.  A lot of people coming into forums and asking for help getting started with bitcoin?

More likely asking for handouts and trying Nigerian Prince level scams.

Why am I drawn to BitCoin? Well, I think it's something very interesting to follow and work with. It's quite easy to use once you get the hang of it and you can do quite a lot with it. I mean, within minutes I can send my money all around the world. No (ridiculous high fee's) or big risks. Just a push of a button and someone has it. You have freedom and nobody can (easily) seize your coins. BitCoins are truly yours and yours only (if you don't use a shared address).
I am also going to agree on gweedo's point. It's a great thing for younger people or people who cannot work for a real IT company (you know, because of those ridiculous requirements / school). They can just get paid in BitCoins and use that to pay for other stuff.
More and more things are being created for BitCoin and I have met a quite a lot awesome people during my journey and I intend to stick around for a little while longer.

cryptographic currency is a technical revolution. the internet was/is a technical revolution that changed our way of living only because we were able to store, send, share, search, collect information around the planet or with grandma. with bitcoin the internet will get geared up with something very powerfull = money. programmable money. so much way ahead of traditional banking, which roots in renaissance italy, and is by any means a slow, intransparent, expensive, arrogant monsterous/dinosaur style institution. you can send any sum, any time to anyone on the planet ( & grandma) who has internet access/smartphone for almost free, secure, fast, easy as an email with no possible institution, entity, government, office, company, etc.. being able to stop you doing so, since it is directly p2p.
it is the future, anyone can be his/her own bank. it is democratising banking and money and it is a large scale social experiment. some later internet eruptoins were about sharing music or social media which had impact. compare the impact of music to the impact of money in our modern life. literally the economy itself goes online, the monetized internet is a game changer.

great to see scientific research interested in bitcoin.

there is a community. and this forum is an important communication platform for the community. notably a forum of a lot of current or future wealthy folks. this will be funny.

I think that's the trick, right?  It's not actually very difficult to use but if you aren't very computer literate, it might be a little difficult or daunting.  But once you've got it down it's easy to use.


Hm, so the social aspect is part of the appeal then for you?  Have you met any of these people offline or is this all online?

Thanks for the input!

Already happened.

Hi Caitie, welcome to our community! I think for many of us, it is a combination of honest money and speculation..... because, after all, when you realize your fiat money is worth less and less, and bitcoin is worth more and more..... well, that's a big draw for bitcoin! Anyway, welcome!  :)

Hey, good luck with your studies. This comunity is full of people that love technology but also of people that want free money...