Jason Biggs and bitcoin just don't go together for me
Perhaps if he tried fucking a bitcoin. Well, both bitcoins and pies are round... so... |
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Bitcoiners in the NYC area, you're cordially invited...  Group: Jekyll Island Bitcoin Society Event: Inaugural Meetup feat. Free Talk Live Location: BitInstant Office, 20 West 23rd Street, 3rd Floor, Manhattan. Date: Wed, August 22, 6:30-10pm Open to the Public - No Cover Drinks and appetizers available This is the first iteration of the Jekyll Island Bitcoin Society's monthly meetup. Everyone is welcome to attend: socialize, strategize, and scheme with leaders and enthusiasts of the Bitcoin community. Note: This first event will be structured around an on-air session of Free Talk Live, a radio talk show nationally-syndicated on over 100 stations, which will be broadcasting live from the meetup. The show is three hours, from 7-10pm, and will focus entirely on Bitcoin from business, political, and economic perspectives. **If you’d like to be on air to talk Bitcoin or announce a project, please let us know ASAP. Spots are limited.** Several open slots will be available during the radio show for individuals to announce or discuss their specific Bitcoin projects with the hosts. Notable Attendees:Charlie Shrem - BitInstant Erik Voorhees - BitInstant/FeedZeBirds/Coinapult/SatoshiDice Ira Miller - BitInstant/FeedZeBirds/Coinapult Adrianne Jeffries - The Verge and formerly Betabeat Marc Hochstein - Executive Editor of American Banker More to come… The Jekyll Island Bitcoin Society will host its meetup every month here in Manhattan, and cordially invites you to attend its inaugural event... don't miss it! Please RSVP Herehttp://www.meetup.com/Jekyll_Island_Bitcoin_Society/events/77229272/ |
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It actually used to take far longer to do the first install of the client. The first few times I did it last year, it took 1-2 days of the computer staying on (also with super fast computer/broadband).
The code has already gotten significantly better, and more improvements are in the works. But yes, scalability needs to be continually on the dev priority list and I think it is.
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I encourage your enthusiasm, OP! I was the same way when I discovered Bitcoin over a year ago. Now, it's my full time job, my hobby, my political activism, and by far the most important work I've done in my life.
When you see something good, seize it.
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Thanks for answering this post Dooglus. OP - if there are any still left that are not coming through, please PM me. I apologize for the lack of delay, I need to check the Newbie section more often!
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Please take a look at the newbie section. There is quite a few threads needing your attention. (directed to op)
Thanks for mentioning, I always forget to check there! Reviewing now. |
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No one should even be using a wallet that has your keys and can actually send for you without password intervention. As that's proven to be very risky.
Let's let the market decide this. An ewallet service that enables automatic subscription payments will be hugely valuable to everyone involved in Bitcoin. So long as they're trustworthy, there's no reason not to hold coins with them. Thus, it's just a matter of a company earning and keeping the trust and a mature Bitcoin market will have many such companies. You trust the mechanic to bolt your wheels on to your car correctly, and the gas station to fill your car with the proper mixture of fuel. You trust the airline to not crash into the ocean, and the restaurant not to poison you. Trusting an ewallet will come in time  |
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No government will ever allow a legitimate business to pay its employees in an unregulated and untraceable currency. Bitcoin is the currency of the black market.
The US government is currently allowing it today. Your point is demonstrably false. Bitcoin is the currency of the market, because it is mankind's most efficient means of exchange (or perhaps I should say, this is its potential at least). Whether the market is black or white or anything in between, we'll see increased adoption of Bitcoin throughout. Dismissing Bitcoin because some smart criminals have caught on earlier than the average gas station owner is silly. Can you offer an example of a US business that legally pays its employees without bank involvement? Governments issue currency and regulate commerce. They will not sanction a currency that they cannot regulate. It's not a matter of efficiency. It's a matter of control. I work for BitInstant LLC, a fully legal and licensed NY company, registered with FinCEN. I'm paid in BTC. I could also be paid in gold, silver, carts of ammo, or seashells. The US Gov doesn't need to "sanction" something for it to be used in the marketplace. Unless the US Gov explicitly declares BTC to be illegal for use (THAT would be quite crazy), there is no reason a company can't pay in Bitcoin. Of course, whenver anyone receives value it is supposed to be declared for taxes, but this is true of all assets from USD to BTC to gold to garage sale collections. |
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To all who wanna bitcoin be inflanatory: you can always send periodically small amount of your bitcoins to 1waSPoZabGQw9a2MeWmJYaqaUyDJBcGmj. There, problem solved.
LOL brilliant |
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OP - I like where your head is at, but any "solution" which presupposes widespread use of printing out one-time-use paper bills to pay for things is DOA Payments are moving to the phone. It is silly and inefficient to print out paper just to take it somewhere and destroy it upon redemption. Any workable BTC POS system needs to enable the customer to pay from her phone. I think a better solution, using your QR code scanning gun idea, is for the user to enter the final price on his phone in his BTC app. He enters for example 2.347 and hits "Offer Payment". The app then shows a QR code which allows the merchant to take 2.347 BTC from the account on the phone. This would require a common standard that POS terminals and mobile wallets would need to adopt. |
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As far as deflation itself being a weakness, I don't think it will cause the end of the currency or anything, but I think it will hinder its widespread adoption. Volatility may be fun to play, but it's not fun to run a business around.
I bet you that, if given a long enough term, Bitcoin will be less volatile than any government fiat currency. On one hand, we have a currency with a fixed (non-volatile) supply, and on the other hand, we have currencies with very volatile supplies. To disagree with me, you have to make the absurd claim that a currency with a highly volatile supply will tend to be less volatile than one with a perfectly predictable supply in the long run. Bitcoin's price volatility will roughly resemble the asymptotic curve shape of its inflation schedule. Volatility is already far lower than a year ago, and a year from now will be lower than today, and so on. There have already been days this year where BTC was less volatile than EUR... an amazing statistic, for such a small market so soon. |
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No government will ever allow a legitimate business to pay its employees in an unregulated and untraceable currency. Bitcoin is the currency of the black market.
The US government is currently allowing it today. Your point is demonstrably false. Bitcoin is the currency of the market, because it is mankind's most efficient means of exchange (or perhaps I should say, this is its potential at least). Whether the market is black or white or anything in between, we'll see increased adoption of Bitcoin throughout. Dismissing Bitcoin because some smart criminals have caught on earlier than the average gas station owner is silly. |
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Why do you need to decrease salaries every week? Do you do increase them every week with an inflationary currency?
Because the purchasing power of the BTC will grow quickly after 21M, while the purchasing power of USD can be kept pretty stable by the controlled inflation. The purchasing power of USD has fallen by 98% in the last 100 years. That's stable to you? And let's not forget that in a "mature bitcoin world", the rate of BTC appreciation in purchasing power will be small. BTC will not increase by 10% in a month in a mature market. It might increase a few percent per year, and market participants will not have problems transacting in a currency which increasing a few percent annually, for they are already today doing so with a currency that is depreciating by that amount. |
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If you believe deflation is a problem, answer this question: Would you rather work and be paid with a deflationary currency (gold / bitcoin), or inflationary currency (USD / zimbabwe dollars)?
Answer this question: How would you rather pay your employees? With a deflationary currency, or inflationary currency? When I hire someone for a year, I'd rather not have to change their salary every week to make sure it stays around the same value. And as long as employees don't get paid in BTC, it's never becoming a mainstream currency, but stays a commodity. You forget the aspect of competition. An employer doesn't get to unilaterally "chose" in which currency to pay his employees. His employees will demand a certain compensation in line with market expectations. If everyone wants Bitcoins, the employer will need to offer salary in Bitcoins. Further, if the market rate for labor is X in a depreciating currency, it will be X-Y in an appreciating currency, meaning that an employer can pay nominally less in the appreciating currency and thus may well chose to do so. An employee may say, "I'll work for $20,000 in USD or $19,000 in BTC" and through negotiation both the employer and employee will meet on mutually beneficial terms. |
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The only true point why deflation was chosen as a feature of Bitcoin is to make early adopters (and Satoshi) rich. If Bitcoin succeeds in the future it will be just a side effect. Unfortunately, probability of such event is very low. So deflation will rather be fatal.
Bitcoin is not deflationary. It is inflationary. The rate of inflation is currently high, and it falls to zero over time, but never goes negative. For the gazillionth time, let's stop calling Bitcoin deflationary. |
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Bitcoin as it exists today will fail. Bitcoins are constantly being lost. Yet there will never be more than 21,000,000 created. Someday the last bitcoin will disappear and there will be none left.
For example, say Satoshi is dead and nobody knows about his bitcoin wallet. Nobody knows Satoshi except his Mom. And maybe his Mom doesn't know anything about Satoshi's cryptocurrency habit. Whatever she does with Satoshi's computer probably destroys the bitcoins.
Gold is different. It too is constantly being lost but it can be found again. There was just a story about a ceiling full of gold being found in a house in France. Gold never disappears.
When government fiat fails the people left just create a new fiat. Because people still want to trade whatever they use for trade is currency. Similarly bitcoin will eventually be replace with something else, something people like better.
Hmmmm. A) The last Bitcoin will never be lost. In fact, it's almost certainly true that the rate of "loss" of Bitcoins falls off asymptotically, so that each year fewer and fewer coins are lost. This is true because as the coins get more valuable, people are increasingly careful with them (if you own a $1000 coin you will be careful with it, I assure you). It is also true because as people get comfortable with BTC they won't lose coins as often. Given the above, I might go so far as to say that the maximum number of lost coins will likely never pass a few million btc. B) Gold is not different. There is a fixed amount of gold on earth, and a fixed amount of Bitcoin. Both can be lost. Gold definitely "disappears"... there are plenty of sunken ships that will never be recovered, and lost wedding rings thrown into lakes with no attempt to recover C) Yes, "eventually" Bitcoin will be replaced by something else... just as gold is about to be replaced by Bitcoin  |
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hypothesis : Bitcoin will fail because of deflation
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If bitcoin fails then price will go towards 0
If price goes to 0 then there is no deflation
Conclusion : Hypothesis is false
This is so beautifully stated. Thank you! |
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I remember a year ago, there was much concern (by some people) over the fact that one or two large pools made up the majority of mining. People worried that it would become increasingly centralized leading to a mining monopoly and thus threatening the security of Bitcoin. Well, it seems the opposite has happened, and the pools are getting increasingly decentralized. Cheers! From today:  |
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It started rising after Butterfly Labs started taking payment in BTC for their new mining equipment.
It also started rising after April 15. April 15th must've caused it! |
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These never been spent coins are often on my mind and I wonder when if ever will they get spent. The potential to cause serious damages is huge if someone decided to foolishly dump all of them but I can't see someone doing that. I sometimes also speculate what the chance might be that the owners of these coins, mainly Satoshi, have deleted their private keys and actually on purpose lost the coins.
I think the "potential to cause serious damage" is vastly overblown. An individual or group who held lots of coins could, at worst, cause a very sudden drop in price. However, doing so is A) very costly and highly disincentivized and B) can only be done once. The second point is the most important. Say someone drops a million coins on the market, it would crash the price, everyone would freak out. Then, the price would find a new equilibrium, rebuild, and we'd go on about our business... and the attacker wouldn't be able to attack ever again. For anyone who understands the true value of Bitcoins, a huge dump on the market is a blessing, and anyone doing that nefariously becomes impotent afterward. |
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