My response is to the article, not to the OP and discussion that followed.  They are two separate things and I decided to leave the latter as there are plenty doing a good enough job refuting the OP's points.  This refers to Eric Tymoigne:

Rarely has one who 'knows' so much understood so little!

Greenspan couldn't get his head around 'no intrinsic value' either but at least he didn't take forever to get to it!

'Bitcoin is supposed to be this and here's a complex equation that proves it isn't this therefore Bitcoin is rubbish'!

This is a classic, even beautiful illustration of how those stuck in incompatible economic paradigms will be the last to accept this thing simply works!

Seems like a reasonable assessment (I am no expert on India so I'm not really qualified to endorse or counter it) and I agree there is unlikely to be the same kind of proportion of middle class Indians as have been Chinese buying in as a speculative investment.  Where India does I think have greater shorter term promise is in remittances and as the cellphone revolution continues, as mobile money such as M-Pesa is doing in Kenya.

Just like I anticipate the David Woo comments yesterday are more likely to have a bigger impact on businesses considering adaption than on price I anticipate India in the shorter term to have a bigger impact on adoption than price - though there is a limit, especially with the latter, as to how much adaption can go on without impacting price.

I will repeat, as much as it may sound like I know what I'm talking about remember this is a speculation forum...

Thanks for your comprehensive reply AnonyMint,

I will go forward with this though I may postpone to see if the present crash recovers (or to see where it settles) first.  Unfortunately my timing was shit because I finally made my 2btc bitme donation this morning less than half an hour before the price began to crash so depending on how automated and quick their conversion is I suspect it will be far less effective donation than it would have been yesterday!

Thank you AnonyMint for going to the lengths you have to find individuals who would benefit from part of the money I am intending to give.  It may seem to some readers that I am bragging in the fact of giving by writing as I am in this thread but it is not the case.  I am writing partially because it helps me organise my thoughts, partially as a public response to AnonyMint and partially so that others may consider options if they are in half a mind to do likewise.

 It is not an easy decision but not one from which I will baulk, nor will I use the difficulty as an excuse to procrastinate with this.  It is good to hear reassuring words regarding the likely integrity and likely use should I send to the Philippines Red Cross.  Some will certainly go that way.  But I also like the idea of helping 'put families back in their homes so they can stablize their lives'.  One of the reasons I'm hesitant to follow through with your suggestions is despite what you say I don't 'know with confidence how my funds will be applied'.  I only have your word and I don't know you.  In fact, until I wanted to see what Rpietila was responding to I'd had you on ignore since I tired of your condescending posts and your refusal to believe you have anything to learn from others here.  Yet I recognise that arrogance* and dishonesty are two unrelated character traits and I have yet to see any indications in anything I've read of yours to date that would imply I ought to question your integrity.

I need time to think this through, not only the likelihood of the money getting where it is intended but of the recipients making good use of it.  You mention at the top you are searching for some who are 'even more desperate' than those you already provided.  However, as far as assisting the most desperate is concerned, that is what my PRC donation is for.  Desperate people don't always make the most rational decisions.  The higher value for me for money going direct to individuals is their likelihood of using it wisely, the likelihood of their being able to negotiate well for the materials they need and manage the assistance from neighbours well (or pay effective labour) to accomplish what they need to enable them to begin to rebuild their lives.  I am not saying I won't assist those whose names and stories you've provided already and I am not intending to come over as cold-hearted but there is also a risk to the recipient if they are in a desperate state in handing them a lump of money that they be taken advantage of by the unscrupulous.

Again, thank you for giving me food for thought and options.  I felt a little awkward that you mentioned to potential recipients someone might be prepared to help them when I was only making initial enquiries as to how this might work.  And the down side of me wanting to be careful if you are going back asking questions to ascertain their likely suitability is the risk it's going to come over as me wanting people to pass a test or jump through hoops to get assistance.  I hope you understand this is not what I intend and would appreciate you trying to understand where I'm coming from with my concerns.  I would like to move this forward quickly and am grateful for your information from the ground.

I should also maybe mention as an atheist that the fact of someone being a Christian or praying for me to assist has no bearing at all on my decision.

* I'm not wanting to throw the lengths you've gone to in putting this plan together back in your face by writing about you as harshly as I am, just giving you the context in which I need to make this decision.

I too have been wondering how best to assist say with 4 bitcoins and till I read this going to use the BitMe address because apparently that is going directly to the Philippines Red Cross, the Red Cross being an organisation who I would guess vet very carefully how money is spent given the loss of its reputation would be disastrous.

But I'll hold for a few more days if there are other suggestions as to how it could be used more effectively.

I just looked at the BitPay exchange rates and realised where the primary problem is.




It's all very well BitPay charging next to nothing to the vendor but what counts for the customer is how much we are paying.  Looking at their GBP rate compared to what I could get at BitBargain there's a pretty substantial disincentive to be buying directly with Bitcoins which is what I would much prefer.  The difference shown above is not atypical!  Your GBP price for the coin is within 1% of the BullionByPost  which is impressive but I'm afraid the BitPay exchange rate makes it prohibitive.

Would it be worth looking into using someone else as a payment service provider for your gbp customers?

FTFY

I thought it would be early (spot relative to gox usd price has got there) and it would have been nice had it coincided with Bitcoin Friday for free delivery but from giving it a try just to see it appears we're a fair bit away yet:

No but if anyone here ever got the impression we were a bunch of nutters, a 5 minute visit to his would soon give you the impression bitcointalk is full of the wisest and most intellectual people on the planet!

Please issue Alex Jones warning when posting such links!

Hiya,

I'd like to buy one oz of gold when it reaches parity with bitcoin please?   I'll pay delivery on top (to the UK) but just love the idea of buying one ounce for one bitcoin.  Let me know by PM please when this occurs.

...aaaaand it's gone!

Currently fourth most popular article on BBC news!

You'll need a parachute or land at Cardiff or Bristol!

True, apologies.

Because not everyone believes the market is going to behave as you believe it will.  It is 'pretty damn easy' for as long as the market stays approximately where it is or moves up.  Despite your (and my) belief that it is most likely to go up from here (even if it goes down significantly first) there is a possibility this is the highest it will ever get(or the highest it will get for the timescale during which the seller needs to or wants to recover some fiat), in which case this dude selling as he is is taking a rational action.

Excuse my rant and wish for the extremely unlikely but I would so like if people learned to step out of their own paradigms and stop namecalling everyone who does not see the world as they do!

For different reasons than Rampion I also see this as bullish news even if not immediately.  For the many who believe the powers that be a warning from them that it is unsafe to invest too much is to say it's OK to invest not too much!  I would prefer people didn't invest 'too much' too - especially coupled with the belief we're constantly on the way to the moon.  That is a recipe for disaster I would call bearish much more than people investing cautiously.

It still surprises me, for someone with such insight and the math as you have, that you're seeing an inevitability to the future based on what has been.  You talk of the 'long-term trend' as if we know what it will be.  We only know what it has been to date and looking at the 'S-curved chart' as described so beautifully by James G. Angelo in what both you and he (and I) see as the early days it is volatile and there is much random unpredictable noise such that the formula defining the curve is very difficult to ascertain - especially with the gradient of the curve being so shallow at this juncture (yes, even at current growth in comparison with potential).  Surely we will only be able to give the S-curve its formula after the event?  Whilst your current calculations and projections may after the removal of noise turn out to be 100% correct I would venture it is a lot more likely to be incorrect, possibly by quite a lot.  There is a danger in having the understanding you do of math that you get to believe what is to come will nicely follow your formula.

Always remember:  This is Bitcoin - there is no inevitability!!!

Love it Thanks

You mean 'who' is AnonyMint?

He is someone whose name might better be AnnoyMint, AnnoyingMint, AnnoyedMint, AngryMint, PatronisingMint, ConspicicistMint?
His long-winded posts mainly consist of repeating 'bitCON is a ponzi and you're all going to end up in jail!'*

...which is a pity because for those patient enough to wade through his multiple-cross-posted-self-referring-posts there are actually some interesting points in there worthy of consideration.  I take my hat off to rpietila for finding value in AM's posts and trust that he or others will quote or present in a more digestable format anything of note the wider community should be considering.  I'm afraid I gave up after a few attempts reading/responding and he is now on my ignore list (AM, not rpietila)!

*  - which is also why he won't touch bitcoin with a barge pole and is supposedly in the process of developing a killer alt coin.