Please restore avatars.  My username is begging for an awesome one, and not having it is really a downer.

Worst case scenario, some of us will be setting up residency in another country for a short while.

Fortunately there are a couple hundred to choose from, so finding the one friendly to Bitcoin withdrawals shouldn't be difficult.

And if you make enough money to justify the move, you'll easily be able to fly back to the USA as often as you like, get an apartment, and enjoy your Moons over my Hammy at Denny's anytime.

-Burger-

"Bitcoin has no intrinsic value"... they say.   Wrong.

Bitcoin's intrinsic value is in its *Utility*.  

Just like Gold.

Just like paper money.

Bitcoin is a currency (paper money), a commodity (gold), a stock, a bond, and more.  It is all of these things combined.  

Bitcoin's intrinsic value is in its capabilities.  Its ability to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars at once, almost instantly, free of charge, to anywhere in the world.  Its deflationary nature, making it an excellent investment vehicle and store of wealth.  Its value to merchants, wishing to avoid thousands in merchant fees from transactions.  The list goes on and on.  

Bitcoin is gold on steroids.  Fiat on steroids.  Stocks on steroids.  Bonds on steroids.  Bitcoin is the new "X Man" of finance.  

Gold's intrinsic value is also in its utility.   Before people walked this earth, gold had *no* intrinsic value.  People gave gold value by "liking" it.  Nothing more.  Just like Bitcion.  Then its value branched off to what people did with Gold.  Its "utility"  (just like Bitcoin).  Jewelry, Shininess, Nice color, Creation of bullion (ala Casascius).  

Gold doesn't have any more intrinsic value than Bitcoin.  It has less.

Since both Bitcoin and Gold have value only because human beings say they have value, they started off equal in intrinsic value.
Since Bitcoin's utility spans far beyond that of gold, it has more intrinsic value than gold, and therefore will be worth far more than gold.

Next time someone says Bitcoin has no intrinsic value, remind them that its intrinsic value is in its utility.  A utility that spans far beyond that of mere Gold or Paper Money.

Thoughts?

-Burger-

First words out of his mouth are "Ponzi Scheme" and "Bitcion has no intrinsic value".

Excellent podcast.  Prepare to get your panties in a bunch.  But he gets an earful either way ...

http://letstalkbitcoin.com/e61-2-peter-schiff-e-voorhees-on-ed-ethan/#.UpoWLOKE7eI

-Burger-

EDIT:  Somewhat disappointed with the hosts (not from Lets talk Bitcoin by the way) ... responses to Peter.  He could have had more facts.

There needs to be a debate between Andreas Antanopolous and Peter Schiff.  

Now that would be a good listen......

Like others pointed out already, this was the *certain* result of hitting $1,000 and we didn't even have a crash at $1,000.

The big crash (or rather, correction) was at $800.

Is Bitcoin the Brainchild of Generation X ?

I'd like to think so .... sounds about right .... 

Thanks!

Much thanks to ohiofarmer for the original thread here:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=352686.0

Someone suggested a poll, and I think it will give a much better visual representation.

Plus, voting remains anonymous, so more people can participate  

-Burger-

If you execute a send from an online exchange to a brand new address, at a brand new install of Bitcoin QT ... before it has finished downloading the blockchain .... will that withdrawal still go through?  

Does QT have to finish downloading the blockchain before it announces your new public address to the network?


Thanks

Nevermind, it just showed up.

There was never any pending anything the whole time.

Thats a little frustrating.

I initiated a BTC transfer from Vircurex to Cryptsy over an hour ago.

On the Cryptsy website, there are no pending transactions, no pending deposits, no 0/4 confirmations, nothing showing on the bottom of the balances page.

Additionally, the transfer is complete on the blockchain.  Showing the proper balance at the proper address.

Yet nothing in Cryptsy.

Does it usually take this long for Cryptsy to even begin receiving something that's already fully sent?

Thanks Barek - I guess that proves my suspicions wrong.  

QT still took 25 minutes to go from a " ? " to a clock icon ...

I suppose this thread could be a discussion about the 7 transactions per second limit anyways.... lol

Its going to be an issue if Visa has to handle 2,000 per second ...

I thought Black Friday - maybe we'd be hitting 7+ transactions per second.


No, just did what an average consumer will do.  Hit "Pay", then Send, and waited.

I was fully sync'd to the block chain.

Definitely made sure of that first.

I sat here and watched.  It was a " ? " on the QT transaction thing for roughly 25 solid minutes.  

So this is a network speed issue, is it not?

Its Bitcoin Black Friday and a lot of people are using Bitcoin today to make purchases.
And guess what:  I can't check out on some stores.  
I am assuming this has something to do with Bitcoin's limit of 7 transactions per second, across the *entire* network.
It's possible something is wrong with the store I am using, too.

But Visa and Mastercard which can handle 2,000 transactions per second.
My Bitcoin QT client took well over 20 minutes to generate the first confirmation.
Maybe that's why the BitPay interface on this shopping cart eventually timed out - after 15 minutes.
If so, this is a network speed issue, right?

I feel like this is a huge, huge problem that needs to be addressed yesterday.
I know Gavin and the dev team are well aware of it, but now here we are on Bitcoin Black Friday
And its possible some people can't even use Bitcoin to buy things?

Is this where Litecoin comes in, with its faster speed?
Making it the true currency of commerce, while Bitcoin gets pushed to the back as a "store of value" instead? (sad face)

-Burger-

Made my first purchase!  

Even though QT failed to generate a confirmation in less than the necessary 15 minutes..., and the shopping cart timed out.

Jon - please hire someone (serious here) to get the press involved in this.  Someone needs to gather the numbers for sales, or something, so that the press can write articles on this.  You're probably way ahead of me on this, but the press is writing about Bitcoin Black Friday - so they're going to go nuts if we can give them a dollar amount spent and number of merchants - maybe even number of purchases / people who participated.  This will be *huge* press for Bitcoin, and i would hire someone to contact every store that participated, and every press outlet possible (maybe put a notice on the website home page) ... to get the articles out there.

I realize this is short notice, but im hoping someone will consolidate this information on the sales and participants and help get the public aware of what went down!

Huge press opportunity for success of Bitcoin.  Very important!

Again,

It is bad to store any coins online, on any website.

That was the answer to your question.  

The potential weak point is that websites can be hacked.  Sorry.  Thought that was obvious in my response.

The statement "Can someone elaborate on blockchain.info" is a vague question.  Elaborate in what way?  Do you need the basics on what it is?

The safest thing you can do is use bitaddress.org to generate some paper wallets, print those out, then send your coins to the *LOAD & VERIFY* address.  This will pull all your coins offline, onto paper, and you can literally stick them in a drawer, or in a safety deposit box at a bank.  This is the best way.  (If you want to be even more secure, to go bitaddress.org, click the "Github Repository" link bottom right, then on bottom right of that page, click "Download ZIP".  Double click the main file in there, and it will load up the bitaddress.org website page *offline*.  Turn off your internet connection completely.  Generate Paper Wallets.  Print them.  Close the webpage.  Restore your internet connection.  If you want to be even more secure, do this on a laptop with a freshly installed operating system that has never been online.  Pull the zip file over to that laptop on a USB drive and load it up there.  This way you've never been online, and you're generating keys completely secure.  Print.  Done.)  

From all I've read, this is the only safe way to store your coins.  When you are ready to spend, you'll need to import them into BitcoinQT software, so its good to have that on hand.  Install it, and give it the 7 hours or so to download the whole blockchain record.  When you're ready to pull your coins into the wallet software and move them or spend them:  Bitcoin QT > Help > Debug Window > Console Tab >
Type this:  importprivkey typeyourlongassprivatekeyaddresshere "AnyLabel"  (no quotes)
Hit Enter.  Give it about 5 - 10 solid minutes to import fully.  Then you'll see your coins in Bitcoin QT and you can send out.
If you encrypted your paper wallet follow instructions here:  https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/How_to_import_private_keys_v7%2B


Its bad advice to store any coins online, on any website.
I recommend the paper wallet method above.  
I know people with hundreds of thousands of dollars in bitcoin and they use that method for security reasons.

Take the printouts and make multiple copies before you close the web page that generated them.  Keep some in your house safely in a ziplock bag (in case of water damage).  And take some to a safety deposit box or a safe location outside your house.  

Update to my post above.

LTC withdrawal went through.  Took about 2-3 hours to show up on the blockchain.

Able to withdraw after 22 hours ... do you mean you initiated a withdrawal and its completion took 22 hours?

Or that you have been waiting 22 hours and are now finally able to initiate the withdrawal, and it went through fairly quick.