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Sad how many profitable scams are run... Even if they only "sold" two units before being exposed as scammers, they probably would have made out quite nicely. And what's the likelihood of them getting caught/paying for their crime?
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bottom line, smart ass moderators, read this and eat it.......
don't sell my stuff or I will come the fuck after your ass in court.
MY personal information is NOT for sale and I did not give you permission to pull that shit, in the first place and you cannot ASSUME permission, according to the federal courts.
And THIS will attest to the fact that any permission(s) I may have given by signing up on this stupid motherfucking newbie shit site..., are hereby revoked, period, end of sentence, picture taken and put in the file, for court reference, and I took the picture while it was posted on YOUR site. so you can take it off all you want, I have the picture of it POSTED!!!!! (and take note, if you do this, have a newspaper with the date on it next to your picture, so it can't be faked. If you want to have more proof, then hold your thumb print up next to the picture. (not the one you post...black that out....just use the screen pic. The newspaper pic will do fine.)
how's that for permission to do jack shit with my information and/or account, period!!!
everyone who reads this should post the exact same message from YOUR account.
There is nothing they can do about it, period, except kick you off, and then they show the scam as real.
any one person gets kicked off for this, should log back on as another newbie and post that.
That will show us the real scammers.
I personally find it absolutely revolting that any soite would sell my name to another and NOT pay ME for it.
It is MY name, MY log on, MY account, and MY everything, NOT yours, assholes.
You DUMBASSES wouldn't even know it existed if we didn't come up with the account names, therefore, unless YOU assign names, (which you can't...think I would take the name YOU gave me?...fuck you) they are copyrighted to US and not YOU and therefore you break the fucking FEDERAL law by doing this and will bring the feds down even faster than they are now.
MY shit is MY shit, not yours to do with what ever the fuck you think you can do with it. MY accounts are MY accounts, and unless you are going the fuck out of business and make a block sale of ALL names that you are NO LONGER going to use and shut down your site, the by god, you had better not be selling others people's identities, non matter WHAT they are.
But hey, dipshit, we can take this to court and find out, and at the same time we can bring the feds down on ALL BTC accounting in the US, period.
How's that?
and, smart ass, yes I do know about copyrights and have been on court several times, and won every "motherfucking" time.
He who writes it, owns it, and there isn't jack shit you can do about it.
MY name, etc is (C)copyrighted to me, period. You may NOT ever assume ownership, period, assholes.
I write programs for major oil companies and other corporations, so everything I do is copyrighted, period and you don't get them by default and you can't have them just because you say so, and by god you had better not sell them in any form or fashion, uinless "I" get the ,money, period!!!!! end of tale.
Get my drift, smartass? That's MY money you are making, not yours. "I" own them , not you.
No one gave YOU permission to do jack shit with MY intelectual property, asswipe.
as the comedian says:
"here's your sign" "STUPID"
these idoits had better go read copyright law. YOU come up with it, it is YOURS and by selling oit to anyone they have violated copyright law, as the name would not exost, if not for YOU coming up with it, and the stupid assed moderators, are NOT going to come up with YOUR name randomly or by chance, period.
eat shit and die, stupid ,moderators. And you better get a copyright lawyer.
How can you sell a name that doesn't exist before WE come up with it, dipishit?
answer: YOU CAN'T
cabinetmaker, You're really missing something here. We're not talking about forum mods selling your account to somebody else. We're talking about you deciding to sell your own account (or accounts) to somebody else.  |
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I think this is a very interesting issue.
I always use my real name when posting anywhere online.
If I were going to enter a transaction with anybody from the forum I would need to know their real name and be confident that they really are who they say they are. A facebook page would usually be enough for me to feel comfortable, as I think it would be very difficult to convincingly fake a facebook page (things I would look at would be how many friends, unique posts, photos, family members listed, work history, etc.).
I don't think that accounts being bought and sold is in any way good for the bitcoin community, but I don't necessarily think that prohibiting any type of exchange is a good idea either.
I think any account used to buy or sell accounts should get a scammer tag, but that the user in question should not be banned and the post should not be deleted or moderated.
Freedom of exchange is what bitcoin is all about. At least from my perspective. So telling people what they can or cannot buy or sell seems to be inherently against the fundamental principles of bitcoin.
I can't see an easy way to do it, but if there were some way that we could require all transactions involving buying or selling forum accounts to be public, so that everybody could see which accounts have been bought or sold and who owns them now, that would solve the issue--sure, you can buy and sell accounts all day, but they won't be much use to you if everybody knows that you bought them.
I disagree, The community at large is allowing this. According to the forum stats, they are about 136,000 accounts, let's say 75% are fake or dead, that is 34,000 people that could rise up and demand that these scumbags be chased off our land. If only 1% of us that are on this forum (~340) people speak up about this to the mods/owners and refuse to allow this type of behavior they will have no choice but to do something about it. Theymos and the rest of the mods should be ashamed of themselves. I want bitcoin to succeed in a huge way, but with these types of people running and ruining what we have, I am starting to doubt it. The community at large is allowing this, and I can see why. In a very big way, bitcoin is about freedom of exchange. Telling people what they can and can't buy or sell goes against this in a fundamental way. I think the marketplace here shouldn't have any terms regarding what can and can't be bought or sold. So I am against banning the sale of accounts. However, I think buying or selling accounts is clearly either condoning, encouraging, or preparing to engage in, scamming. Therefore, I think anybody buying or selling accounts should get a scammer tag, but that the buying and selling of accounts should not be prohibited by the TOS or result in a ban of the user, and the thread with the attempted sale should not be deleted or locked. |
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I think this is a very interesting issue.
I always use my real name when posting anywhere online.
If I were going to enter a transaction with anybody from the forum I would need to know their real name and be confident that they really are who they say they are. A facebook page would usually be enough for me to feel comfortable, as I think it would be very difficult to convincingly fake a facebook page (things I would look at would be how many friends, unique posts, photos, family members listed, work history, etc.).
I don't think that accounts being bought and sold is in any way good for the bitcoin community, but I don't necessarily think that prohibiting any type of exchange is a good idea either.
I think any account used to buy or sell accounts should get a scammer tag, but that the user in question should not be banned and the post should not be deleted or moderated.
Freedom of exchange is what bitcoin is all about. At least from my perspective. So telling people what they can or cannot buy or sell seems to be inherently against the fundamental principles of bitcoin.
I can't see an easy way to do it, but if there were some way that we could require all transactions involving buying or selling forum accounts to be public, so that everybody could see which accounts have been bought or sold and who owns them now, that would solve the issue--sure, you can buy and sell accounts all day, but they won't be much use to you if everybody knows that you bought them.
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I would advise you to throw your entire life savings and every penny you can spare into a cold wallet and try not to touch it. No, really. Everybody likes to say You should never invest more money than you have to lose. I, for one, feel that now that Bitcoin is here, the longer you wait before you invest, the more you will lose when all the fiat currencies in the world crumble and are replaced, entirely, by Bitcoin. You should never put more in the bank than you can afford to lose. You should never hold more in fiat currency than you can afford to lose. Your money's not safe unless it's in Bitcoin or gold. And even gold may lose, when people begin to see that Bitcoin is a better store of value than gold ever could be. I'm sorry but I see posts like this all the time, and I have to ask why exactly Bitcoins are so invincible. The fact that there is a maximum number that will ever exist shows that one day all of the bitcoins will be destroyed, unless more are added, in which case they are the exact same thing as fiat but more complicated to use. But if no more coins are generated, what happens when Bitcoins are lost? Won't that be a problem?
Because of the law of supply and demand, when fewer bitcoins are available the ones that are left will be in higher demand, and therefore will have a higher value. So, as Bitcoins are lost, the remaining bitcoins will eventually increase in value to compensate. As the value of a bitcoin increases, the number of bitcoins required to purchase an item decreases. This is a deflationary economic model. As the average transaction size reduces, transactions will probably be denominated in sub-units of a bitcoin such as millibitcoins ("Millies") or microbitcoins ("Mikes").
The Bitcoin protocol uses a base unit of one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin ("a Satoshi"), but unused bits are available in the protocol fields that could be used to denote even smaller subdivisions. But say that bitcoins can't be destroyed, and are never lost. Less than a third of the world has Internet access. How exactly can bitcoins replace fiat currencies? Is everyone going to one day be rich enough to own a computer? No. That will never happen. Internet access may become more prevalent, but there will never be a day when everyone, or even the majority of people, have the Internet.
I think one day everybody will have a cell phone. http://qz.com/57504/31-of-kenyas-gdp-is-spent-through-mobile-phones/ This article isn't the best on the subject but it has some nice statistics. Fiat currencies have the advantage of being accessible to everyone. Bitcoins do not, and they never will. They will always be a niche currency. Investing money in bitcoins may be smart- I've definitely invested in them. But they are an investment, nothing more. I wouldn't bet all of my money on them. Investing money in bitcoins?  Bitcoins are money. Fiat is monopoly money. It will inflate naturally as more and more of it is printed off, and it will inflate with alarming rapidity as more and more people realize that they've been fooled. Even gold will lose it's value as people storing their value in gold will have so few advantages and so many disadvantages compared to people storing their value in bitcoin. It will naturally become the universal measure of value and we will someday look back upon the days of fiat with incredulity. Gold will naturally hold some of it's value but it has been replaced already, as it is no longer the overall best store of value on the market. I look at it this way--Fiat currency is so fundamentally flawed that holding your wealth in any fiat currency is a dangerous and risky "investment." Bitcoin is so fundamentally suited to being used as currency that it will undoubtedly become the universal standard for exchange. Therefore, switching from holding your wealth in fiat to holding your wealth in bitcoin is a near sure bet. Finally, how exactly are fiat currencies "crumbling"? They aren't going away. The USD, or Euro, or Pound, or Yuan or whatever will never reach a value of 0- whereas bitcoins could. Bitcoins are not nearly as stable as other currencies, and it's entirely possible for them to plummet and never recover.
Well, no fiat currency has ever been successful in history, I see no reason to expect the USD, Euro, Pound, or Yuan to do any better. In fact I think it's a near certainty that all of the above will reach a value of 0 in our lifetimes. Read http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2011/08/average-life-expectancy-for-fiat.html and http://dailyreckoning.com/fiat-currency/ and maybe try the wikipedia entry for "fiat currency" and the dictionary entry for "fiat." While bitcoin could plummet and never recover, I think it's far more probable that it will not, and I have a hard time coming up with any scenario in which bitcoin would reach a value of 0. Anything is possible, of course, and if the internet were entirely eliminated, bitcoin would likely eventually reach a value of 0. So basically, I disagree with all of your statements.  I think you are invested for all the wrong reasons, looking at it like a stock to buy and sell, and fail to see the enormous globe-changing potential ramifications of this elegant idea we call bitcoin. |
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Thanks to all of you for the responses. No offence, but this is a stupid poll.
No offense taken. I haven't read any of her works or writings and barely know anything about her. I also have no idea what objectivism is, beyond knowing that Rand coined it, nor do I care. Although I can't admit complete ignorance I have at best a general concept of what objectivism is, having never read any of Rand's nonfiction. I certainly don't subscribe to her ism, but I have found the perspectives she shares through her novels are interesting and insightful. I simply use logic and evidence to divine the truth of things which leads me to the freedom viewpoint.
ism's of any kind don't matter at the end of the day. Critical thinking is what you need.
That's the ticket. |
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I would advise you to throw your entire life savings and every penny you can spare into a cold wallet and try not to touch it. No, really. Everybody likes to say You should never invest more money than you have to lose. I, for one, feel that now that Bitcoin is here, the longer you wait before you invest, the more you will lose when all the fiat currencies in the world crumble and are replaced, entirely, by Bitcoin. You should never put more in the bank than you can afford to lose. You should never hold more in fiat currency than you can afford to lose. Your money's not safe unless it's in Bitcoin or gold. And even gold may lose, when people begin to see that Bitcoin is a better store of value than gold ever could be. |
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Trying to see how the rest of the community views this.
Maximum of four votes per user--so you can choose up to four of the nine options to express your different views.
If you have an outlook I haven't made an option for, please bring it to the table.
On a side note, not directly related, have any of you read GEB: Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter? I read it with my father at a very young age (he would use the short stories every other chapter as bedtime stories), and I have read it over many times since, it led me to much of my interest in computers and cryptography.
If you vote in the poll, I encourage you to elaborate in a response to the thread as well.
Thanks!
Henry
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I have wondered the same thing as well.
I've looked at CoinMama as a possibility but I've yet to try them. Anybody able to vouch for them?
EDIT:
Upon re-reading the OP, I should clarify--I am looking for a service that works like BitInstant, but perhaps for a different purpose than the one he describes. I want to make a cash deposit at a moneygram agent or similar and have BTC within hours, like was possible with BitInstant before they went to shit. Does anybody have any opinion of CoinMama?
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I was browsing the marketplace and noticed "Bitcoin Megastore" which sells a lot of Bitcoin-related stuff but doesn't accept Bitcoin. Perhaps others will feel differently, and if so I'd love to hear your thoughts--but it seems to me that any shop catering to the Bitcoin community should accept payment in Bitcoin. If you don't, you're not really supporting the movement, you're just trying to make a buck off of it. Besides which, even if you are purely in it for profit, accepting Bitcoin would be in your best interest, for many reasons, as would be obvious to any enthusiast. I don't think there's anything really "wrong" with what they're doing, but I sure wouldn't purchase anything from them, and I'd love to see a vendor who sells the same products but does accept payment in Bitcoin. I made a reply in https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=215026.0 and while in retrospect I am not surprised that it was deleted, I am disappointed that he chose to delete it instead of responding in some way. Though I acknowledge that I was rather blunt and perhaps a little insulting in the way I chose to address the issue, I still feel that my objections are valid and that vendors like this do not support the Bitcoin community. Below is a quote of my exact reply, which was deleted from the thread that is hyperlinked above. This is not a bitcoin megastore... This is not even a bitcoin store. Who would buy bitcoinwear from a place that doesn't accept bitcoins, only takes phony gov't issued monopoly money? Not trying to just be petty here, but I had hoped to find some people would agree with me! If I'm wrong, please do tell me why. |
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Some additional information--
1. I have the clean title in hand.
2. I will consider any reasonable offer even if it is lower than my asking price.
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Now's not only the time to buy; now is the time to exchange. To cash out.
Get all of your fiat exchanged for real currency as soon as possible; regardless of the current exchange rate.
I'm just praying (using the term ironically of course since I'm a devout athiest) that the exchange rate will stay low until Christmas. That's the next time I expect to have any substantial amount of fiat in my possession and I intend to exchange as much of it as possible (I sell Christmas trees).
By the way, my family's Christmas tree business accepts bitcoin (though nobody has purchased using them yet). Last season was our first season accepting them. We've been around since 1987, google search for Romp Family Christmas Trees and read the articles in the NYT and elsewhere.
Interesting yes It looks very likely that you will get a real good rate come xmas. Yes based on all the factors my mind can handle I think there's a fair chance that they'll be going for even less at Christmas than they are now. Basically I'm thinking that the state of the mining world's impact on the price and the people switching to fiat to buy Christmas gifts will combine to make for low prices in that time period. Could be wrong. Lots of other factors to consider. Of course, on a bigger scale, with the right world events, bitcoin could suddenly take off at any moment and soar to 1K USD per BTC, never to drop below 4 figures again. I'm just hoping to get in before it happens. |
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For sale: 1982 Honda CB750SC 8900ish miles Tires have less than 100 miles on them Battery is less than 1 month old Includes saddlebags Recent oil+filter change Includes original seat as well as the make-shift custom one pictured Can include front fender and a sissy bar and the original badges from the tank and front fork as well if somebody wants them, but they're at my friend's garage about a half-hour drive away.  Almost road-ready--in fact, you could ride it around the block for a test ride. The only significant problem it has is the charging system. Good news is, I've replaced the rotor, stator, and regulator/rectifier, (several times each in fact!) and the battery just a month ago. I am certain that the rotor, stator, and reg/rec currently installed all function properly. As a service manager of a motorcycle shop, I can say confidently that you will find all three of those components (which make up the majority of the charging system) are in perfect working order--but the bike still doesn't charge when the engine is running. Bad news is this means that replacing parts won't fix the problem--somebody has to actually take the time to logically search out what's making this system malfunction, which I simply haven't got the time to do (working 70+hrs/week). I think it's likely the brush plate or some of the connectors/plugs on the wiring harness. It's loud-as-f*$k and the engine is solid. Starts up easily, will ride nicely around the block but after about fifteen minutes, the battery will be drained and you'll have to charge it again--until you figure out what the hell is wrong with the damn charging system that I'm sick of tinkering with. Will accept 25 BTC. Will update price if BTC decides to be particularly volatile in the near future, but I've priced it low in expectation of BTC value going up. If I were selling it for USD I would list it at $3000. If you think that's not a reasonable price, make me an offer, but take into consideration that it's prime riding season, and it's a CB750, and it's got brand new tires, and it's "cafe racer" style which is rather desirable right now. Pickup in Weehawken NJ (07086). Or if you decide for some reason that you can determine I am trustworthy, and you send payment up front, I will tow it anywhere within 20 miles of 07086 for a fee of 1BTC+0.1BTC/mile. Here is an older picture with the saddlebags and the original seat (which are both still available) and the original exhaust (which is has now been shortened)  |
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Now's not only the time to buy; now is the time to exchange. To cash out.
Get all of your fiat exchanged for real currency as soon as possible; regardless of the current exchange rate.
I'm just praying (using the term ironically of course since I'm a devout athiest) that the exchange rate will stay low until Christmas. That's the next time I expect to have any substantial amount of fiat in my possession and I intend to exchange as much of it as possible (I sell Christmas trees).
By the way, my family's Christmas tree business accepts bitcoin (though nobody has purchased using them yet). Last season was our first season accepting them. We've been around since 1987, google search for Romp Family Christmas Trees and read the articles in the NYT and elsewhere.
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Thank you sir Boleans. It is odd being welcomed, somehow, when I've spent my evenings here for so long already... But I appreciate the welcome just the same.
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Hey there folks, I'm Henry, read my introduction here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=254008.0I'd like to be whitelisted because I want to list a few things for sale on the marketplace forum. I know about escrow/etc. and will make sure to present my items in a manner that is consistent with forum rules. Thanks for considering my request. |
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Thanks knight22. I've been poring over these forums every night, night after night, for so long now... I wish I'd been logged in the whole time so I could see how many hours I've actually spent here; but since I never posted I never bothered to log in.
On a side note--
I use my real name whenever I do anything online, unless it's illegal or completely unethical. So my username is my name--Henry Romp. Feel free to google it for more of a general picture of who I am, if you're actually interested.
Might find that I'm a
Musician
Motorcyclist/Service manager at a motorcycle shop
Christmas tree salesman
And more.
Also I don't value "personal privacy" of a certain sort very much, for example almost all of my posts to facebook are publicly visible even to those not on my friends list, including something like 1400 photos and a lot of stories.
Don't mean to sound like such a shameless self-promoter here, but this is my "introduction post" so I'm giving people all they need to "get to know me."
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Hello folks, I've been lurking for about two years actively, first heard about bitcoin and downloaded the client way back in late 2010, but I lost interest, got back into it in the spring of 2012. Below is a quote from an email I sent to a friend back in October of 2012: "To gain an understanding of bitcoin will take a few minutes of your time, but I assure you, it is well worth it, and the more you read and understand, the more excited and enthusiastic you will become. First, to stop beating around the bush, I will take a quote from an article by Erik Voorhees, who expressed it more clearly perhaps than anybody else so far: Bitcoin is two things: it is a digital currency unit and it is the global payment network with which one sends and receives those currency units. Both the currency unit and the payment network share the same name: Bitcoin. Now, to grab your attention, let me point out the the current market cap (the current trading price per bitcoin in US dollars, multiplied by the number of bitcoins currently in circulation) is $117,775,290.00. That's nearly $118 million dollars. Furthermore, there are numerous places in NYC and many more worldwide where you can eat dinner or purchase retail goods over the counter in person and pay with Bitcoins. I would recommend beginning with this article http://evoorhees.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/bitcoin-libertarian-introduction.html by Erik Voorhees, then proceeding to the bitcoin wiki. If at any point while reading the article, or looking over the wiki, you say to yourself, "but, this won't work because,"you should immediately refer to the bitcoin myths page, where I'm confident you'll find any objection you can think of has been nullified and explained with great clarity. This represents a paradigm change, a shift in the way the world handles exchange and commerce. It is a victory for libertarians everywhere. I believe it is entirely unstoppable. Please be so kind as to forward this email to Dal and anybody else who might be interested. Great to see you, let me know what you think! --Henry" On that date, they were trading at just over $10 each. Wish I'd invested. I make posts about bitcoin almost every day. Usually people are dismissive, unconvinced, think it's a ponzi scheme, etc. Here's a Facebook post I made a few days ago that finally got the attention of a few of my friends. Though of course I had to then calm them down a bit so they wouldn't go lose all their money to some scammers. Let me tell you a little story that will help explain why I post about Bitcoin every day.
On December 27th, 2012, I exchanged $476.24 (USD) for 35.6455 Bitcoins (BTC). That means I spent $13.36 per Bitcoin.
If I exchanged them back to USD today they would be worth over $2000; if I had exchanged them at their peak of $233/bitcoin a couple months ago, I would have $8305 cash USD in hand.
Unfortunately, although I had the foresight to know that they would increase in value, I didn't have the self-control to hold on to those bitcoins; at the time, I was fairly knowledgeable about Bitcoin, and I knew they would rise in value over time, but I was eager to use them as currency; I spent all of them in about a week's time on a number of different products.
I didn't just have a strong gut feeling that I should invest my money in bitcoin back in december; I KNEW, I confidently could say and was willing to bet, that it would rise in value considerably over time. I didn't know just how fast it would rise, but I knew (and told many people!) that bitcoin would be worth over $100/bitcoin during the next couple years.
If I had invested in Bitcoins with every penny I could get my hands on, then sold them even at today's relatively low exchange rate, I would have around $750,000.
If I had done the same thing (invest all my money in bitcoin when I had the most cash in hand that I've had in the last few years) and then sold at the peak of $233/coin, I would be a millionare. Literally. I would have over two million dollars right now.
Today, bitcoins are trading at $75. They fluctuate daily in price. I've been watching the price fluctuate and reading every news article written about bitcoin (as well as literally thousands of forum posts) for the past two years now, especially for the last year, and with most intense interest since December of 2012 (I've checked the exchange rate daily without fail, every single day, since March 1st 2013).
I can say confidently, that I KNOW, for certain, bitcoins will be worth $1000 each within 5 to 10 years. It may be sooner, but I know it will come to pass. It is inevitable.
If you don't believe it, it's because you don't understand it. Anybody who has a full comprehension of what bitcoin is and how it works can see, with a bit of simple math, that this outcome is inevitable.
It is not a ponzi scheme. It is is not a pyramid scheme. It is not a scam.
It is the worlds new global currency, and yes, early adopters will benefit from there foresight.
It will, inevitably, completely crush the dollar, the pound, the euro, and all other fiat (government issued) currencies. They will be powerless to stop it.
If you think these words are foolish, if you think I'm wrong, if you think I'm kidding, just start to do your own research. If you comprehend the system that bitcoin is, and how it works, you will reach these same conclusions independently.
Sure, you can find a lot of intelligent people who attack bitcoin on one front or another. They are all wrong. Each of them can be proven wrong one by one.
You can find a lot of news articles saying "this is the flaw" or "that is the flaw" but none of them point to any flaws that actually exist. They point to misconceptions, misunderstandings, confusion about how it works. It is unstoppable and it will rise in value steadily as it comes to dominate the global currency market. You may disagree with some of the statements I made in that post--However, I clarified a bit in the comments afterwards, as follows: Me: My friend "Jen": So what, you just buy a certain amount of bitcoins, and then just sit on them? Can one just sit on them. Like. If I bought $100 worth of bitcoins, then what? Numbers plz Me: Well, I would advise spending an hour or two on the wiki page and an hour or so on the myths page, as well as a few hours on google, just to get a basic idea of what we're talking about--but, to answer your questions, yes, my advice would be to just buy some and sit on them. You could also invest the bitcoins themselves in other ways, but that's a whole other story--I think simply using them as a store of value is the best investment because it has less risk than any other way you could use them to invest.
I think the smartest way to use them is just like a savings account--any money you would normally put in a savings account to accrue interest, instead exchange for bitcoins and hang on to them (making sure to follow good practices to keep them safe, such as using a "paper wallet" (google it) and keeping multiple copies of your private key in safe places).
If anybody is seriously considering making any sizable investment in bitcoin, I would be happy to help guide through the process, but I would not want anybody to invest simply because they have faith in my words--You should learn enough about the system and how it works and why it works to reach your own conclusions.
My statement that they will reach $1000/coin within the next 5 to 10 years would be disputed by some people who have all the same facts as I do--It's a prediction of the future, and I don't have the ability to see into the future anymore than the next guy.
However, my prediction is based upon quite a bit of math which I would be happy to share, and there are many many people who agree that $1000/coin within 10 years is a very reasonable estimate IF BITCOIN SUCCEEDS. "Success" is defined in this statement as "becoming used as currency in a significant (even if very small) portion of the global economy." Currently the number of places that accept bitcoin as payment is still relatively small, though growing rapidly.
If bitcoin fails entirely, you could and would lose any and all money you had invested in it if you fail to see the crash coming soon enough.
Potential things that could happen that might theoretically make the whole thing crumble include:
1. Numerous governments (not just the U.S.; it's too big already for the U.S. gov't to shut down alone) working together actively to ban it completely and declare it a crime to possess or exchange them. Even in this scenario it would be very resilient and would likely just be pushed underground, where it would continue to flourish until eventually it became big enough to overcome government regulation.
2. The entire internet being turned off completely. (Note that as soon as the internet were turned back on, bitcoin would continue where it left off, no harm done, and that in the interim, it would still be possible to exchange bitcoin to some degree).
3. Quantum computers being developed that render current encryption standards obsolete. --This would really not quite be enough to kill bitcoin but would certainly be a big pot-hole in the road to a bitcoin-based economy and would require quite a bit of redesign. Fortunately, the more you research quantum computers the more you realize that they will not be capable of breaking current encryption standards any time soon, if ever at all, if it's even possible under the physical laws of the universe. "Jen": Wow thx Me: For all intents and purposes, one can consider them just another currency, just like pounds or euros or dollars.
For example, if I somehow knew that the Euro was going to go up in value and the US dollar was going to go down in value over the next year, I would be smart to take every dollar I could afford to and exchange them for euros--then even if I wasn't making any interest on them or being paid any dividends by investing them in stocks or bonds, I would profit simply by the Euro itself being worth more a year later, and those who stuck with the US dollar would lose out as their dollars went down in value.
My basic concept here is that if you learn enough about this new currency Bitcoin, you will see that it is going to way outperform the dollar, the euro, and every other currency and commodity currently available, including gold and silver.
Therefore, it's not necessary to invest your bitcoins in anything, simply to hold your savings in this unit of exchange will bring you profits. You will profit because if you buy 1 bitcoin for $75 today (or 1.25 bitcoins for $100 if you prefer, Jenny) and you hold it for ten years, if my calculations are anywhere near correct, that one bitcoin should be worth $1000 or possibly more. I think more, especially since I think the dollar will decline more rapidly than people realize, but I think the $1000/10year statement is one I can feel very, very confident making. It may be faster and more intense even than that. Me: I would also like to point out that while I'm promoting bitcoin strongly, it's not going to benefit me in any way if you or anybody else invests--I'm not pitching my company or trying to get you to sign up with me or some crap like that. I'm just spreading the word because I think the world deserves a seperation of currency and state. "Jen": Anarchistic then, eh? Me: Well, I'm a bit of an anarchist as well, on the side, but bitcoin is not inherently anarchistic. It certainly does not promote chaos. It's more libertarian/capitalistic, I think. Separating currency from state is in my opinion every bit as important as separating church from state--and I think that currency will be easier to peel away from government than religion could ever be! Me: The idea there is that nobody and no group of people, not even our government, can be trusted with a machine that prints money. The generation of money cannot be controlled by humans or groups of humans, because they will ALWAYS abuse that power in the long run. This system provides an alternate means of exchange, in which no one person or group of people has any advantage over the others, and all have to play by the same rules. My friend "Dan": I do not know much about bit coint but I will certainly research more. however if this can be a threat to global currencies then would it make sense for the government to outlaw it and if so would it still work? Me: Yes Dan, it is a threat to global currencies; however outlawing it poses a number of specific challenges. It is a fully decentralized system (like the systems that enable peer-to-peer file sharing) meaning that enforcement of any ban would be next to impossible (the only known method of fully shutting it down would be to completely shut down the internet itself). Furthermore, any one nation that makes it illegal to use bitcoin will be at a great disadvantage to the other nations that embrace it. On top of that, any law against it here in the United States would be unconstitutional, and would be fought by (relatively) wealthy and powerful people who have stake in bitcoin. To ban it would be to ban barter, to ban free trade. Also, it being a classic example of what's known as a "disruptive technology," it is advancing so quickly that regulators and legislators are having a very hard time keeping up--see the recent blunders in California, as documented below, where they sent a cease and desist order to a nonprofit organization that does not engage in any of the activities they were ordering it to stop: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2013/06/23/bitcoin-foundation-receives-cease-and-desist-order-from-california/[Suspicious link removed]j.com/moneybeat/2013/07/05/bitcoin-trade-group-bites-back-at-california/ http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/06/california_dfi/ |
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