What cypherdoc said.  In spades.  Female geek here, and I work with a bunch of others.

I love technology, especially the technology that carries with it new ideas about how to do basic societal functions, like Bitcoin does.  Where I think that I differ from many of the people I know who also love technology is that I'm intensely aware of the risks as well as the benefits.  In my case, that leads to minimizing the risks and then, if I can afford the remaining risks, jumping in and trying it.  Others who aren't confident that they know network security may take a pass entirely because they aren't sure that they can protect themselves from the crooks out there.  There may be a statistical divide between men and women when it comes to risk taking, but I don't think that these differences in approach are "male" and "female", but "unorganized risk taker" and "organized risk taker".

The whole mess with Mt. Gox, and now Dwolla and Tradehill, are cautionary tales for me.  They're outright frightening to a lot of people who don't know how computer networks and financial networks work, and so are less able to determine exactly what they are risking when they use Bitcoin and how to minimize those risks.

The advantage is that, while the reputation system is imperfect, it is one of the few ways of reducing risk and facilitating trade when dealing with digital cash. Escrows are imperfect too but if you combine the two you can achieve a great alternative to the traditional exchanges. It helps to decentralize the exchange process as well. If one or two big exchanges go down, the price discovery mechanism suffers - especially if there are no alternatives.

This also avoids the (possible) event where exchanges will be brought under the "know your customer" rules and you may have to provide identification documents and such. The auction format avoids the need to handle other people's money and this reduces the risks of future regulation.

Guys dig technology more than girls. Once Bitcoin is more about currency and less about technology then we'll see more women using it.

One of the primary benefits of using BuyMyBitcoin.com is that you can build a reputation. Also, this creates another form of price discovery away from the exchanges.

you mean like https://bitmarket.eu/  ?

I've used that site, it works pretty well.

You see, where's the customer going to get her wallet full of bitcoin? You want to teach the average person (nevermind woman) how to put together a $1K rig and mine for 1 month to buy that US$30 item?

Or ask them to go through the whole mess of buying from an exchange?

That's what I mean by an extra step. We're missing that easy step from cash already in the bank to bitcoin payment for the average person. Like I said, Paypal could had been a good partner and make it easy for the average person to buy bitcoin. But since they see bitcoin as a threat and has unacceptable chargeback policies for the nature of bitcoin...

I am the Bitcoin Queen! Bitches...

Maria.

Sure will, thanks again for that donation! Anybody in the Tri-state area that accepts BTC in their business and wants a nice professional video commercial done for FREE! Let me know. (ONLY FOR BTCommunity members)

He brings up a good point that we didn't get time to explain on TV.  We basically have 2 options for paying our merchants:

1.  If you don't want anything to do with bitcoins and you want dollars sent to your bank account, like what happens with Paypal or credit cards, then bit-pay assumes the currency risk and the trading fees for the full amount of the order.  We do all of this as part of the package for the merchant that doesn't want to mess with bitcoins.  Our fees for everything in this case is 2.99%.

2.  If the merchant is fine taking bitcoins, we do offer a much lower fee for this, since we don't have any currency exchange or trading risks or costs.  If you'll take bitcoins, you can use all of bit-pay's services and the fees are 0.99%.

As counterintuitive as it may initially seem, Treasuries are most likely the safe haven.  The US will pay P&I on their debt and furlough discretionary spending.  Gold will rise but more likely due to devaluation of the dollar.  A downgrade will most likely hit equities the hardest, thus causing a run to Treasuries. 

Could there be a run to Bitcoin?  Sure.  We're in some unprecedent water, no one really knows what will happen.  But if I was putting down a wager, it'd be on Treasuries.   

There is a slight possible chance that the scenario of a certain safe haven would be in Bitcoins. Not that every guru on wall street will put their entire portfolio into Bitcoin, but its likely that Bitcoin will get some sort of interest since its significantly different from a government backed currency model. One can only hope this would be a scenario.

What do you guys think? Will anyone with some deep pockets find their way here? Or is gold going to take all the credit for it again as safe haven?

right now US Dollars and Bitcoins

Number 30.  It was the 2:00 show today!

Thanks Bruce for having us on today!  We look forward to seeing the recording!