Well, you have to ask yourself, "What information?" The entire history of every btc you and anyone else has ever spent is publicly accessible, for instance. It is, in fact, being transmitted to everybody who cares to look. That is very much unlike a bank account.

The difference is that your identity might(might!) be decoupled from the information in the blockchain, depending on the lengths you've gone to anonymize your transactions. Bitcoin is, however, designed from the ground up to permit 100% disclosure of all transactions via the blockchain, unless I'm mistaken (and many of you know a lot more about btc than I do, so apologies if that's an incorrect assertion.)

There are different kinds of privacy. I don't consider a currency that has a public record of how it is spent to be particularly private, though it is more private in some ways and less private in others than fiat currency.

Just watched part of them, at least. Comments.

The first (http://vimeo.com/63502573) goes all nerdy and idealistic in the first two sentences. Who cares. Tell me how it saves me money/convenience as a consumer, or at least how it might in the future.

The second has the same problem, but the presentation is worse.

Same with the third.

What's needed is something that a dude living in Atlanta watching Nascar can understand in a 30 second tv commercial.

Seriously. Bitcoin will never have the kind of long-term impact it's dreamed of having unless that happens, in effect.

Thanks btw! Watching those now.

That's a big problem! Fiat currency is universally useful to to every legitimate business and consumer, and btc needs to be as well if it's to have a long-term role in the world.


That's an almost irrelevant minority from the perspective of long-term success for bitcoin. Same with basically everything sold on silk road.


That's because today there is no competitive advantage to bitcoin. For one, you're telling consumers to use a payment method that is objectively worse for them. There is no insurance at all for the consumer with btc payments currently. If they use Visa/Mastercard/Paypal to buy stuff from me, Visa/Mastercard/Paypal will protect them to some degree. As a merchant, that is incredibly valuable, because I'm not Amazon. I don't have a reputation large enough to precede me, and so I depend on the payment protection that Visa/Mastercard/Paypal offer my customers to ensure that the first time they buy with me (ie before trust is established), they can feel indisputably safe.

As an example, I just bought a $1300 camera from a store in Taiwan over Ebay. I'd never have paid them in BTC, because if they screw me over, I have no recourse. With Visa I have recourse, and Ebay adds an extra layer of protection for me on top of that.

That's the kind of thing that bitcoin needs to explain to consumers. If it's not there, then there's no reason at all for most consumers to use bitcoin, and it will remain a niche currency that isn't useful for most purchases.

I'm not asking people to care. I'm asking for a tool to help me make people care.

I'm a long-time online merchant (going back to the 90s) with multiple partners, employees, and investors. I like bitcoin, and I'm interested in it, but one roadblock I've come up against multiple times is a concise, layman's explanation of Bitcoin and why the average consumer should care.

Anyone have good suggestions for an explanation of bitcoin that is oriented completely towards the practical? Either a video or a visual presentation of some kind is best.

I've watched videos and read presentations but so far everything I've read either ends up devolving into idealism or geeking out on tech. Neither is useful to the average consumer, to whom Bitcoin acceptance is key to its future success.

If Bitcoin Store is their registered trademark, they will ultimately be able to have that domain seized, as it's clearly infringing. Same thing that happens if you were to register something like "Faceebook" (which Facebook already owns, having probably seized it from someone doing exactly this).

Inside Bitcoins, NYC, end of July: http://www.mediabistro.com/insidebitcoins/

Isn't bitcoin meant to be a global currency? Why try to peg it to the minimum wages of only the very richest of countries?

What's the estimated CPM?

Why would you need to do that exactly? Why not just wire the money to the country you're moving to? You've saved yourself a grand total of about $35 by avoiding that wire.



I have an equally naive idea: I'll withdraw my life savings into cash, and claim it was all gambled away. It's perfect! Nobody could possibly figure out what I've done.

*facepalm*

Sorry, what? So, if I break into your house and steal the USB your private key is stored on (an example - I have no idea where you store your private key), you won't sue me or prosecute? You'll attempt to "settle in private", meaning you will ask for your money back, I'll laugh and ignore you?

What's your address?

Because the cops are, generally speaking, jokers. The IRS are not. Their ability to audit is impressively scary, trust me.

Definitely not. Apple takes a 30% cut off payments made through their platform. If they want bitcoin to be a permissible form of payment, they'll let users pay with it. Until then, no chance.

Good news! You're already free to go live in the paradise that is anarchy. Somalia. Enjoy!

I think you're misunderstanding what actually happens when you short something.

When you short, you first borrow someone's shares (if you're shorting equities for instance), then you sell them, promising to buy them back later. That's the actual transaction that's happening. In both cases, you're selling 10 shares. In the one case, it's 10 shares you already own. In the other case, it's 10 shares you've borrowed.

Having 0 bitcoin is exactly as delta neutral as being long 10 btc and simultaneously short 10 btc.

Hahahahaha.

You've read too many fantasy books.

If you're asking what'll be used after total upheaval in the world, including destruction of our infrastructure, it sure as hell won't be bitcoins. It might be gold. Might be iron. Certainly, gold has thousands of years of history of being used without modern infrastructure.

No we don't. You might, but the True Believers are on their way to being marginalized by people who are serious about Bitcoin as a currency, and not as some Ayn Rand fantasy.

You sound like an angsty teenager.