To me BitCoin looks like it *is* a "share holding".
It looks like an IPO that is taking some years to take place, whose initial public offering is 21,000,000 shares.
Well, yes, if you want. But in the same way I could say that one gram of gold is a "share of the total amount of gold in the world". I'm not sure this point of view is much pertinent, though. By "share holding" I meant a share of a company's capital. The limit on the number to be issued seems somewhat arbitrary, I do not see why if the Fed took up BitCoins it would not be able to announce a change in that arbitrary value, so that miners will be able to keep going another number of years producing (say for example) another 21,000,000.
You don't seem to understand how bitcoin works. Bitcoins produced by such modified miners would be rejected by my client. Basically only people who would agree with such an increase of bitcoin total amount could use them. |
|
|
|
Maybe a useless philosophical rambling, but the objective value in our universe is potential energy (low entropy). From this perspective, a lot of things have value, including matter, which is actually very scarce. From a human standpoint, matter is more convenient to use and it's even better if it's stable. Gold is the heaviest element (most potential) that is stable. Early humans didn't know all this, and they decided on gold anyway. I don't think it was a coincidence (the fact that it's a noble metal makes it easier to find in a pure form, and the heaviest the more scarce, etc.). I'm not a physicist/chemist so please correct me if there's anything wrong above.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/11/18/131430755/a-chemist-explains-why-gold-beat-out-lithium-osmium-einstein |
|
|
|
The Nystrom representation itself isn't stupid, but using it for Bitcoin is. It brings absolutely nothing worthwhile to Bitcoin.
It brings more names to bitcoin subdivisions. |
|
|
|
Did you actually read the wiki page that you're describing as "cool"? This "Tonal Bitcoin" stuff is just stupid. "Bong-BitCoin" indeed!
Well, this is Nystrom hexadecimal representation ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Nystrom#Tonal_System_.28Hexadecimal.29), isn't it? It doesn't seem stupid to me. Anyway, it's just a complement to the standard 10^3-based prefix system. However, it's a bit unfortunate that the smallest amount is not exactly a nanobitcoin, but rather 10 nanobitcoins. It would have been simpler. |
|
|
|
Bitcoin is useless for point 1, if I want to exchange it for something, if I have GBP and I want to buy something off amazon going GBP->BTC->USD (or any other combination) is pure waste, I might as well go GBP->USD.
Well, yes. It's obviously more efficient to go directly GBP->USD. I don't see your point. As for point 2, for something to be a store of value, it needs value. For bitcoin to have value it must meet point 1.
Personnaly I don't believe in money as a storage of value anyway. But it's common belief. As far as I'm concerned, I never hoard money, in any currency. There are many better ways to store value (real estate, share holdings)... Bitcoin in its current state would be destroyed by a run
A run to what, whom, where?? People know that bitoin is not redeemable to anything. Personnaly if bitcoin price was to decrease dramatically, I'd buy everything, just as I'd buy several kilograms of gold if the price went to 35$ an once. I doubt I'd be the only one. |
|
|
|
One of the things you can hear from opponents of bitcoin is : You can't buy anything with it. It's mostly used for currency exchange and gaming. I once answered that you can exchange bitcoins just in order to buy something. I once bought T-shirts on-line using canadian dollars I just bought for this purchase (using the excellent MadHadder's bitcoin-to-credit-card service). I know it's not the same as buying directly in bitcoin. But is it, really ? I mean, if currency exchange is quick and efficient enough, there is no practical difference between buying in bitcoin and making a currency exchange just for a product purchase. Oil is priced in dollar. So I guess when I buy some gaz at a station in Europe, at some point in the exchange chain, there has been some euro-dollar conversion. Yet, nobody would claim "you can't buy oil with euros". As always, the comparaison between bitcoin and gold is also pertinent. I can't enter a shop and buy stuffs with a gold coin. There are very few things that I can buy directly with physical gold. And yet, most people agree to say that gold is money. Actually, when I need to buy something I sometimes sell a few gold coins in order to get just enough cash to buy the stuff in the same day. So I consider I bought this stuff with gold. Amongst the usages of money there are 1) intermediary for exchange 2) store of value 3) unit of accounting. To me it seems clear that the currency exchange market allow people to use different currency for each of these usages. |
|
|
|
Oh this seems cool. Sorry. I should look at this wiki more often  |
|
|
|
suggestion: henceforth, 1e-8 bitcoins will be called "a bitcoin". all bitcoin amounts will henceforth be integers. sending 1 "oldbtc" to someone? just send 10million 'newbtc'. solves all problems very neatly. and also removes any psychological barriers around having "1 btc = 100usd" EDIT: that said, i essentially like gavin's proposal, except for the cosmetics. I strongly disagree. We should keep the idea of using standard prefixes. 1 centibitcoin = 10^-2 BTC 1 millibitcoin = 10^-3 BTC 1 microbitcoin = 10^-6 BTC 1 nanobitcoin = 10^-9 BTC In Satoshi's code, the smaller unit is called "the coin". We should use this. 1 coin = 10^-8 BTC = 10 nanobitcoins Even if the nanobitcoin is too small a unit, we can still use it, as long as we only talk about multiples of 10. 10 nanobitcoins, 40 nanobitcoins, and so on... An other, yet compatible possibility is to start from bottom : 1 coin = 10^-8 BTC 10^3 coins = 1 kilocoin = 10^-5 BTC 10^6 coins = 1 megacoin = 10^-2 BTC 10^9 coins = 1 gigacoin = 10 BTC So one bitcoin would actually be 0.1 gigacoin, or 100 megacoins Either way, the bitcoin should keep being "10^8 times the smaller unit" |
|
|
|
Grondilu, taken in context it's clear that I'm referring to the psychological aspects of the internal representation, not the technical aspects.
Don't be offended. I just thought the sentence was itself extremly funny. I see your point, and it's perfectly valid, even if I think you're overestimating this psychological aspect a lot. If I own one kilogram of gold, I don't feel richer if I tell myself that I own one thousand grams. |
|
|
|
Some things in life are worth worrying about, but internal numeric representation is not one of them.
LOOOL |
|
|
|
technically using integer is a better solution; morally it's wrong -- we just inflated our money supply 10^8 times.
Don't write this. Some people might be silly enough to think you're serious, and we'll have to explain them again. |
|
|
|
|
Yeah, forget about floating points. Use integers.
|
|
|
|
I get what you're saying, but I don't think the layman wants their cash controlled by mathematicians either. Nor does the layman want the burden of learning what a crypto-currency might be. How about:
Mathematicians don't control mathematics. They only study it. |
|
|
|
|
Why on earth would anyone forbid that ?
|
|
|
|
I wonder how long will it take for govs to start investigating Bitcoin.
Well, if we want bitcoin to be immune from government intervention, at some point we will need such a test. We won't know if bitcoin is governmentproof until government actually tries to stop it. I'm afraid it's a bit early though. |
|
|
|
Ah oui l'auteur de Forban a fait une apparition ici. Je lui ai même donné un bitcoin. |
|
|
|
Sample of my work: I don't know if it's ok to post NSFW stuff on the forum. What are the rules here ? What I write is relatively hardcore.
Ok forget it, then. There are quite a lot of very young people here. |
|
|
|
Essentiellement grâce à divers projets utilisant déjà bitcoin...
Lesquels stp ? Les projets utilisant bitcoin ne sont pas si nombreux, on aimerait bien en connaitre un maximum. |
|
|
|
Hello everybody,
[...]
Thank you,
Cédric
Hi Cédric. If you're french as I suspect you are, please join the french thread on the "other" forum and let us know how you came to know about bitcoin. |
|
|
|
Lots of people want to read stories about adultery, about group sex, about incest, whatever. And they may fantasize about people they know, being part of those events. I offer to write those stories.
A while ago, a man wanted me to write an imaginary diary of his daughter. If he had written the text himself, how could he have fantasized that it was really his daughter's diary ?
Ok I get it now. I don't have any problem with it. Go for it, then. It would be nice if we could read a sample of your work, though, in order to see how good a writer you are. PS. Being french myself, I'm always curious about how french people get to know about bitcoin, since I always wonder if it is not due to an article of mine. So, where did you get to know about bitcoin? |
|
|
|
|
Show Posts
