... Thank you Peter R, I tried sharedcoin.com. Am waiting on more confirmations (one so far, transaction done perhaps 20 mins ago).  |
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Money typically has three major and well-accepted attributes (and examples):
1) Unit of Account (how much a business is worth, and "keeping score")
2) Medium of Exchange (that loaf of bread costs you $3.00, the movie ticket $10.00)
3) Store of Value (gold is store of value, and will that dollar still be worth a (real) dollar -- or close -- in 5 years?)
Bitcoin at this point works only well for number 2. The price volatility excludes numbers 1 and 3. There is a real case to be made to buy Bitcoin as an investment/speculation (as I have), but I would classify Bitcoin as a special case of a commodity.
So, I would not call it money.
***
You could even make an argument that our US $ is not "money", perhaps better thought of as a "currency" as the US dollar is not a good store of value over the longer term (inflation). That is another topic...
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@ CoinCube and Anonymint
Most excellent link re knowledge and capital, I do not want to comment yet until I read it in full (tomorrow), but it looks to have at least a lot of truth. I just emailed it to myself for safekeeping.
Our bearing import business in Peru uses a lot of knowledge that in part is NOT shared, it's proprietary, and we make more money if our competitors do not know some things... I understand that this may not be in synch with the link provided.
But, I also see that shared knowledge can be beneficial to the one who shares. If, for example, I decide to write an introductory article for my local newspaper about Bitcoin, then I would become on of my town's top experts on it, and could consult, smile,,,
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Bump, because I need some guidance! I am considering using a mixing service for my BTC, and I would like to know the pros & cons as well as any recommendatiions that any of you would have.
EDIT: Thanks amspir, I will look into that.
Thank you to all!
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(OROBTC revealed an essential ignorance of the term "Giffen Good" it looks like.)
What I wanted to say is that more gold is purchased as income goes up, until you get to the very, very rich.
***
As far as BTC being an inferior good, well, I plan to buy more as I get more money...
I recall from ECON 101 that baloney (bologna) is an inferior good, the more money you make, the LESS you buy.
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Gold is a Giffen good for many ranges of income. Rich people tend to buy more of it than the middle class who buy more than the poor.
Once someone becomes a billionaire that is less true though. See the Rothschild family (big owners of gold, but also of castles, banks and vineyards).
***
I am going to guess that BTC would also tend to be bought more by the rich, the more money you have, the more BTC you will likely buy. As money comes in for me, I will likely be buying more BTC as well as gold.
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... I am interested in this topic as well. *** Earlier this evening, I saw that bitmixer.io will let investors share in BTC mixing profits for a minimum investment of 100 BTC (approx. $44,000). That is MIXING coins, not mining them. I have not looked into this. |
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... I would be interested in learning more about: 1) Bitcoin mixing services in general, how they work, how satisfied you are, how secure (and anonymous) they might be... 2) the below two services advertised in recent weeks: - sharedcoin.com (may be part of or affiliated with blockchain.info) - bitmixer.ioThank you very much! |
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I am not sure I am answering the OP's question correctly, but I have been reading that there is enormous interest in using the Blockchain and other BTC technology to do other things:
-- notarize documents
-- form companies
-- copyrighting documents & photos ( I may have one I would like to try) *
-- other interesting uses I cannot remember now...
* Anyone who can help me copyright a photo (funny and sort-of true) please PM me.
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... Nice piece, CoinCube. Many of the .gov tricks they are foisting upon us are old tricks, but old tricks are sometimes the best ones... I too think that they will wait until they try to seize what they can (get away with) until they fire-up the printing presses all the way. And milking the rich is time-honored. *** It is just about impossible, IMO, for any group of citizens (probably in any country, but I speak of the USA here) to organize to effect a change. I believe that we are at the point where it is really everyone / every family for himself / themselves. Virtual communities like this one help some to do just that. Spreading awareness... Financial jiu-jitsu is what is now needed. My favorite moves are to internationalize assets, buy gold (for CA$H until a way to buy gold with BTC is found -- no shipping address...), and Bitcoin itself. I am pleased to see a knowledgeable and interesting crew over here! There are relatively few at Zero Hedge who are good with Bitcoin comments, although on the average very good on financial matters. EDIT: Ahh, under "Politics & Society", that's why I missed this one... |
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... Here are three who sell gold and other PMs for BTC (with a comment each): goldsilverbitcoin.com (I bought a 0.25 oz Gold Eagle from here in Dec 2013; look here: http://goo.gl/pJM7UE) amagimetals.com (Recommended by a guy who sold me BTC) agoracommodities.com (NICE website, apparently offer gold from 0.1 oz to 1 kg, also hard-to-find RHODIUM) *** Anyone who buys from anyone please let us know how your experience went! |
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... My understanding is that my buying gold w/ BTC is taxable, I will give the info to our tax people later this year. I bought a 0.25 oz Gold Eagle using BTC when it (the BTC) was at a price close to what I paid for it. So any tax consequence will be negligible If I buy gold now, it would be at a loss, as my average cost basis for my BTC is some $760. I could buy gold, and get a tax write-off. *** Buying gold is about the best use there is for BTC other than the ability to take it out of the country...   |
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... @ rpg There is NOT really all that much tungsten filled gold out there. Especially in coins. Tungsten has the highest melting point of all elements and is also very hard, ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TungstenThe hardness and high melting point of tungsten make it unprofitable, for now anyway, for even the Chinese to make counterfeit gold. They have made fake US$5.00 gold pieces (out of gold) as "numismatic" pieces (fake dates & mint-marks, which they would hope to sell for 10 times as much because it is a "rare coin"). IMO it will be years before we have to worry about counterfeit Gold Eagles. Counterfeiting Gold Eagles would invite a Secret Service investigation (Eagles are Legal Tender), not that our Secret Service is, erm, aggressive about going after foreign counterfeiters (eg, N. Korea and their fake $100 bills). But, the time will be coming soon that gold bars will be counterfeited more. There is a YouTube video out there where an employee of Heraeus (Germany) caught a 500 gm gold bar salted with tungsten. |
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... Widespread, reasonably mainstream adoption has to start somewhere. The shady world of strip joints looks like as good a place as any for Bitcoin.  And no chargebacks either. |
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... Another possibility is to find someone via localbitcoins.com. I have bought some $700 worth of BTC (when it was higher, frown) from a guy I met through them. We meet at Starbucks (of course). And if you are reasonably aggressive about networking, you will find others who you can buy/sell Bitcoins with. You can always buy gold with BTC as well... |
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... Very nice introduction, CoinCube. I look forward to seeing more. I offer two thoughts: 1) Money is traditionally defined as having three major characteristics: -- Unit of Account ("keeping score", how much your company is worth) -- Medium of Exchange (you pay $2.75 for that head of lettuce) -- Store of Value (your "money" ($50,000 say) will, you hope, will still be worth a real $50,000 in 5 years...) It turns out that it is difficult for any currency to function as all three of the above.Google: a) Triffin's Dilemma b) FOFOA's Dilemma 2) It is the Central Banks (the Federal Reserve here in the USA) that typically print (or direct the printing of) the currencies, as opposed to "the banks". Also, typically, those who are closest to (early receivers of) the newly created money get the most benefit. This certainly true here in the USA. Also, IIRC, the amounts that individual banks can lend out actually is actually limited. I believe the leverage (approximate inverse of the required reserves that the banks must hold, typically as directed by the Central Bank) in the USA is about 10 x. Meaning that for each dollar they have in reserves (to cover people wanting to take cash out of their accounts, etc.) that they can lend out close to 10 times that (fractional reserve banking). Thus is "creating money out of thin air". *** Do consider writing about gold and its role as you see it in the financial system, the whole subject of gold interests me very much. |
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@ Mikerogers
My guess is that no Third World country will adopt Bitcoin anytime soon.
No way Peru does, they have many who cannot read in remote locations. And Peru did go through a bout or two of hyperinflation in the 1980s, I still have my 1,000,000 intis banknote around somewhere.
My much more limited experience with other Third World countries (Costa Rica and Egypt) would lead me to think that there is little chance that any of them would either.
Slightly more probably (though still highly unlikely, IMO) would be a smaller developed country that gets into trouble... But, I doubt that the Central Banksters will give up their privileges of printing money...
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... I use both blockchain.info and Multibit for wallets. Both have worked just fine in multiple transactions. Both are easy. And having wallets in two places is "geographical diversification". |
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Great thread, Peter R, thanks for starting it. Many great comments too (Melbustus, smooth, jonald_).
If Putin has over, say, $5 billion in net liquid assets, then he would qualify as a "Giant" (defiinition of which I will leave for another time). Giants think differently than we mortals do.
"Three gets you five" that if Putin DOES have $5 billion or more (who really knows) then he would likely be smart enough to be diversified to some degree. He would already have some decent amount socked away in different venues and in non-correlated assets (at least to some degree). Bitcoin would be a suitable place for perhaps 1% of Putin's purported wealth.
I am some four orders of magnitude less wealthy than Mr. Putin *may* be. Yet I have 1% in BTC, some 11% in gold and some invested in our bearing import business way down there in Peru. In the spirit of one comment above:
Diversification, fishez!
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