How are you offering the phone as collateral while selling the phone to pay back the loan? Collateral means the lender holds the phone and YOU get it back after payment of the principal and the interest.

The most secure and inexpensive is to buy something. Remember, bitcoin is money. Why would you cash out money to get less money? Why did you get the bitcoin in the first place?

The news you may have missed is that bitcoin is a true free market. That means it drops and rises dramatically and suddenly. It regularly looses %60 of it's value, or it may triple in value in a month. 

No problem. It is confusing for new users. The best advice I have is to think of bitcoin as just another currency, like Euros or Dinar. If you wanted more Euros, what would you do to get them?
 

Work, sell stuff... Same as any money.

I would avoid the idea of "investing" in bitcoin. It does not function as an investment vehicle and while the price does tend to grow over time, it also tends to lose 60% of it's value periodically. Alt coins are even more risky and I would guess that most lose money trying.
Remember that the real strength of bitcoin is utility. Try using it for purchases and you will better understand why it considered one of the most powerful ideas on the internet.

I already had what I need in terms of money. Bitcoin is far more important to me than money. I would like to see our economic future played on a level field. The corruption of banks and the wealthy has reached the tipping point and now that I have bitcoin I no longer use other currencies on the internet.
I for one am not going back. This is the money I use and a retailer can accept it or say goodbye to my business.

I think a 51% attack would be a disaster. But someone with 51% of the hashing power does not necessarily mean they are attacking.

If there is scientific proof... Write it up and collect your Nobel prize.  In science all you have to do is present your proof. Why has this not been done yet? It would take such little effort.
Spoiler alert - "Faith", the belief in something despite scientific proof, is not a proof of anything except your ability to imagine.

The problem with saying "your not a real Muslim" is that religion is just a bunch of human ideas. The muslims I know laugh at the idea of someone starting a caliphate. It would be like me saying that I am your new pope-king. Bow down for I now rule all Christians worldwide!

Still, if he believes it. Who's to say it's not God's will?

True that! What kind of citizen can make a fortune without paying taxes? Oh, and can't be sued as a citizen? A corporation.
I should inc. myself and live above the law! 

It would be tricky of course. But there has to be some kind of disincentive. Without one I see no reason for most businesses to remain in the U.S.  Not that many companies pay anything close to the stated tax rate.

I would pay close attention to the MSB regulations. When I looked into it the need to be a money transmitter was a deal breaker. I'm not sure about your state, but in some places it is ridiculously expensive. Basically it is set up to keep small players out of the market.

You will also have to keep immaculate records of who bought what at what time. Knowing the identity of your customers (KYC) and proving you have anti-money laundering (AML) systems in place is likely going to be how you spend your time.

But hey, somebody is going to do it. And if I had an ATM near me, I would use it.

Cheers and best of luck!


Wow, nice work bro!

Yes! I once looked into the most profitable items and balloons were one of them. Only popcorn has a higher markup. The problem is finding a venue. A movie theater can sell you .20 cents of corn for $7.00, but that price wont work at a store. Same with balloons. If you own a zoo you can sell bags of air for $7.00. If you have to find a place to sell, you will find out that others have those venues for themselves.  

I don't know what you mean? I paid $0.50 for something yesterday.

Bitcoin CAN do transactions for less than a penny, but that would spam the network. So true micro transactions are problematic at the moment, but there is little call for them anyway.

Don't get fancy, it's just money. So how would you multiply dollars or Euros?
You could buy something for 1BTC then sell it for more. (retailing)
You could loan it for interest. (usury)
You could buy an asset that may appreciate in value. (speculation)
You could buy a balloon maker and sell balloons. (capitol investing)

There is nothing special about using bitcoin as opposed to other currencies. Other than with bitcoin you might also see capitol gains by doing nothing.  

If one other person is using bitcoin then it will not go to zero. For zero to happen I think one or more of the following would be the cause.

1. Breaking of SHA. If this happens there will be chaos until stronger encryption is added to the protocol. It would mean a "hard fork" that would leave earlier versions of bitcoin unusable.

2. Loss of net neutrality. This could be serious. If the internet becomes a walled garden then your overlords my want to block ports and detect bitcoin software. They will then decide if you are going to use bitcoin or not. Your job will be to shut up and do what you are told.

3. Global loss of internet connectivity. In the event of a major nuclear war, catastrophic pandemic disease, asteroid strike, etc.; bitcoin may go away permanently.  Although, it may be the least of your worries.

It's not, however, going to go to zero from speculation. As long as it is being used it will have value. And as long as it is the cheapest, fastest, and most secure way to send money anywhere; it will have a high value.

How about we just don't let them back in?

I have zero sympathy for companies who expect handouts to stay in the U.S. I say let them set up in the Bahamas or wherever, then tax the fuck out of them as foreign businesses. That seems way better than our current system of rewards for moving jobs overseas.

Guys, come on. We shouldn't accuse them of something. Maybe they were the honest, hard working kind of criminals? 

It would be great if there was something we could do. Better to save our strength for the many future wars that will come from this. It's really quite grave. We will be fighting wars for the rest of my life.
Taking the lid off of the mid-east will go down as the biggest blunder in our long history of military blunders.

When the 9/11 attacks happened Al-Qaeda had trained about 10k jihadis at their camps. Now there are over 10k just in the caliphate. And they are strong from Pakistan to Algeria. It is now a global movement, not an organization. The jihadists are stronger than ever. This is going to take a very long time.  


It might work but it is hard.
1. Religious zealots don't want money. They have come to the fight to die and earn glory for their family. It might be hard to understand, but many people support IS. That public support is going to make contacting a turncoat almost impossible. 
2. Communication from a spy inside of IS would be difficult. Recruits live with a small unit and are never alone. Nor are they allowed to make calls. They spy would have to have balls of steel as he would be deep undercover.
3. The problem with infiltrating shadow groups is that they never meet many others. This group may be easier because they are structured more like a militia than a terror group. But their top leaders still work in cells. Cells are almost impossible to get inside of, that's why they do it.
4. the elimination phase requires troops on the ground with laser markers and sophisticated radios. Troops we train could do a few things, but most of the weapons we use in this role employ secret methods that we do not share.