Is that an old air strip on the Maine property? That would make for a convenient commute!

I hear you bro. Crime and get-rich-quick speculation have certainly changed the mentality here. You used to get some cred for starting a new project. Now you get trolled; and success is only measured in how many BTCs you can convert to fiat. The extreme greed shown here is proof that bitcoin has become money.   

"It's called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it."
-George Carlin

The OP must be thinking it's 1970 or something. That old American economy is gone. In fact purchasing power is dropping every year and many people are retiring into poverty after a lifetime of middle class work. 

czechkid,
There is some good advice for you in this thread. I would emphasize two things.
1. Make several backup copies of any funded wallet. Keep the copies safe and secure.
2. Never keep much in any online wallet or exchange. These systems are not totally under your control and the bitcoins stored there can be at risk. If you want to keep some in an online wallet for spending from a phone, try keeping the total less than the price of the phone.
-Cheers

I don't know what we can do about this. It is not our country or our laws. It makes me sick, but we in the west only recently stopped killing people for religious beliefs. Besides, who are we to talk about what God wants? Maybe this is what God wants, maybe God hates all Christians?

Well, what did you think was going to happen? Bitcoin is money, that's all. There is no altruism in the protocol, it is utterly free of morality. However, there is a HUGE difference with bitcoin. Bitcoin is completely fair. That is not to say you are given anything. But both you and Bill Gates compete on the same field. He may be able to afford more than you, but he can't game the system like the rigged NYSE. NO ONE has control over bitcoin and that is the fair part.

What about something epic. Like running a bitcoin a TV commercial during the superbowl. Or what about starting a "bitcoin boulevard" in your town. You have enough to make a big splash!

http://bitcoinboulevard.us/

But none of us got our coins for free either. Try buying $10 worth today. It will always be a risk, but if you had done that just last week you would be profitable right now. There are no guarantees, but your going to kick yourself again if BTC hits $5K by the end of the year. Risk what you can afford to loose, then stop looking at prices for a year.
We are in the early adoption phase and one day you may be reading about how unfair it was that you only paid hundreds for your coins.

MAYBE IF YOU CALL THE TELLER A FAT F()#<ING B!+CH THE BANK WILL GIVE YOU A LOAN?!!!!!1!!!!11

I will. The price is irrelevant to me. When I buy on the internet I use BTC. I will need a steady supply forever at whatever price.

This is a good point. You can't say your loosing the battle if your not fighting. 

For me this changes nothing because I already knew that massive manipulation was going on at the markets. Haven't we all seen this since early 2011? I tend to think it has little effect.

Hi Barbara,
What a wonderful project. As an educator myself, and one who has learned a lot about money from bitcoin, I think your on to something!
In answer to your first question about alt-coins. I would focus on BTC for almost all lessons. The only exception for me would be a lesson about stock markets. It might be fun to have students research and buy some position in an alt of their choosing. Students could then track and compare their gains and losses. But other than that I believe alt cryptos would be a distraction.  My advice is that until you fully understand BTC, don't touch alts.

You may also be interested in the work that the bitcoin foundation is doing in their education committee. They have outlines for some specific lessons for various grades.
https://bitcoinfoundation.org/forum/index.php?/forum/18-education/

Please do update as this plays out. I would love to see what you achieve.

-Cheers 

 

That is correct. ONLY US currency. I can't imagine that changing.

This is a very creative idea! Thanks for posting. 

I understand your stress over all these issues. Perhaps I can help with some strategy on the bitcoin side? The first thing to consider is that your chances of profiting from bitcoin are not diminished by others holding coins. Remember, there are no coins. We are just slicing up a pie into ever smaller pieces. If you buy on BTC today and it goes up tomorrow it does not matter what the price was. Focus on the % of growth not the price.
Don't waste your time with faucets, alt coins, mining, derivatives, investments, etc. If you believe it will go up just buy btc at market cost. What I then do is wait for say a 20% increase then I spend my coins to buy stuff. After purchasing items for bitcoin I restock my wallet and repeat the whole thing over.
As far as others getting a better deal... It didn't happen. Those who bought coins early on took a much much greater risk than you. The same is true of Microsoft stock. Those who bought when home computing was a joke made big money. The miners who got rich took even more chances investing in hardware and burning electricity. Satoshi did not invent a system for people to get rich, he invented a system of rewards and constraints that reward hard work but does not give anything to anyone.
Hope this helps.

Sorry to hear about the troubles in your family. Could you explain the losing part a bit more? What is your goal with bitcoin and what is your plan to achieve your goal? I don't understand your statement above. Someone is stealing from you?

I don't have to read that article to know that the future is unknowable. I remember reading stories about how it is impossible for bitcoin to ever be worth $1. It's a silly thing to say now that we have even been past that 1K figure.

That would make sense. I'm not accusing anyone of anything, but it looks strange to me. Maybe they just got lucky with the launch date of these currencies. What is going on there?