Also, Motorola is a multinational corporation based in the United States.

This sounds a lot like a Collateralized debt obligation, wherein loans are aggregated into a pool and split up into tranches based on assessed risk. In this case, lenders who bid a lower rate of return will get the low-risk tranches and are first in line to collect when the pool matures (less risk, less return). Lenders who bid a higher interest rate are last in line to collect, but have the most to gain if none of the borrowers default on their loans (high risk, high return).

CDOs have a lot of negative publicity right now because of the subprime mortgage crisis in the US, so I think anyone willing to undertake such an endeavor in the Bitcoin world would be wise to learn from the mistakes of others.

The user conducting this experiment (mndrix) also runs CoinPal and CoinCard. Furthermore, mndrix has the third-highest rating on the Bitcoin OTC web of trust with a score of 60. For reference, TheMadHatter has a score of 5. Of course, a web of trust rating may not mean much if you don't trust any of the users who contributed to it, but I think its fairly safe to say that mndrix is well-trusted in the Bitcoin community.

Will mndrix run off with the loan money? I doubt it.
Will some of the borrowers not pay back their loans? Maybe, but that's part of the fun of this experiment, right?

I've been a regular reader of XKCD for years, but I've never bought any merchandise. Thanks for the laughs, Randall! Please keep up the great work and enjoy 5 BTC worth of gin from me!

I understand the argument against dark+normal, but I don't understand the argument against pure dark pools. The argument for dark pools is that they help keep market prices more stable -- large buy/sell orders can be placed without causing the market to swing up or down in reaction.

Maybe I'm not connecting the dots, but I don't understand how a government entity could cause market swings using dark pools on Mt Gox. If Mt Gox decided to remove dark+normal trading and keep dark pools, wouldn't normal trades and dark pool trades be separated into two different markets? Could someone please elaborate or explain the potential attack vector?

According to the Bitcoin wiki, there is a default transaction fee for sending amounts less than 0.01 BTC.


The article states this is for version 0.3.17 of the Bitcoin client. 0.3.20 is the current version, though, so I'm not sure if this information is out of date.

As of this posting, 52 users have participated in the poll. Of those 52, 20 sent their BTC back to the Faucet. It looks like people have done a lot of different things with just 0.05 BTC. I think it's clear that the Faucet is definitely a positive first step into the Bitcoin world.

That said, it looks like there's only 0.02 BTC in the Faucet right now. If you've been putting off making a donation, maybe now is the time to get on it (15VjRaDX9zpbA8LVnbrCAFzrVzN7ixHNsC)!

Thanks to everyone who participated!

I am in the second camp. To me, Bitcoin is a new and exciting idea. It's original, so it should have an original symbol that represents it uniquely. It also has potential to become a universal currency that transcends political boundaries, so I really think it should not co-opt an existing currency's symbol.

I agree that it could take a long time before Bitcoin is big enough to be represented with its own Unicode character, but I don't think that's a problem we need to worry about at this stage. If Bitcoin is truly a worthwhile and meaningful idea destined for mass recognition, Unicode adoption will eventually follow. Worrying about Unicode representation beforehand is, I think, putting the cart before the horse. Until then, "BTC" is perfectly understandable in the digital realm.

That said, I really like the b'at:

Yes, it's possible to make a poll where users can vote multiple times. I limited everyone to 1 vote for this poll, and unfortunately I don't think I can edit the poll to allow more votes per user (please inform me if I'm wrong).

I guess you fall into the "Something else" category. What did you do with your Faucet BTC?

I realized I left out an option. I just added, "Exchanged it for another currency".

I'm a new forum member and just recently got my hands on some Bitcoins. I think my first experience was pretty typical; I went to the Bitcoin Faucet and got 0.05 BTC sent to my wallet. It was great!

I'm assuming most of the forum members here have visited the Faucet and received a "drip" at some point, but I was wondering what do people typically do with their Faucet BTC afterwards? Please vote and feel free to share your experience here.

I agree with the importance of getting Bitcoins into the hands of new users, but I'm not sure a second Faucet is the way to do it. Gavin has already implemented a Faucet, so why re-invent the wheel? Also, having two Faucets is kinda confusing, no? Instead of "forking" a new Faucet, why not team up with the existing one?

I think the best way to help distribute Bitcoins to new users is to donate to the existing Faucet. Start up a charity mining pool, and send all the new bitcoins there (15VjRaDX9zpbA8LVnbrCAFzrVzN7ixHNsC). If a large chunk of the Faucet's funding starts coming from your pool, I'm sure Gavin would be open to increasing the amount of BTC dripped out.

Personally, I think 0.05 BTC is enough. I was excited about BTC when I first found out about it, but there was something special about actually getting 0.05 BTC in my wallet for the first time. Even though it was only worth 4 pennies, that was the moment bitcoins became real to me! That moment was so rewarding, that I sent my 0.05 BTC right back to the Faucet so that someone else could have the same experience (also, so I could see how sending BTC worked). What I'm trying to say is that it's not the amount that is meaningful, it's the magic of getting something into a new user's wallet that's important.