True there is indeed an inflation problem but compared with the devaluation of the USD I don't think it is as alarming.

The impact on people that have "middle class" like jobs in large cities has not been very serious but for those eeking out an existence on less than 1000 RMB per month life has become increasingly difficult (which does affect a lot of people but mostly people with very little voice).


Cheers,

Ian.

The idea sounds great, however, I read this on their Kickstarter page:


which seems to me like they have left a "back-door". 


Cheers,

Ian.

Some reasons to consider:

1) More than 50% of Chinese (who live in the countryside) do not have regular (or often any) internet access.

2) You can buy things on Taobao (the Chinese equivalent of eBay) with zero payment processing charges.

3) The RMB is appreciating and has been a stable currency for many years.


Cheers,

Ian.

Useful link - although says it is down again now.


Regards,

Ian Knowles.

Am getting "Website is currently unreachable" errors (from CloudFare) using both their https and http URLs.

Something gone wrong?


Regards,

Ian Knowles.

I was envisioning that banks would probably collude so that Bankcoin^TM would in fact become a global commodity (although probably not a "currency" as the banks would not want to be giving up their day to day business).

Exchanging at minimal cost will come if and only if there is enough competition to push this (maybe Bitcoins existence can at least help apply pressure in this area).


Very true - the anonymity is an extremely valuable part of Bitcoin (although I gather not as well understood as many think according to recent proposals about how the improve the anonymity of Bitcoin) but always (especially in these modern days of fear) something easily turned against it by way of bad press (e.g. Silk Road).

I guess the question in this case is just how far individuals are going to go out of their way in order to make donations to some specific organization (say Wikileaks) when most just causes (like the one you mentioned) are at least indirectly being supported by existing charity groups (such as Amnesty)?


Regards,

Ian Knowles.

In considering the future value of Bitcoins I have been thinking about what would it take for the banks to ensure that the vast majority of people in the future simply wouldn't go near Bitcoin (not that I wish this to occur btw).

The following are three of some of the most touted benefits of Bitcoin and what banks might do in the future to keep the vast majority of people using them rather than Bitcoin:

1) Move money from anywhere to anywhere easily and cheaply.

Although anonymity is often included with regards to this point I think it is fairly easy for banks to simply argue the public need for identification (terrorism, money laundering, etc.). That being said current ways (such as TT) to transfer money from country to country are not cheap nor that quick but if the banks were to introduce cheaper and quicker ways to do this, perhaps based upon using their new Bankcoin^TM system, then I think this point would be a much more difficult one to tout for Bitcoin.

If say the banks were to offer a 1% transfer (including currency exchange) fee (with perhaps a cap) then would any average person or business person really want to use Bitcoin to do this?

2) Provide a payment system that gives sellers non-reversible transactions (with the benefit for buyers being cheaper prices from sellers you trust).

Once again there is no reason why Bankcoin^TM couldn't also be used to provide such a service (with a fee in much the same way as is being done now by organizations like bit-pay). Perhaps the banks themselves might not be interested in payment systems per se, however, I guess that tying Bankcoin^TM to such systems would be probably be pretty much no different to Bitcoin.

If you were able to get a payment system that was approximately the same price but lauded and actively promoted by your bank would you instead choose to use Bitcoin?

3) Provide an investment that is not subject to fractional reserve dilution (also sometimes touted as the non-inflationary benefit).

This one is perhaps a little harder (in that it requires trusting your bank) but nonetheless a bank could offer Bankcoin^TM investments (perhaps packaged a little like term investments) with some sort of guarantee that only at most X million will be printed and that each investors "horde" is government guaranteed.

If you were able to get a government guaranteed digital commodity easily from your bank that was designed to have a limited supply would you still prefer to invest in Bitcoin?

I guess the overall question I am wondering about is if Bankcoin^TM were to appear would Bitcoin just end up being marginalised?

Also if Bankcoin^TM was to appear any time soon we would without a doubt be made very aware of (considering the millions of dollars of advertising that would be thrown at it).


Regards,

Ian Knowles.

I think that this is one of the best recent promotional ideas for Bitcoin that I have read on this forum.

Put me down for at least 5 BTC.

Regards,

Ian Knowles.

Very true and the suggested half-way between Buy & Sell on Mt. Gox is not set in stone (am just trying to get the best bang for the buck without risking more than a relatively small amount of AUD in the process).

If you would like to PM me with an offer then I will most certainly consider it.

Regards,

Ian Knowles.

Adding a pay with Bitcoin to some existing WiFi services makes sense (and just being an option should at least raise awareness of Bitcoin) but when it is not simple for people to acquire Bitcoins (without either paying a large premium or having to trade through exchanges) this is not likely to be a first choice payment method even for people who are aware of Bitcoin (IMHO).

Also in much of Asia there is so much free WiFi around (nearly every cafe, hotel and a lot of shopping centres) that there would simply be no market for it there.

Regards,

Ian Knowles.

Just confirming that Andre has let me know he won't freeze my account.

I gather they are under a lot of stress and don't wish to create a flame war (was just a little upset).


Regards,

Ian Knowles.

To be more specific then (as it seems if I don't name names I am being too vague):


This is because I said "In my opinion this was not a very professional reply (one line lower case, no hello, no name, no company signature)".

I think this is perhaps a slight overreaction - or not?

So I guess that (a), (b) and (c) are just too vague for you...

...sigh...

In recent dealings with some newer Bitcoin exchanges I have found email correspondence to be IMHO rather unprofessional.

Although I am not going to name names I am specifically talking about receiving emails that (a) didn't include any company information or any person's name, (b) did not have hi/hello or any sort of greeting (I am referring to the an initial email/reply rather than any follow ups) and (c) contained one or more facetious remarks (as seemingly these companies doesn't like having any criticism being made about their services).

Having worked as a software engineer for over 20 years I know how professional support should work (and have even done my share when the company I worked for didn't have enough personal for specific support staff). Anyone who sent emails like the ones I have recently received would have been quickly "let go" from every company that I have worked for.

Have I missed something in the past few years - is this "attitude" towards customers is the new norm or is this just a Bitcoin thing?


Regards,

Ian Knowles.

First thanks SomeoneWeird for the IRC suggestion (will follow that up when I have some free time).

Unfortunately Jeremy I am an expat (living in PRC) so the NAB option is not really going to work for me.

It is a little frustrating (especially when bank to bank transfers are free in Aus) to try and get BTC when you end up either having to fork out for TT's or get "instant" prices that are often around 10% above market.

Hopefully will work out a something reasonable enough soon as I am wishing to offer BTC rewards for an upcoming Open Source project (which will most likely involve thousands of BTC).

Cheers,

Ian Knowles.

I have an Australian bank account (Westpac) and am interested to see if any Aussie miners (assuming there are some) might be interested to sell me BTC regularly (say once per week or month).

The agreement would be that the BTC would be sent in exchange for AUD at a specific regular time and the price would be the half way between the current highest Bid and lowest Ask at Gox at that time (give or take a few minutes). The advantage to you is simply that you would not have any fees associated with redeeming your AUD (or have to incur any currency conversion costs or go through an exchange).

Provided any interested party has developed a decent reputation on this forum then I am willing to provide the AUD in advance of the BTC delivery each week/month.


Regards,

Ian Knowles.

While I agree that deflation isn't always positive and think that most of your points are very relevant I do think that the idea of buying cheaper rather than better goods can be argued. Consider that the consumer has a choice of a cheaper product (for $20) and a better quality one (for $30) and that the quality one will outlast the cheaper one by a factor of two (say 2 years rather than 1).

Consider then the following:

Cheaper $20 - lasts 1 year
Quality $30 - lasts 2 years

lets just assume that the "price" of both of these goods remains the same (so getting more expensive in real terms each year due to perhaps increased scarcity of resources required for manufacturing) then we would see the following spending occur over 5 years

        Cheaper  Quality
Year 1    20.0    30.0
Year 2  +20.0   +0.0
Year 3  +20.0   +30.0
Year 4  +20.0   +0.0
Year 5  +20.0   +30.0

Total   100.0     90.0

In this example by buying the quality product we have actually saved money.

Whilst this is a contrived example I've generally found that quality products will last much more time than their proportional cost (YMMV) so I do think that deflation can assist in favoring the choice of quality over the cheapest price (as I think the real problem is that a lot of people just don't bother to consider how long something will last these days).

Cheers,

Ian.

Sorry but I don't quite see how I "blamed money for consumerism" - consumerism is tied to inflation/deflation in that we see behavior such as "keeping up with the latest" vs. "keeping what I've got working" being fairly related to economic cycles but money itself causes neither.

I have no idea why my post would suggest anything to do with lords and fiefdoms either - care to explain?

Cheers,

Ian.

Just a few things I've mentioned when having to "defend" the deflationary aspect of Bitcoin to people who are new to the idea.

1) We live in a world that is rapidly running out of resources (such as oil now and later coal) due to consumption.

The idea of the necessity to have "ever expanding" economies must surely have a lot to do with this issue. A deflationary economy might well be of great benefit in helping the world to reduce the problems of over consumption.

2) We live in a world that is badly polluted by the very consumption our "growing economies" have so heavily promoted.

Slowing demand down (and especially the demand for "throw away" goods) surely is a good way to help the environment (and therefore all life living on planet Earth).

3) Goods these days are never made to last (I think most people even only just over 30yo would agree that many modern tools and devices are inferior compared to products that were being made by previous generations).

If your money was becoming more valuable by you not spending it then you are going to buy a replacement widget when you absolutely need it (and you would want that widget to last as long as possible so you are not losing even more by constant replacement).

Tie in the above with a bit about the greed of modern banks (which as a store for your savings in order to earn interest would be unnecessary with deflation) and you start to put forward a more convincing argument in favour of deflation for those that although perhaps schooled in Keynesian economics do understand the problems of the modern world (assuming they are not bankers).

Cheers,

Ian.

Well - it is just as well they didn't really go live today.

Already their system has stopped doing any trade (can't buy or sell anything and it shows a bunch of crossing bids and asks).

I've also found at least 5 bugs in the UI in as many minutes.

This doesn't feel like something that has been tested much at all.

More like an alpha version really.