For my friends that didn't go through the mtgox process, I recommended this as the best way to get funds into the system. I still have a bit of $ in there too since I didn't get notified about this until it was too late. I hope I still get that $ back someday.

Sorry, I'm slow. What's the daily answer been?


I agree. We're doing our part to get more merchants on board with online stores.


Interesting way to look at it. Thanks everyone.

I've only been around a few months, but it seems like most people involved in Bitcoin who are vocal about it really want to see it succeed. Are we willing to see it succeed even if it costs us money?

When the price was above $200 I knew there would be a correction. Just about everyone did. But I didn't sell. I'm interested in the long term success of Bitcoin. When my friends compared Bitcoin to a single stock, I always corrected them and explained the problem and how Botcoin solves it. Now, I feel my argument is much harder to make.

When I see the price dropping so much, I have to ask myself, who is selling? The more people that participate in the swings, the bigger the swings will be. Sure, you might increase your holdings a bit, but will that be at the expense of the general public adopting bitcoin sooner? If day traders' holdings are increasing because of new people panic selling (which creates more volatility), aren't we just hurting ourselves?

I believe in Bitcoin's long term value. That said, Betamax was arguably a better technology than VHS. It still didn't win the adoption battle. Good money drives out bad, but with this volatility, Bitcoin isn't looking like good money at the moment. If day trading contributes to volatility, why are those who want Bitcoin to succeed day trading?

These are just my current thoughts. What do you think?

Do you think day trading slows adoption?

When I hear the praises of "darknet" this or that being sung, I'm reminded of the cheesy movie "hackers." In the real world, if someone doesn't follow FinCEN guidelines and register as a money transmitter, they go to jail (e-gold anyone?). I've talked to FinCEN employees (they are a simple phone call away). I've talked to the government employees in my state who are responsible for registering money transmitters. From what I understand, it's not a big deal to get registered. I was told the FinCEN registration is free.

Please don't misinderstand me, I think governments around the world are corrupt and doing many evil things. I'm ashamed of what my tax dollars put into action. I do think darknets should be built, but as a backup plan. I'm not (yet) willing to go off the grid completely.

If we're shortsighted about this and build a system that doesn't follow "the rules" then every single person who uses that system takes on the liability of being attached to activity that could be deemed illegal. That is not the best road to adoption by legitimate businesses.

I agree we need more exchanges. I like the idea of decentralizing them as much as possible. I just want to remind those involved to think long term. Unless you're thinking the majority of the world is ready to fight their governments and break the law in order to follow the higher spirit of the law to support freedom... Unless that happens, we still have to play by the rules.

I'd like to see more posts here about those rules, the process of following them, and the liabilities they introduce.

I have to admit, I deviated from my normal "hold" plan.

I put in a little more USD via bitfloor and bought some BTC.

You?

Thanks for the reply, Stefan. I can put my tin hat away now... I thought maybe the "bad guys" were trying to shut things down.

I'd love your feedback: http://www.foxycart.com/blog/why-does-foxycart-support-bitcoin

It's fun to take my personal passions and bring them to the "corporate" blog.

http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/www.weusecoins.com

I'm not sure how long it's been down, but considering just about everyone (including myself) links to that site to explain it... that's not a good thing. Anyone here run that site or know who does? Are they just overwhelmed with legitimate traffic or is something else going on?

Even if this was 50% true... I just don't think everyday people will believe it.

Scary.


Nice work. I wonder how trustworthy that report is?

Nicely done!

I love the Bitcoin tip jar example for content creators. More examples like this will open people's eyes to the possibilities.

Thank you for the update, Brian. I'm glad to see CEO's here in the forums. Right now, in the just-out-of-toddler stages of Bitcoin, this forum, the IRC channel and the Subreddit are the lifeblood of the system. Quick, honest communication is critical to keep things flowing.

Anyone else feel like this will be all over the news soon? The haters are surely looking for more mud to sling. I wonder if it will shake some coin free from loose hands who thought any transaction using Bitcoin is fully and completely anonymous.

I co-founded FoxyCart.com which is an ecommerce platform. You could use it for online purchases as well as in store purchases and we recently added Bitcoin support. If you get connected with a developer (we're built as a tool for developers), keep us in mind.

Good luck!

I grew up surfing Huntington Beach, CA and it would be awesome to see more surfers using Bitcoin.

Rick Falkvinge posted an interesting article today related to this discussion:
http://falkvinge.net/2013/04/03/why-bitcoin-is-poised-to-change-society-much-more-than-the-internet-did/

Wow. I'm still letting this sink in.


I will definitely be checking that out, thank you.


I've thought about this before, actually. In fact, one of the things that got me interested in Bitcoin again was seeing Anonymous accepting it as a way to support their hacktivist activities. If Anonymous is behind it, it does have an army.

Max Keiser has a good peice on this topic: http://rt.com/op-edge/bitcoin-versus-government-keiser-189/

The more I think about it, the more I wonder how far the government will go to stop it. In the US, they've already once confiscated our gold using the threat of fines and imprisonmnet. Could they do the same here? Wouldn't it be as simple as taking our safes, our computers, and cracking our password management software to know where our Bitcoin is stored?

Those who hide beneath the radar would probably be fine, but what about those who stand up and use their real names (as I have done)? How many more Aaron Swartz situations will we have?

You've seen this, right? http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1bh3s9/coinbase_to_service_more_purchases/

Sounds to me like they are doing what they can to allow people to buy more coins. Makes sense from a business standpoint.

Mind = blown.

I've seen comments here and there about financial tools being built on top of Bitcoin, but I haven't looked into it yet. Those links are a great starting point.

A stock market with no centralization? Loans with no middle men? This really is revolutionary technology.

Thanks for sharing.

Hah! I just pulled up a random relevant image result from Google search for this post, though I did kind of snicker at the eyeball. Your green triangle made me lol.


That's a great idea. I hope I make enough money to be able to give them away as well. I'd love the title of Bitcoin Robin Hood.

There seem to be a lot of posts recently about the revolutionary nature of Bitcoin. Granted, I'm new to the game, so maybe this has been going on since the beginning. For me, research into the corrupt banking system and how money works led me to Bitcoin (which I've blogged about).

I tweeted this last night: The revolutionary war of the future may not be fought with guns or bombs. It just might be fought with currency.

Are we the revolutionaries of tomorrow?



If so, I hope our barricade is made of more than chairs and desks. We need to understand the weapons being used. This FinCEN stuff, for example. We need to understand it well and play by the rules. If you sell Bitcoins locally, do you have to be registered? I've already emailed the guy in my state in charge of the money transmitter's registration stuff. I need to learn more.

If things get crazier, a different day may come where new rules need to be created or the current ones broken, but I think we're pretty far off from that. Too many people are still asleep.

I was watching the Matrix again today and was reminded of something.




I edited out the part about those still in the system being our enemy. I don't think they are. I do think, however, we should be having tough conversations with our financial advisers, with our parents, with our bankers. We should continue to look for reasons this won't work and promote the reasons it will.

If you haven't already, you should tell your friends about Bitcoin. You should blog about it. I was hesitant at first because I didn't know if it would crash tomorrow (with my friends holding the bag). As my confidence has grown, I've since focused the conversation on fiat currencies and the problems Bitcoin solves (instead of the current MtGox price). For those who understand that conversation, they are getting excited about Bitcoin.

Regardless of what happens, it's been a fun ride so far. I've throughly enjoyed learning from you all.