http://lesswrong.com/lw/5hy/cryonics_promotional_video_contest_10_btc_prize/

This might appeal to you, Kiba.

In addition, I expect that one or two vaults will lose the money due to hacking or incompetence or a software error.

Eventually, rock-solid vaults will emerge, and will fiercely guard their good repuation.

Then, some years later, governments will regulate Bitcoin vaults, and the providers will do just the minimum required to maintain their registration, meanwhile enjoying the protection from competition that you get with a regulated industry sector.

Then, some years later, there will be a crash because it turns out that the regulated vaults were using their Bitcoin deposits on unsustainable collateralized debt obligations. The government will say that it happened because there wasn't enough regulation.

Rinse, lather, repeat.

In the UK you can get credit cards that pay you back 0.5% of all your purchases. I have one of those, which I pay off every month, so I never pay fees or interest, yet I get an annual rebate payment.

Here's how I see it:

At some point there's going to be a massive Bitcoin bubble. This isn't it. The massive bubble will occur after Bitcoin starts appearing in the financial advice sections of newspapers and on mainstream TV shows (e.g. Oprah).

Then, at some point the price rises will be unsustainable and there will be a massive price crash.

Then, everyone will know about Bitcoin and will just start using it as money.

As for the current price rise, it's hard to know whether it's driven by an ongoing increase in interest about Bitcoin (in which case there won't be a price retreat), or whether it's driven by one (or a few) large buyers (in which case there will be a price retreat if they decide they "have enough" bitcoins before the next large buyer arrives).

It's an understandable beginner's mistake by Patrick, and Grondilu's response is the correct one. BiddingPond might want to consider adding a phrase "even if the value of a bitcoin changes" to the confirmation dialog box, just to make this clear.

You may find it easiest to cash out of MtGox by selling your MtGox USD for PayPal or something else at #bitcoin-otc.

On 9 April, user u2u3 opened a forum thread about how to buy 200,000 to 400,000 bitcoins "in the next few months" at $2 per coin. This was at a time when the going rate was less than a dollar per coin, and a price of $2 seemed unthinkable for the near-term.

After a brief discussion, u2u3's conclusion was that "Buying up slowly on MtGox is probably the way to go".

Maybe u2u3 got his $400,000 cleared, and has been "buying up slowly on MtGox". MtGox transaction volume shot up on 12 April and has been generally high since then.

So if Bitcoin becomes as "valuable" as Facebook, that would equal $2381 per bitcoin.

Why limit your figures to the US economy? Anyway, it depends on how much economic activity is done with Bitcoin, so it's hard to predict where it will end up.

I didn't know that one. French cinema is amazing.

I like the version where the guns are pointed around the circumference of the circle, and everyone shoots when the signal is given.

Those who are not selling don't think that it's a bubble, even if they say it is.

For businesses, what you need is a third party enabler. Here's how it works.

Merchant's shopping cart displays the total (say $25), together with a bitcoin equivalent valid for one minute (say 7 BTC). If the customer pays 7 BTC, the enabler gets the Bitcoins and pays the merchant $25. No risk for the merchant that way. Most merchants don't want to mess with currency hedging.

Obviously the enabler needs to set their rates so that they make a profit. In a rising market, they can keep a "float" of Bitcoins, and make money on the rising value of their float in addition to what they make on their exchange rate margin.

This is a huge business opportunity for someone who does it right.

LOL, someone just traded for $4.15 at MtGox.

I also withdraw the $0.85 quote that I sent by PM.

I bet your legal counsel don't accept payments in Bitcoin.

Noting beats the buzz you get when you see the message "Generated 50 Bitcoins" in your client!

".web" is pronounceable and has mainstream appeal. For example, the general public would find it natural for the CIA website to be at cia.web, and for the main Bitcoin website to be at bitcoin.web.

".bit" is too nerdy-sounding to catch on.

This is one of the reasons why ".com" has been so successful. It's easy to pronounce without sounding stupid.

Anyway, after ".web" achieves dominance, the suffix can just be dropped. To get to the CIA website, you type CIA into your browser. To get to the main Bitcoin website, type bitcoin into your browser.

When a company is listed on the stock exchange, we don't consider its "market cap" to include shares that have been authorized but not yet issued.

But yeah, "market cap" is not quite the right term to describe the number of issued bitcoins times the value of one bitcoin.

There is always a risk that the cash is counterfeit.

Plus, cash can become invalid. I once had some Swiss banknotes. Some years later I was transiting through an airport in Switzerland and tried to spend them. I was told by every store that the design had been replaced by a newer one and that I couldn't spend them. All I could do was to send them to the central bank to be replaced by the new design, but that wasn't practical for me.

My offer:

Strike price of 2.10 expiry July 31st premium of .19 each, European style. Minimum quantity 500, maximum quantity 1000.