I think the idea is good, the poster is clean and elegant, but I'm not interested in paper. I think the points miss the full spectrum and are wordy at that. For example "Why should I care?" would not be relevant to most people, otherwise they'd own gold. In fact, it might be a counter argument. What? Not backed by the government? Oh my! In my own experience, it's the liquidity of bitcoins that are wonderful. And honestly, one either gets and uses it or not.

beyond cash

Excellent. I think you've provided the best analysis to come out of this thread!

Yeah the word building is as cool as it is tedious. For example oqaasilerifik (words, many, kept, a place) is a dictionary or a collection of books, it's also the name of the language ministry, and when they wanted to make a database of words, they called it oqaaserpassualeriffik which is something like the new place that contains lots and lots of words.

It can be funny too. The second largest municipality in the world is named Sermersooq, which means something like the great big ice cap (magnificent mass of ice). The new municipal intranet is called Sermeeraq, the smaller mass of ice.

I'm going to bet you've never been to a place where people don't live in abundance. You may be pleasantly surprised.

I don't care about bitcoin because it is free floating falling against fiat currency. I care because it is digital cash! You can go on for hours about why cash is good and needs to be removed from governments and banks, but people will get it in only one word, cash. In fact, I've stopped calling it digital crypto-currency, which to most ears is either gibberish, credit card, or debit transactions over SSL. Bitcoins are cash.

Bruce is an easy target, but he's trying to promote bitcoin. Give him a little slack. Perhaps we should all encourage local businesses to accept bitcoin. Let's make the news instead of reading about it.

Ah, a sensible departure from this thread. I am sitting overlooking gentle rainfall over the capital of Greenland while it snows above 700m. There is one word for snow 'aput', but like most Inuit languages, Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) is polysynthetic, which means we append a huge string of suffixes and modifications. I'm told Turkish and to a lesser extent Japanese do this, but nothing like the languages of the north. For example, 95% of all words in the Greenlandic bible are unique. There certainly are not dozens of words for shepherds and sheep in the arctic.

aput - snow
apivoq - it snows
aputsiaq - big snow
aputivut - our many snows
aputiga - my snow
aputaajaaneq - snow (in general, singular)
aqilluppoq - soft snow (as in Spring)
aperlaaq - newly fallen snow
apuserivoq - to play in snow
apusineq - snow drifts
apussarippoq - a thick layer of snow, there
appuppaa - snow covering (or like he is blocked by snow)
apusiutit - snow shoe

qanik - snowflake

aagussaq - a thing that appears after the snow has melted

Nanook - Big spirit of snow bear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi0e-kEWqBQ (0:59 - 1:05 he sings something about appreciating our great snow; lovely scenery and song, made for tourism)

While this may be true, a much more obvious explanation is that declines are geometric, not arithmetic as you've too simply implied. A drop from $30 to $10 is just as dramatic as from $3 to $1.

Just went to hooters.com to see their tech savvy implementation... Yeah, that looks about right

Hi Chodpaba, you may not be able to nail specific prices at specific times, but you seem to have a very accurate picture of daily volatility. In another thread we are discussing how a merchant may set prices with such volatility. Merchants can peg prices to recent VWAP, add daily inflation rate (1.7% since June), but this offers no protection from wild swings (roughly one 40% + drop each month). Is there a hard and fast way to calculate the expected volatility today based on past performance? And how would that risk translate into price?

I think what I am doing has the effect of bit-pay. I have my prices pegged to a stronger currency (euros,dollars) which fluctuates daily. It makes a mess of advertising, but at least I don't need to hedge against a week, only a day. While we've seen drops above 40% and many case above 20% single day falls, 2% has been typical since Spring.

It is a pity, but for now, I am afraid high inflation relegates bitcoin to an exchange protocol rather than a money (medium of exchange +1, store of value -1, unit of account ~1). In other words, Pay-pal without the centralization, but a measly fraction of the market.


"Ich würde eigentlich gar keine Gebühr akzeptieren."

Yeah, I can see that! My German is not hot, but the words are clear "I would accept no fee!". It's interesting to receive German/Austrian's (though not their grandparent's) perspective! It is no secret that 90 years ago, merchants in Berlin inflated their prices enormously and the farmers priced their produce out of the market. Before the French occupied the Ruhr, inflation was only a third of what we've seen the past three months in bitcoin. Customers were hoarding products of all kinds and spending their entire paychecks in a single day on anything that retained value. If only we were so lucky! Following the occupation the following years, however was a whole different catastrophic disaster.

"Du hättest eigentlich nur die Wechselgebühr deiner Börse in die Artikelpreise einzupflegen und die Artikelpreise dem BTC-Kurs entsprechend anzupassen. Ob täglich oder stündlich, bleibt dir überlassen."

Fortunately, we have no price controls nor prohibitions against foreign currencies. If I were profitable I suppose I would hedge for a day (2%) which is hardly worth calculating in.

Why? I moved a few BTC to your site. Performed no trades and continue to own entirely BTC.

M-Men and W-Women use log charts!

You're looking at a drop from $32 to $4 and I suppose you expect $0 by high tea?

According to Cagen, hyperinflation is "inflation exceeding 50% a month." Over the three month period from when bitcoin traded at $32 on 8 June to a low $6.3 on 8 September, bitcoin depreciated 42% monthly, 12% weekly or 1.76% daily against the dollar. I suppose it could have been worse. In the past week, bitcoin has depreciated 3% to 5% daily, which put bitcoin squarely in Cagen's hyperinflation zone, at least for the week.

For what I'm selling, there's less than a week between posting a price, chatting with a customer, and receiving payment. It would be nice if as a merchant I don't have to renegotiate the price after the customer has decided to buy. So with a low profit margin, I think it's reasonable to inflate prices 12% above cost and float it against the daily VWAP. Thoughts?

---

Phillip Cagan, The Monetary Dynamics of Hyperinflation, in Milton Friedman (Editor), Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money, Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1956).

Hello Zhou Tong,

I deposited BTC into bitcoinica and would like to withdraw BTC. However, it asks for a $ amount. I don't want 99% of my money, I would like 100% of my BTC. Can you offer this through Mt. Gox credits? Perhaps:


EDIT: No, scratch that. I want BTC, not MGoxUSD at arbitrary rates.

What interview? (links?)


+1
I even feel the mood on this forum has lifted - or the weak finally left.

Hey, do you guys have some thoughts on RMB? CNYUSB has been rising at a very steady 5% clip up for years (with a year plateau) last year resuming the trend in 2011. Nice controlled deflation against the dollar.

Is this the what you meant by deleveraging and contraction?: UBS $2 billion rogue trade

that was my point. ...at least what I meant to distinguish. (Jixtreme I thought you were trolling and didn't see until Xjosx that the laugh was on me. Good show!)

The Bit-Pay registration form does not seem to allow submission without an address in the US nor a website.

For my own particular purposes, I am content using an online wallet, exchange, or a local bitcoin client. I do not generally want USD nor EUR (personal speculation aside). My concern is the time arbitrage between advertising a price, request to purchase, payment received, and product shipment. I'm curious if other merchants mark up their prices (and how much), short the market, or negotiate a price just prior to shipment. I'm also curious how businesses operate and balance their accounts with highly inflating currencies, such as in Eritrea, Argentina, DR Congo, Venezuela today, or even hyperinflation such as Weimar Germany, Hungary or Zimbabwe.