Sorry for the intrusion. Another newbie here. I originally heard of bitcoin something like a year ago, but I didn't have any money to put into it then. I kind of wish I had. But that's the past. I was reading this thread, and I have to say I've had the same question as the premise, and you guys seem to have some answers, so I figured I'd ask here.
I do have a couple of questions, though. I'm halfway decent at understanding finance, despite being a relative layman, and there are some things I wa wondering about.
Decentralized - there is no central authority over bitcoin.
I agree that bitcoin is supposed to be decentralized in theory, but it really seems to me that a very large amount of traffic and funding is in the hands of a very small number of exchanges. If one goes down (and they have periodically) then the market is shaken, and could easily crash completely. You get enough money into one exchange, and it goes down because of black hats or poor planning or what have you, a lot of people could be ruined.
So it actually seems quite centralized in practice, and that concerns me.
No one can print more bitcoins when the limit of 21mil is hit.
This is another thing. Inflation is a constant thing. It always has been, and without artifical devaluation of currency, it always will be. Without regulatory bodies presiding over bitcoin to artificially control values (which we all know will never happen), then once the limit of 21 million is hit, prices can only go up. It's a system that favors early adopters and wealthy people far too heavily to make me comfortable.
No one can stop you from sending your bitcoins to someone else (wikileaks being a popular example)
No ridiculous fee's (other than 1 cent or whatever (believe it's even lower) for transaction fee) for sending someone money.
This I actually completely agree with. Companies and governments should never be able to tell you how you want to spend your money, so long as it's a legal action. And while I'm sure somewhere out there are people using bitcoin for illegal purposes, that's not a valid indictment of the currency as a whole, as many more people use USD for criminal activities.
The fees are slightly different, usually they are charged because the centralized authority has hundreds of employees to pay living wages. I don't know how the exchanges work, but I'm assuming that they're mostly low-employee operations. Please, correct me on that if I'm wrong.
Anyway, I am interested, but I admit a little wariness, and would like more information before I jump. Thanks!
Show Posts
