All it would do is have apps for each phone type that (I presume it could only work with unlocked phones) connected to "bitcoin" related apps. There would be user reviews and rankings and that's pretty much it.

Say you want a business where you accept bitcoins... and the business itself buys some item and sends it to the person who bought with bitcoins. What legal hurdles are there?

when do you think they will start shipping?

Can bitcoin really be blamed if a criminal uses it? I think this is the first and only subject most mainstream media will talk about if they introduce their readers to the bitcoin.

Bitcoin is designed for the internet age. It's designed to be better than what we have at doing what money does. Since it is better at it's job, then people will use it. This includes criminals. But can bitcoin be blamed if a criminal uses bitcoin because it's a better and more convenient form of money?

That's like saying cellphones can be blamed because criminals can use them. Why does a criminal use them? because cell phones are a more convenient form of communication than writing a letter which is what we used to have.  Saying that bitcoin is bad because criminals use it is like saying that cars are bad because criminals can use them to help in their criminal lives. Why do criminals use them? Because cars are a better form of transportation than horse and running which are the forms of transportation they replaced.

Just thought I'd get that off my chest.

and to start accepting bitcoin. ahaaaa

I've read this multiple times but I can't remember where. does anyone have a source for this upcoming change?

If a btc exchange was richhhh..... couldn't it stabilize the price of bitcoins by buying some when there is a sudden excess of them on the market and releasing them slowly when there wasn't?

I skimmed some info about litecoins and I think it said that CPU processing power will be the dominant force rather than more parallel, GPU or asic power.

Here is my question though............ isn't a distributed program where you want to keep power into hands of many people better with the parallel way? For instance when you go to butterfly labs and look at their highest end mining asic... all it really is, is a box full of smaller asics. What that basically means is that it's very modular in the sense that even the smaller players have the same performance proportional to their investment that bigger players do. But wouldn't a CPU oriented mining system end up being dominated by people with really powerful super computers? (like the CIA and our government probably already has.. )

I was wondering on what legal authority does the state or federal government have the power to ban a plant from being grown? Such as marijuana.

wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government; I mean an additional article taking from the Federal Government the power of borrowing. I now deny their power of making paper money or anything else a legal tender. I know that to pay all proper expenses within the year would, in case of war, be hard on us. But not so hard as ten wars instead of one. For wars could be reduced in that proportion; besides that the State governments would be free to lend their credit in borrowing quotas.

Does this mean essentially that he thinks taxes should come from collected revenue and only spent after collected basically? Therefore nothing is created or borrowed?

I was thinking about mobile apps and selling them... but I thought it might be a good idea to simply advertise bitcoin for the free version of the app. what do you guys think?

I think we are in a bubble that will correct, as many do, but I also think that is an assumption. I'll call it the bubble assumption. If the price of bitcoins is going up at this rate and we think it is a bubble and it will come back down it makes the assumption that whoever is buying the bitcoins is doing so for a short term investment. Or it makes the assumption that the "correction" hasn't already happened, and yet either new investors, or the same ones simply bought their way through it. It makes the assumption that as the price rises... those who feel it is a bubble still haven't yet sold, and that money hasn't gotten into more "steady" hands.

I could go on and on but the truth is there are many possibilities and I don't think there is enough information to really know one way or another what the price of bitcoin is going to do.

I wish I was a big fish

[Why Bitcoin is better than gold]

I want to get this published so let me know what you guys think. Any feedback is welcome.

Why Bitcoin is better than gold

    First a quick introduction: Bitcoin is a relatively new digital currency. Its rules are enforced by math and open for anyone to see. Its security comes from those who participate
and dedicate a portion of their computer's resources to the bitcoin network. They in turn are rewarded for this and so the network is reinforced and self-sustaining.
Already it is the largest distributed computing project the world has ever seen, despite being in its infancy still.

    Currently there is one key area where gold beats bitcoin. That is confidence. The track record of gold spans thousands of years and it has been valued highly for
generations. Such a reputation is respectable. But it is also not something that can't be beaten. Bitcoin has trodden along for only 4 years now, and it is beginning to garner more trust with the reliability the network has shown.

    You might think that gold has more practical use than some "digital money". It is decorative and pretty to look at to some people. It conducts electricity very well.
But that pales in comparison to the practical usage of bitcoins. Bitcoins can be used like a currency, but one more versatile than has ever been seen. To illustrate
this I will just give a few examples of how someone can utilize bitcoins as a form of money.

    Say that you work in the United States and have family in South America. To help support them you send them money. Doing this, however, is typically a slow process and it is rife with fees for doing something that should be rather simple. With bitcoin, you can send bitcoins to your family, and they will arrive almost immediately.  The fee for this would be minor, if any. As another example, say that you are a seller of some good or service. Routinely you have been scammed by people who buy what you offer when they later issue a "chargeback" on their credit card. With bitcoin this kind of scam is impossible because payments are irreversible. And one more example: say we enter another Great Depression. During the Great Depression of 1929 there was no shortage of people. There was no lack of skills or willingness to work. There wasn't a lack of materials and resources. There was a shortage of money. Banks have the power to contract the money supply, and with that comes dark times. If bitcoin was used on a wide scale then such a contraction would be relieved(something that gold couldn't really solve as well as bitcoins, because of their high divisibility which enables them to perform like a currency. Try buying a loaf of bread with a gold coin worth 500 loaves of bread for instance.). To demonstrate another example.... you, the reader, if you had bitcoins you could even "tip" me right now for writing this article. You could from the seat at your own computer send any amount to the address that I will post at the bottom of this article. All you would need are some bitcoins... and with my address and no other information you could send bitcoins to me immediately. >: )

    You might think that since gold has such great confidence it beats bitcoin as a store of value.... well it does for now. However, I believe bitcoin is poised to take the lead eventually. There is a hard limit of 21 million bitcoins that will ever be created. Counterfeiting and duplicating them is impossible. Bitcoins are created at a predetermined rate. That rate is halved every 4 years until no new bitcoins will be created. The current amount of bitcoins that have been created so far is 10.772 million (so a little over half that will be created have been).

    There are a few characteristics that make something a great store of value. Rarity is the main characteristic. If something is rare enough then it doesn't take a large amount of it to represent great value. If something is rare then that also typically means it can't be duplicated or overproduced. Gold fits this description well. The rarity of gold can't directly be compared with bitcoins. There will only be 21 million bitcoins. There is already over 21 million pounds of gold mined. The amount of gold that has been extracted from the earth is an estimation, and the amount that will be further extracted is also an estimation. Additionally, in the future companies are already looking to mine asteroids and other extraterrestrial objects. So any gold sourced from there will dilute the value of all other gold by some margin. So while I can't say bitcoins are more rare than gold or vice-versa exactly, I can say that at any point in time you know how many bitcoins exist and you know how many will exist later. And there are few enough that 1 bitcoin ,if needed, can store a great amount of value.

    Even though only 21 million can be created... one bitcoin can store more units of value than a dollar. For example a dollar is 100 cents. 1 cent being the smallest unit.  A bitcoin is 100 million "satoshi's".
A satoshi is the smallest unit. So the smallest bitcoin unit looks like this 0.000 000 01  . The smallest unit in USD is .01  . This divisibility will allow bitcoins to be usable as a form of money even
if they reach a price parity with gold.


    To add to how bitcoin compares with gold as a store of value... I will mention storage now. The storage of bitcoins is more versatile than gold. You can store bitcoins embedded into a bar of metal, or a coin.
You can print them on a paper bill in the form of a barcode. You could even write them down and store them on a napkin and put it in a safe. While it's stored in the safe you can even add to your bitcoin collection
without opening the safe. You might wonder how this is possible. To possess bitcoins you need a private key. From this key, you generate a public address that can be shared with anyone. Bitcoins can be sent to this address and the bitcoin network will assign them to your private key even while it is held locked away. The only time you need your private key is when you spend your bitcoins. Furthermore, you can store them on a computer that is offline. Or you could even store them entirely inside of your head if you wanted (but which I don't recommend since without a backup your bitcoins would become lost if forgotten).
There are a variety of ways to store bitcoins and how secure that storage will be is up to you.

    Lastly, bitcoins have already won the online currency war before it has even begun. They have so much momentum... so much entrepreneurial spirit behind them that even a duplicate currency with identical code
couldn't compete with them at this point. Expect to hear more about them in the future.


Here is my public address: 1P3RQHZEBa2ncLRCiw8Zm2cZNTqdbxvpNc
(please note:  in time an address like this will be changed to a more "user friendly" looking one... similar to how an email address looks).

There needs to be a way to use some of the wealth that bitcoins represent. If someone could purchase real estate with bitcoins... it would be huge. A good thing for everyone. But how can it work? Most people can't afford to buy a house outright so they take loans to pay it over time.

I can think of a couple of ways... but I don't know a lot about real estate so please jump in..........

1.  The bitcoin real estate company or bank.... acts as a long term escrow holder of the deed to the house. The seller........ gives the deed to the company. The company monitors and tracks the payments of the buyer to the seller. If anything goes wrong with the buyer.... then the company works it out in slight favor of the seller (to not encourage foreclosure for instance) . This means that the seller of a house doesn't get the full value of their house at once... but slowly over time. as if they were the bank.

2. second way....... the bitcoin company actually buys the deed with bitcoins... and accepts bitcoins as payment. I'll finish this and edit it later I have to go at the moment.

would you recommend a netbook? what netbook would you recommend?

are escrow services free? are there any professional ones? if one was to use the marketplace to sell should they be using an escrow service? (what about bitmit... if you select escrow as yes... who is the escrow?)

wouldn't it be interesting if bitcoin not only broke silver's price per ounce per btc but maintained that?

It seems to me that a lot of people think "backed" currencies are great because they give those currencies value. A backed currency might be great but only because it prevents excessive and free printing. The value comes not from what it's backed by. That's my opinion.

I could be wrong since I don't follow the network that closely but it looks like it's gaining some momentum. Asics here we come?
I ordered one from BFL 

will we ever see drug traffickers deliver drugs across country borders with long range drones and accept payment in bitcoins?
it seems like removing people from the transactions would be a good idea. Just saying........

Terrorism plays off of the psychological fears of people and empowers governments. It's their perfect ally. If people weren't stupid then it wouldn't work, but the vast majority are. A herd of sheep  are controlled by the bark of a single dog. At any moment the sheep could turn on and trample the dog. And yet they do not because fear brings out the utmost stupidity in any species. (Okay maybe sheep were already dumb to begin with). The truth is.... a terrorist can't take your freedoms. But your government sure can.