When I look at the ways in which Bitcoin is commonly said to be superior to government currency, I see the following: No inflation, low transaction fees, ability to easily transmit money anywhere in the world, no government control of money, no banks controlling money, no chargebacks, possibly anonymous.
For the average person, many of these are going to be irrelevant. Most people already aren't paying much if anything in the way of transaction fees to transfer money, most people have no need to transfer money to foreign countries, most people aren't too concerned with someone sending them money and then reversing the charges. <snip> So there will be bitcoin banks and bitcoin credit cards, which is where people will actually store their bitcoins and which they will use to buy things with.
<snip>
Again, there will be bitcoin banks and bitcoin credit cards, which is where people will actually store and spend their money, so there's no anonymity there.
<snip>
Probably the one major change I can see which would impact the average person would be the lack of inflation. The question is, would this be a good thing?
The average person has very little money. If you're poor, you have no money, and if you're middle class, you still have very little money, but instead your wealth (if any) is stored in your house and some stocks you've invested in for your retirement. No longer losing 2% to 4% a year of the few thousand dollars (or few thousand dollars worth of bitcoins) you have in the bank is not going to make much difference for the average person. Few people are actually losing much money due to inflation, since people invest their money and earn a rate of interest at least equal to inflation.
I think it's clear that you have an extremely U.S.-centered perspective here. Worse, it's a U.S.-centered perspective that seems to primarily focus on allegedly "average" individuals who have socially acceptable "good" jobs, use banks, have loans and credit cards, follow all the laws, pay all their taxes, and generally behave like good little citizens and "do everything right." Apparently, there are entire swaths of even the U.S. demographic alone that you don't seem to rub elbows with on anything close to a regular basis. I think if you examine just how valid your analysis of "average people" (U.S. and worldwide) is, you will probably see some of the answers to your questions on your own. |
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is anyone having problems with their speeds on the client? mine is all over the place at the moment, iv also noticed my speed on the client when at max isnt the same as what's shown on the site itself,
Same here. One of my workers is two Block Erupters. It fluctuated wildly last night, triggering several email alerts that I didn't think it should (I have the lower bound set at 400 MH/s) and just a couple of hours ago it dropped down to 0 MH/s, before bouncing back up. I'm using bfgminer on that worker, not the Java client. EDIT: Guess I should add that the fluctuation seems to be server-side; the actual miner seems to be a fairly consistent 600-700 MH/s. |
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How about "Getting Paid in BTC?"
I know I'd accept a signficant chunk of my paycheck in bitcoin, and could spend much of it on food, clothing, etc.
(Yes, one could just take the paycheck and spend some of it on bitcoin oneself, but that's an extra step, with extra considerations.)
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Now that I've bought land I definitely plan to sell food for bitcoin. My farm will focus on high-quality, free range pork and chicken. When the food forest crops come in we'll have many kinds of berries and fruits, and eventually nuts.
I need something that I can ship out to internet customers. Any ideas?
I envy you... What mkbit said. I would drop the meat. Noooo! I never got to sample the candied bacon that Bitpantry sold before they closed shop. I've already got a source for awesome baklava, now I need some delicious meats too! |
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Do you live in an alternate universe?
I don't live in a crappy country, but in Europe. Anyway, even if we suppose that it exists somewhere in the world, it is nothing compared to the advantages of the credit card, 0% loan, cashback and bonuses every time you use it, and so on. Well, let's be honest, credit cards have advantages over bitcoin. But cost isn't one of them, at least not collectively. It *can't* be. The consumers are paying for every benefit that credit cards provide. In fact, they're paying so much that the credit card companies can give all of those benefits and still make a hefty profit. And since bitcoin simply has fewer costs associated with it, there's no way that, collectively, bitcoin wouldn't be cheaper. Credit card costs just aren't evenly distributed. So yes, if you're prudent and sharp, maybe you can come out ahead individually, even though it's probably a lot less of a gain than you might think. But that doesn't mean there aren't many people around you for whom credit cards are an expensive burden... not everyone can be sharp. (True, everyone *could* be prudent but I wouldn't hold my breath.) I think it'll be interesting to see how the integration of bitcoin into M-Pesa turns out. That would be a true collective costs comparison. |
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"Because its digital, the cost of managing it — and one of the primary responsibilities of government is running the money supply — is much lower. You’re re not constantly replacing lost and warn out coins. Theoretically, instead of an entire government organization like the Mint, all you need is a laptop and a good economist."  |
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Why is there pro-Devcoin content posted in the group?
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You know, I hate bad luck just as much as anyone. But then strings like this: 258837 - 2013-09-19 12:07 - 54m - 23,995,425 - 112,628,548 - 19.2%
258828 - 2013-09-19 11:12 - 2h 19m - 61,116,371 - 112,628,548 - 41.9%
258806 - 2013-09-19 08:53 - 1h 02m - 27,446,209 - 112,628,548 - 21.6%
258797 - 2013-09-19 07:50 - 18m - 8,340,853 - 112,628,548 - 7.1%
258794 - 2013-09-19 07:31 - 3h 22m - 88,149,783 - 112,628,548 - 54.3%
258758 - 2013-09-19 04:09 - 1h 37m - 41,050,989 - 112,628,548 - 30.5%
258744 - 2013-09-19 02:32 - 59m - 25,689,517 - 112,628,548 - 20.4%
sure help ease the pain. |
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Just because you don't pay them directly does not mean they do not exist. I regularly pay significantly less for items when I do not use a credit card.
I have no idea where you live, but I have never seen in my whole life anyone paying less by cash.  Do you live in an alternate universe? I first noticed a gas station (not this chain) offering this deal in Clarksville, Tennessee recently. Discounts for cash exist, in a number of areas (think: buying a used car,) and they can be significant. |
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Even better would be to go to a BTC ATM on arrival in another country, get your local cash. On departure any cash not spent put back in BTC ATM, too easy. And the ATM provider isn't going to charge you any fees for this privilege? Why should it be any cheaper than changing USD<->local? Because (1) there's a lack of the kind of overhead that's present in the banking industry, (2) there's much less infrastructure needed to $upport, and (3) it's not being provided by an industry used to bailouts and special privileges. I fully expect extra charges to be incurred by using a bitcoin ATM. I also fully expect that if those charges exceed normal bank charges, it will only be because banks are involved and are adding their fees into the cost. If they're uninvolved, I fully expect the charges to be less than that of your typical bank. All that said, I also believe banks + bitcoin will be a future option. |
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I really cant imagine someone using bitcoin who wouldnt have a smart phone O_o
I've never owned a smart phone and have been using Bitcoin since July 2010. I'd urge you to reconsider; I think you're missing out. As cheap as they are now, they're affordable enough to buy one just as a dedicated mobile spending wallet. And once you have that, it may very well change the way you use (and view) Bitcoin. |
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Version 0.8.1 is out. Get it on Google Play or direct download- Adding 140 fiat currencies, 164 supported fiat currencies in total
- Choice of which exchange to use (Bitstamp/MtGox/weighted average)
- Expert Mode: This allows us to hide some of the more advanced stuff to make the wallet even easier to use for newcomers.
- Smooth and snappy swiping between balance and transaction history
- Got rid of one step/screen in the send wizard
- Transaction details now linking directly to blockchain.info
- Improved functionality for pasting amounts when sending coins
Enjoy Nice! Moving the advanced features to an Expert Mode should really help in drawing in new users. |
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really cant see a need for this type of thing. if you are worried about family members not being able to handle security etc then give them an online wallet like inputs.io and they can use it like paypal.
I really cant imagine someone using bitcoin who wouldnt have a smart phone O_o
Please explain me how a smartphone is more secure than a pc. Viruses exist for smartphones too Well, I'd imagine the average non-Windows smartphone (the majority) to be notably more secure than the average Windows PC (the majority,) given equal amounts of effort put into securing the device. But really, I think a reasonably-secured smartphone--or just one that's dedicated to the purpose--functions fairly well as a suitable hardware spending wallet, especially for anyone experienced with Bitcoin. |
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westkybitcoins -- I know what is happening with gold. The US Government (and possibly in other countries too) is melting the bars down, creating cores made of tungsten, and casting a thin layer of gold back on them.
Surely you have google searched the tungsten filled gold bars, haven't you?
For those who don't know, tungsten weighs almost exactly the same as gold, and is being used to create gold bars that don't have a lot of gold in them.
Gold coins are probably ok, as are small gold bars, but the big ones.... I'd be very suspicious.
Yup. Tungsten-filled gold is the new big thing. But it's been worse than that. http://www.emirates247.com/markets/gold/tons-of-gold-imports-turn-to-dust-on-arrival-2010-08-15-1.279082I agree with you, I wouldn't touch anything alleged to be gold that's bigger than a one-ounce piece at this point (and I would test those pretty carefully.) |
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Every year for the past few years I hear radio ads that say the "experts" say gold is going to rise 30-50% and more and COULD go higher... then it doesn't. Gold has gone down steadily, even though the "EXPERTS" give the same speech every year about how "Don't worry, this time for sure it'll go up! Really!".
The idea of BTC rising above $300 is utter nonsense, it will not happen. The only people even making such ridiculous claims are the ones who need it to go that high to make any sort of profit at all because they foolishly bought ASICS without stopping to think and research properly.
You really have to listen to these radio ads and anyone speculating anything. They are full of important buzz words like "could, might, can, history has shown, etc".
And it is also utter foolishness that the ASIC manufacturers are SELLING their ASICS, because if they thought they could make a better profit by mining with them, they'd be doing it! Every time you send an ASIC manufacturer or reseller money for an ASIC, they laugh at you and collect money! You may eventually get an ASIC, but it is too late now.
Your time frame is WAY too short. I've been in gold only a little over a decade, and let me tell you, the jumps have been PHENOMENAL. Sure, the last few years have actually seen a dip, but long term, it IS only going to go up. Trying to treat it like a get-rich-quick pump-and-dump stock will only burn you. Yes, there are companies selling gold. But what I see *everywhere* I drive, and in the newspaper, to the masses, is new businesses whose sole business it is to BUY gold from you. That's what the masses are doing... selling their gold, their "extra jewelry." Governments openly admit to manipulating the price, do you really think they try to manipulate it up? (If you do, you might want to revisit what happened when Germany recently demanded their gold from the U.S. Fed.) Same thing with Bitcoin. It is a revolutionary new technology, unlike anything mankind has ever had. It's unique properties, and the fact that people will eventually want what Bitcoin offers, are what will have the bitcoin price crashing through $300/btc in due time. $100 is a steal, yes, even after the meteoric rise from <$1. And this is despite the fact that, while awareness is growing, it's STILL only a fraction of a fraction of people that actually own bitcoins. When bitcoins come to be owned by just the next wave of early adopters, the price will be high enough that we'll look back and include $100 as part of the "glory days" of cheap bitcoins. EDIT: Spelling |
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Did any news surface yet?
 Sure. The Federal Reserve decided to buy bitcoins and namecoins. Would be their smartest move in some time. |
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Having said all this I will seem like an apologist for the current financial system, but actually I am anything but. My main purpose is to point out something I believe many are wilfully ignoring: Bitcoin is a replacement for cash - digital cash. It is not a replacement for the banking system. This was clearly stated by Satoshi from the beginning, and is obvious from the design.
Hmm. Great point. I believe I've been viewing the two (digital cash and digital banking) as one, right from the start. In reality, in the future we may see online sites with options to pay with Bitcoin (digital cash), or Bitcard (Bitcoin-based bank card). We'll have the usual sorts who tut-tut over the danger of holding all that digital cash at home, on your own computers, when it could all be safe and sound in BitBank, or whatever sort of overlaying system crops up on top of Bitcoin. |
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Just talking about it , it just dropped at 36% 1h32m . Maybe next one will be also under 1h00m.
So you basically say, we should keep on talking about the blocks flying in and they will do so then? Astonishing! I wonder when the next on will be ... Soon. Very, very soon. No need to even check, just rest assured that by the end of the day there will be several blocks in the queue waiting for confirmation. Believe. |
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Just now one of the lose address (1CzAncjXYjtiXNC4CNAw4RoKdQLoi72xn )made 2 new transaction. this address is 1dice1e6pdhLzzWQq7yMidf6j8eAg7pkY for SatoshiDICE 0.0015% . What should i do now for next?
You haven't tried to send money from that address recently, have you? no. i didn't do anything from this address after stolen. Then it sounds like he actually has your keys. Which makes it even more strange that he left change in the address earlier. Laziness on his part? Is he having to manually enter transactions or something? It's all very odd. So far the evidence indicates: - The PRNG isn't the issue at hand.
- The thief has your keys.
- The money-snatching process isn't automated, at least not in any efficient way.
My best guess is, he has your password, and is actually logging onto blockchain.info and moving money from your address. HOW he got your password is the tricky part that would reveal a lot. If you already know if your password was weak, that could solve that right away. If you DON'T believe you have a weak password, then likely your system is compromised. (There's a way to test that, but it would involve spending a little more BTC, which probably isn't necessary at this point.) |
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Be gone bad block ! , at least last time it worked  It worked! HOORAY Should i push for more blocks ? Can you attract good blocks, or do they take a long time to be trained? Hmm. Ya know, I was just reading an article where scientists described how one's timing and frequency of checking a random event literally influenced the probability of the event occurring. And we're talking over the long term, not just in a way that averaged out over time. Maybe all we need is software telling us all when to check and not to check our miners? Timed appropriately, maybe we can put this quantum voodoo to work for us!  |
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