There is a lot of competition for USD so why would they go to you?
I know that on other exchanges (e.g. Mt. Gox) I can have a wallet in any of the currencies they trade. So if for some reason the XBT/EUR was trading higher than the XBT/USD (after factoring the EUR/USD rate), then it might be more profitable to sell bitcoins and get those EUR, then at a later time when the two markets equilibrate I then buy BTCs and move the funds over to USDs. So I might hold and trade with EUR even though I might never deposit or withdraw EUR. This adds liquidity to that market. Does a Kraken account for someone in the U.S. allow wallets for both USD and EUR? |
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Bitcoin meets Silicon BeachThursday, October 10, 2013, 7pm Coloft, Santa Monica At this panel event, we'll be introducing Bitcoin to the broader Silicon Beach startup community and discussing the many opportunities that exist in the Bitcoin ecosystem for entrepreneurs and makers. Let's make Los Angeles the Bitcoin capital of the world!
Food and drinks are graciously provided by our sponsor BitPay.
THE PANEL
Special panel guests include:
• Tony Gallippi (CEO and founder of BitPay - the largest Bitcoin merchant processor)
• Vinny Lingham (CEO and cofounder of Gyft - a mobile gift card company which just raised $5MM in Series A and gives Bitcoiners a way to spend their coins at major retailers)
• Travis Skweres (CEO and founder of CoinMKT.com - a recently launched Bitcoin exchange)
- http://www.meetup.com/Los-Angeles-Bitcoin/events/139996962Also, the EFF is hosting an EFF members-only event. Bitcoin and privacy-enhancing technologies (e.g., Tor) are frequently part of the discussions. Thursday, October 3, 2013 from 6-8 PM - https://www.eff.org/event/members-only-speakeasy-los-angeles
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Why You Should Care About Bitcoin by Brandon Glier To really understand the power of Bitcoin, you need to think about it as 3 things: (1) a protocol, (2) a commodity, and (3) an ecosystem.
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Bitcoin has taken a very hard problem — how do you facilitate and record transactions online — and solved it for anyone to leverage for free. This capability may have profound implications that are not yet well-understood [...]
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It’s important to keep in mind that it takes time for the true market use case of a commodity to be developed. [...] Like oil, Bitcoin can be refined and put to use in novel and yet-to-be imagined ways.
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According to the GSMA 1.7 billion people have a mobile phone and no alternative to the cash economy. As digital cash, Bitcoin appeals directly to consumers as an accessible payment alternative without the risk and fees associated with existing credit and debit networks.
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For the first time in Internet history, settling transactions between multiple parties can be dictated and applied directly through open-source software and not through (largely) for-profit 3rd party institutions. - http://medium.com/editors-picks/1a812f8fa7cd |
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Changing password with confirmation emails and still not possible to log in  I was able to change my password and log in. Since their service is offered only to those who reside in a limited set of countries, I couldn't use their service but the change password system was definitely functional, for me at least. I did have two e-mails ... one stating that my account had been locked, and a link to unlock it. Then the reset password e-mail. Perhaps your account is locked? |
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Who cares if it's a better system or not because we would be the rich early adopters at the top.
Bitcoin exists as a payments system that is resistant to censorship and corruption. An example of corruption in the present payment networks is a credit card chargeback occurring due to fraud -- either friendly fraud or identity theft, etc. The costs of this fraud are a burden to all of us as the merchants increase their prices to accommodate the payment card network fees (merchant fees) and losses to unwarranted chargebacks. Bitcoin doesn't have this expense, and this is one tiny example. So don't obsess over who earns a one-time profit by having taken the risk of speculating on bitcoins. Instead appreciate how Bitcoin is a growing competitor to the entrenched systems, and how we now have a method of transacting without having to pay the extortion that we currently do to the financial and banking regulated monopolies. |
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accredited investor (or net worth over $1mil)
In one of the interviews (maybe this CNBC one, I didn't go back to listen to it again to verify) Silbert refers to BIT being open only to "sophisticated investors". I wasn't familiar with that term. Here it is: Typically, a sophisticated investor must have either a net worth of $2.5 million or have earned more than $250,000 in the past two years to qualify. - http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sophisticatedinvestor.asp |
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How would this be better than our current financial system?
Look at your nearest larger metro area. What buildings are the tallest? If that is like most every other larger metro area, then you answered "a large bank or financial institution". The financial industry is currently nearly 20% of the U.S. economy [Edit: 20% of all corporate income in the U.S.] .... and much larger even in some regions (e.g., NYC). Where do their incomes comes from? Of course, from you ..., from me, etc. Did you or anyone you know pay an overdraft? That's a fee that does not exist with bitcoin. How about a monthly account maintenance fee? Again, ... unless a third party E-Wallet is assessing a fee, such charges don't exist in Bitcoinland. So Bitcoin makes it possible that entire parts of the banking and financial industry are no longer needed or are dramatically simplified such that the banks can no longer suck rent from us as they currently do thanks to their regulated monopoly / cartel. |
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note the shift of hashing dominance to Europe.
the US is being deprecated:
And with exchanges as well. Kraken, based out of California, does not do any USD trading [Update: They just launched XBT/USD trading], and instead operates an XBT/EUR market. Bitcoin-Central.net (France) just re-opened, they had been a major exchange before and likely will see a high volume of XBT/EUR trading activity now that they are back. BiTSTAMP (Slovenia), rivals Mt. Gox and exceeds them on some days. BTC-E, accepts SEPA transfers, I believe. |
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the ability to find folks local to you who buy in quantity and can make these available to you locally worldwide.
What I'ld like to see is these traded at the local Bitcoin meetups and Satoshi Square-type trading events. One problem, though, is that the party willing to sell these may not be the same person willing to speculate on the exchange rate for silver bullion -- so that person might not be willing to invest in any significant inventory of the pieces. After seeing the Ripple DYM issue (in which the issuer holds a silver dime for each 1.0 DYM voucher unit out there) I'm thinking there is a solution to this. Essentially this lets this trader acquire a larger inventory of the pieces by selling the vouchers to buyers on Ripple. But then as each piece is sold that seller buys back one of the voucher units issued through Ripple. I guess it is no different from a consignment store concept. The advantage to doing it through Ripple is that the person who bought the voucher unit issue on Ripple is that that voucher can be sold, so the funds aren't locked in until the trader (issuer) holding the physical piece backing the voucher sells it. Open Transactions could be used for this as well, but this has already been done through Ripple (in DYM). |
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Demand arises from businesses accepting bitcoin, not from one time investments.
Well short-term demand can come from speculators / one-time investment but if that's all Bitcoins are used for then that demand eventually becomes excess supply and it becomes a race to sell as nobody knows where the bottom is. Eventually at some price new money from buyers will appear, such as perhaps a person who will need bitcoins to repay a loan at some point in the future, or a poker player who is willing to stock up on coins that suddenly seem cheap. So these are a couple sources of demand for Bitcoin. So how is this demand created? One phenomenal example are Beccy and Austin ... the lifeonbitcoin.com couple: To get small businesses to accept bitcoin, it’s not enough to invite them. We need to pave the road for them, with smooth asphalt and clear signage, and convince them they want to go there. If we want merchants and users to accept bitcoin, we need to think of it like we do web design on a web startup. We’re getting people to sign up for bitcoin like they signed up for their first email account, or the first time they used PayPal, or switching to a new OS. We’re selling them on it. And it needs to be absolutely painless. - http://lifeonbitcoin.com/what-will-drive-adoption/ |
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Others might be in legal limbo for a while
The "equity crowdfunding" that has been going on with BitFunder, BTCT.co, and others (and previously GLBSE) will never be allowed in the U.S., at least not as they exist today. Firstly, these exchanges/brokerages don't require the investor's identity, and thus they can't (and don't) send out 1099-DIV's on dividends and the exchanges at which the shares trade don't report any trading activity. There are other specifics coming in Title III (regarding the crowdfunding ammendment), which also put a huge wedge between what we've already seen with Bitcoin-based the cyber equity exchanges and what the SEC's rules will allow. For instance, the expectation is that equity crowdfunding in the U.S. will be open for those in the U.S. only. Additionally, the expectations are that no shares can trade on a secondary market for the first year after the IPO. So anyone that invested is stuck for that first year. There are other restrictions expected as well. When equity crowdfunding starts to become more widely understood, it will be interesting what role Bitcoin will play. There's not much the SEC can do if some online e-commerce LLC in Nevis accepts bitcoins for investment and pays dividends in bitcoins -- regardless of whether the investor is from the U.S. or anywhere. |
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Have to say I'm slightly alarmed by the number of people who think ripple will help the bitcoin economy!!!! (At the time of posting 32%) Does fiat money help gold and siver? no. exactly.
You confuse the Bitcoin economy (use of Bitcoin's payment network) with the value of a bitcoin (use of bitcoins as a currency). Certainly Bitcoin has value due to its unique properties, so if some competitor has similar properties and takes "market share" away from Bitcoin that will decrease the demand for bitcoins and thus a lower exchange rate. But my interest in seeing Bitcoin succeed has more to do with seeing an alternative to fiat become widely used, not to maximize the Bitcoin exchange rate. Ripple makes up for the weaknesses in the payment network surrounding Bitcoin, etc.
Bingo. Anything that adds to Bitcoin's utility should be welcomed. I just was at an event in which silver was one of the payment methods accepted. Let's say I only had bitcoins. I could have used Ripple to convert my bitcoins to DYM (voucher), and the merchant would then receive silver: Introducing Ripple Currency: DYM - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=149533.msg3219655#msg3219655 Both of us would have been happy. Neither of us would have touched fiat. That, ... would have been a win. |
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I was at an event in which silver was one of the forms of money accepted. I had some silver dimes with me and used them to pay for dinner and later drinks. That as the first time I had ever used junk silver in trade (rather than simply buying or selling a precious metal for investment purposes).
What was interesting was that even these little silver dimes were not of fine enough granularity.
For instance, in paying for a beer. One silver dime was too little. Two silver dimes was a little high.
If the merchant accepted DYM (a silver dime-backed voucher issued through Ripple), I could have paid with the precise amount (e.g. 1.6419 DYM).
I think that Ripple (and DYM) is something with great potential.
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