Boo unto the Devilish IMFs!

BitCoin is the answer to the World's Problems of economiks! Why introduce this so-called "Bancor" as a global super-currency, when at the end of the day it will suffer from the same flaw as all national currencies face? The fact that it is controlled by a bank, which is, essentially, what the IMF is!

Woe unto them!

Use BitCoins!

"Stop the Banks!" - that's a good one!

Didn't you try and do this before, but somebody proved you were a scammer?

Hi,

I heard somebody mention they were attempted to set up this kind of service for local UKians. How many British people have an interest in such a service?

[EDIT]

There is now a UK-based exchange!

Praise the Lord!

http://britcoin.co.uk/

I recently bought something, but I'm not sure when I get the rebate?

Your idea of actually physically printing the value is quite a good one, actually. But rather than have the binary string, wouldn't it be better to have it in hex? Less space?

Hi, I wanted to buy something from amazon.co.uk. But I don't know what link I need to use to get the rebate.

Can you advise, please?

Whatever the government uses to tax cash-in-hand jobs, this is the way they will track taxes.

Back to the original point, being that governments will indeed want their tax, and the only solution is that we will revert to voluntary payments. Every company is strictly audited, taxing anything that comes out etc.

It would be the same.

Fair enough you can still do "BitCoin-in-hand" jobs, but if there if you apply for a job and there's a 6 year gap in your employment, they will ask. "were you unemployed all this time?" then you go, "yeah I was" they go "who by?" and u say who. THEN they will ask that employer how much tax you paid, and if you haven't, they will make you catch up.

Simples

When you gonna launch this idea, man?

The thing is, is that the checks are supposed to be designed for people who want to use BitCoin but do not have the technological requirements to use it, if they did, they might as well just download the client.

If there is a scratchpad, then that provides confidence that the note has definitely not been redeemed and can be circulated in trade with confidence, where here the only person they need to trust is the issuer of the check, and not the handler of them.

This would require kiosks being set up, true enough, but certainly more secure than just printing this stuff out. Printing checks out would only be useful if you were going to give them to the person you wish to deposit your BitCoins with, like real checks, instead of a sort of check-book money alternative.

If I were to use this, I'd go for the scratchpad rather than folded paper! Just a personal preference if there were competing services.

Wait a second, why do you need the public keys on the checks?

Hold on a second, I think I misunderstood the process.

So basically you submit your BitCoins to you at an address you'll create. You then provide the user who submitted the BitCoins a QR code containing the private key to the BitCoins. Whoever you pay this to can then take it hope, scan it, have access to the money and send it to themselves.

That actually sounds ok, because they don't need to trust you to pay. They only need to trust that you won't shift the money around to make the check bounce, and unlike a normal check, there isn't a specific payee embedded in the note.

I see where you're coming from, pretty good, tbh, doesn't even need to be printed out, just keep it as an image on your phone or something which can get scanned and picked up. I would like to see this service used when BitCoin is accepted as a currency on a local level.

I would have to disagree with even that. If you are talking about the average-joe, they would rather get some physical cash, go to a local shop, browse, and then pay money to receive good.

This is much more preferable to going into a shop, seeing what you like, rushing back home to print out a check, rushing back to the local shop to exchange the check for the good, the shopkeeper then rushing back home or to a computer to cash in the check, but then a percentage is taken off as a fee.

This is where phone-apps would be best for this sorta thing.

OK, so if this works primarily as a cheque, system, I cannot see why people won't just use their BitCoin clients?

The reason why checks work in the real world, is that some people cannot get bank accounts, so they use checks to go to these services who cash it in for a price and give them cash.

The service you are proposing offers no extra utility. In fact, it would cost somebody more to use your check method, and it also takes up more time, they have to print it etc etc.

I do not understand the advantage you are "selling". Why should somebody use your check-service as oppose to send BitCoins to the payee directly using the client, which doesn't cost anything?

This is a very interesting idea, and would definitely be vital for the less tech-savvy as well as those without cheap, efficient access to the internet.

The problems I foresee with this would be the following:

- How do we know each check has been "genuinely" created?
     For example, how can we be certain that for each check there are BitCoins that represent this, we get into the realm of fractional reserve banking. I suppose the fee is supposed to prevent that, but I still feel this needs to be addressed. The issue here is that a person is allowed to print their own money, literally. What happens if somebody prints out loads of the same check. Fair enough, the serial is unique and can be checked on the internet... but if you already quick and easy access to the internet, why bother with paper checks in the first place?

- Isn't it a bit lumber-some
     So if somebody wishes to trade, they need to get that person's public key and then print it on their home computer, assuming they have a printer, to start with, and then trade it with that specific person only? They then cash it in on their home computer? Sounds like alot of labour for people who already have access to the internet anyway to use BitCoin client instead of this service, which also costs money.

-=Suggestion=-

A paper-currency version of BitCoin is what will truly propagate it amongst those without access to computers or even internet. Perhaps some research into how current fiat currency is printed, and the security technologies invested into them in making them unlikely to be counterfeited should be undertaken and simply applied to BitCoin. I do not know what kind of BitCoin Bank would want to undertake the project, but basically it would work as a paper-currency "pegged" to the BitCoin.

Yes I understand the inherent risks associated with this endeavour, especially considering the fact that BitCoin is supposed to steer away from fiat, centrally controlled currency, however, to build on the free idea, make it so that in order to withdraw X amount of BitCoins in note-form, one needs to pay an extra 1%, or whatever is decided by the issuing authority, more than what they are withdrawing in order to go towards the BitCoin's banks costs of producing the note, and also as a payment for the service of using the note amongst people who do not need the internet, this would be useful in third-world countries wishing to adopt BitCoin, but are unable to due to inaccessibility to cheap internet or computers.

Of course, this doesn't mean only one bank should rule them all, perhaps as other banks prop up, they also make their own unique paper-currency, and the free market will eventually decide who to put their trust in, with regards to who will promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of the BitCoins the notes represent.

Certainly, the ideal way would be to have everybody use the BitCoin client, but I fear this may be too idealistic, people have a sentiment to holding cash in their hand, not on their hard drives.

Some people, anyway.

Anybody?

I don't know whether I should be insulted or entertained. I think I'm both.

It's alive, lol.

There are two options now, Free2Play and Pay2Play (for premium). The development has been taken over by neXeon so we should see some improvements come about.

It was closed down ages ago because of a DDoS attack, I believe.

Does anybody play the game Face of Mankind?

The community is very harsh, indeed, but I was always attracted to its potential. Just wondering if anybody else here has heard of the game and sticks with it?