|
This completely ignores that fact that large corporate interests such as Apple, Microsoft and the MPAA are in fact a much greater threat to Internet Freedom and Liberty than governments. Let us not forget that Apple has already censored Bitcoin. The US government has not. The above manifesto is not pro-Bitcoin in the slightest.
|
|
|
|
...
3. BitCoins are volatile
> Duh, so is every currency. In fact, the past 4 months have been the most stable...ever. Didn't Zimbabwes currency inflate by like 10000% in 2 years?
...
This is way off. The annual inflation rate in Zimbabwe reached 6.5 × 10 108% in December 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwean_dollar. When government fiat currencies go bad they can go really bad not just 10000% |
|
|
|
I am really hoping this wall gets gobbled up before they can withdraw it. These days the chances of that happening are way better than a few months back.
The wall strategy will will continue to work in this market until it gets a lot bigger. You are right but its still a risk for the builder as they never know when a bigger shark will enter the pond until its to late, and the way people are not panicking so much lately a bigger shark may see it as a nice bite, instead of sitting back slowly nibbling to avoid slippage. What I would like to see, is some comeuppance of 'oh shit I am not the biggest fish here anymore'. So very true and there is not much behind this wall should it fall. |
|
|
|
-Enlarge the Bitcoin economy - say by every current user putting at least one thing/service fire sale on bitmit or similar . There is nothing wrong with this for some users; however not for every user. For many people in their 40's 50's and 60's Bitcoin makes incredible sense as part of a sensible and prudent retirement savings strategy. Bitcoin savers are a very important part of the Bitcoin economy since they provide the basic confidence in Bitcoin for others to build a Bitcoin business and seek venture capital. -(Finally), get Apple to accept Bitcoin wallet apps, to access the enormous iphone user base. Complete and utter waste of time. First I would not be surprised if Apple becomes irrelevant before Bitcoin becomes mainstream. Just take a look a RIM (Blackberry). There is however a real threat to Bitcoin from Apple's business model in that it creates a single central point of attack (The app store and its associated DRM). The best strategy here is to support current IOS users in jailbreaking thier devices, and focus on open uncensored platforms such as Android, GNU/Linux etc. I would say the same for other closed platforms such as the Windows 8 RT platform. -Developing better Bitcoin clients for increased user friendliness and security.
-More/better online exchanges.
-Improved/more Bitcoin fora (like Bitcointalk, reddit's r/bitcoin, etc.)
-Merchant solutions like bit-pay.
-Bitcoin media like blogs or Bitcoin magazine.
-Protocol improvements like multi-sig or hash algorithm changes.
-Decentralized mining like p2pool - or stronger pools.
-Asic mining.
-A new, better bitcoinica.
-Etc.
All of these are excellent suggestions. It is not about identifying all possibilities. It's about getting our priorities straight.
Yes. This is very important. |
|
|
|
A very handy (because the math is simple) way to think about bitcoin's huge potential upside is to focus on the $20 trillion in the cash and checking account bubbles (which, as I understand it, gives you the world's M1 money supply). There will be roughly 20 million bitcoins in circulation when they're all released. So the trick is to figure out what percentage of the value being held in the current M1 money supply will eventually move into bitcoin. If you think it's only 0.001% (1/100,000th) that gets you a price per bitcoin of $10.
The M1 money supply a big deal. However, the world's money supply is dwarfed by all the speculation that goes on with derivatives, stocks, options, commodities, futures, etc. I want to attract THAT money into bitcoin, if only because there are a lot fewer people that need to be convinced (how many people have a checking account versus how many people have a brokerage account for trading futures, options, or forex). The key to understand here is that fractional reserve banking can also be used for Bitcoin. I agree with the M1 analysis because Bitcoins themselves will likely replace cash or a chequing account but derivatives no way. We would have derivatives based on Bitcoin and the resulting Bitcoin money supply (M2, M3 etc) would be be much greater than 21,000,000 BTC. |
|
|
|
|
The mark of the beast 666 USD is still a way off. It will come though. We may see it soon in terms of JPY. As for ZWD that mark of the beast was surpassed when Satoshi Nakamoto mined the Genesis block.
|
|
|
|
|
Actually this article is not entirely accurate. Helga as the originator sells DRINKBONDS to her bank. This protects her and her suppliers and consequently she avoids bankruptcy. The rest is very accurate.
|
|
|
|
|
Not much impact on Bitcoin. The banks themselves were not hacked. What was hacked were end user computers running Microsoft Windows and a similar kind of attack can be launched to steal Bitcoins. I myself have removed Bitcoin stealing and mining malware form Microsoft Windows computer. The solution here is to deal with the attack vector namely: Microsoft Windows. I have refused to do any online banking or any other financial transaction from a Microsoft Windows machine for over 6 years. I use GNU/Linux for this purpose and that includes Bitcoin transactions. When it comes to Bitcoin this includes refusing to host on a Microsoft Windows machine a Bitcoin wallet that has any of my personal private keys. As for backing up an encrypted, with Truecrypt, wallet.dat on a Microsoft Windows computer that is of course fine.
|
|
|
|
|
A cost averaging approach, investing a fixed amount of fiat into Bitcoin on a regular basis is one of the safest ways to acquire Bitcoin. I would use a two week period or even a one week period rather than a monthly period to take the maximum advantage of the volatility of Bitcoin prices.
|
|
|
|
|
Well as predicted the price has dropped below 6 USD. Virtex has traded at CAD 6.12 at 15:51 today that translates into USD 5.95 with a CAD USD rate of 0.972.
|
|
|
|
I'm thinking anyone who is using Bitcoin has a dad that is so old they are really not even capable of knowing what the hell to do with it. My dad can barely use a "feature" phone, he can't operate a computer at all, and we have to constantly show him that all the answers to his questions are contained within this magical thing called "Google". "I wonder if there are any of those classic Triumph motorcycles for sale out there". "Dad, look, pictures and prices for tons of classic Triumphs..." *shows him screen of my Droid*. Yeah, Bitcoin in his world? Not gonna happen.
I do not know how old you are, but I can assure you that there are baby boomers in their mid 50's that are: 1) Heavily into Bitcoin 2) Have already backed up their wallet.dat among other places on a 5.25in floppy disk. 3) Are perfectly comfortable around current technologies such as "smart" phones and as well as older technologies. |
|
|
|
|
I voted yes. We need the Virtex price to hit 6.16 CAD and that is quite possible even if MtGox does not fall below 6 USD. Current CAD / USD rate 1.0279. Last price on Virtex 6.57 CAD or 6.39 USD.
|
|
|
|
Human slaves are easily the worst and the price of a human slave is at a historic low 15 BTC or so. http://business.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/07/cost-of-slaves-falls-to-historic-low. It is not even close to the prices in the early 1800's the equivalent in purchasing power of 6000 BTC or in roman times comparable to the prices in the early 1800's or by some estimates even higher. As for the best it is easily Bitcoin since one can store a Bitcoin key virtually anywhere including one's brain. |
|
|
|
|
Sounds very exciting. Here is my question: Can the keys be backed up to a computer / server under the user's control?
|
|
|
|
Why is Linux not used by everyone? after all it is the superior product, and its FREE! because my friend... because people are stupid.  A lot of people do. It is the kernel in their Android devices and therefore the dominant smart-phone operating system in sales. If you mean GNU/Linux as a desktop operating system then the figure is 1%. Now Bitcoin has a very long way to go in order to match GNU/Linux as a desktop operating system in market share. 1% of all gold 85 Billion USD 1% of world M1 money supply (cash / chequing accounts) 200 Billion USD http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1231778551.phpThe combined valuation speculation / protection of value (gold) and medium of exchange (M1) for a 1% market share is 285 Billion USD or based on 21 million Bitcoin maximum 13,600 USD per BTC. So my insane pie in the sky valuation for Bitcoin is based on a market share equivalent to that of GNU/Linux on the desktop. |
|
|
|
The biggest strength of Bitcoin is payments under 1000 BTC over the Internet. Above this amount wire transfers of fiat start to become competitive. For an online merchant accepting Bitcoin is actually a no brainer especially with services such as Bit-Pay.
The big advantages are:
No risk of chargebacks this is especially important for international transactions, "at risk" merchants, high value low margin transactions and escrow services.
No need to qualify for a merchant account.
No need for the purchaser / sender to have good credit. This by the way is a big market.
No risk of identity theft. Credit cards were never designed for transactions over the Internet and their use over the Internet is inherently insecure. They were designed in the 1950's and 1960's for in person / card present transactions. All the industry has managed to do is lessen the risk. Furthermore services such as PayPal are hamstrung by using credit cards as a funding source.
Very low or minimal transaction costs.
Here is my favorite: Bitcoin is the only electronic payment method that can be used to give alms to the poor directly. How many homeless persons have merchant accounts? But all a homeless person needs to beg for Bitcoin is card with a QR code!
Interestingly, you could be describing Dwolla there with each of those as well. No. Because Dwolla is not available here in Canada or for that matter in Spain or Uganda. M-PESA for example has the same problem. It is not available in the United States or Austria for example. Also Dwolla has already being sued over chargebacks. |
|
|
|
|
The biggest strength of Bitcoin is payments under 1000 BTC over the Internet. Above this amount wire transfers of fiat start to become competitive. For an online merchant accepting Bitcoin is actually a no brainer especially with services such as Bit-Pay.
The big advantages are:
No risk of chargebacks this is especially important for international transactions, "at risk" merchants, high value low margin transactions and escrow services.
No need to qualify for a merchant account.
No need for the purchaser / sender to have good credit. This by the way is a big market.
No risk of identity theft. Credit cards were never designed for transactions over the Internet and their use over the Internet is inherently insecure. They were designed in the 1950's and 1960's for in person / card present transactions. All the industry has managed to do is lessen the risk. Furthermore services such as PayPal are hamstrung by using credit cards as a funding source.
Very low or minimal transaction costs.
Here is my favorite: Bitcoin is the only electronic payment method that can be used to give alms to the poor directly. How many homeless persons have merchant accounts? But all a homeless person needs to beg for Bitcoin is card with a QR code!
|
|
|
|
|
Show Posts
