Where are you getting 1% from? I thought coinbase exchange was 0.25%?

Okay, it's not a crime. It's just the first step down the road which brings pretty much 9x% to crime within six months to a year. So, here are some simple easy steps for your convenience.

0. Starting a bitcoin business is a liability. The first thing you need to understand, and you need to understand it well. At sixteen hundred hours while you were sitting around your living room scratching your ear you were worth X. Your life, your ideas, your business, the shit around your house that you own, all that which makes up your life, added together, worth X. At sixteen fifteen, eight minutes after you had started your Bitcoin business you were worth X-k, where k is always positive and SIGNIFICANT. Starting a Bitcoin business is a liability, it makes you worth less. In fact, all the rest of your life in Bitcoinland will be attempts, more or less successful, to limit and reduce that liability. This is the outlook you must have not in order to be successful, but in order to have a shot at it. This is the outlook you must have in order to not guarantee failure.

1. Identify yourself to the community. This means, at the very least, creating a WOT account. If you do not have a WOT account you are not part of Bitcoin business. This is the criteria, no matter what you might think. That's where everyone looks, no matter what social media might be telling you. If you aren't in the WOT you aren't in Bitcoin.

This might also mean making a few social media profiles. The difference between an account on StumbleUpon called MyBTCBiz, a reddit account called BtcBlaBla, a myspace, tumblr, whatever and a forum account called MyBizPr is nil. They're all the same thing: social media profiles. Sure, they may be useful. You wouldn't think to substitute a forum registration for a company registration IRL, now would you? Same thing here.

2. After completing step 1 spend at the very least six months learning. This attitude whereby you think you're great and valuable, so great and valuable in fact that you had the business idea first, then you ran into Bitcoin and then in the heat of the moment saw to that formality of a forum account so now you're ready for "investment" five hours later after dealing with the pesky minimum posts rules is bullshit. Pure bullshit. This isn't how it works, if you've not been in the WOT for six months you are not ready to start a Bitcoin business for reason of intellectual incapacity, irrespective of what you might think. (And yes, of course you will think you're the exception to this rule. You are not the exception, you are just unskilled and unwarare of it. The rule is exactly about you.)

Yes, maybe if Warren Buffett decided to go into Bitcoin he'd just put a notice on his Berkshire Hathaway website identifying his WOT handle and be ready in five minutes. The reason Warren Buffett can do that and you can't is that you're not Warren Buffett. Yes, one day you might become the next WB. That doesn't mean you're it today, consumer credit does not work in this field.

So, what you do during your six months is that

2.1. You buy some Bitcoins. Get a good idea of what the options for doing that are, how the exchanges work, how the OTC market works (if by now you do not know what OTC or WOT stand for add two months to your lockdown as punishment for being the sort of idiot who, when he encounters words he does not know, instead of investigating their meaning brushes them off to "get on with the reading").

2.2. You sell some Bitcoins. Get a good idea of how that works, how you get your money back out, what the limits are, so on and so forth. You wouldn't want to discover later that you have a billion dollars in Bitcoins you can never spend in any way, other than by donating to the Bitcoin Gates Foundation now would you? What sort of WB would that be?

These are not a waste of time. They are here to give you an idea of how your future customers will be seeing life. You want to buy some Bitcoins even if you don't need them, and sell them even if you don't need to and buy back just on general principle. You are unit testing the currency. Boring? Fuck you.

2.3. You read, on this forum, and you discuss with the market participants. You get your pecking order straight. Who are the movers and shakers? Whose word is worth 10k Bitcoins no questions asked and from whom? Why? You get the history straight. Who were the scammers, historically? How did they do it ? What are the patterns? How did the people who matter react, and why? What does that say about them, how does that color their relationships among each other?

If you don't have the list and don't comprehend how the interactions work, if you look at DeathandTaxes and have no fucking idea who he is, if you think we're buddies cause I mention him by name and so forth you're not done with this. Must lurk moar.

2.4. You ask questions. Only on step 2.4 do you ask questions, by the time you're here you have already done a lot of work! You have sunk into this upwards of a hundred hours of your spare time, whether you like it or not, you've filled half a notebook with dumbass scribblings, you have fucking hand-drawn maps hanging from your bedroom wall. This level of intensity is not an upper bound to aspire to, but a minimum requirement.

Your questions will get a lot of stupid answers but also a complete set of correct answers. Pick the set, disregard the rest, you're on your way.

3. Announce your business plan. If you think your business plan has to be kept secret because otherwise others will steal it you are probably too stupid to be in business (not just BTC, but in general).

Let me explain to you how business "stealing" works: at the time MPEx was created (Feb 2012) there existed GLBSE already, which sucked at that time. Nobody flailing around in a cloud of stupidity almost mould-like in consistency seemed to be aware of it, but GLBSE sucked. And so Mr. P decided to make a securities exchange that worked right and was run correctly.

So, pro tip #1: there's so much to do and so few people capable of doing it in Bitcoin that if your plan makes sense and you seem even remotely competent everyone else who is competent will breathe a sigh of relief. They aren't going to "steal" your idea of doing the absolutely fucking obviously banal, cause so much is needed I couldn't begin to tell you.

Pro tip #2: if you are incompetent, the people who are competent aren't going to steal your business early. They are going to steal it late, just like MPEx demolished GLBSE. They don't need early mover advantage, they will come to your market six months or a year late, break off your arms and beat you over the head with them until you are reduced to a bloody mess.

So, forget about anyone "Stealing" your business. When S.DICE was announced, a bunch of forum muppets rambled on about how it's not worth its valuation because "everyone could do it". And I laughed at them then and so to prove my point that they're laughable idiots they declared that they shall do it! It's been months, who has managed to steal the business? You can't steal any business from the competent, and if you're competent yourself you don't even try to, cause it makes no business sense.

Thus, at the very least, step 3 gives you this measure of protection, whereby other competent people know you're doing X and so don't start doing X too. It saves our time and effort, rather than doing something twice do two of the fifty billion things that still need doing.

Obviously your announcement will gather a bunch of crap from a bunch of nobodies. But lucky for you, you've been doing this by the numbers, and you have the list. You know why you don't care what Joel Katz says about anything: what people who don't run businesses say is irrelevant. You know why you care what piuk says about anything to do with the blockchain (do you?).

4. Almost there.

4.1. If you actually got no objections, just pats on the back you're golden. Go do your thing, try your best not to fuck up, when in doubt ask people you trust and that's that.

4.2. If you actually had some objections, do not proceed until the people who raised them declared themselves satisfied. The odds that they don't have a point are dismal, and more importantly, the odds that they wouldn't withdraw objections along the lines of the most favorable construction for you are nil. If someone's pointing things out to you that won't work with your model they're right. If nobody is that still is not proof your model can work.

Stick to this and I might be hearing your name in a year or two. Don't, you just fade into the background noise, yet another of the many who keep paying ten or fifty dollars a month to be part of a new and exciting MMORPG, sorta like the glassy eyed FB credits buyers.

Good luck in any event.

Similar to the non-software wallet on blockchain.info?

Because people hesitate to put serious money into bitcoin because they cannot keep them safe. For now many see it as a very interesting thing... that they unfortunately only dare move toy money into because of the personal security issues.

The day someone solves security... we will see a massive change in uptake and adoption.

On the other hand, until we solve the security issues, we should not wish for general adoption because the horror stories of grand mothers and janitors etc losing their life saving will be all over the media..... it would be a night mare. Bitcoin is not at all ready for mass adoption when it does not provide a way to keep bitcoin easily safe.

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I think bitcoin has a first mover advantage in a market that is likely a winner takes all market. There might be a support currency or two, but not even that is certain.

Does bitcoin have sustainable competitive advantage? No, not yet. The personal security challenge is the one I think will determine the race. If bitcoin solves this then in combination with the current first mover advantage.. I think bitcoin will be very very hard to beat. But if another major player solves it first (like Apple and then Android-based phones solved the user interface first for phones and thus all but put the smart phone first movers motorola, nokia, and blackberry almost out of business) then that entity might win the market. This is the absolutely crucial challenge right now.

Because people hesitate to put serious money into bitcoin because they cannot keep them safe. For now many see it as a very interesting thing... that they unfortunately only dare move toy money into because of the personal security issues.

The day someone solves security... we will see a massive change in uptake and adoption.

On the other hand, until we solve the security issues, we should not wish for general adoption because the horror stories of grand mothers and janitors etc losing their life saving will be all over the media..... it would be a night mare. Bitcoin is not at all ready for mass adoption when it does not provide a way to keep bitcoin easily safe.

__

I think bitcoin has a first mover advantage in a market that is likely a winner takes all market. There might be a support currency or two, but not even that is certain.

Does bitcoin have sustainable competitive advantage? No, not yet. The personal security challenge is the one I think will determine the race. If bitcoin solves this then in combination with the current first mover advantage.. I think bitcoin will be very very hard to beat. But if another major player solves it first (like Apple and then Android-based phones solved the user interface first for phones and thus all but put the smart phone first movers motorola, nokia, and blackberry almost out of business) then that entity might win the market. This is the absolutely crucial challenge right now.

My guess would be that your theory is spot on. We talk about super high values for bitcoin, but banks and hedge funds are very rational actors and are far more interested in a sure fire 2% bond than an extremely risky unknown currency asset. As much as I believe in bitcoin I would not vote to include it in a managed portfolio if I were on the board. Perhaps I could be convinced to go 0.1%, but anything else could be argued to be a failure of fiduciary responsibility. If it tanks, the whole board could be sued for this.

Bitcoin only transfers cost a penny. How much business are you doing? Perhaps I am missing something, but isn't your service obsolete?

http://astrohacker.com/ahc/bitcoin-is-the-economic-singularity/

After reading this, the scale of black market and digital economies and the effect Bitcoin will have on them I am pretty certain we are going to be very wealthy men -- even with a sum as small as 10 Bitcoins. It's just so hard to believe. We are only in the beginning storms with these significant rallies from 10 to 20 dollars. I will not be surprised to see prices from hundreds to thousands in the coming months.

The world just isn't going to be the same and we have been blessed as the pioneers.

What are you going to do with your Bitcoin wealth once your coins hit upwards of $10,000 a pop?

Aye, but there is no one out there using bitcoin to do anything like 1.5% at present.

Blockchain technology allows for making transactions and recording transactions much simpler and easier.

What is missing is the safety net assuring that people's money are safe.

...

Bottom line of those two things...

A bank can use the blockchain internally to make it's processes much cheaper. And it has the consumer trust and insurance that people want that their money/btcs/ctcs are safe no matter what.

On the other hand bitcoin... has the same blockchain technology, but only really nerds like us in here feel somewhat capable of keeping wealth in bitcoin... normal people would run screaming away if they understood the troubles of keeping bitcoins safe themselves...

So - for the average consumer.... citicoin might have a huge advantage right now...

Except for people who use bitcoin as a protest against the federal system etc instead of for its efficiency properties.

Bitcoin needs to quickly come up with better security measures for individuals... that is basically the interface between the currency blockchain and the consumer.... just like with the internet and many other things we had the technology first, but it did not at all take off until the interface was userfriendly enough...

Let's go.... get that sorted.... so that bitcoin has a chance...

"Could PenguinFire please report to the Admin office first thing Monday morning"

I am quite a fan of Andreas Antonopolous. I have seen numerous videos of him on YouTube and his enthusiasm for bitcoin is fantastic. I have heard him say before that bitcoin is a threat to Western union and in the latest video I watched of him (brilliant BTW) he again mentioned Western union.

"We are going to see bitcoin impacting remittances long before we see it impacting retail. We are not going shopping with bitcoin, we are taking out Western union."
https://youtu.be/SEJGFY0iDUw

He mentions that UK to the Philippines is a major remittance route and bitcoin ATMs are facilitating this today and hints at a 1% fee but I believe that bitcoin ATMs have higher margins than this. If this is happening, where is it happening and how can we speed it up?

Yeah but it will take time for the scarcity as the majority of the population is not aware about the bitcoins but in future when bitcoin gets into the mainstream people would not be able to buy them but those who will be holding great number of bitcoins can earn a good profit by selling it.

And this is why prices that now are considered ridiculous like 1 million per BTC are completely possible and reasonable to happen in the future. The system CAN handle it.

i didn't know that this was possible, you always learn something new each day, i've read online that you can do it with electrum seedless wallets or electrum pos system

or they just have hidden the private key in some way?

Yeah thought that, i did try check it on blockchain but it says not recognised.
I still think i do remember reading about an addresd where you can send coins to and they will be lost or destroyed forever, maybe it was something to do with testing transactions.
I will edit post if i can find anything about this, or if someone else can help.

Around one year ago, I made a quick count and found that 21 million BTC, if they would be distributed to cover ALL the Earth wealth (241 trillions), they would be not granular enough to be used as currency.
To say it another way: a single Satoshi would be valued something like 50 or 100 $, and couldn't be used for shopping in a comfortable way.

Now, of course this is an utopian scenario, but it still is a POSSIBLE scenario, and one that we all hope will be one day reached.
Sure there's alternatives out there: Litecoin could come into play as THE alternative for everyday transactions, it also has a much higher cap, it would be the silver of cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin could be the gold.
But still: each Bitcoin or Satoshi lost, in a scenario where all Bitcoins are used, would represent a failure when granularity is not enough.

Acutally, No.  A very common reason (if not the most common) for refinancing a loan is so that you pay LESS overall.  Here's an example: Imagine that you have clocked up a $10,000 unsecured debt on a credit card at 15%pa.  Instead of paying this high rate, you go to a bank and take out a $10,000 loan (secured against an asset of yours) at 7% and pay off the credit card.  You have now made the interest payments smaller and thus will pay less.   Another example is when a central bank lowers its interest rate which causes the other banks to offer lower rate loans-- people often refinance their existing loans to take advantage of the new lower rates.


I've already demonstrated in my first post how it is possible to payback interest even though the total amount due is greater than 100% of the hard currency supply.  It's possible because we can arrange loans such that interest due by different parties will cancel each other.  I gave the simplest example with just two protagonists, but in the real world it involves more actors, eg: the banks.  In the real world it is the banks which handle the cancelling of interest.  This results from the fact that the banks continuously borrow off each other to balance their books and a bank only pays back what is due after the cancellation of interest owed to each other.


What does this particular example prove about anything in general?  If you're stupid enough to take out a long at 5% per month and have no hope of paying it back then you deserve to go bankrupt!   I've not said that ALL loans can be paid back,  I've only said that loans taken out wisely can be paid back.

For your general enlightenment:  If you can earn more profit than what you will pay in interest from money supplied by a loan then the loan is a wise move (of course you have to also balance it against the risk involved in deriving your profit-- equations that compute this are very well known).  If you will not earn more profit than what you will pay in interest than the loan is a very bad idea!  It's that simple!  Owing debt baring interest can make you money in the right circumstances.

What you're saying still isn't true because you are forgetting that loans can be used to cancel each other.  Here is a simple example:  image that Satoshi who is cold and has a broken arm has 50BTC, a forest of trees and food while hungry Ben has nothing but an axe.  Ben borrows 50Btc from Satoshi to be repaid at the end of the month with 10% interest.  Ben then buys the trees and some food from Satoshi for 50BTC.  Ben chops the trees into firewood which is now worth 55BTC.  Satoshi buys the wood with 50BTC cash and agreement to pay the extra 5BTC at the end of the month (effectively he is borrowing 5 virtual BTC from Ben).  At the end of the month Ben pays Satoshi 50BTC and they agree that the two debts of 5BTC cancel each other and that everything has been made good, ie: there is no debt remaining to anyone at all.  

The important thing to note is that without the use of loans Satoshi's trees would have never been chopped, Satoshi would remain cold and Ben would have starved!  There is nothing inherently wrong with interest bearing debt as long as it is used wisely.  Everyday around the world interest bearing debt facilitates trade that would not occur otherwise.