Specifically people can stop hoarding coins and use them as currency not just a speculative investment. You can help encourage that by offering goods or services for sale in bitcoin. Do so profitably, and you help everybody, including yourself. I do my part. I sell boat parts for btc (no one has bought), I ran an ad on bitmit for glass tobacco pipe (no one has bought) I started a business makeing it easy to get bitcoins for paypal. I was selling on ebay. I have given over 200 new wallets their first coin, I have 500 business cards for bitcoin, I have a facebook page with almost 200 followers for bitcoin friends and have 16 for litecoin friends. We just started litecoin friends and are giving away a free litecoin for liking our page. If noone is buying, you aren't fully doing your part. You have to do more: you have to do the hard work of figuring out what people are willing to pay for. Apparently people don't want boat parts or glass tobacco pipe. (I know I don't.) That is why I added the stipulation: do so profitably. |
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how MtGox's earlier security incidents are now universally known as "Bitcoin being hacked" by the outside media, They are? I don't think the outside media even remembers this. I search Google news for bitcoin every day. The MtGox hack is now old, old news. When it is mentioned, it's clearly distinguished from "Bitcoin." |
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Maybe someone else can start a different foundation but they certainly wouldn't have the same sort of access to the project like Bitcoin foundation does. Access to what project? The Satoshi client? Does the Satoshi client equal Bitcoin? Do the domain names equal Bitcoin? Do the accounts on github that have access to the Satoshi client equal Bitcoin? Anybody can fork the Satoshi client or create a compatible client, and in fact several forks and compatible clients exist. Anybody can register a domain name and make websites about bitcoin. |
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Matthew, something to keep in mind is that anybody else could do this.
That's a lie. No one else can have Gavin work for them as the lead dev, If I could afford it, I would love to personally pay Gavin to work for me as "lead developer of bitcoin" doing exactly what he does now, for twice the cost. I'm sure anyone could do that, if they had the money and were willing to spend it that way. Somebody could found an institution to do that, and persuade people they could do a better job of it than The Bitcoin Foundation. Forking is one of the most wonderful inventions of the modern age. |
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Specifically people can stop hoarding coins and use them as currency not just a speculative investment. You can help encourage that by offering goods or services for sale in bitcoin. Do so profitably, and you help everybody, including yourself. |
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You dont create wealth by holding bitcoins you create wealth when you sell btc and buy something real. You are describing consumption, which is actually the opposite of wealth creation. In truth, you create wealth when you acquire bitcoin. And if you hold them, you are abstaining from consuming that wealth, which makes all of us wealthier. So, go on and "hoard" guys! |
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Matthew, something to keep in mind is that anybody else could do this.
You or I could become qualified to work on bitcoin code, and indeed many people are doing just that. We could work on it. We could start a non-profit organization that collects funds to promote and develop bitcoin and use the funds as we see fit. There's nothing stopping anybody else from doing something like this, and there's a sense in which they would be just as "official" as the Bitcoin Foundation. This is an important check on the power/centralization of such an institution, and as long as this check is in place, I have no problem with them doing whatever they think is appropriate with their money, and anybody who wants to join in can, and anybody who doesn't want to doesn't have to. The foundation (or any other similar institution) really only speaks for its members, not for the rest of the bitcoin world.
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Coinbase <coinbase.com> -- I was unable to test Coinbase with more than 10 BTC per transaction due to their restrictions. So I conducted several trades summing to significant value in total. Their site performed flawlessly. My newbie tech-support question was answered promptly and courteously. Money flowed into and out of my bank accounts without a hiccup. If you can be patient with their per-transaction limit, I rate Coinbase 5 stars out of 5. I wrote the above on January 29, 2013. I regret that I must retract my opinion. I now rate Coinbase at zero stars. After 9 transactions (8 bitcoin purchases), Coinbase cancelled a buy after taking $209.32 from my bank account, saying that I (73-year-old independently wealthy married man with an utterly spotless credit record) am "a risk". Speaking as a long-retired management consultant, I opine that Coinbase has become self-destructive. I now recommend avoiding Coinbase. I am really sorry to hear that, and I hope Coinbase is able to track your money down and make it right with you. I have used them for one purchase so far. It was slow, and at one point the ETA was updated to be almost a day later than originally predicted. But, my bitcoins arrived only an hour after the original prediction, so I think they were being conservative, and I appreciate that. And the slowness is kind of expected in this realm, at this point in time, so I don't fault them for that. So far I am good with them and will use them some more going forward. |
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Hey, Rabbit, it would be great if I could log in with openid and/or my Google account, like I can on bitparking's terracoin exchange.  Thats an interesting idea. I've head some people don't like that system and I particularly have had trouble with it myself. What would be the advantage of it? In my case it would've helped me ramp up easier. I wouldn't have to create and remember yet another password. I don't want to give terrawallet a password I'm using anywhere else, but I don't want to pick something ultra easily guessable. It might also be useful as an additional second factor for identification, at some point. |
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is that mining was a bad idea It is the only way to have a decentralized system that no one can control Whatever the Bitcoin replacement is will have a built in mechanism for increasing the currency volume in proportion to usage. I won't use it too. Bitcoin is digital gold, and you can't "increase" gold at will! Alternative currencies are a form of increasing the volume. Yes and no, because alternative currencies don't exchange on par with bitcoin to start. |
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It was first?! Holy hell haha To be fair, my Google news page might be customized in ways that are not common across the general population. But it was big news to me! Congratulations! |
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1FmTMUPRuocCxfWejgrnwqUUzF5X7Zmui8 thanks, Rabbit! |
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I find scarcity (finiteness) to be an advantage in money, not a disadvantage. And the same for speculation.
Again, a commodity is just a tool. A tool to store and transport the information of value. It is not money itself. And this tool is slowly becoming anachronistic in this information age. I sort of agree, but I don't see how it would make me not desire scarcity. |
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I mow your lawn, you wash my car. That's it. No need for any of us to go to a gold mine. Right! I'll just give you 2.3 lawn mows for 1.7 car washes. The disadvantage of commodity currencies is that they're scarce and become target of speculation. I find scarcity (finiteness) to be an advantage in money, not a disadvantage. And the same for speculation. Every form has advantages and disadvantages. If people learn these differences and how to apply them property, we may have a rich ecosystem of different moneys in the future. This I like and can get behind! |
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Decentralize the bitcoin media - as much as we can IMO You can do that by starting a bitcoin forum. |
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Also, capping currency growth was another bad idea. Whatever the Bitcoin replacement is will have a built in mechanism for increasing the currency volume in proportion to usage. I won't use it, then. |
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If you dont see that ltc is going to be huge you are a fool. It will help regulate the cost of btc and if they get manipulated then their will be another coin. If your coins are over valued and hard to get people will buy litecoins which are undervalued and easy to get. It is not rocket science guys not much barriers to entry for new coins. Bitcoin is not the only game in town.
You're right: it's not rocket science. But in this case, it's opinion (overvalued/undervalued) stated as fact, with disrespect shown toward anyone who disagrees with you. |
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the community that bitcoin has built is based on greed People will only serve me if there is something in it for them. |
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Eventually I would imagine that Bitcoin's value will be much more stable than it is now. Slow deflation, yes, but not something where you'd see a huge price cut every year.
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