Bitcoin: How the Isle of Man is leading a cryptocurrency revolution

[the_poet]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bitcoin-how-the-isle-of-man-is-sparking-a-cryptocurrency-revolution-a6794756.html

[helloeverybody]

I saw this posted on reddit yesterday, its funny how bitcointalk seems to be slower to get these articles. there must be a more active community on there cause this always seems to be the case.  Its also not the most flattering review on the bitcoin process.

The process is slightly cumbersome. In order to pay with Bitcoin, a receipt has to be produced carrying a conversion from pounds and a square QR code. A mobile phone app then reads the code and sends the requisite fraction of a Bitcoin from the payee’s cryptocurrency virtual wallet. A Bitcoin payment takes maybe three or four seconds longer to perform than a conventional one.

[Kprawn]

To think less than a decade ago, this was a small fishing village and now it's a technological hub. It just shows you how a government can either make or break a country. It

helps that they embraced the gambling industry, and the low taxes surely help with the progress being made there. Most developing countries are over populated and most of

their income goes towards social taxes. 

[franky1]

i read the first couple paragraphs and thought ok 80% positive and no mention of silk road..
.. and then.. bam

It has become the currency of choice for users of the so-called “dark web”, such as websites offering illegal merchandise from drugs to AK47s.

dont they realise that out of the yuan, rupee, euro, dollar, bitcoin.. that its actually the dollar that is the currency of choice for drugs and guns!!!

i know that they are saying its the currency of choice for the internet (darkweb) .. but the general public will read it as the currency of choice for drugs and guns

[Snorek]

i read the first couple paragraphs and thought ok 80% positive and no mention of silk road..
.. and then.. bam

It has become the currency of choice for users of the so-called “dark web”, such as websites offering illegal merchandise from drugs to AK47s.

dont they realise that out of the yuan, rupee, euro, dollar, bitcoin.. that its actually the dollar that is the currency of choice for drugs and guns!!!

i know that they are saying its the currency of choice for the internet (darkweb) .. but the general public will read it as the currency of choice for drugs and guns

Haha, I had the same experience. I was impressed that this article was not on CCN or CoinDesk but instead on The Independent where it could reach masses of people not familiar with Bitcoin.
And then of course - bitcoin as the currency of criminals and terrorists.

PS. I did not know that GreenCoin X is bitcoin alternative! What a surprise.

[Blind Legs Parker]

On the whole this article is still very positive and insists on the revolutionary side of bitcoin and the blockchain as well as their potential.

Sad that they had to use the word "cumbersome" when writing about the process of paying with bitcoin, and also that they insisted that bitcoin was used by criminals. But on the whole it still is very positive.

[franky1]

On the whole this article is still very positive and insists on the revolutionary side of bitcoin and the blockchain as well as their potential.

Sad that they had to use the word "cumbersome" when writing about the process of paying with bitcoin, and also that they insisted that bitcoin was used by criminals. But on the whole it still is very positive.

the cumbersome thing can be fixed easily.. just needs better GUI for wallets
i think the article writer must have been comparing it to NFC where the customer doesnt even bother waiting to be told the total they just slap a card on a sensor and run, where as scanning a qr code actually takes less time then non NFC debit cards: sliding a card into a reader, waiting for it to ask for pin number and then waiting for it to say 'payment authorized'.

and bitcoin is faster than using bank notes.. because bank notes normally require the staff to quickly look at the paper to see any obvious signs of a cheap counterfeit print. type in how much they received. and then rummage through the cashier tray for all the coins, counting them out before handing to the customer

[the_poet]

It is only when customers reach the cash till that they might notice a difference: the bill for a couple of shots of caffeine comes to 0.01202 Bitcoins

Imagine if this were reality in your town/city. 

[erre]

" the company that installed the payment system says it has processed transactions for “thousands of pounds worth” of coffees. "

Seems not like a big business..

[the_poet]

" the company that installed the payment system says it has processed transactions for “thousands of pounds worth” of coffees. "

Seems not like a big business..

You're kidding, aren't you? Thousands of pounds worth of coffees for an "unknown" payment system in a small town?

[franky1]

" the company that installed the payment system says it has processed transactions for “thousands of pounds worth” of coffees. "

Seems not like a big business..

You're kidding, aren't you? Thousands of pounds worth of coffees for an "unknown" payment system in a small town?

agreeing with 'the poet' this is directed to 'erre'
imagine it has just 500 customers a day (£1000 sales) lets say 1% is bitcoin (£10) 365 days later thats £3650.

now you might think 1% is low.. well maybe its 2%, maybe is 10% ,, i dont know..

but on a world scale of 7billion people do you think there are 70million(1%) bitcoin users, how about 140m(2%), how about 700m(10%)
no
bitcoin population is probably at 0.1%.. so if one town can exceed 1% compared to average population demographs, then it's worth noting.

im thinking that the bitcoin usage on manx is more than 1%, but thats my opinion.

[erre]

" the company that installed the payment system says it has processed transactions for “thousands of pounds worth” of coffees. "

Seems not like a big business..

You're kidding, aren't you? Thousands of pounds worth of coffees for an "unknown" payment system in a small town?

agreeing with 'the poet' this is directed to 'erre'
imagine it has just 500 customers a day (£1000 sales) lets say 1% is bitcoin (£10) 365 days later thats £3650.

now you might think 1% is low.. well maybe its 2%, maybe is 10% ,, i dont know..

but on a world scale of 7billion people do you think there are 70million(1%) bitcoin users, how about 140m(2%), how about 700m(10%)
no
bitcoin population is probably at 0.1%.. so if one town can exceed 1% compared to average population demographs, then it's worth noting.

im thinking that the bitcoin usage on manx is more than 1%, but thats my opinion.

This is for sure a good thing, but here (small city in Italy with 90k abitants) a small bar can make 150 coffees in one morning alone, and I suppose they're talking about the income by all sells, not only coffee (altought they write " coffee").

I love the idea of a small city with a bitcoin working ecosystem, and I think it's possible to achieve, but some thousand of pounds of volume dosen't excite me, because we're not talking about global adoption, but a " btc enclaves". 1% seems not enough...

[franky1]

This is for sure a good thing, but here (small city in Italy with 90k abitants) a small bar can make 150 coffees in one morning alone, and I suppose they're talking about the income by all sells, not only coffee (altought they write " coffee").

I love the idea of a small city with a bitcoin working ecosystem, and I think it's possible to achieve, but some thousand of pounds of volume dosen't excite me, because we're not talking about global adoption, but a " btc enclaves". 1% seems not enough...

well lets say its 150 coffee's a day, then we are looking at over 2.5% population bitcoin usage as a minimum, instead of 1%, which is even better.

the other way i see it..
if the UK thinks its 'apocalypse now' by letting in 20,000 syrians out of 65million brits (0.03%)... yes 0.03%
... then seeing 1-2.5% of people not using the british pound and using bitcoin instead should be bigger news than the refugee crisis

and just remember it hasnt really been that long either.. so imagine the bitcoin numbers in 2-5 years time, once all the islanders realise they can detach themselves from the british pound and be more independent

[erre]

This is for sure a good thing, but here (small city in Italy with 90k abitants) a small bar can make 150 coffees in one morning alone, and I suppose they're talking about the income by all sells, not only coffee (altought they write " coffee").

I love the idea of a small city with a bitcoin working ecosystem, and I think it's possible to achieve, but some thousand of pounds of volume dosen't excite me, because we're not talking about global adoption, but a " btc enclaves". 1% seems not enough...

well lets say its 150 coffee's a day, then we are looking at over 2.5% population bitcoin usage as a minimum, instead of 1%, which is even better.

the other way i see it..
if the UK thinks its 'apocalypse now' by letting in 20,000 syrians out of 65million brits (0.03%)... yes 0.03%
... then seeing 1-2.5% of people not using the british pound and using bitcoin instead should be bigger news than the refugee crisis

and just remember it hasnt really been that long either.. so imagine the bitcoin numbers in 2-5 years time, once all the islanders realise they can detach themselves from the british pound and be more in dependent

150/morning, but that's not important, the capital of man's Isle have 25k inhabitants so 2.5% could be realistic. But that's for a single shop, I feel unprobable that it realistically represents the Isle economy. In the economy of an Isle with 80k persons, some shops having 2.5% of income in btc is still negligible. And we're talking about a small supposedly pro-bitcoin community, not the whole UK!

And i think that the fear for the refugees is highly unrelated with this.

[franky1]

This is for sure a good thing, but here (small city in Italy with 90k abitants) a small bar can make 150 coffees in one morning alone, and I suppose they're talking about the income by all sells, not only coffee (altought they write " coffee").

I love the idea of a small city with a bitcoin working ecosystem, and I think it's possible to achieve, but some thousand of pounds of volume dosen't excite me, because we're not talking about global adoption, but a " btc enclaves". 1% seems not enough...

well lets say its 150 coffee's a day, then we are looking at over 2.5% population bitcoin usage as a minimum, instead of 1%, which is even better.

the other way i see it..
if the UK thinks its 'apocalypse now' by letting in 20,000 syrians out of 65million brits (0.03%)... yes 0.03%
... then seeing 1-2.5% of people not using the british pound and using bitcoin instead should be bigger news than the refugee crisis

and just remember it hasnt really been that long either.. so imagine the bitcoin numbers in 2-5 years time, once all the islanders realise they can detach themselves from the british pound and be more in dependent

150/morning, but that's not important, the capital of man's Isle have 25k inhabitants so 2.5% could be realistic. But that's for a single shop, I feel unprobable that it realistically represents the Isle economy. In the economy of an Isle with 80k persons, some shops having 2.5% of income in btc is still negligible. And we're talking about a small supposedly pro-bitcoin community, not the whole UK!

ok 150 coffee's for your 90k town translates to 40 coffee's per morning in the 'manx' town of 25k population. (just to keep to the same 'busy' feeling/usage of population..)
so imagine manx only made 40 coffee's a morning, that means atleast 12% of those people are using bitcoin..

impressed yet?

[erre]

This is for sure a good thing, but here (small city in Italy with 90k abitants) a small bar can make 150 coffees in one morning alone, and I suppose they're talking about the income by all sells, not only coffee (altought they write " coffee").

I love the idea of a small city with a bitcoin working ecosystem, and I think it's possible to achieve, but some thousand of pounds of volume dosen't excite me, because we're not talking about global adoption, but a " btc enclaves". 1% seems not enough...

well lets say its 150 coffee's a day, then we are looking at over 2.5% population bitcoin usage as a minimum, instead of 1%, which is even better.

the other way i see it..
if the UK thinks its 'apocalypse now' by letting in 20,000 syrians out of 65million brits (0.03%)... yes 0.03%
... then seeing 1-2.5% of people not using the british pound and using bitcoin instead should be bigger news than the refugee crisis

and just remember it hasnt really been that long either.. so imagine the bitcoin numbers in 2-5 years time, once all the islanders realise they can detach themselves from the british pound and be more in dependent

150/morning, but that's not important, the capital of man's Isle have 25k inhabitants so 2.5% could be realistic. But that's for a single shop, I feel unprobable that it realistically represents the Isle economy. In the economy of an Isle with 80k persons, some shops having 2.5% of income in btc is still negligible. And we're talking about a small supposedly pro-bitcoin community, not the whole UK!

ok 150 coffee's for your 90k town translates to 40 coffee's per morning in the 'manx' town of 25k population. (just to keep to the same 'busy' feeling/usage of population..)
so imagine manx only made 40 coffee's a morning, that means atleast 12% of those people are using bitcoin..

impressed yet?

No.
You're not taking the whole concept: if there is one coffee shop that makes 100% of his profit in bitcoin,  it's still negligible and counts nothing. The data about " some thousands pounds" and even " 25 btc startup"  (Mann is the home of many internet casino) dosen't give any information at all, but to.me it dosen't seem what a functioning ecosystem (were you can be paid in btc) would be like, even in a small 25k town economy... even Ithaca hours have way more volume

[maokoto]

Always good to see news as this. It is something that makes one feel somewhat hopeful about bitcoin's future. As for the reddit thing, I always get a similar feeling: reddit is ahead on news, info (though it is harder to sort through it) and all that.

[franky1]

No.
You're not taking the whole concept: if there is one coffee shop that makes 100% of his profit in bitcoin,  it's still negligible and counts nothing. The data about " some thousands pounds" and even " 25 btc startup"  (Mann is the home of many internet casino) dosen't give any information at all, but to.me it dosen't seem what a functioning ecosystem (were you can be paid in btc) would be like, even in a small 25k town economy... even Ithaca hours have way more volume

compare ithica hours in 1993 (2 years after adoption) compared to isle of man (2 years after adoption).

then comeback in the year 2029 and compare bitcoin in isle of man(2029) to what ithica is like in 2016

2%-12% is good going for only 2 years, imagine it in 20 years+

[yoona]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bitcoin-how-the-isle-of-man-is-sparking-a-cryptocurrency-revolution-a6794756.html

Whatever the reason, this is very good news, and I just heard about this, and I saw in the article, it is a new article published yesterday, so who is actually late to hear this news? bitcointalk or that site?

[qWark]

Great read I am going there next year to see the bikes might try one or two places while I'm there.