A Change of Heart...Possibly.

[Synaptic]

I have been one of the staunchest opponents of the bitcoin "craze" on these forums, and I certainly do not withdraw any of my many rational arguments against its present state of affairs.

However, I have seen that this community, while naive in many respects, still has a lot of heart and quite a bit of tenacity.

A number of folk here have posed relatively good counterpoints to my criticisms. The answer in most instances is one of time.

I maintain reservations because I still don't see as many developers/firms/merchants coming on board quickly enough to begin garnering significant market-share, but lately, upon deeper inspection I've seen some real talent trying to get things moving.

I really am seeing a great pool of underlying talent here, and I am excited to see what's made of it.

Many of my criticisms have been about bitcoin's gross overvaluation, but this new view lends credence in my mind that maybe BTC isn't actually overvalued right now, and might actually be slightly undervalued at this point. Even ONE person/company opening a well thought out, well designed BTC casino could immediately inject a wild degree of worth into this market. Being a poker player myself, I know a whole hell of a lot of US players are trying to find a new home...

Likewise, it would only take ONE major online retailer to begin accepting bitcoin for the intrinsic value to skrocket, and with some of the more positive media attention lately, I think there's a good chance that one will in the near future. Also, it need not be a US based firm. Another large realization I've been having is that the US might actually end up being a rather small portion of BTC's net value. There are so many massive international online markets opening up right now that are bound to be much less prudish about a new online currency.

To sum up, while I still have many reasonable doubts about BTC at this time, I've also come to see many reasonable avenues of real worth, and I'm starting to feel that bitcoins chances of real sucess are really starting to tilt a bit further towards 60/40 in favor of success.

Therefore in this thread I'll be using this as an opportunity to stay as neutral or positive towards BTC as I can, and dismiss as much negativity as possible, because I think that past the criticism, that bitcoin needs right now is some real "meeting of the minds" to "hash out" (pardon the pun) some of the more viable ideas and observations concerning BTC's future.

Thanks for having me, everyone.

[DamienBlack]

Nice thoughts. I'm pretty sure most of us have the same reservations. But it is early and we are moving forward. By the way, are you at betco.in for poker? They've been steadily improving their site and there are more and more regular players.

[Synaptic]

Nice thoughts. I'm pretty sure most of us have the same reservations. But it is early and we are moving forward. By the way, are you at betco.in for poker? They've been steadily improving their site and there are more and more regular players.

heh, I need to stay away from poker for awhile until my recent gamble in getting into BTC at least breaks even. Also, I don't much like betco.in's overall look, feel, and features, which are really important to me as a player.

I actually registered pokerhash.net to try my hand at opening a BTC poker site, but I doubt I'll have any time to flesh out such a project all by my lonesome.

Potentially exciting times, though.

[Durr]

Ok so to sum it up.

You were skeptic at first when you read about Bitcoin.
Then you started reading the forums.
You got convinced by all the Bitcoin lovers (mostly 16-year olds) that post alot in this forum saying how great it is. Not to mention all the others who praise Bitcoin and tell people to buy to bring up the price for their own selfish reasons.
You burned yourself buying high after getting convinced by those Bitcoin lovers.





Nothing to see here, move along.

[Synaptic]

Ok so to sum it up.

You were skeptic at first when you read about Bitcoin.

I still am, but becoming more open minded. Generally, it has very little do with anything anyone here has to say about bitcoin itself, but possibly a little to do with what they might eventually do with bitcoins themselves.

Then you started reading the forums.

This is pretty much the only thing you say in this entire post with any validity. Kudos.

You got convinced by all the Bitcoin lovers (mostly 16-year olds) that post alot in this forum saying how great it is. Not to mention all the others who praise Bitcoin and tell people to buy to bring up the price for their own selfish reasons.

Generally I do my best to smack whomever I please in the metaphorical face when they approach me with false premises and assumptions, regardless of the content...like right now, actually.

You burned yourself buying high after getting convinced by those Bitcoin lovers.

Never bought BTC to date. I have bought a small bit of mining gear, but I haven't been burned in even the slightest capacity.



Nothing to see here, move along.

Roger that Durr, and farewell to ye, fool.

[piuk]

Many of my criticisms have been about bitcoin's gross overvaluation, but this new view lends credence in my mind that maybe BTC isn't actually overvalued right now, and might actually be slightly undervalued at this point.

Translation: I've just bought in, now you should to.

[Durr]

Ok so to sum it up.

You were skeptic at first when you read about Bitcoin.

I still am, but becoming more open minded. Generally, it has very little do with anything anyone here has to say about bitcoin itself, but possibly a little to do with what they might eventually do with bitcoins themselves.

Then you started reading the forums.

This is pretty much the only thing you say in this entire post with any validity. Kudos.

You got convinced by all the Bitcoin lovers (mostly 16-year olds) that post alot in this forum saying how great it is. Not to mention all the others who praise Bitcoin and tell people to buy to bring up the price for their own selfish reasons.

Generally I do my best to smack whomever I please in the metaphorical face when they approach me with false premises and assumptions, regardless of the content...like right now, actually.

You burned yourself buying high after getting convinced by those Bitcoin lovers.

Never bought BTC to date. I have bought a small bit of mining gear, but I haven't been burned in even the slightest capacity.



Nothing to see here, move along.

Roger that Durr, and farewell to ye, fool.

You seem to get emotional pretty quick. Not the best qualities of a poker player.

[Synaptic]

Many of my criticisms have been about bitcoin's gross overvaluation, but this new view lends credence in my mind that maybe BTC isn't actually overvalued right now, and might actually be slightly undervalued at this point.

Translation: I've just bought in, now you should to.

Did it take you literally 5 fucking minutes to type out that asinine sentence?

Because if it didn't, you apparently had ample time to read my last post right above yours and save yourself the trouble of making as asshole out of yourself.

[Synaptic]

Ok so to sum it up.

You were skeptic at first when you read about Bitcoin.

I still am, but becoming more open minded. Generally, it has very little do with anything anyone here has to say about bitcoin itself, but possibly a little to do with what they might eventually do with bitcoins themselves.

Then you started reading the forums.

This is pretty much the only thing you say in this entire post with any validity. Kudos.

You got convinced by all the Bitcoin lovers (mostly 16-year olds) that post alot in this forum saying how great it is. Not to mention all the others who praise Bitcoin and tell people to buy to bring up the price for their own selfish reasons.

Generally I do my best to smack whomever I please in the metaphorical face when they approach me with false premises and assumptions, regardless of the content...like right now, actually.

You burned yourself buying high after getting convinced by those Bitcoin lovers.

Never bought BTC to date. I have bought a small bit of mining gear, but I haven't been burned in even the slightest capacity.



Nothing to see here, move along.

Roger that Durr, and farewell to ye, fool.

You seem to get emotional pretty quick. Not the best qualities of a poker player.

And I suppose you must be Tom "Durrrr" Fucking Dwan to be giving me such sage poker advice...

[Timo Y]

Likewise, it would only take ONE major online retailer to begin accepting bitcoin for the intrinsic value to skrocket, and with some of the more positive media attention lately, I think there's a good chance that one will in the near future.

This has already happened:

http://www.wuala.com/en/bitcoin

Parent company LaCie has €350M revenue.

Wuala is not as huge as Amazon, but a mainstream retailer of virtual sevices nonetheless. Personal cloud storage is a big growth market.

[Synaptic]

Likewise, it would only take ONE major online retailer to begin accepting bitcoin for the intrinsic value to skrocket, and with some of the more positive media attention lately, I think there's a good chance that one will in the near future.

This has already happened:

http://www.wuala.com/en/bitcoin

Parent company LaCie has €350M revenue.

Wuala is not as huge as Amazon, but not a mainstream retailer of virtual sevices nonetheless. Personal cloud storage is a big growth market.

Eh, not tangible enough for my argument.  Virtual services are a dime a dozen.

I mean transactions for physical goods. That's the ultimate test of BTC at this point.

[Durr]

Ok so to sum it up.

You were skeptic at first when you read about Bitcoin.

I still am, but becoming more open minded. Generally, it has very little do with anything anyone here has to say about bitcoin itself, but possibly a little to do with what they might eventually do with bitcoins themselves.

Then you started reading the forums.

This is pretty much the only thing you say in this entire post with any validity. Kudos.

You got convinced by all the Bitcoin lovers (mostly 16-year olds) that post alot in this forum saying how great it is. Not to mention all the others who praise Bitcoin and tell people to buy to bring up the price for their own selfish reasons.

Generally I do my best to smack whomever I please in the metaphorical face when they approach me with false premises and assumptions, regardless of the content...like right now, actually.

You burned yourself buying high after getting convinced by those Bitcoin lovers.

Never bought BTC to date. I have bought a small bit of mining gear, but I haven't been burned in even the slightest capacity.



Nothing to see here, move along.

Roger that Durr, and farewell to ye, fool.

You seem to get emotional pretty quick. Not the best qualities of a poker player.

And I suppose you must be Tom "Durrrr" Fucking Dwan to be giving me such sage poker advice...

Lol.

[piuk]

Did it take you literally 5 fucking minutes to type out that asinine sentence?

Less, about 20s, as much time as it took you to get your panties in a twist.

[Synaptic]

Did it take you literally 5 fucking minutes to type out that asinine sentence?

Less, about 20s, as much time as it took you to get your panties in a twist.

Translation: I've just said something stupid, now you should to (sic).

[Vandroiy]

Hurr Durr.

derp derp derp

Pun intended.



With the "discussion" now summarized, can we move on?

We could use a forum exclusively for speculating about the price and flaming those who have a different opinion.

[Synaptic]

I really didn't want this thread to devolve into me thrusting my rapier like wit into the vital organs of fools, so I'm again going to encourage more positive discourse about BTC and possible or current development bringing value into the market.

Here's to a more worthwhile page Two.

Cheers.

[jalidi]

I've only known about Bitcoins for two whole entire weeks.

Though watching the difficulty jump up 50% while knowing thousands of other Bitcoin-minded folks were coming online for the first time suggests to me that I've probably missed the party boat, though it's not yet over by a long shot. All of this happened while I was in the middle of rebuilding a new system, so if I could get a bit of a discount on my hardware, why not? But I'm not going to be flying to a mansion in my own helicopter at this point, that boat sailed a long time ago, nevermind the party boat following it.

I tried my hand at speculating but after the dangerous wobbles of the past week I just pulled out at no loss and am just watching the market. If it crashes, I'll probably pick up a bunch of BTC at that point, but until then I'll just quietly mine as many BTC as I can. Almost up to 5 now from pooled mining. It's all terribly exciting.

Bitcoins are an online currency which is still in it's infancy but I honestly believe it'll endure despite the hacking and theft issues. These coins need to be stamped in such a way that when they are surrendered they can only be done so by the coin's actual owner, who would supply an authentication key generated at the time of transfer. It'll be interesting to see where this all ends up!

[Synaptic]

I've only known about Bitcoins for two whole entire weeks.

Though watching the difficulty jump up 50% while knowing thousands of other Bitcoin-minded folks were coming online for the first time suggests to me that I've probably missed the party boat, though it's not yet over by a long shot. All of this happened while I was in the middle of rebuilding a new system, so if I could get a bit of a discount on my hardware, why not? But I'm not going to be flying to a mansion in my own helicopter at this point, that boat sailed a long time ago, nevermind the party boat following it.

I tried my hand at speculating but after the dangerous wobbles of the past week I just pulled out at no loss and am just watching the market. If it crashes, I'll probably pick up a bunch of BTC at that point, but until then I'll just quietly mine as many BTC as I can. Almost up to 5 now from pooled mining. It's all terribly exciting.

Bitcoins are an online currency which is still in it's infancy but I honestly believe it'll endure despite the hacking and theft issues. These coins need to be stamped in such a way that when they are surrendered they can only be done so by the coin's actual owner, who would supply an authentication key generated at the time of transfer. It'll be interesting to see where this all ends up!

Having an encrypted PIN code prompt on the client at time of transaction would be a great idea. Though that still assumes someone isn't infected with a keylogger...

[imperi]

I think Synaptic is just lying again like he did about his friend.

[Synaptic]

I think Synaptic is just lying again like he did about his friend.

I haven't lied about anything.

I said there was going to be a major market event through one of my contacts, and there was, right when I said there was going to be.

Just because everyone assumed I meant a sell off and I played along with them doesn't mean jack shit. The evidence is plain for anyone to see on the market or the block chain.