Bitcoin is created at a rate of 25BTC every ten minutes. It doesn't matter what kind of hardware you throw at it, that does not change.
A much larger number of people can go out and use their GPU to mine than the number of people who can purchase and ACTUALLY RECEIVE an ASIC in a timely fashion. You may think you are all being slick right now, but when the people who were actually spending the coins move on you're all going to be wondering why your bullshit economy that is only in existence because of drugs and drug users dries up.
Only a small number of miners. Hobbyist miners. A large number of miners who mine as a business instead of a hobby are still at it. And an even larger (WAY LARGER) number of bitcoin supporters aren't miners, but those who support everything that bitcoin does and allows.
When it becomes more profitable to mine altcoins than bitcoins (which is already the case), your "businesses" will follow the money. And you are probably thinking "they aren't more valuable", to which I would suggest you read on.
Funny, but a good thing. There's finally a reason for people to get themselves weaned off MtGox's centralization. I suspect Coinbase will become the largest in the US soon, just due to its convenience.
the one thing we agree on
Most people did not GIVE A FUCK about smartphones (I had one since 2002). Or e-mail. Or internet. Or hell, even cars at one point. We see the benefits that bitcoin provides. Other people will too eventually.
All of those things provided a way to complete a task that wasn't already in existence via something else. In the case of bitcoin, that something else is called the collective governments of the world and their respective currencies. People don't need to have bitcoins to buy whatever they want already (including drugs). You do not offer anything unique to the world populace besides a way to acquire drugs anonymously and have them sent to your house. It used to be unique in that an everyday person could use their PC to create them, and in turn, spend them on the economy, but now they are simply being used as a way to play the market to make the speculator extra fiat currency. When the end goal is to use btc to acquire the very thing you are setting out to challenge there is a problem with your logic, plain and simple.
Almost no one pays with cash any more. Everyone pays with plastic cards or smartphones (the later is rare, but being more adopted). Everyone can use plastic cards and phones to pay with bitcoins eventually, too. You can already pay with bitcoins using phones, and it's only a matter of months until the hardware wallets and plastic cards come out that will allow even a grandma, on a WinXP machine, running Internet Explorer, and running every file e-mailed to her, to keep her coins safe.
You must not get out much, because cash will ALWAYS be around and will ALWAYS have a place in the economy. People pay with credit cards and debit cards at a higher rate today, absolutely, you are correct in that statement. But they are only using them as an extension of their bank accounts, which is funded by cash or direct deposit from their place of employment (which makes its money from fiat currencies, not bitcoin, and therefore pays in fiat currency). When people need to pay fees and jump through hoops to convert what they already have in cash, to a currency that is wildly unstable, to buy shit they could have just bought in the first place with cash, you would need a very convincing argument for why bitcoins are worth acquiring besides "they're the future bro".
You forgot tax evasion, bypassing currency controls and sanctions, gambling, illegal file sharing, anonymous VPN access...
Does SilkRoad accept Litecoin yet? Last time I checked, SilkRoad, online gambling sites, and shady characters willing to trade cryptocurrencies for fiat on the street only used bitcoin.
You must not check very often. And for all your talk of "in the future this" and "in the future that" you must be naive to think alt coins wont make their way into that scene. Criminals are always five steps ahead of everyone, so when they start taking altcoins YOU KNOW the jig is up.
Not sure what you are trying to say with this. Does lead paint provide some sort if inherent utility that nothing else can provide?
Does bitcoin provide some sort of inherent utility that nothing else can provide? It used to, now it's just in a mid-life crisis of whether it wants to be the ideal online currency or a shitty excuse for a real world currency. It was a pretty hastily thought of analogy, I give you that, but the point remains the same.
So... how does the number of quality of developers, merchants, and hardware compare between that "new technology" and bitcoin? Are there any ATMs yet? Hardware wallets? Point of sale systems? Easy to use shopping card software plugins? Companies that can accept that "new technology" and deposit it into your account for you? Or do those "new technologies" just provide minor tweaks that don't really give anything new, and have little support because everyone else is using bitcoins?
Reducing the transaction time by over 3/4ths and creating a currency that cannot be taken over by a bunch of glorified paperweights is not a minor tweak, it's a complete overhaul. And for all that stuff you just listed off as if it were commonplace, I see not a one that isn't already being used just fine by fiat currencies. If something isn't broke people will not attempt to fix it, especially if the only outcome is going to be having to spend 50% of the day explaining to the customers what the fuck a Bitcoin even is, let alone how to acquire them.
Tulips are a multi-million dollar global business, accounting for a sizable chunk of Denmark's GDP. I *wish* bitcoin was as big as tulips.
not sure if you are being sarcastic or the reference really went over your head, but not much to say regardless.
I do not wish to see Bitcoin fail, I just don't agree with the direction it is heading. It started out as an anonymous currency, and you bitheads want to bring it into the mainstream attention. News flash guys: the words "anonymous" and "mainstream" is already a description of what cash is to society. You know, that stuff that is printed and controlled by the Federal Reserve. You know, those guys in black suits that don't even have to listen to the government to do whatever the fuck they want. You know, the guys who can infiltrate and take down those "fancy services" you tout around as the future of Bitcoin while they are mostly based in the US. You cannot challenge the Feds at their own game, and if you think you can then you seriously have something else coming to you. Bitcoin made its bones by being a way for a small number of informed individuals to use as a means to bypass conventional currencies and use their knowledge of computers to acquire tangible things. When it became a high-ROI producing machine, it attracted all the people who DID NOT use them for tangible things. They simply bought them in the hope of making a larger return of fiat money. You cannot hope to challenge the currencies already in existence when the only thing driving yours is greed and the desire to make a quick turnaround on the very currencies you are setting out to challenge.
Because the only thing that gives Bitcoin value is the places you can spend them at, when more and more developers see the writing on the wall and move onto new coins and the current bitcoin services are all in Federal Court or based out of some third world shithole, you can expect a drastically different outlook on the value of them.
I don't think anyone wants to see Bitcoin fail, some of us just have realistic expectations of its potential and recognize the effect several key services have on it's economy. Throw in the fact that BitInstant is now checking names through a database and taunting the Feds by being based out of New York (with it's partner being based out of San Francisco), and you got a recipe for disaster that literally gives a giant middle finger to anything Bitcoin was
supposed to be.
But that is the problem at the core really, when big money gets involved people lose sight of the reality around them with some kind of reasoning that because they were smart enough to acquire it in the first place, they can't possibly lose it in the future. You can either be a solid online cryptocurrency, or try to play with the big boys and become a train wreck of a legitimate currency. Anyone who is moving onto Litecoin or whatever coin they support understands that. It is solely you Bitheads who won't accept the fact that the high water mark of Bitcoin has already come and passed because the very principles it was founded on are now being brushed aside as unimportant. While it may be worth more in fiat currency right now, what the fuck is the point if everyone is selling their soul to become what they hate? You are pushing out the silent majority that supports Bitcoin by being a bunch of hypocritical dumbasses who think altcoins are useless because they have little vendor support. How do you think Bitcoin compares to fiat currency? The amount of services provided by any altcoin is much closer percentage-wise to the amount of services Bitcoin will ever provide compared to plain old cash. And at least most altcoin devs know they aren't going to ever become mainstream, and are simply trying to create a coin that will tailor to it's rightful audience and users.
We as a mainstream society are living in the age of convenience, and Bitcoin provides nothing but an inconvenience to all but a group of technical savvy internet dwellers. The fact that it is trying to break down that barrier while providing nothing unique anymore is just comical.
