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[theymos]

value of a dollar afloat

value of the dollar afloat

If nobody were willing to exchange, then they'd be useless strips of paper.

So if I'm not willing to exchange, I'm useless strips of paper? 

whatever we most love or excel.

whatever we most love or excel in.

confirms transactions repeatedly, six

Replace the comma with a period or colon.

confirmations is considered

confirmations are considered

Does "Individuals can use their computer to help processes transactions." sound okay?

I don't want to pick a gender and I want to keep the idea that a single person can join no questions asked, no permissions. 

Say "computers" and it's good.

[FreeMoney]

confirmations is considered

confirmations are considered

All incorporated except this one. The sentence is wrong as it is, but the correction makes it seem like the confirmations themselves are safe somehow. What I mean to say is that once your transaction has six confirmations the transaction is safely embedded in the record. It seems I answered my question. I'll clean that up and put it in.

[FreeMoney]

Bitcoin is a more modern solution. Bitcoins are not dug out of the ground; they are found when computers solve a math problem that validates Bitcoin transactions and prevents double spending. Individuals can use their computers to help process transactions.

There are only two ways to get bitcoins: contribute resources to the network or provide goods or services that people with bitcoins want. There are no privileged users, and there's no backdoor access to free coins.

The number of new bitcoins issued in return for processing transactions decreases gradually to nothing over the next 120 years resulting in a fixed limit of 21 million bitcoins. At some point the low reward of new coins will not be a sufficient incentive for participation in the processing network. Users have the option of attaching a fee to transactions for faster processing. That fee goes to those working to process transactions.

Bitcoins are divisible. The Bitcoin software shows the familiar two digits for cents, but a bitcoin really has precision to the hundred millionths place. A Coke costs about 3 bitcoins now, but maybe in the future one will cost .003 bitcoins.

Sending and receiving bitcoins is easy. The Bitcoin software creates receiving addresses for you; you give an address to the payer and wait for them to send coins. Once you have coins, you can pay by copying and pasting the recipient's receiving address and entering the amount you want to pay. You do not need to be online to receive coins; they will be waiting for you. Payments can be anonymous, but aren't by default, just like cash could be anonymous if you were very careful. Payments cannot be revoked.

Payments appear to the recipient immediately after they are made, but it takes 10 minutes on average for the network to confirm that the coins now belong to the recipient's address. Bitcoin's design confirms transactions repeatedly. Each confirmation means that the transaction has been accepted deeper into the permanent record. A transaction with six or more confirmations is extremely secure; this takes about an hour.

When the Bitcoin software makes a receiving address for you it also produces a corresponding key which it holds in a file on your computer. While you will never see this key, it is what enables only your software to spend your coins. If this file is lost the coins can never be spent. If this file is stolen the coins can be spent by the thief. If you use Bitcoin seriously you should back this file up and keep your computer free of viruses. Bitcoin banks exist that can manage your bitcoins for you.

bitcoin.org - information, discussion, list of merchants and exchanges, and the official Bitcoin download link
bitcoinme.com - introductory information
mybitcoin.com - bank
mtgox.com - buy and sell


The bold section is brand new. I moved the one sentence paragraphs into an earlier paragraph. I elaborated on confirmations.

[FreeMoney]

I published it.

http://theanarchistmother.blogspot.com/2011/01/guest-post-solution-to-dollar.html

I bet you didn't know I was a woman. Ah, I labeled it guest post, can't fool anyone I guess.