Google going Bitcoin?

[CoinHunter]

As a general rule, financial systems should always store values in decimal format and not in floating point.

isn't 'decimal format' just a fancy name for 'string with a dot in it'?

seems that way in mysql anyway.

Pretty much. The only true way to store financial numbers on computers is with integers. Everything else is rather subjective.

[Xephan]

As a general rule, financial systems should always store values in decimal format and not in floating point.

isn't 'decimal format' just a fancy name for 'string with a dot in it'?

seems that way in mysql anyway.

As long as it's a lossless format, doesn't matter if you stored it as a string with a dot, or an integer with the decimal place shifted for display purposes.

[indio007]

I don't know why ppl. keep saying 21 million to 8 decimal places isn't enough units.   That's the ability to do 2.1 quadrillion transactions. The ability to make a secure transaction is all that matters. The digits are arbitrary.

[jorijnsmit]

I think that google is interested in Bitcoin, but I don't think they are going to adopt it or even make their own version.

Google is all about centralization, Bitcoin is all about decentralization.

If Google made their own currency I think it would be more akin to Facebook credits.

Interesting point about the centralization/decentralization.

About the decimal discussion:

The total number of bitcoins is programmed to approach 21 million over time.[7] The money supply is programmed to grow as a geometric series every 210,000 blocks (roughly every 4 years); by 2013 half of the total supply will be generated, and by 2017, 3/4 will be generated. To ensure sufficient granularity of the money supply, bitcoins are divisible down to eight decimal places (a total of 2.1 × 10¹⁵ or 2.1 quadrillion units).

If we take the numbers from this article and assume every human being on the planet has a need to hold an average of a 1000 units of currency and combine this with let's say ten billion humans in the near future I think we have nothing to worry about. (2.1*10^15 / 10*10^9 = 2.1*10^5; 21000 units per person)

What is not included in this calculation are other entities that hold currency such as companies. Any ideas on this?

[molecular]

If google takes over bitcoin, it may deviate from the original purpose of bitcoin, no government supervision is the key point.

What do you mean by "take over bitcoin"? Have >50% of hashing power?

I doubt they would want to do that, because that could kill bitcoin.

They could just use bitcoin as any other currency in google checkout, for paying ads or whatever, though. That wouldn't mean a centralization of bitcoin.

[cbeast]

If google takes over bitcoin, it may deviate from the original purpose of bitcoin, no government supervision is the key point.

Google is a big organization now with a more conservative focus. Mozilla, OTOH could position themselves very well if they took the risk on bitcoin with web-browser based tools. I'm not starting any rumors, just opining.

[Anonymous]

http://www.smoothblog.co.uk/2011/08/11/google-admits-handing-european-user-data-intelligence-agencies/

[IXCoin]

Bitcoin intergration with google wallet/checkout would be HUGE!

But I wouldn't hold my breath.  Think you can squeeze any more details out of the guy?

[cbeast]

If google takes over bitcoin, it may deviate from the original purpose of bitcoin, no government supervision is the key point.

Google cannot take over bitcoin, but they can make a lot of money in transaction fees if they jump into the game and popularize bitcoin. Hell, they can call their client "Googlecoin" for all I care, just as long as they use the same blockchain as we do.

[Mad7Scientist]

Does Google accept foreign currencies like CAD or Euros or Rubles? Bitcoin is just like another foreign currency.

[bho]

It was rumored a while ago that Paypal would begin taking BTC as funds.  Obviously, that was misinformation spread around, which I wouldn't be surprised if this was as well