Google going Bitcoin?

[StatAnalyst]

I am a newbie so I am posting here - please be forgiving if this is the wrong category - I am still getting familiar with this site.

The other day I was talking to my friend who is working for Google, mentioning bitcoin. To my surprise he was already somewhat familiar with it and told me that they are considering to add bitcoin as an option for Google Wallet and Google Checkout. I tried to get more info but my friend takes his NDA pretty serious and was reluctant to share any details. To me it seems that this will be huge and a real game changer. In fact, it will probably boost bitcoin popularity overnight. Does anyone else know more about it and is willing to share the details?

[Axez D. Nyde]

and bitcoins will replace the dollar, too.

[StatAnalyst]

and bitcoins will replace the dollar, too.

I don't think this is funny. One of the issues: If a currency that has a maximum of only 21M units available sees large-scale adoption, precision may become an issue. People will be dealing with tiny fractions for daily purchases and you certainly don't want any floating point errors to occur. Looking at modern FPU implementations, likely this will be no problem but for a currency that will be used globally it may have been better to set this number a few magnitudes higher.

[molecular]

I am a newbie so I am posting here - please be forgiving if this is the wrong category - I am still getting familiar with this site.

The other day I was talking to my friend who is working for Google, mentioning bitcoin. To my surprise he was already somewhat familiar with it and told me that they are considering to add bitcoin as an option for Google Wallet and Google Checkout. I tried to get more info but my friend takes his NDA pretty serious and was reluctant to share any details. To me it seems that this will be huge and a real game changer. In fact, it will probably boost bitcoin popularity overnight. Does anyone else know more about it and is willing to share the details?

Maybe you're not a newbie, but just made this fresh account to seed some positive rumor to increase bitcoin price?

EDIT: after reading previous-sibling post, I'm not sure anymore what to think.

[Mushoz]

and bitcoins will replace the dollar, too.

I don't think this is funny. One of the issues: If a currency that has a maximum of only 21M units available sees large-scale adoption, precision may become an issue. People will be dealing with tiny fractions for daily purchases and you certainly don't want any floating point errors to occur. Looking at modern FPU implementations, likely this will be no problem but for a currency that will be used globally it may have been better to set this number a few magnitudes higher.

The comma can always be moved a few places. Precision and/or comma place isn't going to be a problem in the future. Both are very easily fixable.

[payb.tc]

and bitcoins will replace the dollar, too.

I don't think this is funny. One of the issues: If a currency that has a maximum of only 21M units available sees large-scale adoption, precision may become an issue. People will be dealing with tiny fractions for daily purchases and you certainly don't want any floating point errors to occur. Looking at modern FPU implementations, likely this will be no problem but for a currency that will be used globally it may have been better to set this number a few magnitudes higher.

noone's stopping you from trading in mBTC, µBTC or nBTC... no excuse for floating point errors any more than with dollars and cents.

[StatAnalyst]

and bitcoins will replace the dollar, too.

I don't think this is funny. One of the issues: If a currency that has a maximum of only 21M units available sees large-scale adoption, precision may become an issue. People will be dealing with tiny fractions for daily purchases and you certainly don't want any floating point errors to occur. Looking at modern FPU implementations, likely this will be no problem but for a currency that will be used globally it may have been better to set this number a few magnitudes higher.

noone's stopping you from trading in mBTC, µBTC or nBTC... no excuse for floating point errors any more than with dollars and cents.

True. I still think that 21M is a relatively small number and it would be more natural to deal with amounts closer to naturally countable (integer) numbers.

Back to my initial questions: Does anyone know more about Google's bitcoin ambitions and plans? The reason I am asking is not speculation with the currency but about a business model around bitcoin that I have in mind that would benefit greatly from knowing the time-scale of larger scale adoption of bitcoin.

[BusmasterDMA]

Back to my initial questions: Does anyone know more about Google's bitcoin ambitions and plans? The reason I am asking is not speculation with the currency but about a business model around bitcoin that I have in mind that would benefit greatly from knowing the time-scale of larger scale adoption of bitcoin.

It's doubtful you'll hear any news in this thread.  If there were any substantial information about this, it would already be the most discussed topic on the boards. 

I'm not surprised to hear that Google employees are aware of Bitcoin.  I believe the Bitcoin client for Android (based on the BitcoinJ library) was coded by a Google employee in his spare time. But of course that is far removed from Google itself taking any official stance.

[memvola]

I don't think this is funny. One of the issues: If a currency that has a maximum of only 21M units available sees large-scale adoption, precision may become an issue. People will be dealing with tiny fractions for daily purchases and you certainly don't want any floating point errors to occur. Looking at modern FPU implementations, likely this will be no problem but for a currency that will be used globally it may have been better to set this number a few magnitudes higher.

If any system is using floating point numbers (and not integers) to store Bitcoins, that is a bug.

[floeti]

You know, that if this was true, the bitcoin/usd-price would skyrocket nearly instant. Don't expect something like this anytime soon.

[Xephan]

I don't think this is funny. One of the issues: If a currency that has a maximum of only 21M units available sees large-scale adoption, precision may become an issue. People will be dealing with tiny fractions for daily purchases and you certainly don't want any floating point errors to occur. Looking at modern FPU implementations, likely this will be no problem but for a currency that will be used globally it may have been better to set this number a few magnitudes higher.

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

[Raeldi]

I dearly hope so, haha.

[Christian Pezza]

YES JUST MAKE IT HAPPEN

[epii]

I'm working at Google, and while I don't have any news about people here talking about the company endorsing Bitcoin (and, even if I did, it'd almost certainly be confidential), I do know that there are at least several dozen Google employees who are familiar with Bitcoin and following it in the news.

[Ethic]

This would be a very interesting development (if true).

[Herbert]

Jesus, get real. Not gonna happen anytime soon.

[kjj]

and bitcoins will replace the dollar, too.

I don't think this is funny. One of the issues: If a currency that has a maximum of only 21M units available sees large-scale adoption, precision may become an issue. People will be dealing with tiny fractions for daily purchases and you certainly don't want any floating point errors to occur. Looking at modern FPU implementations, likely this will be no problem but for a currency that will be used globally it may have been better to set this number a few magnitudes higher.

noone's stopping you from trading in mBTC, µBTC or nBTC... no excuse for floating point errors any more than with dollars and cents.

True. I still think that 21M is a relatively small number and it would be more natural to deal with amounts closer to naturally countable (integer) numbers.

That is because of how you were raised.  You'll adjust.  I promise.

[viboracecata]

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

[payb.tc]

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.

[kjj]

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.

Most clients use 64 bit integers and scale everything down by 0.00000001 for display.  But strings work too, but aren't as compact.