Bitcoin - The Future and How We Get There

[Anonymous]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93whfq-I7AM

In this video, I'll briefly describe my objective to get Bitcoin out in the mainstream and how we should plan to get there.

[BitcoinPorn]

Security over getting Bitcoin in the mainstream.   More ways to either trust third parties or make it so trusting the third parties is no longer an issue.  These things must be solved, or no common person, or even a person who does know how to use a computer a little bit, will jump onto Bitcoin with the bullshit issues that continue to plague.   Growth is not the issue, these foundations need to be more stable.

[Anonymous]

Security over getting Bitcoin in the mainstream.   More ways to either trust third parties or make it so trusting the third parties is no longer an issue.  These things must be solved, or no common person, or even a person who does know how to use a computer a little bit, will jump onto Bitcoin with the bullshit issues that continue to plague.   Growth is not the issue, these foundations need to be more stable.

The incentive for greater security will come when there is an actual market for Bitcoin. The profit doesn't exist for more secure infrastructure because there is hardly a market to use it. It will come AFTER people know about this innovation.

[BitcoinPorn]

You take chicken, I take egg then.  I don't see the innovation as present until things are generally overall more secure, until then more and more I keep seeing Bitcoin as something really neat, but not the final word in digital currency.

[elggawf]

Some of your statements are silly, and some are downright contradictory.

I keep asking people why the "health" of Bitcoin is determined by it's ever increasing value? This $5 thing is kinda cool: I'm personally starting to develop a nice frame-of-reference in my mind... when someone prices something in BTC it's getting to the point where I'm no longer having to convert it to USD in my head to judge the quality of the price or not. That's awesome.

You're another one of those jackasses telling people it's zero-fees. That's crap, and it only serves to turn around and bite people in the arse. #1 because they are likely within their first month of using it to encounter a non-free transaction anyway, and #2 because the long-term health of the Bitcoin network depends on fees on most transactions.

You were saying that it's going to increase in value if you hold it long enough (which is silly, that's not a given at all, if it was a given we wouldn't be having this conversation). You were saying that Bitcoin is not arbitrarily inflatable, and that a currency "should be to the wills of the market" - that's what the current price is, is it not?

The only logical conclusion to all this is that people want the ever-increasing value for the sole reason that they want to get rich without actually doing anything but holding Bitcoin. That kinda makes you a parasite - the fact that that's seemingly all you want out of it. For all Krugman's idiocy at times, he got one thing right describing Bitcoin: the purpose of a currency is not simply to make those holding it rich.

Sure, the stagnant price and climbing difficulty has sucked shit for a lot of miners, but you knew going into it that it was going to be a race to the bottom in terms of who could mine most efficiently. If you're a miner who dropped $10k in credit card debt on a mining farm that you now can't run at a profit because of the cost of cooling or electricity where you are is too high, that's your own stupid bloody fault.

Fact is that while I'm not getting rich off it, I'm making a profit right now. I'm mining at an extremely tiny profit, but mostly "just because", and I've scaled back the aggression and clocks on my card to keep it below 70C when mining. I'm accepting BTC for services, and it's nice to feel reasonably secure that the buying power isn't going to tank right after I accept them. I've been spending those Bitcoins on things. The end result is that through Bitcoin, counting in all factors, I'm at a net increase from what I've had and the price hasn't moved upwards much at all. I won't get rich off it, and it makes up a tiny portion of my business, but it's still there.

The price slumps when bad news hits the market are getting smaller and smaller - that's a good thing. That's healthy. Healthier than a 1000% increase in 12 months or whatever - in the real world no investment performs like that in a sustainable fashion. The economy doesn't need meddling, it needs more, sustainable growth. The lower the price goes, the less money needs to be injected into the economy for it to maintain it's price. So it's not a $250m economy - who cares?

It's working, give it some credit.

[FreeTrade]

Bitcoin needs more CONTROVERSY.

Controversy -> Stories -> Interest -> Searches -> Users

[BitcoinPorn]

Bitcoin needs more CONTROVERSY to hire someone from http://blackhatworld.com .

Controversy -> Stories -> Interest -> Searches -> Users

[repentance]

Yep.  Larger numbers of people losing money to shonky Bitcoin ventures is definitely the path to mainstream adoption and acceptance.

If those starting Bitcoin exchanges don't have the capital to invest in security at the outset, then they shouldn't be in business to begin with.  It's absurd to suggest that it's OK for them to operate with lax security until they make enough profit to invest in better infrastructure.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Great video, Atlas! While watching it, I kept thinking about this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5aSa4tmVNM

and this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WINDtlPXmmE

and this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi6XV8yBFoU

and finally, this one (a must see): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFdIxE9tqO0

[FreeTrade]

I keep asking people why the "health" of Bitcoin is determined by it's ever increasing value?

The USD price of Bitcoin is the collective judgement of the market on whether Bitcoin will be successful. It represents people betting with their money as to the health of Bitcoin.

[elggawf]

The USD price of Bitcoin is the collective judgement of the market on whether Bitcoin will be successful. It represents people betting with their money as to the health of Bitcoin.

That's only really true if all the people buying it are doing so to speculate, but I see where you're going with that. However it doesn't mean that a stagnating price is an immediate indictment of the ill-health of the economy, given that we're minting 50BTC more on average every 10 minutes.

[FreeTrade]

That's only really true if all the people buying it are doing so to speculate, but I see where you're going with that. However it doesn't mean that a stagnating price is an immediate indictment of the ill-health of the economy, given that we're minting 50BTC more on average every 10 minutes.

Agreed - absorbing 50BTC every ten minutes while the price remains stable is a sign of confidence. Either there is money flowing in to support the price, or the miners are holding onto it (and paying in electricity). 

[Anonymous]

I'll be making another video tomorrow addressing responses.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I'll be making another video tomorrow addressing responses.

Shit! I thought I smelled a trap. I want to retract my video responses and replace them with only this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ZuKF3dxCY

[jimbobway]

Great stuff Immanual.  You are a natural.

[repentance]

n/m

[danman87]

Great video, Atlas! While watching it, I kept thinking about this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5aSa4tmVNM

and this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WINDtlPXmmE

and this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi6XV8yBFoU

and finally, this one (a must see): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFdIxE9tqO0

lol, awesome.

[genjix]

lol he makes really good points.

[danman87]

When?

[tvbcof]

You take chicken, I take egg then.  I don't see the innovation as present until things are generally overall more secure, until then more and more I keep seeing Bitcoin as something really neat, but not the final word in digital currency.

I am sure that you are right because your porn is a lot better than the Woolongfinancial stuff.