Is bitcoin a banana? No, PRECIOUS BITS (thread went slightly ot)

[cbeast]

I say: digital gold - everybody can understand that

I agree, "digital gold" is really good. captures many of the features.

That claim is also more than a little grandiose. Sure, gold is a commodity, but Bitcoin is nowhere near that valuable.

Noone said that bitcoin was as valuable as gold. It's not about quantities, but about qualities.

You can also call it digital poo. It's not about quantities, it's about qualities.

[westkybitcoins]

I say: digital gold - everybody can understand that

I agree, "digital gold" is really good. captures many of the features.

That claim is also more than a little grandiose. Sure, gold is a commodity, but Bitcoin is nowhere near that valuable.

Noone said that bitcoin was as valuable as gold. It's not about quantities, but about qualities.

You can also call it digital poo. It's not about quantities, it's about qualities.

Digital copper?

[BurtW]

As far as what type of non digital commodity they are “closest too” I like the simile “Bitcoins are like baseball cards” because they are basically artificially rare collectible “things”

Now taking this one step further I have heard them referred to as “collectible cryptographic anomalies” or just “cryptographic anomalies” – and I rather like that.

[phelix]

I say: digital gold - everybody can understand that

I agree, "digital gold" is really good. captures many of the features.

That claim is also more than a little grandiose. Sure, gold is a commodity, but Bitcoin is nowhere near that valuable.

Noone said that bitcoin was as valuable as gold. It's not about quantities, but about qualities.

You can also call it digital poo. It's not about quantities, it's about qualities.

the amount of poo you can produce is not really limited.


gold is a very clear concept for everybody and it is a very positive one.

cryptographic anomalies, Virtual Scarcity, superimposed quantized deflationary value representation - you throw that at a normal person and they will call the doctor.

[Hawkix]

I would more emphasize the transport layer:

Bitcoin is a virtual scarcity you can send with a mouse click.

[molecular]

I would more emphasize the transport layer:

Bitcoin is a virtual scarcity you can send with a mouse click.

emailable precious bits

hm, precious bits

[BurtW]

I really like the word precious.

Precious bits - mined at great expense of electrical power from the great sea of hashing possibilities!

[westkybitcoins]

Precious bits - mined at great expense of electrical power from the great sea of hashing possibilities!

I'm going to be using this phrase.

[beckspace]

hm, precious bits

nailed it.

[julz]

'virtual scarcity' is open to the interpretation that it's not quite scarce.

I prefer something like 'Mathematically ensured scarcity' 
or 'Mathematically enshrined scarcity' 

Perhaps bitcoins are 'Globally Ensured Mathematical Scarcity'  or 'Deals In A Money Of Network-Distributed Scarcity'

(sorry.. couldn't help myself)

[cbeast]

I really like the word precious.

Precious bits - mined at great expense of electrical power from the great sea of hashing possibilities!

My PRECIOUS!

[molecular]

Precious bits - mined at great expense of electrical power from the great sea of hashing possibilities!

I'm going to be using this phrase.

There's also the expression of "sieving" already used (integer factorization, e.g. "number field sieve").

Precious bits - sieved at great expense from the vast deserts of the nonce space.

of course, having "mining" in there is a plus.

[Hawkix]

So, is there anybody going to produce My Precious - real gold ring with private key engraved on inner side of the ring, with public key on the outer side?

Casascius?

[phillipsjk]

I suppose (most) the alternate block-chains would be considered semi-precious.

I like the fact "precious bits" seem to fit nicely into gaps in the Fintrac Guidelines. Until now, I was assuming that a "Money Service Business" would be the closest analog. (Though I fail to see how "alternative money remittance systems, such as Hawala, Hundi, Chitti, etc." can be reasonably included.) Precious Bits neatly fall outside the scope of "Dealers in precious metals and stones", at least until the law/regulations are changed to include "bits" (with the clarification that copyrighted works are not considered precious because they can easily be copied).

Edit: Which bits, specifically, are precious? Only the block-chain (and some novelty addresses) are computationally intensive. The private key (for a funded address) is what lets you move/create/destroy/merge/split funds precious bits.

[molecular]

I suppose (most) the alternate block-chains would be considered semi-precious.

I like the fact "precious bits" seem to fit nicely into gaps in the Fintrac Guidelines. Until now, I was assuming that a "Money Service Business" would be the closest analog. (Though I fail to see how "alternative money remittance systems, such as Hawala, Hundi, Chitti, etc." can be reasonably included.) Precious Bits neatly fall outside the scope of "Dealers in precious metals and stones", at least until the law/regulations are changed to include "bits" (with the clarification that copyrighted works are not considered precious because they can easily be copied).

Edit: Which bits, specifically, are precious? Only the block-chain (and some novelty addresses) are computationally intensive. The private key (for a funded address) is what lets you move/create/destroy/merge/split funds precious bits.

I'm not sure such a renaming would change anything regarding how bitcoin is handled legally. Interesting thoughts however.

[BurtW]

The private key is just a random number.
The public key is just calculated from the private key.
The public key address is just calculated from the public key.
Vanity addresses are just randomly generated public key addresses that happen to match some pattern.

The "precious" part, the part that takes all the time/effort/energy to generate, is the hash of the block that meets the difficulty criteria.  For example:

000000000000055a165e49e80b04a7b5df29bedd7bdb23fec6d5d42052d3ad86

Getting all those zeros to happen in what is basically a random number is "hard"  so this is a "precious" number that was created by the system and the miner who found it was paid 50 BTC for their efforts.

So I contend that the block hashes are the "precious bits" or "cryptographic anomolies" that are being "collected".

[phillipsjk]

So I contend that the block hashes are the "precious bits" or "cryptographic anomolies" that are being "collected".

I feel I may have broken the analogy by trying to pin it down on specific bits. The Block hash is freely copied. It only proves that a specific block has not been changed by a malicious party.

I contend the ability to manipulate coins represented by the block-chain is precious. Therefore the private address corresponding to a funded public address would be precious. Such 'bits' have no value without the block-chain, which is what makes them "precious". Also, not all private addresses are precious: those corresponding to empty addresses are worthless.

[BurtW]

Well at any rate we all seem to agree that "precious bits" sounds cool and does seem to fit the system (somehow).

[molecular]

Well at any rate we all seem to agree that "precious bits" sounds cool and does seem to fit the system (somehow).

I agree. It also sticks (in my head, at least)