It'll be interesting to see if it catches on.
Its already pretty big. Drug dealers are even using it because it's literally more stable than any other currency because its regulated purely by supply and demand and not governments that print more money or banks that loan against a principle multiple times...
"Use it - drug dealers do!"
Sorry, I have nothing substantive to add to the conversation. It just struck me as funny.
"corporate cartel control"
"government puppets"
"all-powerful cartel"
"Wall Street casino"
"domestic surveillance prison"
"centralized power of the banking cartel and their tax-thirsty puppet regimes"
All I can say is "wow".
Wonder how much malware is out there, or will be soon, that looks for an additional file to upload to its creator.
Your public and private keys are stored in a file that can be transferred to another computer, for example if you upgrade.
- Dimebag of Snow White
- Harvested kidney
- 10-year old Russian girl
Oh, and don't forget the loaf of bread... again!
Yes one type of "cred" like in star wars would make the economy a little bit more stable... Killing off the banking cartels would do so as well. I don't think this idea is the right way to go. Hell they couldn't even put up a web page that was stable.
The webpage in the comments section is not the actual page. Google bitcoin and you'll find the real page. There is even a stock market set up around it.
What makes it stable is that its spread across all users and in order to change it you have to get 51% of the users to authorize the change. It also spreads the records of the transactions around using a bittorrent style sharing system. So to affect the system you'd have to take out more than 75% of the users. When you do a transaction it spreads the transaction history throughout the whole network over time. So if someone tries to spoof or 'hack' your bitcoins, they are easily found out because the rest of the network shows different data. It also has a set deflation rate. This rate is not affected by anything and can't be changed without consent from 51% of users. The value of bitcoins is tied directly to the laws of supply and demand and can't be manipulated without massive market tie ins...
Unless they eradicate it now (and I mean right now) it will have spread to enough users that the best they could do is to ban the program from their area...
Does not really help face to face transactions does it.
Or the fact you have to use established currencies to pay for your internet access.
Does not really help face to face transactions does it.
Or the fact you have to use established currencies to pay for your internet access.
Actually in the future we might see wireless cards that do nothing except transfer your funds. that's the beauty of the bitcoin system. Because it uses bittorent like technology you can literally put it on a 'smart' card that has a tiny processor and memory in it and use it in a similar way to a credit card. I'm sure it won't be long before we see phone apps for it and have people accepting it at stores that use computerized registers or small businesses where they have a cell phone with the app just for doing the transfers.
You can actually 'generate' your own bitcoins. The program uses an algorithm to find new mathematical computations for a very complex equation. Each 'answer' is a private 'key' that is then used to generate a public key. There are a finite number of answers. You can set up a computer to do the math problem based on your registered 'hash' number. After calculating for awhile you gain 50 Bitcoins. It takes awhile to do this math even on modern computers and as more and more 'answer's' are found it becomes more difficult to find new 'answers' once all the answers are found to this equation no more Bitcoins can be generated this way. As they are generated they are put to use. As long as people use them they will have value. They will be used because they can't be manipulated.
It uses an encryption called public key encryption. Which without the private key is nigh on un-hackable (a dedicated supercomputer would take years). This is because a math problem is done on the private key to generate a public key. You compare this public key to another persons private key and it'll tell you if its legitimate, but you won't be able to reverse engineer the private key from the public key. If you don't understand that here's an example:
Computer 1
private key: 25
math problem to generate public key: private key * 10
public key: 35
The public key is sent over the network to another computer with the private key
Computer 2
private key: 250
math problem to verify other keys: If public key divided by 100 is a multiple of private key then it is legitimate
The actual internals are much more complicated but if you don't know either private key then you have no clue how to reverse engineer the private key.
For instance the public key is 35 you know that the formula is: private key * X = public key, but without the private key and X it could be anything. it could be 35 * 1, it could be 5 * 7, it could be 70 * 0.5.
I see a huge potential with this money to replace a lot of the money that is regulated by at best 'bumbling' politicians and at worst 'corrupt' bankers... The money would literally be regulated by the people that use it...
The money would literally be regulated by the people that use it...
Yes, because some of these people could possibly not become corrupt, if they were not already. Considering this currency's current proponents and users, I would expect no less.
Currency, in any new form, will undergo all of the trials and tribulations than all of its predecessors.
The money would literally be regulated by the people that use it...
Yes, because some of these people could possibly not become corrupt, if they were not already. Considering this currency's current proponents and users, I would expect no less.
Currency, in any new form, will undergo all of the trials and tribulations than all of its predecessors.
That's the beauty of it. Its so de-centralized that you'd have to have 51% of the USERS to affect it in any way. Its literally gotten rid of the manipulations of government and centralized banks. There is no centralized location where all the data comes together. Yes the value will fluctuate, but it'll be based on what I call 'the real economy' not futures, not stock market B.S. that is manipulated by 'resets' and how many people buy or sell a 'stock'. It'll be directly manipulated by supply and demand...
What a dumb idea: I'm going to have a portion of my computer doing nothing but printing virtual money... I mean just stop and think bout that for a damn minuet. People with more computing power now have more access to this sillyness. What a stupid idea. Get a job, earn real wealth.
Its not that simple. When it started out you could just run your computer and generate coins. Now you need to get access to a more powerful computer and run it for weeks to get bitcoins. This is due to the algorithm used to generate the bitcoins having a finite number of keys it can generate. Its controlled deflation. Yes if you get your private key(s) stolen they can then transfer all your bitcoins to their account, but its no different than having your credit card stolen or your wallet stolen or your house broken into. Using Bitcoins to do business is what gives them value. Earning 50 Bitcoins every month using the generate system is not going to make you a rich person. Also as more Bitcoins are generated it becomes exponentially harder to generate more so its doubtful anyone after the initial people that started it will get rich from generating (we are already past this point). You will get a little 'free' money that you can spend online which will in turn encourage people to both use and accept Bitcoins. The major thing I see is that it cuts banks and government out of the loop and can't be easily manipulated, that's a huge improvement over current currency. The Feds print more money and the value drops making people that save money lose out (especially if the interest rate they are earning is less than the loss in value of their money which is most of time and most people)
Bitcoins can't really be used in that manner. Sure you could give it to a bank to hold, but why? initially banks were used to transfer money from one location to another (see Templar monetary system) or to secure your money from theft or other loss. Now a person that keeps up on their computers security is better than a bank (from a Bitcoin perspective). We hear about banks being hacked all the time and personal information being stolen. The only value you could get from putting your Bitcoins in the bank would be to gain interest, but with a steady deflation rate the interest on your account would have to be above the loss in value for it to be worth it. Also because of its Bit-torrent nature the banks can't lend off of it multiple times (which is what they do now) unless they lend it out as a different currency. (i.e. they can't just generate more Bitcoins unless they use the supercomputer method and then the new Bitcoins are actually trade-able and not a 'credit' type of currency they can lend out). Hopefully it'll become so widespread that no government or bank can stamp it out of existence. Here's the official site where you can read up on it in more detail...
That's the beauty of it. Its so de-centralized that you'd have to have 51% of the USERS to affect it in any way. Its literally gotten rid of the manipulations of government and centralized banks. There is no centralized location where all the data comes together. Yes the value will fluctuate, but it'll be based on what I call 'the real economy' not futures, not stock market B.S. that is manipulated by 'resets' and how many people buy or sell a 'stock'. It'll be directly manipulated by supply and demand...
Anything can succumb to corruption. I would think that of all people, you would understand that. And an economy, any economy, is a primary target.
That's the beauty of it. Its so de-centralized that you'd have to have 51% of the USERS to affect it in any way. Its literally gotten rid of the manipulations of government and centralized banks. There is no centralized location where all the data comes together. Yes the value will fluctuate, but it'll be based on what I call 'the real economy' not futures, not stock market B.S. that is manipulated by 'resets' and how many people buy or sell a 'stock'. It'll be directly manipulated by supply and demand...
Anything can succumb to corruption. I would think that of all people, you would understand that. And an economy, any economy, is a primary target.
Yes, but in this case 51% of the users would have to be 'corrupt' in order to affect the system...
It certainly looks interesting, but it does really need to take off. It probably lacks the backing that real money has... while both bitcoins and money are equally worthless, there's a larger chance that you can still exchange your real money for something useful tomorrow.
But still.. I'm going to look into it.
It's fake money. Stupid people wouldn't use it.
It certainly looks interesting, but it does really need to take off. It probably lacks the backing that real money has... while both bitcoins and money are equally worthless, there's a larger chance that you can still exchange your real money for something useful tomorrow.
But still.. I'm going to look into it.
According to one estimate there are 6,423,000 Bitcoin in circulation as of june 3rd 2011. Some estimates say a Bitcoin is worth more than a dollar. I'd say its taking off quite nicely...
Here's a good website with lots of information about it. The comments section is chocked full of relevant information. I'd suggest reading the entire page...