Anyone do Bitcoin? I'm curious what apps and uses you may be doing with it, if you are. I'm thinking of starting to use it.
It uses NSA/Naval encryption keys...probably monitored more than we think. I am skeptical of crypto currency at this point, I think they are the work of state intelligence services and drug cartels. Just my 2cents... (Paranoid enough for ya?) lol
Me: I got some rather early on and am thrilled that I sold when I did as I made a really nice profit. I even mined some back in the days and got some that way as well (I had a whole rack set up lol). As investment Not sure I would go close to them again nowadays as an investment/speculation as it is rather volatile and with the 'oops' in Japan and Silkroad here in the US it has put a bit of a damper on the enthusiasm for many people. As a concept, however, I think crypto currency is pretty fascinating and applaud the creativity in developing something like this. Usage A lot of established retailers accept bitcoins - Expedia, Newegg, Gyft, Overstock.com...the list goes on. So if you're interested in the currency as an alternative mean of payment there are certainly a number of ways of putting them to use.
I don't mean to slam or sound paranoid...I am just waiting to see if crypto currency goes more mainstream. Also to see if it remains the domain of largely underworld trade. We live in interesting times...
I've found that maintaining a certain level of paranoia regarding most things in life is not always a bad thing
Keep in mind that those US $ bills in your wallet have been the main currency of the underworld for nearly 100 years. Drugs, slaves and weapons have been bought and sold with greenbacks more than any other currency in the world. So, the 'underworld' thing is really mainly a press talking point more than an actual concern.
If/when bitcoin drops below $150 I might go back in again - depending on the reason for the drop. It's just not pretty enough, for me, right now. 12 months chart:
I don't think it needs to be anonymous. If I'm using it to buy a computer from Dell or using Bitcoin through Paypal it's certainly not an anonymous transaction. If I have pizza delivered to my house and use cash, that's not anonymous either. And person to person transactions can definitely be anonymous. I can install a wallet on a tablet, then use that wallet to accept your payment of bitcoins for the apples I'm selling and while the transaction is recorded, nobody anywhere will ever have any idea who you gave that payment to, and when I go to spend it nobodody will necesarily know where I got the bitcoin for that expenditure. @Darkbulb could send me a 12 word code via PM here that I could turn around and use to purchase a car from someone with bitcoin, and while I the purchaser would of course not be anonymous, Darkbulb still would be.
You have highlighted some important points. I just drew some interesting conclusions with regard to Bitcoin and the Silk Road debacle. It's not lost on me that Silk Road was allowed to operate unmolested for a time. The security of the money may not be the issue. It just would not surprise me at all if the whole system is logged...Governments and cartels want their cut. The whole issue of fiat currency versus crypto currency is interesting and complex, as well as transitional. Seeing currency uncoupled from central banks and their monetary/strategic goals could be a boon to free trade and freedom in general...I am just not sure Bitcoin is that boon.
You can bet that if anything...ANYTHING threatens central banks or their host parent banking institutions, they will either assimilate it or eliminate it.
I think as time goes on and Bitcoin grows we'll see a lot of pushback from the banking industry as they're they ones who will be losing out. No more middleman, third parties, and so on, catching crumbs that fall from every transaction. The government has already basically said 'whatever' to it and the IRS deciding that it was a taxable asset has gone a long way to legitimizing it. It's not an original idea, it's just a modernized one and a well thought out one. In Kenya people there bartered a lot and used some cash, not because they were poor or anything, but because there just wasn't access to any kind of banking and currency wasn't always available. A cell provider dropped towers all over the country and gave them the ability to give each other minutes. Those minutes quickly became a form of currency. They could use their cash to buy minutes and then would trade minutes for goods and services with each other. Those minutes became a legitimate currency and made up 40% of their gross national product. 1/3 of the world has no access to banks but has access to cell phones. Through out Asia they've already been doing banking on phones for over a decade. Not like we do banking on phones, which is actually backwards and old fashioned, but using their phones as e-wallets and barcodes to make purchases at stores. Like you walk into the 7-11, run the app on your phone and tell it you're making a $1.30 transaction and it gives you a barcode that the clerk scans, payment complete. They were doing that securely for over a decade! So, a huge chunk of the world is already securely transacting like this in their native currency. So, electronic currency isn't all that new, and it's proven to be popular, easy to use, and secure where it's been used. I agree, I don't know that Bitcoin will be the e-currency 10 years from now, but it's the best thing there is right now. There are Bitcoin ATMs, you can make purchases with it online with major retailers, gas stations are starting to accept it at the pump, and it really has unlimited potential for growth. I'm mainly interested in starting to put some away as a secondary savings.
Sara- Bitcoin is one of several attempts to essentially decouple the issuance of new currency from any government or quasi-governmental bank. This new class of cryptologically generated and controlled instruments is referred to as "cryptocurrency". They have recently attracted interest and usage from mainstream institutions as an alternative medium of exchange across multinational lines. It's not without controversy, and it is computer science dependent. I have included some wiki links that is a cliff note version of how it works. These things are not going away. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographic_hash_function http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-256
Yes, I really did quote myself! I'm that guy! I wanted to clarify what I meant by the banking industry. I'm talking about ACH, CCDC, and the dozens of other third parties that we as customers don't see, but our banks deal with on every transaction. Those are the companies that will lose out and be driven away by Bitcoin or any other similar currency. When you make a transaction that's not cash, those payments go through various clearing houses that add fees. A single simple transaction may go through 3-5 different clearing houses, each one taking a cut of it. This is one of the reason for high bank fees, actually. I think once banks wrap their mind around something like Bitcoin and realize they can transfer $5,391,499,319.32 for the sum of $0.07 instead of $7,153,419.33 they'll be the first in line redrawing the necessary infrastructures.
Cryptocurrency deprives the Fed of the ability to loan currency back to the people at interest... I don't think they are gonna let it happen super easily.
The Fed doesn't have to. The Fed exists for one thing, the US Dollar. It's not the government, it's a private company. It has as much authority over Bitcoin as any other currency, which is none. The Fed can stop other governments within the US (state, local, etc.) from issuing currency, which it has done before. But not being issued by a US entity, the Fed has no power over Bitcoin. As free people, we are able to barter and trade with eachother as we like, using whatever we like. If you and your friends decide to use old Confederate dollars amongst yourselves, you can do that. People use gold and silver. The actual federal government has already decided that it's a legitimate trade good that is subject to capital gains tax.
