License to print money... BitCoin?

Quote: Fleastiff

Bitcoin: In No One We Trust ... Bitcoin as the last refuge of a global economy:

Thanks for recommending that article. As insightful, funny, and articulate as anything I've read about the subject.

Quote: Quotes from Bloomberg article

Having been through one or two bubbles, I’ve learned that people can believe exactly what they want to believe. ... I expected Bitcoins to remain in the background with all of the other anarchist crypto-chatter that makes up an essential substratum of modern network thinking.

And I’m increasingly convinced there’s one thing that Bitcoins do that’s genuinely interesting. They decentralize trust. Trust is hard to earn; ...

Along comes Bitcoin, a currency in which every transaction is stored by the entire network and every coin has its own story. There’s nothing to trust but math. Suddenly an idea that sounded terrible—a totally decentralized currency without a central authority, where semi-anonymous parties exchange meaningless tokens—becomes almost comforting, a source of power and authority.

That’s where Bitcoin thrives: where people would prefer to throw in their lot with anonymous strangers instead of the world economy....

Bitcoin isn’t tied to any commodity—besides trust. As a statement on the global economy, Bitcoin is hilarious. As a currency for the disenfranchised and distrustful, it’s as serious as can be.

Bitcoin converter currently at $259.00

Since that article was written on 1 April: Bitcoin Holds More Value Than the Entire Currency Stock of 20 Nations, the value of the bitcoin exceeded M3 of another 21 nations and/or territories.

148 Tajikistan
149 Montenegro < FIRST EUROPEAN COUNTRY
150 Kyrgyzstan
151 Guinea
152 Aruba
153 Guyana
154 Turkmenistan
155 Chad
156 Rwanda
157 Togo
158 Malawi
159 Cape Verde
160 Maldives
161 Belize
162 Niger
163 Djibouti
164 Sierra Leone
165 Saint Lucia
166 Antigua and Barbuda
167 Swaziland
168 Bhutan


It’s the easiest ‘this funds terrorism’ scare argument the government will ever try to make, so a big battle within the next year or two is pretty much guaranteed, Greg Kumparak

Bitcoin conversion

Is it over already? They dropped from $260 to $150 today (over the last few hours).

Did the market fall? Did Interpol and FBI get involved? Was it a scam or just human nature? Will it rise back up?

The primary trading site MtGox reported a drop in value all the way down to 140 USD today, a loss of almost half in real value. With many sites unreachable or slow, there are also news of a possible DDoS attack on MtGox: 'Attackers wait until the price of Bitcoins reaches a certain value, sell, destabilize the exchange, wait for everybody to panic-sell their Bitcoins, wait for the price to drop to a certain amount, then stop the attack and start buying as much as they can.

link

NYTimes: As big investors emerge, BitCoin ...Bitcoin.

Quote: Fleastiff

The primary trading site MtGox reported a drop in value all the way down to 140 USD today, a loss of almost half in real value.

Currently $68.12 . Still several times the value the Winklevoss twins paid.
Back up to $74.00
If for some reason there is a counterfeiting scare that affects the estimated over $0.5 trillion in $100 banknotes circulating overseas, I always assumed the money would be invested in Euros or Japanese Yen, or Canadian dollars. But given the logistic difficulties in finding that many banknotes, it may be that bitcoins will be one option.

One article you will all want to research ...

Bit Coin Future May Depend Upon Pornography:
Huffington Post.

Quote: Fleastiff

One article you will all want to research ...Bit Coin Future May Depend Upon Pornography:

If you were to ask people about why they prefer banknotes they will give you a lot of reasons. But among the most prominent will be anonymity. People want to be anonymous for all kinds of reasons from simple to complex. They don't want their wife to see all the charges at a local gas station because they are buying packs of cigarettes and they said they quit. They have a mistress. They are buying pornography. They are avoiding taxes. The list goes on and on forever.

One line from the movie Heartburn (1986) that I remember was Meryl Streep yelling at Jack Nicholson that he didn't even have the decency to pay cash for his hotel rooms with his mistress. Women see nothing wrong with going through their husband's credit card statement, but he was being particularly cruel by not even trying to pay in cash.

But the Canadian central bank is trying to encourage the use of electronic anonymous money. There are some efforts in the USA but they are all private. I am not aware of any government programs.

The article should be about the value of "anonymous electronic currency" which is one attribute of bitcoins, but not it's defining feature.

Most of the major casinos in Las Vegas have commercial sounding corporate entities with accommodation addresses in California and elsewhere so that markers can be paid off without a paper trail to a casino. Just as drug deals sometimes turn on parking lot ticket stubs and rental car keys, some legitimate business transactions may still be cash oriented from time to time.

BitCoins can't be acceptable to computer nerds and no one else. It has to be a generally accepted currency if it is to survive.

Quote: Fleastiff

BitCoins can't be acceptable to computer nerds and no one else. It has to be a generally accepted currency if it is to survive.

My personal opinion is it will not grow into a major world currency. It's real legacy will be to cause some national currencies to develop "anonymous electronic money" as an alternative.

And that will also have a limited use as well. Just think how few people remember their credit card numbers or even all their passwords. Anonymous electronic money (of which bitcoin is one) involves remembering a long string of characters that uniquely identifies the money. People write them on pieces of paper and put them in safe deposit boxes if the money is considerable. If it is small amounts of money you could put the information on a smart phone along with the electronic information to make it useful. That way if it is stolen it will be as if your banknotes were stolen.

To switch your entire currency to electronic money will be an unpopular choice as well. It should only appeal to small countries like Iceland (pop 300K) which is interested in switching to another currency to replace it's own battered one. They might switch to Danish crown, Canadian dollar, Euro, etc. Joining a currency union is one thing, but unilaterally switching to another currency is difficult since you must procure banknotes at face value. That is why in the past it is only done for compelling reasons (hyperinflation has destroyed the value of your own currency is a good reason).