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Fire in a Bitcoin mine...

http://www.coindesk.com/galler...

Who says Bitcoins aren't legit payment services? They work just fine for the US gov't to buy drugs, to seize and then eventually sell back to the public. http://www.coindesk.com/us-mar...

Bitcoin has problems, but a lack of accountability isn't one of them. You could argue cash has "zero accountability". What stops you from stealing cash? The law. Because the law doesn't care about bitcoin, yet, doesn't mean it never will.

Bitcoins major problems are two:

1) Fixed supply ideology. Anything with a fixed supply, when up against the nature of human economics, is deflationary. Bitcoin proponents will aruge that coins are divisible so wages and prices will scale accordingly, but this is an incorrect assumption. If that were true no amount of inflation or deflation would ever be a problem as the market would just auto-adjust. The truth is, targeting a small amount of inflation in a currency is ideal for a lot of good reasons I won't ramble on about. You will never get them to listen on this point anyways.

2) The 51% problem. The only labor involved in "mining" bitcoins is the creating the integrated circuits that can solve the SHA hash. Because only specialized industries can provide this labor a 51% monopolization of the network is almost a certainty. We can already see ASIC manufacturers getting dangerously close to this today. Bitcoin proponents will argue that ASICs ruined everything. If we could have only kept mining exclusive to general purpose CPU's everything would be fine. What they don't understand, is the problem of specialized labor, being the only labor required to mine a bitcoin. Because of this, whether it's intel, or ghash.io, or AMD, it doesn't matter. Someone is always going to be able to use their specialized labor to monopolize the market. It will never be safe.

Bitcoin is a great idea. We need something like bitcoin going forward. However, we'll see better success in something like bitcoin2.0 as the current implimentation is just broken from a technical and economic standpoint.

In fact, according to http://www.coindesk.com/price/ the price has dropped about 15% in two days.

dead-drops are the only things that work http://www.coindesk.com/10-phy... if no money exchanges hands on the server then, FBI can't go after for buying and selling. Why do you think drug lords exist? There you go.

The Rusky & Sino Mafia? Srsly? You know it's really easy to look that up, right? http://www.coindesk.com/price/ It had an epic exponential rise starting late last year, ended up WAY overpriced, and has been correcting to a more reasonable price since then it's not whipsawiing up and down , (There is pictures and everything)

You aren't the only one that thinks that: http://www.coindesk.com/need-a.... A lot of the altcoins are definitely scams but, there is actually some legitimate work going on that is pretty interesting. Whether or not cryptocurrency ends up becoming mainstream or not is still unclear but, from a computer science standpoint, I think it's all pretty interesting. Maybe it's a fad that will go down in flames or maybe it will stabilize into something that benefits society. Either way, I've never understood all the /. hate for cryptocurrencies. It's a very nerdy and interesting modern development that no one has been forced to become involved with.

Take for example, in Kenya the M-Pesa, the leading form of mobile payment system is widely adopted and mobile phones are used to pay for things such as public transport, school fees, rent, money transfers, to get loans etc. It is so successful that it was launched in other countries like Tanzania, Afghanistan and India.

And M-Pesa is private owned, not a government project.

Oh, and M-Pesa is apparently now going into the digital currency market proper by integrating with bitcoin.

There is no reason why Ecuador cannot do the same.

Sure, agreed. But every time someone comes up with a "Bitcoin can't buy X" argument, someone else posts an article like this -- which was updated today:

http://www.coindesk.com/inform...

Again, I don't own or use Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency, but I do appreciate the technology, and how its adoption has spread . And there are a lot of people who seem to be rooting for it to fail, although I can't quite understand why. Jealously at not being one of the early adopters? Fear of the unknown?

Not yet anyways.

6 months ago GHash.IO promised they would
(1) Take steps to prevent accumulating 51% hashing power, including: not accepting new miners, and
(2) They would not attempt an attack, and (3) They would provide cex.io users an option to use another mining pool
(They have apparently not implemented (3) yet).

A DDoS against the pool was reported to occur yesterday, which adversely affected mining.
At one point... their hashrate was reported to have dropped to 7%.
Then BitFury pulled 1 PH/s out of their pool.

Excellent post. BTC haters gonna hate, and I don't understand why.

Funny thing about pooled mining, it's run by the users. User's don't like it? They go away.

KYC rules require money-related services to be able to identify all their customers, and self report ‘suspicious activity’ that can be signs of anything from money laundering to terrorist financing. In the traditional financial sector, this makes money laundering much more difficult (although nowhere near impossible). This is because, in order to interact with the modern financial system and transmit money electronically, you need to use a third-party service such as a bank, which are easy points of regulation.

However, with bitcoin it’s an entirely different story. No one needs a third-party service to own, spend, or send bitcoins anywhere in the world. All that is needed is an open-source wallet, of which there are plenty available to download. ... The real problem is whether governments will accept this new reality and plan appropriately, or continue to fight it. Regulatory bodies can’t fit bitcoin into current regulatory framework. The two are simply not compatible, and that has nothing to do with any libertarian sentiments in the community. It’s fact.

The degree of oversight government now has in the traditional payments arena is impossible to replicate with bitcoin...

Source: Why Know-Your-Customer rules won't work with Bitcoin

So unless the DoJ wants to argue that Overstock.com is a "financial service" company merely for accepting Bitcoin, or that the businesses which do convert Bitcoin into traditional currency need to implement some sort of "Know Your Customer's Customers" third party regulation, the tightening of existing regulation will have virtually zero effect.

The CEO of Bitcoin has already decided to ban China as a countermeasure. So who's the fool now?

You can already buy Walmart gift cards with Bitcoin via Gyft:

Gyft Adds Retail Giant Walmart to its Bitcoin Gift Card Network

Coindesk already wrote about that almost two weeks ago!

Reality: in the long term, almost every gambler loses. It's a zero sum game and it's biased towards the house or the bookie.

You are assuming that Bitcoin has no inherent benefits as a technology. Even Goldman Sachs admits Bitcoin will save society at least 200 Billion a year - http://www.coindesk.com/goldma... . This sounds a lot like everyone winning by a more efficient means of moving money around alone thus lower fees for consumers.

You do not need to invest in Bitcoin, or gamble. Hundreads of thousands of businesses are benefiting right now with Bitcoin and whether it goes up or down in value is no consequence.

They must get to you somehow. Widespread use of criptocurrencies mean that with social engineering, fake/trojaned apps or even using nsa backdoors your wallet is exposed for all the world. Social engineering is a powerful tool with bitcoin stealing trojans. Things are not so easy with bank accounts, even with all the problems they have, and of course, not with cash.

If by "now" you mean "not" then sure. Because you most certainly can not buy fuel, cars or land with Bitcoin. And you certainly can't remit the taxes on those sales using it.

The acceptance of bitcoin for fuel is dependent upon the owner as many stations are franchised. There are certain locations that accept it directly and all other can use options like - http://www.coinfueled.com/ I never mentioned taxes but you can pay your taxes with bitcoin with services like snapcard - http://www.coindesk.com/pay-ta... You may contest that these are in part, indirect methods of paying, but isn't using a credit card indirect as well where you have to pay a monthly check to your credit card company for their service of convenience?

To hear them say it, Bitcoin has already recovered off its lows

It has:

http://www.coindesk.com/price/#2014-02-21,2014-02-28,close,bpi|bitstamp|btce

Thanks to Slashdot, you'll probably have to copy and paste that link text. But look right there, that's the valley caused by the Mt. Gox news on the 25th. Look at how quickly it recovered. By the time I was hearing everything and thinking I should watch for a slide in order to buy low, it was already recovered. The price today is the same rates that we had on the 22nd, before the news about Mt. Gox.

If you look at the larger picture over the month:

http://www.coindesk.com/price/#2014-01-28,2014-02-28,close,bpi|bitstamp|btce|mtgox

You can see that when Mt. Gox shut off withdrawals on Feb. 7th, that the price on Mt. Gox completely tanked from there. The other 3 exchanges have gone down 15 - 20% since then. This is hardly a grand collapse, and it is obvious that there are a lot of people looking for slides so that they can buy.

The world of bitcoin might not be the land of rainbows and unicorns that you apparently think happens on Reddit, but it's far from the doom and gloom that the critics claim.

To hear them say it, Bitcoin has already recovered off its lows

It has:

http://www.coindesk.com/price/#2014-02-21,2014-02-28,close,bpi|bitstamp|btce

Thanks to Slashdot, you'll probably have to copy and paste that link text. But look right there, that's the valley caused by the Mt. Gox news on the 25th. Look at how quickly it recovered. By the time I was hearing everything and thinking I should watch for a slide in order to buy low, it was already recovered. The price today is the same rates that we had on the 22nd, before the news about Mt. Gox.

If you look at the larger picture over the month:

http://www.coindesk.com/price/#2014-01-28,2014-02-28,close,bpi|bitstamp|btce|mtgox

You can see that when Mt. Gox shut off withdrawals on Feb. 7th, that the price on Mt. Gox completely tanked from there. The other 3 exchanges have gone down 15 - 20% since then. This is hardly a grand collapse, and it is obvious that there are a lot of people looking for slides so that they can buy.

The world of bitcoin might not be the land of rainbows and unicorns that you apparently think happens on Reddit, but it's far from the doom and gloom that the critics claim.

I think that BTC has matured enough that there are enough speculators waiting for the currency to drop so that they can buy low. A lot of people took notice when BTC started selling for $1200. Since there is so much more attention given to it now than there was a year ago, I don't think the recovery is nearly as slow as we might expect.

Here's a 1-week price graph for 3 exchanges:

http://www.coindesk.com/price/#2014-02-19,2014-02-26,close,bpi|bitstamp|btce

There was a pretty sharp drop yesterday, accompanied by an equally sharp rise. People are watching the price drop and getting in when they think it bottoms out.

Of course, the 1-month graph shows a larger trend:

http://www.coindesk.com/price/#2014-01-26,2014-02-26,close,bpi|bitstamp|btce

The trend is definitely downward from the highs in the past, but I think that BTC might have reached a threshold where there are enough people watching it that we might see the price shoot up quickly at any point once big purchases start being made.

When I heard the news about Mt. Gox yesterday, frankly I was expecting a crash, and I was ready with my cash. The dramatic crash that I was expecting didn't happen, though. The small slide that happened had already completely recovered by the time I could have done anything.

I think that BTC has matured enough that there are enough speculators waiting for the currency to drop so that they can buy low. A lot of people took notice when BTC started selling for $1200. Since there is so much more attention given to it now than there was a year ago, I don't think the recovery is nearly as slow as we might expect.

Here's a 1-week price graph for 3 exchanges:

http://www.coindesk.com/price/#2014-02-19,2014-02-26,close,bpi|bitstamp|btce

There was a pretty sharp drop yesterday, accompanied by an equally sharp rise. People are watching the price drop and getting in when they think it bottoms out.

Of course, the 1-month graph shows a larger trend:

http://www.coindesk.com/price/#2014-01-26,2014-02-26,close,bpi|bitstamp|btce

The trend is definitely downward from the highs in the past, but I think that BTC might have reached a threshold where there are enough people watching it that we might see the price shoot up quickly at any point once big purchases start being made.

When I heard the news about Mt. Gox yesterday, frankly I was expecting a crash, and I was ready with my cash. The dramatic crash that I was expecting didn't happen, though. The small slide that happened had already completely recovered by the time I could have done anything.

BTC seems to have dropped quite a bit today, but IMHO it's more likely to be because Mt. Gox has 'temporarily' halted withdrawals rather than any news coming out of Russia..

http://www.coindesk.com/mt-gox...

Ross Ulbricht is arrogant, inexperienced and dumb, and he doesn't have a sufficiently strong moral foundation to operate a large anti-establishment enterprise. When arrested, he was using the Glen Park public library (in his home city of San Francisco, CA USA) WiFi viewing a Silk Road admin page he had titled "mastermind". This event shows his attitude toward himself and his level of caution. He was caught because he slipped-up on identity security, realized it, yet took no precautions, like leaving the country.
I'll provide personal story that gives some insight into my own attitude toward being cautious while at the screen: Of the last three times I was busted, once (for traffic warrant) occurred as I was biking away from the courthouse, but the other two times prior (one traffic and the other, I kid you not, for littering) I was sitting in front of the computer at home.

In what fucking universe do you exist in where this is a logical rebuttal to "I live in the real world, and my real world landlord doesn't accept BTC"? Right now, I can't buy groceries with BTC. I can't pay for parking with BTC. I can't take a friend out for lunch and pay with BTC. I can't buy a car from a local dealership with BTC, I can't go see a movie in the theatres with BTC.

I don't know where you live, but in Boston, my local coffe / sandwich shop accepts bit-coin; and one of my favorite restruant aggregators accepts bitcoin and actually lists a grocery store!

Futher, while I can't pay for parking, and would have to pre-purchase moieve vouchers to go to the cinema, a few of the local cab companies accept bitcoin, and you can buy concert tix with them.

Moreover, while you might not be able to buy a car from a LOCAL dealer ship (my dealer joked with me about taking bit-coin, but I never found out if they were serious or not), you certianly buy a car with bitcoin.

And as a landlord my self, I'd happly accept bit-coin, or what-ever semi-stable currency you want to give me as long as you pay on time!

For all other transactions you could just used a pre-paid credit card, but proably would get hit with exchange fees.

It's also a commodity. There is nothing to stop someone else from starting their own currency, just as there was nothing to stop BtC from appearing out of nowhere its own line of "value" . As BtC get more expensive and mining get harder we can expect to see "me too" currencies whose "selling" point is to early adopters you can get in on the ground floor and whose "trading / accepting" point is, it hasn't hit its deflationary peak yet, so accept it, it will be worth more tomorrow than it is today.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. This is the real fundamental flaw in all unregulated fiat currencies. Fiat currencies are worth something because , by law, there is a governed amount of money and no other competing monies which themselves are not also so governed.

With Bitcoin, not so much. The exodus to "other" Bitcoiny type currencies hasn't happened yet, but there's no reason to think it won't and ever reason to think it will.

Oh wait, I spoke too soon. Or not soon enough. Or something.

http://www.coindesk.com/litecoin-silver-bitcoins-gold/

Does $100 million in merchant transactions make it real enough?

http://www.coindesk.com/merchants-love-bitcoin-bitpay-100-million-reasons-prove/

Between BitPay and Coinbase (the two large merchant processors), they have 32,000 merchants accepting bitcoin. That's nowhere near the acceptance of bank cards, but it's growing fast. And these are not just mom and pop retailers, through http://www.gyft.com/bitcoin/ you can use them a 150 major national brands,

When will we see a postive story about Bitcoin's usefulness? Oh right, there really ISN'T any news on that front.

There is news on that front; it just doesn't get reported here as often.

• Honolulu-based Tealet using Bitcoin to expand international business
• Online game developer Bigpoint's 330m users can now buy virtual goods with bitcoins
• BitWall Allows Publishers To Make Money Through Bitcoin Micropayments
• Bitcoin recognized by Germany as 'private money'

The sheer amount of hate that banks, financial services and operators like Paypal have generated in the population at large is amazing. Exorbitant fees, slow transfers, arrogant customer service, publicly funded bailouts for amounts that almost defy imagination, systematic fraud reaching to the the highest levels of most governments of the world, few to no prosecutions of financial crime - the world of finance and banking it is a stagnated corrupt market that needs some serious competition, a bright light and a clean sweep.

Bitcoin is a tiny flicker of a spark in the dark rotten world of finance - not even in its infancy. Sure like any currency it can be stolen or used and abused to perpetrate fraud. Sure it is damn inconvenient to use or exchange, hardly anybody accepts it - but despite all this there is an army of people and entrepreneurs, early adopters with more joining every day that are willing to bend over backwards and work through the teething problems simply because it could almost possibly eventually bring much needed change to the almighty financial sector to which our economies now serve (as apposed to the other way around).

If you think mass media can drum up a propaganda campaign so the Military Industrial Complex can have their profitable wars, wait till you see how far and loud the corporate media "journalists" will willing to go when the financial sector stands to lose absolute monopoly over our currency for online global payments.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.