WordPress To Accept Bitcoins

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Posted by ryuzaki0 on Thursday November 15, 2012 @10:22PM from the what-about-gold? dept.

angry tapir writes "WordPress has said it will accept payment in bitcoins, opening up the blogging platform to payments from users in countries not supported by PayPal or credit card companies. WordPress is free, open-source software, but the company Automattic offers paid-for features such as blog designs, custom domains, hosting partnerships and anti-spam measures."

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FP ! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 22:23 · Score: 0, Offtopic

Yeah :-)
1. Re:FP ! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 04:18 · Score: -1, Offtopic
  
  Hey, congratulations! :)
2. Re:FP ! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 05:34 · Score: 1
  
  Thank you, when the title becomes red yes that's time to rush to make a FP !
3. Re:FP ! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 06:32 · Score: 0
  
  Who gives a fkuc about bitch coin anyway ...
4. Re:FP ! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 07:44 · Score: 0
  
  Cool FP, but check out these dubz.
maybe... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 22:26 · Score: 3, Interesting

Is Paypal feeling threatened yet?
1. Re:maybe... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 22:27 · Score: -1
  
  nope.
2. Re:maybe... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 03:29 · Score: -1
  
  No, nobody is feeling threatened. Bitcoin is and always will be a failure, and nobody will ever take it seriously. Only a bunch of sperglords, drug dealers, and Ron Paul morons will ever use it.
3. Re:maybe... by Gripp · 2012-11-16 07:47 · Score: 1, Interesting
  
  A little dramatic today, aren't we?
  
  Honestly, I agree that BitCoin will fail. I thought the flaw was already apparent - people can game it for profit. It's as simple as having enough money to buy up tons of them, causing the relative value to go up, and then selling them all off at once. Causing the price to crash, so I can start all over once the dust settles.
  
  I called that before it even happened, and people looked at me like I was a tard. Yet, it happened. And it will happen again, just as soon as people start buying into again. And If I can come across a mere ~$50M I'll be the one to do.
4. Re:maybe... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 08:03 · Score: 1
  
  This is different from any other finite resource (stocks etc) just how?
5. Re:maybe... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 12:59 · Score: 0
  
  I'm glad to see that all those that believe Bitcoin will eventually fail and decide to support their opinion with an argument fall prey to at least one basic fallacy.
  To me this alone is evidence that Bitcoin, rather than being a flawed idea doomed to fail, is a sound one which will likely "succeed" (whatever that means) but is so radically different from what we are used that it will take many years to do so.
6. Re:maybe... by GuldKalle · 2012-11-16 13:31 · Score: 1
  
  You still need someone to sell it TO. Also, why doesn't this apply to any other valuable?
  
  --
  What?
7. Re:maybe... by Gripp · 2012-11-16 15:44 · Score: 1
  
  gold and diamonds *could* be used to do the same. As a matter of fact, it was recently revealed that Russia has been sitting on a diamond pit since the 60's, simply because they didn't want to crash the market (I'm sure there was more than that incentive at play there...)
  
  Cash has been played this way before - it was called black wednesday. The main difference however, is that it takes a very substantial amount of cash to accomplish the same effect (we're talking the difference between ~50m and several billion)
  
  But something else to consider is that with bitcoin you dollar is still worth the same. but crash USD and you aren't exactly helping yourself.
8. Re:maybe... by Gripp · 2012-11-16 15:57 · Score: 1
  
  To accomplish the same in dollars/gold/etc you would need billions - likely more, as apposed to millions. Plus, in the process of playing this game with real money, the crash hurts yourself - so to some degree it wouldn't be a worthwhile maneuver for the very few with that amount of cash, unless you simply wanted to see a country burn. But a crash in bitcoins for the exchange of "real life" money wouldn't bother the antagonist one bit. That actually has been done before - black wednesday. This was also technically done with the housing market between 2004 and 2006. Though, not by a single individual, but the mechanics are the same. But, simply imagine one super rich person (rather than lots of barely rich people) flipping all of the homes for an inflated price - they are the one keeping the supply low and thus artificially increasing the price. get a little scared, stop buying so many up, all of a sudden prices start dropping back down - boom, crash. They would have made a large amount off all of it, and once the market came back up they would be set.
  
  That said, if enough people tolerate the bitcoin market long enough to get the price up to a point where it would be too costly to game it, and distributed well enough to be stable, it will work. But I have a hard time imaging this will ever happen; at least so long as people keep gaming it, and ruining the market confidence needed to get there.
9. Re:maybe... by GuldKalle · 2012-11-16 17:55 · Score: 1
  
  But wouldn't you lose most of whatever you used to take down the market?
  
  --
  What?
10. Re:maybe... by Gripp · 2012-11-17 01:43 · Score: 1
  
  Yes - which is the why I suspect that the very few people who have enough capitol to make something like that happen don't do it. It was actually my last sentence in my previous post - that in playing with RL money like that you too loose out, so the profit means very little. It is something of a catch 22. Though, I made a pretty serious typo =/ What I meant to say was that playing with bitcoin like this doesn't effect your dollar; only the bitcoin. So crashing bitcoin in exchange for dollars wont have that same catch 22.
Now by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 22:32 · Score: 2, Informative

It's accepting Bitcoin "now" ;)
hm by etash · 2012-11-15 22:34 · Score: -1, Troll

so wordpress will be a part of the money laundering network now?
1. Re:hm by AlexDusty · 2012-11-15 22:52 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Yes, as you do while using your dollar cash.
2. Re:hm by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 23:08 · Score: 0
  
  I read it as: "Wordpress directors can now buy drugs anonymously..."
3. Re:hm by Zemran · 2012-11-15 23:53 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Money laundering now seems to mean not paying the bank their 6%. I shift a lot of money around the world through some very questionable countries but as long as I pay the bank, no one minds. If I take a lot of cash onto a plane to avoid the bank fees I am a money launderer. It is BS and I no longer take it seriously, to me it is a challenge. I am not a criminal but I will do all I can to avoid paying stupid banks in other countries money that they do not deserve.
  Does anyone understand how real money laundering works? It is easy and it does not have to move countries. Just get a shop and sell stuff. If you want to clean some money you sell more on paper than you really sold. It is that easy. You do not need to go to another country with a suitcase of cash, that is stupid.
  I really want Bitcoin to become a reality because then I can save 6%. Now the people I work with all want Swift payments or Moneygram. I try to avoid Paypal and Western Union as they charge way too much.
  
  --
  I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
4. Re:hm by mentus · 2012-11-16 00:11 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Is HSBC present in the countries you're operating? If you set up an HSBC Premier account in any of the countries it operates, you're automatically eligible to open HSBC Premier accounts in any of the countries it operates - without paying any fees. Then you can use GlobalView to log in in all the accounts at the same time and shift money without paying any fees.
5. Re:hm by etash · 2012-11-16 00:11 · Score: -1, Troll
  
  which 6% are you talking about ? you do realize that bitcoin is mostly used by criminals for illegal transactions and by people who want to avoid income tax, don't you? And that it also is the heaven for money laundering.
6. Re:hm by etash · 2012-11-16 00:13 · Score: 2
  
  arguing that the current regulated monetary system which regulated and supervised is the same as the bitcoin network is like comparing the criminal far west of 2 centuries ago with a moderately corrupt country today.
7. Re:hm by icebraining · 2012-11-16 00:39 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  you do realize that bitcoin is mostly used by criminals for illegal transactions and by people who want to avoid income tax
  And you know this.. how?
  It is certainly used by criminals - like any other currency - but "mostly" is just baseless speculation.
  
  --
  Dilbert RSS feed
8. Re:hm by AlexDusty · 2012-11-16 00:54 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Denying that there are huge organisations doing money laundering with dollars, euros and other currencies is simply burying his head in the sand. I'm sick of hearing ppl dismissing Bitcoin because "it helps money laundering". Bitcoin exists because conventional money is now far too regulated. And of course because in the 21th century we need digital gold... let the fools play with paper money you can print at will...
9. Re:hm by killkillkill · 2012-11-16 01:01 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Sorry to burst your bias against Bitcoin, but you are simply spreading FUD. The volume of trade does not exist to launder significant amounts of money. Aside from some drug sales (which still pale in comparison the sales made in UNTRACEABLE fiat on the street) I don't think what actually happens on the network is quite like what you think happens.Your highly regulated and supervised system is still the monetary system of choice to launder money. The Internationale crime syndicate really doesn't need the Bitcoin network, they are doing quite well as is.
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs
  http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2010/06/29/u-s-banks-still-very-involved-in-money-laundering/
10. Re:hm by etash · 2012-11-16 01:19 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  here is one link that took me 3 seconds to google. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/05/fbi-fears-bitcoin/ it doesn't take an einstein to understand that criminals would rush to using unregulated and uncontrolled methods of payment/money etc. despite the fact that i'm moderated as troll, it's all of you who really are.
11. Re:hm by dbIII · 2012-11-16 01:20 · Score: -1, Troll
  
  It's not really a "currency", instead it's a pyramid scam deliberately structured so the early adopters can sit back and do nothing while others grow the pyramid for them.
12. Re:hm by Ash-Fox · 2012-11-16 01:23 · Score: 1
  
  Note: I am not the GP.
  
  And you know this.. how?
  It's possible that In some countries, alternative 'currency' systems like Bitcoin could be illegal and therefore using them within their borders would be criminal. Perhaps our friend lives in one of these countries?
  
  --
  Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
13. Re:hm by etash · 2012-11-16 01:24 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  straw man. I never denied that criminal activities happen with the current regulated currency. What i properly explained but you carefully avoided is that an unregulated and uncontrolled method of money is to the criminals just like honey for the bears. printing money is wrong, while on the other hand it's perfectly logical to create money out of thin air simply by gpu calculations ? and having one institution print money is wrong, having everyone do that with their gpus is right and it so much helps inflation. right.
14. Re:hm by AlexDusty · 2012-11-16 01:36 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Ok, I see you don't know the first thing about Bitcoin, too bad. Bitcoins can't be mined more than what has been defined on day one, no matter how many CPUs, GPUSs, FPAs, and (soon) ASICs you put at work. Nobody can do a heck about inflation in Bitcoin, no matter how large his resources. The (matematical) rules can be changed only id the majority of the network agrees to a new set. And guess what? Bitcoin is succesful *because* of that rules. Government money will always be scarce for someone (the majority of the people) and will always be printed at will by some other (a minimum minority). Bragging about criminal activities using Bitcoin is exactly the same as bragging about free speech. He who does not understand the importance of the latter can't understand the importance of the former.
15. Re:hm by fustakrakich · 2012-11-16 01:37 · Score: 1
  
  There is no right to restrict a non official method of exchange. You seem to be demanding that we must go through channels to make a purchase of goods and services.
  
  --
  “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
16. Re:hm by etash · 2012-11-16 01:40 · Score: 1, Flamebait
  
  oh so i don't understand the importance of free speech now? lol ? and how exactly is free speech related to bitcoins ? are you - in your paroxysm - insinuating that they are somehow relative ? trying to add value where there isn't any ?
17. Re:hm by fustakrakich · 2012-11-16 01:47 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  So, we are supposed to take government propaganda as fact? Why should we let them have all the fun? What's good for the goose...
  We have a right not to be tracked, regardless of your hysteria about 'criminals'.
  
  --
  “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
18. Re:hm by etash · 2012-11-16 01:51 · Score: 1, Troll
  
  so by default whatever the governments say is propaganda and whatever the "revolutionaries" say is true. Sure, you want to remain anonymous, use cash. Would you use money printed by me instead of officially printed money (government) ? Do you know who benefits the most from anonymous money ? yeap you guessed right, the criminals, not normal citizens who fear that the government cares if they buy a 5'' dildo from a sex shop
19. Re:hm by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 01:54 · Score: 0
  
  Very possible, but omitting such an explanation is misleading at best.
20. Re:hm by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 02:00 · Score: 0
  
  Your link doesn't even attempt to assert that Bitcoin is used "mostly" by criminals.
21. Re:hm by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 02:20 · Score: 0
  
  Very possible, but omitting such an explanation is misleading at best.
  Americans are guilty of this all the time.
22. Re:hm by MightyYar · 2012-11-16 02:23 · Score: 2
  
  I don't know if you can call it a scam when they cover that in their FAQ. Even if you disagree, they are transparent about it:
  
  Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme?
  In a Ponzi Scheme, the founders persuade investors that they’ll profit. Bitcoin does not make such a guarantee. There is no central entity, just individuals building an economy.
  A ponzi scheme is a zero sum game. Early adopters can only profit at the expense of late adopters. Bitcoin has possible win-win outcomes. Early adopters profit from the rise in value. Late adopters, and indeed, society as a whole, benefit from the usefulness of a stable, fast, inexpensive, and widely accepted p2p currency.
  The fact that early adopters benefit more doesn't alone make anything a Ponzi scheme. All good investments in successful companies have this quality.
  
  --
  W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
23. Re:hm by pla · 2012-11-16 02:38 · Score: 2
  
  Wow, dude, you've really dominated this discussion so far with baseless accusation after baseless accusation. I'd call you a troll, but wow, you have too serious a hard-on over spewing your lies to count as merely a troll - You really seem to hate Bitcoin for some reason.
  
  That said, your sincerity doesn't make you right. You should leave this topic alone until you learn the difference between "what I want something to be" and "what it is".
24. Re:hm by Zemran · 2012-11-16 02:41 · Score: 1
  
  Far more criminals use cash than Bitcoin. It is stupid to suggest otherwise regardless of how many links you can provide.
  
  --
  I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
25. Re:hm by helix2301 · 2012-11-16 03:08 · Score: 1
  
  Bitcoin has been hacked a lot I do not know if I would trust it to be legit just yet.
  
  --
  http://www.thetechnologygeek.org
26. Re:hm by funwithBSD · 2012-11-16 03:27 · Score: 1
  
  You still did not back up the statement that it is "MOSTLY used by Criminals".
  You just gave us a link to a site that the FBI is "concerned", and provides little actual proof that it is being used.
  In fact, the only "proof" was reported nerd-on-nerd crime of malware stealing bitcoins.
  
  --
  Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
27. Re:hm by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 03:27 · Score: 0
  
  You don't know what you are talking about.
  Coins cant be made out of thin air. There is actuall limit on how many can be produced, it kills inflation idea in it straight away. This, what makes this idea so valuable.
28. Re:hm by fustakrakich · 2012-11-16 03:30 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I don't care who benefits most.. That's your issue, not mine. I simply wish to protect my right to use alternative methods of exchange. I couldn't care less if you approve. You're either trolling (and I grant you were successful in drawing me into your net), or being hysterical, and we shouldn't let your type dictate how we can live our lives. Don't try to play the 'nothing to hide' card on me.
  
  --
  “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
29. Re:hm by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 03:34 · Score: 1
  
  very simple correlation.
  The more financially independent you are - the more free you are. Conventional money are plagued by inflation. Not quite the same with bitcoins.
  With current inflation you are getting poorer than what you were in matter of years.
  Things like pensions and saving money for later time - makes no sense. You are a bum? No one cares about what you have to say anymore.
30. Re:hm by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 03:36 · Score: 0
  
  Well, all scams claim to not a be a scam in their FAQ.
  A brief analysis:
  1. This question mentions only a "ponzi scheme" and makes no claim against being any other sort of scam.
  2. The claimed benefit is for a "stable, fast, inexpensive, and widely accepted", currency. Bit coin is in fact none of those things. This indicates either ignorance or deceit on the part of the writer.
  3. It completely fails to address the fact that bitcoin is designed to be deflationary, and that the well understood consequences of a deflationary currency lead to the situation that makes bitcoin look like a scam (the cheaply mined early coins will tend to increase in value even with minimal growth of the "economy").
31. Re:hm by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 03:36 · Score: 0
  
  Bitcoin has not been hacked. Not to my knowledge.
  Bitcoin trade sites is not same thing as bitcoin. If all of them collapse suddenly in one go - there will be no harm to people who don't have any coins in them.
32. Re:hm by icebraining · 2012-11-16 03:41 · Score: 1
  
  Would you use money printed by me instead of officially printed money (government) ?
  It's not printed by you, it's printed by a decentralized Byzantine fault tolerant network of computers, where nobody can unilaterally decide how much to print at any time.
  And you'd use it for many reasons: extremely cheap transfers, protection from inflation, security and others.
  
  Do you know who benefits the most from anonymous money ?
  Bitcoin is not anonymous, all transactions are publicly logged.
  
  --
  Dilbert RSS feed
33. Re:hm by icebraining · 2012-11-16 03:49 · Score: 1
  
  A scam involves deceit. The early adopters didn't deceive anyone. If they benefit from speculators, good for them.
  
  --
  Dilbert RSS feed
34. Re:hm by Sarten-X · 2012-11-16 04:01 · Score: 1
  
  Money laundering means the same thing it always has: hiding the origin of income.
  In small quantities, it happens all the time, and nobody cares. This morning I found a coin on the street. It could have once been a part of a hitman's fee, or an investment fraud, or the purchase of an underage sex slave. I don't know, and that information's irretrievable now. It's just a coin.
  It's the larger quantities that matter. A few hundred or thousand dollars a week can be easily lost in the noise of any business doing cash transactions, but it takes a pretty big shop to sell enough stuff to hide a multi-million-dollar drug deal. That's where the multiple countries and briefcases full of money comes in. The details of the money's origin still exists, but by being transferred through five countries, five different police organizations must be involved to investigate the connection.
  Carrying cash in person to another country effectively ends the trail, because there's no indication whether the cash was spent locally on shell companies to launder it, or handed off to another courier to another country. By the time one country's gotten enough diplomacy worked out to continue the investigation wherever a plane lands, the suspect passenger has already landed and is likely long-gone.
  Transferring money through a bank preserves the trail, and they'll often play nice with (and give records to) any law enforcement authorities. That's why no one minds if you transfer through them. It has nothing to do with paying a 6% fee to a global banking overlord. It's just that you seem to be going out of your way to be avoiding leaving a trail law enforcement could follow, and that raises suspicion.
  When I traveled to Africa, I transferred money through a Barclay's account. They had a branch in the area I has going to, and I don't recall any significant fees.
  
  --
  You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
35. Re:hm by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 04:18 · Score: 0
  
  Wao, didn't know I am a criminal.
  Should i make love/hate tatoos on my knucles?
36. Re:hm by MightyYar · 2012-11-16 04:18 · Score: 1
  
  1. A Ponzi scheme is a specific type of pyramid scheme, and the only one that makes sense in this context. I was answering a claim that it is a pyramid scheme. It could be some other kind of scam, I suppose, but the grandparent did not make such a claim.
  2. It is clear that they are expanding upon the "possible win-win outcomes", not making concrete predictions about the future.
  3. If Bitcoin proves to be deflationary, it will fail. People do not part with things that increase in value. 10 years ago people were treating Beanie Babies like they were gold - a few months ago, my neighbor gave my kids a black yard bag full of them in mint condition - still had their tags! If people treat Bitcoins like Beanie Babies, they will fail as a currency.
  I think Bitcoin could find a niche as a universal electronic exchange currency, if regulators allow it. My risk will be low because I won't hold on to it very long - just exchange dollars for Bitcoins, make my purchase, and hold little or no balance. I do this currently with a prepaid credit card... if Bitcoin can be made as easy to use as a prepaid credit card, it will do fine. If regulators decide to make it illegal to buy Bitcoins at Walgreens, it will fail.
  
  --
  W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
37. Re:hm by Reverand+Dave · 2012-11-16 04:19 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Money is only worth something if you can spend it freely. I may be a bitcoin billionaire, but it's not gonna do be a bit of good unless my bank accepts them or I can get a reasonable exchange rate for actual currency.
  
  --
  I got here through a series of tubes
38. Re:hm by Dishevel · 2012-11-16 04:21 · Score: 2
  
  By default facts are true and everything else is suspect.
  The You stated that Bitcoins (the untraceable currency) are used mostly by criminals.
  It was pointed our to you that you have no facts to assert and are just making an unsupported statement.
  You responded by linking to an article about what the FBI fears will/might happen.
  You still have no facts. What percentage of Bitcoins are used for money laundering?
  What percentage of US dollars are used for the same?
  The truth is there are people who can just print US dollars when ever they want. Bitcoins No.
  US dollars are easily counterfeited. Bitcoins not so much.
  Get some facts. Then get some understanding. After that comment please. We would love to hear you informed comments on the subject.
  Otherwise STFU.
  
  --
  Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
39. Re:hm by 19thNervousBreakdown · 2012-11-16 04:37 · Score: 1
  
  With a billion bitcoins, you don't really need a reasonable exchange rate, you just need an exchange rate.
  
  --
  <xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
40. Re:hm by Reverand+Dave · 2012-11-16 05:50 · Score: 1
  
  Good point, time to start mining for fake money!
  
  --
  I got here through a series of tubes
41. Re:hm by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 06:21 · Score: 0
  
  It's used by speculators, drug users, and child pornographers. There are a few geek uses, but there's almost no volume through those things. At some point BitCoin will get a little bit big, and a bunch of people are going to get thrown in jail for breaking banking regulations and they'll use a RICO charge to round up some kiddie porn assholes, and they'll lump it all together. The chances of BitCoin becoming useful are zero. It will only ever be a highly volatile, structurally broken toy for a certain class of nerd. Companies that accept payment in BitCoin are not doing it because they believe in bit coin: they're doing it because it's now really easy to do instant coin-> cash transactions with a spread. And doing so gets a whole shitload of inbound links.
42. Re:hm by steelfood · 2012-11-16 06:21 · Score: 1
  
  In terms of usage by "criminals for illegal transactions and people who want to avoid income tax" (which for some reason, is not redundant or doubly so), I think USD tops the list. And I'm haven't even counted the investment banks, who are also doing a whole lot of stealing, just legally.
  Seeing as how USD is such a huge vehicle for such nefarious activities, maybe we should avoid using the U.S. dollar too.
  
  --
  "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
43. Re:hm by Zemran · 2012-11-16 07:04 · Score: 2
  
  A pretty big shop is called a mall. 10 years ago I walked into a mall at Thapae Gate in Chiang Mai which was owned by the now Prime Minister of Thailand. None of the shops where selling anything but the car park was full of staff cars, escalators working etc. like something out of a horror film. On paper the mall was trading. I also know of holiday resorts on Samui that do not have any guests, same thing. It is easy and it does not involve moving money travelling from one country to another.
  Transferring money around the world is a red herring. It only happens in films. Why would anyone take extra risk to do something the hard way and create a bigger paper trail that is easier to find. If you want to clean more money spread the load and use more sites. More hotels or shops. Do not take the crazy idea of carrying it through customs. That is for fools like me who have hard earnt money that they do not want to pay to transfer.
  If you do want to carry money across a border, small gold coins in your jacket do not show up as anything special or diamonds are best for large amounts. Big bundles of cash shows up on the xray machine and lots of foil strips are distinctive. They will see it. They will see the gold coins but they will not know they are gold, they will just see coins. They will not see the diamonds if they are in your pocket and not xrayed. Diamonds and gold do not set off the alarms.
  
  --
  I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
44. Re:hm by partyguerrilla · 2012-11-16 07:48 · Score: 1
  
  Oh but of course it's not the same, Bitcoin is by far technologically superior. It natively deactivates the standard international trading methods that generate ridiculous amounts of revenue for banks and financial institutions, while providing encryption and ease of use. The only conflict I see is with companies like Western Union, who make quite a business of transferring money between locations and businesses.
45. Re:hm by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 07:51 · Score: 0
  
  I don't know of a single instance where 'bitcoin has been hacked'. If you know of one, please mention it instead of spreading FUD. Some websites that offer bitcoin services have been hacked, but that's the same for all websites on earth.
46. Re:hm by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 13:52 · Score: 0
  
  That depends on what you mean by "hack". A careful review of
  https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Common_Vulnerabilities_and_Exposures
  shows that it is quite possible to attack Bitcoin but I know of no instance of someone moving coins without the corresponding private key.
47. Re:hm by OneAhead · 2012-11-16 16:21 · Score: 1
  
  How can it not be deflationary?
  - There is a hard limit on how many bitcoins can be made.
  - Once a bitcoin is lost (for example in a hard drive crash), there's no way to replace it.
  - Even if no bitcoins are ever lost, just the presence of economic growth (which hopefully won't entirely disappear) will make any currency that has a hard limit deflate. Controlled government-induced inflation of currencies over time is a feature. Seeing it as a bug is arguably the greatest fallacy of the BC supporters.
  
  I don't think a lot of people question bitcoin's deflationary nature. Subject of debate is
  - what are the consequence of this deflationary nature?
  - should something be done about it?
  - what?
  - what are the consequences of doing something about it?
  
  <opinion>
  Most of the scenarios I see spell doom for BC:
  - Nothing changes --> deflation --> doom
  - Attempt to inflate it --> not everyone agrees on how --> war of the BC forks --> confidence in decentralized digital currencies devastated --> government-backed schemes like MintChip snatch the price
  - Entity X somehow (?) succeeds to induce controlled inflation without triggering fork wars --> people realize just how much power they're putting in the hands of Entity X - decide a large democratically-elected government can be trusted better --> MintChip
  - BC somehow becomes a runaway hit --> existing traceability-based economy, system of taxes, law enforcement, option trading,... threatened --> legislative crackdown --> MintChip
  </opinion>
48. Re:hm by OneAhead · 2012-11-16 16:32 · Score: 1
  
  A pretty big shop is called a mall. 10 years ago I walked into a mall at Thapae Gate in Chiang Mai which was owned by the now Prime Minister of Thailand. None of the shops where selling anything but the car park was full of staff cars, escalators working etc. like something out of a horror film. On paper the mall was trading. I also know of holiday resorts on Samui that do not have any guests, same thing. It is easy and it does not involve moving money travelling from one country to another.
  How is setting up a storefront mall easy? Or more pertinently, how is using BC not orders of magnitude easier?
49. Re:hm by OneAhead · 2012-11-16 17:17 · Score: 1
  
  Here's a more elaborate explanation on why deflation is inevitable
50. Re:hm by Zemran · 2012-11-16 17:56 · Score: 1
  
  Having set up several businesses, I fail to see your first question. It takes money, and we are talking about a situation where an excess of money is the problem. So of course it is easy.
  Your second point is strange because Bitcoins do not in any way clean the money, they only transfer the money which still has to be cleaned in some way. If the IRS arrive at your house asking for an explanation with regard to the $6m that you just bought your new house with, they are not yet asking how it got from one place to another, they first want to know how your earnt it and if you you have paid tax on it. If you follow my advice then you will not have a problem, in fact you will not even get asked as you will have paid the tax but if you use Bitcoin you have not done anything to answer the questions. All you have done is avoided paying the bank the 6% transfer fee.
  
  --
  I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
51. Re:hm by dbIII · 2012-11-16 18:07 · Score: 1
  
  It could be argued quite correctly that any scam that does not call the vehicle for the scam a "ponzi" is not actually a ponzi scam. However, the normal usage is that if somebody calls something a "ponzi scam" they mean "similar to a ponzi scam". I hope that has cleared that up and I wish you success at learning English, I'm told it's a difficult language to learn if you are not raised with it. I hope you really are somebody with English as a second language and not just somebody pretending to be incredibly stupid just so that you can pretend you've won some sort of childish debating game.
52. Re:hm by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 22:34 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah, except you can't eat dollars or drive to work on a stack of notes.
53. Re:hm by MightyYar · 2012-11-17 03:19 · Score: 1
  
  A smart guy like yourself should have no problem telling a dumbass like me exactly what kind of scam Bitcoin is, then. I like how, in your country with native English, you don't capitalize proper names.
  
  --
  W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
54. Re:hm by MightyYar · 2012-11-17 05:47 · Score: 1
  
  How can it not be deflationary?
  I'd agree with your sentiment if Bitcoins were liable to replace a nation's currency. IMHO, they will never be more than a convenient exchange medium for niche transactions, and thus won't necessarily need to inflate unless their usage grows. If they get popular, I expect competition to arise, which would further keep their value in check.
  
  - Nothing changes --> deflation --> doom
  I agree that if it does continue to rise in value it is doomed as people will simply hoard it, reducing it's utility. Then.... crash! Oddly, it might then become useful if the system survives.
  
  - Attempt to inflate it --> not everyone agrees on how --> war of the BC forks --> confidence in decentralized digital currencies devastated --> government-backed schemes like MintChip snatch the price
  I fully expect competition to arise if Bitcoin is successful, and I expect this will help keep the value of Bitcoin in check. People SHOULD have their confidence in any currency devastated - you should not be holding on to a lot of currency, no matter the form. On the other hand, confidence in the short-term stability of a currency is indeed critical, and Bitcoin could very well be doomed to wild swings without a central authority to stabilize it.
  
  - Entity X somehow (?) succeeds to induce controlled inflation without triggering fork wars --> people realize just how much power they're putting in the hands of Entity X - decide a large democratically-elected government can be trusted better --> MintChip
  Agreed that doesn't seem likely.
  
  - BC somehow becomes a runaway hit --> existing traceability-based economy, system of taxes, law enforcement, option trading,... threatened --> legislative crackdown --> MintChip
  Also a possibility - though I think the fact that Bitcoin is more traceable than cash works in its favor here.
  
  --
  W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
55. Re:hm by dbIII · 2012-11-17 17:52 · Score: 1
  
  It's a pity I didn't bookmark a very well written AC's comment that got modded up to 5 in the last bitcoin discussion, but it's main point was about the built in deflation.
56. Re:hm by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-18 07:05 · Score: 0
  
  I bought my new computer entirely using my bitcoin stash, I also use it to send currency to friends overseas for a 0.05% equivalent fee.
  U Mad Bro?
57. Re:hm by MightyYar · 2012-11-18 10:52 · Score: 1
  
  I agree that, if used as the sole currency for a given GROWING economy, it will inherently increase in value.
  However, I do not agree that Bitcoin will necessarily represent a growing part of the economy once it matures. In fact, if it is successful I expect competition to actually reduce it's use. If it isn't successful, then it doesn't really matter what happens to it :)
  
  --
  W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
58. Re:hm by Reverand+Dave · 2012-11-19 02:26 · Score: 1
  
  nope.
  
  --
  I got here through a series of tubes
And Paypal's response will be, by u64 · 2012-11-15 22:36 · Score: 1

nothing.
1. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by serviscope_minor · 2012-11-15 23:00 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  So?
  Cast your mind back 12 years to what slashdot and similar communities were like when Linux was just beginning to be taken seriously.
  "Linux will never mainstream until it does X"
  Very similar to how bitcoin will never be mainstream until it's accepted by X. And of course in the mean time big companies like Sun (who?) Silicon Graphics (who?), Digital (who?) and MS of course all ignored it. In some cases it did X. In some cases it didn't. Nevertheless, it ended up as about the #1 operating system in the world. I doubt there's anything in wider use overall out there.
  
  --
  SJW n. One who posts facts.
2. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 23:11 · Score: 0, Flamebait
  
  2013 will be the year of linux on the desktop!
3. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 23:22 · Score: 0
  
  android brah
4. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by David+Gerard · 2012-11-15 23:28 · Score: 2
  
  2013 will be the year of Bitcoin on the desktop!
  (Just imagine: all those juicy unencrypted wallet.dat files, sitting on Windows machines on the Internet. Why phish when you can just steal directly?)
  
  --
  http://rocknerd.co.uk
5. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 23:28 · Score: 0
  
  "Linux will never mainstream until it does X"
  12 years ago, it already did X. Version 11, no less. :-)
6. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 23:28 · Score: 0
  
  Saying nothing about it is good, since any publicity is good publicity.
  Ignoring it is bad because, if it's something good then the firm in question has a bleak future.
7. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by Zemran · 2012-11-15 23:44 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  What's a desktop and can I get an android app for it?
  
  --
  I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
8. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by IamTheRealMike · 2012-11-16 00:13 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  I think "Linux on the desktop" is an interesting analogy for Bitcoin, but it's not the only one available. If Bitcoin follows the trajectory of desktop Linux then it will grow and grow until it saturates its niche market, at which point usage will level off. Unable to tackle the challenges needed to advance to the next level, it will become something of a calling card for certain communities but will just be a curiosity to the rest of the world. The underlying ideas or philosophies, though, may have influence out of proportion to its usage (eg, Android being open source was certainly heavily influenced by Googles experiences with Linux).
  That's one scenario. Another is that rather than being similar to desktop Linux, Bitcoin is more similar to the web. Bitcoin is about 3 years old, but really it's only more like 2 years old because for the first year it languished in absolute obscurity. If you think back to the internet in the early to late 90s, the net was this technically complicated and intimidating beast. You needed a crazy thing called Trumpet WinSock, and then you needed an ISP (only a few small ones existed) and then you needed even more software and often it just wouldn't work at all, and when it did there was no friendly start page or anything, you just had to know where to go. The de-facto standard for "normal people" was CompuServe and AOL. Movie trailers had AOL keywords at the end, not web addresses.
  Despite that the web eventually triumphed and became the standard, replacing the sophisticated and well organized corporations that previously reigned supreme. Why? Well, it was an open and international system where everyone could take part. The protocols were documented, anyone could write software for it. Because it was open that's where the research was taking place. Then the existing institutions started to provide limited forms of web access alongside their walled gardens, lending it legitimacy. It's easy to forget that back then the net was frequently painted as swamped with immoral, degenerate or even illegal activity. In 1995 TIME Magazine ran with a cover story claiming the internet was completely dominated by porn, based on statistics about USENET that later turned out to be completely bogus. Parallels with some contemporary stories around Bitcoin are easy to see.
  Anyway, there's no guarantees of success and either scenario is equally likely, IMHO (in the absence of a dystopian crackdown by governments that simply ban any financial system they cannot exert total control over).
9. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 00:50 · Score: 0
  
  "Linux will never mainstream until it does X"
  XFree86 initial release was in 1991 - 21 years ago.
  Wait. What?
10. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by Threni · 2012-11-16 00:57 · Score: 1
  
  > MS of course all ignored it. In some cases it did X. In some cases it didn't.
  > Nevertheless, it ended up as about the #1 operating system in the world. I doubt
  > there's anything in wider use overall out there.
  MS still ignore it. They're more concerned with threats to their future profitability, and Linux is not - and will never - be. (And I say that as Linux & Windows user).
11. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by Ash-Fox · 2012-11-16 01:05 · Score: 1
  
  Cast your mind back 12 years to what slashdot and similar communities were like when Linux was just beginning to be taken seriously.
  "Linux will never mainstream until it does X"
  It already did X by then.
  
  --
  Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
12. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by Ash-Fox · 2012-11-16 01:08 · Score: 1
  
  What I find interesting is claiming Linux is mainstream. I remember ten years ago people talking about "the year of the Linux desktop", except it never really happened. So, I figure what he's trying to say is that Bitcoin will never quite make it.
  
  --
  Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
13. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by serviscope_minor · 2012-11-16 02:34 · Score: 2
  
  MS still ignore it.
  Oh, so that's why they support Linux in Hyper-V, then.
  They're more concerned with threats to their future profitability, and Linux is not - and will never - be.
  Er, what? Which planet do you hail from and how long does it take to get to Earth. I'd love to visit.
  So, I take it that Microsoft provide no software for servers (where Linux is very strong) or smartphones (where Linux is very strong) or embedded devices (where Linux is very strong).
  
  --
  SJW n. One who posts facts.
14. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 02:43 · Score: 0
  
  (whooooooosh)
15. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by Dishevel · 2012-11-16 04:29 · Score: 1
  
  Linux is the number one OS.
  It just is not number one on the desktop.
  
  --
  Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
16. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by Ash-Fox · 2012-11-16 06:38 · Score: 2
  
  Linux is the number one OS.
  It just is not number one on the desktop.
  Indeed, so Bitcoin will not become the number one currency, but the number one cryptographic decentralized digital currency.
  
  --
  Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
17. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 06:44 · Score: 0
  
  Er, what? Which planet do you hail from and how long does it take to get to Earth. I'd love to visit.
  He's from Clueless User VI, and doesn't seem to realize that nobody but Linux fanboys care about the desktop.
  Microsoft doesn't even care about the desktop much these days. The desktop is in the die-back stage. It's still kicking, and will be for some time, but it's no longer where the game is won or lost.
  That remains partially the domain of servers (where Linux certainly is a threat to Microsoft, save for having no answer for things like Exchange) and it's mostly now the domain of mobile - where Android and iOS are doing a good job at preventing monopolistic history from repeating itself.
18. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by serviscope_minor · 2012-11-16 06:55 · Score: 1
  
  save for having no answer for things like Exchange)
  Sure it does. To emulate exchange, just run the following scripts:
  #Let's up the load average
  for ((i=0; i < 100; i))
  do
  bash -c 'while :; do :; done' &
  done
  #Now implement exchange style reliability
  while :
  do
  sleep 1000
  rm -rf /home/*/Mail
  done
  That emulates about 99% of the actual functionality of exchange.
  
  --
  SJW n. One who posts facts.
19. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 07:54 · Score: 0
  
  To be honest, Exchange will also tell you that you are 20 minutes late to all your meetings.
20. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 08:21 · Score: 0
  
  I have to agree strongly with this. Bitcoin makes launching a small business MANY times easier. Getting a bank account and setting up payment processing is many times harder on any other system. This is why Bitcoin will achieve success.
  
  Most of the problems BTC is encountering are due to the current financial system, it's difficult to get money into the Bitcoin economy, move it between currencies and so forth.
  
  That is another major point in favor of investing in BTC, it's an economy. It has points of failure (someone could hijack the blockchain, massive virus attacks on wallet files, government bans) but in general it will be more stable than investing in an individual company.
  
  The problem most people seem to be expressing is that the early adopters have a significant advantage. That is a problem that's quite universal, it's very difficult to start a bank or credit card company for example (you need 20-30 employees minimum to handle the regulation), and has been pointed out many times early stock investors get an advantage as well. Aside from blaming it for this and several other universal problems is this hostility towards the people that profited from buying early. The way I see it is that the initial investors and creators BUILT A BANK, CURRENCY, and CREDIT SYSTEM. They were programmers, sci-fi enthusiasts and visionaries. Considering that the majority of current currencies are controlled by Old Money (money inherited, then invested by smart people hired by the rich) it would probably produce an improved world if BTC drained money from current deep bank accounts towards the early adopters.
  
  Hell, the people who profited are the core of Slashdot.
  
  Also the deflationary thing, it would probably be good if people could save money as an investment instead of being forced to support large multinationals whose business practices rarely align with the investor's morality or philosophy. Investments would be towards new technologies through Kickstarter or an equivalent.
  
  Please Mod up. As this is a radically different perspective from 99% of the comments I read on the subject. I will post AC to encourage this.
21. Re:And Paypal's response will be, by OneAhead · 2012-11-16 16:50 · Score: 1
  
  Please Mod up. As this is a radically different perspective from 99% of the comments I read on the subject. I will post AC to encourage this.
  HAAHAHAHAHA! Laughing so hard it hurts! You almost had me there. Best parody post evar!
Former Bitcoin Believer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 22:37 · Score: -1, Flamebait

Bitcoin cannot succeed due to the violently idiotic community that has built itself around it.
From common con artists (Roger Ver, Tihan Seale) to large scale money laundering (Charlie Schrem Bitinstant) the community is full of petty criminals.
Accepting bitcoins is a mistake.
The people paying in bitcoins are all fucking crooks.
1. Re:Former Bitcoin Believer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 22:54 · Score: 1
  
  So, are they petty, or large scale? Make up your mind, then post, otherwise the FUD doesn't work so well.
2. Re:Former Bitcoin Believer by loonycyborg · 2012-11-15 22:57 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  As if other currencies don't attract crooks and idiots..
  Should we stop using all kinds of money or what?
3. Re:Former Bitcoin Believer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 23:01 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  The US dollar cannot succeed due to the violently idiotic community that has built itself around it.
  From common con artists (Goldman Sachs, Enron) to large scale scale money laundering (Bank of America) the community is full of petty criminals.
  Accepting USD is a mistake.
  The people paying in dollars are all fucking crooks.
4. Re:Former Bitcoin Believer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 23:12 · Score: 1
  
  There is a whole underground economy that could really take advantage of bitcoins. Now it might start with pot although it ends with people buying computers, electronics, hosting, and all sorts of legitimate merchandise. That drug money has to go somewhere. Eventually it ends up getting used for sanctioned purposes. If we start accepting bitcoins it'll get reported to the IRS. Taxes will be collected, and so on (I don't run an illegitimate business).
5. Re:Former Bitcoin Believer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 23:38 · Score: 1
  
  They are petty on a large scale. :-)
  (Not the same AC, in case you wondered)
6. Re:Former Bitcoin Believer by drinkypoo · 2012-11-16 01:01 · Score: 1
  
  The people paying in dollars are all fucking crooks.
  What am I supposed to pay in, chickens?
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
7. Re:Former Bitcoin Believer by L4t3r4lu5 · 2012-11-16 01:09 · Score: 1
  
  Two things need to happen first:
  
  Abundant free energy, and energy-matter conversion on an industrial scale. That way everyone can have anything they want.
  
  Yup. We pretty much need to live in Star Trek.
  
  --
  Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
8. Re:Former Bitcoin Believer by MMC+Monster · 2012-11-16 01:50 · Score: 1
  
  There is nothing special about the US dollar that the companies you mentioned couldn't do with bitcoin.
  Now, I could agree with you if you wanted to talk about the dangers of a global economy tied to the monetary policy of a single country. We're starting to see the effect of a bit-player country (Greece) having on the Euro and the European Union.
  
  --
  Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
9. Re:Former Bitcoin Believer by LordLimecat · 2012-11-16 02:29 · Score: 1
  
  Im a crook?
  Seriously, how did this get modded insightful?
10. Re:Former Bitcoin Believer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 03:06 · Score: 0
  
  See what it's in response to.
11. Re:Former Bitcoin Believer by canadiannomad · 2012-11-16 03:14 · Score: 1
  
  I agree with you, except that they can't just "will" more of it into creation and give it to their friends.
  
  --
  Hmm, the humour and sarcasm seem to have been be lost on you.
12. Re:Former Bitcoin Believer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 03:51 · Score: 0
  
  Because a bunch of /.ers have a vested interest in seeing bitcoins succeed (read: they hoarded early bitcoins).
13. Re:Former Bitcoin Believer by ultranova · 2012-11-16 04:03 · Score: 1
  
  Your minions ran out of mod points?
  
  --
  Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
14. Re:Former Bitcoin Believer by LordLimecat · 2012-11-16 11:15 · Score: 1
  
  It was in response to a post that rightfully got modded flamebait. The problem is, it was equally flamebait, but because it was anti-corporation and pro-bitcoin, it got modded up.
DESPERATE TIMES !! by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 22:42 · Score: 0

Leads to desperate measures !!
Go T'wana !!
Few replies by tehcyder · 2012-11-15 23:16 · Score: -1, Troll

Interesting that there aren't the normal number of postings for a bitcoin story. Presumably all the early adopters in this Ponzi scheme have now cashed in and the suckers left trying to buy drugs from the FBI with their worthless digital "currency" are too embarrassed to admit it.

--
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
1. Re:Few replies by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 23:31 · Score: 1
  
  It's not a currency. It's a collectible.
2. Re:Few replies by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 23:32 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah, but a collectible with individually numbered items.
3. Re:Few replies by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 23:38 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  It's not a ponzi scheme.
  Silk Road works just fine (I know several people who have bought drugs successfully using SR but I suppose the FBI is "just waiting to make a big bust" or whatever excuse you've got).
4. Re:Few replies by vyvepe · 2012-11-16 00:02 · Score: 1
  
  Presumably all the early adopters in this Ponzi scheme have now cashed in
  Probably not. About 65% of BTCs in use are owned by only 10,000 users. Why is it a Ponzi scheme?
5. Re:Few replies by Viol8 · 2012-11-16 00:07 · Score: 0
  
  "Why is it a Ponzi scheme?"
  Because when the users realise that its never going to be taken seriously and try and offload their now worthless trinkets the value will start to collapse. The original speculators however will have already made their killing and be long gone.
6. Re:Few replies by fastest+fascist · 2012-11-16 00:29 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  That some may profit at the expense of others doesn't make anything into a Ponzi. But don't take my word for it, here's what the European Central Bank's analysts have to say on why Bitcoin isn't a Ponzi scheme:
  
  http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/virtualcurrencyschemes201210en.pdf
  
  "On the one hand, the Bitcoin scheme is a decentralised system where – at least in theory – there is no central organiser that can undermine the system and disappear with its funds. Bitcoin users buy and sell the currency among themselves without any kind of intermediation and therefore, it seems that nobody benefits from the system, apart from those who benefit from the exchange rate evolution (just as in any other currency trade) or those who are hard-working “miners” and are therefore rewarded for their contribution to the security and confidence in the system as a whole."
  
  "Moreover, the scheme does not promise high returns to anybody. Although some Bitcoin users may try to profit from exchange rate fluctuations, Bitcoins are not intended to be an investment vehicle, just a medium of exchange. On the contrary, Gavin Andresen, Lead Developer of the Bitcoin virtual currency project, does not hesitate to say that “Bitcoin is an experiment. Treat it like you would treat a promising internet start-up company: maybe it will change the world, but realise that investing your money or time in new ideas is always risky”. In addition, Bitcoin supporters claim that it is an open-source system whose code is available to any interested party."
  
  Can you lose your shirt if you invest heavily in Bitcoin? Yes. Can you get scammed by other users? Yes. Is the whole thing a Ponzi scheme? No.
7. Re:Few replies by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 00:36 · Score: 0
  
  You clearly don't understand how a Ponzi scheme works. Like, at all.
8. Re:Few replies by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 01:04 · Score: 0
  
  Gotta say, the FBI sells some damn good drugs if that's who is selling.
9. Re:Few replies by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 02:16 · Score: 0
  
  "Moreover, the scheme does not promise high returns to anybody."
  This is bullshit: the number of coins is limited systematically, so any extra dollar/euro/yenn, whatever put into the system will result in deflation: a higher exchange rate of bitcoin vs. the rest.
  This makes it a deflationary currency, which are really bad for liquidity since in times of growth, the best investment is to get as much coins as you can since the exchange rate is guaranteed to go up. So how does it not promise high returns to anybody? I think there was some research shown that a very large percentage of the owners is saving the coins and not spending them.
10. Re:Few replies by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 04:02 · Score: 0
  
  Because it never promises that the price won't crash, or that the currency won't become worthless (I.E: $0) next month.
  The developers have specifically warned users that this is an experiment that could go nowhere and that all money invested into it could be lost, so don't invest more than you are willing to lose. How is that "promising high returns"?
11. Re:Few replies by Beerdood · 2012-11-16 05:10 · Score: 1
  
  And your point is? A collectible is a collectible. Does that mean my personally signed, limited edition discography with the number #823 / 1000 is any less valuable? If anything that increases the value
  
  --
  Global warming and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of pirates - Gospel of the FSM
12. Re:Few replies by fastest+fascist · 2012-11-16 10:07 · Score: 1
  
  There's no promise of any kind. That's rather important.
  
  A ponzi scheme would be where an operator enrolls investors by promising high interest rates on their investments, lacking the ability to actually pay everyone in full. Such a scheme typicalyl runs until enough people decide to withdraw their investment that the operator decides they can't afford the payouts and instead defaults and runs off with the money.
  
  Bitcoin has no operator making promises. The protocol itself makes no promise of profits for investors. The developers have quite explicitly stated treating Bitcoin as an investment is risky. Furthermore, while the experiment that is Bitcoin may well fail some time in the future, it is not obvious to an impartial observer that it will. A Ponzi scheme is inherently unsustainable, in a way obvious to anyone willing to ignore their greed. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is an unknown, a risky investment, but openly so.
  
  I get the feeling you have a beef with how early adopters are rewarded more than later users, and that's why you're saying Bitcoin is a Ponzi. Early adopters *are* rewarded, assuming the system doesn't crash and burn. That's no secret. It's part of the design. The idea is that there needs to be an incentive to get people to commit to the system, to make it costly to let it fail. The longer the system runs and grows, the less risky it should get to pump funds into it. Accordingly, the rewards for doing so will diminish as well.
  
  Whether the rewards reaped by old-timers are reasonable or not is a matter of constant debate, and several forks of the system exist largely because of disagreements on this point. Personally, I don't think in the long run it will matter much. If Bitcoin fails for one reason or another, the early adopters will lose their investment. If it doesn't, they'll be rich, but continued operation of the system will be proof it didn't make much of a difference that a few individuals got very wealthy off the backs of later adopters.
Why?!? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 23:40 · Score: 0

Why bitcoins? Why not donations?
1. Re:Why?!? by slim · 2012-11-16 01:11 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  RTFA. They want to sell to customers in countries where banks/paypal/etc. don't serve.
  
  But WordPress wrote on its blog that PayPal doesn't serve more than 60 countries, and credit card companies have restrictions due to political, fraud and other reasons.
  "Whatever the reason, we don't think an individual blogger from Haiti, Ethiopia, or Kenya should have diminished access to the blogosphere because of payment issues they can't control," WordPress said. "Our goal is to enable people, not block them."
2. Re:Why?!? by bilotrace · 2012-11-16 01:40 · Score: 1
  
  RTFA. And anyone can accept donations in bitcoins.
Bitcoin will never by shokk · 2012-11-15 23:43 · Score: 4, Funny

Bitcoin will never be mainstream until we can buy a hotdog from a street vendor with it.

--
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
1. Re:Bitcoin will never by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-15 23:54 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  That's already the case, at least in in New York and Berlin.
2. Re:Bitcoin will never by IamTheRealMike · 2012-11-16 00:03 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  If you go to Room 77 in Berlin you can buy burgers and beer with Bitcoins. You pay with your mobile phone. I've done it, it's easy. The guy who runs Room 77 is a huge Bitcoin fan and recently announced that 4 more shops in Berlin are now accepting Bitcoins too.
3. Re:Bitcoin will never by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 01:28 · Score: 0
  
  hmm, could this be why Google is pushing so much phones as payment medium? Interesting ...
4. Re:Bitcoin will never by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 01:33 · Score: 0
  
  "not mainstream until we can buy hotdog" means "not mainstream until it is mainstream"
5. Re:Bitcoin will never by lwsimon · 2012-11-16 03:38 · Score: 1
  
  There's a pawn shop in my town, in rural Arkansas, that accepts Bitcoin. I've bought guns with it, legally.
  
  --
  Learn about Photography Basics.
6. Re:Bitcoin will never by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 04:04 · Score: 0
  
  You are the reason we have recessions.
7. Re:Bitcoin will never by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 06:41 · Score: 0
  
  You are the reason we have recessions.
  Because he is willing to purchase used items from time to time? Oh, the horror!
  Get back to your assembly line union job. You're bankrupting this country... or at the very least you're the tapeworm draining the life out of companies. Maybe you can buy some Twinkies for cheap now that your union brothers have bankrupted Hostess...
8. Re:Bitcoin will never by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 06:57 · Score: 0
  
  The antidote to stupidity is not more stupidity.
9. Re:Bitcoin will never by Rich0 · 2012-11-16 08:46 · Score: 1
  
  That seems odd. I thought that bitcoins could only change hands when a new block is added to the chain, or something like that. While I'm sure that happens multiple times per day, I doubt it happens in the matter of seconds a credit card transaction takes.
  Now, you could probably post the transaction quickly, but it wouldn't be verified/etc until the next block comes along. I'd need to re-read the docs to be sure on that...
10. Re:Bitcoin will never by DanielRavenNest · 2012-11-16 10:11 · Score: 1
  
  That is not how the Bitcoin network works. When you initiate a transaction, it goes out on the P2P network, and can reach the recipient in a matter of seconds (however fast the network is). People running the "mining" software validate the transaction by seeing what the balance was in the sender's account. That is possible because *everyone* has a copy of the transaction history, otherwise known as the "block chain". So every transaction in and out of the sender's account number is known, and therefore the current balance.
  If the account had enough balance to perform the transaction, it gets included in the next block being generated (which happens on average every 10 minutes). If it did not, the transaction is rejected as invalid. Generating a block means solving a difficult cryptographic problem (finding the number which along with the set of transactions produces a hash value below the current difficulty). Therefore the chance of someone faking a transaction is low. They would have to do the number crunching to create a valid block. Once the block is generated, it goes out to everyone using the client software, thus updating the global transaction history.
  Depending who you are, you can accept the first report of a transaction arriving, or wait till a valid block arrives with the transaction in it. Wordpress has chosen to recognize the transaction immediately, since it is payment for premium services from them, and they can always turn it off.
11. Re:Bitcoin will never by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 13:31 · Score: 0
  
  The antidote to stupidity is not more stupidity.
  Agreed: I presume that means you're joining me in calling for the dissolution of all unions and repeal of all collective bargaining laws? Let's start with the government unions; those are the worst.
12. Re:Bitcoin will never by Rich0 · 2012-11-16 15:56 · Score: 1
  
  What about double-spending? I would think that this would be the main reason to delay accepting a transaction until it is in the block chain. That essentially makes it final - otherwise I could go spend my entire balance at 15 places at the same time and none would be the wiser if they didn't wait for things to propagate.
13. Re:Bitcoin will never by bencoder · 2012-11-17 05:45 · Score: 1
  
  While that is the reason for waiting for a new block, note however, that nodes won't relay transactions that would cause a double spend. Therefore you would have to do the double spend at the exact same time.
  
  If you can get a direct connection to the recieving nodes, so that the transactions only take one step to go from your machine to the receiving machine, you still have to be fast enough that the receiving machine won't see the first transaction on the network before you do your double spend. In practice, unless you are able to mine the next block(and therefore create a transaction to yourself with those coins, so that the double spent transactions will be invalidated), double spending is impractical. And you have to get away from the scene within a few minutes, impractical if you're buying a beer or fast food.
Seems like a no-brainer by slim · 2012-11-15 23:49 · Score: 5, Informative

They're using BitPay. Assuming BitPay's charges are reasonable, it seems like a bit of a no-brainer.
Wordpress makes some simple API calls to BitPay. If someone pays in BitCoin, BitPay converts it to dollars, takes a processing fee, and adds it to Wordpress's balance. Wordpress can treat it as dollars from that point on, so tricky tax/accounting issues.
On that basis, why would you *not* accept BitCoin, if you think there are customers keen to spend them?
BitPay has to deal with tax/accounting/legality issues, but that's their business.
1. Re:Seems like a no-brainer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 00:19 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  On that basis, why would you *not* accept BitCoin [...]
  I suppose that was a rhetorical question, but one reason would be that paypal and others refuse to allow them to use their (paypal's) service because of it, as has been rumored to happen before. Or was that some other payment service ?
2. Re:Seems like a no-brainer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 00:44 · Score: 1
  
  This is a really good point. I'm not sure if it was PayPal, but I know a lot of businesses built around Bitcoin have had their bank accounts shut down, without warning, for no apparent reason.
3. Re:Seems like a no-brainer by DerekLyons · 2012-11-16 01:01 · Score: 2
  
  On that basis, why would you *not* accept BitCoin, if you think there are customers keen to spend them?
  There's more to such a decision than just tax/accounting issues... What is the 'float' - the time between BitPay collecting on my behalf and when they credit it to my account? How often can I collect my balance from BitPay and are there fees for the transfer? (The answers are "daily" and "yes, but not directly" according to BitPay, and there are sharp daily limits to boot.) Then you have to make what's really a gut check call - how stable and reliable do you believe BitPay to be, and how likely to be there next week, next month, next year?
4. Re:Seems like a no-brainer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 01:14 · Score: 1
  
  This is exactly how BitPay works. Wordpress receives a direct deposit into their bank account every day, for the sum of all the orders they sold the day before. it is the same accounting process as credit cards.
5. Re:Seems like a no-brainer by troicstar · 2012-11-16 02:36 · Score: 1
  
  'so tricky tax/accounting issues' ? the accountant I spoke to didn't have to think twice about bitcoin; it is just another currency. If bitcoins are considered tricky this probably says more about the company/accountant than the currency.
6. Re:Seems like a no-brainer by I+cant+believe+its+n · 2012-11-16 03:30 · Score: 1
  
  Name one.
  
  --
  She made the willows dance
7. Re:Seems like a no-brainer by lwsimon · 2012-11-16 03:40 · Score: 1
  
  Bitcoin is just another currency, but one without a published conversion value. There's a lot of grey area there, that simply won't be defined until it's tested in the courts.
  
  --
  Learn about Photography Basics.
8. Re:Seems like a no-brainer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 03:51 · Score: 0
  
  On that basis, why would you *not* accept BitCoin, if you think there are customers keen to spend them?
  I can think of three reasons:
  1. (economical) There is a cost associated with setting up and maintaining an additional payment path. You need to not only expect there to be some people keen on spending bitcoins, but enough people keen on spending enough bitcoins to make it worthwhile.
  2. (legal) What promises does BitPay make regarding exchange rates, and stability of the currency? What regulations do they adhere to, and in what jurisdiction would disputes need to be settled? The answers to those questions may be discouraging. Also getting the answers to those questions may be costly enough to make the whole idea not cost effective (good lawyers aren't cheap)
  3.(logical) You've assumed the number of people keen on spending bitcoins is nontrivial. That assumption is not proven, and in the absence of proof we need not accept conclusions based on it as true.
9. Re:Seems like a no-brainer by slim · 2012-11-16 04:19 · Score: 1
  
  That was a fairly fundamental typo on my part. It was meant to be "So no tricky tax/accounting issues".
  The point being that if there are any such issues, BitPay take care of them. It's dollars by the time Wordpress have to deal with it.
10. Re:Seems like a no-brainer by GuldKalle · 2012-11-16 06:57 · Score: 1
  
  Intersango
  
  --
  What?
11. Re:Seems like a no-brainer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 07:35 · Score: 0
  
  Specifically, name one that did not make its business buying and selling bitcoins through paypal.
12. Re:Seems like a no-brainer by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-20 02:34 · Score: 0
  
  >>Bitcoin is just another currency, but one without a published conversion value.
  Thats wrong. What you probably meant to say is there is no single "official" rate, and thats why it it decentralized. hey, even with real currencies you still never have a single exchange rate - you go and make an average for that day looking at all the markets. And market is a sum of offer and demand.
  Here's how it looks:
  http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/
My offer stands by bigsexyjoe · 2012-11-16 00:08 · Score: 3, Funny

I will pay you five billion bigsexyjoe nickels to stop running bitcoin stories.

--
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
1. Re:My offer stands by Beyond_GoodandEvil · 2012-11-16 01:31 · Score: 1
  
  I will pay you five billion bigsexyjoe nickels to stop running bitcoin stories.
  What's the exchange rate vs Schrute Bucks? I think I want to try some arbitrage action.
  
  --
  I laughed at the weak who considered themselves good because they lacked claws.
2. Re:My offer stands by magic+maverick+ · 2012-11-16 02:13 · Score: 1
  
  I've stopped running bitcoin stories, please pay me your nickels to:
  1MJpSvjbSLEYNcGRHMWB6czui7P3dvwCf9
  If possible please convert to bitcoin before paying me. Thanks.
  
  --
  HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
Interesting by vikingpower · 2012-11-16 00:12 · Score: 2

two weeks ago, there already was a story here on the European Central Bank doing some thoughtwork on Bitcoin.
You'll see, Bitcoin is gonna be mainstream before ya know it. And a big finger up into the air to all the naysayers and cynics here.

--
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
1. Re:Interesting by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 00:33 · Score: 0
  
  Uh, that bank story proves nothing. First thing I thought when I heard the story was "them" want to take it over and make it another money cow for the rich. I mean, OF COURSE they do. We could be talking heavy regulation, or making the whole thing illegal or forced changes in protocols. Bitcoin becoming a relatively normal bank system with a slightly unusual underlying technical solution is NOT what I count as Bitcoin succeeding.
2. Re:Interesting by drinkypoo · 2012-11-16 00:59 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, that or the big banks are about to vaporize it, arresting all the key players in bitcoin on some kind of bullshit currency fraud charges.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
3. Re:Interesting by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 01:41 · Score: 1
  
  Except they can't force anything. That's kinda the point of Bitcoin's design.
4. Re:Interesting by canadiannomad · 2012-11-16 03:34 · Score: 1
  
  Except, unlike the banks, bitcoin doesn't have a single point of failure... yet.
  
  --
  Hmm, the humour and sarcasm seem to have been be lost on you.
5. Re:Interesting by gox · 2012-11-16 03:59 · Score: 1
  
  Umm, like how they did with the BitTorrent network? If you think about it though, distributed hash table is indeed more vapor-like than trackers...
6. Re:Interesting by tlhIngan · 2012-11-16 04:47 · Score: 1
  
  You'll see, Bitcoin is gonna be mainstream before ya know it. And a big finger up into the air to all the naysayers and cynics here.
  Well, Wall Street hasn't found a way to monetize it properly yet, so, it's not mainstream. That and deflationary issues with it since it's fixed amount - the more people start using bitcoin, the less to go around, so either you'll need fractional coins, or you'll be paying $20 for a cup of coffee as that's the price of 1 coin today, and $40 tomorrow.
  The real fun starts when Wall Street figures out how to do fractional bitcoin trades and "instant" trading (where the exchange happens before the network confirms the transaction - using virtual bitcoins, of course to represent the value in the meantime).
  While you all wait, start reading up on how forex works, because you can bet bitcoin will become the next hottest forex market to trade in.
7. Re:Interesting by DanielRavenNest · 2012-11-16 10:22 · Score: 1
  
  since it's fixed amount - the more people start using bitcoin, the less to go around, so either you'll need fractional coins, or you'll be paying $20 for a cup of coffee as that's the price of 1 coin today, and $40 tomorrow.
  Bitcoin is divisible to 8 decimal places. So if you treat the last decimal place (0.01 microcoins) as a penny, the total of 21 million full coins to be issued would equate to $21 trillion US. That should be enough for any currency.
Wow... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 01:02 · Score: 0

Holy fuck Slashdot becomes the twilight zone before 8 AM EST. 80% of these posts are grade A crazy.
1. Re:Wow... by JustOK · 2012-11-16 01:10 · Score: 1
  
  Is that a Black A, a Hispanic A, a White A, or an Asian A?
  
  --
  rewriting history since 2109
2. Re:Wow... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 14:51 · Score: 0
  
  Agreed. More than two years have passed since the first Bitcoin story hit Slashdot and I still see all the classic faulty claims. In summary:
  "It's a ponzi" (surprisingly common given that Bitcoin is decentralised)
  "It can only go to zero"
  "Deflation; It can only go up in value unsustainably" (I'm stunned this class of retard can type at all!)
  "Criminals use it therefore it's bad"
  "21 million coins is not enough"
  "early adopters have an unfair advantage" (my personal favourite)
  This is all debunked eloquently enough in the FAQ: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ
  I only read these comments to help gauge how far different demographics are from grasping Bitcoin to help better anticipate market rate trends. If anyone reading this would like intelligent discussion on more subtle technical and philisophical issues I recommend bitcointalk.org.
3. Re:Wow... by OneAhead · 2012-11-16 17:34 · Score: 1
  
  "Deflation; It can only go up in value unsustainably" (I'm stunned this class of retard can type at all!)
  Sir, I totally agree, it is an amazing feat you can type at all. Have you even read this?
  Let me summarize it for you: they wholeheartedly admit that
  - Deflation is inevitable
  - Economists generally agree that a low level of inflation is a good thing for a currency
  - Nobody is quite sure about what might happens (sic, and while this may be formally true in the sense that nobody is quite sure about anything except death, it is misleading; economists generally agree that deflation will inhibit spending and therefore hurts the economy)
  - They have only a mechanism (infinite divisibility) in place to combat the obvious consequences of deflation. This is really important! The paragraph about the infinite divisibility is either criminally dishonest or mindbogglingly stupid. Infinite divisibility does not change the fact that the BC you keep in your wallet steadily increase in value, which is exactly what inhibits spending and hurts the economy.
This is where people misunderstand badly by dbIII · 2012-11-16 01:25 · Score: 1

it will grow and grow
The number of bitcoins is capped. That part of the scam is to give the early adopters a huge advantage if there are a large number of people that join in the pyramid.
1. Re:This is where people misunderstand badly by Xylantiel · 2012-11-16 02:06 · Score: 1
  
  But as he said -- it may just be the influence that grows. Nominally someone could create a currency that works like bitcoin but has the same inflation properties as targeted by the central banks (3%/year). This may be possible to do on top of bitcoin's own proof-of-work stream. Bitcoin itself couldn't do this because the early adopter advantage (that makes it scam-like) was necessary to get it started. But now that the system has proved some of its worth, something else could build on it.
2. Re:This is where people misunderstand badly by Joce640k · 2012-11-16 02:29 · Score: 1
  
  it will grow and grow
  The number of bitcoins is capped. That part of the scam is to give the early adopters a huge advantage if there are a large number of people that join in the pyramid.
  Right now it costs more in electricity to generate a coin than the coin is worth...
  
  --
  No sig today...
3. Re:This is where people misunderstand badly by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 02:50 · Score: 0
  
  it will grow and grow
  The number of bitcoins is capped. That part of the scam is to give the early adopters a huge advantage if there are a large number of people that join in the pyramid.
  Doesn't mean it couldn't work as a currency - those two are entirely unrelated, apart from the fact that early adopters that believe in the "product" - as per usual in *any* venture - gets to reap more than the latecomers who only come on board after the fact. That's actually an interesting part of it all, it can both be a pyramid scheme (although I doubt that was the point, too far fetched) *and* a working currency.
  Also: Bitcoin FAQ: Doesn't Bitcoin unfairly benefit early adopters?
4. Re:This is where people misunderstand badly by canadiannomad · 2012-11-16 03:09 · Score: 1
  
  How do you know the miners don't have a river turbine or solar panels? Just cause your electricity is expensive doesn't mean it is everywhere.
  
  --
  Hmm, the humour and sarcasm seem to have been be lost on you.
5. Re:This is where people misunderstand badly by IamTheRealMike · 2012-11-16 03:41 · Score: 1
  
  Grow and grow as in usage, not volume of the currency. BTW the speed of issuance is still pretty high. It halves every four years. You can be an early adopter too, if you want. Buy some mining hardware and take part.
6. Re:This is where people misunderstand badly by dbIII · 2012-11-16 03:46 · Score: 1
  
  The cap makes it impossible to work as a currency beyond a certain point. If there are a large number of adopters (beyond the wet dreams of the original scammers who probably only expected a few thousand) then a single bitcoin will be worth too much to be useful as a unit of exchange.
  I know this sort of thing is camoflaged to look like the stuff that sounded cool in Cryptonomicon but it is not the same - it's just an old fashioned ponzi scheme with the shiny wrapper designed to attract geeks.
7. Re:This is where people misunderstand badly by ultranova · 2012-11-16 03:49 · Score: 1
  
  You could have the Bitcoin client/network support more than one currency with different rules, either through multiple blockchains or a single blockchain and a new type of transaction to start a new currency. You could then trade between them within the Bitcoin system itself without needing to involve external exchanges.
  
  --
  Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
8. Re:This is where people misunderstand badly by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 04:36 · Score: 0
  
  Sorry - you're just a cynical old fool.
  Bitcoin was never a Ponzi - but it never would have been adopted if there wasn't a solid incentive for the earliest adopters to push it hard. It is also infinitely divisible - and at the moment the smallest unit (the 'satoshi') is worth less than a nickel. Dividing it further is trivial, planned on, and will happen when needed.
  That said, I love the general animus of /. to bitcoin. It's been very helpful in slowing things down a bit - necessary for the reality of what bitcoin can do to catch up with what to software itself can do.
  So thank you /. - and all of you waiting-to-be-old-codgers.
  I'll get off your lawn now...
9. Re:This is where people misunderstand badly by IamTheRealMike · 2012-11-16 05:25 · Score: 1
  
  Do the maths. If the entire world adopted Bitcoin for all transactions, everywhere, tomorrow, then the smallest payment you could make would be for about a dollar. A bit too high for comfort, but then, we're talking about 100% adoption by the entire world. 1 Bitcoin has 8 decimal places. So there's plenty of resolution.
10. Re:This is where people misunderstand badly by MunkieLife · 2012-11-16 05:28 · Score: 2
  
  Bitcoins can be divided down to 0.00000001 of a bit coin, so if the current value of 1 bitcoin is $11.6, then one satoshi (0.00000001 of a bitcoin) is worth 0.0000116 cents. So it looks pretty clearly that the smallest divisible unit will never be "worth too much to be useful as a unit of exchange".
11. Re:This is where people misunderstand badly by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 09:54 · Score: 0
  
  LOL still talking shit about bitcoin without even having basic knowledge..
12. Re:This is where people misunderstand badly by DanielRavenNest · 2012-11-16 10:41 · Score: 1
  
  It is capped at 2.1 quadrillion Satoshi. That should be enough currency units for a while.
  1 BTC (bitcoin) = 100 million Satoshi
  1 Satoshi = 0.000 000 01 BTC, and yes, the software manages and reports transactions to 8 decimal places, so the Satoshi is the smallest unit in the Bitcoin system, like the penny (cent) is the smallest unit in US currency.
  If the value of 1 BTC gets large enough to not be practical for ordinary transactions, people will just shift to millicoins, and probably give them a name. Alternately they could refer to MegaSatoshi, which would be 0.01 BTC, of which there will be 2.1 billion. Computers have no problem dealing in small fractions, but humans do, so we will adapt by renaming a fractional BTC to be comparable to typical transaction amounts.
13. Re:This is where people misunderstand badly by DanielRavenNest · 2012-11-16 11:00 · Score: 1
  
  Apparently you are the one who misunderstands Bitcoin badly. It is nothing more than a distributed account book, denominated in arbitrary units (BTC). Whatever the total outstanding number of units are (10.4 million today, 21 million eventually) is all there will ever be, and the balances of all the accounts sum to that number of units. A Bitcoin transaction is simply a message to transfer some units from one account to another.
  The usefulness of a distributed account book that uses a P2P network is the speed and small overhead for transactions. If people are willing to trust the security of the network and the account book, then they may be willing to exchange goods and services for an increment to their account balance. They can then later exchange their balance with someone else to get things they want. The total value of the account book is then set by what people are willing to exchange it for, just like any finite commodity.
  Your repeated argument that 1 BTC would be too large to use fails to notice that the smallest unit is 0.000 000 01 BTC. Thus there will be 21 trillion microBTC, and those can still be divided down to 0.01 microBTC. So if bicoins become very popular, people would be using small fractions of a full BTC for transactions, but the software already tracks and reports down to the 8th decimal point. All we need do is adopt a convention what to call a millicoin and microcoin in everyday language.
14. Re:This is where people misunderstand badly by dbIII · 2012-11-16 15:18 · Score: 1
  
  Sorry, looks like I missed looking at a bit of the shiny wrapping on the Ponzi. While you are looking at it, I suggest unwrapping it and looking at the worthless turd you have been sold in that shiny geek trap. It's a textbook Ponzi scheme - what's wrong with you people?
15. Re:This is where people misunderstand badly by OneAhead · 2012-11-16 16:40 · Score: 1
  
  But as he said -- it may just be the influence that grows. Nominally someone could create a currency that works like bitcoin but has the same inflation properties as targeted by the central banks (3%/year). This may be possible to do on top of bitcoin's own proof-of-work stream.
  I strongly suspect it isn't; this just sounds all kinds of wrong. But for the sake of intellectual masturbation, let's suppose it is. Well, a fixed 3%/year rate in an all-BC economy would be disastrous; central banks use their control over inflation rates as a tool to mitigate depressions and such. So you'll have to put someone into the driver's seat. Good luck getting people to agree on whom, and preventing the driver from abusing their power.
16. Re:This is where people misunderstand badly by OneAhead · 2012-11-17 10:04 · Score: 1
  
  Thinking about this a bit more, I might be wrong. There actually is a mechanism to induce inflation; it's just not a permanent one. Specifically, if the 3/4 of mined Bitcoins that are not in circulation are indeed being hoarded by BC's inventors and/or early adaptors, then these people have the ability to induce a healthy controlled inflation for decades to come by slowly letting their stash trickle into the system. While making good money throughout the process. Insidious!
Pathetic. by Nazlfrag · 2012-11-16 02:16 · Score: 1

I have no words except these: fare ye well.
So... by digitalsolo · 2012-11-16 03:53 · Score: 1

So, the guys at WordPress sell drugs now? Good to know.

--
Just another ignorant American.
No thanks by dbIII · 2012-11-16 03:59 · Score: 1

Well yes, I could also get a hot teenage girl every night with the investment of a few bottles of vodka each week and hanging around drinking establishments looking for the girls that won't be let in because they are too young, but I choose not to do that either, because you can really fuck up the lives of other people doing things like that. The morality of getting in early in a pyramid scheme is about the same (and it's nowhere near early anyway, you are just treating me as a mark to inflate to value of your own ponzis).
1. Re:No thanks by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 05:17 · Score: 0
  
  That would be a valid analogy if bitcoin was a ponzi or pyramid scheme. It isn't, and your failure to even attempt any sort of proof that it is shows that you know it.
  And no, I'm not involved in bitcoin myself, and yes, that IS what you were going to say.
2. Re:No thanks by linhares · 2012-11-16 05:55 · Score: 1
  
  That's what I've been saying about wikipedia for 5 centuries. We need authorities to write encyclopedias. We need authorities to write Operating Systems. We need authorities to write all software. We need authorities to produce our money. Without authorities, one would have too-big-to-fail systems, gold would be "vaporized", and a host of other problems would appear. We need authorities. We need authorities. We need authorities. We need authorities.
3. Re:No thanks by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 06:41 · Score: 0
  
  Conveniently, about the only economic activity in the bitcoin community besides drug trade seems to be investing in actual Ponzi schemes.
  It's no coincidence that Bitcoin is set up exactly like a pyramid scheme; many of its supporters really want it to be a money-for-nothing scheme, provided that the money goes to them. Thus the majority of bitcoins are hoarded while the owners excitedly see their illusory value inflate like a tulip. As long as they can keep pulling in new suckers, they can all become bitcoin zillionaires while producing fuck all of actual economic value.
4. Re:No thanks by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 13:19 · Score: 0
  
  Fast, efficient, cheap, reliable, pseudonymous, international payments... How do you deduce "fuck all of actual economic value"?
5. Re:No thanks by dbIII · 2012-11-16 14:59 · Score: 1
  
  Looking for the gullible? That's there.
  Doing it purely for your own advantage? That too.
  Unexpected consequences later that can screw you up? Watch the news about bitcoin for the next couple of years, and you can see it coming if you think about how bitcoin is structured especially the cap on numbers.
  
  It looks like a very apt analogy to me. People get dazzled by the "on the internet" thing and don't see it as the old fashioned scam in new wrapping that it is.
6. Re:No thanks by dbIII · 2012-11-16 15:14 · Score: 1
  
  I really do not think you understand that your post has almost nothing to do with the subject at all. Currency didn't start with authorities, it started with tradespeople, most notably goldsmiths. It started off to simplify barter and benefit all parties - not as some deliberate pyramid scheme designed to benefit the founders such as bitcoin. I wrote nothing about "authorities" and they don't really factor in to this discussion anyway. If the dollar went down far enough people would go for the Zimbabwe situation of switching to a different form of trade no matter what the "authorities" say (when the Zimbabwe currency hit the floor nearly everyone started trading with $US despite the government opposing it).
  For something to become a digital currency it needs large numbers of people to adopt it and then "authorities" will follow. Bitcoin cannot do that since the cap will prevent it being widespread enough, but that doesn't matter to the originators since it's a ponzi scheme and not a serious effort at being a medium for exchange.
7. Re:No thanks by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 15:40 · Score: 0
  
  you have contempt for the wide-ranging arm of technology, and you don't understand that in 12 days Benny will be printing 800,000 new usds for every 1 btc created.
  It's like talking to someone in 1969 and telling them that the US has no gold and they're going to default; talking to someone in 2000 and telling them that there's a huge amount of crap in tech stocks; talking to someone in 2005 and saying house prices will crash across the board.
  The dollar is a bubble.
8. Re:No thanks by dbIII · 2012-11-16 16:06 · Score: 1
  
  you have contempt for the wide-ranging arm of technology
  No.
  Also your example of currency problems in your country and not mine is an irrelevant distraction.
  This is just a scam aimed at people who read "Cryptonomicon" and came away with the idea that a digital currency is cool (which it is), but do not understand that any random scam that pretends to be a digital currency may not work.
Bitcoin has never been hacked by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-16 04:33 · Score: 4, Informative

Sites and people handling bitcoins have had their compters hacked - exactly the same thing that would happen if banks had the same low lever of security as these victims (and indeed, this has happened to banks as well). If someone breaks into a physical bank, or steals your wallet, would you call paper money "hacked"? This analogy is apt, btw, because bitcoin behaves a lot like paper money in many ways, and if you store your paper money where someone can nick it, it's bound to happen sooner or later.
The actual currency bitcoin has so far not been hacked. So, just like you don't ask any guy on the street to keep your money and keep it safe, you should only store your bitcoins with someone you actually trust - or have good security on your own (equivalent to having good locks on your home).
Summary of the trolls by Beerdood · 2012-11-16 05:25 · Score: 2

"Bitcoin is a ponzi scheme and will NEVER be popular or mainstream, and I will continue to shout this mantra for any story on bitcoins on Slashdot. This includes stories that contradict my position - such as this one. As a tekkie of some sorts, I am still bitter that I never involved myself with bitcoin mining during the early days despite having the resources available at the time - and I will continue spewing this nonsense until this self-fulfilling prophecy becomes true. Either that or I work for a bank / paypal"

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Global warming and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of pirates - Gospel of the FSM
Hipsters will make bitcoin popular by Beerdood · 2012-11-16 06:08 · Score: 1

No no, you've got it all wrong. Bitcoins will become popular as soon as hipsters become aware of it's existence. Right now, most hipsters aren't aware of bitcoins - the news feeds on their latest iGadget doesn't usually run stories on bitcoins. And they don't read "mainstream" techie sites like /. - they prefer to get their news from their local independent free magazines, and from carrier pigeons (which don't run stories on bitcoins).

But eventually one will hear about it, and when they do - they'll start foaming at the mouth and jump on that currency in a heartbeat! "Oh you still use dollar bills to buy things brah? That's so 2011. I only deal with BitCoins now. Yeah you've probably never heard of it - it's a pretty obscure currency - it's like, an only online currency dude. There's only a few places that actually accept them as a valid currency." And as he's telling his hipster friends at the local dive bar, sipping his locally brewed IPA (that his friends had to buy him, because the bar doesn't accept BitCoins yet) - his buddies will jump on the BitCoin bandwagon (but hopefully before it gets too mainstream) and hipsters will cash in on bitcoins like wildfire.

Now of course, retailers will realize this soon enough and realize they're sitting on a gold mine! All these hipsters will have bitcoins with nowhere to spend them, so every independent brewery, vintage clothing store, horn-rimmed eyeglass shop, pipe & tobacco company, scarf retailer and unsigned recording artist will immediately start accepting bit coins as a form of payment. And before we know it, bitcoins are mainstream and will be used everywhere. The only real losers here will be the hipsters after a year or two, who will be eventually disappointed when they realize bitcoins are totally mainstream now.

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Global warming and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of pirates - Gospel of the FSM
or anything else with perceived value only by bigtrike · 2012-11-16 10:10 · Score: 2

Like dollars or gold.
That's fantastic by utkonos · 2012-11-16 15:39 · Score: 1

Now every script kiddie out there will be able to steal your bitcoins in addition to turning your website into a phishing page.

Do you have any idea how many phishing and malware links have wp-admin, wp-content, or wp-includes in the URL?

Take a look for yourself at Phishtank.com!