Jim Blasko Explains 'Unbreakable Coin' (Video 2 of 2)

Today, the conclusion of my talk with Jim Blasko (here's part 1), who encourages you to go start your own crypto currency, because it's a fun exercise and because every entrant adds new ideas to the mix. As you'd expect, he's bullish about both his own Unbreakable Coin and cryptocurrencies more generally; how any given given currency performs, though, is an open question: U.S. dollars, Euros, or Yen may not go experience any meteoric rises, but their stability, even with inflation, is a nice feature, and so is their worldwide convertibility.

Regulation, speculation, fraud, and cultural fashions all play a role in making new currencies risky; reader mbkennel yesterday asked an insightful question: "Are you up to loaning bitcoin or something less popular for 10 years?" Confidence in any given currency can be tested with the terms current holders are willing to accept to make loans payable in that same currency. (On the other hand, if large companies will accept it in payment, they've probably got an idea that a given currency will be around next month or next year.) If you've bought any form of crypto currency, what's been your experience, and what do you expect in 10 years? (Alternate Video Link)

Comments

Another use of Crypto-coin - as gift cards

[davidwr]

One use for cryptocurrency that isn't talked about much is as a gift certificate.

If a store created a custom BC clone and pre-mined it completely, it could assign them an arbitrary fixed value (1 Slash-Dollar = 1 USD???) and sell them as gift cards. The advantage over a regular gift card is that the buyer can then split them and give the pieces to friends as gifts or even trade them on an "open market" if he wanted to (okay, that's being done now, but you get the idea).

The company that created and pre-mined the cards would be on the hook for all transaction fees. Unlike a "real" currency like BC they could set an expiration date ahead of time or say that "after a certain date, we will charge a hefty fee for all transactions OTHER than through our store" or if the currency is designed to be "short lived," even "after a certain date, we will accept it for purchase at a discount, and this discount will increase each month until the currency becomes worthless."

WHY?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why has Slashdot posted advertorials for Mr. Blasko for two days in a row now? Man has Slashdot jumped the shark or it isn't disclosure promoted content like it should.