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Bitcoin Circulation Hits Record High Of $14 Billion (theguardian.com)
Bitcoin, the digital currency that most people have never actually used, has hit a record value of $14 billion after jumping 5 percent on Thursday. From a report on The Guardian: The price of one bitcoin reached $875 on the Europe-based Bitstamp exchange, its strongest level since January 2014, putting the cryptocurrency on track for its best daily performance in six months. That compared with levels around $435 at the start of the year, with many experts linking bitcoin's rise with the steady depreciation of the Chinese yuan, which has slid almost 7% in 2016. Data shows the majority of bitcoin trading is done in China, so any increase in demand from there tends to have a significant impact on the price.
or just FROM a Chinese address?
You mean like this? https://www.shopify.com/blog/1...
Fine line between bubble, and demand. Gold is also going up, and trust in currency is going way down. But it is looking awfully bubbly about now...
If Bitcoin becomes too much of a nuisance, the Chinese government will either regulate it to death or, if regulation is deemed not effective enough, outright ban it.
Like they did with prostitution and drugs!
I've never used or considered using Bitcoin and I don't know a single person who has.
Same here...the risks of owning bitcoins seem to greatly outweigh the benefits, at least to me.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
On any topic, that phrase automatically marks you as an idiot.
quit saying it is a currency, it is not
game points that currently can be converted to currency, value of which might drop to zero by various state actions suddenly, yes
I'm still waiting for a government or national-bank to issue blockchain-based currency that is backed by a familiar, tangible asset such as gold, silver, or the local fiat currency.
Unlike bitcoin, this would be a "captive" coin and it would not have many of the benefits of bitcoin and the like.
But here is what it would have:
* Stable value: Like currency or metal, a "bit-buck" is worth $1 and it always will be and a "bit-troy-ounce of gold" is worth 1 troy ounce of gold and it always will be.
* Built-in: In most industrialized countries, most people trust the national bank and the government when it comes to currency issues. I'm not saying they should, only that they typically do.
* Like bitcoin, you can trade with it without having a bank account or having to carry cash.
* You can trade "whole wallets" many times in a way that is free of any record-keeping except by the final recipient, who will want to transfer the money to his own wallet and at the same time verify that the wallet he received is legit.
* It's a backdoor to increased use of BitCoin etc.: It would encourage people to install software that make using it easy. Presumably, this software would also work with BitCoin and other non-backed coins, so their use will also presumably increase.
* As "Novelty use local currency" it can boost local pride. Think "college campus bucks" or "state fair dollars."
There is one major disadvantage:
To work right, there must be excess dollars or gold or whatever to cover newly-mined coins, or the coins must be "pre-mined" which means someone will have to cover the transaction costs. To be acceptable to the general public, there must not be any transaction fees. This means that in practice, the state or bank holding the reserves will need to pay the transaction fees or be constanty adding to the "backing reserve" until the coin is fully mined.
Yes, I know there are strong arguments why backing the blockchain with assets helps rather than hurts, but for applications where you need stability, it's a big win.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Its useless to calculate a dollar price. Tell us the number of bitcoin. Because if you try to sell these amount of bitcoin, the price will drop so you will NOT get $14 billion. So it's just bullshit to quantify it in dollar.
Beanie-babies would work just as well for currency. (maybe better).
Con artists and marks (of various varieties).
The exchanges fake transactions, fake liquidity, then claim to have been hacked while they take off with your real money. (SFYL)
The middlemen pretend to use Bitcoin but are actually more like unregulated online payment processors (these exist mostly because Bitcoin itself doesn't work well and most users are clueless enough that pretending to use Bitcoin is good enough for them)
The 'whales' who actually have enough Bitcoin they can move the market around. They don't have to predict the market, they ARE the market, and by cycling the price they can milk cash out of a lot of idiots.
There's the enthusiasts who have just discovered the concept but haven't dug deep enough into to figure out why it doesn't work.
There are all sorts of political weirdos who think it'll survive as the currency that remains after the global economic system fails. Because after a complete global meltdown, there will still be a functioning, undivided Internet.
The greedy folk who think they can avoid taxes. Or predict the market and get rich (see 'whales' above as to why this would require a lot of luck).
It soars because people are stupid, selfish, self-deluding, and greedy. But it does not soar in a way that anyone not in at the top level of it will make any money on any real scale except by the wildest of luck.
Once governments feel the pinch and start to regulate it, it's game over! I'd expect the EU and the US are already planning just that!
For people who hold BC for more than a short time, it's gambling.
For people who need to buy from someone and they don't have a currency the seller will accept, they must buy a currency the seller will accept. If the seller accepts US Dollars and BitCoin, and all I have are Euros, am I going to buy USD or am I going to buy BitCoin? Well, if they take my credit card (with its low exchange fees) I may "buy" USD. If they don't, I'll buy BC, buy elsewhere, or do without. For this buyer, it's being used as a currency.
If I'm a merchant that is accepting BC to attract more customers, AND I convert that BC to local currency within a short time, then I'm also using it as a currency, just as if I accepted Euros but sold them for the local currency within hours of receiving them.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I'm still waiting for a government or national-bank to issue blockchain-based currency that is backed by a familiar, tangible asset such as gold, silver, or the local fiat currency....
I was following you right up to the last item.
Any evidence for any of this?
I've seen spikes in bitcoin prices, mainly, when a large country starts playing around with it's currency. There was a pop earlier this year when Venezuela started cracking down on currency leaving the country, then again when India started dropping certain denominations of currency. Other than that, no rapid moves upwards or downwards other than the odd spike every few months or so.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
If it's government backed, why do you need the blockchain? Wasn't the point of the blockchain the decentralization? of is it possible to implement p2p transactions with blockchains?
It's said that coins and currency have intrinsic value, trade value, and collectable value.
Book-entry money, including bank accounts and e-coins, typically has only trade value.
A typical, non-collectable $1 bill will have an intrinsic value of a few cents or less - it can be used as wallpaper if nothing else. It has a trade value of exactly $1. Unless and until it becomes collectable, it's collectable value is less than its face value and can be ignored.
A de-monetized bank note from the Confederate States of America probably has less intrinsic value per square inch than a modern bill and it has zero trade value, but it probably has significant collectable value.
Metal coins are similar, except that they typically have higher intrinsic value than paper/cloth/plastic currency. "Back in the old days" the intrinsic value of a coin was pretty close to the trade/"face" value. That is still true for the US penny and nickle - as metal, each is worth over 60% of the trade/"face" value. The dime, quarter, and half dollar, on the other hand, are worth less than 20% of face value.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I buy and sell BTC, dogecoin, cure, tek and other coins. Transactions go through in seconds. It's not much different than selling an equity on Ameritrade.
Many coins have enough transactions that the time involved in buying and selling is minimal. Now, if you mine, or purchase experimental coins then you're gambling. With BTC. Hell no. Put a buy or sell order at market and it's fulfilled immediately.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
The fiat currency of any government relies entirely on magical manipulation to achieve "stability".
And it very frequently FAILS resulting in collapse of said economy and government.
Everything you said and or described is either debunked or handled better by bitcoin.
- stable - BTC has been steady up time on time since inception, after leveling out the big irrational exuberance spikes as any prudent investor would. ... intermediation and tracking forever. ... a pure global system.
- builtin - already runs on every computer and smartphone.
- trading - NO, you cannot trade a bank/gov intermediated digital currency without
- whole wallets - again debunked, read up on privacy, datamining, kyc aml and all the other things govt and corp love to fuck you with.
- backdoor to use - false, its a backdoor to your life.
- novelty - yes fiat is laughable bullshit
- excess cover backing - again backing anything with fiat or gold or whatever is far less than what bitcoin offers
I can't understand your logic here: you mean Bitcoins in people pockets, underneath their mattresses?
That was just the first google hit... Not going to bring out the impressive Google-fu for an AC on slashdot. :)
Just because it does not pass the Lucas123 comprehension test does not equal the epitome of market speculation. Sheesh.
"Zero cost" - meaning you will wait for hours or days for your transactions to get confirmed. You have no idea what you are talking about.
purse.io
expedia.com
overstock.com
Many others....wake me up when your IQ goes up
There is little point in using bitcoins for normal everyday business-to-consumer transactions. So most people do not, and maybe never will, use them. But there are still uses for bitcoins. My company employs a graphic artist living in Karachi. The transaction costs of transferring and converting dollars to pak-rupees are exorbitant. So we pay her in bitcoins. It works well, and, since it is below the radar, we don't have to worry about the 35% tax that our soon-to-be-president will impose on offshoring.
It's expensive to receive a credit card transaction. It's a bare minimum of $20.00 /mth plus transaction fees of $0.25 + a percentage (1.5% - 3.5% depending on the card).
There are several credit-card-processing options that don't include a monthly fee, at least in the USA. Square and PayPal just to name two.
Granted, there is still the per-transaction fee and the percentage-cost, which are much higher than BC. But if it is domestic there is no currency-exchange cost or currency-fluctuation risk. Unless you are converting your BC to local currency almost immediately, there is inherent currency-fluctuation risk (and profit potential) on the part of the merchant. Depending on your jurisdiction, using BC may also force you to do additonal tax paperwork that comes with the "profit and loss" on the BC-to-local-currency exchanges. That's overhead that's avoided if you skip BC and use a credit card or other local-currency option.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
If it's government backed, why do you need the blockchain?
If you are suggesting the use of government-backed fiat currency - as in paper/cloth/plastic bills not entries in a bank ledger - then the advantage is theft resistance. Not only will someone have to steal your ewallet but they will either have to steal it when you have it opened, or steal its password too.
If you are suggesting a bank account, well, I've already outlined the advantages that a blockchain has over a bank account. The most obvious one is that a wallet can be passed around anonymously, without any record at all (no blockchain entry except by the final recipient). In that way, it's much like a check made out to "cash" or a pre-paid debit-card/"gift card" except that it's typically got a password on it.
Wasn't the point of the blockchain the decentralization?
It may have been the original purpose, but it is not the only advantage it has over either cash or bank-book-entry ledger systems like credit cards.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
But fake flows don't affect the price.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
I've never used or considered using Gold and I don't know a single person who has. How is it that its value continues to soar? This has got to be the epitome of market speculation.
Like fiat currencies and for that matter the value of metals beyond their utilitarian value (industry, jewelry, etc.), BC is still a "faith currency."
Its value rises and falls not just with supply and demand but with people's faith their ability to spend it in the future for the same goods as they can today. Or, to put it another way, people's faith influences demand. If I can buy one widget for one BC today, but I believe that next year I will be able to buy 2 widgets (that is, if I have faith that the value will go up over time/that BC will experience deflation), I may be willing to pay more for BC than if I believe I will only be able to buy 1 widget with that BC next year, assuming that I believe that the local currency will buy the same amount of widgets a year from now as next year. If I believe that BC will suffer inflation (unlikely, given its model - but I may still believe it) then will be willing to spend less on BC than if I believed its value was stable. Either that, or I will plan on spending it soon, before I think the value will drop. Ditto if I believe it is in a bubble relative to the local currency (like precious mentals and fiat currencies, BC will occaisionally be in a "bubble" relative to any given metal or currency, and it will occasionally be in a "buying opportunity" - but only history will tell you what is a bubble or buying opportunity and what is the "new normal").
Like currency stored in a bank account, BC has no "intrinsic value." Even bank notes have a non-zero intrinsic value: You can use them as wallpaper or burn them as fuel. Coins typically have slightly higher intrinsic value thanks to the industrial uses of their metal content. While I wouldn't call in "intrinsic" the selling price of gold is very unlikely to drop below half of its current value relative to a "market basket" of other commodities (natural textiles, foods, fossile fuels, etc.) in my lifetime, if only because I don't see any significant letup in demand for its "artistic uses" (jewelry, collectable coins, etc.) during that time. But in 500 years or 5000 years, its price may drop to its value to industry, whatever that is at the time. Without significant intrinsic value, any currency is, at its core, a "faith currency."
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
The spot price of gold is down over the last day. It is also down over the last month. It is, in fact, down over the last 6 months. You should check your sources.
I've bought stuff with BitCoin. On one of those 'markets'. Multiple times.
What do you want to know?
Not everyone is you.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Yeah, I have the terrible risk of having bought coins for $50 and now having them worth $875. They've never been that low again. Such tremendous risk, making 16× my money in 5 years.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Gold is also going up, and trust in currency is going way down.
I keep hearing about how trust in currency is going "way down." I'd really, honestly like to see a study showing how many people pay their mortgages, gas, and grocery bills entirely with Bitcoin (or gold bars). If those people (if they exist) truly don't trust the currency, then their day-to-day lives must be terrifying.
Breakfast served all day!
i believe one of the major mistakes people are making with bitcoin is thinking that bitcoins are only useful if they can be used to buy something.
The bitcoin has been relatively stable for a pretty long time. Trade volume is stable and growing, so the market works really well to transfer value over borders. Think like western union on steroids.
Due to the long term stability, the bitcoin market is beginning to be trusted as an alternate and easy to access method of storing or transferring value, not necessarily just to buy stuff.
"I've never used or considered using Bitcoin and I don't know a single person who has. "
When BTC first went live, my big concern was that someone would crack the algorithm for generating it and it would all either disappear in a flash or infinite amounts of it would be created, demolishing its value like the Zimbabwean dollar. It has now been around long enough that there is little possibility of that happening.
But store it anywhere, in one of those online exchanges or on your own computer, and the hackers still seem to have a million ways of stealing it. Exchanges go poof all the time, carrying millions of dollars worth of BTC wit them each time. No thanks.
That might be true for transactions that stay within an exchange. But if you want actual confirmation of your transaction on the blockchain then that can take several minutes, or close to an hour depending on how many blocks of confirmation you need.
Yeah, I have the terrible risk of having bought coins for $50 and now having them worth $875.
Until some weasel steals them from your wallet or your exchange rips you off or you lose the keys or whatever.
Do any of these ring a bell? Mt. Gox, Bitstamp, Bter, Mycoin, Gatecoin, Exco.in, Poloniex, Justcoin, Cavirtex, Cryptsy, Bitfinex, Neo & Bee, BIPS, Flexcoin, PicoStocks, Kipcoin, CryptoRush, ShapeShift, Blockchain.info, Moolah, MintPal, bitXoin....that's just a short list of recent scandals, wallets, and exchange frauds where people lost their bitcoins.
But props to you for making a killing on them, for as long as it lasts anyway.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
At least in USD, gold prices have declined about $200/oz since July.
Ah yes, the good ol' "well I'm a citizen who feels like I don't have to pay taxes, because I'm special" argument.
Yes, computer security is hard. If you don't securely store your keys, you could lose them. If you don't hold your keys at all, and trust an online company to hold them, you could lose them. Neither of which is the fault of Bitcoin.
And if you add up all the losses due to corporate failures like Gox, et al, you'll get a total that is probably rounding error compared against the frauds committed in dollars for the same period.
Bitcoin isn't risk free, but nothing is.
I might never buy anything with Bitcoin, but that doesn't mean it won't find its place. I've never had a merchant account or interacted with credit processing behind the swipe--but the stores do that all the time. Likewise, I've bought alcohol at retail; but I've never driven a beer truck. What I'm getting at here is that Bitcoin might turn out to be kind of a dud and/or a curiosity at the consumer level; but could find utility for the "wholesale" or "behind the scenes" transactions.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Oh. Very. very true.
It will take on average 10 minutes to post and an hour to verify.
Is this an issue? It depends on the purchase.
I personally feel that BTC will become more of a clearinghouse (end of day transmission of funds) and other coins with faster block times will be used for other transactions. The "cup-of-coffee" transaction is less important than the blockchain: where you have a cryptographically secure proof of identity and transmission. (Wallet A sent this fund to Wallet B - identity in this case is the identity of the wallet not the individual).
BTC is perfect if I want to send money to another person. Say I want to pay my plumber or handyman, someone I have a relationship with. How can I pay?
I can pay in cash. (That can be a hassle to take out $1500 from the bank.)
I can pay by check. Except I don't have physical checks anymore.
I can pay by CC but that requires my handyman to accept CC and willing to accept the service charge.
I can do a quick-pay transfer but (as I found out) it can be a real pain in the a$$ to set up, especially with different banks.
With BTC. I can send cash effortlessly with close to zero transaction fee. Yes. It will take 10+ minutes to post. OK.
BTC is not a cure all. It can't do everything better than everything else - but it's useful.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
If you make a bet at a casino and win, that doesn't mean it was a good bet.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
It seems to be a persistent behaviour, so maybe I should wait for the next crash, and then buy some...
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
"Zero cost" - meaning you will wait for hours or days for your transactions to get confirmed. You have no idea what you are talking about.
As compared to what? Credit cards that take 60 days? Or paypal perhaps that can claw money back from you months later?
Porn sites. They can't charge you a recurring fee as they are wont to do with credit cards, and casual inspection by a judgmental girlfriend has a harder time seeing that you bought porn.
VPNs. They are in the business of anonymizing you, bitcoin can help this some.
A company in a country with poor consumer protection laws. If the country you are doing business with has to sell your personal data when bankrupt, or hand it over to a hostile intelligence ageny wholesale, bitcoin provides less of your data to them to be conpromised.
These are all pretty great and legal reasons to have a bit of bitcoin around. Large amounts is, of course, gambling.
And if you add up all the losses due to corporate failures like Gox, et al, you'll get a total that is probably rounding error compared against the frauds committed in dollars for the same period.
And if you add up all the bitcoin usage compared to the usage of non-virtual currencies you'll get a total that is probably rounding error compared against those non-virtual currencies for the same period. (In truth, it probably wouldn't even amount to a rounding error.)
Here's the thing, though- If my bank get robbed or hacked, I'll still have my money. Woo hoo!
But if your bitcoin wallet or exchange gets robbed or hacked, that money is gone. (I know, technically it's still out there somewhere, but it's gone as far as you're concerned.) And people accept this strangely enough. You can even still see it in the blockchain lists or whatever, being transferred or traded, but it's no longer yours in terms of being useful or accessible to you.
If your bank got robbed and they told you your money was still "out there somewhere" but that you couldn't spend it or get it back, would you accept that? I wouldn't.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
What if your bank or government decides to freeze your funds and then sue you? With Bitcoin, your security is in your own hands. With banks, your life is in their hands, which makes you ultimately, their slave.
That last paragraph should read
While you can argue that the last one [speculative movie-making] is technically an investment - the IRS treats it as such - it's hard to argue that it isn't much less risky than any other not-truly-random form of gambling, such as poker or sports betting. In other words, it's reasonable to say that even if it is technically an investment, for all but the most studied expert investor, it is a gamble.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Much more than just one disadvantage. The big one is that governments and banks prefer to create their money in the dark and out of sight. They gain nearly nothing from this idea, and by making that stuff public, they lose a LOT.
See that "Preview" button?
What if your bank or government decides to freeze your funds and then sue you?
Lol, like they wouldn't be able to prevent you from fiddling around with your bitcoins?
Better yet, can you buy a plane ticket with bitcoins to flee the country or make your house payment? Can you go to the grocery store and buy food with bitcoins? Can you buy a gun or gasoline with bitcoins? Will your lawyer accept bitcoins? No, no, no, no, no, and probably no.
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With Bitcoin, your security is in your own hands.
As we've seen, with Bitcoin, your security is in anything but your own hands.
Mt. Gox, Bitstamp, Bter, Mycoin, Gatecoin, Exco.in, Poloniex, Justcoin, Cavirtex, Cryptsy, Bitfinex, Neo & Bee, BIPS, Flexcoin, PicoStocks, Kipcoin, CryptoRush, ShapeShift, Blockchain.info, Moolah, MintPal, bitXoin...tell me again how the security was in the hands of the owners of those bitcoins?
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
But Bitcoin isn't a foreign or a local currency anywhere.
So your script has a data type error if applied to Bitcoin.
You happened to win. You may have even approached it as an investment. That doesn't mean it wasn't a gamble.
By all standards of accuracy or mere reality - he's "winnings" are a work of fiction.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Credit card authorisations are seconds, not 60 days.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Credit card authorisations are seconds, not 60 days.
Transactions in bitcoin take seconds as well.
He is talking about the transaction becoming final and non reversible (something very important to vendors, credit card fraud cost billions per annum).
In my experience, it's not even waiting just for confirmations. I've had people wait ages to see the balance change on their client.
I've had transactions reversed on Bitcoin after two weeks because some blockchain issue and software updates that lead to a fork in the blockchain. I had no ability to talk to anyone or authority to correct the problem after and eventually the otherside won out. Significantly worse than talking to regulated financial organisations in my opinion.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Yeah, you're lying.
Reversed two weeks later? If you're going to make shit up _please_ at least make it feasible, the longest fork in bitcoin lasted a matter of hours, not even days.
That's when I found out, yes. Not my fault the software is shit.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Lol, like they wouldn't be able to prevent you from fiddling around with your bitcoins?
Er, what? Unless they physically capture and restrain you, they can't stop you from "fiddling" with your bitcoins.
Better yet, can you buy a plane ticket with bitcoins to flee the country or make your house payment? Can you go to the grocery store and buy food with bitcoins? Can you buy a gun or gasoline with bitcoins? Will your lawyer accept bitcoins? No, no, no, no, no, and probably no.
And? You can trade bitcoins for cash and get all of those things.
As we've seen, with Bitcoin, your security is in anything but your own hands.
Mt. Gox, Bitstamp, Bter, Mycoin, Gatecoin, Exco.in, Poloniex, Justcoin, Cavirtex, Cryptsy, Bitfinex, Neo & Bee, BIPS, Flexcoin, PicoStocks, Kipcoin, CryptoRush, ShapeShift, Blockchain.info, Moolah, MintPal, bitXoin...tell me again how the security was in the hands of the owners of those bitcoins?
A lot of those exchanges haven't lost their clients' money, so I don't exactly understand what you are trying to say. If you are talking about coins lost at an exchange, however, then it wasn't in the hands of those owners, because those owners gave up control of them by storing them there. If you use a shady exchange (or worse, store them there) and lose your bitcoins, that is your own fault. If you lose your keys, or have your keys stolen, it's also your own fault. But that's better than the idea that daddy government will make sure everything is safe and ok for you, as long as they don't get a bee up their butt, and decide to take everything you own.
Backpedaling?
Besides, how would you know anything about the software to know it is shit, you clearly don't understand how it works. I very much doubt you have ever had any at all let alone transacted with it.
Start lieing like you do and your credibility drops to zero and now you just another internet liar.
Was hearing from my son yesterday that the "inflation" in bitcoin is causing it to be less profitable to mine.
Ahh, well.
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
> Say I want to pay my plumber or handyman, someone I have a relationship with. How can I pay?
Well, I've just written checks.
> I can pay by check. Except I don't have physical checks anymore.
Hey buddy, I got a tip for you. Ask your bank for some fucking checks.
Here's your procedure:
1- Get some checks. This may cost you up to 20 bucks, or may be free.
2- Write the amount, the recipient, and sign the check.
3- Done.
Alternatively, if you don't have bitcoins:
1- Make an account on some bitcoin transfer place.
2- Enter your bank routing number and account number and get a transaction
3- While waiting for that to go through (normally takes days)
4- Download bitcoin-qt or some other program. Make sure you pick the correct one, or your money will be stolen while you sleep.
5- Download 80 gigs of blockchain, which represents every bitcoin transaction ever made since its inception. This will be hundreds of gigs in just a couple years. This must be kept constantly up to date or else everything is for naught. If bitcoin had been invented in 2000 BC, this list would not fit on any hard drive on earth, and would definitely have a bunch of sumerian copper transactions recorded on it.
6- Now that your wallet is synced, transfer bitcoins from wherever you got them into your wallet. This takes awhile, and be sure to properly enter the address.
7- Be sure your wallet is encrypted, and be sure your computer isn't compromised in any way ever. Otherwise, some hacker will take all your shit, as per normal.
Now that you have bitcoins:
8- Ask your handyman for his bitcoin address. This is a long sequence of letters and numbers that all blue collar workers maintain with them at all times.
9- Transfer the money to the handyman by launching your computer, opening your program, connect to the internet, and enter the long sequence of letters and numbers.
10- Agreed on an exchange rate of bitcoins to dollars, because your purchase of a service is in dollars. If you can't reach an agreement here, hire two fat libertarians to fight with katanas, but no shirts. The winning sword-libertarian gets to decide on which exchange rate to use.
11- Send an appropriate amount of bitcoins to the address provided by the handyman. Be sure to include a transaction fee so that the server farms in China actually process your fucking transaction ever.
12- The handyman doesn't and shouldn't trust you, and should instead launch his own program to ensure that the bitcoins are coming through. This means that he needs to have access to the internet as well, so that he can see confirmations of the incoming transaction to his account.
13- Now that the handyman has bitcoins, he has to sell them for dollars, unless he has a use for them. This means he must also open an account with an exchange, or something.
14- DONE
In seriousness, have you ever payed anyone like a roofer, plumber, etc. in bitcoin? Is that real? Where, in a broad sense, do you live where this is common?
Also: I've never talked to a workman who can't take a credit card. I'm sure they exist, but they aren't super common. I can't imagine that the set of "workmen who take bitcoin" is larger than the set of "workmen who take visa". Just simply no way.
Er, what? Unless they physically capture and restrain you, they can't stop you from "fiddling" with your bitcoins.
You're right, the government that would freeze your funds and sue you would never do that. Except that's often exactly what they do when they freeze your funds and sue you- they incarcerate you to prevent you from fleeing.
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And? You can trade bitcoins for cash and get all of those things.
Well fuck me, why wouldn't I just use some of the cash or gold I've stashed in various secure locations to do those things? Then I wouldn't have to convert my bitcoins (assuming my bitcoins weren't also legally subject to seizure, which they almost certainly would be).
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A lot of those exchanges haven't lost their clients' money,
Really? So all that talk about people losing their bitcoins was just twaddle and hot air? That's interesting, because that seemed to be what the fuss was all about- people losing their bitcoins and therefore the money tied up in them.
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But that's better than the idea that daddy government will make sure everything is safe and ok for you, as long as they don't get a bee up their butt, and decide to take everything you own.
Heh, and you really think that daddy government wouldn't/doesn't know about your bitcoins? Besides, if they "decide to take everything you own" you can bet that would include just about anything that might be able to allow you to retrieve your bitcoins (computers, safety deposit boxes, records, thumbdrives, etc etc etc etc). Really, when they seize your stuff, they seize all your stuff. They're not amateurs at this and they know all about bitcoin, especially if they've had you on their radar.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
No. today it's quite unlikely that one would pay a plumber in BTC. I couldn't get mine to set up an account to do a quick pay.
:-)
Today, 2016, you're 100% correct.
But what about tomorrow? 2018
When one can easily send transactions from a phone? When Google Pay and other services are considered normal?
Now if banks drop their transfer costs to zero; and if it's easy to send payments then BTC most likely will not be used for these transactions.
BTC is considered (by some) to be spendable gold. You place it there when you have little trust in fiat. (See Venezuela) Now you can transfer funds from one person to another, by-passing fiat, by-passing banks. India is another place with a great potential for BTC. They have a cash culture and BTC is a good alternative. It's safer to carry, easier to transport (your phone), easier to transfer funds.
Now you made the transfer via BTC way harder than it is. You scan a QR (if next to each other or text over your receive address and then enter the amount and press send.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
Because it takes me weeks to find out about this crap?
Do I really need to, to know that this full of failure?
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Your such a liar, I really don't believe you.
Whatever mate, you have feedback from a user.
Traditionally, ignoring user feedback doesn't typicaly lead to much retention, nor will it lead to generating more users, that's your own problem, not mine.
You say it's not a protocol issue, then clearly it's a software issue (Bitcoin Core) or both. Whichever it is, none of it bodes well for your community.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
More lies.
You wonder how I know you are lying? In a fork transactions are processed by both chains not by one or the other, there is no communication between the chains to say, "I have processed this so you don't have to". Chain forks delay things and change who receive the block reward but transactions still take place.
If you had actually used bitcoin you may actually know this, but yeah, your just a liar instead.
My transaction never took place apparently.
I used Bitcoin and I don't care.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
More lies and bullshit.
I do have a question though, why does bitcoin threaten you so much? Seriously, you don't know that much about it and yet you hate it with a passion (enough to just make up lies about it and look like a dick).
Is there something in particular about it or are you just a general "I hate what I don't understand " type?
More lies and bullshit.
Whatever dude.
It doesn't, I'm just a very unsatisfied ex-user.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
More bullshit and lies.
Tell you what, you can cryptographically prove me wrong, go on then.
And this is why Bitcoin will never become a contender in the bigger market. I tell you an issue and rather than even try to fix it, you decide to make demands of someone that has made it clear, they have abandoned it.
Look at this from a consumer point of view. This is not working, the consumer doesn't care about your cryptographic plea. The consumer is happy to just call this 'shit' everytime it's brought up now, clearly based on their really poor experiences and will now bring up you as being part of the poor community in resolving this sort of thing.
Good job!
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Look at this from a consumer point of view.
I am by point out how full of shit you are and how you are lying. There is nothing to fix here apart from you lying.
That way legitimate consumers won't be fooled by your crap. You are not actually a consumer if all you have ever done is lie about it.
It is not as if there are no legitimate concerns about bitcoin but instead of picking one of those you make up fairy tales.
Whatever man, pretend it doesn't happen. I know my experience and this is why I don't use bitcoin on inworldz transactions anymore.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
It is on a downswing again. I stand corrected.