Why? Bitcoin has many of the worst aspects of a gold standard.
What worst aspects? It does everything gold does but can also be used online or moved around the world instantly for pennies (or even free right now if you are willing to wait).
It is useless for transactions that don't involve a computer to facilitate trade - i.e. cash transactions.
Everyone has a cell phone. I borrowed $2 from a guy at work for the vending machines and instantly texted him $2 in bitcoin using the Coinbase texting service.
Bitcoin has very high levels of exchange rate risk due to volatility, speculation and lack of liquidity.
This is true, if by risk you mean that you have a greater than 2/3 chance of your money being worth more.
Few people really know what it is and even fewer accept it for payment. For most merchants it costs extra resources and adds risk to handle and exchange since they will have to convert it back to dollars anyway - the same problem with them accepting foreign currencies which is why most don't. It's very expensive to use once you account for the full cost of the risk factors. Basically it scratches some ideological itches but as currencies go it doesn't have a lot to recommend it.
Actually, services like BitPay and Coinbase will transfer it back to dollars instantly for you or allow you to maintain any percentage you want in bitcoins if you like. So there is zero risk if they use these services. As far as costing more:
1. There are no fees for merchants to take bitcoins if they manage it themselves
2. There are no chargebacks with bitcoin
3. Businesses get their money instantly before shipping, instead of having to wait 30 days
It needs to become less speculative and more stable to be a true alternative.
Bitcoin will become less volatile when more people get involved. At that point, it will become less valuable as a speculative tool and more valuable as a currency.
I have 2 kids in school and teaching to the test has reduced the wasted time from ludicrous to merely ridiculous. I'm really not seeing the problem here.
Mining has ALWAYS been uneconomic. There have been very few points in bitcoin's history where you could sell your mined coins immediately for a profit.
Because they can say there are drugs in your car on command. And remember those 10% of bad cops we talked about up there? They're just scummy enough to plant said drugs in your disassembled car. Good luck convincing the jury that you weren't guilty since that was obviously the reason you didn't want a search.
And after the dog alerts (on command) and they disassemble your car into 10,000 pieces on the side of the road, they are under no obligation to reassemble it. (I hope you were taking notes.)
It may depend on where, but I used to work with police and I can assure you that, at least in the precincts I worked in, 90% of cops are really great people that really are just trying to serve the public. But 10% are bad and the others cover for them.
It's amazing how many people seem to think customer care (usually low paid outsourced phone support people working from a script) somehow are "what a company tells the customer"
Are they the company's official representative or not?
Yep. As long as you trust the person you're trading with not to photocopy them and give them to someone else as well and then see which of you tries to spend it first...
There are no surprises. He is estimated to own almost 1 million bitcoins (maybe slightly more). It's when he decides to sell that could crash the price for the rest.
Actually, the reason there were 2 estimates is that they estimated the large land mass affecting the tides and knew there wasn't a big enough ocean out there. So they were both right. There was a large land-mass that close and the earth was that big.
Slashdot Mirror
I like the idea of crypto currencies...
Why? Bitcoin has many of the worst aspects of a gold standard.
What worst aspects? It does everything gold does but can also be used online or moved around the world instantly for pennies (or even free right now if you are willing to wait).
It is useless for transactions that don't involve a computer to facilitate trade - i.e. cash transactions.
Everyone has a cell phone. I borrowed $2 from a guy at work for the vending machines and instantly texted him $2 in bitcoin using the Coinbase texting service.
Bitcoin has very high levels of exchange rate risk due to volatility, speculation and lack of liquidity.
This is true, if by risk you mean that you have a greater than 2/3 chance of your money being worth more.
Few people really know what it is and even fewer accept it for payment. For most merchants it costs extra resources and adds risk to handle and exchange since they will have to convert it back to dollars anyway - the same problem with them accepting foreign currencies which is why most don't. It's very expensive to use once you account for the full cost of the risk factors. Basically it scratches some ideological itches but as currencies go it doesn't have a lot to recommend it.
Actually, services like BitPay and Coinbase will transfer it back to dollars instantly for you or allow you to maintain any percentage you want in bitcoins if you like. So there is zero risk if they use these services. As far as costing more:
1. There are no fees for merchants to take bitcoins if they manage it themselves
2. There are no chargebacks with bitcoin
3. Businesses get their money instantly before shipping, instead of having to wait 30 days
It needs to become less speculative and more stable to be a true alternative.
Bitcoin will become less volatile when more people get involved. At that point, it will become less valuable as a speculative tool and more valuable as a currency.
Cool. I'll get right on my new Mickey Mouse stories...
We need the return of the "what-could-possibly-go-wrong" tag.
I have 2 kids in school and teaching to the test has reduced the wasted time from ludicrous to merely ridiculous. I'm really not seeing the problem here.
Mining has ALWAYS been uneconomic. There have been very few points in bitcoin's history where you could sell your mined coins immediately for a profit.
The calculation to add transactions grows EXACTLY as computing power does. And if not, they adjust it so it does.
They already exist. Too bad one of the most popular ones just disappeared with all the coins one day (anonymously).
Nobody else would take it back then. They tried desperately in the early days to get as many people mining as they could but nobody would.
Yes. We know he is a writer and if he keeps writing stuff like this he should be laughed out of his job.
Funny that he is concerned about this when the Treasury Department and the DHS were not...
Don't leave us hanging. Tell us the rest. Or is your jail internet time over?
Because they can say there are drugs in your car on command. And remember those 10% of bad cops we talked about up there? They're just scummy enough to plant said drugs in your disassembled car. Good luck convincing the jury that you weren't guilty since that was obviously the reason you didn't want a search.
And after the dog alerts (on command) and they disassemble your car into 10,000 pieces on the side of the road, they are under no obligation to reassemble it. (I hope you were taking notes.)
It may depend on where, but I used to work with police and I can assure you that, at least in the precincts I worked in, 90% of cops are really great people that really are just trying to serve the public. But 10% are bad and the others cover for them.
It's amazing how many people seem to think customer care (usually low paid outsourced phone support people working from a script) somehow are "what a company tells the customer"
Are they the company's official representative or not?
"Caught" meaning that some loudmouthed customer raised it up in the media.
And people mock me for still buying physical CDs from Amazon (usually used)...
Yep. As long as you trust the person you're trading with not to photocopy them and give them to someone else as well and then see which of you tries to spend it first...
There are no surprises. He is estimated to own almost 1 million bitcoins (maybe slightly more). It's when he decides to sell that could crash the price for the rest.
Since the founders of MANY other alternative currencies have been arrested and jailed by various countries...
Even bad random data is not very compressible.
Actually, washing shellfish in fresh water rivers was the leading cause of the spread of cholera.
They DON'T WANT you playing your old games. They want to sell you another version for the new system.
Actually, the reason there were 2 estimates is that they estimated the large land mass affecting the tides and knew there wasn't a big enough ocean out there. So they were both right. There was a large land-mass that close and the earth was that big.
Yes. I am sure that Kentucky is filled with much smarter people...