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How To Use Bitcoin – The Most Important Creation In The History Of Man

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Can you spend just a part of a Bitcoin? What's the point of it if the lowest price anything is $93?
 
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Captain_Swoop said:
Can you spend just a part of a Bitcoin? What's the point of it if the lowest price anything is $93?
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Yes, you can spend parts of bitcoins. They can be subdivided into very tiny pieces. It is one of the reasons given why it is so good: the supply is limited, but they can be subdivided, so that doesn't matter. (no mention of deflation as the size of the economy using them increases)
 
My friend's bitcoin stake is now worth millions of dollars. While I am skeptical of bitcoin and I don't plan on using it in the near future, one feature of it strikes me as remarkable - its absolute mobility. You can use what is called a "brain wallet" and nothing more than a passphrase to move your wealth seamlessly across borders. Gold and silver are subject to physical confiscation. Cash is subject to devaluation and/or confiscation. Not so with bitcoin. Yes, its volatile, mostly to the upside lately. Yes it depends on what is essentially a peer-to-peer network on the internet. But in terms of being able to do foreign remittance cheaply and securely, and being able to expatriate with capital, it seems to have no peers.

I wonder if the nascent banking crisis in Europe is a recent cause for the massive demand in bitcoin, and whether this represents not a fad, but a paradigm shift.
 
Millions of Dollars? So cas te damn things in! I think I would rather have the millions of dollars!

He can cash them in for dollars? or Swiss Franks or whatever?
 
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-cyprus-sparks-scramble-digital-164900785.html

"A more sober perspective might suggest that bitcoins are at best a momentary bubble and at worst a risky chance to take considering their novelty. But the trend also exemplifies just how nervous cash-holders are over the European situation.
"This is a clear sign that people are looking for alternative ways to get their money out of the country," said Christopher Vecchio, currency analyst at DailyFX. "If we're going to talk about the stability of the euro and whether or not there are going to be capital controls in place not just in Cyprus but around the euro zone, I think there is some efficacy behind bitcoins as an alternative liquidity vehicle."
The role of alternative currency had been falling largely to gold over the past several years. But the precious metal has been on a pretty aggressive downward path since its most recent peak in October."




Tulips???
 
Tippit said:
Undoubtedly, he's smarter than both of you, and even me, at least in this case.
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Perhaps he is. There are certainly plenty of people who are smarter than me with money. Is he locking in any of the profits yet, or letting it all ride?

There's a guy that just won $338 million from the powerball lottery but I wouldn't say that makes him smart.

By cashing in now he could reinvest it in something less volatile, even gold. He might miss more upside, but I think there's going to be a correction after such a rapid rise as the last couple months.
 
Puppycow said:
Perhaps he is. There are certainly plenty of people who are smarter than me with money. Is he locking in any of the profits yet, or letting it all ride?

There's a guy that just won $338 million from the powerball lottery but I wouldn't say that makes him smart.

By cashing in now he could reinvest it in something less volatile, even gold. He might miss more upside, but I think there's going to be a correction after such a rapid rise as the last couple months.
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I wonder what the impact on Bitcoin prices if the putative friend cashes in their stake.
 
Sounds to me that it's time to sell them if you have them. A few thousand percent return in a year is all you should bet on.
 
The Don said:
I wonder what the impact on Bitcoin prices if the putative friend cashes in their stake.
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The exchanges won't be able to pay if a considerable amount of people get out at this stage, which might plummet the price.

This is an almost textbook example of a bubble.
 
Bitcoins?

uk_dave said:
Absolutely! The irony is deep with these liberterian types.
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So, you don't think a gold standard is a good idea? If so why not? It makes more sense than the backed by nothing system we have now where the government can print more money anytime they wish.
 
Barking Spyder said:
So, you don't think a gold standard is a good idea? If so why not? It makes more sense than the backed by nothing system we have now where the government can print more money anytime they wish.
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Defend a gold standard and "gold bug" is the kindest thing that most posters here will say of you.

BTW it isn't the government that creates the money in the system (apart from a bit of QE). The government actually borrows it from the money creators.

Do you think bitcoin is better or worse than gold?
 
It looks like the US treasury is starting to sit up and take notice:
Web Money Gets Laundering Rule

By JEFFREY SPARSHOTT

The U.S. is applying money-laundering rules to "virtual currencies," amid growing concern that new forms of cash bought on the Internet are being used to fund illicit activities.

The move means that firms that issue or exchange the increasingly popular online cash will now be regulated in a similar manner as traditional money-order providers such as Western Union Co. WU +1.08% They would have new bookkeeping requirements and mandatory reporting for transactions of more than $10,000.

Moreover, firms that receive legal tender in exchange for online currencies or anyone conducting a transaction on someone else's behalf would be subject to new scrutiny, said proponents of Internet currencies. ...
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Wall Street Journal March 21, 2013
 
Barking Spyder said:
So, you don't think a gold standard is a good idea? If so why not? It makes more sense than the backed by nothing system we have now where the government can print more money anytime they wish.
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The main argument against the gold standard is precisely that it is too rigid, and economies are not. Historically, the gold standard always got suspended when there was a difficult time, such as a war, when economies need to expand more than their gold reserves allowed.

The gold standard has only one redeeming feature, which is stability. The problem of course is that long-term stability is impossible. In short, it stifles economic growth. There are lots of other arguments, but the real proof is that nobody is seeking to return to it as a viable monetary system, that is, other than libertarians who have a bias against fiat.
 
anduin said:
The main argument against the gold standard is precisely that it is too rigid, and economies are not. Historically, the gold standard always got suspended when there was a difficult time, such as a war, when economies need to expand more than their gold reserves allowed.

The gold standard has only one redeeming feature, which is stability. The problem of course is that long-term stability is impossible. In short, it stifles economic growth. There are lots of other arguments, but the real proof is that nobody is seeking to return to it as a viable monetary system, that is, other than libertarians who have a bias against fiat.
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Yup. There's a reason the gold standard was dropped all over the place. People who want to return to it don't understand its history well enough.
 
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