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How To Use Bitcoin – The Most Important Creation In The History Of Man
- Thread starter michaelsuede
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Belz...
Fiend God
Whiz, not sure this counts as "changing the world" yet.
Puppycow
Penultimate Amazing
Don't look now but it just broke over $100.
Belz...
Fiend God
Can't wait to see what the original makers/owners will do with their cache...
It seems very hard for people to admit this...but libertarians by-and-large are not stupid and they have a very strong grasp of economics. When so many of them were creaming their pants over Bitcoin, that MIGHT have been an indicator that this was going to be something that mattered.
The ideology that nothing government can ever do can in any way help the economy, is a libertarian economic principle that ignores vast majority of what is called "economics".
They bet on Bitcoin, and got lucky. But it's still pretty small potatoes. Bernie Madoff had a bigger scam going than the value of Bitcon.
Puppycow
Penultimate Amazing
So on 20th March, when the price hit $60 I posted this:
Earlier today I checked and it was approaching $120.
Now a few hours later I look again and it's already over $140. This is getting
.
http://preev.com
Earlier today I checked and it was approaching $120.
Now a few hours later I look again and it's already over $140. This is getting
.http://preev.com
Belz...
Fiend God
But for how long ?
So on 20th March, when the price hit $60 I posted this:
Earlier today I checked and it was approaching $120.
Now a few hours later I look again and it's already over $140. This is getting
http://preev.com
Its back down to $130.
Bitcoin is the Harlem Shake of currencies.
And I can't find the story online at the moment, but the news on the radio was saying that while you could buy pizza with bitcoin, the exchange rate was such that it worked out more than double the cost if you paid with real money, which suggests the nominal value is misleading.
ETA: Here it is:
And I can't find the story online at the moment, but the news on the radio was saying that while you could buy pizza with bitcoin, the exchange rate was such that it worked out more than double the cost if you paid with real money, which suggests the nominal value is misleading.
ETA: Here it is:
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ArmoredDragon
Student
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I don't think it is safe to call bitcoin either stable or a bubble until all of the bitcoins that can be mined have been mined. Until then, I wouldn't make any call about it being a bubble. It very well could be one, but I'm not comfortable making that call, as opposed to say gold which I strongly believe is in a bubble.
I've been mining bitcoins myself, but not for investment. Just mining them just to mine them, I have probably spent all of $5 on the cost of electricity to do so. I've used them to buy VPN services and some other whatnots. Just today I bought four one troy ounce 999 silver liberty eagles. Not really cashing out, just I wanted to add to my coin collection, and it didn't really cost me anything to do so.
Personally I wouldn't recommend buying bitcoins if you intend to invest. But hey, as long as people are willing to accept them, it's all good for mining.
I identify as a libertarian BTW.
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Puppycow
Penultimate Amazing
Could you explain how you mine bitcoins? Do you just use a regular PC to do it, and how many have you been able to mine over what time period?
No, that's a strawman.
An invention that goes from nothing to crossing the billion dollar mark in 4 years is not "small potatoes." Regardless, starting small is simply the reality of inventions. It is no commentary at all on the future of said invention or the quality of it.
Isn't economic growth really just a big con though?
Inflation occurs, value goes down, wages rise... so 100 years from now you make $180,00 a year and it has the same buying power that the $35,000 a year you would have made in 2013... so what was the point of all that "growth" when in reality you are only wealthier in dollars but not in purchasing power?
It seems to me, that eventually it all HAS to collapse as it's all such a big farce. Money only has value if you think it does. In and of itself it has no value whatsoever. so as long as everyone plays along, everything goes smoothly.
I'm not advocating gold standards, or barter systems or anything. But it seems like a paper currency backed by only the hunches of others is precarious.
Inflation occurs, value goes down, wages rise... so 100 years from now you make $180,00 a year and it has the same buying power that the $35,000 a year you would have made in 2013... so what was the point of all that "growth" when in reality you are only wealthier in dollars but not in purchasing power?
It seems to me, that eventually it all HAS to collapse as it's all such a big farce. Money only has value if you think it does. In and of itself it has no value whatsoever. so as long as everyone plays along, everything goes smoothly.
I'm not advocating gold standards, or barter systems or anything. But it seems like a paper currency backed by only the hunches of others is precarious.
Yep, this is a bubble - but people can make very handy profits on bubbles, if they only know when to go out. Seems that it's now too late to invest, but those who went early in and who will cash out before the crash will have profited greatly. Good for them.
psionl0
Skeptical about skeptics
Every time somebody says that, the price of bitcoin doubles.
There's a reason that this thread is nearly 2 years old.
You are completely wrong and repeating a classic economic myth, that being that money only has value "because we think it does." Government money has value because the government decrees by law that it must be treated as such and you must pay your taxes with it. And precious metals that function as money have value for a completely different reason. But instead of retyping this, I'm just going to quote myself from another forum...
"First, if, for some reason, you NEEDED to win at basketball, Michael Jordan would be of great value to you, right? He has (had) unique properties (height, speed, dribbling ability, large hands, great jump shot, amazing athleticism, toughness, etc etc) that make him especially suited for that necessary purpose.
Well, in modern society, we NEED something to be money. Now, what unique properties would something have to have in order to serve as money? Well, it would have to something that everyone could recognize, it would have to be hard to counterfeit, it would have to be something you could divide easily (we can't use laptops as currency because what if you want something worth less than one laptop? It becomes a mess), it would have to be somewhat rare so that you couldn't just pull out tons of it, but it would have to be common enough to represent the amount of goods that are being bought and sold, it would have to not rot or spoil over time (you can't use milk as currency because you can't hold on to it, it goes bad after 2 weeks), and so on and so on.
That's a lot of requirements. And actually, almost nothing fits all those criteria. But you know what does?
Yup, gold. Gold fits all those criteria SO well, in fact, that a bunch of independent societies throughout history, when they've developed an economy, have ALL used gold as their money when they discovered it.
Because of this, in ANY society that functions the way we understand a society, and that exists on Earth, gold will INEVITABLY be very valuable. Even if humans went extinct and another intelligent animal developed the same style of societies.
This is why gold has value. And in fact, the other metals that have all these properties (like for example, silver), also are valuable and are used as money.
I hope that helps."
I'm not talking about gold..... I'm talking about paper currency. Gold has inherent value (though I'm not a gold bug as it presents the problem of imminent stabilization and zero growth eventually).
I just find the concept of currency and growth as interesting and precarious due to speculation ....
I just find the concept of currency and growth as interesting and precarious due to speculation ....
BTW, I skipped over StankApe's first comment, where he says that earning more money is not economic growth.
This is actually true, and I don't know if he intended this, but this demonstrates exactly why printing money does not actually create wealth or improve the economy. You must create more and better products and services. As technology improves and production becomes more understood and more efficient, and the market continues to function to reward that improvement and encourage innovation, THAT is where the improvement in our quality of life (and our economy) is generated.
This is actually true, and I don't know if he intended this, but this demonstrates exactly why printing money does not actually create wealth or improve the economy. You must create more and better products and services. As technology improves and production becomes more understood and more efficient, and the market continues to function to reward that improvement and encourage innovation, THAT is where the improvement in our quality of life (and our economy) is generated.
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