Bitcoins and other digital currency

[TinStar]

Does anyone deal with any of this and if so why? I know this is something that has been around for a bit but is starting to catch on a bit. I'm fairly ignorant about it, but it seems pretty sketchy to me. The first time I heard about it was people talking about buying illegal drugs with it..

[Crice]

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I downloaded this awhile ago and started trying to generate coins. I decided I would really have to invest into a nice server or 10 to make it worth my while. People keep saying it will crash and it does get very volatile but it is still around.

I know that isn't much feedback. All I can say is the people that I know personally that do this work in IT and have server farms with redundancy sponging off the corporate network.

crice

[Vanraw]

I have not done anything with it, but watching the news is interesting. You can trade it as currency in some exchanges. ie, convert your bitcoins to dollars, and back. Its really un regulated, and has a lot of "darknet / undernet" focus for buying drugs and other illegal activity.

I see it as a common bartering system. In theory it would be great if the whole world actually had one currency and there may be a time where we evolve to that, but I don't think individual countries will let it get big traction.

[Breand]

I posted something about it somewhere awhile back in the investing forum...back when one was going for $80 and I didn't buy it. =(

mtgox.com is where you can buy and sell them.

It's a world currency that no nation or person has claim over. There is a finite amount of them and a very slow inflation rate so people see value in it. It is obviously extremely volatile right now the more and more people find out about them. And I felt like I was late to the game when it hit $80 but apparently not, heh.

[Jakensama]

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Seems like a stable currency...

[strife]

womp womp... I guess it's time to get in now right??? :twisted:

[Breand]

It's still going for $600 a coin. I'd say it's still doing just fine.

[Jakensama]

Its lost 2/3 of it's value in the past month. Relative value is somewhat meaningless when it is so easily manipulated.

[Breand]

It's all about entry point of course. Bitcoin has since it's inception been an extremely volatile currency, as all new currencies are. It has to build a path towards legitimacy and stability. It's because the world still doesn't know about it yet, so whenever a major story comes out about it, it drives up interest to an extreme. At some stage, if/when it has a clear legitimate place in the world markets, the price will stabilize. Or continue to go up in value as it will be the only widely used currency with next to no inflation potential.

If I actually manned up and bought it at $80 a bitcoin when I should have, I'd still be a very happy camper. Or you could be this guy who turned $27 in $886k.


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[Grieve]

I might be more keen to ge some it if it wasn't so easy to steal:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/19/51833...easy-steps

At least if someone gets my credit card number or hacks my bank I'm generally protected.

[Slamz]

It all hinges on your ability to protect a crypto key.

The real downside isn't that it's easy to steal (if you can protect that key, it's not easy) but that if someone DOES steal them (they beat you up and steal your piece of paper or whatnot), there's no way you or anyone else can get it back.

If someone managed to get access to my bank account (which is probably easier), I can raise the issue with the bank, probably get all my money back and then serious minded people with lots of tools will be aiming to track down whoever did it. With Bitcoin it's like "someone stole your pretend money? Well that's a shame."


I think my main reservation is just that: it's an invented currency that no official organizations care about. If someone mucks with the Dollar, the United States government will care up to and including blowing up their country. Maybe nothing is "safe" but your Dollars are well protected by a lot of power that's keenly interested in maintaining its value. Nothing protects Bitcoins.