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Yep, you pretty much got it. What Bitcoin offers in terms of value is the most secure payment network man has ever created. Also, bitcoins are scarce. There can only be 21 million of them ever made; so you have no fear of runaway inflation from entities just printing money.
Also, bitcoin the currency is only one of many applications Bitcoin the network can be used for.Comment -
Yea I read about only a certain amount until a long time from now, which really only means two things, either bitcoin is just a novelty and will go away fairly soon or the price of a bitcoin is gonna go through the roof even more with it being rather scarce, wish I had got on it alot earlier.Comment -
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Because its coded into the protocol and it can't be changed. I'm going to try my hand at an analogy here.
Imagine bitcoin as a little snowball that was rolled down a hilltop in 2009 and it just keeps growing bigger and bigger. The same rules that governed that snowball in the beginning still govern it today.
Someone can change the rules if they want, but then it wouldn't be the bitcoin snowball, it would be a different snowball, and the original bitcoin snowball will keep on rolling undisturbed.
There are many many little snowballs out there today. They are known as "alt-coins". Litecoin, Peercoin, etc. Each on of them is trying to out-do bitcoin in one way or another to attract more people so that their snowball can grow bigger than the Bitcoin snowball, but the problem they are facing is that the bitcoin snowball has grown so big so fast, that no one really cares about their little snowballs since the bitcoin snowball is by far the most established and has the largest number of backers to keep it growing bigger by the day.
I hope that communicated well. If not, I can elaborate further.
Here is a list of the other "snowballs" by market cap: http://coinmarketcap.com/
Edit: In hindsight, "rolling down a hill" isn't the best analogy. "Being pushed across, flat snow-covered ground by more and more people" is a better one.Last edited by elgreco; 08-11-14, 02:47 PM.Comment -
Bitcoin actually is a very stable currency right now if you look at the charts
Trades within a rangeComment -
On what exchange? That seems like localbitcoin quote or something that is just showing people on the street in your area. Any exchange with decent volume will have much tighter spreads than that.
The bitstamp spread at the moment i posted this is $0.02, which is tight by any standards at a price of $578.
EDIT: I read your quote backwards and wrote my response. Something is clearly wrong with that quote if the bid is higher than the ask. The trades should have executed. That makes me think it's a localbitcoin quote since trades are done in person. And if thats the case, go buy from the low guy and sell to the high. Just do it in a well lit public place
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Last edited by elgreco; 08-11-14, 02:59 PM.Comment -
Click on localbitcoins, 3rd from top. Its the only one that stands out. http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/currency/USD.htmlOn what exchange? That seems like localbitcoin quote or something that is just showing people on the street in your area. Any exchange with decent volume will have much tighter spreads than that.
The bitstamp spread at the moment i posted this is $0.02, which is tight by any standards at a price of $578.
EDIT: I read your quote backwards and wrote my response. Something is clearly wrong with that quote if the bid is higher than the ask. The trades should have executed. That makes me think it's a localbitcoin quote since trades are done in person. And if thats the case, go buy from the low guy and sell to the high. Just do it in a well lit public place.Comment -
Yea, don't pay attention to localbitcoin prices. They are like a craigslist for bitcoin. Anyone can log on and post what equates to a classified ad offering to buy and sell at any price. I can log on right now and offer to buy a bitcoin for $1mil, doesn't mean its going to happen.
That being said, localbitcoins.com is an excellent resource if your goal is anonymity. You arrange a meeting and buy/sell BTC with cash in person.Comment -
Thanks for the responses, one last question, looked up about mining pools, do you know what mining is? Im not quite understanding it fully. Just when I go to get a link to ask you about certain terms, I see this...yuck. Not sure if its old news here or not.
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No problem Hareeba. If you are genuinely interested in furthering your understanding, I'm more than glad to help. Just lemme know what exactly leaves you "unconvinced" and I'll do my best to convince you. If you don't give a shit... hey, that's cool too.
It's a lot more difficult preaching the bitcoin gospel to citizens of first world countries. You always have to start with the "Why the hell do I need it?" question. It's a legitimate question. You are in a privileged position in that you can pretty much do whatever you want, whenever you want with your home currency. But when you explain bitcoin to a citizen who has endured restricted freedoms, capital controls, and constant mismanagement of their money supply, you get to skip right over the "Why do I need it?" part since they already know why and you can jump straight into "how the heck does it work?" part.
Also, all we've ever discussed is "bitcoin the currency". Bitcoin the protocol is fascinating in respect to how it can change your everyday life for the better. The future is really bright for the protocol even if the currency never really catches on.Comment -
As one who has observed so many changes in the way things work and the introduction of so many new technologies, my inherent skepticism bristles at such statements as "Because its coded into the protocol and it can't be changed". If it was created by humans, it can be changed or destroyed by them too.No problem Hareeba. If you are genuinely interested in furthering your understanding, I'm more than glad to help. Just lemme know what exactly leaves you "unconvinced" and I'll do my best to convince you. If you don't give a shit... hey, that's cool too.
It's a lot more difficult preaching the bitcoin gospel to citizens of first world countries. You always have to start with the "Why the hell do I need it?" question. It's a legitimate question. You are in a privileged position in that you can pretty much do whatever you want, whenever you want with your home currency. But when you explain bitcoin to a citizen who has endured restricted freedoms, capital controls, and constant mismanagement of their money supply, you get to skip right over the "Why do I need it?" part since they already know why and you can jump straight into "how the heck does it work?" part.
Also, all we've ever discussed is "bitcoin the currency". Bitcoin the protocol is fascinating in respect to how it can change your everyday life for the better. The future is really bright for the protocol even if the currency never really catches on.
You are correct in that I fortunately haven't suffered restrictions on use of traditional currency and thus have no need to seek solutions such as btc to overcome them. I can understand that Americans would be attracted to them for gambling. And they and others may be for more seriously illegal purposes. But for everyday spending I just fail to see why people would be attracted to btc.
Of course I'm interested in understanding it better but I'm hardly going to put a whole lot of effort into doing so. It's a bit like Relativity. I'm fascinated by the subject; find it very difficult to comprehend; don't disbelieve it; but not going to bust my brain trying to get to the bottom of it. But thanks for the offer elgreco.Comment -
I know a whole lot about mining
Here's the deal, why are you interested? Is it an academic interest? A business interest? Interested as a consumer?
If it's academic and you like learning about technologies, I can point you to great places to start your education. Bitcoin is fascinating and is arguably the biggest computer science (and mathematical) breakthrough since the advent of internet.
If it's business, I hate to inform you, but it's already too late. (Unless you have the resources to compete with the big boys).
If its from a consumer point of view, I can try and find some general articles that gloss over it. But in all honesty, you don't really need to know. You use the internet every day without truly understanding the underlying workings of it. Same thing perhaps with your car. You don't really care how it works, you just know that it does. Bitcoin works.
As far as that article is concerned, that was not due to a flaw in Bitcoin. It was due to insecure internet protocols used by ISP's. Bitcoin itself is completely unaffected.Comment -
Ask for Tony in live chat. He will explain it to you. Since the incoming account is anonymous (there is no name attached to the incoming bitcoins just a wallet address) there is concern that someone can hijack an account, send 5Dimes bitcoins that are stolen and then 5Dimes could send 5x that to the compromised account. I'm just telling you what I was told they are wary of. "It's not a tried and true method for this type of transaction we have to take risk management into account".
It's probably some of that and they also don't want to have 1,000 extra bitcoins in cold storage...plus if they kept bitcoins in an online wallet there is also risk that it could be compromised as well. Sounds to me they want to be cautious until they learn the ins and outs.
I'm not saying the bitcoin transfer itself is fraudulent..I'm saying the sender/receiver could be. You never deal with an actual name.Comment -
Then you will always be a skeptic of Bitcoins. It's basically something an anonymous person created out of code. A method was given how to "mine" the coins and people started placing a value on it. It's bizarre to begin with and will never "make sense" to 70% of the population.
Try explaining it to a 65 year old. They will look at you like you're the devil.Comment -
I completely understand where you are coming from. A popular saying in technology circles is "you can never protect anything from the future." You are correct, there is a non-zero possibility that Bitcoin as-it-stands could be exploited one day. That being said, the consensus is that it's the most secure platform that man has ever created and the genius of its design has been lauded by countless mathematicians and academics who have reviewed its code over the years. Also, if it means anything to you, at a $7B market valuation, there is no hacking project that provides greater incentive to the hacker than Bitcoin. The fact that it has not been compromised even once during it's run speaks volumes to me.
(The reason Bitcoin is so groundbreaking is because it solves the Byzantine Generals problem. Universities and think tanks have been working on a solution to it for decades, and it was solved by an anonymous poster on an obscure cryptography mailing list. Go figure. Two Generals Problem)
Don't forget to add to your list the poor people who suffer through hyper-inflation due to corruption at the government level. Bitcoin the currency has the power to bring a lot more good to the world than can be offset by a small subset of ill-doers.
Two things.
1.) Had I read the last line, this post wouldn't be here. But since I'm here anyway, I'll move on to #2
2.) I *love* reading about theoretical physics. Like most people, I cannot wrap my head around it entirely. (It's claimed that only a few people alive today actually can). Instead of busting my brain trying to get to the bottom of it, I read as much as I could on the subject until I grasped it enough to satisfy my curiosity. To this day I bookmark any new physics article I come across because I find it so interesting.
My love affair with Bitcoin is similar. I don't truly understand it at an atomic level. I can't actually perform the cryptographic functions myself. But I found the cryptography behind it so utterly fascinating that I couldn't stop reading about it after it was brought to my attention. What I found so mindblowing was the fact that we have created cryptography so strong that that all the energy in our solar system isn't nearly enough to crack it. In fact, it would take the energy of multiple super-novas in order to even count to 2^256, let alone process any of that information. How cool is that? I thought it was pretty friggin cool. Then I started learning about all the potential social applications of cryptography and I've been sold ever since.
I don't *know* that Bitcoin is bullet-proof. I just know for a fact that Bitcoin is fukkin awesome.
Last edited by elgreco; 08-11-14, 07:33 PM.Comment -
So what came 1st BTC or Silkroad? Its seems to me neither can exist without the other,JMO.
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Sigh. I don't even know why I waste my keystrokes sometimes.
Please read the post right above yours. There is no way that you can think that one of the greatest computer science breakthroughs of the past 50 years was waiting on an illicit underground drug marketplace.Comment -
This makes a bit of sense. They could get around that problem though by forcing you to sign message from the original deposit addy to prove you control it, or only paying out to the depositing address. Anyway, at this stage I'm content they are doing anything with BTC. It's about time.Comment -
Can I withdraw in btc if I deposited via ****? If not, why not?Comment -
Spite? We're just talking about transaction costs. What does spite have to do with it?
I'm sure that they don't want to have BTC on hand anymore than a player does given its volatility. Ant though Bitcoin is great, but let's not pretend it's easy-peezy for an offshore entity with limited banking options to buy and sell it daily to keep their books balanced.Comment -
Just an FYI for anyone considering the btc deposit route. I have been with coinbase less than a month and they have already increased my daily instant buy limit to $1,000 from $100. This makes it much easier to avoid the wild market swings in the btc prices that can really sting you if you have to wait 4 days to get more than $100 worth of btc and be able to send them elsewhere.Comment -
I thought I should post this because it could be your best safety measure with 5Dimes and your payouts. Use gmail or an email with 2factor this way nobody could get into your email without u knowing. When 5dimes upgrades there safety measures for bitcoin then u could feel better but I'm not 100% set on the way it's being done at the moment! they need another layer in somewhere.Comment
