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Finnforest 
Special Collaborator
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Joined: February 03 2007
Location: The Heartland
Status: Online
Points: 17723
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 Topic: BitCoin
Posted: April 25 2013 at 08:39 |
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Peer to peer digital currencies....the future of money? I just heard two people in the last few days talking about this, it's news to me. People can apparently use something like this to exchange money without Govt tracking, taxation, or bank/institutional involvement, as you would have from a Paypal type entity.
Just wondering if anyone is already using Bitcoin and your thoughts on it.
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Padraic
Special Collaborator
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Joined: February 16 2006
Location: Pennsylvania
Status: Offline
Points: 31169
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Posted: April 25 2013 at 08:44 |
It's either a currency that's highly volatile and has suffered massive deflation, or a commodity that has the strange property of have no intrinsic value at all, except I suppose the aforementioned crypto/privacy component.
That said, I couldn't tell you what the future will bring with respect to something like this.
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CPicard
Forum Senior Member
Joined: October 03 2008
Location: Là, sui monti.
Status: Offline
Points: 10841
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Posted: April 25 2013 at 09:38 |
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I heard about it some times ago, but I also saw a headline on a French internet site claiming this BitCoin currency was already suffering its first devaluation.
So young, so doomed...
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chopper
Special Collaborator
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Joined: July 13 2005
Location: Essex, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 20074
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Posted: April 25 2013 at 09:42 |
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I heard it's lost a lot of value recently. Wouldn't touch it with a bargepole myself.
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HolyMoly
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin
Joined: April 01 2009
Location: Atlanta
Status: Offline
Points: 26138
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Posted: April 25 2013 at 09:45 |
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Sounds a bit iffy to me. Currency doesn't just obtain value out of thin air.
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My other avatar is a Porsche
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased.
-Kehlog Albran
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Finnforest
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: February 03 2007
Location: The Heartland
Status: Online
Points: 17723
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Posted: April 25 2013 at 10:01 |
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The young hipster dude I heard talking about it was so excited. He said it was just one approach of many coming in the future. But his bigger thing was that young people are going to someday have a currency system outside of bank fees and govt control/tracking.....it sounded a bit shaky but he said people had the same reservations about Paypal for a while, and as with everything, it just needs people to understand the concept and get used to it.
Interesting subject though, I might have to check out a book on the topic...
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Slartibartfast
Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / In Memoriam
Joined: April 29 2006
Location: Atlantais
Status: Offline
Points: 29630
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Posted: April 25 2013 at 10:17 |
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Colbert had a bit on it recently...
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Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened... 
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HolyMoly
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin
Joined: April 01 2009
Location: Atlanta
Status: Offline
Points: 26138
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Posted: April 25 2013 at 10:28 |
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Paypal actually deducts/deposits real money into your bank account (i.e. a financial institution), and that's why it works - people have faith that when they need money out of their account, the financial institution will be able to provide it.
After some quick reading, it seems like this system is based on a collective trust between individuals, garnered through electronic tracking of transactions. As with any monetary system, the value of the currency is only as great as the trust or confidence people have in it (the principle behind stocks and bonds). I can see why this currency may turn out to be fairly volatile wrt inflation and deflation. It's an interesting idea, and I'm sure they had some people working on it who are more experienced that I am with economic matters, but I can't imagine this getting off the ground.
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My other avatar is a Porsche
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased.
-Kehlog Albran
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Finnforest
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: February 03 2007
Location: The Heartland
Status: Online
Points: 17723
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Posted: April 25 2013 at 10:33 |
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He said some online vendors are using it, but didn't give names. I certainly haven't seen any but will be watching in the future.
I imagine security officials are not too excited about a currency that is anonymous, or very difficult to track.
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HolyMoly
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin
Joined: April 01 2009
Location: Atlanta
Status: Offline
Points: 26138
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Posted: April 25 2013 at 10:37 |
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The barter system is the most sensible (and it predates currency systems) way of conducting private transactions without institutional interference. Like, I'll trade you my cow for two of your goats. Unfortunately, those kinds of transactions are hard to conduct electronically.
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My other avatar is a Porsche
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased.
-Kehlog Albran
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Padraic
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: February 16 2006
Location: Pennsylvania
Status: Offline
Points: 31169
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Posted: April 25 2013 at 11:28 |
 Finnforest wrote:
But his bigger thing was that young people are going to someday have a currency system outside of bank fees and govt control/tracking.....
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That's great - until it's time to pay your taxes. 
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stonebeard
Forum Senior Member
Joined: May 27 2005
Location: NE Indiana
Status: Offline
Points: 28057
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Posted: April 25 2013 at 11:35 |
It crashed recently. This is a good way for people to learn not to trust this kind of thing with most purchases.
However, I hope it stays around. After we go all digital with out money, there has to be some way to pay for sex or drugs.
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