I did a search on bitcoin and bitcoins and didn't see an existing thread. If I missed one please merge. I just found out about this recently and have been reading as much as I can about it. I haven't talked to many who actually use it though What does everyone think of bitcoins as a realistic form of currency? Do you use bitcoin? What software do you use? Do you mine bitcoins? Have you used bitcoin? Did you make a bunch of money when bitcoin skyrocketed in value this year? If you haven't heard of bitcoin you should check it out. January 1st last year 1 BTC was worth $13.28, it's now worth $734.70 and peaked at $1237.95. It's becoming more widely accepted as currency although China recently declared it as not a valid currency which devalued it quite a bit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin http://bitcoin.org/en/ http://preev.com/
I've read about it. It's next to impossible to get a bitcoin without buying expensive equipment like the jalapeno now, even then you aren't guaranteed to mine one.
Mining it isn't the only way to get it. You can buy it or sell things for it. Some 401k plans are starting to allow it as an investment option.
The value dropped from nearly $1000/btc prior to the China news down to about $500/btc. It's since recovered to about $730/btc. It's definitely super high risk and highly volatile.
It's the only way to get it without buying it. Mining is a cheaper way to acquire bitcoin if you have the equipment/knowledge. The most important things to know about bitcoin are that the supply is fixed over time ("by 2013 half of the total supply will have been generated, and in 2017 ¾ of the total supply will already be in circulation.") and that at any point federal governments could crack down on it. However financial investors' interest in the cryptocurrency makes it increasingly less likely that any major action would occur. Having said that don't put your life savings in it. I do think that the value will increase over time (both because of finite supply and because of the demand for black market goods [the bitcoin is used as a medium of exchange and it floats such that the price of goods remain relatively constant in terms of dollars]) Yes and no. It's volatile but, without some sort of intervention, the market won't entirely collapse, so I'd argue that most stocks are riskier in the LR. The currency is, however, absurdly volatile. In the last two hours it jumped from a little over $730 up to about $790 and then a high volume of trades came in to send it back down to right around $730 again.
I'd like to know what the creator of bitcoins is REALLY doing with all that processing power he gets from people mining them.
But very important for all who consider investing: http://www.businessinsider.com/a-th...s-and-you-can-watch-it-live-right-now-2013-12 http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/bi...ked-21-million-coins-stolen/story?id=21342612 Most bitcoin wallets aren't very secure.
I don't know much about it but my understanding is that it's not even profitable to mine bitcoins anymore because of how much computing power/electricity is required. It sounds like you have a fundamental misunderstanding of how it works. The processing power is used to compute complex math equations in an attempt to "guess" the unmined bitcoin values. You can either use your own equipment or pool equipment with some others using a service.
There are so many things wrong with a derived currency that floats on the ether that I can't even begin to get a handle on describing the problems with it.
It's only profitable if done on a massive scale. I would still recommend it for those who are advanced computer programmers with enough money to pay for the initial equipment costs, but otherwise, you're correct.
You mean like the USD? I kid, sort of. My initial reaction when I first learned about it was pretty similar. But at the end of the day - a currency is worth what the general consensus says it is, regardless of whatever tangible "thing" is backing it, isn't it? I mean, unless you're willing going to go to war over it at which point the whatever the victor says goes. Surely you can see the value in a decentralized currency with a finite set ever to exist, can't you? It's nice to know the federal reserve can't just print up another 17 trillion bitcoins on you to completely ruin what you've accumulated.
There Are Now At Least 14 Digital Currencies Worth More Than $US1 http://www.businessinsider.com.au/digital-currencies-worth-more-than-1-2013-12 http://www.ptinews.com/news/4273841_Bitcoin-gang-gets-67-new-e-currencies--value-grows-nbsp--.html
Not to get too deeply into the argument but I see the bitcoin as inherently insecure, since there is no actual hard asset related to the currency. Digital economics is great since it removes the need to actually transport and store precious materials or fiat currency/notes/bonds/etc. However the fact that you don't actually own something that can be stored in a vault somewhere and protected makes the risk very high. A digital bank robbery can happen in seconds and there's nobody too appeal too when that happens. Nobody to reimburse you for your loss.
I don't fully understand bitcoin yet, and don't want to pretend like I do. Theft is a huge problem with btc from what I understand though. I think you could, if you wanted to, put a harddrive with a bitcoin wallet into a safe in your house or even at a bank. You can also have actual coins made with the private key on there and shred your harddrive.
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/1...s-become-first-pro-sports-team-accept-bitcoin OverStock.com did $130 million in sales their first day accepting bitcoin.
