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geekhack Community => Off Topic => Topic started by: Lain1911 on Fri, 12 June 2015, 16:46:40
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Please redirect this thread if one like exists.
Bitcoin: Is it working? Do you do it? Do you think the government is idly standing by to take it over? What are your thoughts on Bitcoin?
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Please redirect this thread if one like exists.
Bitcoin: Is it working? Do you do it? Do you think the government is idly standing by to take it over? What are your thoughts on Bitcoin?
if you're a millionaire
you should buy some.
if you're a salary man.. look elsewhere.
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As long as the value fluctuates significantly, it will not be more than a novelty.
Gambling can pay off big, for the lucky ones, but there have to be losers to fund the payoff.
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The Government is definitely going to want to monitor the flow of money, as they do with regular banking. Over the last decade governments all over the world have introduced new regulations making it pretty much impossible to keep your finances private, by obligating banks and other businesses to provide the state with information about their customers (even internationally). If your business is in finance (and a host of other ventures) you need a license and strict adherence to regulations, which means businesses first loyalty is to the state, as their life line. This also applies to broadcasting corporations.
Writing this, I came to think of a piece by George Reisman, explaining Why Nazism Was Socialism and Why Socialism Is Totalitarian (http://mises.org/library/why-nazism-was-socialism-and-why-socialism-totalitarian). In it, he explains (amongst other things) why socialist regimes must always use informants to enforce economic policies.
Bitcoin, on the other end, was created in the Anarcho-Capitalist tradition of Agorism; enabling voluntary exchanges through counter-economics. The idea was to free the marketplace from the coercion of states using decentralized currency, as oppossed to the centralized financial institutions which enable state coercion. However, there has also been significant interest in Bitcoin purely as a financial architecture, for international transfers, which has brought forward the same people that occupy the financial sector. The Bitcoin Foundation is now filled with people that want to make it big by incorporating Bitcoin into the financial system, and they will actively agitate for oppressive regulations to make it happen. Luckily, this group has no real influence on the Bitcoin application itself, but it shows the struggle going on.
This isn't to say I'm pessimistic about Bitcoin, quite the opposite. The application can provide something that's needed to create a voluntary society; shelter, economic freedom. In that sense, and others, it's brilliantly subversive.
To answer your other questions:
Bitcoin is still working, but tools like Dark Wallet are needed if you want to remain anonymous. Amir Taaki and Cody Wilson are always working on awesome projects.
I haven't used Bitcoin in over a year because I've put what little I have in cold storage, but I plan to use it more in the future.
I wouldn't consider Bitcoin, for the time being, as anything other than a wallet; definitely not an investment vehicle or savings account. It's still way to early to tell whether Bitcoin is an end game, but it's probably unlikely. Use it as a tool.
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I personally think Bitcoin is a groundbreaking model for virtual currency. However I think there are some issues that will cause it to be more of a precursor than the endgame.
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I forgot to mention that Bitcoin is way more important in the third world than in the western world, and that's going to have an underestimated effect on any international currency. This can change everything for the unbanked billions. There's projects going on to enable people to have Bitcoin wallets with non-smartphones using SMS, similar to M-Pesa.
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I forgot to mention that Bitcoin is way more important in the third world than in the western world, and that's going to have an underestimated effect on any international currency. This can change everything for the unbanked billions. There's projects going on to enable people to have Bitcoin wallets with non-smartphones using SMS, similar to M-Pesa.
Like I says, if you're a millionaire, get some..
For the little folk, there's no way it'll make a return on the volume they'd be in for.
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its edgy cash for ppl that kept their trenchcoats 5 months after the release if the matrix
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Here's why I think Bitcoin is here to stay..
Some Rich people already put alotta money in it.
RICH PEOPLE need it more than anyone or anything else, to hide their money quickly, efficiently, without paying a large cut to foreign banks.
Illegal narcotics market is estimated to be a few billion, but in truth, it makes money like a company that's worth HUNDREDS of billions because of the way it stockpiles cash.. and a nearly INFINITELY fantastic product-profit-margin.. Bitcoin is a great gateway for them to launder the money by funneling it world wide to impoverished nations, and having it come back as clean cash via repayment of international loans. shadow banking huzzha.
Also.. the anarchist mentality is becoming very ingrained in the modern man. The reason is.. our monetary system has not ever truly described the efforts of each individual, it has always only been manipulated in the pyramid. <This notion> has always been hidden when the world seemed less connected, people only talking and seeing their neighbors..
But in our now connected world, the corruption is so obvious. The people at the bottom sees clearly that their billion compatriots are being taken advantage of..
If the system does not change, Revolution is inevitable..
I think overall, USA is doing well to setup the one world policies, but it remains a fact that they simply do not have the necessary GROWing population to sustain any form of imperialism by occupation.
And without occupational forces, One world will not be possible...
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BitCoin is a good model for a virtual currency except for one factor. The "work" done to generate "sufficiently" complex keys is wasted computing power. I prefer to support a currency where the "work" done is used for things like Folding@Home rather.