Bitcoins

[Stevary]

What are your opinions on Bitcoins? 

The value has been rising a lot recently but took a huge fall a couple of days ago.

Might be a very good idea to invest your money right now. 

 

If you're not familiar with Bitcoins the first thing you should do is move into a place that isn't located under a rock. 

The second thing you should do is go to [url="http://bitcoin.org/"]bitcoin.org[/url] and then do some reading [url="http://www.seeingbinary.com/2011/08/how-to-make-bit-of-money-using-bitcoin.html"]here[/url]

[Puss in Boots]

Never heard of it before this. There's gotta be more to it than what I just read because this raised all sorts of red flags.

[atari]

never heard of it....and i work in the digital media space, so i usually have a pretty good pulse on these things.

 

any time people try convince others of magical methods of making money online, i get wary.

[FallenHoot]

Do not buy this. BitCoins are only worth what someone will buy it for. It is not a recognized currency. You use to be able to generate bitcoins, i want to say early 2006.

[Hollow Clipz]

you can still generate bitcoins it will just take a bunch of machines to mine massive amounts. The huge fall it took last week from 250 dollars a coin to 150 and it climbed to 200 back within hours. 

 

http://gizmodo.com/5803124/what-is-bitcoin

[Stevary]

Never heard of it before this. There's gotta be more to it than what I just read because this raised all sorts of red flags.

 

 

never heard of it....and i work in the digital media space, so i usually have a pretty good pulse on these things.

 

any time people try convince others of magical methods of making money online, i get wary.

 

 

This isn't one of those internet money making things. It's a new currency that tech savvy people have been going crazy about lately. (I actually don't understand how you guys don't know about this. Maybe you just work in IT but don't keep up with IT news). Even CNN has talked about it. The guy who created the currency has been called a brilliant and a genius by people who read the source code. If you think that reddit is an indicator of anything, /r/bitcoin has been quickly becoming one of the largest subreddits ever. There was a guy who wrote an [url="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/view_from_chicago/2013/04/bitcoin_is_a_ponzi_scheme_the_internet_currency_will_collapse.html"]article[/url] about bitcoins being a ponzi scheme and ended up being called a complete idiot by the some of the most tech savvy people out there. 

Bitcoins have actually been around for quite a while now. I've heard of a guy who had a few thousand bitcoins a few years ago and decided to buy a pizza with them. But the value of bitcoins kept rising and if he would have waited until now and sold his bitcoins, he would have a good 10 thousand dollars.

You can either buy, or mine bitcoins. Mining bitcoins used to be pretty easy, but now it isn't even close to that. The way it works is that you get your GPU to mine. But lately even the best GPUs like the 7970 have been taking huge amounts of time to mine. So people began mining in mining pools. The way it works is that you join a pool and mine the bitcoins in a group so you can put all of your processing power together. Then you divide the bitcoins among eachother. The application Guiminer has made this task very simple. 

You can also just buy bitcoins and then wait for the value of the currency to rise and sell them. It's kind of like a stock.  

You have to do some actual research in order to understand that this is legit. If you're only going to read a few things you will end up like the guy who wrote that damn article. 

 

 

 

Do not buy this. BitCoins are only worth what someone will buy it for. It is not a recognized currency. You use to be able to generate bitcoins, i want to say early 2006.

Why not buy? You buy, wait a few weeks, look at the value of bitcoins now compared to USD, see that the value rose like 50 dollars, sell, profit. Kind of like the stock market. 

And if you don't want to think about it that way, then you need to realize that it is quickly growing as a recognized currency. I've seen a few websites that allow you to buy things with bitcoins.

 

 

 

you can still generate bitcoins it will just take a bunch of machines to mine massive amounts. The huge fall it took last week from 250 dollars a coin to 150 and it climbed to 200 back within hours. 

 

http://gizmodo.com/5803124/what-is-bitcoin

Yup. You don't have to worry about that fall. I was just saying because it would have been a very good idea to buy yesterday. Unfortunately I didn't do so. People who have been watching the value of bitcoins for a while say that it's had many ups and downs, but in the long run it's been gaining lots of value.

 

 

 

Also, if you want to see all of interactions happening with bitcoins go [url="http://www.listentobitcoin.com/"]here[/url]. It's a real time bitcoin tracker. I saw some damn huge bubbles while watching it.

And you can go [url="http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#rg60ztgSzm1g10zm2g25zv"]here[/url] to see a graph of the value of bitcoins to USD.

[Puss in Boots]

There are a few problems with this model:

1. It's not recognized by governments, only some online merchants (obviously.)

2. It's value is based largle on a whim and as previously said, is only worth what someone else will pay for it.

3. Because it isn't traceable, that means for better and for worse. It can easily be stolen from you by a hacker. And you aren't protected from loss.

 

It's a great idea in theory, but in principle it will mostly be used for drug and human trafficking (my guess - not factual at this moment.)

[Stevary]

There are a few problems with this model:

1. It's not recognized by governments, only some online merchants (obviously.)

2. It's value is based largle on a whim and as previously said, is only worth what someone else will pay for it.

3. Because it isn't traceable, that means for better and for worse. It can easily be stolen from you by a hacker. And you aren't protected from loss.

 

It's a great idea in theory, but in principle it will mostly be used for drug and human trafficking (my guess - not factual at this moment.)

1. That's a good thing. People are actually worried about the government coming in and taking control of it.

2. People sell and buy at the average value of bitcoins to USD. People don't sell and buy at random values. Once again, stock market.

3. The guy who created bitcoins has been called brilliant by those who read his source code. Hackers have not been after the actual currency because it's so hard to hack. Although many have been making viruses that will make your computer mine bitcoins and then send them back to the hackers wallet. People have also been trying to steel bitcoin wallets from people's computer, but as long as you keep your wallet encrypted and keep a backup of your wallet on a flash drive you will be fine.

 

 

Don't make assumptions. The links that I gave you aren't enough to understand what this is. You have to do some actual research about it. The people who  understand what this is and have done actual research have been going crazy about bitcoins.

[Vanguard]

 

Don't make assumptions. The links that I gave you aren't enough to understand what this is. You have to do some actual research about it. The people who  understand what this is and have done actual research have been going crazy about bitcoins.

 

This has very mixed opinions. Here's one from The Guardian that gives it a negative review:

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/03/bitcoin-currency-bubble-crash-not-rocking-financial-markets

 

I don't think it's that people are making crazy assumptions or that they are dismissing the idea outright without much research, Stevary. I just think some have a negative opinion of it - it rubs me the wrong way, personally and the article I posted above lists a lot of the negatives of the model that Bitcoins utilizes. 

[Stevary]

This has very mixed opinions. Here's one from The Guardian that gives it a negative review:

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/03/bitcoin-currency-bubble-crash-not-rocking-financial-markets

 

I don't think it's that people are making crazy assumptions or that they are dismissing the idea outright without much research, Stevary. I just think some have a negative opinion of it - it rubs me the wrong way, personally and the article I posted above lists a lot of the negatives of the model that Bitcoins utilizes. 

That article stated that the currency is used by those who want to buy things without others knowing. It also said that it isn't moderated by the government. This is all true. But what makes me mad is that he wrote it like it's a bad thing when actually a good thing. Why would you want the government to be up your ass about the things your buying? It's called privacy.

 

And the Bitcoin service never got hacked, that one website that he mentioned got hacked. Not the same thing whatsoever.

 

The guy even managed to contradict himself. He says that only those who spend 18 hours on the internet would use Bitcoins, and then said that it's bad because there is only 800 million in Bitcoins available. Why would you need trillions of dollars if it's used by so few people?

 

Also, the reason that it crashed is because it kept growing in popularity. Once it got really big and popular (probably when CNN started talking about it) the bubble popped and it crashed. Some spoke of a DDoS attack but that didn't happen.

 

And I'm not saying that I want Bitcoins to be a legit currency. I, by no means, want this to replace or become a popular currency. I don't think it's ready to become mainstream. But I also understand that it isn't mainstream right now. Currently, it's just a way of making money. You mine, or buy a bitcoin, wait for the value to go up, sell the bitcoin, PROFIT. I don't have much interest in using Bitcoins to buy things. (although it is a good way of buying things right now without the government watching you). 

 

It's really that simple, what rubs you the wrong way about profit?

[Puss in Boots]

That article stated that the currency is used by those who want to buy things without others knowing. It also said that it isn't moderated by the government. This is all true. But what makes me mad is that he wrote it like it's a bad thing when actually a good thing. Why would you want the government to be up your ass about the things your buying? It's called privacy.

 

The government backs your money as do credit institutions. For example, 2 months ago my credit card number was stolen and within 2 hours time they had racked up over $3,000 worth on my card. I caught it same day and called it in to get my account number changed. In totality I paid for ZERO of this problem. Likewise, if my bank gets robbed, the government backs it up because it has a vested interest in the value of the currency - albeit selfish on their part, but it is good for them to look out for us in this manner.

 

If your "wallet" or if bitcoins get hacked or if there becomes a way to easily generate bitcoins, there is no backing behind it to save you. There is huge risk to this and that's the bottom line. If you want to play this game of roulette, that's fine. But for me, it can't happen. Because there are people at different points in their lives (single, married, married w/kids, etc.) you won't get everyone to agree with your stance on bitcoins because of the undeniable risk involved. If you were to suggest there is low or zero risk, it would be naive just because the founder is brilliant and the system hasn't been breached yet.

 

I'm not sure why you're getting upset. Your purpose of posting this topic was to get others' opinions and you're getting upset by the feedback. I don't understand that. It's not a personal attack on you.

[Stevary]

I'm not sure why you're getting upset. Your purpose of posting this topic was to get others' opinions and you're getting upset by the feedback. I don't understand that. It's not a personal attack on you.

I just wanna say that I'm not upset what so ever. Everybody can have their own opinion. You guys are older than I am and maybe that's why I see it differently. I'm not sure how upset I seem but be ensured that I'm okay with everyone's honest opinion. That's why I made this topic. I guess I was just trying to persuade you guys into getting in on this. But if you don't want anything to do with this, I respect that, because there's probably a valid reason for it.

Maybe that's why people stopped replying to this topic. I'm sorry if I seem angry at anyone's opinion.

 

 

 

 

The government backs your money as do credit institutions. For example, 2 months ago my credit card number was stolen and within 2 hours time they had racked up over $3,000 worth on my card. I caught it same day and called it in to get my account number changed. In totality I paid for ZERO of this problem. Likewise, if my bank gets robbed, the government backs it up because it has a vested interest in the value of the currency - albeit selfish on their part, but it is good for them to look out for us in this manner.

 

If your "wallet" or if bitcoins get hacked or if there becomes a way to easily generate bitcoins, there is no backing behind it to save you. There is huge risk to this and that's the bottom line. If you want to play this game of roulette, that's fine. But for me, it can't happen. Because there are people at different points in their lives (single, married, married w/kids, etc.) you won't get everyone to agree with your stance on bitcoins because of the undeniable risk involved. If you were to suggest there is low or zero risk, it would be naive just because the founder is brilliant and the system hasn't been breached yet.

Ya, I see where you're coming from. I've heard of people loosing Bitcoins. 

But in the stories that I've heard, I didn't see people take the necessary steps to secure everything. The two most important things are, encrypting your wallet, and having a backup of your wallet file somewhere like a flashdrive.

I'm sure there will be people who will try (actually they're probably already trying) to make viruses that steal Bitcoins. And I do agree that you wont get any help from credit card companies or police if they do manage to somehow steal your bitcoins. And it would suck to loose that much money and not be able to get it back.

[Guest]

So just read up on it.

It's a gamble, but any high risk investment is. I wouldn't spend real money on them, but I would setup an old computer mining them. Then in turn sell them for real currency.

[Stevary]

So just read up on it.

It's a gamble, but any high risk investment is. I wouldn't spend real money on them, but I would setup an old computer mining them. Then in turn sell them for real currency.

Same. Actually buying them is out of my comfort zone.

[Mr K1tty]

Phase 1:  Collect underpants.

Phase 2: ??????

Phase 3:  Profit.

[Stevary]

1. Go to step 2

2. Go to step 1

3. ????

4. Profit??

[Puss in Boots]

1. Go to store

2. Buy monkey and jar of dirt

3. Run around town with said monkey on back and jar of dirt in hands

4. Chant "I GOT A JAR OF DIIIIRT!" over and over while dancing with jar of dirt

5. ?????

6. Get admitted to mental institution.

 

But anyway, I like how Gallitin put it. There is indeed risk with any investment. I just prefer to put my retirement investments into a stock market that has proven itself over 100 years to have 70% GROWTH years as opposed to recession. So far it has paid off huge dividends to sit still after the mudslide of 2009.