Crypto-currencies: The future is now

Post by **Laan Yaa Mo** » January 18, 2014, 10:16 pm

What the heck?!? Canada and Sweden may be leading the way for bitcoin acceptance:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o ... e16394548/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o ... /comments/

I guess anything is better than our dollar, which is sinking below the horizon faster every single day.

Post by **Balthasar G.** » February 8, 2014, 1:10 pm

Bitcoin plummets 20% after major exchange halts withdrawals
Virtual currency bitcoin lost nearly twenty percent of its value on Thursday evening, after major exchange Mt Gox halted withdrawals to try to resolve ongoing technical issues.

The digital currency — which is known for its wild price fluctuations — was trading at $680.52 on Friday morning, having traded around $850 for most of the week, according to CoinDesk, which tracks the price of bitcoin.

Mt Gox told customers that in a effort to resolve an issue with withdrawals, the system needed to be in a static state.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101398515

I guess I'll be staying with the EUR or US$ for as long as they don't take such a dramatic nosedive when one of our banks has "technical issues" .

Post by **leterry60614** » February 9, 2014, 12:12 pm

Bitcoin is alive and evolving fast. For instance, BitPlastic offers a debit card, enabling you to convert Bitcoin to CASH which you can withdraw anonymously from ATMs around the world. Very handy to transfer funds from one country to another FREE and anonymously.

How relevant is that?

See https://bitplastic.com

Post by **noosard** » February 9, 2014, 1:10 pm

The Australian dollar and Canadian dollar have the same looking 5 year charts against the US dollar
both have gone up to go down again
but are up over the 5 year period

Post by **parrot** » February 9, 2014, 2:35 pm

leterry60614 wrote:Bitcoin is alive and evolving fast. For instance, BitPlastic offers a debit card, enabling you to convert Bitcoin to CASH which you can withdraw anonymously from ATMs around the world. Very handy to transfer funds from one country to another FREE and anonymously.

How relevant is that?

See https://bitplastic.com

I'm still trying to get my hands around the concept, so please excuse my ignorance:

Let's say you had 1000 bitcoins valued at $1000 each ($1,000,000) and you intended to use the bitcoins while on vacation. Now you're on vacation, but the 'value' of those 1000 bitcoins is now $700,000 ($700), would you consider using an ATM to cash some in?

I can almost grasp the idea of owning a bitcoin as an investment.....something where I'm gambling that the price will go up, but understand that the price may go down as well......and owning cash where I expect the value to remain relatively stable from one day to the next. When I go on vacation, I use my cash (cash/credit card/debit card), but I wouldn't consider cashing in my wife's diamond ring or other valuable possessions to pay for the vacation.

If I'm missing something and someone can point me in the direction of a link that would lay out in layman's terms how someone would acquire then use the currency in every day affairs......I'd appreciate it. I really am trying to learn more about it.

Finally, let's just imagine that a guy like Charlie Shrem and Satoshi Nakamoto turned out to be one and the same (I realize that's probably not the case as Shrem is only 24 and bitcoins have been around for a number of years......but for sake of argument)......would that change anyone's perception of the currency? How about someone probably more capable of doing so, like John McAfee? My point being......when we consider investing in a foreign currency, don't we take into consideration the ownership of that currency --- the stability of the government, the economics and economic outlook of the country, for example --- before plunkiing down our hard-earned money? But in the case of a crypto currency, bitcoin for example, it seems we don't know anything of the sort about what's behind the currency.

As I said, I'm trying to understand.....not pillage.....the idea. Have any of the recognized economic gurus weighed in on the idea (Krugman, Summers, Reich, Bernanke, Geitner for example)? Links?

Post by **glalt** » February 12, 2014, 12:49 pm

How much space does it take to store a hard drive? It is a stupid move to throw away a working hard drive if you don't know exactly what is on it. I do keep certain records for many years. I once bought a penny stock in a very small oil company. That company was nearly broke and they did a reverse split to keep it on the stock exchange. I forgot about it and about ten years later, I read an article about this small oil company. I looked up my records then emailed the company. Sure enough I still had the shares but my 5,000 shares became 500 shares because of the reverse split. I didn't get suddenly rich but it did amount to several thousand dollars.

Post by **leterry60614** » February 17, 2014, 8:52 pm

Bank of Thailand says country’s top Bitcoin exchange can resume operations.

Post by **parrot** » March 1, 2014, 1:14 pm

So, on the one hand, Satoshi Nakamoto said (back in 2009), "‘The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them not to let identity thieves drain our accounts."

but

On 28 Feb 2014, Mark Karpeles, owner of Mt. Gox, filed for bankruptcy protection, five days after he resigned from the foundation and just days after its website suddenly went dark. The exchange said that most likely it had lost 750,000 of its customers’ Bitcoin holdings and more than 100,000 of its own coins, or more than $450 million worth. At the news conference announcing the bankruptcy, Karpeles said, "There were weaknesses in the system. I’m truly sorry to have caused inconvenience.”

I think the Church Lady (Dana Carvey) had a saying for that...........

Post by **pimples** » March 1, 2014, 11:53 pm

gumments dont like such facilities for trading illegal items like drugs etc so they will always be a target for some spanners being
thrown into the works to thwart them.
offical and semi official hackers that is

Post by **leterry60614** » March 6, 2014, 10:08 pm

After years of mystery, Newsweek claims man who started Bitcoin might have used is real name. 555

http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/6/547724 ... nd-bitcoin

Post by **GT93** » March 7, 2014, 12:07 am

What's Mt Gox mean? Many more cyber criminals are trying to steal the funny money? I would expect some of them will succeed. More inconveniences to come. I imagine Mark Karpeles has more to worry about than bankruptcy. Some serious criminals might have lost their funny money thanks to him.

Post by **leterry60614** » March 22, 2014, 10:57 pm

http://t.co/gpAJklgL90 —

Bail-in train is coming in Ukraine. IMF-like proposal for bank deposit haircuts as happened in Cyprus... Bitcoin users not affected!

Post by **KHONDAHM** » April 13, 2014, 2:57 am

Lots of events have transpired in the crypto-currency world which collectively drove the price of BTC down to under $400 recently. Still, innovation, adoption, investment, and acceptance continues to progress as if nothing has changed. To wit, the BTC and LTC ATM machine installed in the US House of Representatives offices:

http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-atms-ca ... ill-debut/

Big money and smart money continues to invest in the startups and technologies which promise to change everything. Crypto-currencies are still in the nascent stages. Like where email was in the mid-1990's.

The current popular thought is it will first replace services like Western Union, PayPal, and others. Once those are gone and transacting in crypto-currencies becomes ubiquitous, it should then be able to overcome the legal barriers currently being developed and imposed by various governments. Those governments are attacking the points at which crypto-currencies are converted to/from fiat currencies because they can control and influence the underlying fiat financial systems. In a future where transacting solely in crypto-currencies is the norm, there will be no need to convert to/from fiat and what is restrictive legal policy today will be rendered irrelevant.

What is happening today is the equivalent of "if governments intervened to restrict the use of email". Pause and imagine for a moment that governments decided to restrict the use of email today and force is all to return to licking stamps and dropping all correspondance in mailboxes again. Silly, right? Well, that is exactly what they are attempting with crypto-currencies. The genie is out of the bottle and they are desperately trying to put it back in via ultimately futile declarations and legislation.

The saga continues...

BTC at $420 as I type this.

Post by **KHONDAHM** » April 13, 2014, 3:09 am

"Bitcoin’s success should be measured not by the current value or exchange rate vis-a-vis the dollar or others, but rather by the growth in the real economy. That means businesses being able to transact easily in bitcoins, people being able to execute everyday transactions, institutions accepting it as a valid form of exchange, and so on."

http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-fated-boom-bust/

A pessimistic, but well researched point of view with many salient historical points.

Still, provided what is quoted progresses, crypto-currencies will progress.

Post by **leterry60614** » April 13, 2014, 5:30 pm

Bitcoin caught the attention of the IRS and that in itself is a measure of success!

Post by **parrot** » April 13, 2014, 7:21 pm

Western Union is a dinosaur....as are travelers' checks.....but they live on, especially for people who have used them in the past. And today, a comment in a Bangkok Post article about the difficulty of using Japanese ATMs with Thai cards (or most foreign cards). I can see how a crypto currency might catch on to tackle those sorts of problems.
I remember how amazed I was the first time I put my Texas-based credit union debit card into an ATM in England....sometime late 80's.....and withdrew money from my account.......as the ATM was on a military base, I could choose dollars or pounds. Maybe a crypto currency will have it's big payday........but I'd guess it'll be past my life time. Too many governments involved in currency control.....and, biggest detractor at the time to me......I'm not enamored with the idea that the money in my pocket might be worth 40% less in a few days (or even 40% more) because of something that is completely off the horizon. I leave that up to my investments where I can throttle up or down my risk as I deem necessary. That doesn't appear to be possible with crypto currencies, at least at the moment.

Post by **Laan Yaa Mo** » April 13, 2014, 10:14 pm

I still use traveler's cheques because I get a higher rate than any other means of exchange with Canadian money in Thailand.

Post by **JimboPSM** » April 16, 2014, 1:34 am

leterry60614 wrote:Bitcoin caught the attention of the IRS and that in itself is a measure of success!

The IRS are viewing Bitcoins as property rather than as a currency, so the taxation implications will be related to capital gains or, as some may have found, losses

From Bloomberg:

Bitcoin Is Property, Not Currency, in Tax System: IRS
By Richard Rubin and Carter Dougherty Mar 25, 2014

The U.S. government will treat Bitcoin as property for tax purposes, applying rules it uses to govern stocks and barter transactions, the Internal Revenue Service said in its first substantive ruling on the issue.

Today’s IRS guidance will provide certainty for Bitcoin investors, along with income-tax liability that wasn’t specified before. Purchasing a $2 cup of coffee with Bitcoins bought for $1 would trigger $1 in capital gains for the coffee drinker and $2 of gross income for the coffee shop.

The IRS, faced with a choice of treating Bitcoins like currency or property, chose property. That decision could reduce the volume of transactions conducted with the virtual currency, said Pamir Gelenbe, a venture partner at Hummingbird Ventures, which invests in technology businesses.

“It’s challenging if you have to think about capital gains before you buy a cup of coffee,” he said.

Full article: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-2 ... -says.html

Post by **Stantheman** » April 16, 2014, 2:08 am

With the way the IRS works, and with their policy on paper reduction, the filer who claims Bitcoins will only need to fill out 4 to 6 additional forms.

Post by **leterry60614** » April 16, 2014, 10:52 am

Yes, there are quite a few forms to fill out this year for บิตคอยน์ . However, my guess is very few will next year as most we'll hide underground... The IRS hasn't learn its lesson from the Eurodollar debacle and are repeating the same mistakes.