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Has anyone heard of or used bitcoins?

Here is a quotation on what bitcoins are:

Bitcoin is a new kind of money. It's the first decentralised electronic currency not controlled by a single organisation or government. Its an open source project, and it is used by more than 100,000 people. All over the world people are trading hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bitcoin every day with no middle man and no credit card companies. Its a start-up currency which has never happened before.

Bitcoin is the first digital currency that is completely distributed. The network is made up of users like yourself so no bank or payment processor is required between you and whoever you're trading with. This decentralisation is the basis for Bitcoin's security and freedom.

Email let us send letters for free, anywhere in the world. Skype lets us make phone and video calls for free, anywhere in the world. Now there's bitcoin. Bitcoin lets you send money to anyone online, anywhere in the world for less then a cent per transaction! Bitcoin is a community run system not controlled by any bank or government. There's no Wall-Street banker getting rich by standing between you and the people you want to send and receive money from

Bitcoin is more efficient than all competing currencies. This will drive its adoption in the same way computers were adopted, in that computers made people more efficient in competing in the marketplace. Of course the early adopters will become rich, and I think they deserve it for having played a key role in the development of Bitcoin. A currency has value by it being widely used. Bitcoin is a startup currency with a deflationary bootstrapping economy. Their use spreads by providing the speculator incentive.

Bitcoin is going to be the biggest opportunity for innovation that the world has seen since the industrial revolution. An idea whose time has come.

Never heard of it Andy. But let's see if it works. Send me some money.

i dont get it
so sum1 created sum form of currency and is charging fer it :S

why "bitcoin" why not "cybercoin"???

Uh-huh, a bit like Carbon credits then - useless.

So, I had a quick look at Bitcoin and found all you have to do to make pots of easy money, is;

1. Invent a currency and claim it saves the punters money in their online trading activities
2. Get them to provide their personal details to you and two other 3rd party websites, similar to the requests in the spam mail we all like to delete!
3. Insist they provide their current bank account details to a 3rd party website to enable bitcoin trading, similar to the requests in the spam mail we all like to delete!
4. Select what appear to be random world currency exchange rates and differing Euro rates between single currency countries, with the USD being the most advantageous by far, to buy bitcoin currency
5. Get them to spend their bitcoins with online merchants offering exchange rates of around 50% of the bitcoin value and potentially cream off the profits from the online merchants when they convert back to USD.
6. Get them to voluntarily download and install software that submits their PC, CPU and GPU to you, so you can use it to your advantage in any way you desire while they mine for bitcoins at a rate less than the face value of a green shield stamp AND during the mining process, risk financial loss.

Well this has to be one of the better business models I’ve seen in recent times! All that’s needed now is an internet world full of victims, who are not very bright, not very good at basic mathematics and have pots of money they can voluntarily donate to this online association of internet fraudsters, hackers and general reprobates!

My money is on the belief that this latest internet scam will be shut down within 12 Months, any takers?

Chocoholic wrote:Uh-huh, a bit like Carbon credits then - useless.

Carbon Credits are an internationally recognised currency traded by Governments and Industry alike, have an agreed value and are more stable than most 3rd world Currencies, and couldn't be any further removed from the likes of Bitcoin or any of the other imaginary currencies currently vying for recognition!

I think chocs is referring to voluntary carbon credits. You know the ones that some guy offers to sell for 4 pounds and your thinking thats a pretty good deal given that kyoto are selling them for 6 times that.

I think that's called a scam Ben! the guy is supposed to buy your credits not sell you his!

But I generate carbon, I don't have any credits to sell.

tony89 wrote:so sum1 created sum form of currency and is charging fer it :S

Not quite.

Here is a video explaining what is bitcoin:

rudeboy wrote:why "bitcoin" why not "cybercoin"???

What is cybercoin?

Bora Bora wrote:Never heard of it Andy. But let's see if it works. Send me some money.

Here you can get some free bitcoins, and see how it works:
https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/

Okay, maybe I am just low an trust here, but having to log with your google account (having to give username and password), that sounds fishy (pun intended).

benwj wrote:But I generate carbon, I don't have any credits to sell.

OK, as I see it, Voluntary Emission Reductions are exactly that, voluntary, and are a very personal thing between you and your conscience, if you feel the need to offset your personal carbon footprint there are many ways you can do this, airlines worldwide are subject to Certified Emission Reduction Schemes to monitor their carbon footprints, when you buy an airline ticket, the airlines offer you an opportunity to offset your share of the flight, it's a guilt payment, you pay money to the airline, the airline plants a tree somewhere, you lose the guilt and the airline claims a Certified Credit offsetting its carbon footprint. Utility companies in the UK do exactly the same.

There have been two very popular voluntary schemes in the UK, one where members of the public were offered a pack of energy efficient lamps, free of charge but in return for a signed declaration where you state your name and address and that you will use the energy efficient lamps for their designed lifetime amounting to the saving of 3 Carbon Credits. The vendors then take your declaration and submit it to the Carbon Trust as part of their Voluntary Scheme and claim the three credits which are worth around £25.00 each, you win with a free bag full of energy efficient lamps and reduced electricity bills from their use, the vendor wins with around £50.00 profit per customer after deducting expenses, I think this scheme has finished now due to the EU ban on incandescent lamps.

There are a number of companies offering free installed solar panels, have a look here, http://ashadegreener.co.uk/ad-g1?gclid=CIfWsbCd7a0CFSgntAodPFCu6Q The householder gets free electricity offsetting metered consumption for the life of the solar panels, any excess fed back to the grid is credited to the service provider who also claims Voluntary Carbon Credits against their scheme which they can trade on the carbon exchange, householder also saves somewhere between £5,000 and £35,000 on installation costs.

So you can donate and receive a thank you note in the form of a 'certificate' for contributing to help in someone else's Certified Scheme, or you can negotiate your payment in Voluntary Schemes, Carbon Credits are worth a lot of money to both industry and the private individual. You personally don't have any credits to sell but you have the capacity to generate credits, any stranger banging on your door offering to sell you carbon credits for cash is most likely just a plain old thief looking for a voluntary donation! A bit like the bitcoin currency scam.

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/consumerinformation/scamsandswindles/investment_scams/carbon_credit/index.shtml

Dillon wrote:There are a number of companies offering free installed solar panels, have a look here, http://ashadegreener.co.uk/ad-g1?gclid= ... tAodPFCu6Q The householder gets free electricity offsetting metered consumption for the life of the solar panels, any excess fed back to the grid is credited to the service provider who also claims Voluntary Carbon Credits against their scheme which they can trade on the carbon exchange, householder also saves somewhere between £5,000 and £35,000 on installation costs.

Don't you need sun for solar power? A house in the Uk would need panels the size of a football pitch to generate excess solar power surely?

Flying Dutchman wrote:Okay, maybe I am just low an trust here, but having to log with your google account (having to give username and password), that sounds fishy (pun intended).

That was enough for me not to bother opening the link.

Bora Bora wrote:That was enough for me not to bother opening the link.

Too be fair, the domain name is registered by google. Apparently a google engineer is involved in the app. Still don't know whether its legit or not. Having to log in with a google account to receive free bitcoins doesn't sound right to me. He referring to people trying to log in multiple as numbskulls, doesn't help my feeling of sincerity and trust.

Flying Dutchman wrote:log with your google account (having to give username and password)

You don't provide the username and password. You just log in to your google account and google has an api to let other services identify you through your google account when you are logged in. So you don't have to make another account with other services. This is a very nice feature, I am thinking of adding it to DF in the future so that people that have facebook and google accounts can post straight away on DF.

Here are some interesting articles about Bitcoin:
Why the P2P Foundation is paying its salaries in Bitcoin

Bitcoin Doesn't Need a Dongle

Could Bitcoin Become the Currency of System D?

Sometime in 1995 the Internet opened for business and grew to about 8% of all consumer spending, estimated to be worth $279 billion by 2015 in the US alone.

The credit card became the default method of payment for this massive market, not because it was the best option, but the only option. For the last 15 years, if you wanted to buy something online, you eiher used credit cards, or you didn’t buy.

In their effort to stamp out card fraud (between 10-15% of all transactions) payment processors get consumers to give up their name, card number, security code, address, expiry date, and date of birth to every site they buy from (is it any wonder there is so much fraud) Their latest innovation is to require users to enter this information two or more times. Worse than useless, it’s actively harmful, costing users time, risking identity and losing money.

What about merchants? They pay for fraud twice over when it happens, losing both goods and payment after the card company does a chargeback. Considerable expense and time is needed to open a merchant account, when finally done processing fees that range from 3 to over 30%, depending on the goods bought and a minimum fee for each transaction. These added costs are all passed on to the consumer with higher prices. Regardless of what is advertised, no one actually has free fraud protection on their credit card. In fact, a hidden percentage of every single transaction that the merchant must include in the final price directly pays for that service.

The solution to all this...

http://bitcoinmedia.com/too-big-to-see-whats-coming/

Here is why I will keep this topic alive:
1. If Bitcoin becomes mainstream 1 bitcoin will be from $100 to $1000, and I think the users of DF better know it earlier than later.
2. Judging by the progress bitcoin community makes it is quite possible that it will eventually become mainstream. Bitcoin payment is already implemented in the "osCommerce" - the most popular open source e-commerce platform. So more sites will soon start to accept bitcoins..
3. Only 10 percents of a community needs to believe in a sound idea for the idea to rapidly spread and become mainstream.

I think it is a mispelled term should be 'BitCON' as it sounds like a Con to me!

Ambassador wrote:I think it is a mispelled term should be 'BitCON' as it sounds like a Con to me!

The only thing that may seem "unfair" in the bitcoin system is that earlier adopters can earn much more than those who are late. But the same can be said about any new business affair. Those that started mining gold early got rich , but this doesn't make gold less precious

It is totally possible that bitcoin will cease to exist if governments will unite against it. Unless this happens I don't see how bitcoin will stop existing in the worst case it will have it's own niche.

Here are some quotes from a reuters article about bitcoin:

"Bitcoin is not run by people with hot sexual appetites for hotel maids. It is not run by corporations. It is not governed by people with budgets to meet. It is governed by a mathematical formula," one trader and Bitcoin enthusiast told Reuters over a pint of Guinness in London's financial district.

He also likes that there is an absolute limit of 21 million Bitcoins built into the system.

"If you try to print more than 21 million Bitcoins, you will be rejected by cold, loveless computers whirring away in nerds' garages. It is a better form of money than we have right now, or than anyone has designed so far."

The trader, who was not willing to be named, said he spent four hours a day on Bitcoin, describing it as his second job. He estimated 90 percent of traders have bought it, most "looking for a quick 2,000 percent".

Workers at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in London and New York have been visiting online Bitcoin exchanges as often as 30 times a day, according to documents seen by Reuters. Neither bank wanted to comment.

And here is an interesting comment to that article:

Bitcoin’s value does not exist merely because “people believe in it” like with fiat currencies. Rather, it’s value derives from its usefulness. Bitcoins are valuable because their properties make them effective in the transfer, protection, and storage of value in an age increasingly digitized.

Monies are valuable because governments force them upon you (fiat USD and EUR, etc) or because they’re useful (gold and bitcoin). Bitcoin is by far the most exciting (and important) technology since the internet.

Interesting... I'm reading more about this.

Bitcoin-Central becomes first Bitcoin exchange licensed to operate like a bank

http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/09/bitc ... nsed-bank/

Andyba, what is your respons towards financial experts who say Bitcoin is a pyramid scheme?

FlyingDutchman wrote:Andyba, what is your respons towards financial experts who say Bitcoin is a pyramid scheme?

Which financial experts? Source please.

All I know is that yesterday I sold 4 bitcoins for $1000 so I got back my investments in video cards for bitcoin mining.

I also wrote last year in april that bitcoin will cost more that $100 because it was designed to cost that much.

The digital currency is rising in popularity among traders in Berlin:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/20 ... -in-berlin

Well bitcoin price now is more than $1000.
and it could reach even more $10000 or even $100000.

For those that don't know what bitcoin is:
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/20 ... val-guide/


For those that want to mine the bitcoin. It's practically impossible to do it now with simple PC hardware.
But there is competition to bitcoin - LiteCoin and FeatherCoin that still can be mined with GPUs.
FeatherCoin is still a new currency, so it's really cheap at the moment, if someone wants to buy it dirrectly.

That's just to refresh this topic.
Cheers.

I have heard about it but i do not understand why it is stirring up a lot of dust. Do they want to remove the current currency or come up with something new alongside the old one?

Andy I've want to get into digital currency mining, I've powerful GPUs that I use it for video editing but I guess I can use it to mine these digital currencies during their spare hrs.

They say Max Keiser invented it. Better than the dollar, but I still wouldn't trust it very much. I would check out what the guys from the Austrian School of Economics have to say about it: Mises Institute , Lew Rockwell etc.

Nucleus wrote:

Andy I've want to get into digital currency mining, I've powerful GPUs that I use it for video editing but I guess I can use it to mine these digital currencies during their spare hrs.

Electricity in Dubai is quite cheap so mining in Dubai makes sense.
The only problem is heat coming from the mining rigs.

Here is a nice and informative interview about bitcoin: