BF2S Forums Bitcoins

Break it down for someone who doesn't understand the lingo associated with it.

They're an alternative currency used to make purchases over the internet anonymously. It used to be 'underground' but has been in the news for at least the past year. After the confiscations in Cyprus, the currency spiked to around $260 for each coin. This put it on Wall Streets radar and they've been merrily targeting it with algos ever since. The party is over, especially after the arrests made at Liberty Capital yesterday.

Nyte wrote:

Ok, so the whole point of Bitcoins is to provide anonymity in financial transactions?

Who the fuck cares?  Unless someone is doing something illegal, this doesn't mean anything.

you just answered this question yourself. people can order illegal drugs online with bitcoins, it's essentially the internet version of a bearer bond

And why does Bitcoin price fluctuate?  What is the price based off of?  How are Bitcoins issued?

bitcoins price fluctuate the same way currencies do. its a fiat currency and they are issued by private entities i believe, just like in hong kong banks issue currency, not a reserve bank

from the economist

Unlike traditional currencies, which are issued by central banks, Bitcoin has no central monetary authority. Instead it is underpinned by a peer-to-peer computer network made up of its users’ machines, akin to the networks that underpin BitTorrent, a file-sharing system, and Skype, an audio, video and chat service. Bitcoins are mathematically generated as the computers in this network execute difficult number-crunching tasks, a procedure known as Bitcoin “mining”. The mathematics of the Bitcoin system were set up so that it becomes progressively more difficult to “mine” Bitcoins over time, and the total number that can ever be mined is limited to around 21m. There is therefore no way for a central bank to issue a flood of new Bitcoins and devalue those already in circulation.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economis … tcoin-work

A chick at work said she has accepted bitcoins in payment for her small online custom t-shirt business, lol.

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

Nyte wrote:

Who the fuck cares?  Unless someone is doing something illegal, this doesn't mean anything.

Money laundering.

money laundering is a minority activity. whilst i have no doubts that bitcoins are used by serious organized criminals on the 'deep web' - from violent and heavy-hitting gangs to hacker and cyber-organizations - the reason that bitcoins are widespread and prevalent for most 'casual' users is to buy drugs and contraband wares. it's completely anonymous, untraceable, and was also quite competitively priced. the fluctuations sometimes mean the market goes a little crazy - but it's basically created a cornucopia for the trade of black-market illegal goods (drugs, guns, bomb making equipment, you name it). ironically, this level of organization and sophistication has led to drug-users being able to find the safest, most reliable, and generally well-recommended product available to them. the bitcoin currency and TOR network have turned buying drugs into an online transaction with the reliability, speed, and safety of an amazon paperback purchase.

other than that, it's an interesting petri dish case-study for economists. it's a neat case-study.

Nyte wrote:

What are they?  Why do they exist?  What is the fucking hype with them?  Why do people launder Bitcoins?  How come it's only these underground nerd hipster types that rave about them?

As I understand it they travel through tubes.

Bitcoin mining has become a specialized thing now, and the only real way to do it since the equation gets harder the more coins are mined is to do it with an ASIC. I followed ASIC news like 2-3 months ago when avalon finally got to sending off their first machine. I'm not up to date with it anymore, but butterfly labs were/are meant to be releasing a series of ASIC's that will tear shit up for those lucky enough to get one. People take it very seriously(to the point of moving to closer to a power station for cheaper bills) and there's no room for the casual hobbyist doing it for fun anymore. You should read up on the mining aspect nyte, it should appeal to your alpha-asian-nerd-entrepreneur persona you display here. Those specialized machines are hard to get, a lot of people are still calling them vaporware. With that in mind I guess if I were to get into it I'd mine litecoins and trade them for bitcoins.

Look into it, I'll buy your shit an you can give me a 15% discount for this invaluable and nearly up to date advice.

Wait... so wouldn't bitcoin "mining" eventually result in some huge corporation focused on controlling the influx of Bitcoin currency by creating these huge mining farms?  Control the production and the consumers become your slave.

Wouldn't this go against the very "underground-hipster-99% losers-anticapitalist" agenda of Bitcoins?

kys

Is there an easy way to purchase bitcoins? It seems a bit convoluted from some of the stuff I've read.

Yeah the payment itself seems to be a bit convoluted. Like you need to get someone's acc number and deposit cash in person to the bank as one method, rather than just doing direct transfer or something similar.

Last edited by Jaekus (2013-06-01 05:22:26)

jord wrote:

It's like that to avoid chargeback scams. There are a few ways, I think localbitcoins.com is seen in a positive light. You don't need to meet the person, a lot of sellers there accept direct bank transfer (so i'm told).

fyi "so i'm told" and "nudge nudge" and "SWIM" and all that stuff offers approx. zilch legal immunity.