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The "Google Maps" Of Bitcoin Has Arrived
Submitted by Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
The past several weeks have seen the emergence of several innovative and user friendly websites related to Bitcoin specifically, and crypto-currencies generally. The first was FiatLeak.com, which shows the amount of BTC purchased and where in the world those purchases take place in real time. Then we saw CoinMarketcap.com, which calculates and ranks the ever-changing market caps of the more than forty virtual currencies being traded out there.
Now something else has been brought to my attention. It is very different, but just as cool and potentially much more useful. The site is CoinMap.org and it serves as a sort of Google Maps for Bitcoin. The site attempts to plot the various brick and mortar retail locations across the globe that accept BTC. When you see your target area you just zoom in and it will give you a closer view of the city in your crosshairs and the name and website of the businesses in question.
It looks like this (click on the map to get to the site).
According to Coindesk, this site was only showing 552 on the chart as of early November. With 1,397 on the map right now, you can clearly see the incredible growth dynamic happening in the Bitcoin economy. Sadly and somewhat surprisingly, there are none in Boulder but I am hopeful that will change very shortly.
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Security is relative. Bitcoin protocol and code has the benefit of extensive highly motivated peer-review. Bitcoin is the first non-physical monetary medium which is entirely without counterparty risk. It is controlled by the network of its users. Miner's are motivated to protect the value of bitcoin, and thus only run software which protects that value. Because the number of miners is large, no entity has been able to successfully attack the global ledger.
Sounds like a new paradigm.
Sounds like it's different this time.
"But who controls it?"
No one.
"Who can edit the code, set parameters?"
Anyone.
What people often struggle to realize is that Bitcoin is not a piece of software. Bitcoin is a protocol that allows you to make claims about a public ledger. If you don't play by the rules of the protocol, no one listens to you.
Various software implementations exist to facilitate making claims against the ledger, but they do not effect the protocol. You can claim anything you want via edited code or parameters, but those claims will be ignored. The system is designed to operate without requiring trust.
Wow, soo many businesses to choose from, now that i'm a bitoin buillionaire where shall we start. Ok, here we go, zooming in on my location, Dubai, perfect perfect, i'm getting a trigger finger, sweaty palms, oh yes, here it is, wait... what the fuck is this... Coffe
Cup... way 100108364 .... WHAT?!?!? FUCK IT, I'm buying my ticket and going to Space.... perhaps will find someone there to trade my bitoins.
Shopping is a foolish use of bitcoins. Use fiat for that. I find it very foolish, this obsession with use by merchants. Bitcoin's killer application is wholesale, international remittances, for the time-being. The software is no where near ready for consumer use. Consumers should save in the good money, spend the bad money, a la Gresham.
Yes, shopping is a foolish use for Bitcoin.
But that's how the pumpers and story tellers induce others into believing BTC will be worth $1,000,000 each real soon! Cuz 800 flower shops and photographers were added to a local BTC store map last month!
No, the only real use for BTC is speculation / gambling. Fonestar already placed his bet and bought a single coin (most likely after getting whipsawed multiple times on his original trade, such that he's actually lost more than the present value of his 8th decimal place partial coin is now worth).
Now he's trying to convince somebody to buy his fraction of a share for a much higher price, in a desparate attempt to break even. By calling them simpletons and Fed Lovers, LOL.
Label me a fool then, I don't care. But I make sure to replace whatever bitcoin I've used by spending fiat to top up my BTC balance.
I'll be sure to stop into that Siberian Electrical Voltage shop next time I get to Russia.
There is a gay hairstylist and a fucking flower shop near me.
But its a ponzi scheme. It will go away with a power outage. Someone will hack it. Someone will steal it. It was set up by the Mob, the banksters, the Fed, the Russians, the Chinese, the nerds. It isnt gold. It won't hold up like silver. No one uses it.
Did I miss any?
Only time will tell, sonny boy.
I fail to see how bitcoin is a ponzi. It does not require an ever expanding amount of new participants to continue existing. More to the point, almost everyone on this site is anti-fed, and this is the first weapon that has been developed to effectively fight back. I bought 2 bitcoins at $313 each. Was it an emotional buy? Absofuckinglutely! In my own petty way it makes me feel like I've done a little something to fight the good fight. Bitcoin could go to a million per or it could go the way of the dinosaurs in 6 months from now. I would like to see its value stabilize and be more widely used in commerce. My point here I guess is that you bitcoin haters out there, I love gold and silver but it can't be used to buy something online from another country, bitcoin can. It may be unlikely but it has a chance to do some real damage to the fed. If you think its too risky don't buy it. Sitting on ZH bashing people who are pro bitcoin just seems like a waste of time, and it seems like you just enjoy calling people stupid. I like hearing conflicting points of view but the bitcoin topic here more resembles teenage girls having a facebook fight.
I'm waiting for some genius to come up with BitGold and BitSilver.
Hey Fonestar, instead of trolling these boards trying to evangelize without any wine or eucharist, how about stringing some code together and make something USEFUL, like an online PM to bitcoin and back conversion service?
If you're not willing to consider a useful application like that, then you're wasting your time on here with your pump-and-dump tirades. Nothing you're saying hasn't already been said before about, say, the Twitter IPO, the Liberty Dollar or Obamacare...
Gold is backed by gold. Bitcoin is backed by math. Why would anyone want to change that?
I see both merits in Bitcoin and Gold. U also need cash, as the economy is largely still based on fiat. I prefer to diversify risk and wealth.
Spread ur cash across a few banks, not just one so that if the day comes to withdraw, you can withdraw a few smaller sums in cash rather than one huge problematic lump.
If u can't get ur cash out and the internet seizes up for whatever reason, that's where gold will come in handy, it will always be valuable.
Or if u can't access ur cash, but the internet is still functioning, Bitcoins may be useful.
To me its a contingency plan where u cover ur ass as much as possible, because the fuckers in power are going to confiscate more and more as they run out of other people's money.