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Bitcoins And Unicorns: The Digital Currency Lands On The Cover Of BusinessWeek
First Janet Yellen makes the cover of Time, and concurrently so as not to be left behind, Businesweek, well-known for its suggestive covers (housing, hedge fund managers, the Tea Party), has posted an even more provocative creature on its own cover: a Unicorn - one which is supposed to symbolize, you guessed it, Bitcoins - and serves as the anchor for the Bloomberg-owned magazine's extensive profile of the digital currency, with the following teaser: "Why are investors so crazy for an alterantive currency invented by a phantom?"
And as it has done in the past, BW walks readers through the cover creation process:
So, is everyone paying attention yet?
From the BusinessWeek article, which despite the bombastic rhetoric is mostly focused on the topic of Bitcoin Mining, something we covered last month:
Bitcoin is the digital currency that thrills nerds, inspires libertarians, and incites the passions of economists who debate the value of money made from nothing but ones and zeroes. Devotees watch the fluctuations of Bitcoin’s price with a fanaticism typically reserved for college football scores. Alternative currency startups are being lavishly funded by venture capitalists while visionaries gush about the world-changing possibilities of money free from government control. Silicon Valley is the natural center for Bitcoin mania. An advocacy group named Arisebitcoin recently put up 40 billboards around the Bay Area with messages such as: “The Revolution has started … where do you stand?”
As with an actual precious metal, Bitcoins are in limited supply—they must be “mined.” Unlike with precious metals, this mining is done purely by computer. Miners set their machines to run a series of complex calculations that tally up and certify all the transactions of other Bitcoin holders around the world. If the miner’s computers complete these calculations and solve a complex mathematical puzzle before anyone else, he earns about 25 Bitcoins as payment. It’s a nice haul: With the price of each Bitcoin nosing up near $1,000, that’s $25,000 for 10 minutes or so of work. For the moment at least, miners are the rare grunts who can also get rich.
* * *
Even some Bitcoin entrepreneurs think mining has become a sucker’s game. Fred Ehrsam is a former Goldman Sachs trader and co-founder of Coinbase, a Bitcoin startup making wallet software that allows people to trade and store Bitcoins, and which recently raised $25 million in venture capital. Ehrsam is committed to Bitcoin but pessimistic about underfunded prospectors making any money. “This is very much a fad that is going to die soon, if it’s not even dead already,” he says. But that’s not the same as saying individual mining will end. He suggests that the next generation of miners might run their computers for ideological purposes—to support the currency and be a disruptive force in global finance—even if doing so has become unprofitable.
.
“Mining was supposed to be a democratized thing, but it’s now only accessible to the elite of the elites,” says Chris Larsen, CEO of Ripple Labs, which has introduced a virtual currency called Ripple. It’s similar to Bitcoin but without the mining. (The company gradually hands out increments of the currency to supporters.) “Hordes of brilliant engineers are raising money for mining equipment that regular folks can’t compete with,” Larsen says.
For idealists not swimming in startup capital, it’s still possible to join the Bitcoin rush, mostly by adding power to a distributed array of processors. Craigslist is full of miners selling their old rigs, and there are peripherals that cost about $250—they look like USB thumb drives, plug into standard PCs, and are mostly ineffective. Online calculator sites like BitcoinX let prospective miners enter processor speed, current Bitcoin exchange rate, electricity costs, and other variables to figure out whether their investment makes any financial sense. Most of these calculators suggest that even miners with older, specialized Bitcoin machines can still make a little money as long as the price for a Bitcoin is above $700. Members of mining groups are rewarded according to the amount of work they contribute.
And, of course, there are computer viruses spread by Yahoo ads, converting witless users' computers into Bitcoin mining slaves as we described yesterday.
Read the full BusinessWeek article here.
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Bloomberg called you a nerd :)
@CH1
u talkin about the cheesepope overlords that live on Rothschilds BLVD in Tel aviv???
or the cuban ones?????
~~~~~
how does one accidentily acquire bitcoins?????????
LOL... anyone lame enough to say "cheesepope" deserves to be ejected!
I axed u 2 questions.............r u goin to answer???
I didnt think so
I don't know where the Rothschilds live (there have to be several thousand by now) or what they do.
But yes, they are overrated dicks, just like the other overlord types. Jews (which is what you really mean to say) can be assholes, just like gentiles can.
What sense for the Fed to kill Bitcoin, if much more profitable for the Fed to control Bitcoin?
What sense for the Fed to kill Bitcoin, if much more profitable for the Fed to lead and hidden control the Bitcoin?
They have clearly outsmarted you ch1.
Brandons article is nothing we haven't said here for months, but now you see the MSM with a FULL ERECTION for BTC,
When you see an orchestra, look for a conductor.
The criminals want out of BTC, the biggest problem now is them getting out, so the MSM pumps the bitch, until lots of new money comes in the early fraudster's can't get out.
There is a sense of desperation, but for those of us who have been saying all along that this this is PYRAMID-SCAM, I don't give a fuck how long it takes to implode.
Beanie-Baby's in 1999 had the exact same CAPITALIZATION today at BTC, at $10B the MSM was pumping them to the maX, just like this,
A contrarian would call this in itself the PEAK knowing full too well when every dump fucking lemming in the MSM jumps on board, your truly at the end.
Without new blood, new money, fresh fish, the BTC dies.
Idiocy on parade.
Religious faith on parade
Yep, its a distribution (at the top) scheme, to get the 'original investors' out, with fat wallets. I think BTC will make another run, and even see $1400 at some point, and then even $2000 ONE DAY. But gold will be $4000+ and bread will cost upwards of $5.
Right, sort of like how Marie Antoinette invented the guillotine.
If you knew THING ONE about bitcoin, you would know that it is fundamentally beyond the ability of any bankster or politician to come up with it. You REALLY think they would just GIVE AWAY their ability to print money?
More importantly, who cares who invented it? The WHOLE PROBLEM with our current monetary system is that central banks get to print money! If they stop themselves from doing so, then GREAT! The only reason to be afraid of "one world currency" is if it is non-economic. Most of human history has been spent under one or two world currencies--gold and silver. Bitcoins is just like that, only it is verifiable and can't be rehypothecated, nor would anyone accept a receipt for one as being the same as one.
That is not to say that gold and silver will go away, I am just examining the extreme case here where bitcoin is the be-all end-all currency. I don't really see any problems beyond the possibility of a quantum attack, which is why gold and silver remain the best tool for storing value, even as bitcoin is the best tool for transactions.
Well I can come up with a scenario that does not really involve anything new, and it has been used for G&S for a long time.
Bitcoins can be bought and sold in FRNs, correct?
I print up as many FRNs as I want and buy some BTC at a price that leads to a rise in price. This leads to others investing their excess capital in BTC because they see the price rising.
Then I dump as many as required to cause a panic selloff in an illiquid and small market. Then I take the FRNs I got from my block sale and buy back my original BTCs as well as yours because my sale forced the price lower than my sell point.
Rinse and repeat until I have enough BTC where I AM the market.
Regulators will catch this? Who exactly is BTC regulated by other than the invisible hand?
Moral: If BTC can be bought with conjured up clownbux, it is no better than said clownbux. Clownbux can taint anything that is accepted in exchange for them.
pods
+100 PODS
Bravo pods. I was beginning to think that rational, reasoned thought had become extinct.
Plus the WS Banksters are presently building leverage vehicles for the Bitcoin world. Soon they will have the exact same handles they have on the PM Markets
pods, there are some big holes in your logic here.
First, BitCoin is NOT "elastic". The supply of them grows very slowly (like gold). Consequently, if anyone tries to buy BitCoins in size, they will drive the price up on themselves massively. So you will have a difficult time accumulating a meaningful fraction of the outstanding BitCoins because you will have to print so many dollars to buy them that it will create tremendous knock-on effects in the real world.
But, let's assume you print up trillions of dollars to buy a few million BitCoins. That would put BitCoin's price at, say, a million dollars. Now you have created a bunch of other people out there who collectively ALSO have trillions of dollars. Do you see where that is going, and why it might be a problem?
But, let's assume even THAT doesn't bother you. Now, you try to sell your BitCoins and crash the market. Now, this strategy works great in the gold futures market, or the stock market, because you can naked short those things to create a massive volume dump to overwhelm the market. Unfortunately, you CANNOT naked short BitCoin. It is completely IMPOSSIBLE. So you will not have enough ammo to fuel a price avalanche on the downside.
Why do you think all financial manipulations begin and end on the futures exchanges or the stock exchanges? Because naked shorting gives you the downside advantage you need to wreck prices and steal wealth. No naked shorting = you're fucked if you're a manipulator.
THAT is why this strategy won't work here.
Interesting,, thanks for the post.
BB, your argument is valid from the perspective of an investor, but invalid from the perspective of the FED, who can create infinite dollars with a keystroke, and may have an agenda that does not include profit or capital preservation.
@Toolshed
Bitcoin system has a limit of coins. But Bitcoin system has no limit fragmentation of these coins.
Crushing coins Bitcoin to infinity - it's the same exact Monetary Emission, like printing FRN.
Just wait for the bitcoin funds, ETFs and derivatives to take off. You may not be able to naked short sell a bitcoin, but you may be able to naked short the ETF, options on the ETF, or futures contracts that settle in USD.
Price is of no concern if you conjure up the FRNs to start with.
If the FED can "loan" out 16 trillion to save the banks in '08, why can they not conjure up a couple billion and shake the BTC market? Or do 20 or 30% swings overnight seem like a well functioning market?
A billion will get you what, like a million BTC? You cannot dump say, a block of 50k BTC?
Fuck the FBI could have taken the old Dread Pirate Robert's niece/nephew and hung them upside down a pirana tank and asked politely for his keys.
There is your starting material right there. Or the BTC stolen from Silk Road 2.0 or whatever it was called.
The market for BTC is so small that any large move can swing momentum.
And you don't have to "naked short" it at all.
You are playing with conjured up funny money, your "loss" in perceived FRNs is actually just buying control.
pods
By that same logic, the Feds would already own 100% of everything by now, without BitCoin's help. But even with effectively infinite ability to print dollars AND naked short futures and stock certificates, they don't.
BitCoin is impossible to naked short because the blockchain is open for all to see. You can't re-hypothecate BitCoins even once, much less dozens of times. It's not like gold, which is locked in a vault away from prying eyes.
You can't do dirty deeds in broad daylight where everyone can see everything. THAT is the central problem that manipulators have with BitCoin, and it is not surmountable.
Bravo pods, you just demonstrated zero understanding of "position cost basis" in trading (Not to mention fill slippage, exchange fees, etc..). Yeah, sure, they'll BUY THEM ALL, then magically FORCE THEM DOWN and make PROFIT off of it... or something.
Here's the proof - if it was POSSIBLE, and so easy, WHY THE FUCK HAVEN'T THEY DONE IT YET.
They've had a few years, mind you...
What? Nothing?
Why is there smoke coming out of your ears?
Bitcoin is designed to make us forget gold is money. Probably because the Fed sold it all and Fort Knox is empty.
Holy shit, are you serious? They didn't need BitCoin to make 99% of the population to forget what money really is. The fiat dollar already did that.
It is really funny to see people here attribute BitCoin with all the failings of fiat dollars, when the two things couldn't be more different.
Do not talk on behalf of all people or most people. West - is the smaller part of the people, smaller part of areas, smaller part of water resources, smaller part of natural resources and a smaller part of the financial resources.
So, you say, on behalf of minorities. But not all minorities, only some part of this minority. Think about it.
To date I see all Crypto-Currencies (CCs) as a useful tool -- an imperfect tool -- that is part of the libertarian toolbox.
1. It is a useful tool because it fits nicely into the PARALLEL ECONOMY, made up of Barter + PM + CCs. What one tool won't do, the other one(s) will. Alas, for those poor intellects whose toolbox only has a 'hammer', the world is full of nails.
2. It is an imperfect tool, because so far (to my knowledge) the leading CCs (BTC, LTC, PPC...) have an inherently design flaw in their architecture: The ever-increasing (exponential) degree of mining difficulty forces a migration toward ever more powerful computers -- which, by economic necessity, brings about a "consolidation" of several large computing/ASIC groups that dominate the mining of a particular CC. Once you have such consolidation, price manipulation (and worse!) are only a matter of time.
As I indicated yesterday 4312595, unless "libertarian counter-measures" are put in place, CCs will continue seeing price volatility that discourages retailers from using it as a Medium of Exchange, and consumers from using it as anything but a speculative asset (mine or buy and flip): "Make hay while the sun shines".
After a mere 5 minutes of thought, I see these "libertarian counter-measures" coming from two fronts: (A) The CC architects, (B) The Free Market.
(A) The CC architects could limit the % size of any mining group in any given country, and the % ownership by country. Otherwise a "mining cartel" will develop in no time, which could be backed by crime interests or Gov interests.
(B) The Free Market part of the solution: Miners would sell directly (online store), and to a large number of resellers in many countries.
A combination of (A) plus (B) seems most promising for an honest and level market, that would attract all the right participants. Right now the whole industry is still young and immature, and it resembles the wild, old days of a (California, Yukon) Gold Rush. Where you had prospectors, mine owners + miners, mine-equipment makers, shop owners, resellers and a host of whores, scammers and thieves as part of the ecosystem.
Even so, I have to wonder: How do you keep a small, smart and tightly knit group (the proverbial "2%") from getting leveraged control over the entire CC ecosystem, the way (according to many) a "2%" demographic group has taken over key US industries and its Government? Unless this is prevented with massive amounts of "democratizing counter-measures", we will not have solved much of anything. If anything, we will have made it worse: Our EVERY transaction becomes traceable & taxable -- and thus created a self-fulfilling "Mark of the Beast" for a totalitarian government.
The other part that intrigues me is... what will happen when TPTB decide that the CCS are adding too much leverage to the Parallel Economy, and their fiat system is getting affected by a reduced VoM and reduced taxes. The old Bugs Bunny adage of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" comes to mind. If they can't control it -- and it would require near-global control, or at least within the G20 -- the CBs will join us. But before they do, they will use legislative tactics to slow the CC train long enough for them to put their own CC train on track. Because, by then (says the cynic/realist in me), "The free market will have created and paid for the new infrastructure and worked out all the kinks & bugs".
Haha, they actually interviewed that Ripple asshole. I suppose they have a shortlist of morons to contact when they want to do a hit piece. Nice one, BusinessWeek, you'll just be yet another media dinosaur that doesn't "get it" when Bitcoin refuses to be "dead".
I'm glad they went over-the-top on this one, makes a nice contrarian cover signal. You know, like the ones that screamed the Dow was going to the moon? Well, proclaiming Bitcoin is fantasy and worthless will have the opposite effect.
Is the unicorn shitting out bitcoins?
from what I understand out of it is that the unicorn uses his horn to dig or "mine" bitcoins from his own poop and than it puts it in a ketle at the end of a rainbow where little short guys pick it up and buy sandwiches at subway with them or get their teeth pulled by a polish dentist.
LOL...too funny!
BITCOIN!!!!
S#ITCOIN!
Let me run the SpellCheck for you:
"ShitCoin"
is that the name of the unicorn?
Hi ho Bitcoin, away!
we should put it in a race!!!
NUMBER 1: BITCOIN
NUMBER 2: PIPEDREAM
NUMBER 3: BROKEN LEG
NUMBER 4: SHITFORBRAINS
2 LAPS!
PLACE YOUR BETS!!!
Bitcoin is going to totally destroy the way banking and the global economy works. Bitcoin is far more damaging than derivatives, because to some extent derivatives can be managed and covered up while Bitcoin's hyperdeflation cannot be.
if you say so...
Still waiting for BC to blow through gold like a hot knife through butter. . .
Should be Q1 or Q2 of 2014.
Careful what you wish for, at this rate gold will drop through BC.
I've read your comments with detached interest, and have actually been hoping BTC takes hold even though I want no part of it.
Your over the top comment here confirms that the crash is coming. People were saying the same thing when silver nearly hit $50. THE CARTEL IS RUINED!! THE CARTEL HAS BEEN DEFEATED!!! SILVER OVER $36 WILL BANKRUPT JPMORGAN!!
Good luck regardless.
There's no argument against religious conviction.
SD I'll take SHITFORBRAINS by a nose. Trying to win this argument with the bitcoin brat pack is like pleading with your 20 year old daughter not to run off with the loser boyfriend that just got out of jail and has been in rehab 6 times. She will never believe that a flaw exists or that her life will be hell because of it. Funny what humans can convince themselves is the end all be all. Take Obonzo for example.
Great analogy, my daughter took that bait at 15, I didn't fight her. Instead I be-friended said thug and made it my point to invite him over to spend time with us, she dropped him like a bad habit.
The PTB are playing this whole BTC phenomenon like a Stradivarius and for good reason, its their creation, TPTB are composer, conductor and orchestra all rolled up into one.
DaddyO
@ Sudden Debt
Man, with the Euro going to shit you've really turned into a humorless asshole. I liked you better when Greece first got screwed by the ECB.
PUT IN A DOLLAR AND BITCOIN WILL GIVE YOU THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFE!!!
http://tvrecappersanonymous.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/kiddie-ride.jpg
Fonestar you probably don't own a single Bitcoin, I'd be willing to guess you preach Bitcoin because it's 'trending' and missed the curve.
You revolutionary hipster.
WTF are you talking about? I've been on here since 2011 preaching Bitcoin. I am the Bitcoin trader in my area "fonestar", localbitcoins.com - 100% buyer and seller rated feedback.
It's you that doesn't own any Bitcoin.
Nah seems fabricated.
In fact, you can look up the Bitcoin address I have posted here several times.
Why you sellin bitcoins? You've posted it yourself Bitcoin a deal at 1.2k and will hit 10k
For someone so confident in Bitcoin I fail to understand.
Is this you? I'll put you on my trusted list.
That couldn't be fonestar. For some one who has been preaching Bitcoin for three years his trading volume should be easily 10k.
Zerohedge fonestar is the 'Gordon gekko' of Bitcoin.
The Michael Milken of digital currency.
That's only his LocalBitcoins trading volume, and LocalBitcoins is fairly new. He could also be using exchanges or CoinBase.
For an account established ten months ago when Bitcoin was <$150?
Idk bout you but if I were talking my self up I'd make sure it was on something with the greatest value.
And surely wouldn't brag bout my JCP stock if I was sitting on TSLA or AAPL.
You don't know what you are talking about. All of my BTC has not come from localbitcoins.com and if you bother to look most people on that site have zero transactions!
Zero transactions.... Probably cause it's a stagnet site.
I could easily make several accounts and positive feedback myself.
For there is no verification that any transaction actually took place.
Again, it holds no stock.
User reviews from users with low volume are segregated from the rest. Also, localbitcoins holds your coins in escrow, so they do in fact verify that Bitcoins went somewhere before they allow you to feedback someone.
And sure, you could make multiple accounts and send Bitcoins to yourself, but to what end? When we meet in person to exchange BTC for USD, you are going to use your fake reputation to . . . what?
You haven't thought this through.
Yes stagnet website...
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/localbitcoins.com
Williambanzai7 gets more unique views on his flcker account.
What he posts has more value then bitcoins also.
It appears you hitched your wagon to a horse with no legs fonestar.
"Is this you? I'll put you on my trusted list."
Yes, that is me.
SaroFL, if you care.
Thanks
I've been here since 2009, and I don't recall jack shit about BTC until the last few months. How about a post or two to prove me wrong?
Why don't you look up his post about selling his BTC @$780 or so and "missing the top."
pods
The info you claim to be yours says your account is only 10 months old with only 23 trades. Yeah, thats impressive.
oh jesus... here we go! get ready for about 60 responses
Correct Mr. Nelson. Never inspire the wrath of fonestar.
fonestar..............will be lonestar.............holding all the bitcoin!
All ponzis have to bring in new marks......to keep the ponzi going
that's all you need to know about peeps pumping S#ITCOIN
How many bitcoin for renting your unicorn?
The UNICORN is a female pitbull with a horn strapped to her head, but we would need Banzai to get the photo, or image
Her name will be the BITCOIN BITCH.
She will be the mascot of ZH
***
You want to rent the bitcoin-bitch by the hour, or day?
Do you have reservations, only available for rent with BTC's of course.
http://blog.petcarerx.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Pitbull-Unicorn-300...
oh my GAWD I finally found the inventor of bitcoin! (link)
Don't like your currency? re-bigulate it!
Shouldn't that be US dollars as unicorns?
QUARK!
nothing says confidence like latinum-pressed bit-quatloos.
I don't know. Why are investors so crazy for a currency that can be created on a computer out of think air? Oh, wait, never mind.
The absurdity of bitcoin highlights not the absurdity of bitcoin, but the absurdity of the yen, euro and dollar.
If the past is any guide, getting on the cover of Biz Week is the deathknell for Bitcoin.
http://vegasxau.blogspot.com
Yeah, a global currency really relies upon BW.
Replace unicorns with a cabal of private banksters and I wonder which side is looking ludicrous.
Tulip bulbs were at least pretty to look at.
What??? They must have photoshopped-out a bare-breasted Yellen.
I just puked in my mouth a little
Oh come on, he isn't that ugly.
pods
That's a real unicorn. You can't touch it, but it's real (it lives on your computer). It was invented by some guy who goes by the screen name Matsumoto Watanabe. Unlike horses, which can be bred to infinity, there will only be one unicorn ever produced. Now, who wants to show me a bid?
I'll give you 3 BTC, but only if it is actually a secret agent named Agent U.
pods
Dont worry it will crash and be over quite soon - just like it did in 2009 , 2010 , 2011 , 2012 , 2013 .....
What makes a bitcoin different than 1's and 0's stored on a debit card or credit card (and yes if you want to use the card argument then 1's and 0's stored on a USB thumb drive for bitcoins)? They are both nothing more than fungible digital to analog equivalents of money used to facilitate commerce. Isn't commerce ultimately about what a party and counterparty to accept to facilitate movement of goods and services not what some individual or organizations says everyone has to use whether they want to or not. Remember bitcoin is voluntary, it is not forced on your through coercion.
Any Ponzi scheme is voluntary, but not compulsory, and bitcoin is no exception.
The "Ponzi"slam is as worn - and wrong - as is the "Tulip" slam.
One who uses these terms is either an idiot, or thinks he is addressing idiots.
downvote = doubling down on idiocy
...but you know what they say..."You can't fix stupid."
when fiat exchanges close forever so there's no bag-holders at high fiat prices there will be no more ponzi.
Odds are that day will also mean there's no more bitcoin.
On bitcoins, gold and fiat:
http://1839assetmanagement.blogspot.com/
"Why are investors so crazy for an alterantive currency invented by a phantom?"
Beacuse they're nervous about the official currency being produced by a phantom.
There is that fucking word 'investor'
Wait a minute were told that BTC is just a way to launder, or maybe transfer, but not invest,
If it were to invest, then you can use BTC as collateral, but you cannot,
BTC is no more an investment vehicle than a femail pitbull in Washington State is a debutante.
I'm sure fonestar is going to tell us that pitbulls make fine wives in the world of BTC.
Can almost feel the contortions in your face from sucking down so many SOUR GRAPES , miss the boat did you ? Well you can still get on board if you want you ain't seen nothing yet ..
I don't want anything that the BITCOIN Ho's are selling to morons.
Do you even know what the word 'collateral' means?
You can't invest in something and not have it as collateral, that's entire point of an investment.
Say you have $50k, and you want to buy a house, the bank see's that as collateral if secured in a 'bank', but in the realm of BTC, the money doesn't exist.
Thus if your money is parked in BTC, you can't use it, that means that its useless.
So why do you even bother posting on these threads , if bitcoin is so shit and a total waste of time for you why go to the effort to create a username Satoshi101 - if it aint some serious sour grapes then you certainly have some serious gripes about something that's for sure , what exactly are you so pi$$ed about ?
Some people make careers out of being full-time tools.
Mocking retards is funny.
Yes, it's cruel but ... yer askin' for it.
Pot...kettle.
really?
So I come up with scatterplot trends for gold vs silver, disproving the g/s ratio theories, proving http://flic.kr/p/f17z1s in fact ln(silver) = gold x 3/2635 + 19/22 (roughly) and you call that being a retard?
What else makes sense in opposite-and-smoking-crack-world where you come from?
nope. not even a billion %.
Reason: someone will be the bag-holder and that person will get a return of -99.99999%.
It's a trap. Your baiting people into the trap is your only way not to be that person with the -99.9999% return.
We know it. Not buying. You're stuck with the bag now, sucka.
http://flic.kr/p/iFQMoV
Of course it's not an investment , I mean 6000% annualised returns for 5 straight years in a row - no that's not an investment is it ....
6000% - this is a classic sign of a Ponzi scheme and scam.
The internet growth rate was 10,000% + average for 12 years that's also a Ponzi as well ? Ever heard of adoption curves ?
For 10,000 what drove man was ...
Gold, Glory, and Girls
Today its ...
Bitcoin, YouTube Genital 'selfies', and sex with a female pitbull with a horn strapped to her head,
***
What's not to love about the New America?
Why can't America get no respect?
Pics or it didn't happen is the rule.
http://blog.petcarerx.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Pitbull-Unicorn-300...
Here she is, but she's no longer a virgin, fonestar already had his way with her.
My, My, My aint you a purdy little thing.
Hmm, seems like "bitcoin fatigue" has struck ZH. Not as many responses to bitcoin posts any more. Are we 14 minutes into the life of bitcoin?
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Some people still need that frying pan to whack them over the head.
The long term chart for Bitcoin may very well end up looking like the inverse of the chart showing the purchasing power of the USD since the inception of the Fed. Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Peeps are gonna realize we can all be on the same team here and help each other preserve wealth AND use Bitcoin for many other things.
The long-term chart for bitcoin will look like a cardiac patient injected with meth.
One big spike then it's all over.
Breaking news fiat/gold bug alliance - bitcoin is not a currency. Bitcoin is an open source peer to peer protocol that, among other things, can function as a currency. I once was a gold bug thinking as you do. Then I actually bother to educate myself instead of spreading uninformed fear of something I did not understand. As I progressed along my eduction about bitcoin at one point I realized my first impression of bitcoin as being a currency was incorrect. Most people new to bitcoin who are not coming from a computer programming background make this same mistake as I did - especially economists, financial analysts and other Wall Street types. Biticoin is not a currency. Bitcoin is a technology. It is an open source peer to peer technology that, among other things, can function as a currency. This distinction is important to make as it allows one to appreciate the bitcoin protocol has both non-monetary utility and monetary utility. While most often people focus on the monetary utility of bitcoin as a currency and it's related price, I have come to believe the non-monentary utility of bitcoin is of equal or possibly greater importance. It is the non-monetary utility of bitcoin that is the most exciting, the most revolutionary, the most destructive and therefore of great important.
The non-monetary utility of bitcoin allows us to use this technology as a safe and secure way to send wealth directly peer to peer from almost anywhere in the world to almost anywhere else in the world instantly, anonymously and for free. Trust in people or institutions is no longer needed as trust in counter-parties is replaced with trust in math. This powerful non-monetary utility of bitcoin is exactly the same if the price of one bitcoin is USD$1 or USD$1,000,000. If the price of bitcoin were to collapse tomorrow and never recover the destructive potential of the bitcoin protocol will continue to march along uninterested and unaffected. This is why I often say the price of bitcoin is irrelevant.
@john__connor
Nice "cut and paste"
Thank you. The source is here if you are interested:
http://knowmadiclife.com/blog/2014/1/7/zipzap-ceo-alan-safahi-bitcoins-h...
Here is some uninformed fear: THE GOVERNMENTS EITHER SECRETLY CONTROL THIS SHIT, ARE GOING TO TAXFUCK IT INTO OBLIVION OR WILL MAKE IT ILLEGAL. Thos do not seem like WIN/WIN kinda options to me.
ALL CAPS FOR EMPHASIS
FAIL.
The math does NOTHING to reduce counter-party risk. The protocol itself actually makes counter-party risk WORSE.
normally charges & transactions are reversible outside of bitcoin, though problematic at times.
With bitcoin they are NEVER reversible. The ONLY counter-acting fight to counter-party risk is a) tangible goods in hand (not bitcoin) and reversibility of transactions (not bitcoin).
FAIL. EPIC FAIL.
More people talk to me about the ability of Bitcoin to allow them to move money.
That is a utility that both gold and the dollar lack as a currency.
How fast I can move money is not nearly a priority compared to how securely I can keep it.
Verbot.exe..ldmem..mem ldsarc...sarc..ldwit..module missing press any key to continue....
Good day to all!.
Well here we are once again trying to explain why bitcoin is useful.
Bloomberg wont takeit to the logical conclusion so I will..
It is infinite...digital "money" comes from nothing and returns to nothing. .the "flow" is where folks do most of the biz.. so why care about 21million coins when they are made up just as any other virtual object?
I feel the usefulnessis in flow, not intrinsic value..fill a bitcoin with a dollar and take out any other currency from that coin at its "destination" or my new fav..the "middleton gambit" are correct uses..imho..
But in a new paradigm of infinite digital monies who really thinks scarcity has value?
Joesixpackis gonna get wind he dont have to bust his tail to get paid cuz money is all made up and then what?
Issue everone the currency unit and be the "railroad tycoons" as folks spin the new chit into usage..
Verbucks are doing well we left yours close by so look for yours if you have not yet today.. verbucks are accepted globally...
"But in a new paradigm of infinite digital monies who really thinks scarcity has value?"
Please google "fungibility" and "benefits of free market competiton on the quality and price of economic goods."
I poke because I care.. the old ways are not transferring to the new systems.. scarcity is no longer valid... what is left?? Being the issuer of credits on a system you run... perioddottheend...
Ownership of scarcity is moving to become system level Access as the new model of wealth..imho..
Lets put it this way, the only thing(s) interesting about bitcoin
1) Costs almost nothing to transfer back and forth almost instantly.
2) If it ever became a payment system, it would pretty much become impossible to tax, so the income tax, sales tax and other draconian "taxes" that we no longer need as a society will go the way of the dino's
3) If it ever became a mass adopted payment system (people taking paychecks in BTC) it would mean government would be forced to shrink by the simple fact that they can not tax or steal peoples money to continue growing.
4) its pretty much a libertarian currency.
5) it takes about the same resources to mine as gold not for nothing, so inflation is under control.
6) Its worth what the market says its worth, not what some asshole dumbass in government dictates its worth at the barrel of a gun.
Will it last ? I don't know, but there is a good chance its here to stay.
Its a great replacement for Visa/Mastercard/Amex/Banks thats for sure, can't wait for a bitcoin credit card of sorts to pop up.... fuck dollars, dollars fucking suck, fucking toilet paper.
" it takes about the same resources to mine as gold not for nothing"
I can't go along with the value/paradigm of BTC mining. What a total waste of electricity and related sresources. Surely he/she/they could have come up with a vastly more useful way to release coins into the bitcoin world.
How?
https://pathofmusashi.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/the-ten-commandments/
One could argue mining gold by digging a ditch pulling the gold out of the ground, smelting the gold and then putting it a bank vault is a waste of resources (fuel, food, man hours, machinery).
All that work to pull metal out of the ground and to shove it back under the ground in a bank vault where you will gamble on it with worthless paper.
Just leave the gold in the ground, save yourself the trouble and build the building ontop of the ground where the "gold is", save yourself the mining.
Mining is an integral part of the crypto currency system, just like the current FRN banking system, you need vast arrays of super computers running to calculate financial transactions and prevent double spending and counterfeiting.
Why is it ok to waste resources
-mining gold
-leaving super computers running so we can gamble the gold online with paper derivatives
But its not OK for someone to leave a few usb sticks buzzing in their garrage to calculate financial transactions and collect puny fees for the work the computer is doing?
Mining is intended as an incentive to keep the computers on so that the network can thrive in a decentralized environment.
People may complain "but the pools and big miners are centralizing it" its still VASTLY less centralized than FRNS/GOLD.
Who the hell owns gold? almost no one, the common man is too saddled with debt to own any meaningful amount of gold.
Sure a few individuals (1~7%) say? I would say thats a fair guess, have gold.
But even a poor man can own 0.0004 bitcoins.
Note: I don't even really like bitcoin, I just hate FRNS MORE.
Given a choice
Gold->Bitcoin->Litecoin->Casino Chips from a reputable Casino->Booze->Pizza->Federal Reserve Notes.
Thats the order of preference on what "money" I would like to get paid in.
The gold, ill take it, but I would honestly rather have the bitcoins because I can actually spend them online in just a few clicks in exchange for almost anything.
Gold? by the time you chop it up, you lost a fair chunk of gold dust to waste.
It only Bitcoin demagoguery.
The essence of demagoguery Bitcoin: better than other should live not the people who work, but those someone who have a more powerful computers.
The idea of ??universal happiness and prosperity without difficulty, at all times and always captures the minds of fools.
logic fail.
As it turns out bitcoin is exponentially harder to mine, gold isn't.
Bitcoin is exponentially harder to TRANSFER for the blockchain.
Gold ISN'T exponentially harder to transact.
I don't want to spend shit online with a click.
That's a dire threat to access to my funds.
I want my funds immune to online theft & the cure is gold coin in pocket, silver in hand.
I bet quite a lot of silver goes into those always-obsolete ASICs that can't be used for any other kind of computation, and that silver all goes to the dump. What a waste.
PGP / GPG signatures, no blockchain - that's what would have worked - and many people are too dumb to get it.
BITCOIN is finished.
Virtual currency? Yeah, OK.
But, why *Bitcoin*?
Isn't FedCoin or IMFcoin etc etc more likely?
Yup, those guys at the IMF would love to say goodbye to USD hegemony in favor of something that other nations like china can control.
For those who think that Bitcoin can't be devalued by a printing press like the dollar can ...
... lol ... and just what do you think is going to stop practical replication of the entire system by competitors? Or by a government? Bitcoin 2.0 baby! Give me a break. Anything that can be 'manufactured' out of thin air can be duplicated out of thin air.
Fungibility Spicoli. Learn it. Know it. Live it.
A rose is a rose by any other name ...
Fungibility in this case is potentially a lot wider than you seem to suspect. Keep living your delusions.
learn it: that's the qualification for any ponzi or debt note tickets.
Tired platitudes can also be replicated ad infinitum. Bitcoin 2 is very possible. So is the liklihood that people will switch from gold to rubber(s).
Ah, yes, and by your logic the world should only have ever known a single fiat currency. Keep telling yourself that a mere idea which is not even patented won't be replicated over and over.
All it takes is for a government to launch somehting like this with potentially unlimited supply and mining rights to the Fed and the plebs are guaranteed to lap it up and make Bitcoin irrelevant if it practically does just what they need Bitcoin to do. That is unless you admit that Bitcoins value is based entirely in speculation and not in utility.
haha
haha
Already there's a bazillion bitcoin 2's in use right now.
"Why are investors so crazy for an alterantive currency invented by a phantom?"
Just goes to show you how disgusted people are with Euros and USDs.
no , just shows how they've moved on from Beanie Babies and Hula Hoops
Bitcoin is just nothing new. It will take its place alongside all the other private, virtual, or whatever currencies out there. Private currencies are as old as dirt. The only difference with bitcoin is the algorithm for getting units of the currency. Note: all private currencies have some algorithm for getting currency units, and they're all different. Bitcoin has its algorithm too, and it's different.
"It will take its place alongside all the other private, virtual, or whatever currencies out there."
Bitcoin has the potential to be a niche financial instrument, serving a very small market, mostly black-market and grey-market transactions, a favorite of drug dealers, Mafia hit-men, and illegal international arms brokers.
The most vocal Bitcoin proponents seem to believe that Bitcoin will someday soon literally replace the U.S. dollar reserve currency system for the world, and they base their estimate of its value on this replacement actually happening. The concept that Bitcoin will replace the U.S. dollar, or replace anything, is absurd.
Have Visa cards replaced the U.S. dollar, or just added another method for people to perform transactions? Has Paypal replaced Visa or bank debit cards? Have people playing Monopoly on Saturday night replaced the real estate market?
At best, Bitcoin, and crypto-currencies in general, will add to the existing financial hodge-podge, just one more virtual trading vehicle, similar to a penny stock. At worst, its flaws will condemn it to being remembered as an experiment that was a good idea, but failed.
theumlaut.com/2014/01/08/bitcoin-internet-of-money/
"Ever since Paul Krugman started weighing in on Bitcoin recently, people have been using his notorious 1998 Internet prediction to mock him:
Krugman was dead wrong, but rather than mocking a man who now says he does not “claim any special expertise in technology,” I think we are better served by fleshing out the extremely apt Internet:communication::Bitcoin:finance analogy his critics raise. If we can see why Krugman might have thought that the Internet would not be significant, we might come to understand why many smart people think Bitcoin isn’t compelling and be able to explain why they’re wrong.......