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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.
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“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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Good stuff.
But I'm not sure that they'll dig it.
BTW: correct link is
http://theumlaut.com/2014/01/08/bitcoin-internet-of-money/
The Bible and the U.S. Constitution, have not the word "Bitcoin". But we see there many times the words "Gold" and "Silver".
"Gold" and "Silver" were created by God. Bitcoin was created by some thieves who hide their real names.
Does God have a real name? Exodus 3:13
No. Exodus 3:14
I wish God were a thief instead of being a mass murderer:
Name of God - is God.
But you can not be a judge for God, because you are mortal.
The Name of God is Brutal God of War
There is no need for me to judge God:
His actions show his true nature.
Actions or inactions of God can not show you anything.
Your life - it is a moment, but God - it's an eternity.
The best judge - it is a time, but you do not have time.
You are trying to talk about God inside the small timeframe of your life.
It's like falling raindrop, will be try to think and to judge about your actions.
The best judge is evidence, not time.
Evidence is no god ever existed or ever could.
No creation, no god, no spirits, no magic, no sky fairy.
iT TAKES but a few moments to confer with all the evidence of nature to see god is a fiction of man's dreams.
You can call it God. You can call it Nature. You can call it whatever you like. But the meaning is not changed - you are not a master of your destiny and your life.
You is only pseudo master of your fate and your life.
no, it's me, I'm the master of it.
I know my choices & what they mean and that's all fate ever was.
mortals are the best judge of fictional things like gods.
This is just naive and misleading view of themselves and those of mortal men no more. As Bitcoin. People are made of misconceptions and fallacies.
'GAWD' : in name & by followers the most guilty of mass murder in the history of all civilization.
You are trying to shift the blame from the people on God. You're just trying to justify the mistakes and crimes of their own kind.
what's the difference?
Crazy people invent gawd, crazy people kill in the name of gawd, no actual 'god' ever existed to be some universe-creator, etc., so how can you differentiate? These aren't separate topics nor can they ever be.
Don't be absurd - bitcoin is backed by the full faith & credit of the Winklesoshi twins.
It does not matter on the what Bitcoin is based.
Silver - was created by God or nature - is the way you like more. But Bitcoin was created by one of the servants of God like you (or one of the servants of nature).
For this reason, you can live without any shit-bit-coin in the nature. But you can not live without Silver. Without Silver in the nature, you die. And after will be ended your talk about any nonsense like bitcoin.
Bitcoin – a product of the Federal Reserve.
Only the blind can not see it.
Dollar discredited itself in the eyes of the public. The Fed also discredited itself in the eyes of the public.
Of course for Fed was needed make a legend about some Satoshi, buyout supposedly created Bitcoin, and then he is evaporated.
Thus, the Fed shows for fools (which the majority) that Bitcoin - a system that "does not belong to anyone," and "no one is controlled".
But this is absurd. In the world there are no financial assets and payment systems that have no legal owner,
with a specific name, surname and ID number.
All that is in front of the prefix "The global World or International" - it is the property of the United States. Or controlled by the United States.
Everything else - the local and minor.
Federal Reserve no longer need gold. Now they have a Bitcoin. As soon ends era the first fiat money - the U.S. dollar, immediately begin the era of other fiat money under the control of the Fed - it will Bitcoin.
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.
http://bitcoinmagazine.com/8531/u-s-air-force-building-bitcoin-payment-gateway/
One of the main objectives of Bitcoin - it distract investors from investing in gold and silver.
Bitcoin today is the main enemy of the PMs and the main instrument of the Fed for to suppress the price of PMs.
Bitcoin is no enemy of PM's , but bitcoin and PM's are an enemy of Fiat.
bitcoin & fiat share all the same flaws but one.
Fiat is backed by violence from governments.
Bitcoin isn't.
Both share every other flaw about lack of value & counter-party risk as claim-tickets aka debt-notes.
bitcoin is backed by exacty the same thing gold is backed by: Faith.,
gold has no faith backing.
Gold is backed by the atomic nucleus which is a product of a supernova.
Faith has no place in valuation of gold, never has.
The physics indicates what gold can do, what it can't, and how much gold there is. THAT ALONE dictates the value of gold. Nothing else. No faith.
INDEED.
Those too poor or not foolhardy enough to BTFATH in stawks by rejecting "the man" are being suckered into buying the "anti-man" stawk, bitcoin, which is also in a bubble.
Suckers are easily parted from their assets.
Suckers are easily parted from their asses
Please clarify
That which is tangible & needed is an asset.
Even if dollars are not, forced fiat, people are forced to use fiat to get assets of need.
Parting with assets for stawks & bitcoinz is the same be it selling gold, food, tools, etc., for btc, for cash, or selling cash for btc & losing it all then NOT getting food, gold, silver, guns, ammo, medicine, etc.
Next it will be on the cover of Newsweek.
"Mining was supposed to be a democratized thing, but it’s now only accessible to the elite of the elites”
Just like Fed, owned by the elite banks, creating $75B every month out of thin air.
Again more FUD , most bitcoin transaction verification aka 'mining' is done by individuals with USB ASIC sticks or customised mining hardware , its highly distributed , big centralised farms are very rare the 2 biggest farms in the world represent less than 1% of total verification capacity one is in Iceland and the other in Hong Kong.
Verbot...warmboot...mmmmm warmboot..
Wow, that swerved to a few new placeswhile I was away..
If I may, gold dug from the ground has more usefulness than our hoarding or use as curren y and that is why I play silver... (I own it and dont sell it..long run it is easy money)..industry could use gold better than our odd need to fascinate ourselves with it. Not sure why in the 21st century we dont as many great uses of gold would drive the price on mode1 commodity model supply/demand. More than the current "mental valuation model" yup...I said that..
Bitcoin....bitcoin... (have to know the two parts)is value from time energy spent making a "secure digital boxcar" (sorry satoshi but I just think of them as cars on a track and in pools waiting to move about the internet) so from a dealer to dealer perspective it has much to offer in making sure....no matter what we use to fill it where ever it may end up it is assured to be as advertised and unmolested... the internet is wild and wooly so a good boxcar means the railroad payroll arrives.. of course we are mentally using bitcoin as a marker for other monies which is odd when said aloud but all monies are such devices...right??.
Anyhoo...many folks are going to have to say "why do I give value to something when all stems from some odd crazy aspect of mankinds harsher times.. girls didnt have teevee so some shiny would get it done..now ya got to add to the deal and thats devaluation in my mind.. gold plate every silver bar and use them for solar power and enjoy real high prices you can transfer into bitcoin (et al...chit services) to follow you in the cloud.. we wont but our kids may so lets gang up and get the real work done?...imho..
I spent my youth munching as many fucking freshly picked mushrooms as I could swallow , I just read your shit and I don't have a fucking clue what you are babbling about. Either I am still completely fucked or you are ? Which is it ?
if they didnt say Bitcoin is GAY, bw missed the essence of it
I'm crazy for Bitcoins because they have a fixed supply and you actually own them. They aren't London good delivery bars that may or may not exist. They aren't stored for safekeeping but will take 10 years to repatriate. They aren't 1 billion paper vouchers for 1 million underlying assets. They aren't a debt instrument subject to arbitraty creation by a lender. They aren't tungsten with a gold wrapper. They are, provably, mine. That the transaction fees are low and predicable and they cut out a very evil set of middlemen (Central Bankers, Paypal, Mastercard, & Visa) is just icing on the cake.
I like actual real physical gold for all the same reasons but the modern world mind-bogglingly refuses to embrace it as a currency. Therefore, bitcoins.
All of that said, Bitcoins will be replaced. The time to permanently verify a transaction is simply too long. I can't pay for my blender at Wal-Mart and then hang around for 30 minutes to get the transaction into one block, much less two hours to get it verified. _That_ is the long-term barrier to adoption.
World refuses to accept gold as currency? Where do you get this nonsense?
Currency code gold, has the designation «XAU». It is recorded in the same approved list of currency codes ISO 4217, where recorded codes such as the Euro currency (code EUR), U.S. dollar (code USD) and so on. Have you seen any Shit-Bit-coins in this list of currencies?
FFS the world does not refuse to use gold as a currency the fucking idiots do not know what real money is therefore they cannot see the use for gold as a currency. The upcoming new genrations only know this electronic smartphone technology shit so that is why they will go for online digital currencies it's the future gold is for their old grandparents valve radio b&w TV set dont ya gettit ????
logic: fail.
Paper claims on gold have a general price floor given they are associated to a physical thing.
The association is weak due to fraud & poor market vigilance.
Bitcoin has no such claim.
Both are strings of electrons - marks on paper have no greater or lesser value then electron strings, they are functionally equivalent.
So at best btc can be no better.
However btc has something worse: there is no floor. No bottom. It can go to zero because nothing but nothing is guaranteed redeemable for it, even if the guarantee is incredibly weak.
Paper claims on gold are weak.
ANY claims on ANY good or service with bitcoin is worse than weak, it's ZERO.
For a while it can happen but that's like being lucky enough to run through traffic and not get hit. The cars are coming and people WILL get hit.
Do you really want to be one of them?
Otherwise I do agree the blockchain Fail is critical and will ensure the demise of bitcoin.
We don't need a block chain. We only need enough peer to peer verification to ensure fraudulent transactions are stopped, reversed, predicated ahead of time to prevent future fraud, and signatures like with GPG / PGP to verify any claim to value has not been created by fraud. The blockchain, exponentially expanding & taking exponentially more time to mine more bitcoins, is about the worst possible implementation.
Your brainless shit just made me go and buy even more BTC at insane price
This is the best comment of ZH regarding bitcoin in existance.. rock on.
OK, you pay insanely high prices for a thing worth not even $0.50 and you'll be sorry.
Go for it. Buy more. Go all in.
Chit services....gonna be some winners in the space but how to do it? Legislate or lure...hmmm...
I made each verbuck just for you alone.. see it? Verbucks are artful yet useful..your favorite things can be had using verbucks yet they take up no space and can never be stolen for they reside inside your mind.....you read it...you can un--read it...
Verbuck is whats for money!!!
Classy reply miner..up voted ya..
Well I salute anyone with smarts and knowhow so the whole bitcoin idea gets a wink from me..so now can we build a moonbase? Its fun exploding the whole concept of money with gusto but the moon needs us there.. I am heavily invested in good old natural breathing air and I need a game changer for my holding to increase.. I get too many poachers on earth..
Free breath army stealing my good air! The freeloading louts!
So...my planis to convince the really smart folk to stop playing currency tycoon and start launching all your freeloading butts into space.... we will decide how you all will pay for your air...but you will pay.....
So we good? Get Elon on the horn..I love that guy!...
bitcoin: the second derivative of nothing
Correction:
bitcoin : globally distributed financial ledger
(Currently the greatest financial innovation in the history of this planet).
Jesus Chris just reading these posts makes me realize that ZH is full of some of the smartest and absolute dumbest people at the same time.