The Bitcoin Tracking Thread

[joboo]

i just don't understand paying $60 something for an electronic bit when you could buy 2 morgans for that.

I could see it happening. I somehow knew people would eventually warm up to the concept of having X money on a USB thumb drive. Convenience of fiat from a transport perspective, and out of the hands of the bankers.

[madfranks]

I noticed that some large retailers are now taking Paypal (Home depot). I wonder how long before retailers start taking bitcoin too?

[Cebu_4_2]

Finally finished but the size is under 100MB, wtf took up 6GB and where did it go? Strange stuff.

Looked up data mining, wow some of these guys are seriously hooked on feeding the electric companies!

[Ares]

Finally finished but the size is under 100MB, wtf took up 6GB and where did it go? Strange stuff.

Looked up data mining, wow some of these guys are seriously hooked on feeding the electric companies!

No kidding, look at some of the bitcoin mining rigs on YouTube. Some are absolutely insane. The 6GB I BELIEVE was the client verifying the blocks it was given. So it was a lot of back and forth with the p2p network.

[mick silver]

so you take your paper money that you could be using to buy food and silver with to buy bitcoins , so what have i missed . wait i have food , land . silver , gold . all the tools i need and yet to me i dont see why i would buy bitcoins . hey guys used the paper you have now to top off the stuff you need . because the goverment will stop bitcoin and you all know this . they will not lets bitcoin take from the fed , just look at the wars we all have seen in ten years

[vacuum]

so you take your paper money that you could be using to buy food and silver with to buy bitcoins , so what have i missed . wait i have food , land . silver , gold . all the tools i need and yet to me i dont see why i would buy bitcoins . hey guys used the paper you have now to top off the stuff you need . because the goverment will stop bitcoin and you all know this . they will not lets bitcoin take from the fed , just look at the wars we all have seen in ten years

I agree, I don't think you should "invest" in bitcoins, like you shouldn't invest in any currency.

There are three reasons you might want to buy bitcoins:

1) You see something you want to buy. Get bitcoins and buy what you want. It doesn't matter if they are $0.01 or $100 each, you just get what you need and make your purchase.

2) You want a diversified basket of money or currency in case of an emergency. So you get $500 or $1000 in bitcoins, and if you get stranded in another city/state/country, thugs steal your stuff, or whatever, you've got a few emergency dollars.

3) Speculation. This is if you are an expert on money/cryptography/banking. Or perhaps you want to gamble on something high-risk. It's just like any other speculative thing.


None of those things counts as an investment, such as food, ammo, real estate, etc. Nor is it a store of wealth like gold and silver.

Investment and wealth preservation aren't reasons you'd want bitcoins. The above three reasons, however, are why you might want them.

[madfranks]

I just saw this interesting quote from an article I read:

While fear and uncertainty spreads across the European banking sector, that fringy cybercurrency we’re hearing so much about, Bitcoin, shot up roughly 25% overnight. Maybe a 400%-plus increase YTD signifies a bubble…then again, parachutes tend to appreciate rather quickly when the plane begins to nose-dive.

http://lfb.org/today/deja-vu-all-over-again/

[MNeagle]

Man Lists Bungalow for Bitcoins

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/d10...0321_wmain.jpg


Taylor More is selling his family's bungalow with an asking price of $405,000 (that's Canadian dollars) or 5,521 Bitcoins. He would rather have the Bitcoins.The two bedroom room and one bath bungalow in Alberta, Canada, sits on 2.9 acres of land along the Crowsnest River. That part of the deal is easy to understand. Why More wants Bitcoins isn't.

"I just really believe in them and once I read my first article about them, I was hooked," said More, who is 22 and said he used to be a currency trader. "I can take control of my own money, I don't have to worry about the government stepping in and taking it and freezing my account."

Bitcoins are digital currency. One Bitcoin is equal to $72.50. There are no actual coins, but they have been growing in their use. Stores like Walmart even sell gift cards for Bitcoins.

"I have a few ventures that I am working on that involves Bitcoins and I am going to need a lot of Bitcoins to do them. I thought this might help Bitcoin gain some ground, once people see that you can actually buy a piece of property or a physical tangible thing," said More.

More would not specifically tell ABC News what he was working on, but did say, "Bitcoins are rather hard to get your hands on."

More's listing has only been up for a few days and there has yet to be an offer, but he is hoping that the media attention will help. "If someone had a partial payment in Bitcoins, I would be willing to negotiate, but I wouldn't turn down somebody who had cash," More said.

Charlie Shrem, CEO of BitInstant, a payment processor for Bitcoin exchanges and other merchants, describes the digital money as "both the currency unit and the payment system… It's as if cash had wings and it could fly."

"I think it would be great," Shrem said of More's real estate offer. "It would be a private transaction. He can sell his house to anyone in the world, it doesn't have to be from Canada, and it won't cost anything to move that money."

[woodman]

No matter how limited they are and how secure and independent they may be, I still see them as fiat. They are backed by nothing tangible.

[Ares]

No matter how limited they are and how secure and independent they may be, I still see them as fiat. They are backed by nothing tangible.

Fiat?? Who is forcing you to use and conduct commerce in BitCoins?

They are backed by nothing tangible? The very same thing is said about the U.S. dollar. It is both fiat (ordered by government) and is neither backed by anything tangible.

The only difference with Bitcoins is that it has a set limit, and no government can regulate it, and it is far from fiat. No one is forcing anyone to use them. It's a free market digital currency and will rise or fall on it's own merit.