Anyone Heard About Bitcoins Yet?

American dollars are backed by nothing but greed, fear, and lies. At least bitcoin removes the lies.

Really? Anything, like a house? Do people pay for things in Bitcoins (where accepted) or convert it into real currency? I can imagine the reaction someone would get at the currency exchange trying to convert their coins into money.

Bitcoin, a Ponzi? Oh my. It seems many of the cornerstone institutions of our society are as well. The Federal Reserve banking system with its magical "fractional reserve" feature is certainly a Ponzi. By it's very nature there can never be enough money in the banks to pay the depositors. Nice, huh?

And the FDIC safety net is a phony "Insurance" entity that draws more funny money from the Fed to pay depositors back in worthless paper. At best the operators of the system create money from nothing and the inflation it causes gets handed to the people who can least afford it.

And let's not forget Social Security. New blood needs to come into the system constantly to pay off the senior members. It started as an investment trust but it turned into a pyramid...

Why is it if private individuals and companies create Ponzis they get slapped around by the system but when the big boys running things do they call it business as usual?

Should have bought it when they were 5 cents. Not it is way overpriced and too much of a risk. Still interesting.

Yes it is a ponzi scheme but so are all the banks in the world. Your money is not actually at the bank, it is just being used somewhere else for higher interest. If everyone wanted their money all at once.......good luck with that.

I'm no economist but the Bitcoin market seems strange to me.

The value of any currency usually declines when more is printed - when, that is, there is no real substance to support the value.

With Bitcoins, the value has "increased" as more are released but that's due to more people buying into this virtual currency as an "investment". So people are buying and holding and from what I see the increase in value is only due to more people wanting to buy and those holding BC being willing to take some "profit".

In reality, Bitcoins only have value if you are wllng to buy through Bitcoin merchants who are selling products as a way to increase their holdings of Bitcoins.

What happens when the last of the Bitcoins are released (the release is said to be finite) - and people like the brothers decide to take their profits? Bitcoin value is increasing because the number of investors holding BC is increasing. So the only "backing" of Bitcoin is from those willing to pay more and more to acquire the currency.

Any currency that has a 50-70% fluctuation in value in a week's time is not a solid investment to me but others may think it's a great deal.

It depends on which wallet you are using.

Didn't see it and can't find it posted online yet. However while searching found some BC forums where people were grumbling about it.

Interesting Colbert touched on Bitcoin today

Bitcoin exchange BitFloor halts operations, shuts down | Internet & Media - CNET News

Just saw it. And I agree, bitcoin should be avoided.


Bitcoin Plunge - Adam Davidson - The Colbert Report - 2013-17-04 - Video Clip | Comedy Central

Steve - They are losing their US bank accounts in this case. Their site has an announcement on the home page about it.

I know other BitCoin exchanges have had problems recently with denial of service and hacker attacks. My understanding was this particular exchange was fairly popular.

I wonder if the biggest threat to BC in the future is the dark side of using the bitcoins for illegal/shady purposes and the ability to hack the exchanges and influence the value.

Investors might accept the risks (and there may be an ability to short BC before too long and trade them in the Forex market) - but the public won't be interested in using e-currency until it is considered respectable and stable. That could be a while.