Bitcoins

Status
Not open for further replies.
I've recently become quite interested in using/mining bitcoins (since yesterday!).

It's a good concept. Money is just a representation of value that's universally accepted. It's usually backed-up by gold (another representation of value).
Bitcoins, from what I've gathered so far are backed-up by work (compute units).
They are starting to get more accepted, and how widely they are is key to how successful they'll be.

I'd assume that using and mining them are pretty safe, but buying them isn't yet.
 
not safe. i've read about people loosing lots of bitcoins after the server was hacked sometime back. seen lots of stories about people using someone elses bitcoins too.
 
Another issue is the production increases on log scale. So it rewards early adopters with money fairly easy which IMO is a bit unfair.
The exchange rate market is pretty thin so the rates can be volatile too.

Considering there is a fixed supply of money (12yrs to be full minted) it can be used as an investment medium too. Larger crowd running after a limited set of coins. ;) This will be true only if bitcoins survive this fad
 
Sorry for bumping really old thread, but is anyone @ TE trading in Bitcoins.

It seems like an incredible investment, of course with substanstial risks attached.
 
6pack said:
not safe. i've read about people loosing lots of bitcoins after the server was hacked sometime back. seen lots of stories about people using someone elses bitcoins too.
Click to expand...
That's not an issue with Bitcoins, but with the ones who are managing the transfers.

It's like saying "Money is not safe, banks can get robbed or credit cards stolen."
 
USA is moving towards banning bitcoins it seems. Read that California or some other state has started legal proceedings against the owner for money laundering and other serious charges or something like that.
 
6pack said:
USA is moving towards banning bitcoins it seems. Read that California or some other state has started legal proceedings against the owner for money laundering and other serious charges or something like that.
Click to expand...
There is no "owner" of Bitcoin. It is just a protocol maintained by a nonprofit organization. It does not own, control or manage any money transactions. What others do with it is an entirely different matter altogether.

Go through all the discussions here on slashdot. Will give you a perspective on what Bitcoin really is.
 
6pack said:
USA is moving towards banning bitcoins it seems. Read that California or some other state has started legal proceedings against the owner for money laundering and other serious charges or something like that.
Click to expand...

As opposed to regular banks that do not indulge anything of that nature :D

Its new york that started the subpoenas, now the senate is also discussing it.
 
Well I'm just surprised at such a lack of any discussion whatsoever about Bitcoins at TE. (Or did I miss a thread)

I have owned and made purchases with Bitcoins, seemed safe enough to me, the only problem is transferring money to all these portals, lose out quite a bit.. if there were an Indian trading portal where we could directly put in INR that would be great..

And yes there is no owner of Bitcoin and even if there were suing that person(or body of persons) , it would be like India suing America because some Indian is laundering money in USD.
 
@blkrb0t : right now m using www.buysellbitco.in , they charge a bit over and above MtGox. rates but its easier than sending an International Wire transfer to Mt. Gox account in USD which was the only other method I was able to do earlier.

Some new website rbitco.in is up and coming and they offer more competitive rates but the site is still not completely reliable (functionally).

I would suggest buysellbitco.in right now. You can make a NEFT transfer and get Bitcoins immediately into a wallet of your choosing, u have to use Axis or ICICI for immediate transactions though.

I am looking for a cheap and reliable alternatives myself.
 
@coolcrook - Well you would be surprised there are something called litecoins too. Current rates at $2.396 a coin. Leave alone TE, there are not even ET articles talking about it. So it all comes down to the latest and greatest fad when it is about discussions. BTC has it roots on Silk Road. If their rivals Atlantis, who are pushing litecoins, succeed, we might see a thread called litecoins next year.
@blkrb0t - I think the point @6pack was making was it is much easier to hack than it is to rob a bank. As for credit cards, you can get your money back , in bitcoins you can forget it when it is gone from your purse. And considering how easy (relative to robbing a bank) hack a computer using the 0-day attacks, bitcoins hacking pose a far greater risk.

All aside, bitcoins are just too volatile to be used in business, thats why it is not gaining many mainstream acceptance. As for websites which actually accept it, they have a payment provider (like Silk Road's escrow) which gives them a fixed exchange rate to do business with. So you wont see many shops changing their BTC demand day in, day out based on the fluctuating exchange rates.
Then there is a risk of US action. While we all like to believe US actions shouldn't matter, they remain the biggest threat as seen in case of Liberty Reserve. It was there one day and gone the other. All the money in LR was lost in one shot. So if ever US decides to brand bitcoins as a way of laundering money, its value will drop like a stone.

BTW, for anyone who doesn't know - Silk Road and Atlantis are the two biggest online drug selling sites - (ebay style).
 
sharktale1212 said:
@coolcrook - Well you would be surprised there are something called litecoins too. Current rates at $2.396 a coin. Leave alone TE, there are not even ET articles talking about it. So it all comes down to the latest and greatest fad when it is about discussions. BTC has it roots on Silk Road. If their rivals Atlantis, who are pushing litecoins, succeed, we might see a thread called litecoins next year.
@blkrb0t - I think the point @6pack was making was it is much easier to hack than it is to rob a bank. As for credit cards, you can get your money back , in bitcoins you can forget it when it is gone from your purse. And considering how easy (relative to robbing a bank) hack a computer using the 0-day attacks, bitcoins hacking pose a far greater risk.

All aside, bitcoins are just too volatile to be used in business, thats why it is not gaining many mainstream acceptance. As for websites which actually accept it, they have a payment provider (like Silk Road's escrow) which gives them a fixed exchange rate to do business with. So you wont see many shops changing their BTC demand day in, day out based on the fluctuating exchange rates.
Then there is a risk of US action. While we all like to believe US actions shouldn't matter, they remain the biggest threat as seen in case of Liberty Reserve. It was there one day and gone the other. All the money in LR was lost in one shot. So if ever US decides to brand bitcoins as a way of laundering money, its value will drop like a stone.

BTW, for anyone who doesn't know - Silk Road and Atlantis are the two biggest online drug selling sites - (ebay style).
Click to expand...

First of all I'm not surprised at all, I know about litecoins too.. was considering mining them at a point, but then I thought better of it and yeah I also know there are other such up and comping crypto-currencies.

Secondly, can u actually prove that robbing a bank is more difficult than hacking a computer(and oh thats oversimplification coz you cant simply hack a computer, there's more to it) ?
I acknowledge your point of view but I completely disagree with it.

Thirdly,yes bitcoins are actually too volatile to be used in business at least right now, but from an investment point of view I can see its only gone up. That's what attracts me as an investor, yes the research material on it is light but like everything else, there is always a method to the madness, sensex fell 800 points on Friday and I'm quite sure a lot of money changed hands but I'm still quite unsure why the drop was so large and so sudden. Also,yes its(BTC) value may drop, and in fact I think its already extensively used to launder money so I guess you are right there.

I have heard of Silk Road , its almost synonymous with Bitcoins but didn't know about Atlantis . But its a major misconception that BTC has its roots in Silk Road. Bitcoins came into being sometime around 2008, Silk Road began in 2011.

Sources:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/History
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road_(marketplace)
 
@sharktale1212 I know all about Bitcoins, but it is still not any easier to hack than real bank accounts. What you are talking about is hacking users and exchange sites and not the Bitcoin protocol itself; the protocol is very secure and will not budge even if the US government makes it illegal. It will still keep running; it works on some solid cryptology and peer-to-peer file sharing technology. The only difference is that currency exchange sites and legal shopping places won't be accepting it.

It's value might drop tremendously and those who use it as an investment will lose out, but the currency itself will still be valid.

And moreover, more Bitcoin-like currencies such as Litecoin or PPCoin will only give it more validity going into the future. Bitcoins don't have their "roots" in Silk Road; it's just what the market has adapted them for.

Silk Road closes down because of Atlanta? No problem, some other site(s) will crop up; though Atlanta is struggling from what I've heard. Illegal drug selling sites make up a large percentage of Bitcoin transactions, but as it picks up more legal sites and sales venues, it will only keep moving forward. The government can't shut it down completely; they can only restrict it, just like peer-to-peer file sharing.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom