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Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

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40hz:
Paypal is in a very delicate position and stands to lose far more than they'd gain embracing and unconditionally endorsing Bitcoin right now. Bitcoin is still largely the province of geeks and campus coffeshop economic revolutionaries and bloggers. Until Bitcoin becomes more mainstream (and the bitcoin crowd tones down their rhetoric a bit and stops talking down to those who don't share their religion) I don't think Paypal is gonna stick their neck out too far for Bitcoin. At least not until the whole "Bitcoin thing" grows up a little more- in every sense.
 :)

Renegade:
Paypal is in a very delicate position and stands to lose far more than they'd gain embracing and unconditionally endorsing Bitcoin right now. Bitcoin is still largely the province of geeks and campus coffeshop economic revolutionaries and bloggers. Until Bitcoin becomes more mainstream (and the bitcoin crowd tones down their rhetoric a bit and stops talking down to those who don't share their religion) I don't think Paypal is gonna stick their neck out too far for Bitcoin. At least not until the whole "Bitcoin thing" grows up a little more- in every sense.
 :)
-40hz (November 04, 2013, 06:43 AM)
--- End quote ---

I take it that you're not a convert? :P ;D

To the moon!!! ┗(°0°)┛

Here's a quick run down:


* When this thread started, bitcoins were trading at $12.35.
* Today they are $232.00.
* Had you bought $100 worth of bitcoins when this thread started, you'd have almost $2,000 worth of purchasing power today.
* Miners have invested huge amounts in dedicated hardware.
* Thousands of businesses all over the world accept bitcoins.
* Many new companies are starting up to offer dedicated bitcoin services and physical products for Bitcoin.
* Online trading platform companies are spamming ads saying they offer a bitcoin trading platform just to get you to their site only to discover that they don't let you trade in bitcoins.
* BTC China has become the #1 exchange.
* Chinese money is pouring into both bitcoins and litecoins.
* OKcoin.com is going berserk with business.
* Looking at bitcoin charts, price rises are solidly backed by buying (green bars).
* Long term trends are all up without exception.
40, you seem to be so resistant in the face of overwhelming evidence that this really is the next big thing. Wouldn't you have loved to have bought "sex.com" or some other sweet-ass domain name way back for $75? Being dirt poor at the time, I didn't. I later wished that I had.

I can see PayPal being resistant and waiting until more merchants start accepting bitcoins and Bitpay and the other BTC processors start to become a thread.

Just the way bitcoins work for payments is so much better than credit cards or PayPal or whatever. There's just zero comparison. Send however much you want to whoever you want, wherever you want, whenever you want, and all for $0.02 *IF* you want to pay a fee at all. Yes - paying a fee for sending money is entirely optional!

I've sent money all over the world to countries on 4 continents for almost nothing. The loose change on my desk is orders of magnitude more than the fees I paid to send that money. And the money arrived near instantly!

I didn't get raped on foreign exchange spreads. I didn't get routed through a half dozen banks that all take a cut. I didn't have to pay fees on both ends. I didn't have to wait several days. All of which I have to deal with when using "regular" banking.

It not being religious. It's just looking at overwhelming evidence and recognizing it for what it is.

I really don't understand why I'm the only one here at DC that's excited about this.

40hz:
I really don't understand why I'm the only one here at DC that's excited about this.
-Renegade (November 04, 2013, 11:30 AM)
--- End quote ---

Maybe we've been around the block (some of us) long enough that we might consider something interesting to think about but still not something that's worth getting excited over? (Students of history - and would-be activists on the receiving end of realpolitik - know what I'm talking about here.)

Seriously, there's a lot more to economics than a cute idea and some basic mathematics. Especially if you've studied business and economics. There are social, legal, and practical considerations that all factor in to the mix. And there's a big difference between a theory and its implementation because the devil is always in the details. That's why any given "ism" hasn't been universally adopted as this planet's government despite numerous good arguments for one or the other.

Economics is about human behavior. And "better mousetraps," " common sense," "seeing what's obvious," and "being logical" don't always apply in situations revolving around what humans do and choose to believe.

Money isn't an exercise in programming logic. If it were, we'd have licked our monetary problems ages ago.
 8)

40hz:

40, you seem to be so resistant in the face of overwhelming evidence that this really is the next big thing. Wouldn't you have loved to have bought "sex.com" or some other sweet-ass domain name way back for $75? Being dirt poor at the time, I didn't. I later wished that I had.

-Renegade (November 04, 2013, 11:30 AM)
--- End quote ---

Two points:

1) While fully electronic currency may indeed be "the next big thing," Bitcoin won't be "it" once it is. No government on this planet will allow it. Regulation of the currency is a key power of government. Nobody is going to cede that to some independent entity outside of government control. Bitcoin, like Paypal, will play by rules handed down to them if it is to survive.

Fully electronic currency, however, is an idea whose time has come. Because unlike cash, it must create records if it's going to work. And that provides the perfect mechanism for the absolute surveillance of everybody everywhere at all times.

Be careful what you wish for. :huh:

Want anonymity? Take a tip from government covert ops and criminals everywhere. Use cash, real gold, or real diamonds. Electronic anything just won't cut it.

2) Regarding sex.com - not really.  ;D But had I had invested $10K in Microsoft in the first year after it went public, I'd be worth close to 5 million today. That's about a 50,000% total return. Cisco and a few other companies I knew enough about to intelligently invest in had similar rates of return. No need to go that far outside the mainstream to make good money. Just the willingness to do something with what you know the best or most about.

 :Thmbsup:

tomos:
I have no investment in Bitcoin in any way (literally or beliefs-wise), but I'm happy to see it, and to see what happens with it. I believe it will change things, even if it eventually collapses or 'is collapsed' or just corralled. It has changed things already. People are thinking about possibilities and looking at how it's working - and if it doesnt, someone else will come along with a new improved version. Or maybe something completely different.

Re PayPal/Ebay, they'll actually go in there if they think it will be profitable, or worthwhile (= profitable indirectly). One scenario is: if it does start to become more popular - or if they even just suspect that - it will be in their interest to support it. Otherwise people will be using bitcoin with no fees - and why should they then revert to PayPal, who want their pound of flesh from you for the privilege of using it? Another scenario is, if they think the advertising will be worth any possible hassles (I'd reckon it's no big hassle to them -any hassles, they just stop supporting it).

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