There's no reason to have to leave, I'd like you to stay.  I just request that anyone who wants to discuss how much money they are making off the (fill in the blank) market, or suggestions for what to invest in, post in the basement or on a different forum.  

I pass no judgement on any particular currency or market or investment strategy -- to be honest they all seem like legalized gambling and scams to me -- including the US stock market, etc.  But that's besides the point.  If you want to invest in such things go for it, I just don't think we want this forum to be a place for discussing how to make money in the markets.

I would really like this forum to avoid anything related to discussing investing or making money on markets -- it's just not the place for it.
It's one thing for us to discuss the concept of something like bitcoins -- but when we start showing charts and talking about making money and when to buy and sell, etc.. that has no place here.

Yes, and there seem to be plenty of alternative forums to engage in or discuss these things.
However, because of its digital nature, it would seem to be relevant to discuss Bitcoins in the DC Forum, but not necessarily in the manner it predominately seems to be being discussed at present.

It is worth discussing because: To a student of economic theory and practice, Bitcoin is something that seems to break theory by peacefully offering a new, artificial, common, potentially safe and unregulated/uncontrolled (by any government) alternative to any and all national currency, and thereby potentially enabling the consumer to avoid the use of the banking system.
The potential implications are tremendous, apparently including, for example, transformation of the global money supply and associated inter-bank Forex and payments/settlements systems, greater freedom from taxation (forced State theft) and from compulsory/proprietary usury by the banks. Bitcoin would seem to have the potential to defeat the system of fractional reserve banking, which is a major means by which governments effect their State control over the voters.

For speculators to focus on the profits to be made from gambling in arbitrage trading, as a new market develops, would be a natural thing for any emerging market, and will generally assist in its development and stability - Bitcoin would presumably be no exception to that. However, there is some irony in that, where the trade profits are being measured in a State's currency, the new thing is being measured in terms of the old which it could eventually render obsolete. Bitcoins could potentially become the new Gold Standard and the major/only global currency, where the thing being traded (Bitcoin money) is the standard - a modern digital form of gold coins.

There are other forums on the Internet specifically set up for discussing and learning about mining and dealing/trading in the supply of Bitcoins - a good start might be, for example, the Bitcoin Forum - http://bitcointalk.org

If i seemed to be saying we shouldn't discuss bitcoins at all, then I should clarify my position.  I was only trying to say one should avoid discussions of investment strategies and talking about how much money one is making.

[  Looks like it's really taking off....]

Online electronics store buys into bitcoins as sole currency

An online electronics retailer, Bitcoinstore, has had such a successful trial run accepting only bitcoins for payment that it will continue operating.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2033373/online-electronics-store-buys-into-bitcoins-as-sole-currency.html

$171.4/BTC now o.0

How I wish I bought them back in '12 when they were $5/BTC

Hindsight is a heartless bitch.

I tend to follow about a dozen libertarian/counter-economics blogs. And needless to say, bitcoins seem to be their new poster child.  However, I find it interesting that the diehard bitcoin supporters are constantly crowing about how the prices are illogically ratcheting up while at the same time criticizing national monetary policies and currencies for encouraging inflation. Same goes for the widespread bitcoin supporters' criticism of fractional reserve banking for "printing money with nothing backing it " when there is really no underlying value you can pin a bitcoin to - other than the "irrational exuberance" that is apparently driving its soaring rates.

In the end, I think this is going to end with the usual wheeler-dealers making out like bandits, and the rest of the general public (who got involved in all good faith) being robbed blind. But that should come as no suprise. In the investment world that's called: business as usual.

I tend to follow about a dozen libertarian/counter-economics blogs. And needless to say, bitcoins seem to be their new poster child.  However, I find it interesting that the diehard bitcoin supporters are constantly crowing about how the prices are illogically ratcheting up while at the same time criticizing national monetary policies and currencies for encouraging inflation. Same goes for the widespread bitcoin supporters' criticism of fractional reserve banking for "printing money with nothing backing it " when there is really no underlying value you can pin a bitcoin to - other than the "irrational exuberance" that is apparently driving its soaring rates.

You ignore the *big* difference that Bitcoin is limited. Otherwise I agree with the above.

As to how it'll turn out ...

Yes app
it's not that I'm a fan of Bitcoin, nor even a fan of money at all - as we know it. Just wanted to point out to 40 that he ignored that important difference in his comparision with fractional reserve banking. It's a big reason it's doing so well and may be the making of it (could even possibly be the breaking of the fiat currencies).

I think I'm probably missing something again being a bitcoin neophyte. Limited in what way?

http://blockchain.info/charts/total-bitcoins

Bitcoin uses an inflation source method of Limited Release, i.e. the rate of inflation will be halved every 4 years until there are 21 million BTC.

http://eprint.iacr.org/2012/584.pdf

All this discussion seems to rather cloud the reality that Bitcoin started off as a very interesting kind of practical digital experiment in creating a crypto-currency, to test the theory as first described in 1998 by Wei Daito.

"b-money, a scheme for a group of untraceable digital pseudonyms to pay each other with money and to enforce contracts amongst themselves without outside help".

The initiator of the Bitcoin experiment went under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto. Towards the end of 2010 Satoshi apparently left the project saying he had moved on to other things.

However, the experiment continues unabated, and this discussion thread is tangible evidence that we have effectively become participants in it to some extent. Even if we are not directly involved in Bitcoin, we are all apparently part of the associated and influencing environment within which it operates.
Though the relative value of a Bitcoin in terms of exogenous currencies seems to be the most compelling factor for some, it is actually a by-product of the experiment. The current artificial and deliberate cap of about 20 million BTC numbers (objects) that can be created in/by the Bitcoin protocol is very interesting in that it is a control - it safely controls the experiment and caps the bubble that we see inflating/deflating (it is currently re-inflating after having had one major deflation).
This control affects/limits the endogenous money supply (M3) in this enclosed system, but not necessarily the velocity of circulation of the money. The latter may be theoretically unlimited, but in practice could be under a constraint set via a function determining the necessary CPU cycle time forced to be consumed in operating the protocol.

The discussion in this thread around Bitcoin's comparative US$ value appreciation worries me, because I have kinda "seen it all before" in other artificial bubbles, in stock exchanges and commodity exchanges in different parts of the world, and witnessed the financial outcomes for the real people (and their families) involved.
From experience and the study of real-life practical market economics and from econometric modelling and modelling the behaviour of traders in stock exchanges and commodity trading systems, I would strongly suggest extreme caution when considering committing any hard cash (or other assets) into Bitcoin.
As I said above:

For speculators to focus on the profits to be made from gambling in arbitrage trading, as a new market develops, would be a natural thing for any emerging market, and will generally assist in its development and stability - Bitcoin would presumably be no exception to that.

The rule-of-thumb for financial risk management in such speculative markets is: Do not risk more than you would be prepared to lose or could afford to lose.

$171.4/BTC now o.0
How I wish I bought them back in '12 when they were $5/BTC
Hindsight is a heartless bitch.

Don't let the glare of the potential gains dazzle you to the extent that you are unable to see the potential losses (statistical history: there's already been one relatively major deflation, don't forget), and be aware that fear is likely to be a primary motivator in your behaviours - fear of potential loss of an unrealised potential and intangible gain. This is or would be absurd/irrational. As well as being irrational and acting as an amplifier for our innate greed under these circumstances, fear is one of the most destructive of human emotions, and it is extremely difficult to remain rational whilst in a state of fear - and therefore easy to make mistakes.
Money can make a very good servant, but a dreadful master.

 Well....I'm no financial genius or stock market expert, but I think I'll just keep my cash in a money market account, even if the interest rates are for crap.  Thanks once again Uncle Sam.  

 But I do know that I just popped open a bottle of Samual Adams Alpine Springs Ale, and it's just soooooo good it very well may lead to another.  If nothing else it will at least make me forget all about this head cold I have and the for-crap finances the U.S. is sweltering under.  But then again, this isn't the forum for that.....