I guess I missed the boat. What exactly are Bitcoins?
CommemKing
Posts: 2,202 ✭✭✭✭✭
Please help a novice out. What are they?
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CommemKing
Posts: 2,202 ✭✭✭✭✭
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Digital specie. They are generated by an app. and require a high capacity computer to generate at a practical rate for use with merchants that accept them as an alternate form of tender.
"Everything is on its way to somewhere. Everything." - George Malley, Phenomenon
http://www.american-legacy-coins.com
If you ask me, it was created to buy illegal narcotics off the world wide web, places like 'Silkroad' and the deep dark web. Hard to track virtual money.
"Keep your malarkey filter in good operating order" -Walter Breen
So you can launder money in theory?
Google it...very easy.
I seriously doubt it was created for that purpose. It has however been used in similar fashions ever since.
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How does one access the "dark web". I've heard of it. Are there collectible coins there?
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You didn't accept bitcoin payment for your commemorative set did you?
I'm as lost as you, is it something like the fact we used to use gold & silver for money?
Download the TOR browser.
eBay ID-bruceshort978
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I'm scared.
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Bitcoins are virtual currency. Instead of being stored in a bank, they are stored in computers all around the world.
Whenever someone transfers bitcoins from one account to another, it is recorded in what are called "block chains" in all the computers that store bitcoins.
Contrary to popular belief, bitcoins are traceable to the IP address used to create the bitcoin account (though using an IP Proxy is possible)
You can convert bitcoins to cash at a fluctuating exchange rate to different currencies. So you can make money "investing" in bitcoins by buying them with dollars and waiting for the exchange rate to go up, so you get more dollars later.
You can also make money by being a miner. This is someone who "rents" out computer processing and storage of the bitcoin block chains, but you have to be able to store a lot quickly to make money.
Bitcoins are trying to go mainstream, similar to PayPal or other EFT systems. Merchants like it because it costs less to process transactions than tradition payment methods.
Do not be too hard on yourself. They are virtual coins so they are hard to see and impossible to collect.
YouTube has a video of some of the stuff on the dark web. There apparently is some very sick (and dangerous) people circulating on there. Be careful!
"A dog breaks your heart only one time and that is when they pass on". Unknown
Sounds like a total scam.
So, I guess PCGS won't slab them because they're too hard to grade.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
I want a Dansco album for all my bitcoins.
Do not access the dark web from a PC you care about. Get a separate one and never mingle your worlds.
yes, however they are terminally toned silver.
I think the idea of a virtual currency like BitCoin is an interesting one but it is fraught with pitfalls. For example google BitCoin Price Index and you can see that the value over the past year has gone from about 500.00 to over 1000.00. And this is supposed to be a currency of sorts. So why all the volatility? Who knows...transactions are extremely difficult to trace and there can be no viable records of exchanges. I would not be surprised to find a high degree of manipulation. Plus how would you like to be the person who shelled out 1000.00 per BitCoin in 12/13 only to have is sink below 225.00 in 01/15? Of course it would be nice the other way around!
But the point is that it is very volatile and can be a losing proposition.
Another issue is that yes, you can get servers etc. and create a BitCoin but as mentioned, it costs more in energy than the BitCoin is worth. So who would do this? Hackers, governments, people who use corporate assets for personal use, etc. Sure there might be one hobbyist or computer guy who does it for fun but for the most part it is not cost effective. Search eBay for BitCoin Miner and you can get an idea of the equipment...note: the ones on eBay might take a very long time to produce a BitCoin. Using a state sponsored super computer is best!
Also...and this is what is really interesting IMO, as more and more BitCoins get mined, ie: programatically created, the creation of the next one gets more difficult. So the amount of computing power needed to create one is constantly increasing. Of course, computers are constantly getting faster and cheaper so there is some offset there...but....when BitCoins were first developed, the people who developed them and early adopters were able to create a lot of BitCoins fairly easily...so they created a currency out of nothing (other than idea and some very clever programming) that is backed by nothing really (other than used computer processing...which is essentially the same as backing it by the gas you used in your car last week), and were able to reap the most benefit from it.
And not sure if you all remember the well publicized case a few years ago where a BitCoin 'vault' was hacked into...all the BitCoins contained within were gone. Not insured, traceable, or anything else. Just gone.
With all that said...why BitCoin? Because of the speed and lack of traceibility mostly. You could have a virtual vault containing millions of dollars of BitCoins and no one knows you do. No reporting, 1099's or anything else.
Disclaimer - I am not a bit coin expert, just a computer guy who chats about this type of stuff with his co workers!
Thanks...
K
If I recall correctly, there is a bit coin registry ATS....... but they have weird computer numbers instead of dates and mint marks. Most of you would be well placed to stay on this side of the street.
OINK
I bit coin once. On a dare. I lost. The dentist won.
Oh my that's bad. Really lame. LOL
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Much like all currencies. Bitcoin actually has a good footprint and gaining momentum.
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Bitcoin...An area of finance I am avoiding. The dark web is far more interesting... however, it is also fraught with peril.... tread carefully... Cheers, RickO
I'm still confused about bit coins. Can a really good hacker bring down bit coins? Can a hacker steal your bit coins?
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
I will stick with the dollar.
Any photos?
Perhaps Dan Carr can produce some for sale.
and Hydrant is the frontrunner for POTD!! that was funny.
I get scared when printers/miners of currencies say they will always be a "finite" amount. A 100X or 1000X increase is finite...but problematic. Mining for precious metals takes a ton of energy in labor, equipment costs, and actual fuel. The logic for that sounds similar to mining for Bitcoins. The performance of metal mining over the past 10-25 years is rather volatile.
there is a bit coin registry ATS
You can get metal 'bitcoins' that have the matching bitcoin unique id on it somehow...but the actual coin itself is not really worth anything, just sort of a novelty item IMO.
K
Reminds me of a Ponzi scheme.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Bit Tulips
Gold has a world price entirely unaffected by accounting games between the Treasury and the Fed. - Jim Rickards
It's like underground money stuck in the computer. A computer is necessary to store it, save it , trade it, or spend it. It sits there like most coins. If I found one , it wouldn't be in a coinstar reject slot.