Bitcoin

Bitcoin


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin



Is Bitcoin poised to be the largest fraud ever perpetrated upon the world?

Unleash the pain upon the greedy, ignorant and naïve.

It's not a fraud, it also isn't going anywhere so there's no reason to discuss it.

Why the fuck can't I read? I thought that said botcon and got excited. I love me some botcon...

GoFuckYourself said:

Bitcoin


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin



Is Bitcoin poised to be the largest fraud ever perpetrated upon the world?

Unleash the pain upon the greedy, ignorant and naïve.

Click to expand...

Trust in Steve Gibson.

I love bacon.

Keep reading that as "Bitchcoin."

koalabear said:

I love bacon.

Click to expand...

Who doesn't?

GoFuckYourself said:

Bitcoin


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin



Is Bitcoin poised to be the largest fraud ever perpetrated upon the world?

Unleash the pain upon the greedy, ignorant and naïve.

Click to expand...

I don't I know enough about it. I think something like it is the future.

The technical side I don't know nearly enough about. I do get that peer acceptance and verification is the foundation of such schemes, but how is that reliably hack-proof?

I would expect all such schemes to be denounced by those who like this status quo for whatever reason. Governments that want to continue to print worthless money. Thanks that want to get paid for stirring 'money' around. Taxing authorities...


It's all very interesting.


Lot of fodder for discussion in my opinion.

That's the problem query. Governments don't print useless money. They print actual money and it has a worth no matter how much you may wish differently dollars, yen, pesos, ruples, pounds and Euros all have worth and can be exchanged for goods and other currencies.

The primary difference with the Bitcoin in theory is that it would be inflation proof because they would very carefully monitor it to keep it from inflating. Which is probably impossible but hey you can try I guess.

The governments would most likely band together and outlaw this if it ever really got going for obvious reasons though.

Sean Renaud said:

The governments would most likely band together and outlaw this if it ever really got going for obvious reasons though.

Click to expand...

They have tried but with little success.

At some level I can understand it too. The Bitcoin system was designed to evade control and secure anonymity which makes it ideal for moving money around without leaving a data trail. Terrorists and drug dealers have dreamed about something like this for a long time.

They don't seem to have put any real effort behind it because it's not big enough. I'm sure that new kid with too much spare time was allowed to spend an afternoon hassling the Bitboin people. The government will show up when McDonalds starts accepting Bitcoins at the drive through.

The problem with bitcoin is that it's the answer to a question that only a select few care about.

The rest of us are quite fine with, you know, money. It's not perfect but for the most part it does what we need in our everyday life.

Liar said:

The problem with bitcoin is that it's the answer to a question that only a select few care about.

The rest of us are quite fine with, you know, money. It's not perfect but for the most part it does what we need in our everyday life.

Click to expand...

The existence of Bitcoin has to do with principles rather than practical applications, thus you can't really evaluate it in the context of usability. It's kinda like the Statue of Liberty or TOR in this respect.

Bitcoin was designed to be a self-maintaining and self-regulating fully electronic currency system that isn't tied into the economy of any single country and operates on the public internet outside the banking grid and thereby outside any governmental control or oversight.

Actually it's pretty ingeniously put together, and it does work.

Bitcoin hits $750, up 107% in a week

Bitcoin hits $750, up 107% in a week


http://www.cnbc.com/id/101205416



Bitcoin touched a fresh all-time high on Monday as the digital currency continued to gain favor with investors.

The virtual currency rose to $750 on Mt. Gox exchange Monday afternoon, up 42 percent from Sunday's close and up 107 percent from a week earlier.

Its latest gains come as the potential for regulation hangs over the market. The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGAC) began a hearing at 3.00 p.m. Washington time on Monday. The event brought representatives from different federal agencies and representatives from the bitcoin community to discuss virtual currencies.

(Read More: Bitcoin gets the FBI, Homeland treatment)

Ahead of the hearing, entitled "Beyond Silk Road: Potential Risks, Threats, and Promises of Virtual Currencies", several government agencies wrote to the committee outlining their views on the currency. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stated that the bank had no plans to regulate bitcoin.






Play Video



What are the risks for Bitcoin?

Garrick Hileman, economic historian at the London School of Economics, highlights the risks, including regulatory, and advantages of the online currency, Bitcoin.


"Although the Federal Reserve generally monitors developments in virtual currencies and other payments system innovations, it does not necessarily have authority to directly supervise or regulate these innovations or the entities that provide them to the market," Bernanke said in a letter.


The fresh hearings come after the Department for Homeland Security (DHS) was sent a letter from the committee that oversees the DHS in August asking for any information, plans or strategies on how it currently or plans to treat virtual currencies, including bitcoin.


The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will also hold a bitcoin hearing on Tuesday 19 November.


(Read More: What does the FBI do with $3 million bitcoins?)

Bobby Lee, CEO of BTC China – the world's largest Bitcoin exchange by volume – said he was "cautiously optimistic" on Monday's hearing.

"I myself and many in the industry are actually in support of government regulation in this field," Lee said. "We want to work with the government proactively to recommend the right regulation approach for Bitcoin and Bitcoin companies."

"At the most basic level, government should try to clarify the necessary licenses for operating Bitcoin exchanges," he added.

Recent price surge


One potential reason behind the recent rally is the expectation of sympathetic comments towards bitcoin at Monday's hearing.

The closure of Silk Road in October, the online marketplace that allegedly allowed more than a billion dollars of illegal drugs and illicit services to be bought using the virtual currency, is cited as another major driver. The move has boosted hopes that bitcoin is fast becoming a credible currency alternative.

Lee added that this recent price rise also reflects increased awareness about the digital currency.

(Read more: Could China make or break Bitcoin?)

"There's more awareness of Bitcoin following recent press coverage," Lee said, highlighting the Bitcoin Singapore conference held last week and recent press coverage in China.





Play Video



Hearing on virtual currencies

Benjamin Lawsky, New York Superintendent of Financial Services, makes the case for regulating Bitcoin currency and cracking down on abuse of virtual currencies.


"Asia is known for being an area where people emphasize savings, so when Asia moves it's big regardless of whether it's real estate, gold, stocks or bitcoin. I think that's what we're seeing right now," he said.

Zennon Kapron, managing director of research firm Kapron Asia, agreed: "The current run-up in price that we're seeing is due to increasing awareness and understanding of bitcoin both inside China and out."

"Anecdotally, in the past week, I've had a number of both professional and personal friends who had never heard of bitcoin before, come to me, ask how it works and what we think all because they read an article or saw a news segment," he said.

"As they start to understand bitcoin and see its potential in the future, they want to be part of that, which is driving up demand. You could think of it as the next segment of the adoption curve coming online," Kapron added.

Another factor at play could be BTC China's announcement Monday that it received $5 million in Series-A financing – the first round of financing undergone for a new business venture after seed capital – from institutional investors Lightspeed China Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

BTC China's Lee said the exchange saw a dramatic increase in volume following the announcement, as investments of this nature further underscore bitcoin's status as a legitimate investment option.

(Read more: Winklevosses: Bitcoin worth at least 100 times more)







Overdone?

Bitcoin is a virtual currency that allows users to exchange online credits for goods and services. While there is no central bank that issues them, bitcoins can be created online by using a computer to complete difficult tasks, a process known as mining.


Bitcoin has appreciated rapidly over the past year; as of Monday, the value has increased more than 50-fold from $11.00 in mid-November 2012.

While it's hard to say whether or not the recent rise in bitcoin is overdone, some seemed optimistic that this is just the beginning.

"The bitcoin price rally has hardly even begun," said Roger Ver, director of business development at BitInstant, a service that provides fund transfers between and into bitcoin exchanges.

"Because the price is set where the supply meets demand, the price per bitcoin will need to increase substantially to accommodate additional demand," following the recent increase in interest, he said.

BTC China's Lee also noted that while no one can pinpoint where the price will go, the recent rise reflects added pressure to the supply-demand curve.

query said:

Governments that want to continue to print worthless money.

Click to expand...

If you can use it to pay your taxes, it ain't worthless. And, since no government would refuse to accept tax payment in its own issued currency . . .

Bitcoin. 'Nuff said.

As Bitcoin hit a high of $1,030 on the Mt. Gox exchange yesterday, up 7,661 percent year-to-date from its December 31 close of $13.27, news comes that 62% of its global market volume is now held by Communist Chinese...

...that surge in demand recently led Communist China-based BTC China to overtake Mt. Gox as the world's largest bitcoin exchange by volume.

Buyer beware, indeed...

China bars banks from bitcoin transactions

China bars banks from bitcoin transactions



SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's government banned financial institutions from trading in bitcoin on Thursday, in what analysts said was a restrained first step towards regulating the digital currency that has exploded in popularity in China and soared in value in recent months.

A statement by the central bank and four other agencies said that, while the computer-generated currency does not yet pose a threat to China's financial system, it carries risks. It did not, however, curtail the use of bitcoin by individuals.

"I think it's measured and it's positive," said Zennon Kapron, of the financial consultancy Kapronasia. "It does add legitimacy to the idea that it could be a nationwide accepted currency."

The value of bitcoins on Chinese exchanges fell after the announcement, however, with one expert predicting the price could halve in the short-term. Digital currencies are generally highly volatile.

Bitcoins have seen their value relative to the dollar skyrocket some 800 percent in the past two months as speculators have piled into the currency, according to bitcoinity.org.

While there is no official data available, bitcoin market operators say Chinese nationals are major participants in the market and hold an outsized share of the total number of bitcoins in circulation. Shanghai-based BTC China has recently become the world's largest bitcoin exchange by volume.

A statement on the website of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said that the government would act to prevent money laundering risks from bitcoin, which is not backed by a government or central bank.

The PBOC may have cause to be concerned about bitcoins, which are anonymous, untraceable, and can be carried on memory sticks or transmitted electronically, because they represent a potential hole in the country's capital controls.

However, analysts point out that, given the tiny value of the total bitcoins in circulation relative to other currencies, it is unlikely to have much impact on the wider economy.

EYES ON BITCOIN

More cause for worry is the way these digital currencies have engendered a new wave of creative criminality focused on hacking online platforms and stealing bitcoins stored there, and their potential for use in money laundering, bribery and purchases of illicit products such as drugs and weapons.

The government will require trading platforms that deal in virtual currencies such as bitcoin to register with telecommunications authorities, it said.

The notice was issued jointly by the PBOC, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the China Securities Regulatory Commission and China Insurance Regulatory Commission.

"This is an industry that will need to be governed or regulated. The safety and the well-being of the common user has to be taken into consideration. All this is expected," said Ron Cao, Managine Director at Lightspeet Venture Partners, which recently invested $5 million in BTC China.

"'We've got a long way to go. This thing needs to be regulated at some point. We're studying it. Don't jump into it.' My read is that's the tone of the message."

Bitcoin traders sold on the Chinese government's announcement.

On the Chinese platform FXBTC.com, the yuan-bitcoin exchange rate dropped as much as about 20 percent after the news before rebounding slightly to around 5,800 yuan per bitcoin in heavy trading.

On BTC-e, the dollar-bitcoin rate had fallen about 11 percent to about $945 from $1,063 before the news.

Cao said he would not be surprised to see the value of bitcoins fall as much as 50 percent over the next week or two.

Many bitcoin proponents say the currency's volatility will have to flatten out before it can be adopted more widely as a near-frictionless means of payment and regulation may help.

More regulation was likely, although the initial ban on financial institutions may eventually be lifted, analysts said.

"I would be cautious about jumping the gun and taking today's announcement as indicative as how the space will be regulated in the future," said Mark Natkin, of Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting.

"Once they have a better idea of how the market works and which players are likely to emerge as the leading players, then they'll come out with firmer regulations, with more specific licensing requirements," and possibly minimum capital requirements for firms entering the sector, he said.


http://ca.news.yahoo.com/china-central-bank-warns-banks-against-bitcoin-080434354--business.html

I don't get it, If it isn't based on anything, how can you determine a worth in $

And whose $, CDN US AUSSIE, and how do you convert that to Yen

Its not stable if it increases 100% in a week

and its still not based on anything so how do you know if you are over paying or getting a deal

Recent chinese ban has brought the prices down from 1200 back to 600

However, forget china. I think bitcoin can be incredibly important for porn industry.

With that in mind, I thought I will take a step in that direction by opening a new bitcoin site

http://fap4coins.com/

Open your store and buy and sell your private porn, panties, socks, or whatever with bitcoin

Who needs China

How would you react if your currency of choice lost 20 per cent of its value in the span of a few hours?

It happened to bitcoin today after a Japanese exchange suddenly halted withdrawals of the popular virtual currency.

Protecting the unprotected

The MtGox exchange, one of the world’s largest bitcoin traders, explained in a statement that hitting the brakes was the best way to protect everyone’s interests. The exchange had been wrestling with significant delays in converting from conventional currencies to bitcoin, and an increase in the volume of withdrawal requests made a bad situation worse.

“To understand the issue thoroughly, the system needs to be in a static state,” the statement said. “In order for our team to resolve the withdrawal issue it is necessary for a temporarily pause on all withdrawal requests to obtain a clear technical view of the current processes.”

News of the MtGox move sparked a rapid bitcoin selloff, pushing its value down to US$690 before recovering to $750 by press time. The currency, which has traded as high as $1,200 in recent months amid growing speculation that it could evolve into a viable financial instrument, has suffered a number of recent setbacks that suggest bitcoin’s reality is falling far short of its hype:
•When a Chinese exchange suddenly shut its doors in November, just over $4 million in customers’ bitcoins disappeared in the process.
•Quebec’s Autorité des marchés financiers released a strongly worded statement Wednesday warning consumers against using bitcoin. The AMF said bitcoin transactions aren’t protected by traditional deposit insurance, and could leave consumers exposed in the event of fraud.
•The European Union banking watchdog had similar reservations, and a French Central Bank report warned, “The system can collapse at any moment if investors want to unwind their positions but find themselves holding portfolios that have become illiquid.”
•Canada’s Finance Department recently said bitcoin is not traditional legal tender, and while it confirmed it will continue to monitor the currency, it has no current plans to review its existing policy.
•Apple removed the BlockChain app from its app store. The app allowed iPhone users to store and spend bitcoins on their mobile devices, and it was one of the last bitcoin-capable titles available for the iOS platform. Apple is reportedly building its own online payment solution, which would compete directly with bitcoin.
•Russia’s Central Bank banned Russian citizens and companies from using it, claiming it made it too easy for criminals and terrorists to secretly launder money.

The growing cascade of failures, breaches and warnings comes as bitcoin continues to gain visibility within Canada and beyond. A bitcoin-capable ATM went live in Montreal this week, joining others in Vancouver, Toronto, and Ottawa, while in the U.S. the Department of Justice said bitcoins could be considered a legal form of exchange. As much as the debate focuses on bitcoin, it ultimately applies to all forms of cryptocurrency, including namecoin, litecoin, and primecoin.

The latest trading halt and ongoing investor volatility both cast doubt on whether established financial infrastructure has the ability or the will to ultimately accept virtual currencies as legitimate means of payment. Despite bitcoin’s secure, encrypted architecture, it is just as vulnerable to hacking as traditional currency models, and a growing list of attacks and security breaches underscores the risks. The MtGox exchange at the heart of the latest volatility was targeted by a series of ongoing distributed denial of service attacks. The bitcoin storage service Instawallet was hacked last year, and in 2012 thieves made off with 24,000 bitcoins from the Bitfloor exchange.

Bitcoin’s latest headline-grabbing trick illustrates the dangers of judging a financial instrument using the same criteria applied to a technology. The fact that everyone is talking about it and some are dabbling in it doesn’t mask the risks lurking just beneath the surface.

Bitcoin plunges after major platform indefinitely halts withdrawals

Bitcoin plunges after major platform indefinitely halts withdrawals


NEW YORK (Reuters) - The price of the digital currency bitcoin slid to its lowest level in nearly two months on Monday after bitcoin digital marketplace Mt. Gox said a halt on withdrawals it announced on Friday would continue indefinitely after it detected "unusual activity."

The bitcoin price varied dramatically from one exchange to another, with Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, the best known operator of a bitcoin digital marketplace, recording one of the biggest drops for the day.

On the Mt. Gox platform the currency plunged to as low as $500 early on Monday, down more than 27 percent from Friday's final price of $692, according to the Mt. Gox website. It last traded at $597, off nearly 14 percent from Friday.

The price started falling fast on Friday when Mt. Gox said it was temporarily halting withdrawals due to unexplained technical issues.

In an updated statement on Monday, Mt. Gox said withdrawals were on hold indefinitely after it "has detected unusual activity on its bitcoin wallets and performed investigations during the past weeks. This confirmed the presence of transactions which need to be examined more closely."

Mt. Gox said a "bug in the bitcoin software" could allow transaction details to be altered.

In effect, someone on the network could alter transaction details to make it appear a transfer of bitcoins from one digital wallet to another had not occurred when in fact it had. This might cause the transfer to be repeated.

A bitcoin wallet is an application that stores bitcoins for the currency's users.

Mt. Gox said the issue was not limited to the exchange and "affects all transactions where bitcoins are being sent to a third party." It said the withdrawal suspension would be in effect until the issue has been resolved.

CoinDesk, which launched the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index in September, removed Mt. Gox from its index Monday, citing its "persistent failure to meet the index's standards for inclusion."

"These recent withdrawal restrictions are just the latest in a series of issues which have made Mt. Gox's inclusion in the BPI problematic," CoinDesk said.

On CoinDesk's bitcoin index, the bitcoin price was lower but not by nearly as much as on the Mt. Gox platform. The CoinDesk index showed bitcoin at $662.51 on Monday afternoon, only about 6 percent lower from Friday's close of $703.57. Its low for the day was around $540 versus $500 on Mt. Gox.

On both platforms, the price was still around the lowest since late December. The price had topped $1,000 as recently as late January.

There are many different e-currencies out there now. Also many places like overstock.com,amazon and many giants accept bitcoin.

I laugh at the idiots that didn't see the potential in this.

Mt. Gox disappeared.

Funny stuff!