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Bitcoin has hit the market.
Is it a fad or a revolution? Boon to a new economy or a boon to the criminal underworld or both?
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A bitcoin’s sole purpose is to be exchanged and bartered online, very like the way you would spend and receive physical money in your wallet. So how do bitcoins get an intrinsic monetary value?
As bitcoins are not issued by a banking institution they have to generate confidence in other ways:
- By being super secure. This is achieved by making the virtual environment in which bitcoins exist so computationally intensive it just isn’t worth the effort to steal or forge them.
- By decentralising all the process of minting new coins, defusing the burden of creating new bitcoins across the bitcoin community.
- By making the coins so self-contained that they can be transferred directly between bitcoin users, without any third party providing any kind of banking transfer system. (This is often referred to as “peer to peer” transfer).
- By making bitcoins a finite commodity. Bitcoins are structured and scaled so that they are produced at a steady rate and will not suddenly flood the market. You would not be able to make yourself a bitcoin millionaire from scratch.
- By having bitcoin exchanges (MTGOX being the largest of several) which allow bitcoins to be exchanged for other currencies so they can establish a value based on market forces.
It is because of this self-reliance and decentralisation that bitcoins have recently become very popular – especially as the economic credibility of traditional currencies is called into question.
But can Bitcoin trusted, can it be controlled? Will it survive? Is it another financial mania or boom, bubble and bust?
Now you can watch it trade on sites, such as by registering at ADVFN. You can see the very pulsing heart of Bitcoin trading on the market, just like you can see RBS, Google or Mircrosoft.
What’s more unlike the thousands of pounds you pay to see stocks live and direct, Bitcoin is free. Watch the Bitcoin revolution from the front line by plugging straight in to the world’s financial markets.
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The EU tries to give power over Israel to the Palestinians, by letting them decide where the greenline sits.
I had a virus called bitcoinminer, not a problem for me but anyone using bitcoins should be aware of it and make sure they have good anti virus protection.
Re earlier post , should have read my computer had a virus.
no, wait yes, wait no…
Can we bypass the blockade of wikileaks with this?
Does the NSA track them?
Seems it qualifies better than a usa greenback. Those things have been devaluing since 1913. Even more so since they flooded the market that fiat dollar in 2008 and beyond.
Could someone explain bitcoin
Kis thanks rock
I can’t figure out how to start buying bitcoins.
It’s sort of too late to jump on the bitcoin bandwagon, it was too late for me… I initially was introduced to them in 2010 or so and 1btc was worth a few cents, now 1 is worth like $720,i could have made so much money…
If you want to invest in bitcoins I suggest waiting for the price to go as low as you want to wait and hold on to it, it’s only a matter of time(1 year?) before it reaches it’s highest value. You can always invest in currencies like LTC or PTS which are really cheap, but have the potential to gain momentum like BTC.
Will bitcoins hurt the economy ?
Bitcoins won’t hurt the economy but they’ll transfer wealth from starry-eyed dreamers to shrewd currency traders. Bitcoin is now govt regulated so everyone will dump Bitcoins for litecoins and when litecoins are regulated they’ll go to quarks. The reality is there is no control of the inflation of multiple alt coins. All fiat returns to its intrinsic value.
Say what you want about the long-term viability of Bitcoin, but the price has increased many times over the last few months and it’s only going to get higher as the craze continues.
https://localbitcoins.com/country/US?ch=ndk
People see this new wave with interest and skepticism. As virtual currency, it is really another form of stock market investment where you put a certain amount into the account and let it float while you can continue to use it while its value will continue to float in a typical sembelance of stock value. many people have found their income grow disproportionatly, even unrealistically with greater incitment. Where this going to end up remains the question….
Check out this article, bitcoin may be on the brink of a major breakthrough…
http://cryptocrimson.com/3-potential-game-changers-for-bitcoin-1.html
Bitcoin’s are for fools, Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has disappeared, and with it over $500 million (that day) in bitcoin codes vanished, now what are you going to do? If you want to invest in Bitcoins just take your money and flush it away, you get the same results.
Each bitcoin has a carbon footprint of between 3 to 6 tons, derived from the massive amount of electricity needed to run the months of calculations needed to mine them. Rather than gambling on price fluctuations, you’d be better off buying a big heap of coal and NOT burning it. First, you’d be protecting the environment. Second, it’s easier to protect from theft. Third, it’s not a risky speculation – your pile of coal (or oil) WILL be worth a lot of money when it all runs out in 25-35 years.