Well, according to Ric Edleman (? financial guy), there are only 21,000,000 bitcoins authorized. Like any barter system, one wonders who got to “authorize” this and who is the new “bank” which “controls”. There are evidently about 6 issuers of bitcoins, the original being some Japanese outfit (okay, don’t hold me to this number...I’m generalizing) which means all we really have here is another form of “currency” managed by no one you know or can control (sound familiar?).
This one, however, requires one pay US dollars to get into the game and then forces you to hang on while they decide what the radical fluctuation in value is going to do (sound familiar?) Bitcoin used to be valued at $ 10 and is now selling at $ 1700?, or thereabouts. But, this is just another barter system with a few players. And, one is left to hope the valuation is stable or up from where they initially entered. Otherwise... But, the volatile fluctuations make bitcoin less reliable than the normal “barter” system of dollars. Don’t misunderstand me, I am not some government agent promoting this system. I am just saying it is no different, perhaps worse.
Barter systems are all flawed. They have “players” or “owners” or “director” who counterfeit the “account balances” or “exchange tokens” to enhance their own situation. This is happening, or will happen, to bitcoin. And, watch the IRS come rolling in with a hundred regulations to monitor this. These aren’t dummies, folks. The caught UBS and they caught Sharpton (but probably didn’t prosecute him) and they will catch bitcoin. In the end, all we have is another system operating parallel to dollars that sounds sexy.
How does one buy groceries and electricity? Well, when Safeway begins to take bitcoin, are you going to carry your computer into the store? Hand them your phone? Take the change in “dollars and cents”? ooops.
FRiend, It has been awhile since I’ve seen this much wrong in just one post. Just sayin’ you need to do some checking... :)
I have no intention of buying bitcoins. I could see myself using a paypal-type service for online purchases that would instantaneously convert your payment to Bitcoin and transfer it to the vendor. The volatility of Bitcoin is irrelevant if you are not exposed to it.
Well, Dutchboy, its hard to take any of your argument seriously when there is so much in error. First, you describe Bitcoin as a barter system, but a barter system is the direct exchange of goods/services without the use of money, or more generally a medium of exchange. You are not participating in a barter system when using bitcoin or when paying for things with USD.
Bitcoin is not a centralized system with one or a small group of authorities authorized to issue bitcoin. Additional bitcoin are self issued about every ten minutes by Bitcoin computer nodes that do the processing necessary to secure the network. The number of bitcoin issued is halfed about every four years, which results in the figure of 21,000,000 bitcoin maximum you quoted. Again, there is no central authority, in Japan or anywhere else, which controls this.
Bitcoin has never been valued at “$1,700 or thereabouts” it topped out around $1,200. Its value fluctuates and is determined by market bids on the Bitcoin exchanges, not by “they” deciding what the value is. Current market values can be checked at various web sites like
The volatility of bitcoin is certainly unsettling and makes it less than ideal for everyday use. Bitcoin users hope that as the system matures the volatility will settle down. We’ll see. In the meantime, merchants deal with this by accepting and converting bitcoin to local currency immediately. They price in local currency and provide a bitcoin total (if the customer want to pay with bitcoin) based on current market value at checkout.
Bitcoin cryptographically secures the distributed transaction ledger (all nodes maintain a copy). It is not currently feasible to counterfeit an account balance/bitcoin tokens. If someone comes up with a way to break the crypto algorithms then this would change. Regulation by the government is one of the things most likely to ruin Bitcoin and other alternate currencies. For now they seem content to regulate the exchange of bitcoin for local currencies.
Paying for groceries with bitcoin is not terribly difficult. At checkout you are presented with a scannable QR code with the payment address and amount. You scan that with your phone, verify the amount and touch “send”. The payment shows up in the Bitcoin system in seconds and you get your receipt.
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