Topic: [ANN][NOTE]DNotes - Celebrating DNotes 3rd Birthday - Forum Now Open - page 345. (Read 814544 times)

The tulip bulb and ponzi comments usually come from someone who has just found out about bitcoin.  It sounds like the author has chosen a few "sensational" negative points and built a story around them.

1. Negative press of this nature is not helpful:

“That seems like a long time ago indeed. Since late 2013, when Bitcoin hit $1,200 its value has plunged more than 80%. If one of the purposes of a currency is to create stability across multiple marketplaces to empower smooth transactions between buyers and sellers, then Bitcoin has failed.”

2. This is indeed a serious problem Bitcoin needs to overcome:

“The problem is that retailers that accept them, don’t hold them.  Sure, in theory, some say they will take Bitcoin, but most immediately convert them into dollars – which means every time someone uses Bitcoin to pay for goods or services the currency loses value.”

3. Very true:

“the masses do not want a virtual currency that is difficult to understand, fluctuates wildly and operates in the shadows”.

4. I don’t think so:

“Apple Pay And Dollars Are Killing Bitcoin?”

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http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2015/01/29/why-apple-pay-and-dollars-are-killing-bitcoin/



Ross Gerber , Contributor
Forbes


The recent drop in energy prices has dominated financial headlines in recent months, with the fallout having been wide ranging and somewhat conflicting. Consumers have received what amounts to a tax cut, and with more money to spend that’s good news for retailers. At the same time, stocks are experiencing a decent level of volatility, plagued by many of the same factors that are causing oil to plummet, including soft demand, a strong dollar and continued economic weakness across Europe, Japan and even China.

Receiving far less press attention is the ongoing collapse of Bitcoin prices. While this is not unexpected given the house of cards Bitcoin was built on, no one should forget that only a short time ago Bitcoin had reached manic levels. Investors worldwide – including high-powered venture capital firms and well-respected tech entrepreneurs – sang its praises, pouring millions into the virtual currency and confidently declaring that it was the next big thing this point, it’s merely a speculative commodity, just like tulip bulbs centuries ago or even Beanie Babies more recently.

That seems like a long time ago indeed. Since late 2013, when Bitcoin hit $1,200 its value has plunged more than 80%. If one of the purposes of a currency is to create stability across multiple marketplaces to empower smooth transactions between buyers and sellers, then Bitcoin has failed. At this point, it’s merely a speculative commodity, just like tulip bulbs centuries ago or even Beanie Babies more recently. And just like those fads, Bitcoin has peaked and is very unlikely to escalate significantly in value again.
The irony of Bitcoin’s fall is that some of the attributes that initially made it so attractive to its backers like no centralized banking control, lax regulation and no transaction fees, are the very same things that are actually causing its demise. These types of decentralized monetary systems never work, since valuations are allowed to fluctuate wildly and there is a lack of trust in the system. It’s simply not safe to hold Bitcoin. Look no further than the major exchanges, which have either gone bankrupt (Mt. Gox) or suffered major security lapses (Bitstamp). Both of which cost investors millions of dollars in unrecoverable losses.

Ultimately, one of Bitcoin’s biggest problems is the same retailers they are trying to convince to accept Bitcoin. The problem is that retailers that accept them, don’t hold them.  Sure, in theory, some say they will take Bitcoin, but most immediately convert them into dollars – which means every time someone uses Bitcoin to pay for goods or services the currency loses value. It’s basically an elaborate Ponzi scheme. This is a major flaw in Bitcoin, if merchants don’t hold Bitcoin, every time they are used in a purchase they must be sold to someone else, forcing prices lower.

Bitcoin investors are missing the point. When it comes to paying for everyday items, the masses do not want a virtual currency that is difficult to understand, fluctuates wildly and operates in the shadows. What they want is convenience and safety and that means electronic mobile payments in dollars. Such a payment system is just scratching the surface in terms of its potential. To build on it, the major players will have to come together and merge existing technologies, not only to make the system more widely available but more efficient. As most Bitcoin pioneers say today. It’s not about Bitcoin, it’s about the technology. There is huge potential for mobile transactions in dollars.

As you might expect, Apple AAPL -1.42% will play a major role. The company that transformed the music industry and basically changed the definition of the word ‘phone’ now needs to have a similar impact in the world of mobile and electronic payments. While Apple Pay was introduced last year, retailers have been slow to adopt the service, since it requires a significant investment in hardware. A recently announced partnership with Square could help solve this problem

TeeGee, you are a genius. Two for two. You can now check against my edited version which was done after your post. Take good care of your lady friend. I am sure that Chase will agree that we can use more help at CryptoMoms.

I'm busy with my lady friends birthday weekend... 3 entirely separate events!!! 1 extended family (last night), 1 friends event, then another restaurant close family event... talk about celebrating a birthday!

Last night in a political discussion, I had a group of older men making fun of my views and throwing meaningless straw men at me before giving me a chance to say anything... but somewhere in that discussion, bitcoin came up and one of the men had a son who had given him a whole lot of Bitcoins that he had mined. I gave him 3000 DNotes and told him to share some with his son and to consider turning his btc into Notes!

Crypto is everywhere, just got to get people talking about it!

Should I feel bad that I haven't given my lovely lady any DNotes yet, when I've given so many away to others? I've always kind of assumed that I'd give her a whole bunch and it didn't quite matter when. She is reasonably well versed in digital currency on account of being my partner, so maybe I'll include some DNotes as part of her birthday present!

Anyway, after reading DYNA's last post, I'd guess that point 8 was "reliable appreciation in value" and number 9 being "getting politicians, banks and credit unions on side".

How'd I do?

At Issue:

"What will be the impetus of Bitcoin mass acceptance? There are basically three schools of thought on this topic, Merchant Adoption, Third World Unbanked, and Wall Street Investment."


Dyna's Response: Agreed but incomplete.

Quote
From last Post:


Great job. You got one right. So two to go. One of them has been mentioned repeatedly in my blog posts.

  "Favorable Government Regulation"  is correct.

  "Hard work" is too general. My guess is that most people do not work as hard as you do, lol.

So, let the list continues as follows:

1. Merchant adoption
2. Third World Unbanked
3. Wall Street Investment
4. Broad base and widespread ownership using CR.I.S.P. as the catalyst.
5. Consistent Stability
6. Positive Sentiment Towards Bitcoin and Altcoins.
7. Favorable Government Regulation
8.
9.

Hint for #8. How could a consistent up-trend of higher highs and higher lows help a merchant in preventing currency loss without converting DNotes into fiat currency at the time of the transaction?

Hint for #9. Do you agree that Bitcoin and Altcoins will be very disruptive? What industries or groups will be negatively affected? What if some of them could be our friends instead of adversaries?

Edited:

8. Reliable long term appreciation
9. Meaningful Participation of disrupted Parties


All these are important catalysts for mass consumer and merchant adoption of digital currency. We believe that the industry has been spinning its wheels and not making as much progress towards mass acceptance as it should. A lot of destructive forces and negative press have not been helpful. We believe that even in the best case it will take another 4 to 5 years before we can expect mass acceptance of Digital currency in global commerce. In the mean time DNotes will continuously strive for the best positions to take full advantage of our rapidly growing momentum covering an expanding base of new DNotes stakeholders through our family of CR.I.S.Ps.

Great job. You got one right. So two to go. One of them has been mentioned repeatedly in my blog posts.

  "Favorable Government Regulation"  is correct.

  "Hard work" is too general. My guess is that most people do not work as hard as you do, lol.

So, let the list continues as follows:

1. Merchant adoption
2. Third World Unbanked
3. Wall Street Investment
4. Broad base and widespread ownership using CR.I.S.P. as the catalyst.
5. Consistent Stability
6. Positive Sentiment Towards Bitcoin and Altcoins.
7. Favorable Government Regulation

1. Merchant adoption
2. Third World Unbanked
3. Wall Street Investment
4. Broad base and widespread ownership using CR.I.S.P. as the catalyst.
5. Consistent Stability
6. Positive Sentiment Towards Bitcoin and Altcoins.
7. Favorable Government Regulation
8. Hard work

There is whole range of positive/negative human emotions that can either help or hinder mass adoption. Ease of use, is certainly one of them. Pride of ownership, self-fulfillment or accomplishment, comfort factors and trust are all important contributors; positively or negatively. If we list them all, they will dilute others, of which each alone is of major significance. For now let's add "Positive Sentiment Towards Bitcoin and Altcoins." Any who can come up with a better descriptive term, please do so.

1. Merchant adoption
2. Third World Unbanked
3. Wall Street Investment
4. Broad base and widespread ownership using CR.I.S.P. as the catalyst.
5. Consistent Stability
6. Positive Sentiment Towards Bitcoin and Altcoins.

Keep going. I have three more on my list. With your help there may be more. If we do not know what it takes to achieve mass adoption, we may have to wait for our next generation to make it happen. It is interesting to me to see so much being invested, or shall I say being wasted, without a good knowledge of what the important issues are or what problems we need to solve.

I'm beginning to think that patience is an exclusive virtue of DNotes!

It is really inspiring to hear everyone's stories about how hard they had to work to get what they've got.  I have the feeling there is a whole book full of stories about hard work here at DNotes.  

I haven't used bondo to hold things together, but I've gone through a lot of duct tape!

This goes right along with the old saying "All good things come to those who wait"!  That is the problem with society.  People in general want what they want and they want it NOW.  It does something to you to work for something for a pay off at the end, not to have something right now.  Gives you a feeling of accomplishment, that you worked hard and for a while for something rewarding in the end.  Just think of when you purchased your first car and made those payments and the feeling you had when that last payment was made.  Perhaps you went out for a dinner to celebrate.  Now that was an accomplishment and that day of pay-off made you feel great.  I so remember the day I paid for my first car... a 1970 Ford Maverick that had more bondo than steel.  Yes it was a piece of crap but it was my piece of crap and it was paid for.  Couple years later bought a much better car but did not have all the money, so I borrowed from my grandparents.  Every Friday on pay day I would go to their house and make my payment and the feeling of accomplishment when I paid them off that last Friday was amazing.  I waited to upgrade until I knew I could make the payments and was ready and knew what I could handle.  Just like Dyna stated "Without that currency our industry will continue to spin its wheels". Sorry but Bill Gates did not get to where he is today without an entire host of other individuals.  People along the way helped him to develop what he is credited with developing.  It takes a team and time to get to where you want and need to be.  Just like when I purchased my first couple cars, I did not go it alone nor did it happen overnight!  Congrats to the team and forward thinking to get to where we all want to be!

Ease of use has a long way to go before the majority of people will consider using digital currency for payment.  When it's easy to use and makes more sense to them than the current payment methods, they will be ready to spend the currency that they have invested in - DNotes from their CR.I.S.P.

Youghoor:

Dnotes is popular and stable from the start.

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That is correct, Youghoor, thanks. Bitcoin has been ferociously volatile with wide swing of 30% to 50% in a week. That brings about much uncertainty and great risk of currency loss wiping out any savings in low transaction cost. For the most part, large merchants are not accepting Bitcoin directly. The payment processors are accepting the Bitcoin on their behalf, and instantly dumped them to pay their customers in fiat currency. This will continue to be a huge problem for Bitcoin until someone can come up with a viable solution to make it relatively stable. Personally, I believe that it is an inherent structural problem that is nearly impossible to solve.

The merchant may be able to protect themselves from currency loss by locking in the sales revenue in fiat currency at the time of transaction, and the payment processor add a fees for the extra service and dumping the Bitcoin at the time of the transaction simultaneously. But what happened when the price of Bitcoin dropped 50% in two days as an example? Does the merchant, payment processor, or the consumer absorb the loss?

Use case: You have .2 BTC in you wallet stored in your smart phone and it was worth $60 when you invited your friend out to lunch two days later. You were so busy and did not know that Bitcoin price has dropped by 50%, or you might have cancelled the lunch appointment. The lunch for two still cost the same amount in USD of $30. But now it cost .2 BTC instead of .1BTC. The restaurant, through the payment processor dynamically adjusted the price to .2 BTC.  As far as you are concerned, you paid twice as much for the lunch than you expected. It is easy to understand why some argued that most people who use Bitcoin as payment for goods and services today, do so out of love for Bitcoin and not because it is more convenient or cost effective. There may not be enough love reach mainstream status. It may take a new Bitcoin Alternative currency built from ground up to get the job done.
Let is add one more to the list:


1. Merchant adoption
2. Third World Unbanked
3. Wall Street Investment
4. Broad base and widespread ownership using CR.I.S.P. as the catalyst.
5. Consistent Stability

Strongly agree with Chase's point and this is just the beginning of DNotes approach. As mentioned above, it will take many parts, pieces, and people working together to make DNotes the well oiled machine we envision.

Thanks Youghoor, it is nice to see people recognize the achievements of DNotes.

Dnotes is popular and stable from the start.

Good point, Chase. Broad base and widespread ownership (we the people are owners, savers, and spenders) is another impetus.

I do not disagree with the author but of strong opinion that it takes more than that. Let is continue building the list.

1. Merchant adoption
2. Third World Unbanked
3. Wall Street Investment
4. Broad base and widespread ownership using CR.I.S.P. as the catalyst.

"What will be the impetus of Bitcoin mass acceptance? There are basically three schools of thought on this topic, Merchant Adoption, Third World Unbanked, and Wall Street Investment."

What happened to "We the people"?  He does mention the fact in his last paragraph that when enough consumers own bitcoin, merchants / mass adoption will follow.  DNotes is going about it the right way by getting it into the hands of the people first and has done so since day one.

As far as the Wall Street investment part goes, I agree with a lot of what he said.  The media attention, the huge spike in demand / price will certainly bring a lot more people into cryptocurrency.  It will be different this time though, because "we the people" holding DNotes will be here before the institutional investors, and that never happens.

The following article is quite good but I personally think it takes a lot more than stated to achieve mass acceptance of Bitcoin. My personal rating of the article is "quite good but incomplete".  Let us know what you think. It may help others to gain a better understanding why DNotes has taken a different path to enable mass consumer and merchant adoption of Digital Currency.

[/b])
by Guest Author @ 2015-01-28 01:00 PM
  
By Dwain Findlay

Note: The following article has been hand picked for being one of the standouts in the Ziftr article contest on the topic of what needs to happen for Bitcoin to enter the mainstream. Happy reading.

What will be the impetus of Bitcoin mass acceptance? There are basically three schools of thought on this topic, Merchant Adoption, Third World Unbanked, and Wall Street Investment.

All three of these avenues to mass acceptance are compelling reasons for the spread of Bitcoin and all of them will play role in world wide acceptance of the digital currency but I believe that Wall Street investment will be the initial and primary impulsion that moves Bitcoin out of the esoteric world of technology enthusiasts and internet back alleys like Silk Road and into the mainstream of finance and commerce.

Let us first examine merchant adoption. The conventional wisdom says when a significant percentage of merchants start accepting Bitcoin, it will facilitate mass acceptance by consumers. The problem is that wider merchant adoption has not thus far translated into an increase in consumer demand for the currency. This is evident from the recent 30% price decline despite bitcoin acceptance from major online retailers such as Dell, Overstock and even Microsoft. Although merchants have an incentive to accept bitcoin (since they save 2%-3% in processing fees and they don’t have to worry about charge backs), consumers are offered no compelling reason to use bitcoin for purchases instead of a credit card. But what about bitcoin’s potential in the third world market? Yes, Bitcoin has a huge potential for the over 2.5 billion unbanked people in developing countries. The problem is that most people receiving Bitcoin from relatives in the United States or Europe will need to convert them to their local currency, thus dumping their bitcoins back on the market.

Also they will need access to a Bitcoin ATM or open a bank account in order to convert their bitcoin into the local fiat. Unfortunately it is still far too early in the currency’s evolutionary process to penetrate those markets since there are few if any Bitcoin ATMs or cryptocurrency exchanges in those countries.

Now let’s take a look at the last scenario: Wall Street investment. The emergence of Bitcoin investment trusts could be a game changer for the mass acceptance of the Cryptocurrency. Once investment firms begin purchasing large quantities of the currency, it should ignite a price surge that will take it to new heights. At a recent government auction, one investment firm purchased 40,000 bitcoins but since these coins were not purchased from a cryptocurrency exchange, it had no effect on the price. That will soon change when institutional investors such as insurance companies and retirement funds start to invest. This large influx of capital will drive the price of bitcoin far beyond the US$1,100 high of one year ago. But how will this lead to mass acceptance? Well, it is the bandwagon effect: when the price goes up dramatically Bitcoin gets a lot of attention from the news media. This is precisely what happened a year ago when the price was at an all time high. Media hype creates awareness and curiosity in the minds of consumers. Soon these people jump on the Bitcoin bandwagon by purchasing some bitcoin.

Retailers begin to notice that a significant number of consumers own bitcoin and worry that if they don’t accept the currency they will be at a competitive disadvantage to the retailers who do. This leads to mass adoption by retailers that are trying to avoid being left behind in the new cryptocurrency revolution. This is how I believe mass acceptance will come about


http://cointelegraph.com/news/113381/how-bitcoin-will-achieve-mass-acceptance-op-ed

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This is one we like to follow closely. The following statement caught my attention. They could be pushing the compliance envelope. The second subject that caught my attention was "micropayment" which will definitely be an important part of the Digital Age.

"Binns further added that TipUp.me was currently working closely "to navigate regulatory and compliance hurdles in various jurisdictions," as the company is opened "to very specific requirements in order to maintain solid relationships with credit card processors."


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[/b]

by Diana Ngo @ 2015-01-27 05:31 PM
http://cointelegraph.com/news/113375/tipupme-lets-you-top-up-your-changetip-account-using-credit-and-debit-cards

  
TipUp.me, a new service allowing users to top-up their ChangeTip accounts using credit or debit card, is surfing on the popular tipping movement to boost mainstream adoption.

Launched in February 2014, ChangeTip is a low-friction micropayment infrastructure for the Internet that allows users to send bitcoins and fiat currencies via popular social media, including Twitter, YouTube, Google Plus, Tumblr, StockTwit, Reddit or GitHub, and most recently Facebook and Slack.

Aiming to become the "love button for the Internet" by allowing users to easily send "feeless micro-donations to content creators," ChangeTip went viral in early November 2014, notably on Reddit, where users started giveaway threads, attracting newbies to the /r/Bitcoin community.

It is following ChangeTip's tremendous success that Will Binns, a former maintainer of Bitcoin.org and Bitcoin.com, who also worked as a product manager at Blockchain.info, started thinking about a tool that would make the tipping process even easier:

"One of the biggest things I've looked for is a super practical and helpful utilization of the technology that will fluidly lead more people into adopting it," TipUp.me founder Will Binns told CoinTelegraph.

Prior to TipUp.me, ChangeTip users had to have a Bitcoin address, or sign up to a Bitcoin exchange to fund their wallet, and then their ChangeTip account. By acting as an independent operator, TipUp.me streamlines this process by allowing people to refill their ChangeTip account using either a credit or debit card.

"We felt that this was too many steps and a potentially complex barrier to entry for many new users to navigate, especially those who do not know anything about Bitcoin," Binns told NewsBTC in an interview. "We built TipUp.me to solve this problem and make this process as easy as possible."

"We want to make it as easy as possible for new users to start tipping their friends, family and others using ChangeTip - we think credit and debit cards are the key."
Users top-up their ChangeTip account with a major credit or debit card by purchasing a prepaid card, or what TipUp.me calls a "Tip-Up," amounting of US$10, US$25 or US$50. The amount is automatically sent to the user's ChangeTip account, where it becomes immediately spendable.

For each Tip-Up, the startup charges a US$1 processing fee, "mainly to cover bank fees on its side for taking credit cards," noted Binns.

Binns further added that TipUp.me was currently working closely "to navigate regulatory and compliance hurdles in various jurisdictions," as the company is opened "to very specific requirements in order to maintain solid relationships with credit card processors."

TipUp.me is currently running under beta version, and is said to launch to the public in the coming weeks. Those interested in testing the service can request an invite.

Been swamped with end of month at work all so my apologies for no posts. I would love to help out with the PR items for the CR.I.S.P. for retirement. Please let me know what I can do to help. Thanks.