Topic: Has bitcoin spurred your interest in technology/economics? (Read 1982 times)

I've been interested in technology and economics for a long time, and also in cryptocurrency. It's really exciting to see one finally take off.

Now the networked age is really beginning

The difference between bitcoin and a pyramid-scheme is the utility of bitcoin for black/gray market transactions, including donations to evil organizations like wikileaks, Al Qaida or the Justin Bieber fan club. even at a risk of a 50% devaluation, I'd use bitcoin as a way of hiding my wealth from my ex-wife.

All positive hopes. Ideas which were somewhat dashed for me by this comic http://xkcd.com/893/

If we assume Bitcoin is the best form of money available in this world, even surpassing Gold, then it will naturally attract the majority of all humankind’s wealth, as it will be the best store of value ever.

If we further assume that 1) technological advancements and 2) collective prosperity and competition, both brought by Bitcoin will make us conquer the universe and achieve human immortality,

We come to the conclusion, that one Bitcoin will buy a

a) galaxy

b) customized alternate virtual universe

c) artificially created and genetically, based on your needs, modified, fleshly girlfriend

See you on Mars in a few years, guys.

DOH! (did I mention I'm a firefighter?)

Is that Austrian division? 

I have a little interest in tech, learning some BASIC in JR HIgh, getting A+ certified in the dot.com days, but really not a techie. I'm a firefighter for chrissake.  My interest is in economics, specifically Austrian School. I read a blog post months ago from Mencius Moldbug (before Satoshi, he was the shadowiest nom de keyboard I knew of) on Unqualified Reservations suggesting it would be a good idea to get a few hunerd-ya know-just in case it took off. If I had done that, I would have saved thousands, but I am still totally jazzed. This currency has no natural predators. it can't be stopped. the upper limit is billions$ per bitcoin Yes, I know that sounds hyperbolic, but think about it: if even one percent of black/gray market activity is eventually transacted in bitcoin, one percent of savings (to hedge against inflation) is stored it bitcoin, one percent of internet transaction (because of low transaction costs) were in bit-coin- it adds up to trillions.
Take one trillion, divide by 21,000,000 and you get a derived value of ~$47/BTC

$47/BTC

and I honestly think that's being conservative. many Bitcoins have been lost and more will be lost in the future.  The analogy is buying land with a constant supply and an exponentially growing population- supply and demand make this a long-term sure bet. Except this land has no property tax, no building restrictions, no capital gains tax, and is as liquid as a penny stock. It is ideal as both a store of value and a unit of account- fungibility, baby. I'm not speculating- I'm buying and holding. This could possibly be an intergenerational fortune, even after getting in so late. The only thing we have to worry about is the volatility that comes with people buying on margin. Leverage is one of the things killing the dollar system. 

I've been obsessed with economics for years now, but I am formally trained in computer science.  I am sad for only learning about bitcoins within the last couple weeks.  I believe the first article i read just a couple weeks ago was more than a few months old. They talked about the concept and how bitcoins were just a few cents.  Being an avid hobby economist as well as computer programmer, I immediately thought WOW, this is incredible technology, economically sound, and they are so cheap, I need to go buy them NOW.  Then I found out the actual market price was like 7 bucks a coin and thought "typical, i found out too late".   

You could alway write for http://www.bitcoinweekly.com/pages/submission but then it will be actual hard work.

I'm actually kind of bummed. When I first got into BTC over a year or two ago, I had well over 100 coins. It was at a time when the coins had a value of a fraction of a cent. Since then things have really taken off, and you can buy more than just books with bitcoins, but they have actual value (primarily for people trying to money launder, but that's a whole other story).

But now, it is extremely hard to mine, and the pools just don't come close to paying out like they used to. I feel like just two weeks ago was the last time BTC was actually profitable, and it is just compounding to be more and more difficult to get the sweet sweet sticky coin. Sigh, how I only wish I didn't procrastinate on getting back on this train and I could have actually made a decent profit and got tons of 5830s to boot.

This is the single time in the 5 or 6 years since I quit frequenting Slashdot that I'm actually bothered to have stopped.

I love economics and technologies...but I become obsessed...with bitcoin.

I end up creating a publication called http://bitcoinweekly.com/

Someone linked me to the slashdot in July. I read the white paper and forum and immediately new it was the real deal for money.

If there is a fatal bug in this implementation I'm going to be pissed off :-)

I was already extremely involved in technology and moderately involved in economics. I've always had an interest in the sciences, so to the extent that economics can be spoken of scientifically, I've been interested - the parts that can better be described as waving a dead chicken over your portfolio and hoping for profits... not so much.

What bitcoin HAS done for me is given me the economic incentive to start building the GPU cluster I've been wanting for a while. I figure if bitcoin goes well forever, I'll just keep on mining. If it ends up crashing, it will at least have paid for my shiny new cluster and I'll start building rainbow tables 

I'm very surprised by that, particularly since I get the impression that you've been involved for quite some time.

How did you come to learn of bitcoin?

Yes and yes

I was roughly the opposite. Desperately looking for a good money. Learned some tech from Bitcoin because I recognized it was good money.

For me, the interest in technology was already as it's what I do for a living. Bitcoin has certainly lead me to learn more about economics and convinced me to try my hand at investing beyond standard retirement contributions.

How about you?