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Topic: I have seen the light - page 5. (Read 8503 times)

hero member
Activity: 630
Merit: 500
June 11, 2013, 07:06:42 PM
#45
I do not have a paypal account. For me, using bitcoins is therefore easier.

+1

p.s. I have seen the light and I have also seen the 'lite' Smiley
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 100
June 11, 2013, 07:04:58 PM
#44
[...pretty much agree...]
The value of a currency is decided by a consensus, so if people have reached a consensus that one satoshi worth one dollar, then it just worth that much. How to reach that consensus? Not through market force, but through study and thinking
...
Huh Huh Huh
legendary
Activity: 1988
Merit: 1012
Beyond Imagination
June 11, 2013, 06:57:43 PM
#43
The acceptance of gold as a common medium of transaction is a slow and time-consuming natural selection process by different people at different location, finally the consensus is reached (because of many unique properties of gold) and gold was selected by the powerful entities to make mint

Just like gold, the acceptance of bitcoin as a medium of transaction is also reached through a consensus, but it took much less time due to the internet, and that consensus is much more advanced than the consensus of gold, due to people's IT and finance knowledge have much more improved over time

Actually the reason that gold standard was abandonded is because people's consensus of the value of fiat money has stablized and even the gold is removed from backing those fiat, the value of fiat still kept intact

The value of a currency is decided by a consensus, so if people have reached a consensus that one satoshi worth one dollar, then it just worth that much. How to reach that consensus? Not through market force, but through study and thinking

Just like gold, bitcoin is a culture, the most advanced and influence culture so far in human history
legendary
Activity: 1904
Merit: 1002
June 11, 2013, 06:57:04 PM
#42
Oh so the contest was on BITCOIN forum, I like how you excluded that from your original post.

I didn't think it really mattered; I was not making a point about the contest, I was saying how it was easy, quick, and cheap to send a bunch of payments simultaneously to diverse recipients.

Paypal has no fee though and funds appear instantly and also participants can easily spend them, so why bitcoin was better FOR THIS PARTICULAR PURPOSE?

Unless you are legitimately giving a gift, PayPal has fairly high fees.  If you misuse the gift option you expose yourself to having your PayPal account and its balance frozen for up to six months.
hero member
Activity: 756
Merit: 500
It's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye
June 11, 2013, 06:48:23 PM
#41
Oh so the contest was on BITCOIN forum, I like how you excluded that from your original post.

I didn't think it really mattered; I was not making a point about the contest, I was saying how it was easy, quick, and cheap to send a bunch of payments simultaneously to diverse recipients.

Paypal has no fee though and funds appear instantly and also participants can easily spend them, so why bitcoin was better FOR THIS PARTICULAR PURPOSE?

I do not have a paypal account. For me, using bitcoins is therefore easier.
sr. member
Activity: 252
Merit: 250
June 11, 2013, 06:45:03 PM
#40
Oh so the contest was on BITCOIN forum, I like how you excluded that from your original post.

I didn't think it really mattered; I was not making a point about the contest, I was saying how it was easy, quick, and cheap to send a bunch of payments simultaneously to diverse recipients.

Paypal has no fee though and funds appear instantly and also participants can easily spend them, so why bitcoin was better FOR THIS PARTICULAR PURPOSE?
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 100
June 11, 2013, 06:44:33 PM
#39
Oh so the contest was on BITCOIN forum, I like how you excluded that from your original post.

I didn't think it really mattered; I was not making a point about the contest, I was saying how it was easy, quick, and cheap to send a bunch of payments simultaneously to diverse recipients.

Of course it matters!  You told me about a seamless transfer of funds using Bitcoin, and you failed to mention that this happened *on a Bitcoin forum*?!  In that case, you've constructed the closest thing to a truism that doesn't quite make it into the definition:  Bitcoin users find using Bitcoin convenient.  Can argue with that too, but i doubt i'd win -- this *is* a Bitcoin forum. Cheesy

Edit:  Almost mised your use of "diverse."  Diverse?  you've dealt with creatures as weird & specialized as aardvarks -- us, the Bitcoin users!
hero member
Activity: 756
Merit: 500
It's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye
June 11, 2013, 06:36:32 PM
#38
Oh so the contest was on BITCOIN forum, I like how you excluded that from your original post.

I didn't think it really mattered; I was not making a point about the contest, I was saying how it was easy, quick, and cheap to send a bunch of payments simultaneously to diverse recipients.
sr. member
Activity: 252
Merit: 250
June 11, 2013, 06:31:15 PM
#37
Oh so the contest was on BITCOIN forum, I like how you excluded that from your original post.
hero member
Activity: 756
Merit: 500
It's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye
June 11, 2013, 06:29:14 PM
#36

Last week I ran a poetry contest. The entries came from all over the world (I can only assume, I did not actually ask where anybody was from). At the end of the contest I was able to send a little bit of money to about ten different people I had never met before and all I had to identify them was a single string of characters, the money was sent instantly for an a "generous" fee of the equivalent of 0.1 USD. You don't see how bitcoins are useful? Maybe I could have sent them cash in the mail ... 0.41 usd each for the postage, but wait I don't have addresses for them, I could ask for their mailing address, but no, they would not want to give me (an anonymous guy on the internet) that information, so my giveaway would have failed.

My immediate question is:  What in the world will those people do with Bitcoin?  
I know decent God-fearin' American patriots would rather burn the American flag than take part in a poetry contest, but you must have had some real live Al-Qaeda type international terrorists!  I mean, all of these people had Bitcoin addys & used Bitcoin already?  And they lived all around the world?  You're pulling my leg!  Not a single one of them waxed poetically "[TL;DR] WTF is Bitcoin"?  Amazing.
But let's assume these folks had Bitcoin wallets & knew how to use them ( having texted "BRB, wallet  synching" to their respective muses, putting poesy distillation on hold), where in the world will they spend those tips?!  

I have no idea what they are going to use the money for, you could ask them? https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/poetry-contest-tip-your-favorite-poems-219714

As part of submitting poems they were asked to provide a bitcoin address, so it looks like all of them had bitcoin address at hand and easily accessible. And why not? Even if you use a paper wallet it does not hurt to have the bitcoin address sitting in lots of places so you can hand it out to anybody who asks. I didn't have anybody asking what a bitcoin is, but being on the bitcoin forum if they had not gotten that far they would not have found my poetry contest either.
hero member
Activity: 756
Merit: 500
It's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye
June 11, 2013, 06:23:29 PM
#35
You could have instantly sent the giveaways via Paypal completely free. All they need to do is provide you with a throwaway email.

From what people around here say, PayPal is the devil.

Bitcoins would be able to maintain a price if there was an actual economy utilizing them. I have not been impressed by any of the sites selling stuff for bitcoins, most are very unprofessional. There is still much growing to do to have bitcoin be a viable currency.

I don't think there really needs to be an "economy" built around bitcoin for it to continue rising. There are clearly use cases already  in place, like how S.MG on MPEx just raised the equivalent of a million dollars in their IPO. Bitcoin can do just fine serving the tech savvy and the financiers of the world.
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 100
June 11, 2013, 06:20:18 PM
#34

You've been around this forum for a bit, so i'm sure this conversation happened more times than you can shake a stick at.  But i''ll bite: You're talking about potential, not current, usefulness -- am i right?  Because right now, if i don't need to gamble or buy from SR, my fiat does just fine, while Bitcoin ... well, i can't even gas up my car with it.  As far as potential usefulness, I suggest you get behind my Bitcoin V2.0 -- I'll let you in on the ground floor & toss you a few coins.  
Oh, and you can mine it while the difficulty's still low (sorry, old Bitcoin -- you had your day in the sun).  My 2.0 is no different from bitcoin, other than lower total coin count (+1 for RARITY), so it's potential usefulness is no different from Bitcoin V1.0.  

So, is it rarity & usefulness that gives Bitcoin value, or could it be ... something else?

Last week I ran a poetry contest. The entries came from all over the world (I can only assume, I did not actually ask where anybody was from). At the end of the contest I was able to send a little bit of money to about ten different people I had never met before and all I had to identify them was a single string of characters, the money was sent instantly for an a "generous" fee of the equivalent of 0.1 USD. You don't see how bitcoins are useful? Maybe I could have sent them cash in the mail ... 0.41 usd each for the postage, but wait I don't have addresses for them, I could ask for their mailing address, but no, they would not want to give me (an anonymous guy on the internet) that information, so my giveaway would have failed.

My immediate question is:  What in the world will those people do with Bitcoin?  
I know decent God-fearin' American patriots would rather burn the American flag than take part in a poetry contest, but you must have had some real live Al-Qaeda type international terrorists!  I mean, all of these people had Bitcoin addys & used Bitcoin already?  And they lived all around the world?  You're pulling my leg!  Not a single one of them waxed poetically "[TL;DR] WTF is Bitcoin"?  Amazing.
But let's assume these folks had Bitcoin wallets & knew how to use them ( having texted "BRB, wallet  synching" to their respective muses, putting poesy distillation on hold), where in the world will they spend those tips?!  
hero member
Activity: 826
Merit: 508
June 11, 2013, 06:16:19 PM
#33
Last week I ran a poetry contest. The entries came from all over the world (I can only assume, I did not actually ask where anybody was from). At the end of the contest I was able to send a little bit of money to about ten different people I had never met before and all I had to identify them was a single string of characters, the money was sent instantly for an a "generous" fee of the equivalent of 0.1 USD. You don't see how bitcoins are useful? Maybe I could have sent them cash in the mail ... 0.41 usd each for the postage, but wait I don't have addresses for them, I could ask for their mailing address, but no, they would not want to give me (an anonymous guy on the internet) that information, so my giveaway would have failed.

You could have instantly sent the giveaways via Paypal completely free. All they need to do is provide you with a throwaway email.
hero member
Activity: 518
Merit: 500
June 11, 2013, 06:10:34 PM
#32
Okay, I was just thinking about bitcoins and how amazing they are. Then I realized that it is inevitable for the price of bitcoins to go up over time, because as each person decides they will accept bitcoins the overall network effect increases. As the population of the world is increasing, so too must the price of bitcoins. I look forward to the amazing world we will build together using this wonderful technology.



You must be crazy. There is no assurance that as people learn about bitcoin they will actually start using it. For many people bitcoins are just too hard to use. It seems like there are plenty of people who get all gung-ho for a little bit, but then they get bored and leave bitcoins behind. Bitcoins are inflating at over 10% a year right now, clearly the price is going to go down in the short term.

...As two are one, so am I!  Huh

Wink

Oh, Hi other Bitcoin Bear, it is nice to see another bear around here Smiley

You must be crazy. There is no assurance that as people learn about bitcoin they will actually start using it. For many people bitcoins are just too hard to use. It seems like there are plenty of people who get all gung-ho for a little bit, but then they get bored and leave bitcoins behind. Bitcoins are inflating at over 10% a year right now, clearly the price is going to go down in the short term.

Bitcoin is like a drug, once you get a taste you can't give it up.

I admit once you hear of bitcoins you cannot unlearn of them, but that does not mean that everybody who looks into bitcoins will continue using them forever. There will be some drop off once the new people have spent all their disposable income and the older users start cashing out to live their life of luxury.

Bitcoins would be able to maintain a price if there was an actual economy utilizing them. I have not been impressed by any of the sites selling stuff for bitcoins, most are very unprofessional. There is still much growing to do to have bitcoin be a viable currency.
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 100
June 11, 2013, 06:07:21 PM
#31
Okay, this conversation has indeed happened many times so I'm going to provide you with some reading material instead because Erik Voorhees has worded it all quite nicely.

Firstly, Bitcoin  - The Libertarian Introduction (April 11th, 2012): http://evoorhees.blogspot.nl/2012/04/bitcoin-libertarian-introduction.html
Secondly, Bitcoin 2013 – The Role of Bitcoin as Money (May 23rd, 2013): http://evoorhees.blogspot.nl/2013/05/bitcoin-2013-role-of-bitcoin-as-money.html

Please continue the discussion after reading both of those Smiley

Listen, how about we cut to the chase:  I'll paste a couple of links to counter your couple of links, and then our links can take the conversation from there, deal?
hero member
Activity: 756
Merit: 500
It's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye
June 11, 2013, 06:03:07 PM
#30

You've been around this forum for a bit, so i'm sure this conversation happened more times than you can shake a stick at.  But i''ll bite: You're talking about potential, not current, usefulness -- am i right?  Because right now, if i don't need to gamble or buy from SR, my fiat does just fine, while Bitcoin ... well, i can't even gas up my car with it.  As far as potential usefulness, I suggest you get behind my Bitcoin V2.0 -- I'll let you in on the ground floor & toss you a few coins.  
Oh, and you can mine it while the difficulty's still low (sorry, old Bitcoin -- you had your day in the sun).  My 2.0 is no different from bitcoin, other than lower total coin count (+1 for RARITY), so it's potential usefulness is no different from Bitcoin V1.0.  

So, is it rarity & usefulness that gives Bitcoin value, or could it be ... something else?

Last week I ran a poetry contest. The entries came from all over the world (I can only assume, I did not actually ask where anybody was from). At the end of the contest I was able to send a little bit of money to about ten different people I had never met before and all I had to identify them was a single string of characters, the money was sent instantly for an a "generous" fee of the equivalent of 0.1 USD. You don't see how bitcoins are useful? Maybe I could have sent them cash in the mail ... 0.41 usd each for the postage, but wait I don't have addresses for them, I could ask for their mailing address, but no, they would not want to give me (an anonymous guy on the internet) that information, so my giveaway would have failed.
legendary
Activity: 2324
Merit: 1125
June 11, 2013, 06:01:13 PM
#29
Okay, this conversation has indeed happened many times so I'm going to provide you with some reading material instead because Erik Voorhees has worded it all quite nicely.

Firstly, Bitcoin  - The Libertarian Introduction (April 11th, 2012): http://evoorhees.blogspot.nl/2012/04/bitcoin-libertarian-introduction.html
Secondly, Bitcoin 2013 – The Role of Bitcoin as Money (May 23rd, 2013): http://evoorhees.blogspot.nl/2013/05/bitcoin-2013-role-of-bitcoin-as-money.html

Please continue the discussion after reading both of those Smiley
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 100
June 11, 2013, 05:53:24 PM
#28


Are you saying Bitcoin's value is due to its rarity & usefulness?

If no one else is, I am.  Hell even if some or every one else is, I still am.  This is exactly what makes it valuable:  the unique combination of scarcity and utility that was heretofore unprecedented.  It's a monumental achievement of humanity -- presently highly undervalued.

You've been around this forum for a bit, so i'm sure this conversation happened more times than you can shake a stick at.  But i''ll bite: You're talking about potential, not current, usefulness -- am i right?  Because right now, if i don't need to gamble or buy from SR, my fiat does just fine, while Bitcoin ... well, i can't even gas up my car with it.  As far as potential usefulness, I suggest you get behind my Bitcoin V2.0 -- I'll let you in on the ground floor & toss you a few coins.  
Oh, and you can mine it while the difficulty's still low (sorry, old Bitcoin -- you had your day in the sun).  My 2.0 is no different from bitcoin, other than lower total coin count (+1 for RARITY), so it's potential usefulness is no different from Bitcoin V1.0.  

So, is it rarity & usefulness that gives Bitcoin value, or could it be ... something else?
hero member
Activity: 756
Merit: 500
It's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye
June 11, 2013, 05:52:59 PM
#27
You must be crazy. There is no assurance that as people learn about bitcoin they will actually start using it. For many people bitcoins are just too hard to use. It seems like there are plenty of people who get all gung-ho for a little bit, but then they get bored and leave bitcoins behind. Bitcoins are inflating at over 10% a year right now, clearly the price is going to go down in the short term.

Bitcoin is like a drug, once you get a taste you can't give it up.

^ but what is bitcoin backed by  Huh

Bitcoin is backed by the people around the world who are willing to pay money or render services in exchange for bitcoins.
full member
Activity: 143
Merit: 100
June 11, 2013, 05:43:38 PM
#26
Okay, I was just thinking about bitcoins and how amazing they are. Then I realized that it is inevitable for the price of bitcoins to go up over time, because as each person decides they will accept bitcoins the overall network effect increases. As the population of the world is increasing, so too must the price of bitcoins. I look forward to the amazing world we will build together using this wonderful technology.



You must be crazy. There is no assurance that as people learn about bitcoin they will actually start using it. For many people bitcoins are just too hard to use. It seems like there are plenty of people who get all gung-ho for a little bit, but then they get bored and leave bitcoins behind. Bitcoins are inflating at over 10% a year right now, clearly the price is going to go down in the short term.

...As two are one, so am I!  Huh

Wink
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