Please Help Me Understand BitCoins

[shamefulprincess]

Nice forum. I am actually looking for some help understanding BitCoins.

If anyone has any advice or suggested reading for a novice such as myself it would be greatly appreciated! Where do you buy them? Where do you keep them? How much is a BitCoin worth? Are they safe to buy/use? I would love to have a better understanding of the whole BitCoin scene so I can share my new found understanding with my friends at nodepositforum.com. I get asked questions about BitCoins all the time and have to tell them I don't understand how they work enough to answer. Help?

Thanks in advance!

 

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[John Winter]

I can Google that for you ...

https://bitcoin.org/en/how-it-works
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

... but I still don't understand.

 

[hvacker]

I read somewhere, maybe it was a YouTube, but someone made them on a 3D printer. I'll have to look in my history to see if I can find it again.

 

[Peyton Manning]

save yourself time, toss your money down the toilet

bitcoins are not real

 

[Chadeaux]

save yourself time, toss your money down the toilet

bitcoins are not real

That's not true ... don't toss your money down the toilet! Send it to me --- uh, you can trust me. (just kidding, about sending the money.)

Bitcoins. The preferred currency of extortionists everywhere simply because it is untraceable.

Usually, it starts with a call from "Harry" with Microsloth who is worried because, "your computer is sending out viruses"!

 

[gollum]

Jeff-Gordon,

They are very real, and can be used as legal tender at many places all over the world. The idea behind Bitcoin is phenomenal. No more crap currency tied to wishes not gold. The problem with Bitcoin is that it challenges the Dollar, Euro, and every other currency in the world. The US Government were the likely culprits behind most of the Bitcoin thefts. A perfect example is when Uncle Sam took down Silk Road Market (Dark Web). One of the Secret Service Agents involved stole eight hundred and twenty thousand dollars in Bitcoin:

SECRET SERVICE BITCOIN THEFT

Here is a list of just some of the businesses that accept Bitcoin:

BITCOIN BUSINESSES

Enjoy - Mike

 

[Peyton Manning]

well it's my old man opinion so it's worth what you paid for it.

ooops there goes a unicorn!

 

[hvacker]

save yourself time, toss your money down the toilet

bitcoins are not real

They are as real as our paper money. The same thing is backing Bitcoins is the same thing backing our dollar and that's faith.

It's like most things, they are worth what someone will pay and someone else will value. Right now Bitcoins have recognized something that most people don't. That's that money is not really worth anything except what it can do. So their creators created a currency that people saw had an advantage over nationalized money.

Could Bitcoins fail? Sure, just as any money can. When we had the gold standard it was easier to put a value on a dollar. Today, not so much as it's floated on the world market like a commodity. Pork bellies if you will.

Today economies are Faith based. As long as someone believes, the money has value.
Today Bitcoins are the best thing going to buy stuff you never could easily before. A great way to launder money. No paper trail if you buy and trade right. Buy illegal drugs, sure like the Silk Road.

The world economies are nothing but a deck of cards. It's Las Vegas on steroids and the wild West together. We pretend to value a piece of paper even though what we really value is what that paper can do. Same with Bitcoins.

And no I have never bought them or plan to. I just see the nitch they created.

Are Bitcoins a hyped market? By a hyped market an example might be 1960's Detroit muscle or Barbie dolls. The Detroit muscle cars, as anyone that knows that was there, were Detroit junk that had a 90 day warranty and rusted to pieces in few years. Barbie doll were made by the millions and were never rare. The value of these things are what I call a hyped market generated by telling people what they should value and placing ridiculous prices on them.
Do Bitcoins fall into this? I don't know. I do see them outlasting their critics so far.

If there were just ONE global currency, how would you value it? I would be like having just one stock to buy.

 

[Peyton Manning]

well, as Mark Twain said " tell it to the marines, they might buy it"

 

[hvacker]

well, as Mark Twain said " tell it to the marines, they might buy it"

Peace to you also. I was just examining why and what we value as currency. The Chinese tribute..."May your life be interesting". Well I believe ours has been.
I know today I can use Bitcoins as an exchange for most of whatever I value. Before Dollars and Bitcoins there were sea shells, it could be pebbles, it still represents a barter. Before what we agreed on what money was, there was barter. Much more convenient than carting a goat around.

The only difference between Bitcoins and all the other currencies is they have no Nationality and no alliance. When dealing with sea shells it was the same unless your tribe had no interest in sea shells.
Really, of all people Americans should be the most comfortable with Bitcoins as they seem to represent the attitude of "I'll do it myself"! I believe it's possible a new currency has been invented and it's based on the same thing all the rest are....Faith.
Before asking yourself what's wrong with them... ask how can they benefit me. The answer might be why they might succeed as a currency.

It's all just faith...Peace

 

[Peyton Manning]

alert me when you can get coffee at mcdonald's with a bitcoin

 

[hvacker]

alert me when you can get coffee at mcdonald's with a bitcoin

seriously, that's what Bitcoins are about. They are an alternate currency w/o borders. Think of the problem of needing to deal with nationalities floating their money to try to gain an advantage over other countries.
Sure it will always be like that. My sea shells are more rare than your pebbles. But now it's just paper and the "promise" that it will be valued. Bit Coins, no difference.
The fact, as I see it, is we have been duped into thinking our money has value when it's like the Kings new clothes. The King is naked and the only thing holding the World's economies together is FAITH. There is nothing of value supporting their money except the idea that the country will retain it's value and that we all keep playing the game.

How do we value a country's ability to pay it's debts, keep it's promises. The USA is seen as an honest country to park foreign money even though interest rates are obnoxious. Safe haven especially for those in other governments where some people have future interests.
Many countries look for a bail out when they over estimate their world value. Very low. Will Bit Coins become a viable trade option? Probably when we can no longer trust many Governments. And ya, I'll buy the coffee.
Governments come and go. The only thing a Roman coin will get you is to some collector. No coffee.
Interesting times.

I've watched Blade Runner a few times' It's when governments are no longer viable and the corporates assume control. Not really hard to imagine. It seems to me they already control our( strike that) their government.

But I can understand wanting to hold on to what we find as comforting ie: our economy. Problem it's all so fragile. Faith based.

 

[fmerg]

alert me when you can get coffee at mcdonald's with a bitcoin

Ronald McDonald House Charities accept bitcoin for donations through a partnership with Bitpay. There are many indications that point to bitcoin being accepted by McDonald’s in the very near future