BITCOIN - have experience?

[Jude Iam]

crypto currency seems to be the successor to 'credit cards' and bank accounts, as well as paypal.
bitcoin is gaining acceptance daily - the key to success.
i'm intrigued. endless videos, articles, etc. learning.

if you've 'mined', bought, sold, traded bitcoins and would be happy to share your knowledge, I'd be grateful - especially if you're in or around west county.

thanks, jude

[ChefJayTay]

That's not the impression I get at all.
Yes, that was the intent of bitcoin. However it has not proven to be so. The Mt. Gox debacle is one issue. Another is the current feuding between the major miners (there's less than a dozen major players.....) over the next step in block size. The bitcoin network is currently operating beyond it's means and they can't agree because no one is in charge and everyone has to make the change.

What is really happening, that will be major, is the world banks are using the blockchain technology to vastly improve their transaction systems. They are also developing a similar currency.

If you wanna throw some cash into bitcoin as a really speculative trade, that's one thing. It's price has wildly swung with little correlation to markets or currency.

[Chris Dec]

It is my (small, imagination-based) understanding that bitcoin, while being the object of suspicion and fear among credit card users from 'safe' banks in first world economies, is taking off in third world economies where banks have not developed the infrastructure necessary for emerging consumers to use readily.

It reminds me of the cell phone, easily available in cultures who had no money to run expensive telephone lines through undeveloped countries. They just jumped the step of land line directly to cell phone, the first phone they ever owned. Now if you look at that analogy, land line phone use is being replaced at a regular pace with mobile devices, especially by younger users. Next generation may not know what a land line is.

So as bit coin and its ilk become more established worldwide, it may be the only currency used in the future. Large banks' conventional systems may not be able to compete. But banks and other financial institutions are interested in the blockchain technology, and I understand, are already using some of the technology begun by Bitcoin, such as Nasdaq's 'Linq", enabling completely private trading and investing.

So maybe banking as we know it will be a hybrid of the old and the new.

It is a new world.

... What is really happening, that will be major, is the world banks are using the blockchain technology to vastly improve their transaction systems. They are also developing a similar currency...

[Allorrah Be]

I am really interested in this ~ count me in, if more info. becomes available! And thanks!
Rev. BE

[KWilson]

I have just been getting educated on this by a friend who is very knowledgeable. He bought 1600 bit coins when they were $100/each and in a few months the price jumped to $1200. He doesn't view bit coins as something to invest in, he views the whole block chain concept as being created for the betterment of mankind. It's a very hard concept for me to understand! But according to him, the upcoming Ethereum is the new technology to get excited about. He thinks it will explode into the google of block chains. I plan to buy some. Then there is Rootstock, also promising.

I think the smart contracts that the block chains provide are definitely the wave of the future. They will apply to many aspects of our everyday lives, like self-driving cars and banking. I can't wait to learn more about it, it is mind-boggling.

crypto currency seems to be the successor to 'credit cards' and bank accounts, as well as paypal.
bitcoin is gaining acceptance daily - the key to success. ...

[Pickles]

I was watching Charlie Rose on PBS the other nite and he had a guy on there discussing bit coins. Charlie always has the experts and love his show, so diverse and informative. Anyway, the guy was Alec Ross, who was previously Senior Advisor for Innovation for the Secretary of State and travelled the world looking at all new innovations. He just published a new book "The Industries of the Future" and was talking about it. He compared bit coins to the first smaller search engines that came before Google took over the market. The block chain technology is the element that will emerge to be the BIG news and bit coins themselves will be a thing of the past. He said that Goldman Sachs plucked the block chain technology piece out of bit coin and filed a patent on it in December last year.

An example he gave of what it will mean is, we all know the time and stack of paperwork, signatures, fees and hoops we go through right now to obtain and close on a mortgage. The block chain technology will be a highly secure application used for secure financial transactions, re: reducing the buying of house/property to a 6 minute transaction instead of a 1-3 month process and $10,000 in closing fees, it will be more like 6 minutes for under $100. Sounds amazing.

His book is now on my must read list as he also talked about innovations in health care that will be able to diagnose a disease in the very beginning stages by some kind of "liquid" technology as a part of our annual physical, which right now only the wealthy have access to as it costs $4,000 and is not covered by insurance. But in another 10 years will be $400 and covered by insurance. Also sounds amazing, huh?