It wants to be a currency, but it is being treated as a commodity. The best thing for bitcoin would be for people to stop trying to "invest" in bitcoin and start investing in bitcoin related transactional infrastructure. The bubble will have to pop eventually or bitcoin will never be the currency of the future. I see it as being better than gold for practical reasons in that it can be infinitely divided and can make for easier transactions, but it falls into the larger pitfall of limited supply. That limited supply means that if people continue to treat it as an asset or ever again treat it as an asset, it will be extremely deflationary. Why use your bitcoin when it will be worth double in a year? How can something be a currency if the rational response is to never use it?
I Loled when I saw some people say it will become currency of the future. Are these the same people who would buy an island in the middle of Sahara Desert?
Without central control Bitcoin has a tendency to inflate or deflate out of control. Its incredibly unstable and I wouldn't buy into it unless it were tied to a central institution.
We live in a society with infrastructure built to accommodate for inflation. If you decide to hermit yourself and let your money depreciate, that's your fault.
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You can buy into it if you think that the valuation won't follow other speculative models or if you think that it still hasn't completely peaked: http://www.quora.com/Investing/Is-it-still-viable-to-buy-Bitcoins-right-now/answer/Dan-Zhang-1?srid=po1Y&share=1
Nothing makes me more excited about a topic than people posting 40 minute long YouTube videos and not even having the decency to post a summary.
fair enough Bitcoin is far more than a currency. It is a permanent public ledger of any and all voluntary exchange between parties on the network.
Wait. Isn't one of Bitcoin's appeals the fact that it's supposed to be far more anonymous than buying stuff with normal currencies? I would think there's a slight contradiction between "anonymous" and "permanent public ledger."
I agree. Well, it's still just taking off. Gold took millennia to get to its current value and BTC's trying to replicate that in a span of a few years. The question is whether or not it's the end-all for cryptocurrencies. The number of BTCs may be limited but, as a cryptocurrency, it's not. There are already other cryptocurrencies popping up; some with arguably better features like a faster transaction time.
Features can be incorporated into the bitcoin open source. Users/holders of bitcoin have a huge incentive to improve the architecture.
No one knows who I am because I'm not worth the effort. If someone really wanted to figure out my identity, it would hardly be that difficult. I had someone figure out my real name on another forum I used to post at, and I've done it with someone who posted here. "Anonymity until someone gives enough of a damn to figure out who you are" isn't exactly the anonymity that I think Bitcoin's fans want. After all, that's really no different from regular currencies - the IRS doesn't give a crap who you are as long the taxes are paid. Basically, Bitcoin is either super anonymous, or it isn't. If it isn't, then that's just another way it's just like normal currency - which then begs the questions of "Why would I use this thing over normal currency?" If it is, which is my impression, then that's all well and good - except that there's no real reason for true anonymity unless you're buying something that you REALLY don't want the Feds to know that you're buying, which in a nutshell is what Bitcoin's true market is - especially, as I observed, as a tool for international gangsters to launder money.
The client, maybe, but I there are features you can't change like the mining algorithm and the shrinking number of coins rewarded per block over time. Well, these two will become non-issues over time but the transaction time will be there for perpetuity. See: http://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/confirmationtime-btc-ltc.html
I find it really interesting. It has grown more than I expected. I tend to think it will get to a certain point and then governments will start shutting it down and it will all collapse really quickly though. I hope I'm wrong for all of the people that have invested so much money into it.
I think Bitcoins will be the 'black market" currency of the future. Since the first coin was minted there has always been a war between the Have's and the Have Not's, where wealth is controlled by powers (governments et al.) so that they can impose their own order on societies by assigning values, collecting taxes, and controlling trade. The opposition is the people who are subjugated by the powers that be, but seek ways to alternatively empower themselves, rebels, pirates, libertarians, minorities etc. Since the 'conflict' has been constant for 4000 years, it's pretty safe to assume the latest iteration will continue. People that have power, government's and corporations, will continue try to maintain control and people without power will continue to work around them. It seems that the more authoritarian regimes produce the most active black markets. Just say for instance that I have a used car for sale and you want to buy it. The State says we have to pay a tax on that transaction. But if you pay me in Bitcoins, the State loses tax income but I make more and you pay less. It will become common I think.
