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Anyone want to offer some insight into what a bitcoin is? (Sorry for my ignorance. I tried looking it up, can't seem to understand what it really is.)

hippich 16y ago
online currency which is not controlled by one issuing center but is being "generated" by all members of p2p network. this currency has limit on number of coins in circulation.
sgornick 16y ago
Security Now on TWIT tv covered Bitcoin today. Steve Gibson does a pretty decent job describing it. http://twit.tv/sn287 http://twit.tv/sn287 Bitcoin coverage is from 0:41:25 to the end of the podcast.
- kleevr 16y ago
  This was an excellent explanation, and it's a really brilliant idea. And the fact that it already has an impressive perceived value (parity with USD), I would totally accept it as a form of payment. It will be interesting to see what this does over time.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- kablamo 16y ago
  I followed all kinds of links and couldn't figure out bitcoins. This link actually answered some questions. Sounds really fascinating. Definitely will look into this more.
trotsky 16y ago
A gentleman's agreement between a certain faction of econ-crypto-tinfoil-hat-botnet nerds to assign trade value to the wastage of increasingly large amounts of electricity.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- phirephly 16y ago
  Best description I've seen yet. Granted, I'm impressed with how much momentum they seem to have already collected, so I feel like their implementation is sound, but still tin-foily. They are working on a real problem though. Paypal kind of works, but isn't ideal.
  - cmontgomeryb 16y ago
    Why 'tin foily'?
- mkramlich 16y ago
  I'm fairly certain that more money is spent to create & manage a single US dollar in circulation than is used for a single bitcoin unit. The latter has no paper form, no need to be physically lugged around, no ongoing R&D design overhead spent on counter-counterfeiting measures, no Department of Treasury budget costs, no Secret Service budget costs, no banks or bank vaults, no armored trucks with armed guards lugging money bags... I could go on but I'll stop. To address from a different angle, the phenomenon where you say electricity is being "wasted" to produce a bitcoin is analogous to the creation of a US dollar. Not to the using of it or acquiring of it. You can buy and acquire a bitcoin fairly quickly and cheaply, CPU/electricity-wise. Much more so than if you had to "mine" it. Much like dollars. Much cheaper/easer/faster to "buy" a dollar than to construct one out of thin air. (A legal one, anyway.)
mkramlich 16y ago
Ummm.... http://www.bitcoin.org/ http://www.bitcoin.org/
- solipsist 16y ago
  > I tried looking it up, can't seem to understand what it really is.
  - mkramlich 16y ago
    Understood. I didn't understand it either til I read several descriptions of it online. The official site I cited, Wikipedia, various tutorials and forum posts about it. The usual places. Google is pretty useful too. In short: pure-digital currency, created out of thin air, backed by cryptographic algorithms, aligned with a libertarian/anarchic philosophy, and designed to avoid many problems associated with traditional national paper currencies. It has flaws and quirks which critics will jump on, but then so does say the US dollar and the US Federal government and banking system, so arguably somewhat of a case of pick your poison, or lesser of two evils.

hippich 16y ago

online currency which is not controlled by one issuing center but is being "generated" by all members of p2p network. this currency has limit on number of coins in circulation.

sgornick 16y ago

Security Now on TWIT tv covered Bitcoin today. Steve Gibson does a pretty decent job describing it. http://twit.tv/sn287 http://twit.tv/sn287 Bitcoin coverage is from 0:41:25 to the end of the podcast.

kleevr 16y ago
This was an excellent explanation, and it's a really brilliant idea. And the fact that it already has an impressive perceived value (parity with USD), I would totally accept it as a form of payment. It will be interesting to see what this does over time.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
kablamo 16y ago
I followed all kinds of links and couldn't figure out bitcoins. This link actually answered some questions. Sounds really fascinating. Definitely will look into this more.

trotsky 16y ago

A gentleman's agreement between a certain faction of econ-crypto-tinfoil-hat-botnet nerds to assign trade value to the wastage of increasingly large amounts of electricity.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
phirephly 16y ago
Best description I've seen yet. Granted, I'm impressed with how much momentum they seem to have already collected, so I feel like their implementation is sound, but still tin-foily. They are working on a real problem though. Paypal kind of works, but isn't ideal.
- cmontgomeryb 16y ago
  Why 'tin foily'?
mkramlich 16y ago
I'm fairly certain that more money is spent to create & manage a single US dollar in circulation than is used for a single bitcoin unit. The latter has no paper form, no need to be physically lugged around, no ongoing R&D design overhead spent on counter-counterfeiting measures, no Department of Treasury budget costs, no Secret Service budget costs, no banks or bank vaults, no armored trucks with armed guards lugging money bags... I could go on but I'll stop. To address from a different angle, the phenomenon where you say electricity is being "wasted" to produce a bitcoin is analogous to the creation of a US dollar. Not to the using of it or acquiring of it. You can buy and acquire a bitcoin fairly quickly and cheaply, CPU/electricity-wise. Much more so than if you had to "mine" it. Much like dollars. Much cheaper/easer/faster to "buy" a dollar than to construct one out of thin air. (A legal one, anyway.)

mkramlich 16y ago

Ummm.... http://www.bitcoin.org/ http://www.bitcoin.org/

solipsist 16y ago
> I tried looking it up, can't seem to understand what it really is.
- mkramlich 16y ago
  Understood. I didn't understand it either til I read several descriptions of it online. The official site I cited, Wikipedia, various tutorials and forum posts about it. The usual places. Google is pretty useful too. In short: pure-digital currency, created out of thin air, backed by cryptographic algorithms, aligned with a libertarian/anarchic philosophy, and designed to avoid many problems associated with traditional national paper currencies. It has flaws and quirks which critics will jump on, but then so does say the US dollar and the US Federal government and banking system, so arguably somewhat of a case of pick your poison, or lesser of two evils.