7 ms·

Living On Bitcoin For A Week

56 points by selamattidur 13y ago

evo_9 13y ago
Is there any concern with keeping the price of an individual bitcoin down so that they can be used more like a proper currency? Meaning, at around $140 per coin currently that's not exactly an ideal 'base' value of a currency. Is there an equivalent to a stock split that could be applied? Just seems like Bitcoin can never really fulfill its dream of being a true global currency if the lowest value of an individual 'coin' is so expensive.
- MichaelGG 13y ago
  You don't need to use Bitcoin in 1-coin denominations. The clients even have support for viewing it in much smaller (millionth) pieces. So the "base" value is really quite irrelevant apart from psychological aspects when trading BTC.
- anonymoushn 13y ago
  The unit of bitcoin is currently 10^-8 bitcoins, or about one ten-thousandth of a penny. A smaller unit can be adopted at any time if a majority of the network starts using a client that supports a smaller unit.
- mrb 13y ago
  One Bitcoin can be divided down to 0.00000001 BTC.
  - evo_9 13y ago
    Yes, I'm aware of this. My comment was about wide-spread adoption. I have a hard time imaging my parents working with fractions just to buy a coffee.
    - im3w1l 13y ago
      There is some effort to switch the discourse to mBTC.
    - meric 13y ago
      Your ancestors did just fine with salaries of a few dollars a year, once upon a time.
      - wmf 13y ago
        It's just a terminology problem because people aren't used to "bitcents" or "mBTC" yet.
    - mrb 13y ago
      Come on, you lack imagination. Do you really not see that a simple change of units would solve the pb? It is a mere convention change, not even a technical change! Call 0.001 bitcoin 1 millibitcoin, or 1 mBTC, or 1 "new bitcoin". Done! They do this all the time in countries with inflation/deflation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_franc#New_franc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_franc#New_franc
sukuriant 13y ago
Given the price of BTC, can we start talking about bitcoins in a more readable unit? Like... an iPhone costs 300cBTC? centibitcoins? or 30dBTC 30 decibitcoins?
- sp332 13y ago
  How is 300 cBTC more readable than 3 BTC? Edit: anyway, more common units are mBTC for 1/1000, uBTC for 1/1,000,000 and "satoshi" which is the smallest division the protocol currently supports, 1/100,000,000. (Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym used by the creator of bitcoin.)
  - obviouslygreen 13y ago
    The point may have been that if BTC is the only unit, then most every-day things will cost something like .05 BTC, which doesn't seem all that intuitive (at least coming from a USD area).
    - nick2021 13y ago
      Also remember that things started costing 5 cents until inflation ran those same items up to dollars.
      - sp332 13y ago
        If bitcoin ever takes off, its built-in deflation will run the problem in the other direction (making it even worse than it is now).
      - leishulang 13y ago
        by just saying the word "bitcoins" here, I know this post will worth a million dollar somewhere in the future.
rheide 13y ago
This is stupid and it proves nothing. It's the equivalent of living on Rupees for a week. Sure, you might find some Indian people who will take your money, but nobody's trying to replace the USD with either the Rupee or the Bitcoin. Pure sitespam, this.
- Steko 13y ago
  "nobody's trying to replace the USD with ... the Bitcoin" That's blatantly false, it's been presented as a potential replacement since infancy.
- niggler 13y ago
  "Pure sitespam, this." Forbes.com as a whole is spam. I'm genuinely amazed by how many articles get upvoted. I guess whatever anti-voting-ring measures in place here can't compete with forbes employees :/
  - nikster 13y ago
    Honestly this is the first Forbes article I ve read in months that had actual, real content in it. Reporters in the ground and not just trolls making polarizing statements to generate web traffic. I thought it was pretty good. By Forbes usual standards, stellar.
lucb1e 13y ago
This is like trying the first Android beta there ever was and then saying that there aren't a lot of apps for it yet. Nearly all current users could have told him that living on Bitcoin for a week is hard to do right now because there is simply no support. This is why we are early adopters, we use something before it's mainstream. You can't actually walk up to anyone and expect to be able to pay them in any currency you can think of.
- bdr 13y ago
  *her
- Steko 13y ago
  Walking up to people and paying people for goods and services is a good measure of how useful something is as a currency. Right now, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that bitcoin is fairly useless to most people as a currency, a hard truth for some. What is it not useless for? Well mainly as an investment/get rich quick scheme as well as money laundering, drug deals and soothing the paranoia of hard money cranks.
  - lucb1e 13y ago
    If it was so easy to get rich with bitcoin, everyone would have it already. Besides that, what are Dollars useful for besides drug deals and tax evasion? I can't pay a taxi in Dollars here (a very good measurement for how useful a currency is) but I can use dollars to buy stuff from some Chinese seller that doesn't make me pay tax over the bought goods. It's a hard truth for some. This reply is total bullshit, I know. I'm trying to connect with him on his level.
    - Steko 13y ago
      "I can't pay a taxi in Dollars here" Who is trying to push the dollar as a viable currency for Chinese people to buy things with in China? OTOH Bitcoin hypers are trying to push it as a global currency. Well, spoilers: it sucks for that.
ollybee 13y ago
I remember seeing articles about people trying to live for a week without leaving the house but instead using "the internet" for all shopping and communications. Thinking back to that time there seem to be so many parallels with how the internet was perceived then to how bitcoin is perceived now.
pyalot2 13y ago
"after a failed attempt to do so via Mt. Gox, the value-setting Bitcoin exchange based in Japan; my bank refused to send funds to Mt. Gox’s account saying it was suspended" Funny how this journalist is the only one having gotten that. Seeing as MtGox is the biggest exchange, that would've been quite the news otherwise, but it isn't, because it's so far working for everybody.
- makomk 13y ago
  To be honest, everyone else is probably used to problems like this now, to the point that it's not really news.
  - pyalot2 13y ago
    Well, difficulty transfering money, why sure. But MtGoxes account being shut down, that would be news. Perhaps the nice lady should've stated which bank is telling her bullshit. Name and shame.
- phantomcircuit 13y ago
  I assume her banks fraud department kicked back the transfer as suspicious. They never return a transfer as "suspicion of fraud," rather it's always an error implying the problem is with the recipients bank.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
asah 13y ago
SF retail chain accepts now bitcoin (artisan food & gift, 3 locations: Ferry Building, Haight-Ashbury, North Beach): http://yelp.com/biz/buyers-best-friend-san-francisco http://yelp.com/biz/buyers-best-friend-san-francisco http://yelp.com/biz/buyers-best-friend-mercato-san-francisco http://yelp.com/biz/buyers-best-friend-mercato-san-francisco http://yelp.com/biz/buyers-best-friend-wholesale-and-market-san-francisco http://yelp.com/biz/buyers-best-friend-wholesale-and-market-...

56 points by selamattidur 13y ago

evo_9 13y ago

Is there any concern with keeping the price of an individual bitcoin down so that they can be used more like a proper currency? Meaning, at around $140 per coin currently that's not exactly an ideal 'base' value of a currency. Is there an equivalent to a stock split that could be applied? Just seems like Bitcoin can never really fulfill its dream of being a true global currency if the lowest value of an individual 'coin' is so expensive.

MichaelGG 13y ago
You don't need to use Bitcoin in 1-coin denominations. The clients even have support for viewing it in much smaller (millionth) pieces. So the "base" value is really quite irrelevant apart from psychological aspects when trading BTC.
anonymoushn 13y ago
The unit of bitcoin is currently 10^-8 bitcoins, or about one ten-thousandth of a penny. A smaller unit can be adopted at any time if a majority of the network starts using a client that supports a smaller unit.
mrb 13y ago
One Bitcoin can be divided down to 0.00000001 BTC.
- evo_9 13y ago
  Yes, I'm aware of this. My comment was about wide-spread adoption. I have a hard time imaging my parents working with fractions just to buy a coffee.
  - im3w1l 13y ago
    There is some effort to switch the discourse to mBTC.
  - meric 13y ago
    Your ancestors did just fine with salaries of a few dollars a year, once upon a time.
    - wmf 13y ago
      It's just a terminology problem because people aren't used to "bitcents" or "mBTC" yet.
  - mrb 13y ago
    Come on, you lack imagination. Do you really not see that a simple change of units would solve the pb? It is a mere convention change, not even a technical change! Call 0.001 bitcoin 1 millibitcoin, or 1 mBTC, or 1 "new bitcoin". Done! They do this all the time in countries with inflation/deflation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_franc#New_franc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_franc#New_franc

sukuriant 13y ago

Given the price of BTC, can we start talking about bitcoins in a more readable unit? Like... an iPhone costs 300cBTC? centibitcoins? or 30dBTC 30 decibitcoins?

sp332 13y ago
How is 300 cBTC more readable than 3 BTC? Edit: anyway, more common units are mBTC for 1/1000, uBTC for 1/1,000,000 and "satoshi" which is the smallest division the protocol currently supports, 1/100,000,000. (Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym used by the creator of bitcoin.)
- obviouslygreen 13y ago
  The point may have been that if BTC is the only unit, then most every-day things will cost something like .05 BTC, which doesn't seem all that intuitive (at least coming from a USD area).
  - nick2021 13y ago
    Also remember that things started costing 5 cents until inflation ran those same items up to dollars.
    - sp332 13y ago
      If bitcoin ever takes off, its built-in deflation will run the problem in the other direction (making it even worse than it is now).
    - leishulang 13y ago
      by just saying the word "bitcoins" here, I know this post will worth a million dollar somewhere in the future.

rheide 13y ago

This is stupid and it proves nothing. It's the equivalent of living on Rupees for a week. Sure, you might find some Indian people who will take your money, but nobody's trying to replace the USD with either the Rupee or the Bitcoin. Pure sitespam, this.

Steko 13y ago
"nobody's trying to replace the USD with ... the Bitcoin" That's blatantly false, it's been presented as a potential replacement since infancy.
niggler 13y ago
"Pure sitespam, this." Forbes.com as a whole is spam. I'm genuinely amazed by how many articles get upvoted. I guess whatever anti-voting-ring measures in place here can't compete with forbes employees :/
- nikster 13y ago
  Honestly this is the first Forbes article I ve read in months that had actual, real content in it. Reporters in the ground and not just trolls making polarizing statements to generate web traffic. I thought it was pretty good. By Forbes usual standards, stellar.

lucb1e 13y ago

This is like trying the first Android beta there ever was and then saying that there aren't a lot of apps for it yet. Nearly all current users could have told him that living on Bitcoin for a week is hard to do right now because there is simply no support. This is why we are early adopters, we use something before it's mainstream. You can't actually walk up to anyone and expect to be able to pay them in any currency you can think of.

bdr 13y ago
*her
Steko 13y ago
Walking up to people and paying people for goods and services is a good measure of how useful something is as a currency. Right now, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that bitcoin is fairly useless to most people as a currency, a hard truth for some. What is it not useless for? Well mainly as an investment/get rich quick scheme as well as money laundering, drug deals and soothing the paranoia of hard money cranks.
- lucb1e 13y ago
  If it was so easy to get rich with bitcoin, everyone would have it already. Besides that, what are Dollars useful for besides drug deals and tax evasion? I can't pay a taxi in Dollars here (a very good measurement for how useful a currency is) but I can use dollars to buy stuff from some Chinese seller that doesn't make me pay tax over the bought goods. It's a hard truth for some. This reply is total bullshit, I know. I'm trying to connect with him on his level.
  - Steko 13y ago
    "I can't pay a taxi in Dollars here" Who is trying to push the dollar as a viable currency for Chinese people to buy things with in China? OTOH Bitcoin hypers are trying to push it as a global currency. Well, spoilers: it sucks for that.

ollybee 13y ago

I remember seeing articles about people trying to live for a week without leaving the house but instead using "the internet" for all shopping and communications. Thinking back to that time there seem to be so many parallels with how the internet was perceived then to how bitcoin is perceived now.

pyalot2 13y ago

"after a failed attempt to do so via Mt. Gox, the value-setting Bitcoin exchange based in Japan; my bank refused to send funds to Mt. Gox’s account saying it was suspended" Funny how this journalist is the only one having gotten that. Seeing as MtGox is the biggest exchange, that would've been quite the news otherwise, but it isn't, because it's so far working for everybody.

makomk 13y ago
To be honest, everyone else is probably used to problems like this now, to the point that it's not really news.
- pyalot2 13y ago
  Well, difficulty transfering money, why sure. But MtGoxes account being shut down, that would be news. Perhaps the nice lady should've stated which bank is telling her bullshit. Name and shame.
phantomcircuit 13y ago
I assume her banks fraud department kicked back the transfer as suspicious. They never return a transfer as "suspicion of fraud," rather it's always an error implying the problem is with the recipients bank.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

asah 13y ago

SF retail chain accepts now bitcoin (artisan food & gift, 3 locations: Ferry Building, Haight-Ashbury, North Beach): http://yelp.com/biz/buyers-best-friend-san-francisco http://yelp.com/biz/buyers-best-friend-san-francisco http://yelp.com/biz/buyers-best-friend-mercato-san-francisco http://yelp.com/biz/buyers-best-friend-mercato-san-francisco http://yelp.com/biz/buyers-best-friend-wholesale-and-market-san-francisco http://yelp.com/biz/buyers-best-friend-wholesale-and-market-...