And I disagree back *2, turn around, touch the ground, no returns.

People aren't using it right now though. People are talking about it, people are mining for it, people are doing publicity stunts around letting someone "buy" a car with it, but people aren't actually using it for a currency.

No, for people to have faith in it you just need to be able to exchange it for something they already have faith in (i.e. an existing currency) which is already possible.

http://www.takeaway.com accept it. If you can swap bitcoin for pizza, it's a currency.

That's my original point. Show me someone who has converted their virtual fortune into actual money.

Why? Who cares? The test for a currency isn't whether someone has exchanged it for something else.

You can buy wine with vouchers in a John Lewis.

Doesn't mean that JL vouchers are a legit currency.

I'm struggling to see what people might want from a currency outside of the ability to swap it for beer and pizza.

Just seen a tweet saying the stolen bitcoins have been found.

Got you covered.

I'm struggling to see what people might want from a currency outside of the ability to swap it for beer and pizza.

Alex Salmond agrees.

And so, my £68 of bitcoin revenue, which I requested to transfer out of MtGox approximately one month ago, remains nowhere to be seen.

Strong odds it's lost. Given it was all virtualised jiggery-pokery I don't feel too bad about it, except a vague feeling of gladness that I didn't invest too much time into the nonsense.

Like a lot of things, there was a window to make a dickton of money before the bubble burst. I don't see how it can really recover from this. Even if the technical obstacles with coin security can be overcome, the trust is gone.

And so, my £68 of bitcoin revenue, which I requested to transfer out of MtGox approximately one month ago, remains nowhere to be seen.

Strong odds it's lost. Given it was all virtualised jiggery-pokery I don't feel too bad about it, except a vague feeling of gladness that I didn't invest too much time into the nonsense.

Like a lot of things, there was a window to make a dickton of money before the bubble burst. I don't see how it can really recover from this. Even if the technical obstacles with coin security can be overcome, the trust is gone.

http://www.businessinsider.com/senator-calls-for-bitcoin-ban-2014-2
US senator agrees with MaliA. Expect plans to colonize Mars to be announced, soon.

Middle-aged American in 'knows as much as Mali about technology' shocker.

Not sure where you think I'm wrong, here, but if you're not going to explain where then I'm kinda stuck. We agree on the following:

Virtual coins enable anonymous transactions

You've gone wrong already. Any website which you provide your bitcoin address to can associate that with your IP address.

Like anything, you can go to lengths to make sure you are anonymous, but they're not by default.

Are they likely to keep those records, though?

What about the rest of it?

Sell stuff for bitcoin
Transaction verified by other users
Dump bitcoins into exchange
Swap for dollars
Money comes out clean as "It was in the exchange and was earned thorugh mining"
Exchange unlikely to keep records as it isn't regulated and record keeping costs.

You've gone wrong already. Any website which you provide your bitcoin address to can associate that with your IP address.

Yes, they're called logs.


What you've described can already be easily done using USD or GBP (and is done on a regular basis). There will always be an element of crime in whatever system you use - it doesn't mean the system is inherently wrong or broken.

Seriously guys? Bit coin is used to buy drugs online precisely because of the anonymity. You can put it through splitters that render it exceptionally hard to locate, else the multimillion Mr Gox thing would be simple to solve and prosecute.

How do you ban numbers?

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/NEWS/15683294.Bradford_firm__first_outside_London__to_list_house_for_sale_by_Bitcoin/

House for sale for 10 bit coin.