Bitcoins?

[mrmarket]

Ok...what are these things and why should we care about them?

[Websman]

It's like playing roulette in the wild wild west.....

[mrmarket]

It's like playing roulette in the wild wild west.....

now you have my interest! Bet Bet BET BETT BETTT!!!

[riverbabe]

It really is the wild west. This was in my inbox this AM from SA.

"Bitcoin plunges as major exchange goes dark. The price of Bitcoin was -5.4% at $515.75 at the time of writing - although up sharply from earlier lows - after one of its leading exchanges, Mt Gox, appeared to have disappeared amid speculation of a massive security breach and that it's about to go bankrupt. Mt Gox's Web site was blank this morning, while a purportedly leaked document shows that 744,400 bitcoins worth $350M have been stolen from the company. The number of bitcoins allegedly taken represents 6% of all those in existence."

[billyjoe]

The first Bitcoin ATM in the U.S. opened in Austin Tex. last week. My son's friend got into Bitcoins 2 years ago, made some fast $$ then got out worrying he'd lose everything. Got a nice start for his baby girl's education fund.

------------------billy

[Duniyo]

Seriously I need to stop thinking smart or perhaps, start thinking stupidly smart. Everyone is making money of off these insanely idiotic ideas.

[riverbabe]

Bitcoins originated with MAGIC, a game my grandkids are really into (including the tournaments). Didn't know that until this moment, Wow. My grandkids know a whole lot more than me!

From Quartz: "Confidence - that Bitcoin is a reliable store of value, and that it can be used without fear of getting totally ripped off - is just the problem for Bitcoin. Mt. Gox is by far the largest in a long string of collapses and thefts that have plagued the upstart currency. The exchange had its humble roots as an online marketplace for wizard-themed playing cards (its full name derives from 'Magic: the Gathering Digital Exchange'), but in the end it made a fortune in Bitcoins disappear into thin air. The question now is whether Bitcoin will follow suit."

[mrmarket]

Explain this to an idiot....

How are these supposed to work? And why do they exist??

[jiesen]

They exist because a growing number of people are becoming wary of current fiat money supply, and want to hedge with something harder to manipulate. Also, they work because the frictional transaction costs are much less for bitcoin than any other kind of money when you deal with certain types of transaction- like sending money over a long distance.
The system works because lots of computers are set to the task of securing the network of transactions, and 'creating' the money (it's that way by design). It's supposedly a bulletproof system and a great algorithm, and the rising price would seem to reflect that... but like anything, it's only as good as it's the best one available at the time. Like FB or myspace before it, once the next great thing comes along, nearly all the value currently in it could suddenly disappear. Then again, nearly all the value in the US dollar is likely to disappear, just as 90% (or more) of it has in the past 100 years, so will 90% of it disappear again in the next 100.

If bitcoin is a long-term success, then you could do worse for an inflation hedge than by putting some money in that, as opposed to gold or silver, if keeping a cryptokey safe on a USB drive is any easier for you than burying a chunk of metal and remembering where you hid it for 10 years.

But for those of us who love stocks, and how they keep going up, up, up... there's no real need for inflation hedges. They'd be like, um, training wheels for fishes... or something.

[buckhunter]

I see Bitcoins are up like 1,600% over the past year, barely eclipsing $$MM$$'s track record. So part of me wants to jump in and get me some of that. But then the angel on my shoulder quotes Warren Buffet and says "Don't invest in something you don't understand". About the time I invest in Bitcoins, I'll get stuck with a bunch of Chuck E Cheese tokens with "B" written on them with a Sharpie.

[riverbabe]

Okay, I just talked to my 15-year old grandson on the phone. He knew all about Mt Gox! It stands for Magic: The Gathering, Online Exchange. It's sort of like trading baseball cards. You buy (with real $$, like from Amazon) decks of trading cards sealed so you don't know what you're getting. If you actually get a valuable one, you trade it to places like Mt Gox for Bitcoins. Then you can use those Bitcoins to buy someone else's valuable cards, or to buy seats at a physical tournament where more trading goes on for more valuable cards. You can Google all this, including the Magic: The Gathering web site. He buys his Bitcoins directly from their site, but he said you can also get them on E-Bay and other places.

How this all developed into a huge alternative currency with all these trading exchanges and wild volatility, I can't fathom, but Webs was right when he called it the "wild west."

My daughter pointed out that it's a little like the gold bars and coins we can use on Candy Crush or other online games to buy extra lives and moves. If I actually get desperate and buy, I can get 10 gold bars for 90 cents but they charge it to my PayPal.

That's all I can tell you, folks, for now. Hope it helps.

[Phoenix7]

Ah yes Bit Coins. Here is an article that may be of interest http://www.contrarianprofits.com/bad...uyers-remorse/ As you can see Bit Coins is like playing Polish Roulette ......i.e. Spinning the barrel of a SIX Shot revolver with 5 live rounds and 1 empty chamber .....and then placing the gun to your head before pulling the trigger! LOL

[Phoenix7]

Folks the reason why bitcoin is having so many problems is simply that governments and the banks have no control over it ........and they hate that, and will do anything in their power to regulate or over turn it. Read This http://beforeitsnews.com/economy/201...r-2599396.html

[billyjoe]

Folks the reason why bitcoin is having so many problems is simply that governments and the banks have no control over it ........and they hate that, and will do anything in their power to regulate or over turn it. Read This http://beforeitsnews.com/economy/201...r-2599396.html

I see a connection between Bitcoin and legalized pot. The govt. will come in to save us all.

-------------------billy

[riverbabe]

In an echo of what sometimes pleasingly happens in the physical world, Mt. Gox has found 200,000 missing Bitcoins worth around $116M in an old virtual wallet from 2011. The exchange had shifted the money into the wallet, which were offline, in order to protect them from hackers. However, 650,000 Bitcoins that were probably online and more prone to attack are still missing following a massive breach that caused Mt. Gox to file for bankruptcy.

(from SA today -- Wall Street breakfast Must-Know News)