Cyprus and the Bitcoin

[Maia Makalii]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2013/03/24/cyprus-goes-cashl...

"The era of free capital movement is behind us. Capital controls are about government keeping your money within easy reach should they ever want it. A decentralized and nonpolitical currency like Bitcoin starts to look attractive by providing a safer destination for wary depositors, allowing them to store their money securely in a digital account on their own computers, away from the big governments and politicians’ reach. It is possible to purchase bitcoins in Cyprus atLocalBitcoins.com.

“Money flows to where confidence exists” says Alan Safahi, CEO of ZipZap, Inc., a global cash network with over 700,000 locations in the world. “As bitcoin gains more acceptance, consumer confidence increases and more money will flow to bitcoins, causing a continuous rise in price due to limited supply which then increases consumer confidence even more,” adds Safahi."

exchange rate:

https://btc-e.com/

or here:

http://bitcoinprices.com/

value since Sept 2010

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bitcoin_exchange.png

an article in Wired magazine from 2011:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/mf_bitcoin/

So I find this interesting what has happened.  Th bit coin is now worth $75 USD maybe partially because of what happened in Cyprus.  Maybe we are ready for virtual currency such as OPPT suggests to start. What I don't like about the bitcoin is that it is connected with criminal activity such as listed on the Wired magazine article.  But if someone were to start a new currency based on shared virtue, maybe we are ready for ready for that now.

[Maia Makalii]

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ

bitcoin FAQ

Maybe soon currency will be valued by people's trust and confidence in each other and the transparency of the system which it is in.

[Maia Makalii]

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ

"Bitcoin is a distributed network, so any changes implemented to the system must be accepted by all users. Someone trying to change the way Bitcoins are generated would have to convince every user to download and use their software – so the only changes that would go through are those that would be equally benefit all users.

And thus, it is more or less impossible for anyone to change the function of Bitcoin to their advantage. If users don't like the changes, they won't adopt them, whereas if users do like them, then these will help everyone equally. Of course, one can conceive of a situation where someone manages to get a change pushed through that provides them with an advantage that no one notices, but given that Bitcoin is structurally relatively simple, it is unlikely that any major changes will go through without someone noticing first.

The fact that such changes are so difficult to make testifies to the fully distributed nature of Bitcoin. Any centrally controlled currency can be modified by its central agency without the consent of its adherents. Bitcoin has no central authority, so it changes only at the behest of the whole community. Bitcoins development represents a kind of collective evolution; the first of its kind among currencies."

[RichardtheRaelian]

I'am ready for a moneyless system not exchanging one form of lack as slaves to it for another.

[Maia Makalii]

I think it is weird that way the Bitcoin is "generated" by "miners".  I don't know if that is even necessary.  It's kind of a strange concept.  The virtual miners have to solve problems in order to generate "blocks" or something.  It's really strange. But it makes it difficult for anyone who is not a programmer to "earn" bitcoins.  Everyone else can exchange them but not earn them, it seems except by it's increase in value over time.  I looked at some of the companies that are accepting bitcoins as currency and there isn't very much available yet. So it's weird that not very many "tangible" things can be bought with bitcoins.  It's value seems to be based solely on people's confidence that it will increase in value over time.  And yet it has had quite a few drops in value and problems with people hacking into it. I don't really understand the mining part.  

At one point the people involved with "OPPT" were planning on making a virtual currency... I wonder if that is still in the works.  I'm thinking I like the idea of a virtual currency, but I don't even think the mining part is necessary.  I think the value could be based on shared values and mutual trust.  If someone could ensure that the currency would not be used for nefarious purposes, I would want to invest in it for sure, because what I really don't like about money is that it is used for things that I don't agree with.  Some of the stores accepting bitcoins are pornography stores, for example.  For me the value in a currency would be based on the idea that people are sharing things that I agree with, and had "stores" for products that were organic, and fair trade items. But I suppose you are right, PA people could always take advantage of it.  But it seems to me that it is because of greed.  The Bitcoin has attached to it the "greed factor" simply because it has that "mining" thing attached to it as well as the value of the coin itself increasing as people get more greedy.

If a currency was just a means of exchange, and didn't have fluctuations, there wouldn't be no "greed factor" built into it.  So people who are greedy would not be interested, whereas people who just want a currency to simply function as a means of exchange of services would be interested. 

In any case, I think it is an interesting experiment in economics to see what happens with the bitcoin and we will learn a lot from it.  It might be the beginnings of people seeing currency in a new light, and more people coming up with their own currency ideas.

[Maia Makalii]

The other concept I liked is that some people who earned a lot of bitcoins started giving them away to other people through "faucets" simply because they wanted to support the bitcoin and encourage others to use them.  So they just started giving them away through charity. I thought that was a really cool idea.