Bitcoin? in Off Topic

ID:278460
 
Aug 10 2011, 12:57 am
I barely just heard of some strange new form of currency called the 'Bitcoin.'

Anyone heard of it? Apparently there are already several sites that accept this form of currency or convert to real currency. There's even a website that lists the exchange rates for several different currencies.

The strangest thing about it is that bitcoins come from nothing. You get them by running a program on your computer which lends your processing power to bitcoins transactions. (With people who lend the most processing power receiving the most bitcoins.)

Also, there is a Wikipedia article...
#1 Aug 10 2011, 11:27 am
Bitcoins are a scam.

There was actually a huge scandal awhile back. Some hackers made off with a large chunk of cash.
#2 Aug 10 2011, 1:28 pm
In response to SuperAntx (#1)
That happened because one of the Bitcoin exchanges (which exchange bitcoins for money) was hacked, nothing to do with Bitcoin itself.
#3 Aug 10 2011, 1:34 pm
In response to Hazman (#2)
It has everything to do with Bitcoins, after the hack the price of Bitcoins plummeted.

The whole thing is just a massive Ponzi scheme designed to sell people useless tokens. At least a third of all Bitcoins are owned by a small group of early adopters, it's in their best interest to get dumb people into the system in order to sell off their worthless Bitcoins.
#4 Aug 10 2011, 6:19 pm
In response to SuperAntx (#3)
Yeah. Understandable. Though, I don't think the creators of the software intended it as a scam. There was a quote from one of them that said something similar to: "Don't invest too much in bitcoins, they're kind of like a high-risk investment."
#5 Jan 6 2012, 1:26 am
In response to Complex Robot (#4)
Ponzi schemes never bounce back!!!!!
At the moment they are developing an overlay network protocol on top of the p2p bitcoin protocol (codename stratum).
Would be interesting for example to exchange/buy stuff inside of a game with bitcoins.
#6 Jan 6 2012, 4:19 am
In response to SuperAntx (#3)
SuperAntx wrote:
It has everything to do with Bitcoins, after the hack the price of Bitcoins plummeted.

The whole thing is just a massive Ponzi scheme designed to sell people useless tokens. At least a third of all Bitcoins are owned by a small group of early adopters, it's in their best interest to get dumb people into the system in order to sell off their worthless Bitcoins.

Amusingly, despite all of this, it is still considered the most successful "digital" currency.
#7 Jan 6 2012, 1:22 pm
In response to D4RK3 54B3R (#6)
D4RK3 54B3R wrote:
SuperAntx wrote:
It has everything to do with Bitcoins, after the hack the price of Bitcoins plummeted.

The whole thing is just a massive Ponzi scheme designed to sell people useless tokens. At least a third of all Bitcoins are owned by a small group of early adopters, it's in their best interest to get dumb people into the system in order to sell off their worthless Bitcoins.

Amusingly, despite all of this, it is still considered the most successful "digital" currency.
Bitcoins are used primarily on websites that can only be reached via Tor (.onion stuff)