Bitcoins claimed to be owned by people participating in this poll ~35M
With that said.... I said I have zero in the poll.
A charity proxy would be cool though, that way people like us have the ability to only donate .0005 and the people with 10,000+ can donate too. Then the proxy converts it to real money and donates it to a particular charity.
At first glance it seemed to me this poll said pretty clearly that HN doesn't trust BTC (and to an extent, it still does, it just softly suggests it rather than shouting it with irate certainty). Having this context makes the result less interesting but at least frames it appropriately.
I'm in a position where I can wait for the next massive crash and buy up maybe 10 or 15 as essentially a form of gambling. Because why the fuck not.
Basically I am interested in "bitcoin, the cryptocurrency", not "bitcoin, the investment".
The best future for Bitcoin is instantaneous on-demand conversion from other currencies.
Actually it’s possible to brute-force search for the key and make the BC free, and transfer them. But with the same method it’s possible to steal BC. The brute-force method is just too slow, and would require a few thousands or perhaps millions of years. (I don’t remember the exact estimation.)
With the help of the Moor’s law and some advance breaking the cryptographic security measures, this can happen sooner, but this would be a problem for every BC user.
A potential solution would be to incorporate demurrage, which gradually reduces the value of currency the longer it's held, into the BTC algorithms. Essentially by encouraging the holders of a currency to use that currency you'd a) create a more fluid market and b) remove trapped value in some fixed amount of time. If you wanted to maintain a pool of BTC for a long time you'd simply cycle it between two addresses faster than the decay rate so that it's value wouldn't decay.
Back then they were super easy to get (at least in Japan - feed some cash into an ATM, enter mt gox's account #, enter your username as your depositor name)
MultiBit or Electrum let you use the network securely without it, and have a minimal disk and memory footprint (megabytes, if that).
Why I own 0 bitcoins (currently): One aspect I find facinating about bitcoins over normal money is how they can be tracked and every coin can be audited openly down to its creation. Whilst with notes this is possible, tills and other transactions do not note down those serial numbers used and coins have no way at all of being tracked. Both due to the analogue forms of transactions mean that no exact coin or note is tracked and at most the amount is tracked albeit in a form not tied down to the history of said coin or note. Bitcoins are completely different.
Reason that is important is whilst the media etc seem to portray the criminal usage of bitcoins, the whole system is more secure and auditable than any paper notes or metal coins and with that any bad press about criminal usage of bitcoins are more equaly so with other forms of currency due to the very nature of usage.
So one day I may very well get some bitcoins, but finances aside I do see them as dynamic as shares and in many weays less spendable than shares, due to lack of mainstream recognition and acceptance. When you can go into a major bank and get an exchange rate is when some stability gets introduced and the whole dynamic price akin to shares is removed. That is when I will personaly utilise them as a currency of transaction and fiscal storage.
The Pi's CPU is capable of around 0.2MHashes/sec at 3.75W[0] whereas even a weedy USB ASIC such as the BitForce SC 5Gh/s is capable of 5,000MHashes/sec at 30W[1]
[0]https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#ARM [1]https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#ASIC
http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinUK/comments/1n99os/met_with_v...
Although it's a big mountain to climb so perhaps it's wishful thinking at this stage!
http://www.burnleysavingsandloans.co.uk/about-us/
See if Dave can help.
In any event, let us know if something comes of it! Go Dave!
Are their prices set very much higher than the 'going rate' for bitcoins?
I believe most sellers set their asking price according to the MtGox latest, or just under that figure.
I'm a New Zealander who earns predominantly US dollars, I was an early adopter of bitcoin not as a way to get rich, but because I have been stung for fees so many times.
Nevertheless, despite the fact that I have been prepared to accept bitcoin for two or three years. I have yet to be actually be paid in bitcoin. I request payment in bitcoin, They ask what bitcoin is, I explain, They scream in terror because it's an imaginary drug money ponzi scheme and pay me in something else that stings me with fees (and now, due to new anti-money laundering rules requires more forms of ID than I actually possess)
Actually, the other options overlap too. I suggest using ‘11-20’, ‘21-50’, ‘51-200’, ‘201-1,000’, and ‘1,001-10,000’.
EDIT: I adjusted option 2 to start with less than 1 but more than zero. Thanks for the correction. I also agree with other commenters that the ‘1-10’ range is too large.
Ranges should be taken to mean A < x <= Y it seems.
So I'll probably just hang on to them in case Bitcoin shoots up in value some day, and I can sell them for real money.
At various times I've wanted to buy some and store them properly, but buying them was too much of a hassle. Especially with all the personal information exchanges make you give them. I got kind of turned off when I realized the only way to convert cash was to know someone. (The primary thing I though they'd be useful for was paying for a VPN subscription.)
Currency Exchange, Selling Goods, Selling Services, Mining, etc
2/7th's is huge.
As it stands now it's incredibly hard to find someone selling BTC unless you're willing to mail a copy of your ID over the internet something i would never do.
I see it as a curiosity that might go somewhere.I think that the govts will wake up and stop it, if it looks too successful.
Satoshis aplenty but bitcoins, fugget about it.
I don't have much faith in BTC and don't own any, but still participated. I'm not saying the bias you mention doesn't exist, but it's not as black and white as you state.
If Bitcoin ever becomes mainstream... most people will have well below 0.01 BTC in their wallets at any given time.
Almost impossible.