I'm going to punch bitcoin in the face

[inb4bowden]

yeah, Canada was the first country to actually regulate and legalize BTC because Harper's an old school economist. He literally ordered BTC ATM's with tax dollars and genuinely wants it to catch on, he just wants it highly regulated and would probably prefer if there was photo IDs accompanying each hash

kind of want to delete this thread

[millionsofdeadcats]

So, is there a scam angle to all of this?  Can one induce another to buy 'fake bitcoins' or sell fake mining hardware to new 'prospecters'?  I am almost interested enough to look for myself.......almost.

[splooge gook]

I think there'll always be a decentralized internet economy for anonymous dealings somewhere or another, but i think it's more like something that'll pop up on the fringe every few months once a kid eats 3 grams of phenazepam and has to go to the emergency room and then ILLEGALIZE BITCOIN!!!!!!

there are so many different online currencies already available, but the ones that get popular will inevitably crash, and on to the next one everyone/the FBI will be. sort of like "okay silk road is down, now lets go to silk road 2"

[splooge gook]

i'm wondering if you can exchange bitcoin "shells"

have you ever downloaded a song off the internet and it turned out to be an empty file designed to look like the real one? a computer trojan.

maybe you can replicate all the physical (observable) properties of bitcoins without actually having to program bitcoins. it would still be detectable to someone who knew how to analyze the file i guess but i mean how many people can figure out how to use Tor even?

[inb4bowden]

yeah, that's why transactions need so many network confirmations

There's a better way, I know it but my IQ isn't high enough to figure it out yet

[splooge gook]

>link them to a bitcoin phishing trojan app to download

i spent 20 minutes thinking about how i would do this most realistically idk bros

[millionsofdeadcats]

the idea about breaking into the chinese kids apartment and stealing his harddrive is about as technical a solution as I am capable of. 

[inb4bowden]

someone I once saw swimming with a whale in the arctic before it jumped out of its tail can get blockchain private keys for cheap but don't know enough to make them work and figures blockchain has some pretty good security these days

[Hades]

Bit coins are backed by computing power.  Not that that qualifies as 'something' but hey...

The volume of bitcoins traded on the markets is simply way too low.  If some dude tries to offload his 100 bitcoins this can already destabilize the "exchange rates" for one
I did some digging into bitcoin myself, and the way i'd do it, is to buy bullion with them immediately.  There's several sites that offer gold and silver bars and coins you can pay for with bitcoins.  You'll lose some "money" on it in the sense that the gold you bought will be worth less when you bring it to the pawnshop than had you sold your bitcoin straight away, but atleast there's a well established markter for silver and gold, and you're not exposed to BTC-USD exchange rate risks.

[Rook]

 Back a few years ago when I got my first set of student loans, I came so close to buying 1,000 bitcoins at $5 a piece.... It's still hard for me to really think about it, and the only reason I didnt make the purchase was because my "current" fiance advised me against it and that I would be.. stupid and wasting five grand.. In hindsight, it's easy to look back and think.. "Wow, I could have been a millionaire right now.. where would I be?".. Then again, Bitcoin didnt blow up over night.. I would have probably considered myself a failure and sold them off little by little with each small increase in price, probably never seeing a million dollar payday.. I was about to say it was probably for the best that I didn't because I wouldn't have had my wonderful fiance, but since Bitcoin never really bottomed out to lower than $5.. at least after the point in time.. I was guaranteed not to lose any money.. Ah, what can you do. I made good even though I missed that opportunity and I'm not bitter about it.. My life aint too shabby. But I will make a greater effort to pursue something I believe in the next time I see a profitable opportunity.

[Prometheus]

Bitcoin is a great idea, with a lot of flaws. I know the cryptocurrency community is really trying to find a way to develop a system that currency speculators can't get their hooks into (which is the main cause of the wild value swings), but I wouldn't have a clue as to how to start with that problem. With Dogecoin they tried getting away from the chronic hardware escalation with the miners, but that didn't work out either.

I can't see using bitcoins, or other cryptocurrency for anything other than anonymous transactions (and don't forget to use a tumbler, or it's not as anonymous as you think), since you never know what it will be worth. Someday someone is going to figure out how to stabilize the value, then they'll be useful as something other than a novelty.

That's my 2B

[Rook]

 While I initially loved the concept of Bitcoin, especially since there was the prospect of getting rich from the investment... My infatuation has died down some in time. I would still love to see a digital currency, not unlike the 'cred' often featured in science fiction media.. Obviously, something that is legitimately secure and safe from theft/loss.. outside of ones personal stupidity. I can still possibly see Bitcoin doing fairly well in the future as it matures. I don't think Bitcoin will be the endgame as far as crypto-currency in the immediate future.. Sure, we have all these coins floating around now, but I mean something on par or beyond what BTC has already accomplished. Then again, a solid competitor could possibly hinder all markets instead of helping.. I'll stick to investing in the physical for now.. I'm not quite ready to throw money at BTC.. I missed that ship when it left port a long long time ago.