Bitcoin - Virtual Currencies and the future of Cash

[brmpipes]

I wonder if this is a way of taking the power away from the already cash rich. The younger people have always said the world is unfair to them, now the younger are looking for ways to become rich through other means.

[Happyhorn52]

If your bitcoin account suddenly disappears who helps you get your money back?

[earthdome]

I agree with the sentiment that you shouldn't invest in anything you don't understand. There is a great deal to wrap your head around to understand crypto currencies and the value proposition of the individual coins. There are uses and features which vary from virtual coin to virtual coin which can provide value or could just be the next scam coin. Many fortunes will be made and some lost.

Short term the market will be very volatile. Some coins popular now will lose a great deal of value, others of little note may rise to prominence.

In the long term the underlying technological innovation first released in bitcoin called the blockchain, which is what made an open source decentralized peer to peer digital currency possible, will disrupt many businesses as ways are found to use this new technology to streamline business and market processes.

[manofthecoldland]

I've been stocking up on wampum, beaver pelts, spices and indentured servant futures, expecting eventual revivals in these time-tested investment vehicles. My tulip bulbs all rotted in the vault, though. I've been thinking of buying some medieval papal indulgences as well, but as you must suspect... they are hard to come by. 

[Dave Hounddriver]

5 minutes ago, manofthecoldland said:

I've been stocking up

On sarcasm?  Keep stocking.

[manofthecoldland]

33 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

On sarcasm?  Keep stocking.

Well, maybe a tad..... but now that I reflect a bit....according to what I see on 'Antiques Roadshow' these days....Native American wampum items and historical documents have done quite well for their possessors. And the last time I bought a prime grade, x-large 'black' (very darkest brown hue) tanned beaver pelt to cut and sew up into a far north, traditional style cold weather hat.... I paid $90 !   

[Snowy79]

My money is on the World Banks getting together and regulating Cryptocurrency with Government help. They won't sit back and let technology cream off their profits. 

Short term there will be rises until they can figure out how to tax and control all exchanges. 

 

[Jack Peterson]

8 minutes ago, Snowy79 said:

Short term there will be rises until they can figure out how to tax and control all exchanges. 

At my age now, I think I will settle for this one the rest is just above my head this morning 

[Gentleman.Jack.Darby]

8 hours ago, Snowy79 said:

My money is on the World Banks getting together and regulating Cryptocurrency with Government help. They won't sit back and let technology cream off their profits. 

Short term there will be rises until they can figure out how to tax and control all exchanges. 

 

Because of the way Bitcoin is designed, with no central authority to regulate it or control it, the number of Bitcoins that can be 'mined' or created mathematically limited, the integrity of each exchange transaction, reasonably speaking, guaranteed, and the ability of each transaction to be executed anywhere in the world between just the buyer and the seller, it will be very difficult for banks and governments to completely regulate it and probably impossible for them kill it completely.

Of course, a particular country could forbid money changers from converting Bitcoin to their fiat currency and forbid merchants from accepting it as payment for goods and services, but because transaction are done electronically with reasonable, but not absolute anonymity, buyers and sellers in the country can still get transactions completed; as well, countries that overregulate Bitcoin could see economic activity flow to those countries that are more 'enlightened'.

Taxing Bitcoin transactions would present its own set of novel difficulties for tax authorities - I'm from the U.S. and there is an awful lot of 'under the table' economic activity going on here, whether by actual cash changing hands or by barter for goods and services and most of it is probably untaxed. If Bitcoin really took off here, I would expect that the U.S. government would eventually institute a VAT or national sales tax scheme rather than try to tax Bitcoin transactions directly.

[Reboot]

15 hours ago, Snowy79 said:

My money is on the World Banks getting together and regulating Cryptocurrency with Government help. They won't sit back and let technology cream off their profits. 

Short term there will be rises until they can figure out how to tax and control all exchanges. 

 

I agree, and I will go further.

Bitcoin etc are anonymous, permissionless systems.

Right now you've got malware out there hijacking computers and demanding payment in bitcoin--a payment system that isn't supposed to be traceable, making attractive to criminals. Then you've got North Korea, supposedly raising funds through hacking bitcoin exchanges and perhaps even mining it. 

That sort of thing won't be allowed to last, I predict.

But, cryptocurrencies can be implemented as systems that have secure IDs and are permission-based. That's where the future of blockchain-based currency will likely be, because it's something central banks can monitor and control.