by Tamara Pitelen
A couple of people have sent me emails after reading my blog Bitcoin for Beginners a couple of days ago. One of them was a bit mad at me. I'll get to him in a minute.
A couple of people have sent me emails after reading my blog Bitcoin for Beginners a couple of days ago. One of them was a bit mad at me. I'll get to him in a minute.
My first email correspondence over the bitcoin issue was with Julian Tosh, who lives in Las Vegas and has a website called www.bitcoinsinvegas.com. He said: "Trying to earn bitcoins online is less profitable than mining. Offer a good or service and you'll have more luck - or simply buy them from someone or a business like CoinBase.com.
"If you'd like to buy them from an individual, you also might benefit from their experience and learn some easier or more secure ways to do things. I recommend trying to meet someone through localbitcoins.com or bitcoin.meetup.com."
Julian also holds weekly bitcoin lunch mobs in Las Vegas so if you're in town and interested, go and say hi from me. I asked Julian if he earned and spent bitcoins on a regular basis and did he see future when we'd all be paid in bitcoins, pay our rent and buy our groceries in bitcoins?
He said: "I earn bitcoins, buy bitcoins, and spend them just about every day. There is a growing community of adopters in many major metropolitan areas. In Las Vegas, I have a group of about 60 people who meet regularly to keep up to date and participate in the Bitcoin economy. Here in Vegas, there is a dentist that works for bitcoin, a real estate agent that will let you buy/rent/lease properties for bitcoin, a mechanic will fix your car for bitcoin, and numerous food establishments that will feed you for bitcoin.
"I see bitcoin as a competitor to all money systems. It has properties that are better at times, and not so good at times. But where it shines is its frictionless ability to transfer value/wealth over distance. It is impossible to send 10g of gold to someone in another country for payment. It is expensive to send the same value in fiat due to banking fees. But it is very easy and inexpensive to send that same value in bitcoin to any location in the world. There is no counterparty risk with bitcoin, no way to regulate maximum amounts you can send, and no way to reverse a payment.
"This is a brand new globally accessible currency and the world is only now beginning to understand its properties and benefits. It's not surprising it's not ubiquitously used. But due to the ease at which it can be used once you learn it, I'm confident that it will be accepted everywhere eventually - just like credit cards were not always accepted at all merchants 20 years ago."
Thanks for that Julian! Very interesting.
Second, there was Mike Gehl - I don't know where he's from - who emailed me and wrote:
"I think you're missing the point of digital currencies if you think the only way to acquire them is by filling out surveys and watching videos. People aren't going to just hand you an ounce of silver - you need to dig it from the ground, earn it, or exchange something of value for it. Bitcoin is the same.
"The most important part of the Bitcoin system is the payment network - not the currency aspect. Currently, one of the most pervasive problems with credit cards & online transactions is identity theft and fraud. A consequence of this leads to 2-3% credit card processing fees along with charge-backs levied on merchants. This results in overall higher prices to consumers. "
"The Bitcoin system solves this problem and this should be your story. Bitcoin enables near Instant, secure, global transactions facilitated by minimal processing fees on a network trusted by its users (no banks, no governments required)."
My reply to Mike was, yes, I know I'm missing the point... endeavouring to get the point is the idea behind the experimentation. Theoretically I understand that having a global payment network that bypasses the banks and finance houses has masses of advantages but I'm taking it to the realm of the common woman and man. How do I get these things in everyday life. My boss won't pay me in them, my landlord won't accept them for rent, I can't buy my groceries with them.
I can envisage a future of a global digital currency - I'd love that to manifest actually. I do wonder though if Bitcoin needs to work on its reputation though, when you start investigating them, you end up with a lot of gambling opportunities and links to dodgy websites.
However, here's another interesting development in the last few hours. Germany has just officially recognised Bitcoin as legal tender, calling it 'private money' - which basically means they're going to tax it like any other income source.
Finally, a mystery. I checked my Bitcoin account balance this morning and it's grown! I now have BTC 0.010012. I don't know where that BTC 0.01 came from but it's equivalent to about 72 pence! I'll be getting that Mr Zombie Geek mug in no time.
Keep the emails coming if you want to continue chatting about bitcoin - write to me at tamara@cpifinancial.net - if someone can explain this 'mining' concept to me, awesome. I've read many explanations but still I don't get it.
Reff: http://www.cpifinancial.net/blog/post/22595/bitcoins-the-debate-rages
A couple of people have sent me emails after reading my blog Bitcoin for Beginners a couple of days ago. One of them was a bit mad at me. I'll get to him in a minute.
A couple of people have sent me emails after reading my blog Bitcoin for Beginners a couple of days ago. One of them was a bit mad at me. I'll get to him in a minute.
My first email correspondence over the bitcoin issue was with Julian Tosh, who lives in Las Vegas and has a website called www.bitcoinsinvegas.com. He said: "Trying to earn bitcoins online is less profitable than mining. Offer a good or service and you'll have more luck - or simply buy them from someone or a business like CoinBase.com.
"If you'd like to buy them from an individual, you also might benefit from their experience and learn some easier or more secure ways to do things. I recommend trying to meet someone through localbitcoins.com or bitcoin.meetup.com."
Julian also holds weekly bitcoin lunch mobs in Las Vegas so if you're in town and interested, go and say hi from me. I asked Julian if he earned and spent bitcoins on a regular basis and did he see future when we'd all be paid in bitcoins, pay our rent and buy our groceries in bitcoins?
He said: "I earn bitcoins, buy bitcoins, and spend them just about every day. There is a growing community of adopters in many major metropolitan areas. In Las Vegas, I have a group of about 60 people who meet regularly to keep up to date and participate in the Bitcoin economy. Here in Vegas, there is a dentist that works for bitcoin, a real estate agent that will let you buy/rent/lease properties for bitcoin, a mechanic will fix your car for bitcoin, and numerous food establishments that will feed you for bitcoin.
"I see bitcoin as a competitor to all money systems. It has properties that are better at times, and not so good at times. But where it shines is its frictionless ability to transfer value/wealth over distance. It is impossible to send 10g of gold to someone in another country for payment. It is expensive to send the same value in fiat due to banking fees. But it is very easy and inexpensive to send that same value in bitcoin to any location in the world. There is no counterparty risk with bitcoin, no way to regulate maximum amounts you can send, and no way to reverse a payment.
"This is a brand new globally accessible currency and the world is only now beginning to understand its properties and benefits. It's not surprising it's not ubiquitously used. But due to the ease at which it can be used once you learn it, I'm confident that it will be accepted everywhere eventually - just like credit cards were not always accepted at all merchants 20 years ago."
Thanks for that Julian! Very interesting.
Second, there was Mike Gehl - I don't know where he's from - who emailed me and wrote:
"I think you're missing the point of digital currencies if you think the only way to acquire them is by filling out surveys and watching videos. People aren't going to just hand you an ounce of silver - you need to dig it from the ground, earn it, or exchange something of value for it. Bitcoin is the same.
"The most important part of the Bitcoin system is the payment network - not the currency aspect. Currently, one of the most pervasive problems with credit cards & online transactions is identity theft and fraud. A consequence of this leads to 2-3% credit card processing fees along with charge-backs levied on merchants. This results in overall higher prices to consumers. "
"The Bitcoin system solves this problem and this should be your story. Bitcoin enables near Instant, secure, global transactions facilitated by minimal processing fees on a network trusted by its users (no banks, no governments required)."
My reply to Mike was, yes, I know I'm missing the point... endeavouring to get the point is the idea behind the experimentation. Theoretically I understand that having a global payment network that bypasses the banks and finance houses has masses of advantages but I'm taking it to the realm of the common woman and man. How do I get these things in everyday life. My boss won't pay me in them, my landlord won't accept them for rent, I can't buy my groceries with them.
I can envisage a future of a global digital currency - I'd love that to manifest actually. I do wonder though if Bitcoin needs to work on its reputation though, when you start investigating them, you end up with a lot of gambling opportunities and links to dodgy websites.
However, here's another interesting development in the last few hours. Germany has just officially recognised Bitcoin as legal tender, calling it 'private money' - which basically means they're going to tax it like any other income source.
Finally, a mystery. I checked my Bitcoin account balance this morning and it's grown! I now have BTC 0.010012. I don't know where that BTC 0.01 came from but it's equivalent to about 72 pence! I'll be getting that Mr Zombie Geek mug in no time.
Keep the emails coming if you want to continue chatting about bitcoin - write to me at tamara@cpifinancial.net - if someone can explain this 'mining' concept to me, awesome. I've read many explanations but still I don't get it.
Reff: http://www.cpifinancial.net/blog/post/22595/bitcoins-the-debate-rages
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