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Munchies_Matt wrote: months
Let me bookmark that. 
I do not disagree that it is inflated but predictions of an immenent crash were made years and many magnitudes ago.
It "crashed 40%" in September.
And quadrupled after that, so exactly how do we define crash?
... such stuff as dreams are made on
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jgakenhe wrote: If that is the case, then why are these companies accepting Bitcoin payment:
Presumably the same reason as to why companies (yes real companies) manage real estate in the game "Second Life".
Because they think they can make some money doing it.
Doesn't mean they expect it to replace anything.
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I think there are a number of factors in play with crypto currency not least of which is FOMO - fear of missing out! It is a volatile market and there are way too many coins out there - over 1500 now with more coming - see icowatchlist.com[^]
As an aside, I have a friend who was paid 10 bitcoin for a job a few years back and no longer has any idea what he did with them!!!
Also, there was an article the other day about a guy that bought 25000 when they were a dollar a piece - now worth over 420 million!!!
And, finally, the guy that supposedly invented them, if it is a real person, may be the first trillionaire. Could Satoshi Nakamoto become the world's first trillionaire?[^]
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They may want to protect their assets. Funny thing about tech, most people don't understand it. They just know it's new. The market loves new stuff to play with. People get bored. The same thing happened with the dot com bubble. The people that were smart enough to get in at a great time will hopefully be smart enough to get out or protect their assets before the market corrects itself (via a crash, etc.).
Jeremy Falcon
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On the flip side, you could be paid in bitcoin today only to have the value drop 20% in the time it took you to sell (then there are the fees!)
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Are bit coin stored on hard disks?
Caveat Emptor.
"Progress doesn't come from early risers – progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." Lazarus Long
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coins are such small value, why not bitgold, bitplatinum, or for something really volatile bitpotassium or a bit warmer bitplutonium. (The latter also self regulates hoarding.)
Signature ready for installation. Please Reboot now.
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Depends on the owner. Most people either leave them on the exchange where hey bought them or transfer them to a wallet of some description.
[^]
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They can be. There are bitcoin wallets which are containers for them and those wallets run as software on various types of hardware.
There are, of course, also bitcoin-dedicated hardware out there.
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Yes. If it crashes, it's gone.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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"And they were engaged in religion. You could tell by the knives (it’s not murder if you do it for a god)"
(Small Gods)
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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jschell wrote: or stolen.
Yes, but that is not something new; that could happen to everything you call "property" 
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Eddy Vluggen wrote: es, but that is not something new; that could happen to everything you call "property
Yes but it someone steals my credit card I am out, at most 50$, and for most credit cards not even that. And even the use might allow the police to find the thieves.
If they steal the flash drive with 1 million in bitcoins or steal it from the online holder it is gone unless the police can recover it. And spending it will not expose the thieves.
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jschell wrote: Yes but it someone steals my credit card I am out, at most 50$, and for most credit cards not even that. And even the use might allow the police to find the thieves.
Unfair comparison; that's not money, that's someone else guaranteeing your payment
jschell wrote: If they steal the flash drive with 1 million in bitcoins or steal it from the online holder it is gone unless the police can recover it. And spending it will not expose the thieves.
That's more true for gold than for BC. Remember that gold does not have a public ledger known as a "blockchain".
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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No, because the point of a central bank is to control the money supply with the intent of keeping the value stable. They don't always succeed, but have done a remarkably better job than commodity-backed currencies. (Right now Bitcoin is a speculative commodity, not a currency, despite claiming a similar name.)
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Yes - but then so is gold (upon which most world currencies are based) a speculative commodity.
One thing this cryptocurrency phenomenon may do is finally get it through to people that money is not - and has not been for centuries - in any way related to goods and services. Its value is nothing more than what the markets decide it to be, and there at all sorts sf factors that determine that, both social and political.
(Yeah yeah - Soapbox is thataway ---> )
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The volatility of gold makes it a problem for a growing economy. Ironically, most countries whose currency "backed" by gold have a tiny percentage of actual gold reserves, which means it's still a fiction.
Money has always been based on trust, which is actually quite amazing when you stop and think about it. (I find it fascinating just how much of social order is based on simple trust. Also amazed that when things fall apart, it typically doesn't turn all "Lord of the Mad Maxes", though that doesn't mean I want to live in those places.)
(EDIT: Here's the start of an article explaining problems with gold back currencies far better than I can. Unfortunately, to read the full article, you have to create an account: [^])
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“money is a matter of belief, even faith: belief in the person paying us; belief in the person issuing the money he uses or the institution that honours his cheques or transfers. Money is not metal. It is trust inscribed. And it does not seem to matter much where it is inscribed: on silver, on clay, on paper, on a liquid crystal display.”
― Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
“Banknotes (which originated in seventh-century China) are pieces of paper which have next to no intrinsic worth. They are simply promises to pay (hence their original Western designation as ‘promissory notes’),”
― Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
Caveat Emptor.
"Progress doesn't come from early risers – progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." Lazarus Long
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So instead of trading money for goods, are we just trading debt for goods? Instead of being paid money, we're paid in debt owed by others?
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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A_Griffin wrote: Yes - but then so is gold (upon which most world currencies are based) a speculative commodity.
I kind of wondered what the context of the original OP meant in terms of gold.
Basically no currency in the world is backed by gold.
Only One Currency Is Still Backed By Gold - Business Insider[^]
Those governments that still have gold might chose to diversify but as an asset it is no more meaningful than the actual building (asset) of the town hall or an old fire truck. It is worth something but it has nothing to do with the currency.
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