bitcoin virtual currency

I am, as a hobby, following the virtual currency/Bitcoin saga. First introduced to this term as a form of currency used on internet sites too chicken to visit.
Then I read of Zuckerberg’s ex-facebook, wealthy, college buddies interest.
Winklevosses: Bitcoin worth at least 100 times more
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/229900

Winklevoss twins: Bitcoin could be the 'currency of a country'
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57...s-bitcoin-could-be-the-currency-of-a-country/

OK. Still don’t really get it, but then today read about a bit coin related death in Singapore and car chase in LA:

The CEO (age 28, female) of a virtual currency exchange was found dead in her home in Singapore. (allegedly “depressed” or “ mysterious circumstances”)
SINGAPORE — Singapore police are investigating the apparent suicide of a 28-year-old American woman who ran a small exchange in the Asian city state trading virtual currencies. http://business.financialpost.com/2014/03/06/autumn-radtke-first-meta-bitcoin/
Autumn Radtke, the 28-year-old CEO of an upstart bitcoin exchange, died last week under mysterious circumstances at her home in Singapore. http://www.cnbc.com/id/101468694

Man called Bitcoin's father denies ties, leads LA car chase
“Satoshi Nakamoto, a name known to legions of bitcoin traders, practitioners and boosters around the world, appeared to lose his anonymity on Thursday after Newsweek published a story that said he lived in Temple City, California, just east of Los Angeles. Newsweek included a photograph and a described a short interview, in which Nakamoto said he was no longer associated with Bitcoin and that it had been turned over to other people. The magazine concluded that the man was the same Nakamoto who founded Bitcoin.”http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/07/us-bitcoin-inventor-idUSBREA252D820140307

Interesting. I understand the intrigue involving of real money, monopoly money, and free money, so why not, virtual money.

I follow bitcoin as well, simply because I have a sense of schadenfreude related to it, and its illegal ventures related to it (drugs, mostly).

Bitcoin is an effort to make an unregulated currency outside the control of any government, and is quite controversial for a number of reasons. Basically, instead of governments printing money, people running programs called 'bitcoin miners' are printing the money, and they keep what they print. It's all virtual, though, electronic bits, nothing physical.

One of the larger bitcoin exchanges, Mt. Gox in Japan, recently collapsed and took with it close to half a billion dollars worth of bitcoin. Where did they go? No one knows. Not in the accounts of thousands of people who had their money stored there.

The other common thing with bitcoin, given its relative anonymity, is online drug purchases. Last year, the government shut down an online drug black market called Silk Road, which was a huge deal, hundreds of millions of dollars were tied up in it. I follow news related to these illegal, online drug markets because they follow what is, to me, an amusing pattern to observe: people spend their bitcoin money in them, and then either through hacking of a third-party, or duplicity on the part of the drug market's owner, the drug market disappears along with millions of dollars in bitcoin. This has happened half a dozen times or more in the past year. What amuses me is that after it happens people are so shocked that a criminal organization has stolen their money yet again!

I started following its rise when Max Keiser on RT started going on and on about it. I won't say that I know a whole lot about it or even understand it, but it is fascinating to watch the evolution of cryptocurrency.

I find Bit coin and Doge coin fascinating as well. I know someone who mined and had 3 bit coins , he used them at Amazon when they were worth only about $30. each after he spent his they went to over $1,000.00 each. Not bad for never putting in 1 cent. He said as long as you take them out of the exchanges wallet they can not steal them. Seems like a pyramid type scheme to me.

I listened to an interview with independent journalist David Seaman. http://www.coasttocoastam.com/guest/seaman-david/55652

"This has never happened before in human history, where people have created a major currency without the backing of a state."

"the value of Bitcoins will continue to grow as major retailers begin to accept the currency as a form of payment. Noting the resounding success seen by Overstock.com when they recently integrated Bitcoin, he surmised that, should Amazon or PayPal follow suit, the value of the units could grow exponentially. . . further economic unrest throughout the world may see people turning to Bitcoin as a more stable place to put their money, since it is not subject to government-caused inflation.”

... and Big Banking’s fear of Bitcoin.

Got me thinking about recent stories of conventional banks refusing to taking increasing funds generated from Colorado’s Medical Marijuana Dispensaries.

nanwv said:

I listened to an interview with independent journalist David Seaman. http://www.coasttocoastam.com/guest/seaman-david/55652

"This has never happened before in human history, where people have created a major currency without the backing of a state."

"the value of Bitcoins will continue to grow as major retailers begin to accept the currency as a form of payment. Noting the resounding success seen by Overstock.com when they recently integrated Bitcoin, he surmised that, should Amazon or PayPal follow suit, the value of the units could grow exponentially. . . further economic unrest throughout the world may see people turning to Bitcoin as a more stable place to put their money, since it is not subject to government-caused inflation.”

... and Big Banking’s fear of Bitcoin.

Got me thinking about recent stories of conventional banks refusing to taking increasing funds generated from Colorado’s Medical Marijuana Dispensaries.

Click to expand...

Amazon took bit coins before overstock started to,many more will follow.New york is trying to install bit coin ATM's.That is what my bit coin mining friend who is a tech geek told me lol.

It appears Boston beat New York to it!

http://www.boston.com/business/inno...outh-station/JuXRKN4IlTUI9QZ1gT81hN/blog.html

…they still have the Yankees!