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Thread: Bitcoins and crypto-currencies

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
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    Bitcoins and crypto-currencies

    One reads about impressive dollar values for bitcoins and other crypto-currencies, but are they actually liquid assets? - something you could actually exchange for US currency or goods and services?

    Most banks in the USA won't exchange foreign physical currency for US currency even though one reads about "exchange rates". I'd think bitcoins would be even harder to exchange.

    Are bitcoins only used within a subculture? - something like the chips issued by a Casino that are only good within the Casino?

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    There are ways to convert back and forth from Bitcoin and other "digital" currencies...they couldn't exist otherwise and it's also the only way to account for partial values. But the exchanges are specific to the given currency.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  3. #3
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    There is a Bitcoin ATM at the M.I.T. Co-op Bookstore. So yes, there are ways to exchange bitcoin for currency. That said, I haven't done it.
    Shawn

    "no trees were harmed in the creation of this message, however some electrons were temporarily inconvenienced."

    "I resent having to use my brain to do your thinking"

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Shawn Pixley View Post
    There is a Bitcoin ATM at the M.I.T. Co-op Bookstore. So yes, there are ways to exchange bitcoin for currency. That said, I haven't done it.
    Bitcoin? IIRC, that's what the hackers wanted when I got tricked into a cryptovirus. Encrypted most of my hard drive and they wanted $500 in Bitcoin to unlock it. (I didnt pay it. But I'll bet there are plenty who do.)

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2007
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    I wouldn't buy more than I could afford to lose. It's speculation on the highest level as the crypto-currencies values have no other basis for real value. They offer criminals and tax dodgers easy invisibility but other than that what use do they have except speculation? The criminals do not leave their gains invested in these so called currencies but buy and sell within seconds to take the profits in real local currencies. My opinion is Governments will soon eliminate the existence of exchanges allowing conversion to local currencies making them valueless. They are simply not going to allow an existence of unregulated money. Of course I firmly believed we wouldn't have our current president so what do I know?
    My three favorite things are the Oxford comma, irony and missed opportunities

    The problem with humanity is: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and God-like technology. Edward O. Wilson

  6. #6
    There are several online wire transfer companies that exchange bitcoin for US dollars. I agree that its a volatile currency and I would approach cautiously. That said, it seems that bitcoin holds pretty steady at high numbers.

  7. #7
    Well,so far bit coin is doing fine. Real money is not REAL money ,it is fiat money.....right now some are thinking "it's made
    by FIAT? No wonder it won't buy much"

  8. #8
    A handful of large online retailers accept bitcoin as a form of payment (Overstock.com, Expedia, Microsoft). If Amazon agrees to accept bitcoin, it would be a big deal and give it a lot of legs. Seems very opaque to me, but who knows what the future will hold.

    I heard a story about a guy who got into bitcoin very early, and when his computer hard drive crashed several years later, data not recoverable, his 50 bitcoins worth $120,000 were gone. So if you jump on board, make sure your bitcoins are stored in the cloud or in some other type of backed up environment.

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