my head hurts.
who did what now?

I like the way you can “watch it in progress” gripping stuff.

f359518b3da0f433b2c84c1c4ec35d442ae09ad83dfb7b21f7fb317a05096e50 FTW.

Are the majority of transactions on Sheepmarketplace narcotics or other contraband-related a la SilkRoad of old? Why would anyone innocently store their savings there?

Well speaking as someone who has seen a 10000% increase in their investment in the last 18 months, I really think I will do okay without your sympathy.

One question…

What’s a bit coin?

Have they caught him yet 😉

+1

The whole thing is utterly fascinating to follow. I have no idea how they would cast Satoshi Nakamoto though…

Not entirely true. Think of bitcoins as credit (or even debit). They just have to be withdrawn to make ‘real’ money out of them. They can be sold to other users in exchange for real money…

Well, if I hacked your online bank account, transferred the ‘contents’ via various convoluted means into another account, withdrew the contents through a meatspace facilitator, (bank) and legged it, would you consider that theft?
I mean, there was nothing ‘real’ involved, it was all ‘virtual’, up to the point the ‘virtual’ was turned into ‘real’, pretty much the same as Bitcoin.

MODS !!

I think piemonster is becoming self-aware

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin -> still haven’t got a **** clue

Put like this, it doesn’t seem likely.

Nope none the wiser, so “if” I wanted to buy a Bitcoin what do I do?

Do they take bitcoins at Nando’s?

If not, I’m out.

Can you not just mine them?

Depends how much you want. Up the mountain by my Nan’s you can pick it out of streams 🙂

1) A Bitcoin is an electronic token that has a unique key. You can create them (aka mine them) by creating the key, but it takes a lot of computing power a bit like finding a big prime number.

2) There is a finite number of them so they can’t inflate, in theory.

3) They aren’t controlled by any government, and transactions are untraceable.

Now here’s what I don’t understand:

1) As computing power improves, won’t it be easier to find new ones?

2) If there’s a finite supply it must surely deflate. Which rewards people hoarding them, and enourages people not to spend them…?

3) The exchange rate seems far more volatile than most real currencies which kind of defeats the object of using it as a real currency. I don’t want my savings to be that volatile ta.

The cynic in me imagines that it’s a big fat scam that made a lot of money for the creators.

So someone has nicked a load of unique numbers, but to make any money out of it they need to sell them to someone else for real money, at which point the new owner pays dolars/pounds and this will presumably go into a real bank account?