Mt.Gox site disappears, Bitcoin future in doubt - Feb. 25, 2014

can someone give me the dumbed-down definition of a bitcoin?
is it like paypal?

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Ben
1987 190d 2.5Turbo

I've heard it equated to the "digital" money that gamers would earn in their virtual worlds, much like the "Farmville" fanatics on Facebook used to buy, earn and spend.

Its very much NOT like paypal. Its a decentralized ledger system where every transaction is recorded permanently yet transactions are made anonnymously between "wallets" which are not attached to your name or address. A person can have an infinite number of wallets and transactions cam be made between any 2 wallets regardless or the distance of borders that stand in between. Transaction cost about 5 cents regardless of the amount. The whole system is completely unregulated. Many bitcoins have been stolen such as in the Mtgox example (Magic The Gathering Online Exchange), but no bitcoin has ever been forged.

Mtgox was one of many bitcoin exchanges. This exchange has been spiralling out of control for months so it came as no surprise. They earner a terrible reputation for many many cockups over the last year. It boggles the mind that anybody still trusted them.

Oh and the total $ ammount of the BTC stolen either by Mtgox or some outside party (we don't know for sure yet, Mtgox are either thieves or incompetent) is around $375,000,000. Thats not counting the USD and other fiat currencies also lost in the exchange.

If you would like to see some horror stories about Mtgox. Keep in mind that bitcoin is trading around $500/BTC
https://pay.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1yv26o/gox_horror_story_thread_how_much_did_you_lose/

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

Not sure what farmville money us but it sounds like the bitcoin goes beyond that. It does have tangible value and can be exchanged for real goods. My understanding is that it is untraceable as it is verified by a server as being legit but that server is secure and there is no personal data involved in the process.

The part I am unclear about it is how it is 'obtained' or 'earned'. Some geek at work explained that back before it was popular people would leave their computers on and it would run some program that would 'mine' for the bit coins. The amount of time to obtain a single coin was quite long .. weeks or months as I recall. Bit coins are quite popular on something called the "Dark Web"

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ok. so what exactly can a bitcoin buy? or is that a stupid question?

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Ben
1987 190d 2.5Turbo

Anything someone wants to sell. Typically it is accepted for things on the black market because as mentioned above, it is untraceable.

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Sent from an agnostic abacus

2014 C250 21,XXX my new DD ** 2013 GLK 350 18,000 Wife's new DD**

- With out god, life is everything.
- God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller as time moves on..." Neil DeGrasse Tyson
- You can pray for me, I'll think for you.
- When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

Actually, anything can be exchanged for goods, provided that there is a market for it. We trade pieces of paper and stamped metal in exchange for goods and services everyday. Bitcoin credits can be exchanged for a fairly wide variety of services and items, provided the other party is willing to accept it.

It largely depends on who/what accepts bitcoin. Alternative you could cash in your bitcoins and get $ back. MtGox used to do that.

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Close. Its verified by thousands of computer, most no bigger than a USB stick. Each one stores the entire "blockchain" (ledger of all transactions). You need a minimum of 6 confirmations from 6 different nodes before your transaction is added to the blockchain. Eventually all transations are confirmed by all the nodes.

Sounds about right leaving out a lot of details. The new bitcoins are "mined" by the same computers that confirm transactions. The total number of bitcoins that will ever exist is 21 million. In the first 4 years 10.5 million were mined at a rate of about 24 every 10 minutes. After the first 4 years which ended last fall, the production rate halved to 12 every 10 minutes. The production rate keeps getting chopped in half every 4 years.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

I still don't get it. I guess I'm just dense. Thanks anyway.

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Ben
1987 190d 2.5Turbo

CoinMap
Bitcoin | Overstock.com: Now Accepting Bitcoins
Shop with Bitcoins | Gyft | Mobile Gift Card Wallet
Bitcoin Now Accepted at TigerDirect.com!
Just to name a few. Theres also drugs, guns, sex, murder for hire, human slavery etc but I won't bore you with those links.

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Pesky details.

__________________
Sent from an agnostic abacus

2014 C250 21,XXX my new DD ** 2013 GLK 350 18,000 Wife's new DD**

- With out god, life is everything.
- God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller as time moves on..." Neil DeGrasse Tyson
- You can pray for me, I'll think for you.
- When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

dont feel bad, you aren't the only one. tjts1 among others already tried to explain this to me over on STD. I still don't get it either.

I don't understand how the mining process happens, who controls the mining computers, and who in their right mind would accept this type of currency for goods and services.

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The vast majority of people's eyes glaze over when you get into the details of it. The complexity of the bitcoin protocol is one of its biggest failures in my opinion. Its a new technology still in beta and some of the early adopters are taking on a huge amount of risk as you can see by the Mtgox debacle. I would never tell anyone to go invest in bitcoin. I don't know if bitcoin will succeed in the long term but the the idea of a decentralized cryptocurrency that is inflation proof will live on. Government issued money that can be inflated and manipulated by a central bank is distasteful to a lot of people. Cross border transactions, remittances, black markets and money laundering are some areas where bitcoin has an advantage over fiat.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

There are medicines that can help with some of them. Just saying.. you should always practice safe bit coin.

__________________
Sent from an agnostic abacus

2014 C250 21,XXX my new DD ** 2013 GLK 350 18,000 Wife's new DD**

- With out god, life is everything.
- God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller as time moves on..." Neil DeGrasse Tyson
- You can pray for me, I'll think for you.
- When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.