My Bangkok Bitcoin Bonanza

Uber, fortunately, is readily available (the X-rated version) on arrival, so it wasnтАЩt very long after touchdown that I was speeding away from Swampy to my hotel (the Sofitel, near iSuck BTS). Unfortunately тАУ indeed sadly тАУ Uber offer only payment by credit card, and there are no Bitcoin-denominated credit cards that Uber will accept. Two so-called disruptive e-businesses (Amazon, Uber) no Bitcoin

As we drove towards the Big Mango I decided to ask my driver about his acceptance of Bitcoin. тАЬOh,тАЭ he replied, тАЬyou want lady?тАЭ тАЬNo, no,тАЭ I replied, тАЬBitcoin. Bit Coin.тАЭ тАЬAh, you want boy?!тАЭ тАЬNo, no,тАЭ I said firmly, тАЬBitcoin. Bit Coin.тАЭ тАЬYesтАЭ, he said, leering at me, тАЬYou want lady boy!тАЭ

At last I convinced him that I was not seeking companionship (or at least not through his efforts), before he dropped me at my hotel

тАЬCan I settle the account in Bitcoin?тАЭ I asked the sleepy receptionist. She looked at me as if IтАЩd made an indecent proposal. Ah well. She too had not heard that Bitcoin is accepted everywhere, every time. I must get Bruce to put in a quiet word. They need to convert to The True Faith That Is Bitcoin

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[frequent]

Oh dear oh dear. Now nearly 30% in two days - http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-drop...price-decline/

[Nirish guy]

Oh dear a bitcoin server hacked again eh - hmmm maybe someone's trying out at going for a second Brucey Bonus (popular UK game show host where you got a load of free money) - all "allegedly" of course just :-)

[cdnmatt]

Oh dear a bitcoin server hacked again eh - hmmm maybe someone's trying out at going for a second Brucey Bonus (popular UK game show host where you got a load of free money) - all "allegedly" of course just :-)

Large theft too. What was it? Around $70 million this time or so? Ouch.

Said it before, will say it again, DO NOT LEAVE YOUR FUNDS IN A WEB WALLET (ie. Bitfinex). Because shit like this happens.

I'm going over 3 years getting paid solely in bitcoin, and have yet to have a dollar stolen, so I have the track record to back up my words.

[Old git]

The lost motorist asks a farmer for directions. After thinking for a moment, the farmer replies: 'Well sir, if you want to go there, you don't want to start from here..'

Thus it is with Bitcoin - if you want to beat 'the system' and get one over on the fiat currencies, QE, blah blah blah.. Bitcoin is not your answer.

The value of a currency needs to be anchored to something, either directly or indirectly. Why? - Because one of the prime requisites of a currency is purchase power stability - it's value needs to be known and understood, it needs to relate to real life. In that regard, Bitcoin fails and will continue to fail. It sucks in the foolish and gullible, and will, at some point, almost certainly vanish, leaving nothing of value in it's wake. No-one is underwriting Bitcoin, no-one stands as guarantor of it's value.

If you want a new currency that is detached from state control, base it on the distant futures price of a core commodity - say a kilo of rice for delivery in 5 years time.

Trouble is, that is too safe and sensible, and too hard to use as a tool to separate fools from their hard-earned..

Before dabbling in Bitcoin, ask yourself the question: 'Who, really, is
getting fat out of this?'

[christianpfc]

The value of a currency needs to be anchored to something, either directly or indirectly.

And to what is the value of EUR or USD anchored?

[cdnmatt]

And to what is the value of EUR or USD anchored?

Land, natural resources, militaries, taxation systems, GDPs, etc.

A better example would be what's gold linked to? Previously, it had worth due to its uses within industry & products, but these days there's substitutes for most applications that previously used gold (ie. computer chips / boards). Nowadays, it only has value because people believe it does, and people are willing to accept it in exchange for barter / currency.

Same goes for bitcoin. Or hell, beanie babies, or pet rocks, or exotic fish, or artwork, or whatever...

[frequent]

https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...es-a-hard-sell

[cdnmatt]

Have you checked the price of bitcoin lately? Oh right, it absolutely skyrocketed.

It's not difficult to flip bitcoin over to fiat, in basically any payment method you'd like. Deposit into your account, PayPal, Western Union, or whatever. Takes about 30 mins. Not to mention the dozens of debit cards that are now available, allowing you to withdraw your BTC directly from any ATM on the planet.

Keep scoffing if you want, but it's been around since 2009, the price has recently surged drastically, and I can promise you bitcoin isn't going anywhere soon.

[frequent]

Keep scoffing if you want, but it's been around since 2009, the price has recently surged drastically, and I can promise you bitcoin isn't going anywhere soon.

Your original assertion, way back when, was that Bitcoin was the ideal way for lonely foreigners to send money to their monogamously-coupled-but-poor "boyfriends" in Thailand. That was then and still is a load of tosh. It's a form of speculation, just like gold, but non-physical so the ideal "investment" for hi-tech wankers

I'm merely interested in Bitcoin as a means of exchange - you know, like real money - which clearly it is not. The point of the story was that there are vanishingly few ways of actually spending Bitcoin and it is, as the very first shopkeeper says, valued by pimps, blackmailers, drug dealers and cyber criminals, but not by real people. And if you want to, you know, buy some then you'll be charged a whopping commission for the "privilege" - something well over 5% as I recall from the story