Ok I'm intrigued now. So I'm Matt in KK for example. I do some computer work for a customer in the US. They transfer X amount of Bitcoin to my account in payment. What can I use those Bitcoins for? Genuine question.
Hitchhiking's more of a challenge on the road less travelled.
Absolutely nothing, Joe, absolutely fucking nothing. It's almost as if they paid you in gold or silver bullion. You still have to convert the bitcoin or the bullion into ordinary currency so you can transact with most other people in an everyday way. There'll be the odd fruitcake - usually some Mafia figure - who will happily take your Bitcoin in payment for something, but ultimately they too have the same problem of being able to use it. Bitcoin, like bullion, is a store of value. It is not a means of exchange (to use phrases economists use about these things)
Blockchain, however, is a system of recording transactions. Bitcoin uses Blockchain to record transfers of wealth (bitcoins) between its members. It is likely to be widely used in recording many types of transactions in the future. a447 will be able to tell you about an energy company in his home State that are using Blockchain as a ledger to record householders who are generating electricity via the solar panels on their roof and "selling" it to their neighbours
Thanks frequent. So what's the point of them?
Hitchhiking's more of a challenge on the road less travelled.
joe552 (December 1st, 2017)
I think I just found a video of Matt on the web!
(This is to cheer anybody who bought into bitcoin, but is getting anxious about its plunge over the last few days)