Digital Currency

[Afigueroa22]

I have stumbled upon this new form of currency and I am wondering if it holds any merit.

Here is the website for one of the beta wallets and the video explaining what a "bitcoin," is. https://coinbase.com




Questions for those who understood the explanation better than I. :

So basically as a "miner" you commit processing power to generating encryptions which are assigned to individual bitcoins?

If so, can someone with enough processing power create immense amounts of coins?

What are the implications of this currency on the economy if this becomes widely used?

 

[9darter]

I have stumbled upon this new form of currency and I am wondering if it holds any merit.

Instead you should worry about the merit of Fiat money, such as the US dollar: [youtube]hx16a72j__8[/youtube]

 

[kapolani]

I haven't read up too much about it, but from what I gathered it's coded within the algo's how much and how often something can be mined. You can do it faster than the other guy, but there is still a finite amount to get.

I've been fascinated by the events in Cyprus. Bitcoin usage has increased in some of the other euro-countries. I'm not sold on Bitcoin's since I'm of the mind "if you can't fondle it, you don't own it" crowd, but for the people who can't get a hold of silver or gold Bitcoin's seems to be a better solution than the euro.

 

[arglebargle]

I still think Bitcoins are a new fangled 'tulip bubble'. The worst thing, in my opinion, is the fact that the algorithm that 'produces' bitcoins is just meaningless cycle churning. Bitcoin production costs really depends on the type of video card you have, and the cost of electricity in your area.

It's also pretty much the wild west in terms of handling bitcoin storage and transfer. Interesting phenomon, but I wouldn't give two bits for it right now.