Over the past years, I have been hearing about Bitcoin on and off. It is a P2P Digital Currency. As you can guess, most of the times I read about it, they were mostly geek-style moments and blogs, so they tickled my interest, but nothing more. And then today, I heard about again from a more public figure: Matt Mullenweg.
This is how Bitcoin is explained on weusecoins.com:
I am intrigued and want to find out more. So I am looking for people who have experience with Bitcoin and are willing to share their knowledge. Give me a comment below, or a mention on Twitter to hook up.
Hi Lykle-
I’ve been using Bitcoin for a couple of years. I’m in the process of setting up a commercial site using Bitcoin, so I see no reason to stop using it anytime soon.
For still being such a new network protocol, the mechanics of Bitcoin are complex. It’s getting easier to get and use them, but mass acceptance is still a year or two away. Governments and banks don’t like it much, but there’s not a lot they can do about without shutting down the entire internet, so their opinion of the matter is immaterial in the long run. In the short run, I expect to see some harassment of a few Bitcoin users, but that will only serve to increase Bitcoin’s value and acceptance.
Bitcoin could be the end of 5000 years of Sumerian economics. That’s not mere hyperbole.
best,
Sev
Hi Severian, thanks for the comment! What would that commercial site entail? Selling Bitcoin, or accepting Bitcoin as a way of payment for other products?
Also, would love to hear why you think it could end 5000 years of Sumerian economics.
I’ll be accepting Bitcoin as payment on the site.
As for Sumerian econ: As Bitcoin is decentralized and peer to peer, people no longer have to depend on money issued by a king/state/government to exchange with each other. Welcome to the Diamond Age!
For my education: why would someone not want to depend on money issued by a king/state/government? And: why would someone trust a currency that is not backed by a king/state/government?
Every paper currency ever issued by governments ends up becoming inflated and worthless. History proves this. If people have the power to print money out of thin air, they WILL use it until the paper becomes worth more than the money it represents.
I trust Bitcoin because it’s based on the laws of mathematics combined in cryptography, validation of data and peer to peer networking, all foundations of computer science.
IOW, I trust the laws of math more than I trust any government.