Still have no idea what Bitcoins are..
I didn't intend to be some preachy bastard and post here to sell the concept, or promote the thing. That being said, if you have any questions, I'll answer them. I sincerely was more interested in seeing if anyone here was involved or interested in BitCoin stuff.
I know the topic itself is pretty advanced. One that has had economics and finance professors stumped in trying to understand what and how a cryptocurrency operates, specifically BitCoin, which is the first of its kind.
A lot of people have made wild claims in all directions. Over-stating what a BitCoin can do as a positive, and then misleading those in what BitCoin is bad at.
This site sums up most early thoughts very well.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Myths
First, it's a decentralized crypto-currency. Decentralized, meaning nobody issues the currency. This part alone is confusing in itself, because most of the world has gotten used to different forms of central banking. Regular people participate and control the network. Approximately 18 million people have used BitCoins for some form of transaction in the last week alone. That means about 18million people were playing a part in contributing to the network and BitCoin economy. That number is up from February, where only 2 million people had used BitCoin in a weeks time.
Now why is it growing?
So many people around the world live in countries where
one of two things have happened(or both). They never believed that their government currency would collapse or erode. These people were so complacent with their money, they ignored historical evidence that every currency collapses, when it is not backed by gold or a very stable commodity. But there is another problem with gold as well, gold has also been historically confiscated. So when you look around all of the available options, to these people who are in politically or economically hostile areas, BitCoin would up being a great solution for the short term, maybe long term as well. BitCoin fanboys will say something silly, like hostility exists, so BitCoin is immune, but that's misleading IMO. However, true that BitCoin is far better developed for such hostility than existing currencies, but far from perfect.
The other thing that is different for those around the world, are those who live in places where exchange rates crush the value of the individual's holdings. A bitcoin's value is the same everywhere in the world. Person A lives in a country with a super high unemployment rate, has to go overt the border for work, takes home enough to feed their family, then has to exchange it for local currency. They lose 20% of their income immediately. I'm not trying to bring morals into this, or play on emotions, this is a commonality around the world, even in locations that use US Dollars and Euros. Due to the extreme inefficiency of the system, to actively exchange currencies and fund the systems within, it bares costs to someone. 20% is high, and it's also not a scalped fee, because it represents real world costs for this system. For these people, they are trying to use BitCoin as much as possible, because the real world fees are far lower. It's designed with the local exchange problem in mind.
Now why would an American care for BitCoins? Well, haha, I can't explain it. But someone might want to invest in them, use them to buy things online. Not so much brick and mortar shops, although I have seen a few places that took bitcoin in the US, it's simply uncommon or unadvertised.
I travel sometimes for business purposes. And when I say travel, I don't mean out of state, or to Canada. I went to Panama earlier this year, Singapore last year, Denmark the year before. All on business, and all were last minute, so when did I have time to plan? Shoot, I could just use Visa and deal with it, but then I'm paying tourist prices everywhere and missing out on the actual experience(mind you, on a business trip, you only have maybe 4 hours in a 4 day period to explore outside of the task. You're in another country, but really just living in a hotel). But why is my experience of any value? Well, every year, the amount of people I have had to deal with, were less reluctant to deal with US Dollars. American's are not as loved as we once used to be. But when I went to Panama, I had an easier time spending bitcoin, than using Dollars. I literally went to buy dinner at a sit-down place, asked if they spoke english. Yes. Asked if they took USD or Visa? They paused, pointed me to an exchange that was closed until morning. Then I said, wait, BitCoin, as a last hope to get some food in me that night. The woman looked at me all confused, but the owner heard me and swung right in, gave me a BitCoin QR code. He didn't speak much english, but he knows the word BitCoin. Long story short, not only did I eat that night and save myself from spending $50 on shitty room service, I was introduced to about 20 places in walking distance that ALSO took BitCoin. I spent $50 worth of BitCoin to buy food and a few gifts for my family. Stuff that would have been $300 worth, if I relied on the concierge. I'm self-employed, so most of this stuff comes out of my pocket, or my per diem.
