I'm curious about how many people in the numismatics community that have heard of bitcoin. I know quite a bit, and I mine it and thus own it. If you do know about it, what are your thoughts about it and it's future as a viable currency? Information is here: http://bitcoin.org/ Please participate in the poll, thanks!
I heard about bitcoin on a podcast that I listen to, but I still don't really understand how it works. But then I don't understand how the stock market works either!
The genius behind bitcoin is that there is no central authority, it cannot be manipulated by a government or anyone else. The system has the checks/balances built into the network itself, and is tamper proof. Bitcoin has a limited production run by design... there will never be more than 21 million bitcoins mined. Therefore the future of bitcoins will not be inflation, but instead deflation as the value of the coin will have to increase as less and less are mined. (bitcoins are divisible down to 8 decimal places to handle the foreseeable deflation.) This is like a gold standard that cannot be removed or tampered with. This also makes bitcoins somewhat of a collectors piece, as they will definitely have a limited run. What is the future of bitcoin? Only time will tell. It could become a viable, stable, predictable alternative currency accepted worldwide. It could also be outlawed by governments that don't understand it, afraid of it, or want control of it. Who knows. The real question is, will vendors begin to accept bitcoin for payment. If that ball gets rolling, that is when bitcoin becomes the real deal. It is happening already, but in very small segments. Currently 1 bitcoin is trading right around $11 USD. It has been as high as $30 earlier this year. (track it here.) About 1/3 of the total bitcoins have been mined. It is designed to run a steady controlled mining pace. Over the next 4 years, half of the remaining 2/3 will be mined. The following 4 years will mine half again, and the following 4 years half again, etc. Therefore (theoretically) all of the coins will never get mined, they will just continually half the pace of mining.
