Sold of My Entire Bullion Collection In Order To Purchase BitCoins

I read that bitcoins tag a transaction code when they are spent, so you can track the transaction history. I bet there will be a collectables market for bitcoins. "This bitcoin was used by Warren Buffet to purchase XYZ Corp..........."

 

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For ANACS graded physical bitcoins, there already is. Check this small collection of MS-64 to MS-67 examples for $200,000 plus:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BIG-Collect...orld_Coins&hash=item3cd8f4c563#ht_2761wt_1292

 

As it turns out selling silver to buy bitcoins would have been a great investment. I think I would sell now and buy some more silver however, as the bitcoin thing is either going to keep taking off or tank pretty soon, in my humble opinion. The problem with them is that they are limited, so they can't end up taking over as a currency since there won't be enough minted to buy everything if they end up being the new reserve currency. Also usually the reserve currency comes with being the biggest empire on the block, and a stateless currency can't really do that. The reserve currency used to be the Spanish real, then the pound sterling and now the dollar. Will it be the Bitcoin? Maybe and maybe not.

 

The mintage number is not really an issue since they are divisible, you could buy 0.0000001 bitcoin if you wanted and purchase something with it.

 

Quite a lot has happened since April Fool's Day 2013. Before dismissing Bitcoin as pure folly, I'd suggest investing 20 minutes of your time to watch the following informative talk, which puts the concept of digital currency in perspective:

 

I've still yet to know someone who has actually received funds after selling their bit coins.

 

My nephew in law has. He owned 10 he forgot about, and sold 5 of them at about $160 per.

However, that will be the chokehold with these. Converting this virtual currency to real world usable currency. This is the chokehold China recently implemented, restricting this conversion to buy bitcoins. If bitcoins were ever viewed as a threat by governments, its very simple to shut down financial institutions converting the funds, thereby making ownership of bitcoins meaningless.

 

This would make things less convenient, but it wouldn't prevent currency conversions and spell the end of Bitcoin. Private transactions are still possible, facilitated by websites like localbitcoins.com. It even provides low-cost escrow if needed, and I have used it successfully for several transactions.

 

What is the good of owning bitcoins if they can never be converted into spendable cash? I could own a million bitcoins, but if all banks are forbidden from converting deposits from bitcoin servicers into USD, I can never buy anything offline with my bitcoin "millions", right? That is the path I believe all governments would take if they ever took bitcoins "seriously".

 

No, the Bitcoin itself is spendable cash. The number of vendors accepting them is increasing exponentially, including Overstock.com which intends to process Btc payments by mid-2014. There's also the gift card approach at gyft.com:

http://www.gyft.com/bitcoin/

The Bitcoin economy is still very new, but you can get an idea of what's available at this link:

http://usebitcoins.info/

It's all explained very nicely in the above video.

 

Here's a 3-minute video of a guy making a Btc purchase at an antique shop. You see them negotiating a price followed by the near instantaneous transfer of funds. The remainder of the video shows them trying to determine the frictional cost, which ended up being 1 cent. No financial intermediary involved.

 

I understand sir, but Overstock and others accept bitcoins through financial intermediaries. Those financial intermediaries are required to register and be controlled by the US government. So, with a simple rule change, the US can stop cold any ability for ANYONE to ever receive compensation in their US bank account for any bitcoin transaction.

Its fine to be a true believer in bitcoins, but I am simply explaining how quickly it can all be stopped cold if the powers that be wish to do so.

You might say next that Overstock would simply keep bitcoins as bitcoins and use them in that fashion to pay others. Besides the obvious point that is assuming others wish to own bitcoins, I would point out that the second step the US could do would be to make ownership of bitcoins illegal. They did it with gold in 1933, there is precedence. So then you would have a "currency" that not only could you never spend it offline, but if you were ever caught owning it you would be subject to imprisonment or fines, (in USD of course). How mainstream do you think bitcoins would be then?

Sorry, but these are the reasons I do not see bitcoins ever being more than a cute little plaything for a tiny proportion of online payments. If it is ever more than that, the powers that be will "fix it".

It IS very possible I am just an old fogey who doesn't "get it". Ok, I am fine with that. I didn't "get" 1990's dotcom pricing, I didn't "get" 2008 house pricing, I didn't "get" 2011 PM pricing. I am just explaining just a few of the tools the US has to protect the dollar as the only allowable form of payment in this country. They are not going to just roll over and let control of the economy be taken away from them IMHO.

 

As a vendor, I'm free to accept any form of payment that suits me. Euros, Yen, Yuan, pingpong balls, heck, I could sell you something if you agree to do yard work at my house. A law making ownership of Bitcoin illegal would be utterly unenforceable.

 

Ok, but a law making gold ownership illegal is ok though? Because that was the law of the US from 1933 to about 1973. That would be the most appropriate precendent courts would use to validate such a law, and courts ruled this was constitutional.

Btw, it doesn't have to be enforcable to YOU, it only has to prevent corporations risking using it, and scare enough people away from using it, to basically prevent them from ever gaining traction. That is all that would be needed.

Btw, I doubt it would need to come to that. By simply making it illegal for financial institutions deal with them, and making it that the antique shop lady could never convert bitcoins into USD will be enough to stop 99.5% of Americans from ever wanting to use bitcoins.

 

I am glad this is a joke as bitcoins have taken a beating lately. I wish I had gotten in on the ground floor I'd have dumped them in a heartbeat.

 

this whole bitcoin thing is still confusing to me! I'll just stick with gold and silver

 

To me? It's castles in the air.......

 

I bought 10 bitcoins for $50 as a joke. my cousin mines them. i sold 5 at ~$700. I have 5 still.

 

I've been going to sites where I can get them free. They are "nano-bits," but when I'm surfing and don't having anything better to do it's a way to some "supposed value" for nest to no effort.

 

where do you do this?