bitcoins?

[gringolet]

anybody heard of or tried to use bitcoins?
I just learned of these things and it is interesting to me.
Is a form of currency, but not issued by any government.
Makes governments a little crazy in fact and saw thing on TV where
such as Charles Schumer (D-NY) looking for ways to regulate it.
The deal appears to be are just so many"bit coins" out...they have value becuse all who use them agree they have value. So, A can exchange 5 bitcoins to B for an item, and B can then use his bitcoins with C and so on.
There is no bank, no loan company, no paper, no taxation, and apparently the sites where this is done are set up so users remain basically annonymous.
HMM...I can't help but be fascinated with the idea of it...I can see how it might be a playground for a crook, but on other hand it does have a kind of
truly "free" market aspect to it I find appealing. Of course, if probably a matter of time until governments learn how to A) regulate it; B) outlaw it or
C) spy on it or all of the above. But, for now, anybody tried this and explain how it works in practice??

 

[JFtheGR8]

Never heard of them. What's this have to do with activism or THR by the way? Just curious where you're going with this thread.


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[pendennis]

From what I've read, it amounts to a very complicated bartering system, initially designed for software purchases, and designed to be untraceable, since there is no issuing authority (central bank, government, etc.).

It's definitely out in the "ether", but I don't know where the intrinsic value resides.

 

[gringolet]

activism

not sure what you mean by "activist"...but for sure the idea of a barter system outside the usual stream of regulated commerce seems a rather activist topic to me...particularly at a time when our Uncle Sam is determined to know not only how much money we have but what we do with it...especially at it may relate to such items unfit for a dangerous people like us as firearms. Personally, I thought the concept/topic might be of interest to some gun people.

 

[JFtheGR8]

not sure what you mean by "activist"...but for sure the idea of a barter system outside the usual stream of regulated commerce seems a rather activist topic to me...particularly at a time when our Uncle Sam is determined to know not only how much money we have but what we do with it...especially at it may relate to such items unfit for a dangerous people like us as firearms. Personally, I thought the concept/topic might be of interest to some gun people.

I said activism not activist. Your original post spoke nothing of firearms or the RTKBA therefore it was off topic for the purpose of this forum. It also doesn't have any plan which is a requirement for posting under activism. I'm sure one of the mods will be along to help explain this.
Now, back to a bartering system to obtain firearms, ammo, etc. There are no laws against doing so that I'm aware of. There could be some form of registration scheme someday but that would probably have absolutely nothing to do with how you would have paid for a gun but more to do with where you got it and where it will be when they come for it.

[SIZE="1"a]Posted from Thehighroad.org App for Android[/SIZE]

 

[Derek Zeanah]

Yep. Closing this one.

Bitcoins are controversial. They're created by "mining" (which means running lots of computations on your computer), and the creation rate is pre-defined so they won't get devalued by issuing more than they intended. And they may be completely anonymous. There's already been one bubble in bitcoins, and at least one entity working like a bitcoin bank/trader/facilitator has been hacked and had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bitcoins lost. Or at least they said they were hacked -- it's hard to know, really, since it's anonymous.

Google it and learn lots.

But it doesn't really have a place here.