It's not an actual currency that you can hold in your hand. basically what happens is people set up number crunching machines that sit there for hours on end creating a very large digital signature unique to one file or "bitcoin". usually the value given to it is the cost of the electricity used by the computer during the process of creating the bitcoin. anybody can create a bitcoin with their computer. Of course the average computer it would take a long time just to make one, the idea behind it is that it is an anonymous currency not controlled by any single government entity that can be used anywhere. there is no actual value there except for what we give it. if you ask me? don't run out to the bank and grab your money to start investing in bitcoins. besides them being practically worthless, sooner or later some government is going to get pissed off and shut it down(or atleast attempt to)



that is, unless I made myself look like an ass and you already know this.

just thought I would add to the topic.

And after seeing that I gave them less than six months. Then I read this:



For future reference, should we credit the phrase "Make money, not headlines" to George Anastasia? It's probably older than his books.

I would bet half the people on that new site are law enforcement guys...posing as both buyers and sellers. It's cool to check the place out but i would be real careful about doing actual business on it these days. Too much heat from all the publicity.

Beware of all the scammers too. Make sure if you do buy anything to use an escrow account. I read this one real trustworthy weed dealer built up a good reputation then told his customers to not use the escrow. He then over the weekend took off with anywhere from $150k to $250k in bitcoins. Then he had the balls to post on a forum that he was sorry he did it but he needed the money more then they did. lol!

So the boss got sent away with a few Capos and soldiers. The ranks have been replenished, and the organization is back up and running! lol

you didn't make an ass out of yourself, I thought that was what a bitcoin was, but if you look at the article posted by Giacarlo about the guy buying an apartment off the bitcoin investment it kind of looks like the people are cashing in actual coins... that kind of threw me off lolll

PaPrincess...they have exchange places where you can cash out of Bitcoins and turn it into real currency.

Don't feel bad...alot of people talk about bitcoins but i doubt they really understand how they work.

Ever hear of bitcoin mining? Some people make cash off of doing it but from what i read large companies are taking it over. You need alot of cpu power from what i understand of it.

Oh hey, it's the first would-be murder victim.

Bitcoin could soon be approved for campaign donations


The Federal Election Cjommission (FEC) is moving to allow Bitcoin donations as a campaign contribution in national races. Under the rules, Bitcoin donations would be considered "in-kind contributions" rather than direct money contributions, because the digital currency isn't the official currency of any nation and doesn't entitle holders to the ability to exchange it for cash like a check or money order might. The rules were proposed in a draft yesterday, and according to The Hill, they'll likely be approved later this month.

BITCOIN DONATIONS WILL BE TREATED A LOT LIKE STOCK

Despite Bitcoin's complexity, the rules governing it wouldn't be particularly complicated. The FEC proposes that Bitcoin acts much like stock does: it doesn't have an inherent value, its value often fluctuates, and it can sit around for any amount of time before it's traded in for cash. Like stocks, deciding how much a Bitcoin donation is worth will require looking to its exchanges. The value of a stock donation is based off of its exchange's closing value, but since Bitcoin exchanges don't close, the FEC proposes using the valuation given the very moment the donation is

Bitcoin may not be used for disbursements, however — they'll have to be turned into cash first under the rules. And like other contributions, Bitcoin donations would still be subject to individual limits. Donations in excess would be allowed to be paid back in either Bitcoin or a cash equivalent, however. The rules are fairly straightforward and should allow proponents of the digital currency — libertarians in particular, according to The Hill — to begin using it as 2014 midterm elections approach.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/8/5080774/fec-to-allow-bitcoin-contributions-in-political-campaigns

Who in their right mind would give a stranger money over the internet? Wtf?

Exactly what I was thinking. What's to stop a guy from selling 200K worth of "coke" and ship him laundry detergent?

Usually they use escrow accounts. The money isn't released to the seller until the buyer says he received it and it was what it was supposed to be. The scammers try to get the buyer to forgo escrow but thats usually the sign of a scammer.

Was on the Black Market Reloaded site the other day. Shit loads of drugs, guns (AK47'S,Glocks etc) explosives, fake id,counterfeit money and prostitutes some who claimed to be 15 years old. Thats the kind of shit that will attract the attention of just about every law enforcement agency. I was just looking...no way i would ever order anything off any of those sites.

This is what I love about this whole Silk Road thing. Not only are they stupid criminals, but they're so insufferably pretentious you can't help but smile when the FBI gets them.

Just to recap, the system itself was pretty much foolproof; Silk Road was brought down because of human error on part of Ulbricht (unless you think TOR was cracked, in which case the Silk Road model is useless anyway), so let's make an online newsletter that will give users the opportunity to give up all sorts of info on their personal lives.

Silk road is boring now... I got back on and nothing even the slightest bit underground anymore.

but they're so insufferably pretentious you can't help but smile when the FBI gets them.

LOLLL!

"Douchebag" is too vague.

My question is why Forbes loves this so much...or maybe it's Bitcoin-love. You tell me.

Speaking of BitCoins, the value of them is skyrocketing. It was over $1,200 per bitcoin the other day but has settled back down to a little under $1k. Still i'm pretty sure just a few weeks ago they were valued around 3 hundred...thats a pretty hefty profit. Personally i don't trust them and i think the bubble will burst and alot of people will lose their money...but right now people are making some serious cash. And Bit Coin mining is a pretty big thing now with big businesses getting involved.

And check out this poor idiot who threw out his hard drive with 7.5 million dollars of bit coins on it. Unless he somehow finds that drive he's screwed...big time.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/...msnhp&pos=6

loll!!! one way to look at it is at least he was smart enough to notice the bitcoin was worth that much... but in general I am happy to see all market's moving in general. As far as the key there are ways he can figure it out if he is intuitive enough, basically the key is going to be a certain length/serial number, unless all the keys/passwords/ data encryption are completely different in the coding of the bitcoin software architecture, or whatever it is they use to value it, I am sure there is some type of program that can generate this key... kind of like that little kid in terminator 2 that stole money out of the atm using that device... LOLLL little bad ass boys... I remember I had a crush on him when seeing that movie... ha ha ha!!!

Going into more detail about that Forbes story I posted, Vice expanded upon the story somewhat:

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/did-one...ct-bitcoin-scam

So a Silk Road clone by the name of "Sheep Marketplace" began having problems with withdraws for a few weeks, then suddenly shut down after claiming to have been robbed of 5k Bitcoins. They claimed they would get the users' 'coins back to them, but that didn't happen.

This article adds that shortly before the shutdown some big Czech sellers had a big sale and offered drugs they had never sold before (with stock photos no less). Since the owners of Sheep were apparently also Czech, the theory is that they were either the same people as the site's owners or otherwise in cahoots with them, and so they made a final little trick to get as much money out of Sheep's users as possible.

From what I've read, the community suspects Sheep was always a scam. To me, the timing raises the possibility that, between the sudden influx of new ex-Silk Road users and Bitcoin exploding, they might've just gotten greedy and changed track.

But this article raises another possibility: some hacker claimed to have discovered the real name of Sheep's owner (it's in the article - not naming him here because I don't know the site's policies on this sort of thing) and gave their info to the FBI on November 2. If they got wind of this, that would be as good a reason to cash out as any.

Anyway, I was waiting for an excuse to post this, and today I noticed:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-12...-causing-drop-1

Baidu, the Chinese search engine that kicked off the new bubble by taking Bitcoin, has stopped since China just banned their banks from handling it. Too unstable.

And, perhaps ironically, that may have popped the bubble. Prices dropped 20%, and probably will go down further.

Something I've been wondering is if someone with enough coins could crash the market single-handedly by simply trying to cash out all their coins at once. Despite what people who worked to get it on Wiki's highest-valued currency page (RIP) told me, I don't think the 'Bitcoin economy' is large enough to handle a large hoard suddenly going on the market without dramatically bringing down the value (maybe even to double digits again.)

And that reminded me of Sheep. Sure, cashing out all at once would bring in less cash than gradually selling off their hoard, but what if Sheep's owner thinks the price is going down anyway?

Mind you, I don't even really want to see this happen. Since Bitcoin's been getting attention you can bet a few amateur speculators would see their Christmas ruined by a crash.

Silk Road: Online Drug Lords and Cyber-whackings http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/online-drug-lords-and-cyber-whackings