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nxski wrote:What do people use bitcoins for anyway? The only feasible use I've heard for them is to buy drugs.

You are too young to be close minded. You can buy all sorts of things with bitcoins just like you can buy all sorts of things with CDN$.

In the last month I have used Bitcoins and Quark to buy computer parts and radio control car parts from around the globe and whenever there is a nice value ratio I buy gold wafers and bars for rainy days from one of Canada's largest bullion dealers (silvergoldbull.com).

Anyone who has imported their own vehicle from Japan and had to pay the outrageous banking and exchange rate fees would love to use bitcoin or quark as a payment transfer medium. Zero fees and transfer is fast (10minutes Bitcoin, 30seconds Quark).

I find it funny that Canadians seem to not understand Bitcoin yet are some of the highest users in the world Debit cards and Credit cards and online banking in which you don't actually ever have physical cash in your hand either, the transfer is digital (or imaginary as bitcoin critics would call it)...main difference is more fees and less security with debit/credit cards.

psilosin wrote:

nxski wrote:I find it funny that Canadians seem to not understand Bitcoin yet are some of the highest users in the world Debit cards and Credit cards and online banking in which you don't actually ever have physical cash in your hand either, the transfer is digital (or imaginary as bitcoin critics would call it)...main difference is more fees and less security with debit/credit cards.

All money is really just transferred debt, so I'm not skeptical of Bitcoins in the sense that they're imaginary. I also realize that those who bought in early are doing very well for themselves. My concern is how the value of online currency is regulated. What's to stop the reverse from happening? Also, where is your currency stored? PayPal has been under scrutiny because they are not set-up like a real banks and don't have to play by the same rules. Is it a similar scenario here? Between PayPal and my credit cards, I can't see what I'm losing out on!?

Economists reckon money is anything that serves three main functions. It must be a “medium of exchange”, which can reliably be swapped for goods and services. It should be a stable store of value, enabling users to tuck some away and come back later to find its purchasing power more or less intact. And it should function as a unit of account: a statistical yardstick against which value in an economy is measured. The American dollar meets all three conditions. Bitcoin has some way to go.

From: http://www.economist.com/news/finance-a ... vals-money

The central idea behind bitcoins is solid, it acts as a medium of exchange - but it is not a stable store of value or a unit of account. That isn't to say though that modern currencies won't become crypto currencies in the future.

They most certainly will.

FalcoColumbarius wrote:Just a thought: How could one have a "stable store of value" in an inflationary system? Don't you have to have something in the stable store, like a commodity, in order to have something of value? I thought I'd saddle you with that one (not that I mean to ride you or anything).

Falco.

This is why I never leave any kind of money sitting for a long time. I always buy physical assets.

No guarantees either way....