General

Re: The Bit Heard Round the World? (LvMI Canada, Forbes)

AJ — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:34:01 GMT

Now a blogger in Senegal who can't get a creditcard or PayPal account can take micro-donations in bitcoins and turn around and use them to upgrade, without ever having to deal with conversion to cash.

Re: The Bit Heard Round the World? (LvMI Canada, Forbes)

z1235 — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:43:00 GMT

This is exciting. If liquid exchange venues exist for converting bitcoins to $ (or gold?) then both businesses and customers could use bitcoin as a mere payment/transaction method then exchange bitcoins for $ or gold. If this persists and the perception of bitcoin convertibility to $ or gold became established, then more people would feel comfortable holding bitcoin for longer (forgo converting them).

Could this be the regression link that establishes bitcoin as money?

Re: The Bit Heard Round the World? (LvMI Canada, Forbes)

Smiling Dave — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:05:12 GMT

Bitcoin becomes something like an elemental force of nature, a facet of reality one simply can conform themselves to and accept without anyone's by-your-leave.

Awesome.

Saved for mocking purposes when the collapse happens.

Re: The Bit Heard Round the World? (LvMI Canada, Forbes)

Anenome — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 10:01:20 GMT

Blargg:

Wordpress knows that many users like the idea of Bitcoin. Accepting it as an experiment won't cost them much, and will please these users. It might also bring them some new users who want the perceived anonymity of Bitcoin over other payment methods.

This is true, but I'd like to note that in their announcement they listed the number of countries and places that don't accept Paypal and other means of payment as one of the driving factors. Because Bitcoin is a self-contained system which is particularly difficult to create fake payments with or the like, and because it's not dependent on a central organization, Bitcoin becomes something like an elemental force of nature, a facet of reality one simply can conform themselves to and accept without anyone's by-your-leave.

Awesome.

Re: The Bit Heard Round the World? (LvMI Canada, Forbes)

Anenome — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 09:55:02 GMT

Just fork bitcoin and do whateva you're gonna do, Clayton. Not like others haven't done it already.

I'd be more supportive of your fear if Bitcoin weren't open source and thereby easily inspected for back doors. Not that many have the expertise to do it, but still :P Word would get out.

Re: The Bit Heard Round the World? (LvMI Canada, Forbes)

Andris Birkmanis — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 09:51:15 GMT

I still fear that Bitcoin proper is a trojan horse.

Not impossible.

Someone needs to release an alternative unbacked digital currency to hedge against this possibility.

Based on what algos? The whole idea of the cryptography based on huge prime numbers may be a trojan horse.

Re: The Bit Heard Round the World? (LvMI Canada, Forbes)

Clayton — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 08:49:44 GMT

I still fear that Bitcoin proper is a trojan horse. Someone needs to release an alternative unbacked digital currency to hedge against this possibility.

Clayton -

Re: The Bit Heard Round the World? (LvMI Canada, Forbes)

Smiling Dave — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 19:59:10 GMT

Will follow this with considerable interest.

Re: The Bit Heard Round the World? (LvMI Canada, Forbes)

Blargg — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 16:51:01 GMT

Wordpress knows that many users like the idea of Bitcoin. Accepting it as an experiment won't cost them much, and will please these users. It might also bring them some new users who want the perceived anonymity of Bitcoin over other payment methods.

The Bit Heard Round the World? (LvMI Canada, Forbes)

AJ — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 10:19:26 GMT

Well, that escalated quickly.

http://mises.ca/posts/blog/the-bit-heard-round-the-world-wordpress-begins-accepting-bitcoin/:
WordPress, the modern equivalent of the Gutenberg press, has announced that it will accept Bitcoin for upgrades. Now, without the use of PayPal or credit cards, users of WordPress, which has lit the philosophical and journalism movements on fire with its ease of use for website administration and blogging. Is, essentially, the dominant financial system at risk of losing the Internet? Now, the WordPress sphere denominates value in BTC, and not only fiat.

...

Also:

Jon Matonis, Forbes:

What's Your Bitcoin Strategy? WordPress Now Accepts Bitcoin Across The Planet

I awoke to incredible news this morning. Leading web publishing service WordPress.com announced that they will begin accepting the nonpolitical cryptographic money Bitcoin as a payment method for various upgrades.

Then I remembered that WordPress.org powers our online publishing platform. It also powers the blog platform for The New York Times, CNN, Reuters, Mashable, NBC Sports, GigaOm, TechCrunch, ELLE Girl, RealClearPolitics, TED, National Football League, General Motors, UPS, eBay, Sony, and Volkswagen...

WordPress.com is the #20 most-trafficked website in the world, according to Alexa.

Now I know many on this forum are skeptical of Bitcoin, think it's a ponzi scheme, is a bubble, violates the regression theorem, etc. This development changes nothing in those debates, but it does suggest that perhaps a closer examination of such positions is warranted. Because if Bitcoin is legit, we're witnessing the opening volleys of a monetary and social revolution that could remove forever the power of any central authority to regulate the money supply or to control capital flows. I trust the myriad implications, if such a thing were to happen, are not lost on many here.