Bitcoin
 

For the last year I have been trying to understand this and it still eludes me.

You have these bitcoin miners that are attempting to solve an ever more difficult math problem to earn bit coins??? This math problem has something to do with transaction processing but I don't understand what is the point. It seems like you are spinning your wheels on purpose to make things more difficult just so you can not create too many bit coins.

Are people actually buying bit coins with real money?

How many bitcoins can you earn with a miner? Is it profitable?

It seems like you can set up a specialized machine just to solve this man-made problem but I can imagine it might cost you more in electricity than the bitcoin is worth... It might be cheaper to pay the 2% processing fee than the wasted electricity

I still don't get it

It's a crazy concept that IMO has to crashing back to earth. People are making a fortune cashing them in. Some people who got involved in the concept early on are worth millions for very small investments. You can read for days online about the market and the questions about whether it can become a legitimate currency... wild stuff.

To me the intrinsic value of a bit coin is zero and I think when someone realizes it it will go to zero.

But I guess if someone will pay 700 bucks for "nothing" than great. The amazing thing is there are very few things you can buy with a bit coin. I can't imagine this working and I am amazed the feds see it as legal

You can buy all the drugs you want with bitcoins, and have them shipped USPS to your house. I'm talking weed/coke/acid/meth/heroin... Crazy stuff. As far as I can tell that's the only use for the currency (but I really don't know much about it).

I didn't even know what a bitcoin was until the bust last month. Ulbricht wasn't the only one hosting those services though, and Silk Road opened back up a few weeks ago.

China's wet dream is to have bitcoin become the new global currency. They just invested in it, which is what made the value sky rocket.
It's a fad IMHO.. Bitcoin doesn't have nukes to defend its status like the us dollar ;)
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

The Government has to be taking a look at this right? Here they are (IRS) nickle and diming us on our individual taxes over ticky-tack sources of "income" etc.... While a bunch of people buy a virtual commodity, sell it for a massive profit and then use that untaxed income to purchase illicit services and trade for legitmate items.

I think China's wet dream is to have the Yaun as the new global currency. They are doing their best to help us screw up the USD.

Oh, and this: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-1...nsactions.html