jony ive aces posted:

TO THE MARS!!!

Magrov posted:

The Time the Internet Called My Business (self.Buttcoin)
submitted 10 minutes ago by sciencelovesyou

So, yesterday /r/bitcoin[1] had this thread:
np.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2jf2tr/of_those_people_that_understand_bitcoin_but_have/[2]
(be good, don't vote)

They were wondering about those people that understood Bitcoin but didn't support it. For a while the top response was something to the effect of "those people don't exist!"

Now, I've never been antagonistic towards Bitcoin people, despite my long suffering history of dealing with their missionaries. I post there occasionally, mostly to recommend kids not spend all of their money on Bitcoin or, perhaps, not removing all their friends that don't support Bitcoin.

So, I see this thread and figure, hey, let's share some perspective.

A lot of people thought I was ignorant, a few understood, and a ton kept PMing me convinced I'd somehow be the Golden Goose if they could JUST CONVINCE ME. And, of course, a bunch of people assumed that I was a bank shill and proceeded to PM me a bunch of insanity.

That's all fine and good, it's the Internet, whatever.

But I'm closing up shop back in meatspace when my work phone rings.

"Why do you want to take away people's freedom?"

I'd like to say I said something cool and clever and imposing in the light that SOME FUCKER DECIDED THIS INTERNET ARGUMENT NEEDED TO COME INTO THE REAL WORLD.

Instead I mangled a bunch of stuff at once and said something to the effect of "Who the is?!?"

We had a rather unpleasant and heated (mostly my flustered end) conversation about Bitcoin.

Now, I want to clarify that it's pretty easy to go digging up the details I've mentioned on my account, do some kindergarten-level Google-fu, and find out my work phone number. This isn't some sort of Anon-O-Muss Super-Hack.

And someone did that, and decided to call me.

This isn't some witchhunt. It was some stupid kid. This isn't something that needs to get whipped into a frenzy.

But I wanted to put it out there. I'm not worried or anything, but I wanted to toss it out, just so people know. Someone over there is doxxing and taking it a step too far. Or maybe it was a coincidence.

Either way, I am POSITIVE this is good for Bitcoin.

quote:

If you're confident bitcoin will go up in price then yes, borrow money and buy bitcoin. Even cash advances from your credit card should be maxed out. What's the interest rate? Maybe 20%? That's nothing compared to bitcoin's ability to double in price over a matter of days or weeks (see 2013).

Just be aware of what happens if bitcoin falls in price while you're forced to make regular repayments to the bank. Gamble responsibly.

quote:

If we all, I mean literally all did this and just ignored payments to the bank and let the bank take our houses and cars... we would be filthy rich and they would be left on a pile of used cars and other poo poo. Grin

quote:

quote:

quote:

borrow money from teh bank.. then inject it straight to BTC.


this is how you do it. 8)

you did it?

yup

ElectricMucus posted:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=825937.0

Here a guy is suggesting taking loans with the purpose of pumping up the price.

quote:

If you're confident bitcoin will go up in price then yes, borrow money and buy bitcoin. Even cash advances from your credit card should be maxed out. What's the interest rate? Maybe 20%? That's nothing compared to bitcoin's ability to double in price over a matter of days or weeks (see 2013).

Just be aware of what happens if bitcoin falls in price while you're forced to make regular repayments to the bank. Gamble responsibly.

quote:

Even cash advances from your credit card should be maxed out.

Gamble responsibly.

AlbieQuirky posted:

Bitstamp is in the UK, so I don't know if the "government seizure" thing is connected to the US enforcement push. Or if it's the Bitstampers' using the rumors of US enforcement to skim some butts off their shadier customers?

Samsquamsch posted:

Is BTC-E the one run by two Romanian teens or something, with a PO box in the UK?

ElectricMucus posted:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=825937.0

Here a guy is suggesting taking loans with the purpose of pumping up the price.

theflyingorc posted:

Pretty sure that's bitstamp, and I think they're like 22

It's actually pretty funny that a bunch of banks are investing in bitcoin without knowing it

flakeloaf posted:

hey look everyone i bought a house, a car, some cloths and some weird computer things, all with the power of bitcoin

- a bank

flakeloaf posted:

hey look everyone i bought a house, a car, some cloths and some weird computer things, all with the power of bitcoin

- a bank

ElectricMucus posted:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=825937.0

Here a guy is suggesting taking loans with the purpose of pumping up the price.

quote:

Bit-trader defunct. (self.Bitcoin)
submitted 3 hours ago by WeaversReply

Dear Clients

Regrettably I have to announce the failure and closure of Bitcoin Trader.

While preparing for the final audit results, a task we were working on for weeks now, our bitcoin wallet has been hacked and emptied, just after exchanging our fiat holdings within the exchanges to bitcoin and transferring our entire holdings to our wallet, in order to proof our solvency.

It is a known fact that I personally opposed any proof of solvency, but agreed to conduct it for the sake of a few dozen small and medium investors.

The hacker contacted me shortly after he took advantage of our holdings and demanded a ransom in order to transfer the coins back. I have agreed to a 25% ransom of the entire sum, but haven’t heard back from him for several days now.

My aim was to create something based on trust, just as bitcoin itself is based on distributed trust. Unfortunately I must admit today, I have failed. All left to do now is to declare bankruptcy with the Panamanian authorities and to hand over all relevant files and information for further investigation.

Sincerely, John Carley

Same Great Paste posted:

gray thread

quote:

While preparing for the final audit results, a task we were working on for weeks now, our bitcoin wallet has been hacked and emptied, just after exchanging our fiat holdings within the exchanges to bitcoin and transferring our entire holdings to our wallet, in order to proof our solvency.

quote:

Updated: October 17, 2014 at 5:36 am CET.
Update: Bitcoin-Trader.biz head John Carley claims the service has been hacked during an audit that was previously touted as successful. Bitcoin-Trader is closing down and it may even have been a ponzi from the very beginning.

You might not have heard of Bitcoin Trader before; you see, they haven’t been advertising on Bitcointalk.org in full force like many other Bitcoin companies have in the past. In fact, this is the only thread about Bitcoin-Trader.biz on Bitcointalk, and no Bitcoin Trader representative has ever posted there.

Bitcoin Trader never planned to do things the orthodox way and actually launched privately many months ago with invitees only allowed one additional invitation and just a few trusted promoters. Also, unlike many Bitcoin services, Bitcoin Trader claims to be a fully registered company out of Panama. Now, Bitcoin Trader is slowly increasing their size and are now offering their “passive income opportunity” services to Bitcoiners around the world.

Bitcoin Trader takes its users security very seriously and among other security precautions, passwords are never stored on Bitcoin Trader servers in plain text or encrypted forms; instead, Bitcoin Trader only stores salted hashes for use as a comparison.

Boxturret posted:

Dixie Cretin Seaman posted:

hmm i wonder if he thinks federal reserve policies create unsustainable bubbles

theflyingorc posted:

Pretty sure that's bitstamp, and I think they're like 22

indigi posted:

I wanna know how bitcoin doesn't save that one business owner on credit card fees. I'm sure it does, but I'd like to know the actual math/business/transactional process behind it so I can laugh more heartily

indigi posted:

I wanna know how bitcoin doesn't save that one business owner on credit card fees. I'm sure it does, but I'd like to know the actual math/business/transactional process behind it so I can laugh more heartily

quote:

Regardless, even at 0% Bitpay still has a cost for businesses. Staff training being the biggest one.
How many times here on /r/Bitcoin do you hear about someone going to a shop listed on coinmap only to find out the employee has no idea how to use Bitcoin. It's pretty drat often. Twice this week that I've read..
So you need to train all your employees how to transact in Bitcoin. This requires a group meeting, an instruction pamphlet, and probably 1-2 hours of the owners time.
So lets say it's 2 hours of the owners time, 1 hours of all ten employees time.
Lets say they all earn minimum wage, including the owner.
That's 12 hours * £6.50 = £78
He'll also need to buy an android tablet to run the bitpay software on, so that's another £89.99.
Now, lets say he pays the average card processing fee of 0.9%..
That means to save £167.99 in processing fees and recoup his investment he'd need to process ~£16,799 worth of Bitcoin transactions.
If he doesn't think there's ~£16,799 worth of custom to be attracted with Bitcoin, then there's no point accepting Bitcoin.
So there you go. That was todays lesson in business.

Munin posted:

I don't know about BTC-E but Bitstamp is certainly in the UK.

They recently upgraded to a much better class of mailbox company and the push for better compliance etc might be due to the increased advice and support from them. Bitstamp certainly seem to have straightened out some of their other paperwork issues and added more legit workarounds for others.

Boxturret posted:

hobbesmaster posted:

some redditor actually responded to this one!

indigi posted:

I wanna know how bitcoin doesn't save that one business owner on credit card fees. I'm sure it does, but I'd like to know the actual math/business/transactional process behind it so I can laugh more heartily

TVarmy posted:

e: and the reddit post probably said it better.

theadder posted:

ummmm

Chris Knight posted:

I think those guys bought a robertcoin machine

Dr. Honked posted:

robertcop

TVarmy posted:

it probably comes down to this: instead of managing cash and credit/debit cards in his accounting, now he has to deal with three revenue sources, one which is really tiny and won't do much to attract customers. so now he has to bother with accounting for something he'll make barely any money on.

and the thing is that credit cards and debit cards are widely accepted for a good reason: they make it easier for customers to spend money. stores wouldn't deal with the fees if they weren't drawing in business.

it's like that time (probably a year or two ago now) a bitcoiner got all excited about starting a nude camsite, but with bitcoin. he was going on and on about how the models on the site will love getting a large cut without credit card fees eating their revenue, and how the users would love having something more private than a credit card fee. then he decided to promote it on a stripper forum, and got schooled on how his business model was bad because he's guaranteeing they'd only have a niche audience and that getting a big cut of revenue means nothing if the site doesn't draw in a bunch of paying users.

e: and the reddit post probably said it better.