Area 51 » Business

They're created by the community and awarded to bitcoin "miners" in exchange for processing transactions and securing the network. It's a common misconception that has led to the idea that bitcoins are worthless when in fact they function on the same economics as any "local currency" accepted by a specific community. It also leads to people not realising that the total supply of bitcoins is limited and not infinite. – eMansipater Apr 8 '11 at 15:26

up vote 19 down vote

added by ripper234, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 6 '11 at 17:46

I would love to know this too, but is there an answer to this? – eMansipater Apr 6 '11 at 13:59

@eMansipator - Ask Satoshi :) – ripper234 Apr 6 '11 at 16:09

@ripper234 Still, we probably don't want this as an example question given that it's unlikely to be answered. – eMansipater Apr 14 '11 at 1:43

up vote 13 down vote

added by gavinandresen Mar 29 '11 at 14:33

	I think this is off-topic simply for the reason that you could say this about any website which is accepting Bitcoins. It's more of a trust thing and would eventually fill up the Q&A site. – John Apr 23 '11 at 1:55
	On the other hand, if a high-reputation user can explain that a site is well-known and legitimate, that is a useful type of information to be able to have. Maybe "Is the mybitcoin.com website considered reputable in the BitCoin community" would be better. – eMansipater Apr 23 '11 at 22:38

up vote 11 down vote

added by ripper234 Mar 29 '11 at 12:16

Daily quotes via Q&A format? – Tadeusz A. Kadłubowski Mar 29 '11 at 13:21

@Tadeusz - Google this today, and you can't find any up to date information. The proper answer to this question is a link to BitCoin Charts. bitcoincharts.com/markets – ripper234 Mar 29 '11 at 13:26

Here's a currency exchange widget: from BTC to USD: bitcoin.1t2l.net/widget/?from=BTC – Stephen Gornick Mar 29 '11 at 19:20

Perhaps the question should be changed to "How can I find out what one bitcoin is worth in US dollars?" – eMansipater Apr 13 '11 at 16:07

@eMansipater - done. – ripper234 Apr 14 '11 at 10:22

up vote 9 down vote

added by devrandom, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 6 '11 at 17:44

up vote 8 down vote

added by Graham, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 6 '11 at 17:44

up vote 7 down vote

added by Graham, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 6 '11 at 17:45

Would be nice to clarify this question--as a technical question it is very answerable but not specific to the US government, while as a nontechnical question this is purely speculative. – eMansipater Apr 13 '11 at 16:12

up vote 7 down vote

added by J-16 SDiZ, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 16 '11 at 11:59

Right now, you typically don't. – eMansipater Apr 13 '11 at 11:55

up vote 6 down vote

added by ripper234, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 6 '11 at 17:45

Currently I understand the top level of bitcoin, but I still have to blindly trust others to accept and start using bitcoin. I would like to build a "chain of trust" in bitcoin that will make it similar to Einstein's theory of relativity - the basic ideas are simple, but in order to fully understand you can go as deep as you want, down to mathematic proofs. – ripper234 Mar 30 '11 at 9:10

up vote 6 down vote

added by Graham Apr 1 '11 at 14:04

grammar--"a Bitcoin Pool" or even better "how vulnerable are Bitcoin Pools" – eMansipater Apr 13 '11 at 16:09

up vote 5 down vote

added by Graham, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 6 '11 at 17:44

Too advanced IMHO to be an example, – ripper234 Apr 4 '11 at 18:19

Wouldn't an advanced question be exactly the kind to attract experts? – DJClayworth Apr 7 '11 at 13:57

We need advanced questions too. My biggest concern with this site is that the majority of Bitcoin questions can be answered by a FAQ; they tend to all be variations on the one theme. I would like to see some more expert-level questions as examples. – mgiuca Apr 8 '11 at 11:39

True enough. Off-topic vote retracted. – eMansipater Apr 8 '11 at 15:32

up vote 5 down vote

added by J-16 SDiZ, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 16 '11 at 11:59

up vote 4 down vote

added by J-16 SDiZ, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 16 '11 at 12:00

up vote 4 down vote

added by Judy Apr 18 '11 at 4:28

up vote 3 down vote

added by BitterTea May 3 '11 at 21:42

up vote 3 down vote

added by BitterTea May 3 '11 at 21:49

up vote 3 down vote

added by BitterTea May 3 '11 at 21:55

up vote 3 down vote

added by Allen May 4 '11 at 7:25

up vote 2 down vote

added by Jader Dias, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 16 '11 at 12:00

up vote 2 down vote

added by bgeron Apr 19 '11 at 10:59

I think this is on-topic as it is relevant to know whether the currency is reliable or not. – David May 10 '11 at 22:08

up vote 2 down vote

added by Travis Apr 26 '11 at 8:24

up vote 2 down vote

added by BitterTea May 3 '11 at 21:45

up vote 2 down vote

added by Riley May 4 '11 at 19:17

up vote 1 down vote

added by gavinandresen, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 25 '11 at 16:30

closed as off topic by ripper234, eMansipater, oydjukjaq, mithrandi, BitterTea Apr 13 '11 at 18:40

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

... or would this be more appropriate for stackoverflow? – gavinandresen Mar 29 '11 at 17:34

up vote 1 down vote

added by WikiSpeedia hang-around Mar 29 '11 at 23:20

closed as off topic by oydjukjaq, mgiuca, mithrandi, qGOjjuUM, sandos Apr 12 '11 at 7:31

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

"Purely subjective discussion" means it's not a good example. – Dori Apr 14 '11 at 2:35

the answer is: terrorist organization can take advantage of bitcoin just like any other organization --- so why offtopic? – J-16 SDiZ Apr 14 '11 at 4:59

@J-16 for the same reason that "In what way can terrorist organisations take advantage of computers" would be off-topic on SU. – eMansipater Apr 19 '11 at 13:44

How about "In what way can I take advantage of bitcoin"? Does the "terrorist" bit matter? – J-16 SDiZ Apr 22 '11 at 14:55

"take advantage of" is very vague. However, perhaps the community here should make a decision on whether "Would terrorists be able to launder money through BitCoin?" is on-topic. The answer will probably change over time, though. – eMansipater Apr 23 '11 at 22:35

show 4 more comments

up vote 1 down vote

added by qGOjjuUM Apr 20 '11 at 22:05

up vote 1 down vote

added by Travis Apr 26 '11 at 8:32

up vote 1 down vote

added by David Apr 29 '11 at 12:13

closed as off topic by JoeHobbit, static_rtti, devrandom, Dori, justmoon May 15 '11 at 16:25

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

In case you are in doubt, I aim for off-topic. – David Apr 29 '11 at 12:13

up vote 1 down vote

added by JoeHobbit, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around May 14 '11 at 15:27

up vote 1 down vote

added by SeanOC, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around May 14 '11 at 15:26

up vote 1 down vote

added by hhh, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around May 15 '11 at 18:03

I've thought about doing something like that myself. Perhaps with my own chain, and my own replacement for hashing.. (calculating physics?) – Evil Spork May 18 '11 at 20:24

up vote 1 down vote

added by hhh, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around May 15 '11 at 18:02

up vote 0 down vote

added by ripper234, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 6 '11 at 17:46

	As stated, quite subjective. A better question would be "How high would difficulty or exchange value have to rise to make the cost of stopping/exploiting BitCoin exceed $100,000,000?" – eMansipater Apr 13 '11 at 16:15
	@eMansipater - difficulty level says nothing to people who aren't in the technical details. However, if we assume current growth rate of difficulty level remains, then this is no longer subjective. – ripper234 Apr 14 '11 at 10:24

up vote 0 down vote

added by David May 1 '11 at 21:54

Aiming for off-topic – David May 1 '11 at 21:54

up vote 0 down vote

added by hhh, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around May 15 '11 at 18:00

up vote 0 down vote

added by hhh, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around May 15 '11 at 18:00

up vote 0 down vote

added by Evil Spork May 18 '11 at 20:22

shooting for off-topic... really this kinda question is answered best by just linking to the wiki containing all the video cards and hash rates. – Evil Spork May 18 '11 at 20:24