>> ^Truckchase:

@ 9:06:
<NitPick>People thing Federal Reserve Issued currency is real money too. It's not any more real than bitcoin; it's just the belief that makes it real. </NitPick>
Other than that, great vid. I'm still working up the guts to ditch FB. It makes me miserable seeing all the surface level BS people's lives are becoming, yet I have a hard time deleting my acct. .... neeeed ... more .... willpower.
Edit: I'm a bit surprised at the reaction here. I guess I'm in the minority (of the vocal) on VS. It would be interesting to see people's reaction to this based on age. I'm old enough to not be "old" (I'd like to think) but to have seen a substantial part of my adult life with and without facebook, and on the whole I think real friendships sustain more harm from these tools than good. The base notion of FB creates an incentive for people to view their own life the the prism of mass consumption which I think really does change behavior in a generally bad way.
That said, I'm not blaming it for the downfall of modern society or anything, just asserting it's a net-negative. If more people deleted their accounts I'm confident we'd be better off overall, and I'm trying to work up the courage to take the lead on that.


The reaction is more to his self righteous, overly inflated, far reaching, conspiratorial nature more so than the 'core' message. If it'd been a video which had a light hearted feel, and pointed out the reams of posts from friends that are just entries into competitions or playing the apps or that sort of crap (of which I've ended up completely blocking people because about 90% of some people's post are just that crap), and that maybe not posting what your dreams were about each night... or you know, just common etiquette, it may have done really well, and probably been posted by people on facebook as a non direct way of telling others 'um, you're being sort of dicks on this thing'.

But no, he tried to insinuate he knows all, and that anyone using facebook is a mindless sheep, and that there is no good to come from it.

Well he can go back to his conspiracy bullshit on his websites and youtube videos and continue to think he knows better than everyone.

And die unhappy having changed nothing.

@ 9:06:

<NitPick>People thing Federal Reserve Issued currency is real money too. It's not any more real than bitcoin; it's just the belief that makes it real. </NitPick>

Other than that, great vid. I'm still working up the guts to ditch FB. It makes me miserable seeing all the surface level BS people's lives are becoming, yet I have a hard time deleting my acct. .... neeeed ... more .... willpower.

Edit: I'm a bit surprised at the reaction here. I guess I'm in the minority (of the vocal) on VS. It would be interesting to see people's reaction to this based on age. I'm old enough to not be "old" (I'd like to think) but to have seen a substantial part of my adult life with and without facebook, and on the whole I think real friendships sustain more harm from these tools than good. The base notion of FB creates an incentive for people to view their own life the the prism of mass consumption which I think really does change behavior in a generally bad way.

That said, I'm not blaming it for the downfall of modern society or anything, just asserting it's a net-negative. If more people deleted their accounts I'm confident we'd be better off overall, and I'm trying to work up the courage to take the lead on that.

I just got my bitcoins in what seemed like a crazy amount of work. First I got a form from Bitinstant that required me to go to a moneygram agent and give them a bunch of codes over a little red phone, so after sitting in a booth with a moneygram agent on the little red phone giving codes - I paid the attendant, which paid a company called ZipZap that transfered my money to Bitinstant which transferred the money to Mt. Gox. Afte it arrived at Mt Gox I then turned into bitcoins and transferred to my second favorite place on the internet 62.95 turned into $55.95 which turned into 10.4487162558 bitcoins. Soon I shall once again have magical abilities.

Proof that Bitcoin needs to be secured and utilized or at least some form of decentralized banking.

@GenjiKilpatrick that is why the idea of bitcoins was pretty awesome to me. It doesn't have the failure of a gold standard (not being able to inflate fast enough to avoid a deflationary spiral), or pure fiat (that can be manipulated behind closed doors to finance all sorts of evils by inflation). All valuation is inevitably fiat, which is why a gold standard actually makes LESS sense than a fiat, so in that, to devise a fiat that can't be manipulated by the inscrutable would be a very good currency indeed! The things you DO with money should be evil or good, not the supply itself! Money controlled by a computer system/formula, just makes sense. But it will never happen, bankers will make sure of that. Cheap money, great for bankers bad for Americans

Bitcoin!

http://cdn1.diggstatic.com/story/bit_coin_trading_com_buy_sell_or_trade_online_locally/s.png

>> ^NetRunner:

>> ^blankfist:
And he's right about the "governmentally fixed price for gold", and if it was legal in this country to offer competing currencies I don't think many people would care whether the USD was backed by gold or not. But because we're forced to use one central currency, it should at the very least be value backed.

The way I understand it, you can legally offer and accept another currency, it's just that you aren't allowed to refuse to accept dollars as settlement of debts incurred.
That's why it's legal to use gold, bitcoins, gift cards, frequent flyer miles, Xbox live points, WoW gold, etc. Even credit cards and checks aren't actually legal tender.


mo·nop·o·ly /məˈnäpəlē/ Noun
The exclusive possession or control of the supply or trade in a commodity or service.

So, two questions. 1. would you say the US government has "control" over the supply or trade of the commodity of monies?

2. If you can "legally offer and accept another currency" why did these guys get raided if competing currency is legal? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Dollar#Federal_Government_response

>> ^blankfist:

And he's right about the "governmentally fixed price for gold", and if it was legal in this country to offer competing currencies I don't think many people would care whether the USD was backed by gold or not. But because we're forced to use one central currency, it should at the very least be value backed.


The way I understand it, you can legally offer and accept another currency, it's just that you aren't allowed to refuse to accept dollars as settlement of debts incurred.

That's why it's legal to use gold, bitcoins, gift cards, frequent flyer miles, Xbox live points, WoW gold, etc. Even credit cards and checks aren't actually legal tender.

But, but, but....Milton Friedman is an... liberty... bitcoins.... statism.... bitcoins... Ron Paul... minarchy..... classical liberal.... statist.... tyranny..... statist...... statist... Milton Friedman es muy.... liberterrier... statiststatiststatistatis..... you are an bitcoin...DOES NOT COMPUTE... you are an tyranny..... 00011101010001.... Daissssyyy... Daissseyyy, givve mee yourrrr answ..... Self Destruct in T minus 5... 4... 4... 4..

-END OF LINE-

And Scene.>> ^NetRunner:

"I do believe that every individual should be free to own, buy, and sell gold. If under those circumstances a private gold standard emerged, fine—although I make a scientific prediction that it’s very unlikely. But I think those people who say they believe in a gold standard are fundamentally being very anti-libertarian because what they mean by a gold standard is a governmentally fixed price for gold."
-Milton Friedman
Also:
http://delong.typepad.c
om/sdj/2009/03/the-earlier-you-abandon-the-gold-standard-and-start-your-new-deal-the-better.html

>> ^peggedbea:

i fully support fuckin shit up for the lulz. because some parts of me are mostly a 16 year old virgin boy.
but... see link in the description. they gave 17 alternatives to paypal. at least some of them aren't bitcoin.>> ^DerHasisttot:
http://www.little-gamers.com/2011/07/28/a-rainy-day/



hehe the comic doesn't reflect my opinion, I just posted it as secondary literature ;-)

i fully support fuckin shit up for the lulz. because some parts of me are mostly a 16 year old virgin boy.

but... see link in the description. they gave 17 alternatives to paypal. at least some of them aren't bitcoin.>> ^DerHasisttot:

http://www.little-gamers.com/2011/07/28/a-rainy-day/

I just signed up for bitcoin, however it all seems rather confusing and it appears to have security issues. It really needs some work if it wants to become mainstream, some more user friendliness would be nice.

You mean like bitcoin enthusiasts?
>> ^ChaosEngine:

cue free market apologists in 5..4...3..2..1....

>> ^Sagemind:

Can someone explain what we are watching happen. I know nothing about what Bitcoin is.


Bitcoins are a decentralized cryptographic digital cash system. The specifics are complicated, but in practice it is non-counterfeitable, low transaction cost, online money.

The website Mt.Gox was the first and largest place to trade bitcoins for dollars.

Mt.Gox got too big too fast, and never bothered to properly security audit their site, as a result there were a number of compromised accounts. This allowed a hacker to go in and sell bitcoins from the compromised accounts at $0.01 each, thereby driving down the price, and allowing the hacker, and anybody else who was paying attention, to buy them up at $0.01, when they are functionally worth between $10-20.

We are watching a live feed of these hacker sell off transactions taking place on the exchange, which is basically an almost unregulated stock market that only trades in bitcoins(BTC).

>> ^Sagemind:

Can someone explain what we are watching happen. I know nothing about what Bitcoin is.


http://videosift.com/video/Bitcoin-Economy-The-Very-First-Digital-Currency

A libertarian's wet dream.