Bitcoin
spelunk
3,400 Posts
While in practice right now this is only for tech people and people dumb enough to try to buy and sell drugs online (NPR story today), the theory behind it and the fact that it's even made it this far is pretty crazy. Direct P2P decentralized currency is such an incredibly threatening concept to nationalism, taxes, import tariffs, embargos, etc. I doubt this will ever impact how you buy a sandwich but across borders and political lines it's pretty crazy.
http://www.weusecoins.com/
http://www.bitcoin.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin
Comments
I didn't see the NPR story... I'll check that out now.
Yes... this is happening... except when it comes to eBay unfortunately.
Nigerian bankers, porn, congressmen, spam, porn, on line gambling, bomb making, porn, farmville addiction, celebretiestweetingtheirbreakfast, porn, music piracy....
:balla:
The more you learn about it and know how it's being used will lead you to the conclusion it's shithouse.
How do you get your virtual coins if that thing can not be linked to a bank account or credit card?
Personally, I'm rooting for these guys. First, because we're already business partners for selling physical goods in iPhone Apps, but second because their transaction fees are pennies compared to paypal as they're already integrated with the banks. Their biggest hurdle will be hitting the critical mass of users where it's a standard form of payment. They promote single click checkout, but there's a few steps needed to get to that level of course. These guys are totally legit in terms of security after passing rigorous tests with all the banks. I can't imagine that's a fun process!
Ding!
real money vs. play money. real money wins.
To reiterate, there is no way that bitcoin in its current incarnation is ever going to be widespread or really all that functional. But it HAS gotten enough buzz that the idea and the principals it represents are influencing a whole lot of thinking about redefining online transactions, marketplaces, and banks.
There are two directions this goes - one is the single-click checkout people that Ivan linked to, which is basically just streamlining and simplifying billing processes and scaling them properly for the future of micropayments.
The other is the much more revolutionary notion of decentralized, anonymous, P2P currency, which is irrelevant to 99.99% of people but in certain contexts really, really crazy and soon to be illegal.
Right...that critical mass is the tough part, because the entities that are large enough to bring that critical mass all have their own payment platforms - Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Paypal, even Google Checkout.
Their system looks pretty great though...
Yeah, certainly they'll have a tough time in the digital goods space, but they have a solid chance in the physical goods space on mobile because aside from Amazon, none of these big companies want anything to do with fulfillment responsibilities. This is why Apple does not allow you to use their billing system for physical goods purchases, making it really difficult for developers to sell stuff in apps. With these guys, the fulfillment responsibility is in the hands of the merchant... as it should be. What sucks for developers and end users is that there will be two different billing mechanisms in apps to cover digital and physical goods... not great user experience there. Although, Apple did announce last week that they're loosening their restrictions on In App Digital Subscriptions allowing developers to use their own billing system... as long as it's web based and not native. Ugg... so many development considerations!
Square = :killin_it:
Twitter, FourSquare, Sonar, etc. = :talib:
mark my words, ten years from now Square will have a larger market cap than Twitter (assuming both go public). lord knows what dude's third act will be.
I'll go out on a limb and say that will be the case in 1-2 years. Dorsey is smart to shift his focus from Twitter to Square. He even said himself something along the lines of "Twitter has mainstream awareness, but not mainstream relevance". Twitter has yet to find a viable business model... all it has is a community... but even then only 13% of Americans have an account. I think it's an extremely valuable "right now" tool for many, but I don't see it surviving in the long run if it stays in its current form. They have a ton of funding so I do hope they further their technology and service because I actually kinda like it
"Zynga - The Best Recycling Company in the World" - Forty Fivan Jun 2011 ;)
They are printing money over there... it's ridiculous.
Zynga not doing so hot.
Bitcoin still confuses more folks than it converts.
Square continues to kill.
- Bitter old tech guy