This might make you SERIOUSLY RECONSIDER 'BITCOINS'

[Cu Penny Hoarder]

I've been following this thread for a while now, and figured I'd throw in my .02. I do mine litecoin and darkcoin, the 2nd and 3rd highest value crypto currencies.

A couple misnomers:
-bitcoin is hackable- if by bitcoin you mean the wallets, sure, you just need to guess the username, password, and encryption key unique to each acct. lets say each username is 15 characters/numbers(36 to the 15th), password is 10 characters/letters(36 to the 10th), and each encryption key is a mix of exactly 25 upper and lowercase letters, and numbers(52 to the 25th). multiply those sets together and you get a one in 6.42E87th, or 642 with 87 zeros behind it, chance of hacking any one acct. Now if you are referring to the actual block chain being hackable, you are downright wrong. there is no astronomical chance of hacking it, it is not possible, plain and simple.
-there is no value to bitcoin- correct.it technically doesn't exist. It's value is directly assigned by what we think it should be. But so is fiat, it's a piece of paper after all.

I'm more than happy to discuss btc, and the mining software and hardware involved with it.

Bitcoin devotees repeat the same stuff over and over again.

Good luck playing in your crypto casino. Hope you make billions.

[Treetop]

The world does not require me to choose only one fruit, nor does it require me to use only one medium of exchange.

Actually it does require this of you. It shouldnt, but it does. You do well with gold or btc? your taxes will be paid in FRNs. Own a business based on barter? Taxes will be paid in FRNs

Well actually didnt a state or two allow people to use gold for these things? in any event for the most part it does indeed require this of you.

[stlouiscoin]

Good luck playing in your crypto casino. Hope you make billions.

That's the thing, I'm not playing at the casino, I am the casino. I'm a miner, not a speculator. I really couldn't care less what all these cryptocurrencies are acting like 5 or 10 years down the road, nor do I think they'll be some weird alternative currency of the future. I'm here to make my money mining now, and get out once I feel satisfied with what I have done

[ShireSilver]

Paper is 100% anonymous

Not true. Why do you think they have serial numbers? Sure, part of that is for anti-counterfeiting purposes, but part is also for tracking.

Here's where the comparison to bitcoin becomes instructive. Bitcoins are always associated with an address, and FRNs always have a serial number. As long as no one can connect you to the bitcoin address or serial numbers, you can use the currency in a pseudo-anonymous fashion; but if you do ever get associated with either the bitcoin address or serial numbers, your anonymity disappears.

Of course, at least for now it is a bit harder to keep your bitcoin addresses and identity separated. But that is a matter of degree difference with FRNs, not one of kind. And there are a handful of groups working on different ways of defending your bitcoin privacy (admittedly none of which are ready yet.)

Pennies, nickels, dimes, etc do not have serial numbers. [And neither does Shire Silver.]