Bitcoin could not only revolutionize the online gaming industry, but has the potential to revolutionize the way we use and think about money. Bitcoin could revolutionize the transfer of funds the way the internet revolutionized the transfer of information. Imagine being able to transfer any amount of money to anyone, completely anonymous, with only knowing a public and private set of keys to your bitcoin wallet. There is nothing physical about it, so it's not like gold or cash in that sense. You could get on a plane with just the information in your head, fly to another country, and transfer the funds to anyone you like...with no middlemen or fees involved.
Bitcoin is a digital currency supposedly developed by a person named Satoshi Nakamoto back in 2009. Every payment is recorded in a public ledger. Payments work peer-to-peer, with no centralized authority involved. A bitcoin can be broken down as much as 8 decimal places, with the smallest unit being called a Satoshi. According to wikipedia: Bitcoins are created as a reward for payment processing work in which users offer their computing power to verify and record payments into the public ledger. Called mining, individuals or companies engage in this activity in exchange for transaction fees and newly created bit coins. Besides mining, bitcoins can be obtained in exchange for fiat money, products, and services.
Bitcoin is structured as a deflationary currency. Only a set number of bitcoins can ever be mined into existence, and the more bitcoins that are mined the harder it becomes to mine more. If you would have started mining bitcoin back in 2009, you could easily be a multi-millionaire by now. Some people were lucky enough to do just that and have become bitcoin millionaires. The prices has been extremely volatile over the past year or so, but price stability will only increase with more adoption of the digital currency.
Large retailers such as Dell.com and Overstock.com...along with many others have recently adopted the use of bitcoin. Sites like gyft.com sell all kinds of gift cards for bitcoin, and you can even get a 3% discount when using bitcoin to buy gift cards. The list of retailers accepting bitcoin is growing everyday.
I don't see how the government can shut bitcoin down unless they shut the entire internet down. Sure they can ban banks from dealing with institutions that deal with bitcoins, but with big retailers like Dell, Overstock, and TigerDirect among other getting involved...it gives bitcoin more and more legitimacy. The Winklevoss twins are also creating a Bitcoin ETF that will be traded on the stock exchange.
I buy my bitcoins on Coinbase.com. There are other places you can buy from, but from the research I have done...this seems to be the safest and most secure to use. Just about every retailer adopting bitcoin uses coinbase to instantly convert bitcoin to USD. I would consider them the ****** of bitcoin.
You can also buy bitcoins from people in your area on localbitcoins.com using cash. The website will explain how it works, and many people buy bitcoin this way. It's not as convenient as coinbase, but will allow you to buy bitcoins without giving away your banking information if you're truly worried about it.
I have played poker on sealswithclubs.eu by depositing with bitcoin and withdrawing with bitcoin multiple times. Deposits are usually credited within 20 minutes, and cash outs are usually completed within 12 hours, and many times much faster. I send the funds from my coinbase account, and receive back the same way. You can sell the bitcoins instantly on coinbase, or just keep them in your coinbase account if you're not worried about price fluctuations.
The major risk with Bitcoin is security. You have to think about it like cash in your wallet. There are hackers out there praying on novice bitcoin users. Even with coinbase having the greatest infrastructure and security related to bitcoin, realized that there is a possibility that their site could be hacked and your wallet could be emptied. While this chance is probably extremely low, don't put anything on there that your wouldn't feel comfortable carrying around in your pocket.
The safest way to store bitcoin is with cold storage. It's basically a bitcoin wallet that has never been exposed to the internet or anything online. It's probably too complex to get into with this thread, but you can find out more from the reddit forum below.
If you want to learn more about bitcoin, I would highly recommend subscribing to the reddit bitcoin section r/bitcoin: http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcoin.
Please let me know if anyone has any questions, and I will try to answer the best I can.
Bitcoin is a digital currency supposedly developed by a person named Satoshi Nakamoto back in 2009. Every payment is recorded in a public ledger. Payments work peer-to-peer, with no centralized authority involved. A bitcoin can be broken down as much as 8 decimal places, with the smallest unit being called a Satoshi. According to wikipedia: Bitcoins are created as a reward for payment processing work in which users offer their computing power to verify and record payments into the public ledger. Called mining, individuals or companies engage in this activity in exchange for transaction fees and newly created bit coins. Besides mining, bitcoins can be obtained in exchange for fiat money, products, and services.
Bitcoin is structured as a deflationary currency. Only a set number of bitcoins can ever be mined into existence, and the more bitcoins that are mined the harder it becomes to mine more. If you would have started mining bitcoin back in 2009, you could easily be a multi-millionaire by now. Some people were lucky enough to do just that and have become bitcoin millionaires. The prices has been extremely volatile over the past year or so, but price stability will only increase with more adoption of the digital currency.
Large retailers such as Dell.com and Overstock.com...along with many others have recently adopted the use of bitcoin. Sites like gyft.com sell all kinds of gift cards for bitcoin, and you can even get a 3% discount when using bitcoin to buy gift cards. The list of retailers accepting bitcoin is growing everyday.
I don't see how the government can shut bitcoin down unless they shut the entire internet down. Sure they can ban banks from dealing with institutions that deal with bitcoins, but with big retailers like Dell, Overstock, and TigerDirect among other getting involved...it gives bitcoin more and more legitimacy. The Winklevoss twins are also creating a Bitcoin ETF that will be traded on the stock exchange.
I buy my bitcoins on Coinbase.com. There are other places you can buy from, but from the research I have done...this seems to be the safest and most secure to use. Just about every retailer adopting bitcoin uses coinbase to instantly convert bitcoin to USD. I would consider them the ****** of bitcoin.
You can also buy bitcoins from people in your area on localbitcoins.com using cash. The website will explain how it works, and many people buy bitcoin this way. It's not as convenient as coinbase, but will allow you to buy bitcoins without giving away your banking information if you're truly worried about it.
I have played poker on sealswithclubs.eu by depositing with bitcoin and withdrawing with bitcoin multiple times. Deposits are usually credited within 20 minutes, and cash outs are usually completed within 12 hours, and many times much faster. I send the funds from my coinbase account, and receive back the same way. You can sell the bitcoins instantly on coinbase, or just keep them in your coinbase account if you're not worried about price fluctuations.
The major risk with Bitcoin is security. You have to think about it like cash in your wallet. There are hackers out there praying on novice bitcoin users. Even with coinbase having the greatest infrastructure and security related to bitcoin, realized that there is a possibility that their site could be hacked and your wallet could be emptied. While this chance is probably extremely low, don't put anything on there that your wouldn't feel comfortable carrying around in your pocket.
The safest way to store bitcoin is with cold storage. It's basically a bitcoin wallet that has never been exposed to the internet or anything online. It's probably too complex to get into with this thread, but you can find out more from the reddit forum below.
If you want to learn more about bitcoin, I would highly recommend subscribing to the reddit bitcoin section r/bitcoin: http://www.reddit.com/r/bitcoin.
Please let me know if anyone has any questions, and I will try to answer the best I can.
