The Economist 1988 - “Get Ready For A World Currency by 2018″

[Mister Cheese]

Bitcoin is a scam.

[yoma]

some persons are more trustworthy than others

Well, I'm glad you can tell the difference. Especially without ever meeting said persons writing those algorithms for you. I wish I had super powers.

[Cæli]

Well, I'm glad you can tell the difference. Especially without ever meeting said persons writing those algorithms for you. I wish I had super powers.

you try to make fun of me by telling that I don't personally know the persons who write those algorithms, even though we don't know either the person in the government, those who we buy our food from, those who handle our money and so on. if you have a valid reason to be against this topic just say it. just get to your point if you have anything you want to say

[LawnmowersUnited]

Newspaper predictions are not prophecy although it is an interesting prediction.

[Hooked]

The only world currency should be precious metals.

[Torgent]

Have you actually tried that? I have travelled extensivelly and there's no country that will just accept someone elses currency, USD or not. That's why exchanges still exist.
You can't just use USD or Euro in Thailand shops or China or Japan or Sweden or France or UK or Africa, South America or like the rest of the world. You have to exchange for the local currency. Americans, you guys think that the world is there to serve you. You should do some travelling outside Florida, Hawaii or California. Paying in USD in those states doesn't count.

I have actually.

Many countries don't even have their own currency and use the USD as their official one. http://www.investopedia.com/articles...-us-dollar.asp Here is a list of those. This doesn't include countries that accept USD in addition to local currencies. In short: You're wrong, have a wonderful day.

[Alvito]

Bitcoin has been all over the place. It isn't always liquid either so it isn't as simple as just cashing out when you want to or need to. It is far too easily manipulated too. It might never catch on completely due to that.

[yoma]

you try to make fun of me by telling that I don't personally know the persons who write those algorithms, even though we don't know either the person in the government, those who we buy our food from, those who handle our money and so on. if you have a valid reason to be against this topic just say it. just get to your point if you have anything you want to say

You're wrong and bitcoin is no safer or more efficient than any other currency.

[Cæli]

You're wrong and bitcoin is no safer or more efficient than any other currency.

wrong, what are you talking about? this technology is more fair and more efficient. it's open source, here's the github https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin
I don't know what you're trying to defend; maybe you're against technological progress, which would explain the reason of your intervention

[Strawberry]

I have actually.

Many countries don't even have their own currency and use the USD as their official one. http://www.investopedia.com/articles...-us-dollar.asp Here is a list of those. This doesn't include countries that accept USD in addition to local currencies. In short: You're wrong, have a wonderful day.

"WORLD CURRENCY"
Outside US, 10 3RD WORLD COUNTRIES, total 20mil people.
"WORLD CURRENCY"

WE'RE STILL WORLD CURRENCY. Have fun in GUAM, lol.

[Torgent]

"WORLD CURRENCY"
Outside US, 10 3RD WORLD COUNTRIES, total 20mil people.
"WORLD CURRENCY"

WE'RE STILL WORLD CURRENCY. Have fun in GUAM, lol.

Those were just countries that use the USD as their official currency. There are many more that don't use it as official currency but still accept it. Have a great life my Zandalari friend.

[Knaar]

Only reason bitcoin is going crazy in price right now is because of the soon to be releasedd Bitcoin Gold which is based on bitcoin at first and it will take a slightly different path. So yeah it's going up, but im expecting to see a huge drop in the near futur after bitcoin gold is in action

[Strawberry]

Those were just countries that use the USD as their official currency. There are many more that don't use it as official currency but still accept it. Have a great life my Zandalari friend.

Yeah they will accept USD in a country that doesn't officially use it. AT THE EXCHANGES.
So you can afterwards use the country's own currency. Stop forcing your American privilege, it's just imagination. Come to Sweden, a developed 1st world country and go to a shop and offer USD. Let's see how many shops accept it over the counter. You will end up hungry and asking for the nearest exchange (or ATM as those spit out SEK as long as you have accepted card).

[Laerrus]

Bitcoin is an awesome concept, I especially like how it can eliminate the middleman. My Wife and I have discussed the potential for accepting it as a form of payment at our business.

What concerns me is the potential for rogue states, such as the DPRK, to evade UN and other International sanctions. Apparently, Fatboy has set up his own mining rig and uses his underlings to steal crypto from ROK's and other countries exchanges. With the recent BTC ATH, it worries me that our efforts to stop him have been for nothing.

Personally, I would like to see a concerted effort to crash the market until we can either remove him from power ourselves or force a regime change.

Edit: The recent ATH was over $7800.

[Strawberry]

Aaaaand Bitcoin as of today broke the $10.000 mark! That's a pretty big milestone!
1½ month after I created this thread, it went from $5000 to $10.000

[AeneasBK]

Weren't tulips worth quite a lot back in the day.

Wouldn't wanna be the guy at the end of that bubble

[Mittens]

Bitcoins are an absolute waste of energy.

https://powercompare.co.uk/bitcoin/

Bitcoin’s ongoing meteoric price rise has received the bulk of recent press attention with a lot of discussion around whether or not it’s a bubble waiting to burst.

However, most the coverage has missed out one of the more interesting and unintended consequences of this price increase. That is the surge in global electricity consumption used to “mine” more Bitcoins.

According to Digiconomist’s Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, as of Monday November 20th, 2017 Bitcoin’s current estimated annual electricity consumption stands at 29.05TWh.

That’s the equivalent of 0.13% of total global electricity consumption. While that may not sound like a lot, it means Bitcoin mining is now using more electricity than 159 individual countries (as you can see from the map above). More than Ireland or Nigeria.

If Bitcoin miners were a country they’d rank 61st in the world in terms of electricity consumption.

Here are a few other interesting facts about Bitcoin mining and electricity consumption:

• In the past month alone, Bitcoin mining electricity consumption is estimated to have increased by 29.98%
• If it keeps increasing at this rate, Bitcoin mining will consume all the world’s electricity by February 2020.
• Estimated annualised global mining revenues: $7.2 billion USD (£5.4 billion)
• Estimated global mining costs: $1.5 billion USD (£1.1 billion)
• Number of Americans who could be powered by bitcoin mining: 2.4 million (more than the population of Houston)
• Number of Britons who could be powered by bitcoin mining: 6.1 million (more than the population of Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Bradford, Liverpool, Bristol, Croydon, Coventry, Leicester & Nottingham combined) Or Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
• Bitcoin Mining consumes more electricity than 12 US states (Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming)

[Raakel]

'putting on the tinfoil hat big time'

What if Bitcoins are a honeypot that was invented in the aftermath of the 2007/8 crisis??

This idea just came to me this morning on my way to work and I began to research when BC where established. The year is 2008. It could be a method trying to channel speculation bubbles (which are a natual thing). Bitcoin is a crazy rollercoaster and has a lot of attraction but if the bubble pops it has almost zero effect on the system. Might be a litte far fetched, I know but I don't beleve in the 'Freedom of Currency thing' either. So just thinking...

[Independent voter]

Mostly what drives these cypto currencies are the Chinese. The Chinese don't have a lot of places to invest their money and the one place they do is in cypto currencies.

The Chinese government can put a stop to that tomorrow if they want.

[Lochton]

Rather interesting read.

https://socioecohistory.wordpress.co...mist-magazine/

Meanwhile Bitcoin breaks $5000 and hits all time high at $5350 or so (now about $5250). This is the world currency everyone's been waiting for.
And not only that, it's being followed by a horde of altcoins designed for many different purposes, from online tipping to clean energy.
Those who hoarded altcoins in late 2016 for next to nothing are multimilionaires/bilionaires right now.

Edit 17-11-28:
Bitcoin now $10.000.

I have my doubts of a world currency at this point. Even bitcoin isn't accepted by the common industry. As well, the fact that bitcoin can be mined if you have a strong enough computer wouldn't handle well for the overall economy.