How high do you see Bitcoin going?

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how high do you see it going?

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I see it going to zero. What's the best way to short Bitcoins?

same here except for the fairly intelligent part.

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I still have no fricking clue how you "farm" bitcoin.

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The proper term is "mine"

And you don't need to understand cryptography to understand it.

Just think of it as mining in the traditional sense: hard, resource intensive work

That's all that bitcoin mining is.

So whoever has the fastest computer gets the most "money"? That's what I took from skimming that article. Why doesn't Watson just steal it all overnight? That would be a nice stunt.

I'm talking mars bitches. But really, I'm loading up on Ripple

don't bother trying to tell wiki about bubbles. Also dont bother wasting time trying to explain things like "supply and demand", hoarding, positive feedback mechanisms, etc, as he will read what you write, completely disregard it, and respond "that's fine, but I just dont think you understand the technology"


and mining really just serves as a substitute for a central bank. The math problems take enough time and computing power to solve that it serves as a mechanism to gradually increase supply with the increase in demand. Of course, supply is increasing significantly faster than demand, which is more or less the definition of a bubble, but live and let live I guess, they'll figure it out eventually. Some people will make a shitload, and the greediest will lose their shirt - bitcoin will end up being beanie babies for computer nerds and anarchists

understanding the technology has nothing to do with understanding monetary theory.
money growth rate =/= inflation (in the sense you're thinking of inflation)
people "joining the network" =/= money demand
but trying to explain why would be pretty futile

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can the "average" American family afford the hardware/software required for mining, or is it the type of endeavor that requires a room full of machines running 24/7.

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It's not out of this world expensive, but you would want to seriously deliberate doing it.

And since the mining constantly becomes harder and harder, it requires the continued purchasing of newer and faster hardware to do it.

At the beginning, anyone could do it. Nowadays, you need to invest a few grand to get started. $20,000 rigs aren't unheard of. And that's just the hardware. These things take up a LOT of electricity too, so you gotta keep that bill in mind.

New ASIC chips are about to come out which will pretty much make all previous mining rigs obsolete instantly. A basic ASIC will cost around $1300.

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I'm intrigued, have about 100 questions which I'm sure will provoke 100 more in my mind.

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Feel free to ask them all. I love talking about it!

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Any good links where I can learn more?

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These are two really good starting points:

Bitcoin FAQ

Bitcoin Myths

and if you really want to blow your mind, read the original whitepaper: Whitepaper (PDF)

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For instance, how are the thefts and hackings "policed" since there is no central institution and participants are anonymous?

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So, direct theft of Bitcoin is virtually impossible. In other words, it would take billions of years with current computing power to crack the cryptography to steal Bitcoins.

Most thefts are the result of:

1) Poor practice (i.e., someone storing their wallet file unencrypted on an unsecured computer. If an attacker gets control of your wallet file, then they can control the Bitcoins in that wallet)

2) Trust in third parties that shouldn't have been trusted. Some people have chosen to store their Bitcoin wallet with third party websites that essentially act as banks, and those sites have been hacked, resulting in the loss of the Bitcoins controlled by them.