The Buzz over Digital Currency

I always knew that the Mark of the Beast System would revolve around digital currency, electronic data being loaded on a chip on the right hand. Just as our medical records, banking, drivers license, passports. A one stop does it all unit. I’m sure it’s not this new Bitcoin but we are getting there in a hurry.

Bitcoin, the financial traders' anarchic new toy

LONDON (Reuters) - Financial traders have a new toy: Bitcoin, a digital currency variously dismissed as a Ponzi scheme or lauded as the greatest invention since the Internet.

Unlike conventional fiat money and other digital currencies, Bitcoin runs through a peer-to-peer network, independent of central control. Bitcoins are currently worth $4.88 each on online currency exchanges, where they can be bought and sold for about 15 world currencies.

Users - an odd assortment of uber-geeks, anarchists, libertarians, scammers and forex traders - sent about $4.3 million worth to each other in the last 24 hours.

Banking and payment expert Simon Lelieveldt believes they are living on borrowed time.

"There is always a power base underlying a currency," he said, speaking at the Digital Money Forum in London in March.

WILD WEST FINANCE

He is not alone. Workers at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in London and New York have been visiting online Bitcoin exchanges as often as 30 times a day, according to documents seen by Reuters. Neither bank wanted to comment.

Employees at almost all the major international banks and numerous trading and investment firms have shown interest.

Bitcoin has become the Wild West of finance, with a proliferation of websites offering loosely regulated replicas of the services familiar to those in the financial industry.
There is a Bitcoin stock exchange, where companies can make initial public offerings and pay dividends in Bitcoin.

One website offering Bitcoin options trading was ‘listed' this month for an implied valuation of half a million dollars.
THE ANTI-BANK SYSTEM

Its popularity with financial professionals highlights an irony at the heart of the Bitcoin usership; suspicion of the banking system is written into the program's DNA.

It was released in January 2009 by a developer using the probable pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Embedded in the code of its first block of transaction history are the words ‘The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks'.

This was a way of time-stamping the first Bitcoin transaction, but also a clue to the developer's motivation.

WHAT IS IT FOR?

The Greek owner of an island bar and restaurant who accepts payment in Bitcoin alongside euros told Reuters he liked the currency because it was the opposite of a banking system.

"I don't put money in the banks," said Gerald, who did not give his surname. "I trust the euro as a note, but I don't trust banks. I don't want them making money out of my earnings."

Digital money consultant Jon Matonis, former head forex trader at Visa, said Bitcoin was a natural fit for societies that prefer cash payments.

news.yahoo.com...

can bitcoins be exchanged for u.s. dollars, and if so, who does the exchange for you, since this appears to be a black market tool.

are there people who actually buy bitcoins for cash.

what better way to traffick drugs than selling them thru a bitcoin transaction, which are anonymous and then converting it to a pile of money thru a bitcoin currency exchanger who takes a commission.

Have a read of this article called Global Reserve Currencies, the Triffin dilemma and gold's role which argues the world needs a global currency in the form of bancor or similar for a global economy.

well. there is a need for a global currency. but most people way of thinking is wrong.

i hate my brain sometimes. it can compute possible scenario in multiple perspective and formulate possible formulas. i live in a very traditional country where most people will insist things to be done there way because this is suppose to be the tested formula yet was never logical to me.

anyway back to the topic.

people have viewed the global currency wrongly.

yes it is needed but most of the time they will try and enforce it by saying theres a need. since a common person who does not step out of his own country really does not have a need for it. then it becomes a problem.

however there is another way.

instead of telling people there is a need. what you need to do is create a system that will supply a need. people have to find that need. (i can numerate a few).

of course the biggest issue will always be money laundering. but then again if such a system exist. money laundering can be monitored and stopped.

here the other problem.

most financial institution will never allow it to happen. because they earn from such things. suspected money launderers account are frozen and they keep it.


so the best solution to this is not to enforce a global currency. instead of trying to enforce it. supply an existing need with a local solution then slowly branch it out then make it available one country at a time.

to cut it short. people should not enforce a global currency. it must be an alternative currency that can easily be access to a simple medium.

as i said i can see a possible scenario that it can be done. and it will only probably take 5 years to make an alternative currency that is used by more than 50% of the world population. but it will only be an alternative currency. basically a currency that is handy but has no wish to replace the current currency of every country.

hopefully somebody understood what im trying to say. i gave an idea on how to open such path. it would be boring to spoon feed people.

reply to post by surrealist


Thanks for the article. Wow. I do think that by the time we come out the other side of this global recession we will see changes never seen before. I think we are still in the eye of the Hurricane. When other financial resources go through the bubble they will pop. We’ve seen the high volatility in the stock market lately. Fear of the Euro, rising gas and food costs.

No one will attempt a fix during a Presidential campaign and is only getting worse by the day. I’m sure that the G-8 or the G-20 already have the plan set for action but not sure what the precursor will be.