KING OF FUD! DISCLAIMER: I own .05 bitcoins.

62 Comments

  1. LordToastALot
    November 27, 2013 @ 11:15 am

    Totally a real currency with actual worth. You can tell by the way people have no issue exchanging it for their dollars. Totally a real currency. Totally a real currency. Totally a real currency.

    Reply

    • jatb
      January 4, 2014 @ 4:54 pm

      Do you trade USD for other currencies regularly?

      I don’t trade my bitcoins for USD regularly, I buy things with them. Just like I buy things with dollars. If you look at any exchange’s volume, clearly most people are not trading their BTC for dollars. And yet so many bitcoins are exchanged per day within the network? What do you call that? Not commerce?

      Reply

      • eirik
        January 8, 2014 @ 2:18 am

        “If you look at any exchange’s volume, clearly most people are not trading their BTC for dollars”

        No.. If you look at the numbers of the 150k top bitcoin wallets online: http://codesuppository.blogspot.com/2014/01/show-me-money-scatter-graph-of-all.html

        “Number with 0 spent: 130,769
        Median number of transactions: 1
        Mean number
        of transactions: 8.828
        Median days since last transaction: 501
        Mean days
        since last transaction: 694.383”

        , you will see that most bitcoiners don’t spend coins, they sit on them, hoping to cash out big in the future.

        Reply

  2. Jeff
    November 27, 2013 @ 12:48 pm

    So you can’t withdraw USD from Gox but can you send the coins that are there to another wallet/exchange?

    Reply

    • killhamster
      November 27, 2013 @ 12:55 pm

      Maybe. I keep hearing that you have to go through some ridiculous verification process before they’ll allow you to transfer out.

      Reply

      • Jay
        November 28, 2013 @ 9:03 am

        Yes. But without verification and “know your customer” policy (obligatory for every other bank and exchange), there is a real risk of exchange being shut by regulator. If you want to run any exchange or any other financial service, you must do that.

        Reply

        • Archturiat Baumann
          November 28, 2013 @ 9:41 am

          Real currencies don’t have these weird limitations, at least for the amounts of currency a “regular” person would be exchanging. I can walk into my neighborhood bank, hand them CAD$30 my friend from Canada gave me, and without any more fuss get US$25. Or even Euros, pounds, or pesos.

          That’s the very point of this article. It’s extremely difficult, nigh-on impossible, for a small guy to get their BTC into their local currency without Herculean effort. It’s not a regulatory problem: it’s an almost designed-in feature of BTC.

          Reply

          • Jay
            November 28, 2013 @ 9:59 am

            BTC is not a real currency…yet (by currency I mean universaly accepted medium of exchange). Will it ever be? I don’t know. It’s intriguing experiment. That’s for sure. But critisizing BTC because of this issues now, when is still in it’s infancy and completely without infrastructure is really nothing more than economic ignorance. It’s like laughing at first automobile, because is too slow and shaky.

          • Archturiat Baumann
            November 28, 2013 @ 10:08 am

            No, it’s like laughing at steam automobiles when everybody else is building internal combustion engined ones. We have a system that works presently for most people (the “connected” ACH and credit exchanges), has reasonable protections built into the system so that it “just works” for the vast majority of consumers, and works on a commodity everybody understands.

            Bitcoin solves a problem most people don’t have. Cart is before the horse here. Little guys need to be able to get their value out of BTC, otherwise get ready for another nasty crash very soon.

          • Jay
            November 28, 2013 @ 10:20 am

            It’s all about transaction cost. We have money, because we don’t like barter exchange which has huge transaction cost. Paper money have lower transaction cost than gold. That’s why we started to use paper. First backed by gold, then goverment intervened and screwed things up. And BTC has much lower transaction cost than current money. That’s real adventage. Think of how much may people save when using BTC. Don’t you thing they will rather use system with no or very low fees than Western Union with it’s ridiculous 8 %plus fee?

          • Archturiat Baumann
            November 29, 2013 @ 8:06 pm

            They have a better choice than Bitcoin. Works with their existing bank accounts, doesn’t require any “exchange rate” funny-business, and is in fact guaranteed.against fraud. It’s called the existing ACH/Credit exchanges, and all the systems that work with it, including Western Union (although Western Union serves a very specific market segment).

            Do you know the history of PayPal? Clue: Bitcoin isn’t the first attempt to create a cryptocurrency, there was a system that everybody has long forgotten about.. that indirectly became the company PayPal is today.

          • dogon
            December 2, 2013 @ 8:24 pm

            PayPal will let you send donations to the KKK but not to WikiLeaks? That’s sad, but it’s not even the biggest problem; try using PayPal to pay somebody in China:

            * website, invoice and e-mail payments are 4.4% + $0.30 USD

            * eBay payments are 3.9% + $0.30 USD

            * micro-payments are 6.0% + $0.50 USD

            * withdrawals are $150 or more and a $35 USD fee.

            All of this gets paid by the merchant, so sure: Average Joe thinks PayPal is free to use, but the cost gets included in the price of what he’s buying without him actually knowing. With Bitcoin these payments can be achieved with as low as 0% transaction cost. That’s simply impossible with PayPal, regardless of how you skin it!

          • Archturiat Baumann
            January 1, 2014 @ 9:58 pm

            So, genius, how does one get Bitcoin? Or, how does one get money out of Bitcoin?

            Hint: I think this article is explaining the problem. It’s not that easy.

            Meanwhile, Square, PayPal, Popmoney, and a whole host of other services (that are tied to conventional credit cards and ACH transactions) are comparatively easy to deal with, have some protections against fraud, and don’t require any shady parking-lot deals with the unsavory and the unshowered.

          • jatb
            January 4, 2014 @ 4:52 pm

            Sounds like you’re a genuine retard. I sure hope you were shitting on dial-up back in the day. Bitcoin as everyday currency? Fuck that noise, but I’ve used it so many times to coordinate my business projects with international actors on a global stage. I’m sorry that you don’t see the tremendous value afforded to me being able to instantly send someone BTC worth 10,000 US which they then used to purchase hardware directly in BTC to their local address.

          • Joe Hill
            June 10, 2014 @ 10:28 pm

            I’m retarded so I definitely find your story about your “business” credible.

          • jatb
            June 10, 2014 @ 11:55 pm

            I don’t give a single fuck what you think. I may spend 10,000 US on drugs, guns, oil, gold, or anything I can find for sale on Bitpremier, or I might use it to make sure a developer in a country which has tough money wiring policies can get the equipment they need. A major difference between you and I is that only one of us made 15.000.000 NOK in the expansion of cryptocurrency. This experience, or lack of on your part, has permanently colored how each of us will view digital money. You missed out, big, while others profited and will continue to profit as they reinvest their earnings into blockchain related ventures or technology companies in general.

            Don’t be mad, digital cash is a vehicle. It’s about how you use it.

          • Joe Hill
            June 11, 2014 @ 11:13 am

            Like I said, I’m a drooling retard so I find your story incredibly plausible.

          • idiot alert
            December 21, 2013 @ 5:31 pm

            ACH and Western Union work well.

            Says someone who has clearly never ever, ever, ever used them.

            Seriously, how do you not realize how fucking retarded and disingenuous you are being.

            Bitcoins can be traded just like cash. And they can be exchanged for other commodities on an exchange. JUST LIKE FUCKING CASH

            You’re so stupid.

          • Archturiat Baumann
            January 1, 2014 @ 9:53 pm

            You know what else works just like fucking cash?

            Cash.

            Who’s the “retard”?

          • Ivan Sorensen
            December 11, 2013 @ 9:25 am

            The fact that bit coin can’t be used for 99% of the things I need to buy in life is a pretty good indication that people aren’t that eager to replace their dollars with libertarian funbux

          • Joe Hill
            June 10, 2014 @ 10:26 pm

            Your understanding of history is woefully inaccurate.

          • James Russler
            November 28, 2013 @ 10:00 pm

            The biggest problem is that the most ardent buttcoiners are too incompetent to recognise that there are problems with buttcoins. It’s a classic example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

          • Jay
            November 29, 2013 @ 12:03 am

            No, that’s not problem at all. Quality of any currency depend on some key (user independent) factors like portability, divisibility, homogenity, transaction cost, indestructibility and stability of value. It has nothing to do with some naive redditors hoping to make quick buck.

          • James Russler
            November 30, 2013 @ 3:35 am

            Right, because being able to make quick, easy transactions in a fast-moving market is of no importance whatsoever. Many of the problems plaguing buttcoins CAN be fixed and fixed easily, there is simply no desire to make these fixes.

          • DoctorFedora
            December 9, 2013 @ 11:18 pm

            That’s why we call them Dunning-Krugerrands.

          • jatb
            January 4, 2014 @ 4:48 pm

            Sounds like you’re too busy building strawmen to acknowledge all the work ‘buttcoiners’ are doing to get acceptance. For a project that’s 5 years old? Holy shit, it’s some amazing ignorance on this site for sure. Imagine people shitting on the Web back in the dial-up days. I mean people did, but holy fuck were they stupid and we all see it now!

          • almo2001
            January 25, 2014 @ 7:41 am

            But the first automobile could still carry you and that 50-pound suitcase across town more easily than if you were walking. Cars had INSTANT utility, which is why they caught on. This is not the case with Bitcoin.

          • dogon
            November 29, 2013 @ 6:49 pm

            Actually real currencies do have these limitations too, who do you think the KYC/AML laws were created for? Furthermore, most banks won’t let you exchange currency unless you already have an account with them. If you have an account with the bank, then you’ve already submitted the same documents that these exchanges are requiring. BitStamp takes about 1 business day to get verified: i.e. submit all the documents (ID + proof of address) and allow you to withdraw money.

            I sell about $20K worth of BTC every month and it takes about 3 days to get the money transferred to my bank account from BitStamp. I have never had any problems with BitStamp and it costs me only 0.9 EUR to get it transferred to my account in Europe.

          • Archturiat Baumann
            November 29, 2013 @ 8:00 pm

            No, they don’t.

            Did you even read my example? I WALKED INTO A BRANCH OF USBANK IN DOWNTOWN PORTLAND, HANDED THE GUY AT THE CURRENCY EXCHANGE COUNTER CAD$30, AND HE HANDED ME US CURRENCY. I DID NOT HAVE AN ACCOUNT AT THAT BANK. I DO NOT RECALL HIM REQUESTING, OR ME HANDING HIM ID.

            That’s the point. For the little guy, exchanging BTC is a royal pain in the ass. Until it’s that easy, you have a problem.

          • dogon
            December 2, 2013 @ 8:04 pm

            Which is why I said “MOST” banks, not “ALL” banks. I have had to exchange EUR and CAD for USD at Citibank in Chicago and they will only do the exchange if I have an account, so I had to swipe my card and enter my pin code just to exchange 40 EUR and 100 CAD. I’ve walked into several other banks and they too have requested that I have an account. Furthermore, the Bitcoin exchange services only require you to show ID only once and that’s upon registration. The verification process at BitStamp is about a day (or two at worst). It’s hardly a problem for anybody that uses BTC.

            But you totally missed my point: the “weird limitations” do exist for all other currencies, especially when you start exchanging larger amounts (i.e. $10K or more). Again, KYC/AML laws are nothing new, they’ve been around LOOOONG before Bitcoin came into existence.

          • You're a dunce
            December 21, 2013 @ 5:30 pm

            Hand me $800 and I will wire you a bitcoin immediately

            If you were being genuine at all, you would compare it to making trades on TD Ameritrade, and if you knew anything, you’d know that it’s about 10x harder to get confirmed on TD Ameritrade and make trades than it is on any Bitcoin exchange.

          • xnist
            December 21, 2013 @ 5:45 pm

            http://youtu.be/_JgHHigAAyg?t=35s

            The watch is my money and pointy beard is buttcoins.

          • almo2001
            January 25, 2014 @ 7:40 am

            I wouldn’t hand you $800 for BTC: no way to stop you from running off with my money. At TD Ameritrade, if they walk off with my money, the law will kick their asses for me.

          • ang
            January 5, 2014 @ 8:18 pm

            I could go to any Travelex office in the world and do the same, without jumping through any of the ridiculous hoops I’d have to go through to do the same with bitcoin.

          • You're a dunce
            December 21, 2013 @ 5:29 pm

            “really currencies don’t have these weird limitations”?

            You’re insane idiotic. Are you kidding me? You realize these limitations are ACH REQUIREMENTS. As in, THEYRE ONLY NECESSARY BECAUSE OF USD REGULATIONS.

            Holy shit, you’re either the dumbest person I’ve ever met talking about Bitcoin, or you’re intentionally lying and manipulating an obvious reality to fit your agenda.

      • You're a dunce
        December 21, 2013 @ 5:27 pm

        Yeah, god forbid they try to verify your identity before allowing you to perform arbitrary ACH transfers. I get that this blog is biased and misinformed and exaggerates and lies in order to make a point, but this is even more sad that usual.

        Reply

  3. fuddy
    November 27, 2013 @ 4:03 pm

    S. C. Johnson & Son should sue MtGox for infringement on its Roach Motel patent.

    Reply

  4. battling_ignorance
    November 27, 2013 @ 4:04 pm

    There’s a Bitcoin ATM somewhere in Canada. Go there, or have a relative/friend go there.

    Reply

    • Archturiat Baumann
      November 28, 2013 @ 9:36 am

      How convenient. Funny, I don’t have to go to Canada to exchange .. CAD$. I can just go to my bank.

      Reply

      • Sampson2020
        December 4, 2013 @ 7:13 pm

        The guy is already in Canada.

        Reply

    • brawn paul
      December 24, 2013 @ 12:52 pm

      Yeah, it’s not like Canada’s a big country or anything. It’s probably within walking distance!

      Reply

  5. Erik Espinoza
    November 27, 2013 @ 4:22 pm

    Bitcoin is decentralized. No one is in charge, why do you think it’s a scam if you have to pay a private company a fee to exchange your money?

    Reply

    • killhamster
      November 27, 2013 @ 4:30 pm

      lol if you can’t figure it out

      Reply

    • Derpington_The_Third
      November 30, 2013 @ 9:04 pm

      It’s so decentralized that there are *gasp* exchanges set up!

      DECENTRALIZATION DA FUTURE!

      Reply

    • youraloser
      February 14, 2014 @ 1:10 am

      your baby is ugly and stupid just like you

      Reply

      • Erik Espinoza
        February 14, 2014 @ 7:33 am

        How brave of you.

        Reply

  6. mlpox
    November 27, 2013 @ 8:02 pm

    Gonna guess that the exchanges put selling customers in a queue so they (the exchange) can sell their own butts at a healthier profit.

    Reply

  7. Andris Jansons
    November 28, 2013 @ 11:25 am

    Well, maybe it’s not a real currency yet in Canada. As far as I know Japanese guys can get yens from Mt.Gox, Americans can use Coinbase and we in Europe have Bitstamp to cash out. And Chinese have their own exchange in China. So that’s perhaps a problem that only really exists in Canada and other smaller players on the world scale. But that’s the problem with businesses in Canada/the fact that Bitcoin is not as widespread in Canada to have a good exchange…. Not a problem with Bitcoin itself.

    Reply

    • eirik
      January 7, 2014 @ 5:25 pm

      Blame Canada..?

      Reply

  8. buttbutt
    December 3, 2013 @ 12:23 am

    so you guys heard about this (http://byznys.lidovky.cz/velka-internetova-loupez-za-800-milionu-stopa-vede-k-ceskemu-programatorovi-16e-/firmy-trhy.aspx?c=A131202_110252_firmy-trhy_mev), right?

    Not a real currency until someone steals $100M USD worth of it, amirite?

    Reply

  9. Sampson2020
    December 4, 2013 @ 2:22 pm

    So basically they guy went to all this trouble because he was too impatient to get registered on CaVirtex? It’s a good exchange with legit withdraws. They just have a backlog of verification applications right now.

    Reply

    • Don Whiteside
      December 6, 2013 @ 1:53 pm

      “Just”

      Saying “this thing works except it doesn’t” means it doesn’t work.

      Reply

      • Sampson2020
        December 6, 2013 @ 3:13 pm

        This situation is more like: “Damn, it takes a whole week to open an account and cash all these penny stocks I inherited? I can’t wait that long! Better just go meet the Mafia in a back alley instead.”

        Reply

        • Beavis
          December 6, 2013 @ 3:16 pm

          Wait, which one is it? A currency or an investment? Because if bitcoin is just an investment I can see your point but if you think regular people will treat it as a currency with these kind of problems you’re out of your fucking mind.

          Reply

          • Sampson2020
            December 6, 2013 @ 6:34 pm

            It has the potential to be a currency some day. But right now I think of it more as an excellent payment network, and a speculative vehicle. As far as spending it, it’s a token that’s accepted by a few thousand vendors worldwide. But just because it hasn’t reached critical acceptance doesn’t mean the technology isn’t amazing.

            Think of the first few thousand people with email addresses. They had to pay for those and there was hardly anyone else to correspond with. It wasn’t user friendly, or easy to set up, but the idea of an unlimited, nearly instant, global messaging protocol was fresh and exciting. That’s exactly how it feels to send and receive bitcoins, it’s like emailing money.

            Back when there was only command-line interface email people would have said the same thing you just said about bitcoin, and they’d be right. Regular people would not have treated it as a form of communication on par with faxes, telephones, and letters. Why pay for and set up an email sever that you have to connect to with dial-up when you can just press a button on a plug-and-play fax machine?

            Also, for the sake of argument, how hard would it be to trade a large amount of a rare currency that was only 4 years old? The guy in the story would have just as much trouble trying to cash out a giant sack full of Latvian Lats.

          • brawn paul
            December 24, 2013 @ 12:51 pm

            I would totally buy a giant pile of lats, though. They’re pretty nice and the looming conversion to the Euro is driving up the collector value right now. advantage: Latvia

  10. Bitcoin Kook-AidTru-Believer
    December 18, 2013 @ 2:01 pm

    I knew Bitcoin was a SCAM when I started to hear that cornball PAY-triot right wing kook Alex Jones promoting them as an “investment” on his radio show on Infowars dot com. Anything that Alex Jones shills for or sponsors on his radio circus is GUARANTEED to be a SCAM and Snake-Oil. Like they say, there’s one born every minute!

    Reply

  11. H4CKN3T
    January 26, 2014 @ 11:23 pm

    I find it funny that people are complaining about companies charging a fee to render a service for them… I mean the effin nerve of someone to try to make money in a business

    Reply

  12. Terry Kinder
    January 28, 2014 @ 5:11 pm

    I’m always amazed at the stories about how hard it is to get an account on an exchange. I have set up accounts on three exchanges with few issues and been able to move cash and Bitcoin in and out. It’s no more difficult than setting up a brokerage account. You can set up an account on U.S. based Coinbase in a few minutes and transfer Bitcoin into it, sell them, and have the dollars transferred into your bank account – basically the same concept as buying and selling stocks. Not sure what the major malfunction is and all of the horror stories about people getting in and out of Bitcoin. It may not be so simple a caveman can do it, but you don’t have to be Albert Einstein either.

    Reply

  13. bitcoindidyourmom
    July 3, 2014 @ 5:04 pm

    Fuck this site. Bitcoin just did the authors Momma. And Ddogecoin just raped the cat.

    Reply

    • Fluxity
      July 3, 2014 @ 9:52 pm

      Are you having a stroke?

      Reply

    • Filthy Liar
      December 26, 2014 @ 7:38 am

      The people who run this site helped invent Dogecoin as a joke, which backfired horribly when the same idiots who can’t tell Bitcoin is a scam proved (shockingly) unable to recognize another even more transparent scam.

      Reply

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