Posted on 12/02/2013 8:11:17 AM PST by Star Traveler
Silicon Valley is starting to catch Bitcoin fever – though the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists being drawn to the virtual currency claim that the biggest profits will come from using it to build a new digital finance industry rather than just as a vehicle for speculation.
Digital currency companies that have attracted early rounds of venture capital in recent weeks include Circle Internet Financial, headed by Jeremy Allaire, a serial entrepreneur from the media technology industry, and Ripple Labs, whose founder, Chris Larsen, was behind pioneering peer-to-peer lending company Prosper.
Prominent investors who have been drawn to the field include Jim Breyer, a partner at Accel and early backer of Facebook, as well as Google’s venture capital arm, which has invested in Ripple and Buttercoin, a Bitcoin exchange.
Bitcoin’s tech industry backers argue that the shared protocols and common technology standards on which it is based echo the open technologies that lie at the heart of the internet. That could make it the foundation for a low-cost, standards-based financial system independent of the traditional banking industry.
“It reminds me of the internet protocols in the mid-1990s,” said Mr Breyer, who is also a director of retailer Walmart. Bitcoin was an “enormous ecommerce opportunity” for merchants, because it could greatly reduce transactions costs and make it easier to buy online, said Mr Breyer, who contributed to a $9m investment in Circle – the biggest first-round financing for a payments start-up, according to the company.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
What’s this fascination for something that’s really just a bunch of electrons?
This fad will fade as soon as the government figures out what it is and decides how to control, tax or eliminate it.
Makes it easier for the government to control. Basically a mark of the beats scenario.
I’m saving up my bitcoins to buy tulip bulbs.
Governments will never allow competitive currencies. That’s perhaps the strongest lesson of history.
Another article saying that Bitcoin is simply a whacko “right-winger” dream ...
A Prediction: Bitcoin Is Doomed to Fail
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3097365/posts
Yep. It's just like Federal Reserve Notes in that it is an electronic book keeping entry with no real inherent value. And just as worthless as FRNs.
/johnny
You must realize that statement would be lost on most people. At least with tulips, you’d have something left over to look at after the bubble pops.
Bits and Bob [analysis of Bitcoin]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3097370/posts
What’s to stop another crypto-currency from emerging and popping the bitcoin bubble?
Converting cash or PMs into bitcoins seems just a bit risky; how can you be assured that someone isn’t giving you some bogus code?
The thing that is really needed is the ability to covertly transfer assets overseas into a secure non-bank location.
There are about 30 cryptocurrencies out there now. Litecoin,peercoin,primecoin,ripple, just to name a few.
17jQdnPV2KFoKpWjrM1tK1Ha81p3XywEWS
Here’s something from Wired Magazine that gives you some background and history on how it started. However, it’s not a current article as it’s two years old.
The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/mf_bitcoin/all/
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