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5 Things to do With Those Christmas Bitcoins
Coin Desk ^ | 27 December | Danny Bradbury

Posted on 12/28/2013 8:16:01 AM PST by Errant

It’s the festive season, and if there is a bitcoin fan among your friends and family, then they may have given you some of the virtual currency in your Christmas stocking. If so, what should you do with it?

There are several options for you as a new bitcoin owner. We’ll tell you about them here, but before you start, please don’t do what Bloomberg TV anchor Adam Johnson did. Fellow anchor Matt Miller gave bitcoins to Johnson as a Christmas gift on air. They came in the form of a paper wallet (see below), which Johnson showed to the camera, displaying his private key in the process. Whoops. A reddit user scanned the QR code and beamed the bitcoins to his own address, bragging about it later online. There’s one person who made it onto the naughty list this year.

(Excerpt) Read more at coindesk.com ...


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KEYWORDS: bitcoin; christmas; crypto; currency
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To: Errant

A wad of $100 bills works just fine for me.


21 posted on 12/28/2013 9:10:33 AM PST by Cementjungle
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To: catnipman

It can be a little complicated. This is all new and it has a learning curve to deal with. Newer technology will simply it some. The easiest way to store them is in a trusted online account. That way means almost instant access and the wallet is updated constantly. Plus you can access from anywhere in the world where you can get to the internet just like you do your online banking.


22 posted on 12/28/2013 9:12:31 AM PST by Errant
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To: Cementjungle
A wad of $100 bills works just fine for me.

Try taking over 100 of them to another country, the hood, or arrested with them on ya... lol

23 posted on 12/28/2013 9:15:35 AM PST by Errant
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To: Errant; RichInOC; Prince of Space; JoeFromSidney; TNMountainMan; alphadog; infool7; Heart-Rest; ...

24 posted on 12/28/2013 9:16:40 AM PST by narses (... unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.)
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To: Errant

This was an interesting recent event.

I’m sure you saw this.

A Bloomberg TV Host Gifted Bitcoin On Air And It Immediately Got Stolen

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/bloomberg-matt-miller-bitcoin-gift-stolen-2013-12#ixzz2on6E53ay


25 posted on 12/28/2013 9:17:39 AM PST by Zeneta
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To: Errant
Yes, I have mined both.
So you "created" this phantasm, and then sold it for real money to dupes. An odd way to make a living. It resembles greatly many old fashioned frauds.
26 posted on 12/28/2013 9:20:18 AM PST by narses (... unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.)
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To: Zeneta

Yeah, lol, he flashed his private key for all to see. Reminded me of that time Beck picked up his “Red Phone” for O to call him directly. The number to the phone was taped to the bottom and Beck inadvertently allowed it to be seen. Wasn’t no time until someone called him on it on live TV and he sheepishly answered it. lol


27 posted on 12/28/2013 9:22:56 AM PST by Errant
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To: narses
Ahh, NO... lol By the time I got interested in it, the difficulty level was to the point that it was barely profitable to pay the electrical costs. I do have a spare PC with a high powered GPU mining LTC, but it takes days to generate enough to be worth receiving.

Bitcoin became unprofitable to mine with GPUs months ago. I enjoy tech and it's fun for the knowledge alone. Knowledge is worth something - right? Besides that, the excess heat I use to heat my little greenhouse.

ASIC miners are the only ones now that are profitable. Not sure how long that will last if the price of Bitcoins doesn't rise or something more efficient or faster is in the development pipeline.

But I have mined a few of both BTC and LTC... :-)

28 posted on 12/28/2013 9:32:27 AM PST by Errant
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To: Errant

The Beck thing was really funny !!!

BTW, if one Bitcoin is worth $1,000, and I only want to spend, say $20, can they be broken down ?

If so, by how many decimal points ?


29 posted on 12/28/2013 9:46:58 AM PST by Zeneta
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To: Zeneta

Eight.


30 posted on 12/28/2013 9:49:53 AM PST by Errant
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To: Errant

Eight Decimal points or 1/8ths ?

0.00000001

Or

0.125


31 posted on 12/28/2013 9:52:28 AM PST by Zeneta
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To: Zeneta

0.00000001 :)


32 posted on 12/28/2013 9:53:43 AM PST by Errant
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To: narses
The "phantasm" is getting some real hard looks by the financial industry as a new model. Right now it is being fleshed out and its weaknesses understood. I like it as I don't day trade with it. I bought low, real low and I like how I can move it about and I can access it no matter where I am. I can also use it as a currency exchange if aborad. There is quite a lot going for this technology but it is not for the timid yet.

BTW, what do you call what the federal reserve has been doing for many months now pumping money into the stock market? If you have a retirement, it's probably hooked into stocks and bonds. The fed is creating something out of nothing and all that is backing the greenback these days is faith that our nation will pay its bills on time (not that it actually can).

33 posted on 12/28/2013 9:55:36 AM PST by Ghost of SVR4 (So many are so hopelessly dependent on the government that they will fight to protect it.)
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To: Zeneta
So if a Bitcoin is $1,000, tell the nice lady behind the counter that you'd like 2 cents worth (0.02 Btc). :)

Being divisible by eight digits leaves plenty of room for growth!

34 posted on 12/28/2013 10:04:51 AM PST by Errant
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To: narses

You’ll get it one day, you’re going to miss a very big boat. Don’t take my word for it , here is a man with extensive tech startup experience.

http://youtu.be/I26CwcvDtFA

It’s a paradigm shift so it’s difficult to get your head around it.
The earth is round BTW.


35 posted on 12/28/2013 10:07:16 AM PST by TsonicTsunami08
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To: Ghost of SVR4
The "phantasm" is getting some real hard looks by the financial industry...

Especially when it comes to "pushing" payments as opposed to "pulling" payments the way CCs do. It eliminates much of the headaches such as fraud, pull backs, and customer record keeping that the CC companies and vendors have to deal with.

36 posted on 12/28/2013 10:08:27 AM PST by Errant
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To: Zeneta
BTW, if one Bitcoin is worth $1,000,

They're $764 each, at this instant.

and I only want to spend, say $20, can they be broken down ?

If so, by how many decimal points ?

to 8 decimal places.

37 posted on 12/28/2013 10:11:59 AM PST by Lee N. Field ("You keep using that verse, but I do not think it means what you think it means.")
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To: Errant

Interesting.

Is there a market, leveraged or otherwise that allows trading eight decimal points out ?

I ran an Equity “Daytrading” firm back in the day, and when the exchanges went from fractions to decimals it destroyed the market. They reverted back to trading in “pennies” as a minimum for individuals but institutions could still trade in tenths of pennies. There have been efforts to make the “Minimum increment” 0.05.

By having trading increments 8 points out, it may create “Near term or Spot liquidity” that can be dominated by deep pocketed trading programs, but that liquidity or depth of market generally disappears when “Market Events” happen.

IMO, in order for Bitcoin to succeed, they need a market in which each increment of trading represents sufficient risk by both sides of the trade.


38 posted on 12/28/2013 10:15:35 AM PST by Zeneta
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To: Lee N. Field

39 posted on 12/28/2013 10:16:41 AM PST by narses (... unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.)
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To: Zeneta
I've done a little trading before as well, but nothing to the level you're talking about (i.e., you're way above my head).

This is a link to one of the bigger trading sites: https://btc-e.com/exchange/btc_usd

I don't know of any that allow you to leverage but it seems to allow you to go out to 5 digits.

I'm pretty much an "investor" now. There are better and less stressful ways to make a living besides trading. lol

40 posted on 12/28/2013 10:21:44 AM PST by Errant
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