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Look
at the goat in the picture; about a month ago, it could have been yours for the
measly sum of $ 241 USD or 2.009 BITS.
In
fact, in would not have mattered whether you were based in Thailand or anywhere
else in the world as it would seem that the seller could have shipped
the…item…worldwide; all you had to do was to email him for a quote.
In
the light of the above, the question that you should all be asking yourself
right now should most definitely not be:
‘What has a goat have to do with coins?’
But
‘What, on Earth, does ‘BITS’ stand for and
where can I get some of those so that I can get myself a Thai goat from EBay
delivered to my home in New Orleans?’
You
will be happy (arguably so) to know that the screenshot that I have attached to
this article is quite genuine and that ‘BITS’ stands for ‘BitCoins’; a word
that Microsoft Word still fails to recognise (as it does with my name, alas).
Although
I have been aware of the existence of BitCoins for quite some time now, I must
admit that I have never looked at it before in any particular detail.
All
I knew about it was that it was a decentralised digital currency created in
2009 (or rather in 2008 by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto); a currency which
was yet to take roots in international trade.
A
recent conversation that I had with a friend of mine, however, made me look
into the issue in some depth.
‘Have
you thought that fact that’, my friend asked me ‘you don’t get taxed when you
trade goods for goods and services for services until you make a financial
profit as there is no passage of recognised monetary units?’
Quite
obvious, I thought; so what of it?
‘Well
did you also know that the Federal reserve is not bothered about the BitCoins
at present and they are not recognised as a currency?’
I
most certainly did not know that. To put two and two together, then, case might
be that traders might avoid (mind you, AVOID, not EVADE) paying tax if they
choose to trade through BitCoins as they have not yet been recognised as a
monetary unit.
Initially,
I thought that BitCoins were not used by many, mainly because of the volatile
nature of their market value (going from $ 220 USD to $ 30 USD in a month, for
instance).
Nevertheless,
having done some research, I can assure you that, nowadays, BitCoins are
becoming more and more popular by the day.
You
can buy pretty much everything; from pizza to
a ready- made gun.
Further
to the above, the amount of BitCoins in circulation will be capped at 21million
by 2140.
Initially,
the above sound quite enthralling; it might sound even more so when I tell you
that you can trade BitCoins for ‘real’ money as well.
(See
<< https://mtgox.com/ >>)
To
conclude then, if you’re feeling adventurous enough to think that the emerging
BitCoin ‘gold rush’ is not yet another bubble waiting to burst, you might want
to think twice before you pay in cash for your next goat.
Any comments on how secure the currency is?
ReplyDeleteCan you forge it?
Why not?
What does a bitcoin represent?
Or are you just going to leave it like that
".. Uhmmm bitcoins.. yeah.. uhmm you don't get taxed.. oh and uhmm.. you can buy a goat.. "
Don't underestimate that virtual currency's power!
Thoughts on why Cypriots started converting their life savings, their money, any currency they had in bitcoins?
Or are they just a bunch of twats that heard of a new currency, that's, apparently, supposed to make their life better?
Did you know that you can use your computer's processing power to CREATE (yes create it/ craft it/ MINE it!) bitcoins - or in other words - TO MAKE MONEY?
I have done my fair bit of research on the topic in question and have come up with, what I consider, a a humurous introduction to BitCoins. It's for the reader to go into more depth,should he choose to do so.
ReplyDeleteMining BitCoins is extremely difficult at the moment and cannot be lucrative unless you have a super computer. The reason for that is that, just like the case is with primer numbers,the more BitCoins there are out there, the more complicated it becomes to mine them.
I aware that a successful 'mining operation' gets you 25 BitCoins.
You can, of course make money; look at the last few sentences of my the article- I'd really like to see people invest in it as I, personally, think that it's a great idea.
And, yes, I do know that the currency is difficult to forge because of the web that the various transactions have been weaved in.
Forget not that although I often write in a quite informal manner, I do research my topics and am well aware of what I am writing and talking about.
You comments have, however, been duly noted; besides the one about the Cypriots being 'tw*ts'- that was a bit uncalled for.
Have a lovely and eventful weekend.
Lawyers... How can you be mad at one, they always know how to take a neutral stance. Good job!
DeleteGlad that my reply has left you satisfied. Also, I do hope you will excuse the myriad of grammatical and other errors in my reply; in my defence, it was quite late at the time.
ReplyDeleteAll the best.