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12 questions about Bitcoin you were too embarrassed to ask

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12 questions about Bitcoin you were too embarrassed to ask

BY TIMOTHY B. LEE November 19 at 12:38 pm

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This has been a big week for Bitcoin. On Monday, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held the first-ever Congressional hearing on Bitcoin. Later in the day, the currency's value reached an all-time high of more than $800. That has left a lot of people scratching their heads. What's Bitcoin? How do you use it? And why would anyone want to? Read on for answers. (Inspired by Max Fisher's classic explainer on Syria) 1. What's Bitcoin? Bitcoin is an online financial network that people use to send payments from one person to another. In many ways, Bitcoin is similar to conventional payment networks like Visa credit cards or Paypal. But Bitcoin is different from those and other payment networks in two important ways. First, Bitcoin is decentralized. For-profit companies own the Visa and Paypal networks and manage them for the benefit of their respective shareholders. No one owns or controls the Bitcoin network. It has a peer-to-peer structure, with hundreds of computers all over the Internet working together to process Bitcoin transactions. Bitcoin's decentralized architecture means that it is the world's first completely open financial network. To create a new financial service in the conventional U.S. banking system, you need to partner with an existing bank and comply with a variety of complex rules. The Bitcoin network has no such restrictions. People don't need anyone's permission or assistance to create new Bitcoin-based financial services. The second thing that makes the Bitcoin unique is that it comes with its own currency. Paypal and Visa conduct transactions in conventional currencies such as the U.S. dollars. The Bitcoin network, however, conducts transactions in a new monetary unit, also called Bitcoin. 2. That seems really weird! Why would anyone use a payment network based on an imaginary currency? It is weird. Almost everyone who encounters the idea for the first time (including me) has the same reaction: That can't possibly work. But so far the market has proved the skeptics wrong:

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12 questions about Bitcoin you were too embarrassed to ask

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(Bitcoincharts.com)

Why states are the big winner in the $17 million Google-Safari settlement

This graph shows the price of one Bitcoin since the start of 2011, when the currency began to adopt mainstream attention. The price has been extraordinarily volatile -- it lost more than 90 percent of its value between June and October 2011, for example. But there's also been an unmistakable upward trend. Notice that the chart is on a logarithmic scale. It shows the currency's value rising from around $0.30 at the start of 2011 to around $600 today. There are almost 12 million bitcoins in existence, so the Bitcoin "money supply" is now worth around $7 billion. Bitcoin has captured the imagination of venture capitalists. A startup called Bitpay, which processes Bitcoin payments on behalf of vendors, raised more than $2 million earlier this year. Coinbase, a startup that helps consumers buy and sell bitcoins, has raised $5 million. And last month, a Bitcoin startup called Circle raised $9 million. Why are people so excited? Bitcoin enthusiasts believe that Bitcoin's peer-to-peer architecture and low barriers to entry will allow the creation of a new generation of innovative financial services, in much the same way that the Internet's open architecture led to innovative new online services. There are also many Bitcoin fans who see the currency as an antidote to the inflationary tendencies of central banks, though, as we'll see later, this argument for Bitcoin is misguided. 3. This just sounds like a bubble. Do people use the currency for anything besides speculation? I just mentioned Bitpay. It provides a good sign of Bitcoin's growing popularity for "real" transactions. In September 2012, the company announced that it had signed up 1,000 merchants to use its service for accepting Bitcoin payments. Just a year later, the company said, it passed 10,000 merchants. Bitpay works with a wide variety of merchants. Some sell online services like Web hosting or virtual private networks. Others sell jewelry and electronics. There are even restaurants and cupcake shops that sell their wares for bitcoins. And yes, Bitcoin has significant illicit uses. Programs like Satoshi Dice allow people to gamble online. Until recently, a Web site called Silk Road helped dealers sell millions of dollars of illicit drugs. It's hardly unusual for new payment technologies to attract illicit use. Pornography was a big draw for both the first VCRs and the early consumer Internet. New payment technologies often attract criminals looking for new ways to move their funds without government scrutiny. Another application for bitcoins that is expected to become more important in the future is international payments. Right now, wiring money internationally involves slow, expensive and inconvenient services like Western Union. Bitcoin is international, and its fees can be much lower than conventional wire transfer services. There's still work to be
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12 questions about Bitcoin you were too embarrassed to ask

done to make such a system affordable and user-friendly. But it has the potential to disrupt the international payment industry. 4. Who created Bitcoin? No one knows for sure. The currency was created by a person who indentified himself as "Satoshi Nakamoto." While the name sounds Japanese, Bitcoin's creator never provided any personal details. He collaborated with other early Bitcoin fans through online forums but never met with other members of the Bitcoin community face to face. Then, starting in 2010 he gradually reduced his involvement in the currency's development. His last known communication came in 2011. We don't know who Satoshi Nakamoto is, but we do know that if he ever surfaces, he will be an extremely wealthy man. Millions of bitcoins were created in the currency's first two years, and Satoshi likely owns hundreds of thousands of them. At today's prices, he would be a millionaire many times over. Before leaving the scene, Nakamoto passed his torch to a mild-mannered developer named Gavin Andressen, who is currently the project's lead developer. Andressen now works under the auspices of the Bitcoin Foundation, the closest thing the anarchic Bitcoin community has to an official public face. 5. Where do bitcoins come from? In a conventional financial system, new money is created by a central bank, such as the Federal Reserve. But the Bitcoin network doesn't have a central bank. So the system needed an alternative mechanism for introducing currency into circulation. Bitcoin's designer solved this problem in a clever way. As I said above, hundreds of computers scattered around the Internet work together to process Bitcoin transactions. These computers are called "miners," and Bitcoin's transaction-clearing process is called "mining." It's called that because every 10 minutes, on average, a Bitcoin miner wins a computational race and gets a prize. Currently, that reward is 25 bitcoins, worth around $12,500. These prizes provide a strong incentive for more people to join in Bitcoin's transaction-clearing process, helping the currency to remain decentralized. This reward declines on a fixed schedule: Every four years the reward falls by half. So, from 2009 to 2012, it was 50 BTC, now it's 25 BTC, and starting in late 2016 it will fall to 12.5 BTC, and so forth. If you do the math, you'll find that there will never be more than 21 million bitcoins in circulation. Right now, there are almost 12 million bitcoins in ciruclation, so the Bitcoin money supply will never be more than twice its current size. 6. Isn't that a huge problem? I learned in economics class that deflation can cause economic problems. It's true that deflation has traditionally been associated with economic problems, but there's little reason to think this will be a problem for Bitcoin. That's because deflation is only a problem if it is what economists call a "unit of account" for a nation's economic system. Right now in the United States, salaries, mortgage payments, rents and other long-term financial commitments are priced in U.S. dollars. As a result, if the value of the dollar rises unexpectedly, these "sticky prices" can cause severe economic distortions. Unable to cut wages, employers have trouble making payrolls. Unable to renegotiate their debts, homeowners have trouble making their mortgage payments. Tenants get stuck with rents they can't afford. The result is a recession.
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12 questions about Bitcoin you were too embarrassed to ask

Hardly anyone uses Bitcoin as a unit of account. You'd be insane to sign a contract promising to repay a loan of 100 BTC in 10 years or to take a job where your salary was priced in bitcoins. Even the Bitcoin Foundation, which pays its employees in bitcoins, still sets its employees' salaries in dollars, converting employees' dollar-based salaries into the corresponding number of bitcoins on each payday. As a result, fluctuations in the value of bitcoins don't cause the kinds of economic disruptions that fluctuations in the value of traditional currencies do. 7. How do I get bitcoins? One option is to mine them yourself, but that's not a good choice for beginners. For everyone else, your best bet is to purchase them with a conventional currency. Web sites known as exchanges will let you trade bitcoins for conventional currencies with other users. Even more convenient are companies like Coinbase, which will withdraw cash from your bank account and convert it to bitcoins at the current exchange rate. A few Bitcoin ATMs are popping up, which will directly trade paper money for Bitcoins. Here's a video of someone using a Bitcoin ATM in Vancouver:

8. Okay, I bought some Bitcoins. Now what? Next you'll need a place to store them. Bitcoins are stored in "wallets," which in this case are just files that contain encryption keys, or secret codes that allow you to transfer your bitcoins to other people. There are several options. One is to store them yourself using one of the Bitcoin programs available for Mac, PC and Android. Another option is to entrust them to a third-party Web site known as a "online wallet." A third option is what's known as a "paper wallet," where you print out your encryption keys and store them in a safe place, such as a safe deposit box. Each has risks. If you choose to store your bitcoins yourself, then you could lose them to a hacker, a hard drive crash or a lost mobile device. But if you choose to use a third party, you need to worry about that third party swindling you or becoming bankrupt. The Bitcoin market is largely unregulated, so there are few legal protections if you happen to choose the wrong online wallet service. Paper wallets avoid the pitfalls of other methods, but they're tricky to set up correctly, and of course you're out of luck if you lose the piece of paper. 9. Okay, I have some bitcoins and found a secure way to keep them. What do I do with them now? There are thousands of Bitcoin merchants online who will sell you everything from jewelry to electronics to illegal drugs. You can also spend bitcoins in "real life." To spend them in person, you need a Bitcoin mobile app. Generally, the store you're buying from
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12 questions about Bitcoin you were too embarrassed to ask

will show you a QR code representing the Bitcoin transaction. You then scan that QR code with your phone, and the mobile app will send the required number of bitcoins to the store. Then you walk out the door with your purchases.

Of course, right now the options for face-to-face Bitcoin transactions are rather limited. Earlier this year, Kashmir Hill of Forbes lived on Bitcoin for a week. Because she lived in tech-savvy San Francisco, she was able to find enough Bitcoin-accepting merchants to get by, but just barely. So Bitcoin is far from being a practical currency for day-to-day use. 10. Should I buy bitcoins? Probably not. There are two reasons you might want to buy bitcoins: to purchase goods and services or for speculation. Right now Bitcoin isn't a very practical payment technology for ordinary users. The software is too complicated, and the risk of loss due to hackers, forgotten passwords, hard drive failures and so forth are too large. Also, Bitcoin is extremely volatile right now, so your wallet could go from having $100 worth of Bitcoins one day to $50 the next. And right now, as Hill discovered, the technology just isn't used widely enough to make it a useful option to have in your pocket or purse. For most people, conventional payment technologies like credit cards are going to be more convenient. What about speculating on Bitcoin? Once again, the currency probably isn't a good choice for ordinary users. The security and reliability risks of Bitcoin loom much larger if you invest thousands of dollars in the currency. You don't want to run the risk of losing thousands of dollars because you forgot a password or had an unexpected password failure. And the currency is extremely volatile. It might keep going up, but it could also lose 90 percent of its value next week. In other words, you should only jump on the bandwagon if you have a strong stomach. 11. If people shouldn't buy bitcoins, then what is all the fuss about? Once again, the analogy to the Internet is instructive. Until the 1990s, the Internet wasn't a practical technology for ordinary folks to use, either. It used complicated textbased programs, and you had to be a computer expert to use it effectively. But it would have been foolish for an observer in 1990 to dismiss the Internet as too nerdy for mainstream use. Over time, entrepreneurs took the basic infrastructure of the Internet and built innovative and user-friendly online services such as Google, Facebook and YouTube. Bitcoin boosters are betting that the same will happen with Bitcoin. The "raw" bitcoin network isn't very accessible, but startups like Coinbase and Bitpay are slowly fixing
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12 questions about Bitcoin you were too embarrassed to ask

that. Some day soon, someone may develop Bitcoin's "killer app," a program that provides a financial service that has clear advantages over conventional banking. That might be an international money-transfer network with lower fees, a practical system for online micropayments, or something else that no one has thought of before. 12. Could bitcoins ever replace conventional money? It's possible, but it doesn't seem very likely. People want to use the currency that most other people use, and in the United States that's going to be US dollars for the foreseeable future. And that's a good thing: if Bitcoin became the standard currency of the US economy, then its fixed money supply would create a serious risk of the next economic downturn snowballing into a depression. However, there could be a lot of room for Bitcoin to complement conventional financial networks. After all, Paypal gained traction because the conventional financial networks of the day weren't meeting all of users' needs. Bitcoin's open architecture could allow it to be even more disruptive. People are unlikely to ever eschew conventional financial networks altogether, but there could be a substantial market for Bitcoin-based services that perform certain services more effectively or affordable than conventional alternatives. Related content: Bitcoins needs a central banker WATCH: Bitcoins: Coming soon to a campaign near you?

Timothy B. Lee covers technology policy, including copyright and patent law, telecom regulation, privacy, and free speech. He also writes about the economics of technology. He has previously written for Ars Technica and Forb es. You can follow him on Twitter or send him email.

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T h eHa t m a n w r ot e:
12/18/2013 11:34 PM GMT+0100

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12 questions about Bitcoin you were too embarrassed to ask

DogeCoins: Much coins, very easy, shows what e-coins do, Bitcoin clone, little risk. Check it out on Reddit.
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bs.det ect or 101 w r ot e:

12/6/2013 3:16 PM GMT+0100

In the Murky World of Bitcoin, Fraud Is Quicker Than the Law dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/in-the-murky-world-of-bitcoin-fraud-is-quicker-than-the-law/? ref=business&_r=0 Read NY Times article and search web for more stories. If you get robbed of Bitcoins, who can you call for help ? Nobody !!!! Your Bitcoin wallet is like the wild west stagecoach, you get robbed, but no sheriff, Lone Ranger or Texas rangers are coming to your rescue !!! It's unregulated, you're SCREWED !!! Another major Bitcoin trading house hacked, again / Bitcoins worth millions are gone !!!
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Boca Gu y w r ot e:
12/3/2013 5:33 AM GMT+0100

No the US dollar is not backed by anything just like the bitcoin. Except an army, courts, federal lands, a banking system, the authority to tax. Not to mention the ability to garnish wages, cease bank accounts, confiscate property, incarcerate and execute. No some nameless gang claims these electrons are currency and some drug dealers find it useful. But this is not currency. This is a form of hawala without even knowing who you handed your money to. Yeah you nerds better google hawala.
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Boca Gu y r espon ds:

12/3/2013 5:44 AM GMT+0100

When lobbyist take Bitcoins then we are in trouble. And only then will i recognize bitcoin as anything more than beany babies. Except at least beany babies were more than electrons.
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Zy o r espon ds:
12/4/2013 8:33 PM GMT+0100

If Bitcoin is not a currency then it's a public ledger; I'm fine with that description. Bitcoin are only electron yes but unlike beany babies they can't be reproduce in mass thus keeping their value. Anything could be "money" including water, but it's not practical to ship tons of water to pay for something, having your cash on your phone or laptop is a great advantage. Keep the denial, Bitcoin is not going to die anytimes soon... maybe it's value will be "readjust" but the concept is brilliant.
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Boca Gu y r espon ds:

12/5/2013 4:32 AM GMT+0100

Neither can my farts be reproduced. But I can't find any fools that will count them as cash. Rarity or uniqueness alone does not give something value. The fact that the "brilliant" creator won't reveal his identity says all I need to know. In God we trust everyone else pays cash. public ledger... that tracks a trail of an "asset" backed on NOTHING.
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Boca Gu y r espon ds:

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12/5/2013 4:38 AM GMT+0100

12 questions about Bitcoin you were too embarrassed to ask

It is hard to fathom people trying to say there is a limited supply of make believe money. I have read the Satoshi paper. There are a million Satoshis. And some might even reveal their identity. When they hack your "wallet" call the FDIC and see how they laugh.
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Boca Gu y r espon ds:

12/5/2013 4:43 AM GMT+0100

"having your cash on your phone or laptop is a great advantage. " Why can't you do that with a bank account? I can transfer money on my phone. And if I lose my phone I still have my money. Where is all this advantage?
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Boca Gu y r espon ds:

12/7/2013 3:25 AM GMT+0100

Alan Greenspan said it best... No intrinsic value.

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A dr i a a n Bos w r ot e:
11/21/2013 8:30 AM GMT+0100

It is a common misconception that an asset could be inherently 'deflationary'. What you are saying is that we already know it will constantly go up in price. Really? What would everybody do if that was true? Buy, buy, buy, just until the price rises to the level where the expectation of a risk free price rise is eliminated.

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Du g0915 w r ot e:
11/20/2013 9:49 PM GMT+0100

From Bitcoin's website on the problem of not having enough of them: 21 million coins isn't enough; doesn't scale One Bitcoin is divisible down to eight decimal places. There are really 2,099,999,997,690,000 (just over 2 quadrillion) maximum possible atomic units in the bitcoin design. The value of "1 BTC" represents 100,000,000 of these. In other words, each is divisible by up to 10^8. As the value of the unit of 1 BTC grows too large to be useful for day to day transactions, people can start dealing in smaller units, such as milli-bitcoins (mBTC) or micro-bitcoins (BTC).
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wol fem i 1 r espon ds:

11/20/2013 10:12 PM GMT+0100

"From Bitcoin's website on the problem of not having enough of them: 21 million coins isn't enough; doesn't scale " The problem isn't the divisibility, the problem is the total number. I.e., swap minims to your heart's content, the fact that the number in circulation is fixed means that WERE it a currency, it would be deflationary.
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A dr i a a n Bos r espon ds:

11/21/2013 2:20 PM GMT+0100

The smallest unit of account is the Satoshi, or 1/100 millionth of a bitcoin. You don't think a visionary like 'Satoshi' didnt foresee this so-called problem? The real problem is that by then there are a couple of trillionaires walking around on planet earth, can't be healthy..

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12 questions about Bitcoin you were too embarrassed to ask

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McA r gu m en t r espon ds:

11/25/2013 10:37 PM GMT+0100

"21 million coins isn't enough" I guarantee it never hits 21 million, there will have been some 'lost' by then. Of course if then it's possibly that quantum computing will be able to 'reclaim' them, but then it becomes essentially useless as a currency anyhow as people will be able to clone them at will. " You don't think a visionary like 'Satoshi' didnt foresee this so-called problem?" Visionaries are often known for their blind spots. Einstein didn't believe in quantum mechanics, The inventors of email didn't bother building in any kind of security, Marie Curie didn't forsee that Radium causes cancer, and so on.
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Zy o r espon ds:
12/4/2013 8:35 PM GMT+0100

I don't see how quantum computing could create more bitcoin, after a certain date no bitcoin are reward for a block... doesn't matter if you find a block in 1 second or 1 hour...
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Du g0915 w r ot e:
11/20/2013 9:47 PM GMT+0100

Bitcoins are divisible down to to 8 decimal points so the idea that money wlll run out is laughable. Things don't need to be priced in single coins.
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Jest er i ze w r ot e:
11/20/2013 7:28 PM GMT+0100

Bitcoin is a gamble. But then again, so was investing in Google, Facebook, and Brookshire Hathaway. None of those companies originally produced anything, but you would be a fool to say they had no value. If you do not understand and have not bothered to educate yourself about how something works, then you have no business being there or commenting about it. That includes stocks, commodities, currencies, real estate and business. All of these have been bubbles at one point in their existences, but that is meaningless to their overall efficacy as vehicles of wealth generation. Let those of us that understand these things and are willing to take calculated risks, make or break our fortunes. You can continue to safely watch your 401k and your savings account lose value year over year in comparison to the rate of inflation and wonder why you missed the boat on yet another "bubble". And stop with the tulip analogy. Most of you that are using it don't even know what the reference is because if you did, you would know that it is not an apt analogy. All you are doing is demonstrating your own ignorance. If you want a bubble analogy to prove your point, use something that has a limited supply and questionable demand. Like desert real estate. But remember that for every 10 ghost towns, there is a Vegas. You just have to be smart enough to know which one to bet on. If you have done your homework and have the tener cojonies, put your money where your mouth is and gamble. If not, don't, but be quiet. No one is interested in your uninformed opinions about stuff you know nothing about. May as well lecture on astrophysics. 1KVXFUxNFHyJFBwqW5gT5b1YgYPyKcruam
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wol fem i 1 r espon ds:

11/20/2013 8:31 PM GMT+0100

" If you want a bubble analogy to prove your point, use something that has a limited supply and questionable demand. " Uh... Tulip bulbs were in limited supply due to the length of time that they take to grow and reproduce, as well as being not fungible (i.e. one particular variety had a delicate pattern when

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a weakened state).

12 questions about Bitcoin you were too embarrassed to ask

grown due to infection with a variation of the tobacco mosaic virus, which made it even rarer due to

Additionally, they're TULIP BULBS. How "questionable" would the demand have to be, in your eyes?
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wol fem i 1 r espon ds:

11/20/2013 8:37 PM GMT+0100

In other words, demand that causes prices for tulip bulbs to equal that of an average house is pretty much by definition "questionable".
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wol fem i 1 r espon ds:

11/20/2013 8:39 PM GMT+0100

"If you have done your homework and have the tener cojonies, put your money where your mouth is and gamble." 1) OW, my Spanish! 2) With Bitcoins, the only winning move is not to play. Or sucker some rubes. One of those two.
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st on ecu t t er 0602 r espon ds:

11/20/2013 9:29 PM GMT+0100

@Jesterize I am one who doesn't quite fully get this whole thing, other than it sounds like another avenue to scam or exploit ignorant investors. BTW, you are so knowledgeable, but the name of the holding company you cite in your first sentence is Berkshire Hathaway, NOT "Brookshire". So much for your expertise.
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bs.det ect or 101 r espon ds:

12/6/2013 3:22 PM GMT+0100

If you get robbed of Bitcoins, who can you call for help ? Nobody !!!! Your Bitcoin wallet is like the wild west stagecoach, you get robbed, but no sheriff, Lone Ranger or Texas rangers are coming to your rescue !!! It's unregulated, you're SCREWED !!! Another major Bitcoin trading house hacked, again / Bitcoins worth millions are gone !!!
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t epexpa n w r ot e:
11/20/2013 6:37 PM GMT+0100

The Aztecs used cocoa beans, ancient Greece used silver as a currency more than 4,000 years ago, the Spanish used silver, in 1785 the United States adopted a silver standard based on the "Spanish milled dollar", and then in 1873 the United States Congress embraced the gold standard and de-monetized silver, in 1933. The United States went off the gold standard, Congress enacted a joint resolution nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold, prohibiting Americans to own gold, and setting the price of $20.67 per ounce. In 1974, President Gerald Ford signed legislation that permitted Americans again to own gold bullion Now Bitcoins, Give-me a breakit is not different that the Barter exchange of items or services by other objects or services and it differs from normal trading in that no intermediate money in liquid in the transaction, another system that will be used by con-artists to scam consumers out of their moneythanks but no thanks
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ba n n eda ga i n 5446 w r ot e:
11/20/2013 5:29 PM GMT+0100

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12 questions about Bitcoin you were too embarrassed to ask

A good article explaining why you're a complete idiot if you believe in bitcoins: "More bitcoins, more problems: How hackers are targeting bitcoins" Translation anonymous pretend currency equals prosecution-proof theft and recourse-free victims http://www.cnbc.com/id/101213462
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Resi den t 1 r espon ds:

11/20/2013 6:27 PM GMT+0100

That article could read "More internet, more problems: How hackers are targeting the internet" doh! All currency is pretend including those green cotton bills in your wallet.
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wol fem i 1 r espon ds:

11/20/2013 6:37 PM GMT+0100

"All currency is pretend including those green cotton bills in your wallet." Not really, since those green cotton bills can be used to pay taxes and can be exchanged for a wide range of goods and services. They're also legally required to be accepted in payment of debt.
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Keel a h Sen t r y w r ot e:
11/20/2013 4:56 PM GMT+0100

Good lord, what a condescending tone to this article. PLEASE, oh great god Timothy, relieve us of our embarassment and woeful ignorance that we may ask of you, oh wise one, innumerable questions about this deeply mysterious magic currency we have all been reading about for months!
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Keel a h Sen t r y w r ot e:
11/20/2013 4:51 PM GMT+0100

Geezis, what a condescending writing style. Please forgive us our ignorance and embarrassment, but please! Oh Lord Timothy please give us the blessing of your encyclopeadic knowledge on this well-trodden subject many of us proles have been reading about for months! So that we may wander from the wilderness and darkness of our own interminable night.
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jpt jpt jpt w r ot e:

11/20/2013 4:46 PM GMT+0100

Hmm...someone, somewhere, is making real money (i.e., currency backed most likely by the U. S. dollar), otherwise it is play money. End of story.
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Ja m eson i a n w r ot e:
11/20/2013 4:21 PM GMT+0100

Um... why doesn't it worry anyone that the originator of Bitcoin is unknown? That suggests something shady, doesn't it?
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McA r gu m en t r espon ds:

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11/25/2013 10:41 PM GMT+0100

12 questions about Bitcoin you were too embarrassed to ask

Not necessarily, but as a general rule of thumb, it's always better to assume that the guy running around with a mask on is a criminal, and not a superhero.
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fa bi oDC77 w r ot e:
11/20/2013 4:04 PM GMT+0100

Maybe the UN should pass sanctions that only allow Iran to sell its oil in bitcoins.
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west i e w r ot e:
11/20/2013 3:30 PM GMT+0100

Bitcoins - The Beanie Babies of world currency. You've got to be kidding me. This is such a joke, except for those seeking to use these BScoins for illegal activities. I see a huge bubble market forming already for these BScoins. Give me a break.
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l or dwest ov er r espon ds:

11/20/2013 5:20 PM GMT+0100

"BScoins" Indeed!
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www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/11/19/12-questions-you-were-too-embarrassed-to-ask-about-bitcoin/

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