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YouTube can be a mother fucker too.

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the newest pyramid scheme

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Near as I can figure.  

Bill creates a crypto program that "creates" bitcoin.
He then offers to sell bitcoins to anyone for $1.00 each.

You need a computer of some sort and the program in order to buy and sell a bitcoin.
Bill gives you the program.

Bill has also included a "transaction fee" built into the program.
Bill has set the fee at 2% of the total bitcoins bought and 2% of any transaction made on the bitcoin network.

The bitcoins are not released until you make the payment + fee and Bill receives the payment +fee.
Your two computers must agree on this transaction via a public and private key.

Now you and Bill can buy and sell bellybutton lint to each other using bitcoins.

Bill has created money from nothing.

Now Sally wants to buy into bitcoin because she wants to buy bellybutton lint.
She gets the program from Bill, but buys the bitcoin from you.
Now her computer and your computer must agree on the transaction.

Part of the program allows the agreement to come from other computers, and the first computer that agrees to the transaction gets the transaction fee.
Bills computer got Sally's request for the bitcoin even though you are selling it to her.
Bill receives the transaction fee for the sale of the bitcoin.

In the meantime John has installed the bitcoin program on his stand alone built to mine bitcoin computer but has not purchased any bitcoin.

Sally now buys 4 lbs of bellybutton lint from Bill.
Because John has a stand alone bitcoin mining computer and it can run the program faster than any other computer on the bitcoin network he gets the transaction fee.

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a bitcoin is what will separate the young, intelligent and forward thinking from the old, slow and jaded when the us dollar collapses.

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So, we are currently in stage 2 then.

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Bitcoin sounds like bullshit to me.

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I think what most people may be thinking but leaving unsaid is - Does “Crypto” have 5 branches of armed military backing it?

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Basically this:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.tulips.com/images/bulb_growth.jpg

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This.  And I had a hard time explaining why people traded colored paper for stuff to my daughter.  The paper is backed by silver... or gold... or actually nothing now.  Whatever - people act like it has value, so it does.

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Jim - "I have a bit coin to sell, it's worth $xxxx."
ka3b - "I want to buy your bitcoin. How do I do it?"

Answer - Buy an expensive computer, install a specialized program, send Jim the money for the bitcoin.....Where in the fuck do I send the money? How do I send the money?

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@KA3B

This is the best I can surmise:

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency.  It is essentially a virtual trinket.  So no, you can't put on in your pocket.   You can put it in a virtual wallet, I believe.  But you can't put that wallet in your pocket either, unless it's on your phone and then its in your pocket, but kinda not.

It appears to be something akin to the magical swords and potions that are considered rare in computer games like World of Warcraft and other vast RPGs.  To that end they are worth what value people attach to them as virtual items, and the value is in their potential uses in the virtual sphere.  The value is dictated by demand.

They don't exist in real life.  They exist in virtual space as a kind of binary lottery ticket.    You buy a computer and jam in the most powerful graphics card you can find, because graphics processors are faster and more bettered than normal motherboard processors and then you set the computer out on a mission to dig through cyberspace to find little bits of these virtual trinkets, which you can then add to your virtual wallet.

Basically, somebody created something out of nothing, told everybody that the something was the next big thing and that it would make you rich, some people decided to jump on board to mine the nothingness for that something.  Some people found bits of something and said  "Look I have found bits of something".....others looked on and said "Oooooh bits of something" and they also joined the mining as everybody said it was going become the next big thing.

This continues until lots of people were looking for that something and the hype grew.  Lots of people said "oooooh shiney" and wanted to jump on board.

The real magic comes when you find some bits of virtual something from nothing and you then sell them to the people who are clamouring for some virtual something from nothing.  You can then sell them something from nothing for far more money than it is worth (which is essentially nothing) and turn your something from nothing into cold hard cash which actually has some from of guarantee attached to it.

It's one of the greatest examples of a self fulfilling prophecy we have seen in modern times.  Of course, it's all fun and games until the power goes off and then your something become nothing again unless you have sold it for something which isn't virtual.

I will caveat the above by saying that I am no expert in cryptocurrencies.

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If men with guns and functional civic infrastructure are the vital part of a currency, why do Venezuelans prefer bitcoins to bolivar or gold?

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If men with guns and functional civic infrastructure are the vital part of a currency, why do Venezuelans prefer bitcoins to bolivar or gold?

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It's the BitTorrent of Ponzi schemes.  It's decentralized so when it blows up there is no Bernie Madoff to go after.

One or two of these crypto coins will survive but the rest will crater to nothing.  If you time it right you might make some money.

People speculating in crypto become schills since they know if interest in their coin dwindles then it's going to crater.

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what if your computer crashes and you can't fix it? how do you get your coin? what if somebody breaks into my house and steals my computer? what if the power is out for weeks because of a storm? how do I get my coin?

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what if your computer crashes and you can't fix it? how do you get your coin? what if somebody breaks into my house and steals my computer? what if the power is out for weeks because of a storm? how do I get my coin?

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what if your computer crashes and you can't fix it? how do you get your coin? what if somebody breaks into my house and steals my computer? what if the power is out for weeks because of a storm? how do I get my coin?

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Bitcoin sounds like bullshit to me.

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Well, they call them ATMs.

You put real currency in and it gives you a virtual something.

If I’m selling my car and you rock up with a virtual wallet full of QR codes to buy it, I’m keeping my car.

Rock up with cash and we have the basis of a viable transaction.

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If you want to read something interesting about bitcoin mining google the energy consumption required.  It's stunning.

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I first read about Bitcoin here in GD around 2012 sometime. For all those years I thought it was a scam, until I got talked into buying a bunch of Ethereum last summer. I am still very pleased with that decision. On top of that my ETH mining profits cover my electric, internet, and phone bills. It now seems pretty legit to me.