how is bitcoin not a scam

Sound like the stock market...hmmm...yeah, it must be a scam But if you know how the scam works, you can probably make some nice money.

it is a scam

First off, don't use the bitcoin-dollar exchange rate to draw any conclusions about how bitcoin is doing. That's just speculators buying and selling bitcoins to make profit trading.

Bitcoin is a decentrilized digital currency. That means there's no middlemen to add fees, there's no banks to deal with and you alone is in control of your money.

You can send money to anyone in the world in an instant. No matter if it's saturday 2 o'clock in the morning. And you do it with extremely low fees - basically free.

It's protected by an extremely wellthought out crypto-scheme (using the CPU-power of the "bitcoin-miners").

Do you like banks? Do you like dealing with creditcards companies? Do you trust paypal not to sieze your account? Did you trust Epassporte? If not.. then you should be rooting for wider bitcoin-addoption.

Uhm, the same way money is not a scam. It is just another currency, nothing that complicated about what it is or how it functions.

.. what I'm wondering is when paysites will start adding bitcoin as payment option (or sponsors adding it as payout option). There's no chargebacks with bitcoin (again, no middlemen).

this....

Some are allready doing that

http://cryptocoinshops.com/category/adult-sites/

There are other programs on GFY doing it which I havent added

There's kind of a huge difference...!

First banks are insured and at least here in Canada, are regulated by the government. Banks and credit card companies are insured. Your money in the bank is insured too (FDIC in the US) and Paypal won't seize your account if you don't try to screw them over or break their TOS. Paypal also deals in "Real" currency. All services above charge a fee for the services they provide, and users are free to shop around or negotiate for lower rates.

Bitcoin is very new, very different, with wildly varying values. While the US and Canadian dollar values can fluctuate there is at least some protections in place to stop it from going crazy the way bitcoin does.

If I was a gambler I might try buying and selling bitcoins but as you said the value in bitcoins is completely speculative. I'd probably bet $1000 today, then exit tomorrow.

Nice reply.

Here is also something else to consider

If you try and rip people off with Bitcoins it can land you in a world of shit

Texan Charged In Bitcoin-Denominated Ponzi Scheme

SEC Charges Texas Man With Running Bitcoin-Denominated Ponzi Scheme

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a Texas man and his company with defrauding investors in a Ponzi scheme involving Bitcoin, a virtual currency traded on online exchanges for conventional currencies like the U.S. dollar or used to purchase goods or services online.

The SEC alleges that Trendon T. Shavers, who is the founder and operator of Bitcoin Savings and Trust (BTCST), offered and sold Bitcoin-denominated investments through the Internet using the monikers “Pirate” and “pirateat40.” Shavers raised at least 700,000 Bitcoin in BTCST investments, which amounted to more than $4.5 million based on the average price of Bitcoin in 2011 and 2012 when the investments were offered and sold. Today the value of 700,000 Bitcoin exceeds $60 million.

The SEC alleges that Shavers promised investors up to 7 percent weekly interest based on BTCST’s Bitcoin market arbitrage activity, which supposedly included selling to individuals who wished to buy Bitcoin “off the radar” in quick fashion or large quantities. In reality, BTCST was a sham and a Ponzi scheme in which Shavers used Bitcoin from new investors to make purported interest payments and cover investor withdrawals on outstanding BTCST investments. Shavers also diverted investors’ Bitcoin for day trading in his account on a Bitcoin currency exchange, and exchanged investors’ Bitcoin for U.S. dollars to pay his personal expenses.

The SEC issued an investor alert today warning investors about the dangers of potential investment scams involving virtual currencies promoted through the Internet.

“Fraudsters are not beyond the reach of the SEC just because they use Bitcoin or another virtual currency to mislead investors and violate the federal securities laws,” said Andrew M. Calamari, Director of the SEC’s New York Regional Office. “Shavers preyed on investors in an online forum by claiming his investments carried no risk and huge profits for them while his true intentions were rooted in nothing more than personal greed.”

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-0...d-ponzi-scheme

https://www.sec.gov/litigation/compl...pr2013-132.pdf

Mtgox.com is the largest exchange.
There are a whole bunch of people trying to sell bit coin related domains including MtCocks.com - that domain can be used for gay bit coins

It is a TRADED commodity...... That's why prices fluctuate. Next thing I know, you're gonna start bitching about the price of Coffee or wheat or pork bellies, etc.

Anything TRADED = Fluctuations

Sorry but people trusting investing their money with a guy called "Shaver"...

Haha his username on a well known bitcoin forum was Pirateat40 that says it all too.

There are a few other people the bitcoin community are also trying to get prosecuted for Fraud as well

Most of my sites have been accepting Bitcoin for quite a while now -- the Blue Blood sites starting to do so was covered by AVN, XBiz, Huffington Post, etc.

Technically, currency trading and commodities trading are not the same thing.

But you are definitely right that anything traded leads to fluctuations in the value of trades i.e. wheat is what it is, but the price of it in Euros for example might vary.

Yes the free press is nice, But how your current (past 30 days) bitcoin sales compare with normal dollar sales? Is that like 5% bitcoin, 1% bitcoin or 0.01% bitcoin?
As no one said they made "lots of bitcoin sales", perhaps the silence is a 0.01% sales increase.

reminds me of that "the real hustle" tv show, the guys name was "Ian Steele" (had "I. Steele" on his name tag...) other guy was "Rob Marks"... oh, and there was "Sue Windle"...

I still can't believe they could keep a straight face while saying their names during the scams...

Bitcoin is not a reliable currency it can go down at anytime so the best way to make yourself secure is exchange it as soon as you get hold of it

My point was not that Blue Blood got press; my point was that folks following adult and Bitcoin should probably have noticed that adult sites are already accepting Bitcoin because the information has been widely covered.

If your question is whether more people choose to pay in Bitcoin than in Dollars, that is just a silly question. More people pay in Dollars than in Yen, as well.

If you paid me real money for my monopoly money would that be a scam?

Where do you get that info? I've sold BTC at the listed price many of times

Intelligent gfy reply:
Well said, very very well said

and

Ignorant gfy reply
That's just the most unresearched, unknowning, uninformed kind of reply. Why do you even click a thread about something you have no interest in, and no knowledge about?

Yes, monopoly money is different because bitcoin has fixed number of coins. Anyway - it stil does not change the fact that it is simple play money which holds real money value just because there is a demand.

We can create gfycoin and it would be exactly the same thing. Of course it would hold less value because less people would demand it. Still actual value = 0 because play money holds no actual value.

"Actual value" is not an accurate expression to use in discussing currency. Money is not something with intrinsic value. All money is valued based on some form of social consensus.

Agreed. Bitcoin and gfycoin could be the same, but if more people have consensus that bitcoin is valuable than it would sell for more. Anyway - its still fake/play money and thats a fact. Why? Because real money does not appear out of thin air (I mean any good programmer can create same "currency" as bitcoin, they actually did many clones)

You are correct that it is the consensus which makes a currency more or less useful -- not valuable, however, as the point of money is to buy things with it, not to sell it.

A good printer can create pieces of paper which are just as pretty as a Dollar bill and some places will allow them to be exchanged for items with intrinsic value. Printing tech is older and more widespread than coding expertise. What's your point?

*cough* hahahahahahaha points...

Explain why... It sounds like you dont know how it works and just posts retarded stuff like 99% of the gfy-users.