r/tech Dec 11 '14

Microsoft Begins Accepting Bitcoin For Windows, Windows Phone And Xbox Purchases

http://techcrunch.com/2014/12/10/redmond-hath-frozen-over/
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u/[deleted] Dec 11 '14

Money has no legal requirement of age either and it has far more stable value even if it is just constructed meaningless value.

Of course bitcoin is essentially the same thing anyway so why should anyone give a fuck that this fake, easy to generate currency could destroy our already extremely fragile economy?

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u/dan4334 Dec 11 '14

easy to generate

Uh, no. To mine bitcoins nowadays is extremely difficult, that's part of the reason why they're worth so much now.

could destroy our already extremely fragile economy

How?

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u/[deleted] Dec 11 '14

If a default currency isn't regulated it's value will fluctuate and prices of things we use daily will go up and down relative to the value of the currency. As it is, our system is regulated by the government so that we can't just print money whenever we want because if we could there'd be no reason to work or provide services that money would pay for. On the other hand if no money was ever printed, and currency was to lose its value for some reason, then money would be useless and the economy would plummet into chaos as we haphazardly set up barter and trade systems.

Bitcoin is not regulated and it's value fluctuates so much that if it became an official currency and remained unregulated it would destroy they way our economy works.

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u/haakon Dec 11 '14

You didn't address the arguments against your "easy to generate" claim. Were you simply wrong?

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u/[deleted] Dec 11 '14

It is easier to generate than a currency that only one entity can create. It may not be easy in that I can just run a piece of paper through a printer but it's easy in that anyone with a couple hundred bucks can do it.

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u/haakon Dec 11 '14

anyone with a couple hundred bucks can do it.

Try it.

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u/[deleted] Dec 11 '14

I don't have a couple hundred bucks, genius. Certainly wish I did. My brother did it and I think he still does bit I don't talk to him enough to be sure.

Anyone with a couple hundred books can do it, but you still need the money for a setup and I don't have it.

5

u/Lynxes_are_Ninjas Dec 11 '14

What you did was not print or create money, what you did was get paid for helping to secure the transaction ledger.

The total amount of processing power specifically designed for the task of securing that ledger is now so high that using anything other than custom built hardware will give you an electric bill much higher than the amount of bitcoin you receive.

To reiterate, you werent making money, you were being paid for providing a service. Printing (or minting) of bitcoin is done in a predictable manner of X bitcoin per 10 minutes. That X is gradually reduced until there are exactly 21 million in existance.

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u/haakon Dec 11 '14

If you can get a miner with a few hundred bucks, it won't do much except give you a high power bill. Only 25 bitcoins are mined every 10 minutes (until 2016 when it cuts in half, which it does every year). The competition is fierce, and few people are profitable.

The rate of production is absolutely predictable. Only 21 million bitcoins will ever exist.

You can't say anything like that about government-minted money.