Step right up to the #Bitcoin ATM and the future of money https://t.co/WEA2MeUq8W
— Nick Ghoullespie (@nickgillespie) October 27, 2014
Every time one of these glibertarians post something like this, I mentally hear this:
Clowns.
by John Cole| 78 Comments
This post is in: Glibertarianism, Clap Louder!, Clown Shoes
Step right up to the #Bitcoin ATM and the future of money https://t.co/WEA2MeUq8W
— Nick Ghoullespie (@nickgillespie) October 27, 2014
Every time one of these glibertarians post something like this, I mentally hear this:
Clowns.
Comments are closed.
Mike E
Heh, these people had a confab at my convention center. I snagged a couple of ‘bitcoin’ pens, prolly the only useful things they had to offer.
El Caganer
I will gladly give you some Bitcoin on Tuesday for a piece of land in Chile today.
Bobby B.
EEEEHHHHH the Fonz says it’s cool.
jeffreyw
I’m waiting on pemmican bitcoins so I can put some back for when the hard times catch their stride.
Thread needz moar puppeh!
jheartney
So you have to wait 15 minutes to get your actual cash after committing to the transaction? Sweet. Maybe they can put in a Flappy Bird game to pass the time.
Betty Cracker
That dumb fuck probably bought a shitload of Bitcoins last November at $1K a pop. Ha!
artem1s
damn, so how much are they charging the rubes to have one of these very boring slot machines in their establishments?
craigie
I bought some bitcoins when they were $100 and sold them at $900. Can I be President now?
TMLutas
Bitcoin? Ewww, because low transaction costs are socially icky. It’s glibertarian to run your business on 1% transaction costs to a worldwide consortium of computer geeks vs paying 3% to Visa, Mastercard or American Express, don’t you know.
Karen in GA
I’d like a bit o’coin, please!
/Michael Palin pervert in a trenchcoat
Alex S.
They just want the seignorage! The SEIGNORAGE!
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@TMLutas:
Visa, MasterCard and American Express are all regulated by that mean ol’ government, which makes them process your transaction. If you give a guy money for bitcoins and he doesn’t deliver, what’s your plan?
Craigo
@TMLutas: Yeah, who wouldn’t want to stake the future of their business on this?
Richard Mayhew
@TMLutas: It’s ickky to have units of account and stores of value change value by 10% in a week for no good reason other than a bad movie plot coming to real life.
The Other Chuck
The video itself seems pretty even-handed, which is laudable considering the source (reason.com). The bartender makes a good point about the money transfer fees in other countries and does mention how it’s just a novelty here.
Freedom Fonzie of course adds his usual fatuous glibertarian spin as expected.
Liquid
There was a post on gizmodo or some such that the first bitcoin atm, which debuted months ago, was immediately struck by lightning.
Howard Beale IV
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Two highly hyped companies who were supposed to be making bitcoin miners were found to be massive frauds as well. Not to mention the largest bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, spectacularly collpased.
Felonius Monk
Perhaps this question has been asked before, but do 8 Bitcoins make one Bytecoin?
Shakezula
Just bitcoins? You can’t download your consciousness into a massive video games where all of the women have boobs the size of grapefruits and waists the size of pencils??
@Karen in GA: LOL, I was watching that last night.
Corner Stone
@Richard Mayhew:
Or by people executing a classic hype pump and dump.
Avery Greynold
Bitcoin can/will be replaced by the next better currency, and become worthless. Better? Yea, try one that can be used as a store of value. Example: One pegged to the average hourly wage of western economies. But you need an issuing agent capable of expanding and contracting its supply to maintain the targeted value.
Corner Stone
I’m seeing Ezra Klein on MSNBC and I’m a little surprised thinking that I hadn’t really considered what he thought about any topic for quite some time.
Is it just me or has he really lost a chunk of projection and relevance since his Vox launch?
CONGRATULATIONS!
Fuck central banks and currency that is good for anything. Take me back to the 1700s when any two-bit huckster and tavern keeper could – and did – print their own “money” on whatever was around. Tin cans, old paper, pressed dogshit…it’s all good for FREEDUH!
Rick Taylor
I do find it funny when people who ridicule paper money for having no basis for its value, like gold or silver, turn around and extoll the virtues of bitcoins whose value relies on. . . the hope that people in the future will continue to pay for bitcoins.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
1. Pay guy in unregulated “bitcoins”, get ripped off
2. ??????
3. Justice
Belafon
Whatever happened to that massive bitcoin theft? Was anyone ever caught or did libertarians chalk it up to the free market and acknowledge no need for government to interfere?
Howard Beale IV
@Belafon: Hasn’t been figured out yet.
SatanicPanic
I’m kind of surprised these guys are still trying to push this. I give them credit for dogged persistence.
jibeaux
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): I’m guessing it also involves the dark web, since “he stole my bitcoins” is approximately as interesting to the authorities as “he stole my unicorn. “
BGinCHI
Another name for the Bitcoin ATM is “well with no bottom.”
At least their your money makes a reassuring sound when it hits.
Cluttered Mind
@jibeaux: It still beats “He stole my magic sword” as a motive for murder though.
Hal
I still haven’t worked up the interest to read up on how bitcoin actually works. Reminds me all those ads advertising natural cancer cures they don’t want you to know about!
Hal
@Corner Stone: huh. I just read your comment and realized I had forgotten about Klein. I last saw him on MSNBC weeks ago now that I think about it.
KG
a fool and his money…
Another Holocene Human
@craigie: high five!
I took some pants-wetters on gold trades several years ago (much too busy now to trade stuff and not lose a ton o’ money) but stupid me, I had to pay 33% cap gain on metals tax or whatever it is and you, happy craigie, are only out for STCG. Brilliant!
J.W. Hamner
There is actually one of those bitcoin ATMs in Cambridge… at a vegetarian diner (Veggie Galaxy for those in the area)… and it did not increase my interest in bitcoins above 0%. Shockingly, there also was not a long line of people waiting to engage in bitcoin related commerce either.
Another Holocene Human
@TMLutas: 1% transaction cost does not include exchange rate fluctuations. Bitcoin cannot guarantee future value in any state-supported currency. When trading in unregulated shadow currencies total loss of principle is a risk of use. Buy and sell with caution.
Bitching about transaction fees is seriously some of the weakest weak sauce I have ever seen. Create your own low or zero cost payment method. Oh, wait, that’s already been done. I need bitcoins because ….
Gotta be rough knowing Silkroad went down (Go directly to prison. Do not pass Go.) and Colorado made weed legal so you can buy pot with Ameros now.
Another Holocene Human
@Rick Taylor: But it’s totally different this time, guyzzz!
SP
@Hal: One interesting thing I learned is that mining is actually validation of previous transactions so the system is somewhat consistent. The press always presents mining as using enormous amounts of electricity and computing power to solve random mathematical problems, which in fact the problems are related to maintaining the transaction system, validating keys and updating the public record of transactions.
The other interesting thing is that the way to break/take over bitcoin is to accumulate 50%+1 of the validation power, because then you alone can start to decide whether some of the transactions are valid and can effectively steal bitcoins with no recourse. Some of the mining consortia were getting close to this threshold, and of course the true believers wave it off with “well no one would ever ACTUALLY do that…”
C.V Danes
@Avery Greynold:
Yes, and that replacement currency will no doubt be the coin of choice for the Overman when that day arrives, Zarathustra.
Me thinks that the next currency will most likely be a return to salt bricks.
Another Holocene Human
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Sounds much like the joys of being a vendor that accepts Paypal cash payments. Except in that case you can probably get a lawyer (note: only works if you are in US, maybe Canada) to write a nice nastygram and get your seized funds released and your account canceled, whereas Bitcoin munnies go where all specu-bux go to die. (Think the end of Trading Places. )
VFX Lurker
@Belafon:
Which one? Gizmodo ran this gem earlier this year:
The 6 Biggest Bitcoin Heists in History
Lavocat
Where do I sign up for my gold-shitting unicorn?
Another Holocene Human
@Cluttered Mind: “He stole mah girl” is every bit as stupid.
Another Holocene Human
@SP: pure, laissez-faire capitalism always works (no, it doesn’t) until the monopoly takes over
Violet
Dell’s online store takes Bitcoin. Found that out when I had to buy something from them–long stupid boring story–and was surprised to see it as an option. Didn’t Michael Dell buy back most of the stock so it’s essentially a privately held company now? Is he a glibertarian?
Mandalay
Speaking of glibertarians, I’m saddened and befuddled to see Jimmy Carter joining their asylum:
I’ll give him a few days to reconsider the difference between state rights and civil rights. After that he can GDIAF.
rikyrah
bitcoin?
there’s one born every minute.
The Other Chuck
@Violet: Dell is private, not even “effectively”, and his contributions are public record. Looks like he mostly gives to Rethugs.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Mandalay: Carter should know better, but he is in his late 90s at this point and he may just not be able to make that mental leap to accepting gay marriage. I know a few olds – decent folk all – who just can’t go there. Won’t be an issue in five to ten years as they’ll all be dead.
I’m pretty sure Carter is VERY clear on the difference between states rights, civil rights, and federal supremacy.
Joel Hanes
@Corner Stone:
Ezra Klein
became dead to me when he went to the WaPo.
Shakezula
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Fixed.
Violet
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Jimmy Carter is 90 years old as of October 1st.
raven
@Mandalay: He’s trying to get Jason elected.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Violet: Looks older. At any rate, my point stands.
Corner Stone
@Violet:
What ’90s boom Tech billionaire (off govt investment in the intertrons) isn’t?
KG
@Mandalay: no Jimmy, most states are not deciding in favor of gay marriage (the polls are definitely favoring gay marriage now though one wonders if there’s still a Bradley Effect on the issue), federal courts just keep telling those states that they are in violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.
mai naem mobile
@The Other Chuck: Dells a personal friend of Dubbya. I believe he was a top level bundler for Dubbya. I remember when Dell was dissing Apple when MS bailed out Apple. I ain’t no Apple fan boi but my, how the mighty have fallen.
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Lets not forget Carters grandsons running for GA governor. Hes probably not going to say anything to affect that race.
Corner Stone
@BGinCHI:
I’m confused. If it has no bottom…?
Corner Stone
@Belafon:
They got washed right out of traceable existence.
And it was quite amusing to see all the clamor for govt to track the bad guys down.
Baud
Can’t watch the video right now. Does the ATM simply convert bitcoins into real money? If so, what’s the big deal?
Trollhattan
@Baud:
I think it converts them into headcheese, like on the old SNL sketch. Which seems about right.
The Bobs
Bitcoins have value because they’ve been anointed by the confidence fairy.
TMLutas
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
If I’m paying my bar bill, that’s really not a problem. If I’m buying a pizza, I call a cop, just like if the same thing were to happen with USD. If I’m buying a house, I’m using escrow, just like with USD. There’s also this thing called smart contracts that is embedded in the blockchain protocol (that runs bitcoin) which will give better options in the near future.
@Craigo:
Yeah BTC’s volatility is a negative for the US. There are national currencies that are worse, however which is likely to make BTC a hit in Argentina.
@Richard Mayhew:
BTC is not something you want to store everything in. Myself, I wouldn’t put more than 5% of my wealth in it and I’ve never bought bitcoin. I only earn in it, originally in microtransactions, and then the lending market. The smallest BTC unit is so small (0.00000001) that you can do things in BTC that you never could in USD because you can’t divide USD that finely. If you want to teach your kid how to do diversified investing, you can do that with $30, actually run a hundred loans, and make a real world profit. The education value in that is worth the entry fee even if you lose it all.
Laertes
“And the machine will dispense cash within 15 minutes…”
Wait. What?
An ATM that takes 15 minutes to dispense cash? How on Earth is that supposed to catch on?
Just One More Canuck
@CONGRATULATIONS!: pressed dogshit? The 12 year old in me needs to see a link
Violet
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Printed money? That’s the big time. What about good old bartering? You pay your doctor in chickens. That kind of thing.
JustRuss
Speaking of Gary Wright, I dated his baby sitter once. It’s not often I get to work that into a conversation.
Kevin
Anyone who thinks the future of money is governments ceding control of their money to an internet version of gold is not to be listened to.
Bjacques
All my wealth is tied up in Dogecoin
Scamp Dog
@JustRuss: Did she babysit Gary Wright, or Wright’s children? Wright’s 71 now, meaning someone who babysat him could be in her 80’s; someone who babysat his children would be much younger.
No good reason for asking, just curious.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@KG:
Reading>you…and Mandalay.
EthylEster
Hey, Fonz of Freedumb, you go first!
Brendan in Charlotte
John – I hear ELO’s “Evil Woman” (…but a fool and his money soon go separate ways…), or Pink Floyd’s “Money”
Gex
@mai naem mobile: fine. So long as we all know he HAD come out for marriage equality in 2012. But if we want to excuse his not being able to get there because of his age, I guess we will. It’s not what’s happening here, but we’ll just excuse him anyway.
Mnemosyne
@TMLutas:
Sure, you can call a cop if you pay via bitcoin and don’t get your pizza, but the cop’s not going to do anything like he would if you had used actual legal tender. Go ahead, give it a try if you don’t believe me.
If you used your Visa or Mastercard, you could dispute the charge and have it reversed. Who do you dispute a bitcoin transaction with?
Again, if that bitcoin disappears out of the escrow or is suddenly half the value when it comes out, who are you going to complain to? It’s not legal tender, so there’s no theft. At best, you can sue and try to get it through the courts, but that kind of requires you to turn to the government for support, doesn’t it?
ETA: As I understand it, as far as the law is concerned, using bitcoin is essentially bartering. The law doesn’t care if one end of a bartering situation gets screwed. Not their problem.
TMLutas
@Mnemosyne:
Fraud applies to barter transactions just like it applies to cash transactions. The idea that you can’t sue over a bad barter deal is just not the law in any jurisdiction I’m familiar with. Where does that actually happen?
Currency fluctuations are dealt with in international contracts every day of the year. There is exactly zero reason why they wouldn’t work out just fine via an escrow institution. The day I bought my most recent residence, the escrow guys called up and let me know down to the penny exactly how much I was going to have to show up with to make the deal happen. You go, you sign a lot of papers, the escrow people call and make sure the checks brought to the table actually have funds backing them and then they release the funds when the last signature hits the bottom line. That was an all USD transaction so tell me why it would have been any different if some or all of it had been denominated in BTC?
Escrow services are insured against money disappearing. If somebody raids their USD funds, their insurance pays off and it would pay off if they were doing it in BTC, for the same reasons.
JoJo
@Rick Taylor:
If paper money is so worthless and gold so valuable, how come people will sell you gold in exchange for paper money?