[fat0wl]

Totally agreed -- they pretend to support the platform for the hipster cred & expanded market, but I'm sure the corporate policy is "Bitcoin arrives. Bitcoin is immediately placed on exchange".

I'd be surprised if corporations would gamble so dangerously by keeping a Bitcoin store. As long as they price against USD and convert immediately, they can only suffer limited losses from price swings.

[aianus]

They don't suffer any losses from price swings. Pretty much everyone uses a third party payment processor that guarantees that when the retailer charges a bitcoin customer $100 they get $100 less fees directly into their bank account.

[fat0wl]

ahhhh genius. of course. make it the problem of somebody who's trying to prop it up or actually believes in the exchange rate ;)

[Helianthus]

Unrelated: I've greatly enjoyed your comment history--particularly the bicycle metaphor and the moral stance on Bitcoin.

[fat0wl]

ahaha thanks bud!! it's been exhausting because they have so many buzzwords designed to handle counter-arguments, so many people with money invested, and well -- the fact is people are willing to pay for them. What I've been learning is that people will radically alter their lifestyle/views/demeanor when presented with the possibility for a cashout. They kinda get tunnelvision. Plus, there happen to some idealistic tech people who wouldn't mind suffering a minor loss just to see a cool idea work, so they'll keep playing with it even if they lose a couple hundred bucks here and there. It makes for some intense momentum...

Hopefully you will see me posting much less about this and much more about music signal processing + machine learning apps I'm working on :P

Looking through your comments... maybe you want to join me on some anti-Bitcoin venture? I'm thinking of compiling a site providing a detailed argument of why it makes no sense just so that I don't have to keep wasting my breath lol. But I mean the truth is a lot of these arguments are freely available (especially if you check the manifestos written up by some of Bitcoin's competitors or qualified economists). I just feel bad that naive people think it's some sort of tech "investment" and if you don't write negative stuff on the threads their first comment is "Where do I get some?". I bet this is how all pyramid schemers feel at first. Like you're investing in a company, it's just that the company doesn't make anything or do anything... Then Bitcoiners try to say that the worth is in the "ingenuity of the process" or something but then its like... THIS IS AN OPEN SOURCE CRYPTO GAME FOR F__K'S SAKE

The point is... Bitcoin is an international hoax and I get bored at work! I also tend to think that HN is turning into watered-down pseudo tech and Bitcoin is the epitome of that. All these "crypto-miners" who just execute pre-compiled code or whatever... yeesh.

Fantasy adds romanticism to peoples lives, but this one will cause too many ruined fortunes.

(Side note: It seems you & I are always arguing with the same guys, lolololol.... some of these handles are all too familiar)