 If you've listened to my podcasts, dating back to late 2007, you know that I'm a true believer in gold. Physical gold that is, not the digital equivalent that is traded through Wall street exchanges.  I purchased multiple ounces back then at about $850 an ounce and have kept it in my posession ever since.
Genrally speaking, throughout hundreds of years, this metal has kept it's value and in fact has increased in value against so called 'fiat currencies' like the dollar.
Any currency that has a central bank is by almost definition prone to inflation by those who control the central banking authorities and can 'print' money, by creating debt or by other means.
I don't intend to have a philisophical conversation about these currencies versus gold metal, but I have become quite interested in BitCoin, as it releates to the aforementioned.
BitCoin is being heralded by some very smart people as a true virtual currency, that has safeguards against all the pitfalls of money.
So I've set up my machines in the hopes they will create some coin for me, and hereby solicit my readers to 'send me some BTC's' so I can try it out.
You see, the downside to this new 'money' is that I can't acquire any with my dollars at the moment, at least not easily, like by initiating a paypal transaction.
I hope to eventually acquire enough of it so that I can disprove my doubts and buy some food or pay my rent with BitCoins. Granted I can't walk into a store and slap down an ounce of gold either, but at least there is an active market that I can access to exchange it for paper. The idea of having something I can soend digitally in it's original form is interesting and in many ways appealing.
I must add here that analogous to the early gold prospectors, BitCoins can be 'created' or 'mined'. Long story, but the bottom line is that I know a lot of my readers and listeners have access to extremely big iron processing and probably can do a better job at creating BTC's than my MacBook :-) A great use of 'your' resources to support No Agenda!
(postscript) I'll up the ante here. Upon a total receipt of 100 BTC's, I will do a new episode of the Daily Source Code podcast. Value for value!
Update: I've received about 35 BTC so far, and to complete the loop I've placed a few orders for 'real world' products that will be delivered to my home. Bath soap and coffee. Payments worked as easily, if not easier than paypal or a credit card. Virtual goods and services is probably a better way to bootstrap this.
My podcast, The Daily Source Code is a 3 hour show. It's quite intense for me to produce it and takes real time and effort. Receiving BTC for this is ok with me, since there appear to be enough online services I can use BTC to pay for. ideally I'd like to use it to pay for a Windows 2003 Server instance and bandwidth. I use other vendors like push.io for my Big App Show pushes that would also be cool to use the BTC's for. I'd consider it a real confirmation of the system working if I could use the value I put into crerating my virtual product to pay for other virtual products I use. TIme will tell, but so far... promising!
I *know* that there is an audience that will pay for me to produce a show. They have funded $500 for an episode previously through kickstarter.
Incoming BTCs has stalled out at 35 BTC, so only 33% (!) of the value needed to get my ass into the studio.
What's the problem? Assuming the audience does want me to produce a show I can only conclude that there aren't enough BTC's to go around. Not enough value in the chain. Yet.
Another possible roadblock: The first and only order I made with BTC's yesterday still shows as being 'processed'. If I can't buy real-world goods reliably, what value does BTC have for me?
OK, time to circle back. As of today, I have received a total of 109.46 BTC in 'value for value' support for me to produce a new episode of the Daily Source Code Podcast. SO clearly there's enough BTC out among the audience to use this currency for a product they want, I in tunr got a confirmation that my coffe and bathsoap payment has been confirmed and products shipped. Conclusion: BitCoin works!
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