The important part is throttling is based on the total amount of computational resources involved in "mining". So, if a breathrough in quantum computing increases the power of a typical home PC by a factor of 1,000,000,000, this won't have any effect on the number of new bitcoins generated.
I read this entire thread and I still have no idea wtf a bit coin is or why anyone would want to buy them. Can you buy real things with them as currency? Can you buy virtual things with them as currency?
You can buy real things via certain web-sites that work similar to ebay or craigslist. You can also buy US dollars with bitcoins. Not sure what "virtual" things you'd like to buy. Bitcoins are not like Linden Dollars in the sense that bitcoins are not "legal tender" in any virtual reality (as far as I know).
You are 100% correct. All a breakthrough like that would do is change who has market share on the supply side. It would be akin to Exxon discovering a sea of oil that is 100x greater than the rest of the world's oil supply combined and a method to get it that is 100x cheaper than current conventional methods. They would monopolize production and wipe out all their competitors.
just reading the rationalizations for this obvious scam makes me want to puke. are you people morons or shills? computational resources ? the last crap I took has enough of that to produce enough shitcoins for the next 1000 years. Ill send you a sample for free. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-yield_investment_program
In way, Bitcoins is the ultimate in people assigning value to otherwise worthless junk. Something has value as along as there is enough people prepared to pay for it. From this prospective Bitcoins are not very different from over-hyped internet stocks or certain mortgage derivatives. So, as a philosophical discussion this thread is right on topic. What makes money valuable? If you read this article, you can find out for yourself that total anonymity of payments makes bitcoins actually useful to some people - not as an "investment" but as a payment method.
This is true. The more people with better and better computers mine them, the harder it is and the BTC/day goes down. For those who mine it now, the best would be just to keep quiet until they accumulate a lot, and THEN they can start to hype it.... Right now for buying drugs over the internet, it is excellent, until the government doesn't step in..... By the way it is NOT totally anonymus...
no it doesnt. it's nothing like your exxon example. stop pretending to know what the fuck you are talking about because you dont have a clue and the only way pikers like you can "dominate" the supply is if you go back 6month in time and everyone else gives up mining. difficulty is increasing at 30%+ every 2weeks and the latest pair of 6990 nets you 1300 Mhash/s. the only thing you will be monopolizing is your own stupidity.