The trading stopped because passwords were leaked and the exchanges wanted users to be able to change their info ASAP. Trading was still going on during that time, just not from the main exchanges.

That's true of any start-up venture. Come on, you have to realize how ridiculous that point is.

A Ponzi scheme by definition must get new money into the system in order to pay the previous people. That's not at all how bitcoin works. If people stop valuing it, then the price for trading it will drop, and the early adopters won't be as rich. If it takes off, they'll get rewarded, but there will still be a fixed supply and bitcoins will still have value. There are plenty of arguments against bitcoin, but being a ponzi scheme is definitively not one of them.

I agree with the notion that because there is more to be stolen from banks, the probability of you account getting violated is higher at a financial institution and they are more prone to be hacked/attacked due to the value of the accounts to hackers. But again, that is irrelevant. I care about the safety of my funds rather than the potential for hackers to hack or not hack my financial institution.

Also, Bitcoin is a new concept, hence may not be a target of hackers yet, but the issue, again, becomes when they get larger and more people have 'trusted' them with their funds and there is substantial sums of money to be 'stolen', then they will become a bigger target of hackers.

What I am trying to get across is that given the fact that there is NO RECOURSE in Bitcoin system for hacked/lost/stolen funds, this system is a non-starter and will never become prevalent.

FYP

kk405:

We're on a poker-related site where the vast majority of players have had money confiscated, and just found out today their chances of seeing that money is very small. We ALL knew the risks (or at least, can't make excuses for not knowing) yet we took that risk because there was profit to be made in the interim. We don't have any recourse for our FTP funds either. So why is it different with bitcoin?

Hackers are all over bitcoin right now. Don't get me wrong, there are security issues, but there are always going to be security issues, just like with poker sites.

PM sent

There is no guarantee that the value of USD or EUR will rise.

Bitcoins are a worthless fad, imo

In no way will people ever play poker for serious stakes using bitcoins as a currency

Stop thinking, you might destroy the one brain cell you have left. In my post I said create a payment processor like them. Not to use them. The reason egold got seized is because it was based in the US and ran by a guy in florida. More info here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egold

That's why the processor like it would have to be located offshore and yes there are many places who would gladly accept poker players business and out money would be safe and out of the reach of the DOJ, etc..etc.

The poker sites have been trying to dance around the govt playing in the system when they should of worked outside the US and created a processor called something like poker-teller.com or something people just open an account that's a numbered account, attached to an email address. Use exchangers to fund the numbered accounts. So then it's You - exchanger - pokerteller - pokersite. No real way for the govt or anyone else to prove if the money came from pokerstars or some porn affiliate program.

Profit...

Is 20 btc buyin NL serious enough for you (~$300nl)? What about 50 btc buyin NL(~$750nl)? Both of these games have been played by people within the past month, refuting your statement.

You have no idea what it is like to have your livelihood ripped away from you. I hope they ban stars in Australia.

FWIW. New York Times Article on Bitcoins

Speed Bumps on the Road to Virtual Cash

I'm pretty sure all bit coin poker sites are played in "bit cents." So it's not $300NL and $750NL. It's $3NL and $7.50NL.

It was changed due to the "rapid increase in bit coin price" according to the poker site.

I'm wondering how a value for bitcoins will eventually be settled upon. The nearest type of currency to bitcoins I can think of is gold or silver and the value of those commodities was, one would think, initially based on their value as components of jewelry. Over many years, because precious metals had other qualities like durability and divisibility which made them attractive as a medium of exchange they then acquired a settled status as currency even though now their supply far exceeds what is necessary for jewelry and other industrial production. But bitcoins don't have some practical use which would act as the initial basis for their value the way precious metals did.

Thank you, but I am well aware that all bitcoin poker sites are currently denominated in bitcents.

But yeah, it in fact was $300NL and $750NL that was played, of course that is at today's prices, the prices were slightly different when the game was actually played.

These games were actually a regular occurrence until the main reg (sethsethseth on stars and betcoin, solid winning player) who used to sit at these stakes all day and wait for action because he "wanted to support this bitcoin poker thing" went out to Vegas for the series. But, I am confident once he returns these games will start running again, since slightly lower games run consistently anyways, and people can't help but gamble with these bitcoin thingys, its like a double gamble, you wanna win them cause they're worth money right now, plus the .0001% chance it ever becomes world currency gives you two dopamine rushes when you win them.

You still have similar problems with an alternative e-gold. There is no way to guarantee the money is actually there, or get seized by the local government.

You still need a way to purchase them. You need a way to transfer it back to the US. It's the same problems poker sites had with dollars.

The exchangers would have been made illegal, just as neteller was made illegal for US residents. This *has* been done before. This has failed before.

Decentralize the whole thing, and it becomes much harder to stop.

grunch:

LOL no

How about giftcards?

There is no problem with buying and selling bitcoins.
Just use the bitcoin forums.
As long as people actively buy and sell from each other, all is well.

Use trusted sellers.

I did some research and liberty reserve has been running for years with no problems.... I know if a site offered it, I would gladly fund and play... esp since you can get debit cards that can be loaded with LR.

I have it on good authority Ray Bitar owns Bitcoins.

In related news there is no recourse for lost, stolen, or fake cash. At least the third one is not possible w/ bitcoin.

Sure. If you have a wallet simply create a poker room account, they will give you an address to send funds. From your wallet select send and enter the address. In about 15 min to 2 hours the money will be credited in your poker account.

Just tried betco.in for the first time last night. The whole process was pretty easy to get set up and start playing.

Just choose a username, password and give them a valid email. They give you a BTC address to send the coins to. As soon as one person confirms it (about 20-30 min) the coins are available for play.

I played 2-4nl for about 5 hours last night and while their is several regs the majority of people range from bad to awful.

The only problem is the software, when its working good its tolerable but it often lags badly, times you out and occasionally you won't have any cards or can't see the flop turn or river. So hopefully when the rake money starts adding up they improve the software.

All in all I'm a big fan and recommend this to everyone who's jonesing for a game after black Friday.

any other reviews of bitcoin poker sites would be appreciated.

+1 thanks

Aren't bitcoins underlying value the goods and services of other people? when one wants to cash in on these bitcoins who is supposed to do the labor to "mine" these coins? Do I have this wrong?