I still don't understand what bitcoin is (are?) and have long since given up on trying to. But I'd be glad to trade some of my Morrowind loot for new games. I'm carrying around a lot of stuff I can't sell, worth upwards of 20-30K gold, this would be a good way to get rid of those.

Bwahahaha, I want to use Monopoly money to purchase here. Fake currency is fake!

BitCoin is sooo last year. PotCoin is where it's at.

Technically all currency is virtual currency. Even the vanishingly few currencies left that are backed by gold (EDIT: I should say metal, since I think at least one still pegs to silver) use the trading price for it, and the trading price for gold exceeded its real value a full zero ago.

In fact, if you knew more about BitCoin, you'd know that it's the closest thing we have to a modern gold standard economy. How's that for a mindjob?

That would be viable, but *ONLY* if morrowind had found a way to make a digital item/token scarce.
(This is what Bitcoin is about.)

I always wondered if there will ever be a game with really unique items. So that let's say there is only one copy of some special magic sword, etc.
In Diablo for example you can have this unique item, but you quickly realize that somebody else have it, too. So it is not unique in any way.

Good point.
What's worse is that I'm always telling people this and then here I go and forget it.

It's that old age, man. I figure any day now I should start breaking hips left and right, if late-night medical infomercials are accurate.

I keep waiting for the cryptocurrency fad to die and it never seems to get there before someone comes up with a "new" one...

Bad enough what it is doing to the GPU market...

Waitwhat? Buttcoins are extremely fucking traceable. The whole transaction history is public by design; coins don't exist except as functions of said transaction history. Buttcoins are used because they're pseudonymous. I honestly don't know why governments don't mark ransom coins and fuck up everyone within their reach (e.g. exchanges) who accepts one. Coin enthusiasts do this when the community gets scammed.


No. Currency is issued and backed by a government. The US dollar, for example, is backed by the US economy and tax collection: if you want to engage in economic activities in or with the US, you need to pay and/or accept payment in US dollars. This sustains a demand for US dollars. For these reasons, the US dollar, both printed and electronic, is a currency.
The ransomware mafia is not a government, and 'coins can't be issued, only mined; it is a commodity, like gold.

Yes, exactly.

Sorry, I don't accept monopoly money. Especially after reading though this fun goldmine.

nah not interested.

Not all things associated with bitcoin are dodgy.
Overclockers.co.uk used to allow you to purchase hardware with bitcoins, few firms still do, such as Scan.co.uk.

You're right a lot of the time but not on this, Starmaker.

Currency does not have to be issued or backed by a government. Coupons, credit cards, commodoty money, and centrally-issued bills/coins are all currencies. In fact you only have to go back a little over a century to find all manner of currencies in the USA neither backed nor issued by the federal government.

Cryptocurrency (or any other digital currency for that matter) can be issued. Though *in the USA* it's considered property rather than a fungible currency, it's nevertheless a recognized money. And even if BitCoin itself has no central issuing authority (and that's not completely clear) that has nothing to do with its status as currency/property/money.

In the EEC bloc area (I think it's Schengen zone but here I may be wrong) BitCoin specifically is exempt from VAT in exchange transactions because it is a legal means of payment. CJEU further defines it as a currency.

uh huh

who cares if it -used- to? clearly they stopped supporting it for a reason

Of course not, even the most organised crime in the world has some legal bits. However it is - proved - used by almost all scammers, fraudsters, balck marketeers. Principally that it is very hard to trace making it ideal for these types of things. Its also a financial bubble, lots of people are now investing in it as the price is rocketing, but that wont last. So the question is two fold - what does it provide over and above normal payments: none other than non-traceable, so only for those who are doing something illegal, and is it a secure finance: no, it will collapse at somepoint.