I just heard about bitcoins reading a wired article about an online drug maketplace. I have always thought an independent currency is essential to a sustainable future economy and this seems to be a very interesting implementation. The open source software behind it and the anonymity and free transactions is was what drew my interest. The so called 'mining' makes joining the network even more lucrative. Early adopters have potentially earned so much from the deflation it reminds many of a ponzi scheme. Now there isn't any scheme behind it but yet investing in it can be really risky, but if many people adopt it can be e great tool for online payments.
Any thoughts? Do you think it can last?
its an interesting concept. one problem it has is that all accounting information is done through peer-to-peer technology, which doesnt scale particularly well in this special case. the amount of bandwidth needed if it would get out of niche and get mainstream could easily exceed 1gb/day per user/wallet. that might be nice for us people with a big pipe, but in alot of places of the world the bandwidth available to the general public is alot smaller.
also i dont think the mining for new coins is especially kosher, since youre basically trading power-usage for an very inefficient way to make money.
The trouble with it from what i can see is that there is nothing actually backing it. It's a fiat currency issued by a group which is not accountable to anyone. Its worth what people will pay for it and if it goes out of fashion it could lose all it's value. The other problem is that its traceable. They can find out who owned it and to whom it was given.