Bitcoin Wiki - User contributions [en]

Spendbitcoins.com

2020-06-16T23:54:52Z

HK:

[[File:SpendBitcoins.jpg|300px|thumb|right|A page displaying the results of "ASIC" search query]]

'''SpendBitcoins.com''' is a website which provides its users with information about where they can spend their [[Bitcoin|bitcoins]]. Though the website is still live (as of mid-2020), it appears to have been all but abandoned; many, if not most, of the businesses that it references are defunct, and it includes many broken links.

Some alternative services which appear to be better-maintained include [https://spendabit.co/ Spendabit], which also acts as a product search engine for Bitcoin-enabled businesses, and [https://spending-bitcoin.com/ Spending-Bitcoin.com].

== Mission ==

The SpendBitcoins team claims to be completely dedicated to Bitcoin. They are "committed to bringing bitcoin to your daily life as well, by making bitcoin as easy and comfortable as slipping into a pair of old jeans" as said on their own website.

The project's goal is to allow anyone, anywhere, anytime to be able to buy and use bitcoins as easily as using cash, or even easier because of digital nature of Bitcoin, which cash does not possess.

In addition to gathering and systemizing info about services that accept Bitcoin, the SpendBitcoins also provides a one-click option of buying the coins and a "superb-quality" customer service.

== History ==

Spend Bitcoins was started by Jeremy West in 2011 when he realized how difficult bitcoins were to buy in Australia. He gathered his dedicated companions to build Spend Bitcoins into the strong, stable and reliable service that it is now.

== See also ==

* [[Bitcoin]]
* [[Buying Bitcoin]]
* [[Trade]]

== External links ==

[https://spendbitcoins.com/ SpendBitcoins]

Spendbitcoins.com

2020-06-16T23:54:28Z

HK: Add note about SpendBitcoins.com being essentially defunct, and add links to alternative services

[[File:SpendBitcoins.jpg|300px|thumb|right|A page displaying the results of "ASIC" search query]]

'''SpendBitcoins.com''' is a website which provides its users with information about where they can spend their [[Bitcoin|bitcoins]]. Though the website is still live (as of mid-2020), it appears to have been all but abandoned; many, if not most, of the businesses that it references are defunct, and it includes many broken links.

Some alternative services which appear to be better-maintained include [https://spendabit.co/ Spendabit], which also acts as a product search engine (for Bitcoin-enabled businesses), and [https://spending-bitcoin.com/ Spending-Bitcoin.com].

== Mission ==

The SpendBitcoins team claims to be completely dedicated to Bitcoin. They are "committed to bringing bitcoin to your daily life as well, by making bitcoin as easy and comfortable as slipping into a pair of old jeans" as said on their own website.

The project's goal is to allow anyone, anywhere, anytime to be able to buy and use bitcoins as easily as using cash, or even easier because of digital nature of Bitcoin, which cash does not possess.

In addition to gathering and systemizing info about services that accept Bitcoin, the SpendBitcoins also provides a one-click option of buying the coins and a "superb-quality" customer service.

== History ==

Spend Bitcoins was started by Jeremy West in 2011 when he realized how difficult bitcoins were to buy in Australia. He gathered his dedicated companions to build Spend Bitcoins into the strong, stable and reliable service that it is now.

== See also ==

* [[Bitcoin]]
* [[Buying Bitcoin]]
* [[Trade]]

== External links ==

[https://spendbitcoins.com/ SpendBitcoins]

Myths

2011-12-25T23:55:01Z

HK:

Let's clear up some common Bitcoin misconceptions.

== Bitcoin is just like all other digital currencies; nothing new ==

Nearly all other digital currencies are centrally controlled. This means that:
* they can be printed at the subjective whims of the controllers
* they can be destroyed by attacking the central point of control
* arbitrary rules can be imposed upon their users by the controllers

Being decentralized, Bitcoin solves all of these problems.

== Bitcoins don't solve any problems that fiat currency and/or gold doesn't solve ==

Unlike gold, bitcoins are:
* easy to transfer
* easy to secure
* easy to verify
* easy to granulate

Unlike fiat currencies, bitcoins are:
* predictable and limited in [[Controlled_Currency_Supply|supply]]
* not controlled by a central authority (such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve The Fed])

Unlike electronic fiat currency systems, bitcoins are:
* potentially anonymous
* freeze-proof
* faster to transfer
* cheaper to transfer

== Bitcoin is backed by processing power ==

It is not correct to say that Bitcoin is backed by processing power. A currency being "backed" by something means that it is pegged to something else via a central party at a certain exchange rate. You cannot exchange bitcoins for the computing power that was used to create them. Bitcoin is in this sense not backed by anything. It is a currency in its own right. Similar to gold - is gold backed by anything? No! It's just gold. The same applies with Bitcoin.

The Bitcoin currency is ''created'' via processing power, and the integrity of the block chain is ''protected'' by the existence of a large network of computing nodes from certain possible [[Weaknesses#Attacker_has_a_lot_of_computing_power|attacks]]. And that is all.

== Bitcoins are worthless because they aren't backed by anything ==

Gold isn't backed by anything either. Bitcoins have properties inherent to its design that are subjectively valued by individuals. This valuation is demonstrated when individuals freely exchange for or with bitcoins. Please refer to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjective_theory_of_value Subjective Theory of Value]. See also myth [[#Bitcoin_is_backed_by_processing_power|Bitcoin is backed by processing power]].

== The value of bitcoins are based on how much electricity and computing power it takes to mine them ==

This statement is an attempt to apply to Bitcoin the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_theory_of_value labor theory of value], which is generally accepted as false. Just because something takes X resources to create does not mean that the resulting product will be worth X. It can be worth more, or less, depending on the utility thereof to its users.

In fact the causality is the reverse of that (this applies to the labor theory of value in general). The cost to mine Bitcoins is based on how much they are worth. If Bitcoins go up in value, more people will mine (because [[Mining|mining]] is profitable), thus [[difficulty]] will go up, thus the cost of mining will go up. The inverse happens if bitcoins go down in value. These effects balance out to cause mining to always cost the amount of bitcoins it produces.

== Bitcoins have no intrinsic value (unlike some other things) ==

It is true that bitcoins have no intrinsic value, in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrinsic_value_%28numismatics%29 numismatic sense], in other words, value in any realm outside of being used as a medium of exchange.

However, while some tangible commodities do have intrinsic value, that value is generally much less than its trading price. Consider for example that gold, if it were not used as an inflation-proof store of value, but rather only for its industrial uses, would certainly not be worth what it is today, since the industrial requirements for gold are far smaller than the available supply thereof.

While historically intrinsic value, as well as other attributes like divisibility, fungibility, scarcity, durability, helped establish certain commodities as mediums of exchange, it is certainly not a prerequisite. While bitcoins lack 'intrinsic value' in this sense, they make up for it in spades by possessing the other qualities necessary to make it a good medium of exchange, equal to or better than [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_money commodity money].

Value is ultimately determined by what people are willing to trade for - by supply and demand.

== Bitcoins are illegal because they're not legal tender ==

Short answer: chickens aren't legal tender either, but bartering with chickens is not illegal.

There are a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_currency number of currencies] in existence that are not official government-backed currencies. A currency is, after all, nothing more than a convenient unit of account. While national laws may vary from country to country, and you should certainly check the laws of your jurisdiction, in general trading in any commodity, including digital currency like Bitcoin, game currencies like WoW gold or Linden dollars, is not illegal.

== Bitcoin is a form of domestic terrorism because it only harms the economic stability of the USA and its currency ==

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_terrorism#United_States according to this, you need to do violent activities to be considered a terrorist for legal purposes. This has no bearing on politicians and idiotic US attorney's public remarks.

Also, Bitcoin isn't domestic. It's a worldwide community. See this map of Bitcoin nodes
http://forum.bitcoin.org/?topic=2346.0

== Bitcoin will only enable tax evaders which will lead to the eventual downfall of civilization ==

Cash transactions hold the same level of anonymity but are still taxed successfully. It is up to you to follow the applicable state laws in your home country, or face the consequences.

While it may be easy to transfer bitcoins anonymously, ''spending'' them anonymously on tangibles is just as hard as spending any other kind of money anonymously. Tax evaders are often caught because of suspicious purchases, or undeclared assets, not because government is able to follow their money.

== Bitcoins can be printed/minted by anyone and are therefore worthless ==

Bitcoins are not printed/minted. Instead, [[Blocks]] are computed by miners and for their efforts they are awarded a specific amount of bitcoins + transaction fees. See [[Blocks]] for more information on how this process works.

== Bitcoins are worthless because they're based on unproven cryptography ==

SHA256 and ECDSA which are used in Bitcoin are well-known industry standard algorithms. If you believe that these algorithms are untrustworthy then you should not trust Bitcoin, credit card transactions or any type of electronic bank transfer.

== Early adopters are unfairly rewarded ==

Early adopters are rewarded for taking the higher risk with their time and money.

In more pragmatic terms, "fairness" is an arbitrary concept that is improbable to be agreed upon by a large population. Establishing "fairness" is no goal of Bitcoin, as this would be impossible.

The vast majority of the 21 million Bitcoins still have not been distributed. By starting to mine or acquire bitcoins today, you too can become an early adopter.

== 21 million coins isn't enough; doesn't scale ==

One Bitcoin is divisible down to eight decimal places. There are really 2,099,999,997,690,000 (just over 2 quadrillion) maximum possible atomic units in the bitcoin design.

The value of "1 BTC" represents 100,000,000 of these. In other words, each is divisible by up to 10^8.

As the value of the unit of 1 BTC grows too large to be useful for day to day transactions, people can start dealing in smaller [[Units|units]], such as milli-bitcoins (mBTC) or micro-bitcoins (μBTC).

== Bitcoins are stored in wallet files, just copy the wallet file to get more coins! ==

No, your wallet contains your secret keys, giving you the rights to spend your bitcoins. Think of it like having bank details stored in a file. If you give your bank details (or bitcoin wallet) to someone else, that doesn't double the amount of money in your account. You can spend your money or they can spend your money, but not both.

== Lost coins can't be replaced and this is bad ==

Bitcoins are divisible to 0.00000001, so this is not a problem. If you lose your coins, all other coins will go up in value a little. Consider it a donation to all other bitcoin users.

A related question is: Why don't we have a mechanism to replace lost coins? The answer is that it is impossible to distinguish between a 'lost' coin and one that is simply sitting unused in someone's safe.

== It's a giant ponzi scheme ==
In a Ponzi Scheme, the founders persuade investors that they’ll profit. Bitcoin does not make such a guarantee. There is no central entity, just individuals building an economy.

A ponzi scheme is a zero sum game. Early adopters can only profit at the expense of late adopters. Bitcoin has possible win-win outcomes. Early adopters profit from the rise in value. Late adopters profit from the usefulness of a stable and widely accepted p2p currency.

Not to be confused with the [[Bitcoin randomizer|Bitcoin Randomizer]] which is a game that really is self-described as a Ponzi scheme.

== Finite coins plus lost coins means deflationary spiral ==
As deflationary forces may apply, economic factors such as hoarding are offset by human factors that may lessen the chances that a [[Deflationary spiral]] will occur.

== Bitcoin can't work because there is no way to control inflation ==

Inflation is simply a rise of prices over time, which is generally the result of the devaluing of a currency. This is a function of supply and demand. Given the fact that the supply of bitcoins is fixed at a certain amount, unlike fiat money, the only way for inflation to get out of control is for demand to disappear. Temporary inflation is possible with a rapid adoption of Fractional Reserve Banking but will stabilize once a substantial number of the 21 million "hard" bitcoins are stored as reserves by banks.

Given the fact that Bitcoin is a distributed system of currency, if demand were to decrease to almost nothing, the currency would be doomed anyway.

The key point here is that Bitcoin as a currency can't be inflated by any single person or entity, like a government, as there's no way to increase supply past a certain amount.

Indeed, the most likely scenario, as Bitcoin becomes more popular and demand increases, is for the currency to increase in value, or deflate, until demand stabilizes.

== The Bitcoin community consists of anarchist/conspiracy theorist/gold standard 'weenies' ==

The members of the community vary in their ideological stances.

== Anyone with enough computing power can take over the network ==

CONFIRMED, see [[Weaknesses]].

That said, as the network grows, it becomes harder and harder for a single entity to do so. Already the Bitcoin network's computing power is quite ahead of the world's fastest supercomputers, together.

What an attacker can do once the network is taken over is quite limited. Under no circumstances could an attacker take anybody else's money. An attacker's capabilities are limited to taking back their own money that they very recently spent, and preventing other people's transactions from receiving confirmations. Such an attack would be very costly in resources, and for such meager benefits there is little rational economic incentive to do such a thing.

Furthermore, this attack scenario would only be feasible for as long as it was actively underway. As soon as the attack stopped, the network would resume normal operation.

== Bitcoin violates governmental regulations ==

Name them if you can.

See also the [[Myths#Bitcoins_are_illegal_because_it_s_not_legal_tender|legal tender]] question.

== Fractional reserve banking is not possible ==

Please see the main article, [[Fractional Reserve Banking and Bitcoin]]

== Point of sale with bitcoins isn't possible because of the 10 minute wait for confirmation ==

Transactions [[FAQ#Why_do_I_have_to_wait_10_minutes_before_I_can_spend_money_I_received.3F|can]] take tens of minutes to become ''confirmed'', and this won't change for the foreseeable future. Even after the computing power of the network is orders of magnitude larger than today, the difficulty of generating a block will self-adjust to maintain a target of 6 blocks per hour. Three potential solutions to allow POS transactions are:

'''1.''' For small transactions, simply assume the customer isn't ripping you off. Give the customer his latte immediately after the transaction posts to the network. The transaction should propagate through the network almost instantly, allowing the seller to see the transaction within seconds (albeit with zero confirmations.) The cost of a double-spend attack should make small-scale fraud not worthwhile.

'''2.''' Utilize a [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=423.msg3819#msg3819 'listening' period] prior to rendering the service or good. This has yet to be formally implemented in the standard Bitcoin client, but would allow a vendor to receive the transaction and then monitor the Bitcoin network for a certain period of time (maybe 10 seconds) for possible double spends. Vendors might utilize specialized payment processors with multiple well-connected nodes for this purpose. As explained by Satoshi, the network nodes only accept the first version of a transaction they receive to incorporate into the block they're trying to generate. When you broadcast a transaction, if someone else broadcasts a double-spend at the same time, it is a race to propagate them to the most nodes first. If one has a slight head start, it will geometrically spread through the network and get many times more nodes. Additionally, a payment "processing" company could blast out the transaction to thousands of nodes instantly and listen for double spend attempts. The probability of the attacker thwarting such a system would be so low that a payment processor could ''guarantee'' payments and eat the cost if a double-spend attempt actually succeeds. If a double-spend attempt is detected, the vendor is notified: no latte, and a call to the police should be put in immediately.

'''3.''' Create a network of transaction hubs. These entities would communicate using a common API. They would float short-term loans between each other to facilitate instant transactions.

Imagine that Alice uses Carol's Clearinghouse as her hub, and Bob uses Dave's Anonymous Exchange. Both Alice and Bob have accounts with their respective hubs, and have already deposited some bitcoins in their accounts. When Alice wants to buy a latte from Bob at a point of sale, Alice tells Carol "I want to send Bob ''x'' bitcoins. He uses Dave's Anonymous Exchange." After checking that Alice's account does contain at least ''x'' bitcoins, Carol sends a message to Dave, saying "Credit Bob's account with ''x'' bitcoins immediately; I'll send you the real bitcoins in the next block." Bob instantly sees his balance increase, and gives Alice her latte.

Optionally, option 3 allows all parties to circumvent use of the block-chain and its associated fees altogether. If Alice and Bob have accounts with Carol and Dave, then Carol and Dave are effectively functioning as banks. Carol and Dave can credit and debit millions of accounts millions of times daily and only "re-balance" money owed at the end of each business day through a single transaction in the Bitcoin block-chain.

Option 3 requires trust. Alice has to trust Carol's Clearinghouse, and the hubs have to trust each other. Due to competition, various hubs could develop with vastly different fee structures, membership requirements, trustability, etc. The advantage of option 3 is that it is instant. The disadvantage of option 3 is that trust is required. If trust is not established, option 2 can be used.

== After 21 million coins are mined, no one will generate new blocks ==

When operating costs can't be covered by the block creation bounty, which will happen some time before the total amount of BTC is reached, miners will earn some profit from [[transaction fees]]. However unlike the block reward, there is [http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/876/how-much-will-transaction-fees-eventually-be/895#895 no coupling between transaction fees and the need for security], so there is less of a guarantee that the amount of [[Mining|mining]] being performed will be sufficient to maintain the network's security.

== Bitcoin has no built-in chargeback mechanism, and this isn't good ==

'''Why some people think this is bad''': Chargebacks are useful for limiting fraud. The person handling your money has a responsibility to prevent fraud. If you buy something on eBay and the seller never ships it, PayPal takes funds from the seller's account and gives you back the money. This strengthens the eBay economy, because people recognize that their risk is limited and are more willing to purchase items from risky sellers.

'''Why it's actually a good thing''': Bitcoin is designed such that your money is yours and yours alone. Allowing chargebacks implies that it is possible for another entity to take your money from you. You can have either total ownership rights of your money, or fraud protection, but not both. That said, nothing prevents the creation of services overlayed on top of Bitcoin that provide fraud protection services.

The statement "The person handling your money has a responsibility to prevent fraud" is still true; the power has been shifted into your own hands. Fraud will always exist. It's up to you to only send bitcoins to trusted entities. It is possible to trust an online identity without ever knowing their physical identity; see the [http://wiki.bitcoin-otc.com/wiki/OTC_Rating_System OTC Web of Trust].

== Quantum computers would break Bitcoin's security ==

Yes, but quantum computers don't yet exist and probably won't for a while. Bitcoin's security can be [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-quantum_cryptography upgraded] if this were considered an imminent threat.

See the implications of quantum computers on public key cryptography here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computer#Potential

The ''risk'' of quantum computers is also there for financial institutions, like banks, because they heavily rely on cryptography when doing transactions.

== [[Mining|Bitcoin mining]] is a waste of energy and harmful for ecology ==

No more so than the wastefulness of mining gold out of the ground, melting it down and shaping it into bars, and then putting it back underground again. Not to mention the building of big fancy buildings, the waste of energy printing and minting all the various fiat currencies, the transportation thereof in armored cars by no less than two security guards for each who could probably be doing something more productive, etc.

As far as mediums of exchange go, Bitcoin is actually quite economical of resources, compared to others.

'''Economic Argument 1'''

[[Mining|Bitcoin mining]] is a highly competitive, dynamic, almost [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_market perfect], market. Mining rigs can be set up and dismantled almost anywhere in the world with relative ease. Thus, market forces are constantly pushing mining activity to ''places'' and ''times'' where the marginal price of electricity is low or zero. These electricity products are cheap for a reason. Often it’s because the electricity is difficult (and wasteful) to transport, difficult to store, or because there is low demand and high supply. Using electricity in this way is a lot less wasteful than simply plugging a mining rig into the mains indiscriminately.

For example, Iceland produces an excess of cheap electricity from renewable sources, but it has no way of exporting electricity because of its remote location. It is conceivable that at some point in future Bitcoin mining will only be profitable in places like Iceland, and unprofitable in places like central Europe, where electricity comes mostly from nuclear and fossil sources.

Market forces could even push mining into innovative solutions that have a ''net'' electricity consumption of ''zero''. For example, electric heaters could come equipped with a cheap CPU instead of a resistance coil.

'''Economic Argument 2'''

When the environmental costs of mining are considered, they need to be weighed up against the benefits. If you question Bitcoin on the grounds that it consumes electricity, then you should also ask questions like this: Will Bitcoin promote economic growth by freeing up trade? Will this speed up the rate of technological innovation? Will this lead to faster development of green technologies? Will Bitcoin enable new, border crossing [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_grid smart grid] technologies? …

Dismissal of Bitcoin because of its costs, while ignoring is benefits, is a dishonest argument. In fact, any environmental argument of this type is dishonest, not just pertaining to Bitcoin. Along similar lines, it could be argued that wind turbines are bad for the environment because making the steel structure consumes energy.

== Shopkeepers can't seriously set prices in bitcoins because of the volatile exchange rate ==

Your assumption is that bitcoins must be sold immediately to cover operating expenses. If the shopkeeper's back-end expenses were transacted in bitcoins as well, then the exchange rate would be irrelevant. Larger adoption of Bitcoin would make prices [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky_%28economics%29 sticky]. Future volatility is expected to decrease, as the size and depth of the market grows.

In the meantime, many merchants simply regularly pull the latest market rates from the exchanges and automatically update the prices on their websites. Also you might be able to buy a put option in order to sell at a fixed rate for a given amount of time. This would protect you from drops in price and simplify your operations for that time period.

== Like Flooz and e-gold, bitcoins serve as opportunities for criminals and will be shut down ==

* Hopefully Bitcoin will grow to the point where no single organization can disrupt the network, or would be better served by helping it.
* Terrorists fly aircraft into buildings, but the governments have not yet abolished consumer air travel. Obviously the public good outweighs the possible bad in their opinion.
* Criminal law differs between jurisdictions.

== Bitcoins will be shut down by the government just like Liberty Dollars were ==

Liberty Dollars started as a commercial venture to establish an alternative US currency, including physical banknotes and coins, backed by precious metals. This, in and of itself, is not illegal. They were prosecuted under counterfeiting laws because the silver coins allegedly resembled US currency.

Bitcoins are not coins at all, nor are they banknotes. They do not resemble US currency in any way, shape, or form. The word "dollar" is not attached to them in any way. The "$" symbol is not used in any way.

Bitcoins have no representational similarity whatsoever to US dollars.

Of course, actually 'shutting down' Liberty Dollars was as easy as arresting the head of the company and seizing the offices. The decentralized Bitcoin, with no leader, no servers, and no office, does not have the same vulnerability.

== Bitcoin is not decentralized because the developers can dictate the software's behaviour ==

The Bitcoin protocol was originally defined by Bitcoin's inventor, [[Satoshi Nakamoto]], and this protocol has now been widely accepted as the standard by the community of miners and users.

Though the developers of the original Bitcoin client still exert influence over the Bitcoin community, their power to arbitrarily modify the protocol is very limited. Since the release of Bitcoin v0.3, changes to the protocol have been minor and always in agreement with community consensus.

Protocol modifications, such as increasing the block award from 50 to 100 BTC, are not compatible with clients already running in the network. If the developers were to release a new client that the majority of miners perceives as corrupt, or in violation of the project’s aims, that client would simply not catch on, and the few users who do try to use it would find that their transactions get rejected by the network.

There are also other Bitcoin clients made by other groups of developers that adhere to the Bitcoin protocol. As more developers create alternative clients, less power will lie with the developers of the original Bitcoin client.

[[de:Mythen]]

Myths

2011-12-25T23:49:07Z

HK:

Let's clear up some common Bitcoin misconceptions.

== Bitcoin is just like all other digital currencies; nothing new ==

Nearly all other digital currencies are centrally controlled. This means that:
* they can be printed at the subjective whims of the controllers
* they can be destroyed by attacking the central point of control
* arbitrary rules can be imposed upon their users by the controllers

Being decentralized, Bitcoin solves all of these problems.

== Bitcoins don't solve any problems that fiat currency and/or gold doesn't solve ==

Unlike gold, bitcoins are:
* easy to transfer
* easy to secure
* easy to verify
* easy to granulate

Unlike fiat currencies, bitcoins are:
* predictable and limited in [[Controlled_Currency_Supply|supply]]
* not controlled by a central authority (such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve The Fed])

Unlike electronic fiat currency systems, bitcoins are:
* potentially anonymous
* freeze-proof
* faster to transfer
* cheaper to transfer

== Bitcoin is backed by processing power ==

It is not correct to say that Bitcoin is backed by processing power. A currency being "backed" by something means that it is pegged to something else via a central party at a certain exchange rate. You cannot exchange bitcoins for the computing power that was used to create them. Bitcoin is in this sense not backed by anything. It is a currency in its own right. Similar to gold - is gold backed by anything? No! It's just gold. The same applies with Bitcoin.

The Bitcoin currency is ''created'' via processing power, and the integrity of the block chain is ''protected'' by the existence of a large network of computing nodes from certain possible [[Weaknesses#Attacker_has_a_lot_of_computing_power|attacks]]. And that is all.

== Bitcoins are worthless because they aren't backed by anything ==

Gold isn't backed by anything either. Bitcoins have properties inherent to its design that are subjectively valued by individuals. This valuation is demonstrated when individuals freely exchange for or with bitcoins. Please refer to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjective_theory_of_value Subjective Theory of Value]. See also myth [[#Bitcoin_is_backed_by_processing_power|Bitcoin is backed by processing power]].

== Bitcoins value is based on how much electricity and computing power it takes to mine them ==

This statement is an attempt to apply to Bitcoin the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_theory_of_value labor theory of value], which is generally accepted as false. Just because something takes X resources to create does not mean that the resulting product will be worth X. It can be worth more, or less, depending on the utility thereof to its users.

In fact the causality is the reverse of that (this applies to the labor theory of value in general). The cost to mine Bitcoins is based on how much they are worth. If Bitcoins go up in value, more people will mine (because [[Mining|mining]] is profitable), thus [[difficulty]] will go up, thus the cost of mining will go up. The inverse happens if bitcoins go down in value. These effects balance out to cause mining to always cost the amount of bitcoins it produces.

== Bitcoins have no intrinsic value (unlike some other things) ==

It is true that bitcoins have no intrinsic value, in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrinsic_value_%28numismatics%29 numismatic sense], in other words, value in any realm outside of being used as a medium of exchange.

However, while some tangible commodities do have intrinsic value, that value is generally much less than its trading price. Consider for example that gold, if it were not used as an inflation-proof store of value, but rather only for its industrial uses, would certainly not be worth what it is today, since the industrial requirements for gold are far smaller than the available supply thereof.

While historically intrinsic value, as well as other attributes like divisibility, fungibility, scarcity, durability, helped establish certain commodities as mediums of exchange, it is certainly not a prerequisite. While bitcoins lack 'intrinsic value' in this sense, they make up for it in spades by possessing the other qualities necessary to make it a good medium of exchange, equal to or better than [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_money commodity money].

Value is ultimately determined by what people are willing to trade for - by supply and demand.

== Bitcoins are illegal because they're not legal tender ==

Short answer: chickens aren't legal tender either, but bartering with chickens is not illegal.

There are a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_currency number of currencies] in existence that are not official government-backed currencies. A currency is, after all, nothing more than a convenient unit of account. While national laws may vary from country to country, and you should certainly check the laws of your jurisdiction, in general trading in any commodity, including digital currency like Bitcoin, game currencies like WoW gold or Linden dollars, is not illegal.

== Bitcoin is a form of domestic terrorism because it only harms the economic stability of the USA and its currency ==

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_terrorism#United_States according to this, you need to do violent activities to be considered a terrorist for legal purposes. This has no bearing on politicians and idiotic US attorney's public remarks.

Also, Bitcoin isn't domestic. It's a worldwide community. See this map of Bitcoin nodes
http://forum.bitcoin.org/?topic=2346.0

== Bitcoin will only enable tax evaders which will lead to the eventual downfall of civilization ==

Cash transactions hold the same level of anonymity but are still taxed successfully. It is up to you to follow the applicable state laws in your home country, or face the consequences.

While it may be easy to transfer bitcoins anonymously, ''spending'' them anonymously on tangibles is just as hard as spending any other kind of money anonymously. Tax evaders are often caught because of suspicious purchases, or undeclared assets, not because government is able to follow their money.

== Bitcoins can be printed/minted by anyone and are therefore worthless ==

Bitcoins are not printed/minted. Instead, [[Blocks]] are computed by miners and for their efforts they are awarded a specific amount of bitcoins + transaction fees. See [[Blocks]] for more information on how this process works.

== Bitcoins are worthless because they're based on unproven cryptography ==

SHA256 and ECDSA which are used in Bitcoin are well-known industry standard algorithms. If you believe that these algorithms are untrustworthy then you should not trust Bitcoin, credit card transactions or any type of electronic bank transfer.

== Early adopters are unfairly rewarded ==

Early adopters are rewarded for taking the higher risk with their time and money.

In more pragmatic terms, "fairness" is an arbitrary concept that is improbable to be agreed upon by a large population. Establishing "fairness" is no goal of Bitcoin, as this would be impossible.

The vast majority of the 21 million Bitcoins still have not been distributed. By starting to mine or acquire bitcoins today, you too can become an early adopter.

== 21 million coins isn't enough; doesn't scale ==

One Bitcoin is divisible down to eight decimal places. There are really 2,099,999,997,690,000 (just over 2 quadrillion) maximum possible atomic units in the bitcoin design.

The value of "1 BTC" represents 100,000,000 of these. In other words, each is divisible by up to 10^8.

As the value of the unit of 1 BTC grows too large to be useful for day to day transactions, people can start dealing in smaller [[Units|units]], such as milli-bitcoins (mBTC) or micro-bitcoins (μBTC).

== Bitcoins are stored in wallet files, just copy the wallet file to get more coins! ==

No, your wallet contains your secret keys, giving you the rights to spend your bitcoins. Think of it like having bank details stored in a file. If you give your bank details (or bitcoin wallet) to someone else, that doesn't double the amount of money in your account. You can spend your money or they can spend your money, but not both.

== Lost coins can't be replaced and this is bad ==

Bitcoins are divisible to 0.00000001, so this is not a problem. If you lose your coins, all other coins will go up in value a little. Consider it a donation to all other bitcoin users.

A related question is: Why don't we have a mechanism to replace lost coins? The answer is that it is impossible to distinguish between a 'lost' coin and one that is simply sitting unused in someone's safe.

== It's a giant ponzi scheme ==
In a Ponzi Scheme, the founders persuade investors that they’ll profit. Bitcoin does not make such a guarantee. There is no central entity, just individuals building an economy.

A ponzi scheme is a zero sum game. Early adopters can only profit at the expense of late adopters. Bitcoin has possible win-win outcomes. Early adopters profit from the rise in value. Late adopters profit from the usefulness of a stable and widely accepted p2p currency.

Not to be confused with the [[Bitcoin randomizer|Bitcoin Randomizer]] which is a game that really is self-described as a Ponzi scheme.

== Finite coins plus lost coins means deflationary spiral ==
As deflationary forces may apply, economic factors such as hoarding are offset by human factors that may lessen the chances that a [[Deflationary spiral]] will occur.

== Bitcoin can't work because there is no way to control inflation ==

Inflation is simply a rise of prices over time, which is generally the result of the devaluing of a currency. This is a function of supply and demand. Given the fact that the supply of bitcoins is fixed at a certain amount, unlike fiat money, the only way for inflation to get out of control is for demand to disappear. Temporary inflation is possible with a rapid adoption of Fractional Reserve Banking but will stabilize once a substantial number of the 21 million "hard" bitcoins are stored as reserves by banks.

Given the fact that Bitcoin is a distributed system of currency, if demand were to decrease to almost nothing, the currency would be doomed anyway.

The key point here is that Bitcoin as a currency can't be inflated by any single person or entity, like a government, as there's no way to increase supply past a certain amount.

Indeed, the most likely scenario, as Bitcoin becomes more popular and demand increases, is for the currency to increase in value, or deflate, until demand stabilizes.

== The Bitcoin community consists of anarchist/conspiracy theorist/gold standard 'weenies' ==

The members of the community vary in their ideological stances.

== Anyone with enough computing power can take over the network ==

CONFIRMED, see [[Weaknesses]].

That said, as the network grows, it becomes harder and harder for a single entity to do so. Already the Bitcoin network's computing power is quite ahead of the world's fastest supercomputers, together.

What an attacker can do once the network is taken over is quite limited. Under no circumstances could an attacker take anybody else's money. An attacker's capabilities are limited to taking back their own money that they very recently spent, and preventing other people's transactions from receiving confirmations. Such an attack would be very costly in resources, and for such meager benefits there is little rational economic incentive to do such a thing.

Furthermore, this attack scenario would only be feasible for as long as it was actively underway. As soon as the attack stopped, the network would resume normal operation.

== Bitcoin violates governmental regulations ==

Name them if you can.

See also the [[Myths#Bitcoins_are_illegal_because_it_s_not_legal_tender|legal tender]] question.

== Fractional reserve banking is not possible ==

Please see the main article, [[Fractional Reserve Banking and Bitcoin]]

== Point of sale with bitcoins isn't possible because of the 10 minute wait for confirmation ==

Transactions [[FAQ#Why_do_I_have_to_wait_10_minutes_before_I_can_spend_money_I_received.3F|can]] take tens of minutes to become ''confirmed'', and this won't change for the foreseeable future. Even after the computing power of the network is orders of magnitude larger than today, the difficulty of generating a block will self-adjust to maintain a target of 6 blocks per hour. Three potential solutions to allow POS transactions are:

'''1.''' For small transactions, simply assume the customer isn't ripping you off. Give the customer his latte immediately after the transaction posts to the network. The transaction should propagate through the network almost instantly, allowing the seller to see the transaction within seconds (albeit with zero confirmations.) The cost of a double-spend attack should make small-scale fraud not worthwhile.

'''2.''' Utilize a [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=423.msg3819#msg3819 'listening' period] prior to rendering the service or good. This has yet to be formally implemented in the standard Bitcoin client, but would allow a vendor to receive the transaction and then monitor the Bitcoin network for a certain period of time (maybe 10 seconds) for possible double spends. Vendors might utilize specialized payment processors with multiple well-connected nodes for this purpose. As explained by Satoshi, the network nodes only accept the first version of a transaction they receive to incorporate into the block they're trying to generate. When you broadcast a transaction, if someone else broadcasts a double-spend at the same time, it is a race to propagate them to the most nodes first. If one has a slight head start, it will geometrically spread through the network and get many times more nodes. Additionally, a payment "processing" company could blast out the transaction to thousands of nodes instantly and listen for double spend attempts. The probability of the attacker thwarting such a system would be so low that a payment processor could ''guarantee'' payments and eat the cost if a double-spend attempt actually succeeds. If a double-spend attempt is detected, the vendor is notified: no latte, and a call to the police should be put in immediately.

'''3.''' Create a network of transaction hubs. These entities would communicate using a common API. They would float short-term loans between each other to facilitate instant transactions.

Imagine that Alice uses Carol's Clearinghouse as her hub, and Bob uses Dave's Anonymous Exchange. Both Alice and Bob have accounts with their respective hubs, and have already deposited some bitcoins in their accounts. When Alice wants to buy a latte from Bob at a point of sale, Alice tells Carol "I want to send Bob ''x'' bitcoins. He uses Dave's Anonymous Exchange." After checking that Alice's account does contain at least ''x'' bitcoins, Carol sends a message to Dave, saying "Credit Bob's account with ''x'' bitcoins immediately; I'll send you the real bitcoins in the next block." Bob instantly sees his balance increase, and gives Alice her latte.

Optionally, option 3 allows all parties to circumvent use of the block-chain and its associated fees altogether. If Alice and Bob have accounts with Carol and Dave, then Carol and Dave are effectively functioning as banks. Carol and Dave can credit and debit millions of accounts millions of times daily and only "re-balance" money owed at the end of each business day through a single transaction in the Bitcoin block-chain.

Option 3 requires trust. Alice has to trust Carol's Clearinghouse, and the hubs have to trust each other. Due to competition, various hubs could develop with vastly different fee structures, membership requirements, trustability, etc. The advantage of option 3 is that it is instant. The disadvantage of option 3 is that trust is required. If trust is not established, option 2 can be used.

== After 21 million coins are mined, no one will generate new blocks ==

When operating costs can't be covered by the block creation bounty, which will happen some time before the total amount of BTC is reached, miners will earn some profit from [[transaction fees]]. However unlike the block reward, there is [http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/876/how-much-will-transaction-fees-eventually-be/895#895 no coupling between transaction fees and the need for security], so there is less of a guarantee that the amount of [[Mining|mining]] being performed will be sufficient to maintain the network's security.

== Bitcoin has no built-in chargeback mechanism, and this isn't good ==

'''Why some people think this is bad''': Chargebacks are useful for limiting fraud. The person handling your money has a responsibility to prevent fraud. If you buy something on eBay and the seller never ships it, PayPal takes funds from the seller's account and gives you back the money. This strengthens the eBay economy, because people recognize that their risk is limited and are more willing to purchase items from risky sellers.

'''Why it's actually a good thing''': Bitcoin is designed such that your money is yours and yours alone. Allowing chargebacks implies that it is possible for another entity to take your money from you. You can have either total ownership rights of your money, or fraud protection, but not both. That said, nothing prevents the creation of services overlayed on top of Bitcoin that provide fraud protection services.

The statement "The person handling your money has a responsibility to prevent fraud" is still true; the power has been shifted into your own hands. Fraud will always exist. It's up to you to only send bitcoins to trusted entities. It is possible to trust an online identity without ever knowing their physical identity; see the [http://wiki.bitcoin-otc.com/wiki/OTC_Rating_System OTC Web of Trust].

== Quantum computers would break Bitcoin's security ==

Yes, but quantum computers don't yet exist and probably won't for a while. Bitcoin's security can be [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-quantum_cryptography upgraded] if this were considered an imminent threat.

See the implications of quantum computers on public key cryptography here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computer#Potential

The ''risk'' of quantum computers is also there for financial institutions, like banks, because they heavily rely on cryptography when doing transactions.

== [[Mining|Bitcoin mining]] is a waste of energy and harmful for ecology ==

No more so than the wastefulness of mining gold out of the ground, melting it down and shaping it into bars, and then putting it back underground again. Not to mention the building of big fancy buildings, the waste of energy printing and minting all the various fiat currencies, the transportation thereof in armored cars by no less than two security guards for each who could probably be doing something more productive, etc.

As far as mediums of exchange go, Bitcoin is actually quite economical of resources, compared to others.

'''Economic Argument 1'''

[[Mining|Bitcoin mining]] is a highly competitive, dynamic, almost [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_market perfect], market. Mining rigs can be set up and dismantled almost anywhere in the world with relative ease. Thus, market forces are constantly pushing mining activity to ''places'' and ''times'' where the marginal price of electricity is low or zero. These electricity products are cheap for a reason. Often it’s because the electricity is difficult (and wasteful) to transport, difficult to store, or because there is low demand and high supply. Using electricity in this way is a lot less wasteful than simply plugging a mining rig into the mains indiscriminately.

For example, Iceland produces an excess of cheap electricity from renewable sources, but it has no way of exporting electricity because of its remote location. It is conceivable that at some point in future Bitcoin mining will only be profitable in places like Iceland, and unprofitable in places like central Europe, where electricity comes mostly from nuclear and fossil sources.

Market forces could even push mining into innovative solutions that have a ''net'' electricity consumption of ''zero''. For example, electric heaters could come equipped with a cheap CPU instead of a resistance coil.

'''Economic Argument 2'''

When the environmental costs of mining are considered, they need to be weighed up against the benefits. If you question Bitcoin on the grounds that it consumes electricity, then you should also ask questions like this: Will Bitcoin promote economic growth by freeing up trade? Will this speed up the rate of technological innovation? Will this lead to faster development of green technologies? Will Bitcoin enable new, border crossing [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_grid smart grid] technologies? …

Dismissal of Bitcoin because of its costs, while ignoring is benefits, is a dishonest argument. In fact, any environmental argument of this type is dishonest, not just pertaining to Bitcoin. Along similar lines, it could be argued that wind turbines are bad for the environment because making the steel structure consumes energy.

== Shopkeepers can't seriously set prices in bitcoins because of the volatile exchange rate ==

Your assumption is that bitcoins must be sold immediately to cover operating expenses. If the shopkeeper's back-end expenses were transacted in bitcoins as well, then the exchange rate would be irrelevant. Larger adoption of Bitcoin would make prices [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky_%28economics%29 sticky]. Future volatility is expected to decrease, as the size and depth of the market grows.

In the meantime, many merchants simply regularly pull the latest market rates from the exchanges and automatically update the prices on their websites. Also you might be able to buy a put option in order to sell at a fixed rate for a given amount of time. This would protect you from drops in price and simplify your operations for that time period.

== Like Flooz and e-gold, bitcoins serve as opportunities for criminals and will be shut down ==

* Hopefully Bitcoin will grow to the point where no single organization can disrupt the network, or would be better served by helping it.
* Terrorists fly aircraft into buildings, but the governments have not yet abolished consumer air travel. Obviously the public good outweighs the possible bad in their opinion.
* Criminal law differs between jurisdictions.

== Bitcoins will be shut down by the government just like Liberty Dollars were ==

Liberty Dollars started as a commercial venture to establish an alternative US currency, including physical banknotes and coins, backed by precious metals. This, in and of itself, is not illegal. They were prosecuted under counterfeiting laws because the silver coins allegedly resembled US currency.

Bitcoins are not coins at all, nor are they banknotes. They do not resemble US currency in any way, shape, or form. The word "dollar" is not attached to them in any way. The "$" symbol is not used in any way.

Bitcoins have no representational similarity whatsoever to US dollars.

Of course, actually 'shutting down' Liberty Dollars was as easy as arresting the head of the company and seizing the offices. The decentralized Bitcoin, with no leader, no servers, and no office, does not have the same vulnerability.

== Bitcoin is not decentralized because the developers can dictate the software's behaviour ==

The Bitcoin protocol was originally defined by Bitcoin's inventor, [[Satoshi Nakamoto]], and this protocol has now been widely accepted as the standard by the community of miners and users.

Though the developers of the original Bitcoin client still exert influence over the Bitcoin community, their power to arbitrarily modify the protocol is very limited. Since the release of Bitcoin v0.3, changes to the protocol have been minor and always in agreement with community consensus.

Protocol modifications, such as increasing the block award from 50 to 100 BTC, are not compatible with clients already running in the network. If the developers were to release a new client that the majority of miners perceives as corrupt, or in violation of the project’s aims, that client would simply not catch on, and the few users who do try to use it would find that their transactions get rejected by the network.

There are also other Bitcoin clients made by other groups of developers that adhere to the Bitcoin protocol. As more developers create alternative clients, less power will lie with the developers of the original Bitcoin client.

[[de:Mythen]]

Donation-accepting organizations and projects

2011-10-18T17:30:37Z

HK:

Here is a list of organizations that accept bitcoin donations.
Only notable donation-accepting sites should be added here.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Organization
! Purpose
! Donation Page
|-
|[http://www.anonyops.com/index.php Anonyops.com]
|Website dedicated to bringing people up to date with Anonymous actions, operations, and interesting news.
|http://anonyops.com/bitcoindonate.php
|-
|[http://www.indiegogo.com/commonsense A Liberty Upgrade for America (IndieGoGo)]
|Join us as we reach 1.6 million Americans with a message of liberty!
|http://www.indiegogo.com/commonsense
|-
|[http://anapnea.org Anapnea]
|An open ethical shell network aiming to create a community with a spirit of productivity, learning and freedom, to give you a breath of fresh air. Operates an open Gentoo Linux shell network that is accessed daily by hundreds of ethical hackers, developers, designers and geeks around the world.
|[https://twitter.com/anapnea/status/78118988848185345 Bitcoin Donation Address]
|-
|[http://www.anonnews.org/ Anonnews.org]
|Open news platform for Anonymous
|http://anonnews.org/bitcoin.html
|-
|[http://awesome.naquadah.org/ awesome]
|Window manager for X11
|http://awesome.naquadah.org/community/
|-
|[http://www.ezyorg.com/ Organizing & Planning Tool]
|Great tool to organize your next party or business meeting
|http://ezyorg.com/
|-|-
|[https://iplayernotifier.appspot.com/ BBC iPlayer Notifier]
|Email and Google Talk notification of new content available on BBC iPlayer
|https://iplayernotifier.appspot.com/
|-
|[http://www.beatingdebt.org/ BeatingDebt.org]
|Teaching debt prevention by placing educational ads, supporting debt prevention groups, and providing online resources.
|http://www.beatingdebt.org/donate.php#BitCoinDonation
|-
|[http://www.bitcharity.org/ BitCharity]
|Use Bitcoins to donate to your favorite charity
|http://www.bitcharity.org
|-
|[http://www.bluetile.org Bluetile]
|Tiling window manager for GNOME
|http://www.bluetile.org/#development
|-
|[http://brmlab.cz/ Brmlab, hackerspace]
|The first hackerspace in the Czech Republic
|http://brmlab.cz/project/bitcoin
|-
|[http://c4ss.org/ Center for a Stateless Society]
|Builds public awareness of, and support for, market anarchism
|http://c4ss.org/support-the-center
|-
|[http://www.cheat-sheets.org/ Cheat-Sheets.org]
|All cheat sheets, round-ups, quick reference cards, quick reference guides and quick reference sheets in one page.
|[http://www.cheat-sheets.org/ cheat-sheets.org]
|-
|[http://www.bitcoinsreview.com Consumer - Merchant Trust Project]
|An initiative to increase trust between Consumer and Bitcoin Merchants. All proceeds go to the websites fund, which pays for various things such as web-hosting and advertisement.
|http://www.bitcoinsreview.com/donate/
|-
|[http://convergence.io Convergence - Moving beyond Certificate Authorities]
|An agile, distributed, and secure strategy for replacing Certificate Authorities.
|http://convergence.io/involved.html
|-
|[http://www.DecryptedMatrix.com/ Decrypted Matrix ]
|GOALS: Elevate Human Awareness, Expose Greed & Corruption, Learn from [true] History, Distribute Beneficial Knowledge, Advance [suppressed] Technology, Protect Organic Agriculture, Maximize Human Potential, Promote Global Solutions, Re-integrate with Nature, Act with Love in all
|http://www.DecryptedMatrix.com
|-
|[http://www.degenernet.com/ Degenernet Radio]
|Online radio station founded in 2002 dedicated to promoting independent music from all genres. Music available from [http://www.degenernet.com www.degenernet.com]and on the [http://apps.facebook.com/degenernet Degenernet Radio Facebook App].
|http://www.degenernet.com/donate.php
|-
|[http://opensource.doppelstern.com Doppelstern Antispam]
|Doppelstern Antispam signatures for ClamAV
|http://opensource.doppelstern.com
|-
|[http://www.dosbox.com/ DOSBox]
|An x86 emulator with DOS
|http://www.dosbox.com/crew.php
|-
|[http://spices.org.my/ Early Intervention Program at SPICES]
|An established non-profit organization providing services to children with learning disabilities since 1997
|http://spices.org.my/be-involved/donations/
|-
|[http://encyclopediadramatica.ch/Main_Page Encyclopedia Dramatica]
|4chan's Wikipedia
|http://encyclopediadramatica.ch/donate.php
|-
|[https://www.erowid.org/ Erowid]
|Online library of information about psychoactive plants and chemicals and other topics on altered states of consciousness such as meditation and lucid dreaming.
|https://www.erowid.org/donations/donations_bitcoin.php
|-
|[http://eudemocracia.org/english.html Eudemocracia] NGO
|Dedicated to the creation of a modern form of government that combines these two concepts: direct democracy and internet.
|http://wiki.eudemocracia.org/en/donaciones
|-
|[http://www.hayekinstitute.ca/ F.A. Hayek Institute of Canada]
|Study and promote Austrian Economics
|http://www.hayekinstitute.ca/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=60
|-
|[http://www.foo.be/forban/ Forban]
|Filesharing protocol for local area networks
|http://www.foo.be/forban/
|-
|[http://420chan.org/ 420chan]
|Imageboard community
|http://420chan.org/donate/
|-
|[http://freedomboxfoundation.org FreedomBox Foundation]
|Non-profit turning small plug computers into personal servers that guard your privacy, anonymity and security.
|https://freedomboxfoundation.org/donate
|-
|[http://www.fsf.org Free Software Foundation]
|Worldwide advocate for software freedom and host organization for the GNU Project.
|https://my.fsf.org/donate/other
|-
|[http://www.freetalklive.com/ Free Talk Live]
|Help spread the message of liberty by donating to a liberty leaning nationally syndicated radio show!
|http://www.freetalklive.com/bitcoin
|-
|[http://freedomainradio.com/ Freedomain Radio]
|Online philosophical conversation about freedom, religion, the state, and the family
|http://board.freedomainradio.com/forums/t/30241.aspx
|-
|[http://www.freehal.org/ FreeHAL]
|a self-learning artificial intelligence available as free software
|http://www.freehal.net/funds/?p=do&l=en
|-
|-
|[http://www.flattr.com/ Flattr]
|a website to fund people's ideas through Bitcoin
|https://flattr.com/
|-
|-
|[http://www.gentlelan.de/ GentleLAN]
|Since many years free private LANs in Bremen / Germany
|http://www.gentlelan.de/?page_id=193
|-
|[http://privacyfoundation.de German Privacy Foundation]
|protecting privacy, manufacture and sell the CryptoStick (a smartcard on a usb stick)
|http://www.privacyfoundation.de/verein/spenden/
|-
|[http://www.reddit.com/r/hackbloc HackBloc on Reddit]
|Hacktivism, Crypto-anarchy, Darknets.
|http://www.reddit.com/r/hackbloc
|-
|[http://www.heavensentgaming.com Heaven Sent Gaming]
|Heaven Sent Gaming is a new media entertainment group founded by Mario Lucero and Isabel Ruiz, in 2006, as a game development team.
|http://heavensentgaming.com/support-and-donations/
|-
|[http://www.helplinux.ru Help Linux]
|Help Linux is the Russian volunteer project aimed to help people with linux. This projects helps anyone to find a skilled in some questions person and ask for help directly.
|http://helplinux.ourproject.org/wiki/about:start
|-
|[http://i2p2.de/ I2P Anonymous Network]
|Anonymising network similar to tor
|http://www.i2p2.de/donate.html
|-
|[http://www.infinitypfm.org/ Infinity PFM]
|Free/open source personal finance application with Bitcoin support.
|http://www.infinitypfm.org/#donate
|-
|[http://www.intercom.gs/ Intercom - Emergency Communications Division]
|We Build Censorship Resistant Phone and Communications Networks
|http://www.intercom.gs/support.html
|-
|[http://www.partito-pirata.it/ Italian Pirate Party]
|Italian Pirate Party - Associazione Partito Pirata Italia
|http://www.partito-pirata.it/magazzino/payBTC.html
|-
|[http://lifeboat.com Lifeboat Foundation]
|The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards the Singularity. (Currently offering to double all Bitcoin donations.)
|https://lifeboat.com/ex/summer.growth
|-
|[http://linuxoutlaws.com/ Linux Outlaws - we aim to misbehave]
|two pragmatic linux users talk about the latest developments in free and open software and culture
|http://linuxoutlaws.com/
|-
|[http://lorea.org/ Lorea]
|A distributed and federated nodal organization of entities working on integrating and pushing available free and open source technologies and networks, for social networking, social economy and autonomy of the people.
|https://n-1.cc/pg/pages/view/14888/
|-
|[http://biohackers.la/ Los Angeles Biohackers]
|Grass-roots biotechnology lab in downtown Los Angeles
|http://www.socal-diybio.org/Main_Page#Donate
|-
|[http://la.indymedia.org/ Los Angeles Indymedia]
|User-generated left-wing news.
|http://la.indymedia.org/
|-
|[http://love2d.org/ LÖVE]
|An open source 2D game engine.
|http://love2d.org/
|-
|[http://mars.radiome.me M.A.R.S. Radio Modern Alternative Rock Splendor ]
|M.A.R.S Radio is an online radio station playing 24/7/365 commercial free alternative rock at 192 Kbps. M.A.R.S. Radio is pleased to provide listeners FM+ audio quality. M.A.R.S. Radio is the first online music radio station to accept Bitcoin donations.
|http://radiome.me/
|-
|[https://github.com/FellowTraveler/Open-Transactions/ Open Transactions]
|Easy-to-use, Financial Crypto and Digital Cash Library.
|https://github.com/FellowTraveler/Moneychanger
|-
|[http://opengameart.org/ OpenGameArt.org]
|Produces and hosts freely licensed art for use in open source games
|http://opengameart.org/content/donate-bitcoins
|-
|[http://www.openwall.com Openwall Project]
|Development of information security related free software, information security research, publications, and community activities aimed at making existing free software safer to use.
|http://www.openwall.com/donations/
|-
|[https://www.operationanonymous.org/ Operation Anonymous]
|Anonymous Political Group
|http://www.operationanonymous.org/
|-
|[http://www.organicdesign.co.nz OrganicDesign]
|A group developing methods and tools to support open-source bottom-up peer-to-peer governance for the people!
|http://www.organicdesign.co.nz
|-
|[http://www.paniq.cc paniq.cc]
|Music from the other side of the universe
|http://www.paniq.cc
|-
|[http://www.liberallibertario.org Partido Liberal Libertario]
|Libertarian Party of Argentina
|http://www.liberallibertario.org/aportes
|-
|[http://pioneerone.tv/ Pioneer One]
|TV series funded purely through donations
|https://twitter.com/pioneeronetv/status/36119594439544832
|-
|[http://plankhead.com/ Plankhead]
|Free/open source media and arts organization
|http://plankhead.com/donate
|-
|[http://plaztika.com/?lang=en Plaztika]
|Non-profit website (only runs on donations) that supports emerging visual artists. If you're an artist, this could be your website!
|http://plaztika.com/Who-are-we
|-
|[https://privacybox.de/index.en.html PrivacyBox]
|System for anonymous and non-trackable contact forms
|https://privacybox.de/donations.en.html
|-
|[http://prometheusfusionperfection.com/ Prometheus Fusion Perfection]
|Open source nuclear fusion research
|http://prometheusfusionperfection.com/2011/02/04/bitcoin-fundraiser/
|-
|[http://protestbarrick.net/ Protest Barrick]
|A global campaign against the world's largest gold miner
|[https://www.mybitcoin.com/sci/paypage.php?amount=20.00&currency=USD&payee_bcaddr=125Gwb3Mn9KSaCS8QN9LQy5k6RPUHEFruV&payee_name=Protest+Barrick+Fund&note=Donate+NOW+to+end+corporate+impunity+in+gold+mining%21 Donate with Bitcoin]
|-
|[http://queeky.com/ Queeky]
|an online drawing community with special drawing tools and creative users from all around the world
|http://www.queeky.com/content/support-queeky-and-donate
|-
|[http://www.recycles.org/ Recycles.Org]
|Nonprofit Recycling and ReUse Network - Nationwide (USA) technology exchange clearinghouse for nonprofit organizations
|http://www.recycles.org/computer/donation/support/
|-
|[https://ripplepay.com/ Ripple]
|Payment system based on trust networks
|https://ripplepay.com/donate/
|-
| [https://riseup.net/ Riseup]
| Tech collective who aim to [https://help.riseup.net/en/about-us aid in the creation of a free society, (...) engaged in struggles against capitalism and other forms of oppression]
| https://help.riseup.net/en/donate#bitcoin
|-
|[http://rusinfo.cc/ RusInfo]
|Russian info agency
|http://rusinfo.cc/help
|-
|[http://seasteading.org The Seasteading Institute]
|To further the establishment and growth of permanent, autonomous ocean communities, enabling innovation with new political and social systems.
|http://twitter.com/#!/patrissimo/status/76392851558244353
|-
|[http://singinst.org Singularity Institute]
|Artificial Intelligence
|http://singinst.org/donate
|-
|[http://somefunnypranks.com/ SomeFunnyPranks.com]
|Loosen your buckle and have a chuckle.
|http://somefunnypranks.com/
|-
| [http://www.sparkleshare.org/ SparkleShare]
| A Free and Open Source host it yourself replacement for file syncing services like Dropbox. It uses the distributed version control system Git as a backend.
| [http://www.sparkleshare.org/support-us/ Bitcoin Donation Address]
|-
|[http://www.demokracjabezposrednia.pl Stowarzyszenie Więcej Demokracji]
|Stowarzyszenie Więcej Demokracji is an association for direct democracy in Poland. We believe that direct democracy is a hope for every country (not only for corrupt Poland). Please help us and donate.
|http://www.demokracjabezposrednia.pl/donate
|-
|[http://wiki.sugarlabs.org Sugar Labs]
|[http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/What_is_Sugar%3F Sugar] is a learning environment that reinvents how computers are used for education.
|http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Donate
|-
|[http://gorod-solnca.org/ Sun City]
|Ukrainian centre for children in difficult circumstances
|http://sms.gorod-solnca.org/
|-
|[http://www.symphonyofscience.com/ Symphony of Science]
|A musical project headed by John Boswell, to deliver scientific knowledge in musical form.
|http://www.symphonyofscience.com/
|-
|[http://tahoe-lafs.org/ Tahoe-LAFS]
|A distributed filesystem with funky redundancy properties
|http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/wiki/BitCoinPage
|-
|[http://tangorin.com Tangorin Japanese Dictionary]
|Tangorin is a free online Japanese dictionary in development since October 2007 by a former Japanology student. It makes use of files provided mainly by The Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group established within the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University, Australia.
|http://tangorin.com/bitcoin
|-
|[http://theexperiments.com The Experiments]
|A rock / punk band who's music is free to download and licensed under the Creative Commons
|[http://theexperiments.com Bitcoin Donation Address]
|-
|[http://theicarusproject.net The Icarus Project]
|A mutual aid/peer support organization dedicated to radical mental health
|[http://theicarusproject.net/about-us/donate-to-the-icarus-project Bitcoin Donation Address]
|-
|[https://freenetproject.org/ The Freenet Project]
|The Free Network
|https://freenetproject.org/donate.html
|-
| [http://ThePythonGameBook.com ThePythonGameBook]
| An free creative-commons / GPL - licensed wikibook to learn open source game programming using the programming language Python.
| [http://thepythongamebook.com/en:help?&#donating_money Bitcoin Donation Address]
|-
|[http://torchat.googlecode.com/ TorChat]
|A serverless encrypted anonymous instant messenger running on top of the Tor network
|http://torchat.googlecode.com/
|-
|[https://www.torservers.net/ Torservers.net]
|Runs [http://www.torproject.org/ Tor] relays and bridges
|https://www.torservers.net/donate.html#anonymous
|-
|[https://vaizard.org/ Vaizard institute]
| Backing people who want to make the world a better place by making their ideas real.
|https://vaizard.org/en/about/contacts/
|-
|-
|[http://wikileaks.org wikileaks]
| Whistleblower website
|http://wikileaks.org/support.html
|-
|[http://wlcentral.org/ WL Central]
|News, analysis and action related to wikileaks the famous website . Media and human rights organization covering Wikileaks news, corruption and human rights.
|http://wlcentral.org/q-a
|-
|[http://tmac.technitium.com/ Technitium]
|Technitium MAC Address Changer is a freeware software. We accept bitcoins as a contribution for the software.
|http://blog.technitium.com/2011/08/accepting-donations-again.html
|-
|[http://www.expanton.com]
| Occupy Wall Street Support
|http://www.expanton.com/
|-
|}

==See Also==
* [http://witcoin.com/charities Charitable organizations] list on [[witcoin]]
* [http://ecdsa.org/fundraiser Fundraiser widgets]

Deflationary spiral

2011-06-30T17:09:50Z

HK:

'''Deflationary spiral''' is an economic argument that proposes that runaway deflation can eventually lead to the collapse of the currency given certain conditions and constraints. It is a common criticism made against the viability of [[Bitcoin]].
The ‘deflationary spiral’ is a real condition that affects the fiat fractional reserve backing system. Bitcoin is not affected by this because it is fundamentally different from fiat currency. (See below for a dissenting argument on this topic.)

Deflation is a decline in the general price level. Deflation occurs when the price of goods and services, relative to a specific measure, decline. It is not necessarily that the value of the goods and services themselves declined, but can be because the value of the currency itself increased.

For example, let us consider an economy comprised entirely of beef and oranges where the medium of exchange is gold. Both beef and oranges can decay and are not consistent, and therefore cannot be used as a currency. In order to trade, people exchange gold for either beef or oranges. They see gold as a store of value that they can use to purchase beef or oranges in the future. What happens when the economy grows and we can produce more beef and more oranges? The price of both beef and oranges will decline. To the extent our productive capacity for both beef and oranges increased at the same pace, the exchange value between the two (the amount of beef for a given number of oranges) will likely stay the same; however, those who held gold as a store of value would now be able to purchase more beef and more oranges for a given amount of gold.

A deflationary spiral occurs when the value of a currency, relative to the goods in an economy, increases continually as a result of hoarding. As the value of the currency relative to the goods in the economy increase, people have the incentive to hoard the currency, because by merely holding it, they hope to be able to purchase more goods for less money in the future. A lack of currency available in the market causes the price of goods to further decrease, resulting in more hoarding.

In our economy of beef and oranges it is easy to see how this could occur. First, people see a significant gain in productivity on the horizon; we will be able to produce more beef and oranges for the same effort in the future. The supply of gold, however, is fixed. As a result, people desire to hold gold, because they will be able to purchase more beef and oranges with their gold in the future than they can now. This will lead to a decline in the price of beef and oranges as measured by gold (an increase in the value of gold). Limiting the amount of currency in the market available for exchange can also make transactions more difficult. In a complex system where we do not only have beef, oranges and gold, this can result in a deflationary spiral where no one wishes to spend their currency and the economy itself slows as a result of the limited number of transactions. Limited demand with fixed output results in a decline in prices, which further exacerbates the problem.

Alternative explanation:
A deflationary spiral occurs when the price of a traded article increases at some given rate, which causes people to hoard it. As people hoard the commodity, less and less of it is available thus causing the price to go up even more. In turn, even more people hoard the commodity. Thus a feedback loop or spiral of deflation occurs.<br />

In practice, there is only a limited amount of 'value' that can be placed upon a good before it becomes too attractive to trade for other goods (thus ending the spiral). The only time that the 'Deflationary Spiral' can happen (to it's conclusion) is when people can foresee a time where they are forced to use that particular traded article. See below for a dissenting argument on this topic.

==In The Fiat Fractional Reserve Banking System==
The fiat money that we trade consists of the principal of the loans of other people. All this money must be someday 'repaid.' When people save (pay back their loans), the total monetary supply contracts. When people spend (take out loans), the total monetary supply is increasing.

If you have people who are hoarding money, the principal still needs to be repaid. Hoarding will make it harder for other people in the economy to pay back their loans.

Because people foresee a time where they need to pay back their loans (a future fixed expense), when the value of the money starts to increase (deflation), those with loans will endeavour to pay back the loans quicker. This causes the monetary supply to reduce, reducing the total amount of money available for repayment of loans, again making it harder for people to pay back what they owe.

This Deflationary spiral diverts funds away from the legitimate economy, to the repayment of debt. Causing the economy to stagnates and stop.

==Bitcoin==
The key difference is that people don't foresee a fixed cost (unit amount) that they must pay with Bitcoin. If the value of the Bitcoins that they own increases, then any future cost will take a proportionally smaller amount of Bitcoins. There isn't any fixed incentive to holding Bitcoin other than speculation.

If the economy that uses Bitcoin grows, the per-unit value of Bitcoin proportionally increases also.

Everything is the opposite to the fiat fractional reserve banking system (because Bitcoin isn't a debt but an asset). Bitcoins '''only''' deflate in value when the Bitcoin Economy is '''growing'''.

Because the Deflationary spiral is a real problem in the traditional monetary system, doesn't necessarily mean that it will also be a problem in the Bitcoin economy.

<blockquote>
"Elaborate controls to make sure that currency is not produced in greater numbers is not something any other currency, like the dollar or the euro, has," says Russ Roberts, professor of economics at George Mason University. The consequence will likely be slow and steady deflation, as the growth in circulating bitcoins declines and their value rises.

"That is considered very destructive in today's economies, mostly because when it occurs, it is unexpected," says Roberts. But he thinks that won't apply in an economy where deflation is expected. "In a Bitcoin world, everyone would anticipate that, and they know what they got paid would buy more then than it would now."
</blockquote>
--MIT Technology Review: [http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/37619/page2/ What Bitcoin Is, and Why It Matters], May 25, 2011

==Alternative Viewpoint==
A deflationary spiral occurs when there is an incentive to hoard because of declining prices, which results in even less available currency on the market, further perpetuating declining prices.

How could this occur in the Bitcoin market? First, we see massive deflation occurring in the market right now, as the value of a Bitcoin relative to other currencies, and as a result goods and services as well, increases. To the extent there is value in a Bitcoin because there will be a limited number of them in the future and they are one of the few untraceable mediums of exchange that cannot be subjected to expropriation (at the moment), it is easy to see why their value is currently increasing. Already, however, this is creating the incentive for hoarding. Given there is a known limit on the future amount of Bitcoins in existence, the market expects that the "price" of Bitcoins as measured in other currencies will increase.

While this will not necessarily lead to a deflationary spiral, it will likely cause serious problems for Bitcoin which could ultimately trigger Bitcoin's demise, as outlined below.

1. Currently, with knowledge that there will be a limited number of Bitcoins in the future, the price of Bitcoins is increasingly rapidly. The result is limited price stability. Limited price stability has a negative impact on the acceptance of a currency. Vendors do not wish to speculate on the price of currency when selling goods or services.

2. Once prices do stabilize in the future, there will always be the knowledge that the number of Bitcoins in the market is limited. As a result, to the extent the GDP of the Bitcoin economy increases (the total value of all Bitcoin transactions completed increases in "real" terms), there will continue to be price deflation. Price deflation rewards the holders of the existing currency and provides an incentive to hoard the currency. The value held by the existing holders of the currency, and the resulting reward that they receive for future deflation, can be eliminated by a competing system. As a result, to the extent there is an expectation for inflation because demand for the currency itself is greater than the supply of Bitcoins, a competing system will emerge.

Fundamentally, the growth of Bitcoin will be limited because of the knowledge that there is a limited supply of coins. The fact that there is a limited supply of coins means that there is an expectation of deflation if the economy grows. The "cost" of that deflation, borne by new users, can be avoided if an alternative system is used.

While this is not a traditional deflationary spiral, the constraint on the actual money supply can produce the same result, which is a limit on the value of goods and services transacted using Bitcoins.

What can be done to deal with this issue?

There is a simple solution to this problem. For Bitcoins to avoid being supplanted by an alternative electronic currency in the future, the supply of Bitcoins must grow in proportion to the total value of transactions undertaken using the system. This will lead to price stability and will eliminate the benefit that accrues to existing holders of the currency. This is fundamentally necessary to protect the existing value of Bitcoins. If this does not occur then an alternative system that does recognize the risk of deflation and price instability will present itself which will achieve a greater level of acceptance, destroying Bitcoin in the process.

==See Also==

* [[Controlled inflation]]
* [[Bitcoin Days Destroyed]]

[[Category:Economics]]