Free Talk Live

In Kreuzberg, Berlin, virtual currency Bitcoin has expanded off the internet to become a favoured medium of exchange in real shops and bars. Joerg Platzer, the owner of bar Room 77 is helping to establish what he believes to be the world's first Bitcoin local economy.

If all the world’s informal markets were formed into a single independent nation, its $10 trillion economy would be the second-largest on the planet (behind only the US). These markets thrive in places where taxes are low, poverty is high, and resources are scarce. The colors on this map indicate the size of each country’s underground economy, as a percentage of its GDP

Many of you will be familiar with SilkRoad, and as I'm sure most of you will agree, SR has put Bitcoin on the map and in the eyes of the general public, the media, and the cryptocurrency communities. SR continues to strengthen the Bitcoin economy to this day.

Our team decided that in order for Litecoin to make its mark in the cryptocurrency world it needed a similar service backing it.

So, with that being said, we would like to officially invite you all to Atlantis (or ATL for short), the Litecoin free market. Users of SR will feel at home using our website.

The unregulated digital world of Bitcoins suffered another flash-crash last night. According to Ars Technica, the 23% plungefest in the value of the digital currency (the second in a week) was due not to Waddel & Reed, not HFT algos, but 'forking' Cryptographic algos gone wild agreeing on different (legacy) keys as being correct - akin to finding Tungsten in your Gold bars (and hence the drop in the value). This latest glitch is different from the problem that caused Bitcoin prices to briefly crash to zero in June of 2011.

Bottom line: The world is going to be turned over by bitcoins unless governments step in and ban them by prosecuting individuals.

1. Bitcoin is a technologically sound project.
2. Bitcoin is unstoppable without end-user prosecution.
3. Bitcoin is the most dangerous open-source project ever created.
4. Bitcoin may be the most dangerous technological project since the internet itself.
5. Bitcoin is a political statement by technotarians (technological libertarians).*
6. Bitcoins will change the world unless governments ban them with harsh penalties.

That’s where Bitcoin thrives: where people would prefer to throw in their lot with anonymous strangers instead of the world economy. It’s gold-bug thinking reinvented for an age of fluid transparency and instantaneous transactions. And as such it’s an excellent indicator of anxiety. Where you see Bitcoins in action you find a weird and heady mix of speculative angst, a fear of being left behind, and people who appear to have lost faith in institutions, who feel most left behind.

New bitcoin trading site, Coinabul.com, is now accepting bitcoins in exchange for gold. Orders are currently live during the private beta. Coinabul is the only true Bitcoin-to-Gold exchange in the world. Bitcoin is a digital stored value vehicle, able to provide near-instant transaction capability in a global Internet economy. Bitcoin users are able to trade in bitcoins to their national currency via currency exchanges, but for users who prefer to save their money in gold, Coinabul provides instant gold purchasing capabilities.

Bitcoin allows Iranians to store their wealth digitally where the currency police can’t seize it, and most importantly it allows them, at the individual level, to skirt US sanctions and maintain an economic connection to the outside world. When US sanction against Iraq killed an estimated 1 million innocent civilians in the 90s it’s easy to see how important that is.

French economist Frederic Bastiat once said, “If goods don t cross borders, armies will.” I suggest that when States can no longer prevent goods from crossing borders, armies won’t.

Jeff Berwick, founder of StockHouse.com and CEO of TDV Media, announced Monday his plans to open the world’s first Bitcoin ATM in Cyprus, citing the ongoing bank bailout, bank closures and capital controls now being pushed in that country. According to Berwick, who sold Stockhouse last decade which at the peak of the tech bubble was worth $240 million, Bitcoin ATM has the world’s first software enabling a two-way, automated Bitcoin market.