bitcoin mining

[Christopher Browne]

On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 9:18 PM, Ori Idan <ori-RdxWQVHs3mjDN57Tih+YPw at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 11:21 PM, G. Matthew Rice <matt-s/rLXaiAEBtBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 3:57 PM, Ori Idan <ori-RdxWQVHs3mjDN57Tih+YPw at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>> > On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 10:47 PM, G. Matthew Rice <matt-s/rLXaiAEBtBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>
>> > wrote:
>> >> PS - On the "gov't run" v. "legal tender" front.  Answer the question,
>> >> "Who owns the US federal reserve?" first. :(
>> >
>> > The federal reserve I guess is owned by the federal government.
>>
>> good guess.  but wrong.
>
> So who?
>
>>
>>
>> > As for Linux Caffe to accept bitcoin, they would need an exchange rate
>> > from
>> > bitcoins to CAD, after all they need to pay for their place, employees
>> > etc.
>> > in CAD, unless they can pay their expenses in bitcoin too.
>> > So is there an exchange rate for bitcoin vs. $CAD?
>>
>> There's a USD<->BTC.  So, that's a route to CAD.  I'm not suggesting
>> 100% bitcoin for them, either :)
>
> How do you determine this rate?

It's a negotiation between the eyes of the various beholders, which
isn't actually that different from how USD<->CDN<->UKP<->JPY work, as
they're all generally speaking floating currencies.

Unfortunately, it looks like a large portion of the folks willing to
accept exchanges of USD<->BTC are involved in the nicely-demonized
trade of illegal substances (e.g. - drug trade), which is likely to
impose a fair bit of "guilty by association" on anyone that wants to
use BTC.

It could be an interesting "business opportunity" for LinuxCaffe to
leap in, and be one of the parties that helps makes the perceived
value of BTC<->Other Money actually float around.

"Interesting" isn't necessarily synonymous with "prudent" or
"profitable," so it wouldn't be surprising for them to contemplate it,
but then decline to proceed.

Getting associated with "drug stuff" would be a reason to think it
unwise; after the pre-math and aftermath of the G20 summit, it's
pretty clear that there are downsides to attracting the attention of
law enforcement over controversial matters.

But even on the "pure finance" side, there's reason to be wary, as BTC
isn't a clearly-stable currency at this point, and anyone that gets
involved in exchanges of BTC<->Other Money is getting themselves into
involvement in arbitrage, which is a pretty risky endeavour.
-- 
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question, "How would the Lone Ranger handle this?"
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