On: Imagine your computer as a wallet full of Bitcoins

[Jach]

If anyone's interested in an explanation on how digital currency can work securely, I remembered an old mailing list message that's pretty straightforward with the math: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.org.user-groups.linux.provo.p...

Edit: a teaser: an anonymous coin is one which you can withdraw from the bank, but which the bank can't link to you when you spend it.

[hugh3 → Jach]

All of which is very nice, but it doesn't solve the actual problem of starting a new currency, which is persuading people that it's worth something.

[dublinclontarf → hugh3]

A currency becomes worth something when people begin accepting it for goods and services. This is already the case to a very limited extent with bitcoin.

This also began to happen with QQ coins, in China people began accepting them for goods and services until the government cracked down. And the funny thing is that this was never meant to happen with QQ coins, they were meant simply as a way for QQ to make more money. But once people accepted them they became a form of currency.