Meltdown – The First Comic Shop To Take Bitcoin

[Mr Wiggles]

I never heard of doge coins before, I did some research and there new only two months old I think. But to mine them you need to have a really good graphic card it seems so I don't know how those who started a new account can get them, if they don't have the tech know-how?

 

A lot of information on dogecoin can be found on reddit.

 

The community is very proactive in helping out anyone with a curiosity.

[DeadpoolJr.]

I never heard of doge coins before, I did some research and there new only two months old I think. But to mine them you need to have a really good graphic card it seems so I don't know how those who started a new account can get them, if they don't have the tech know-how?

 

A lot of information on dogecoin can be found on reddit.

 

The community is very proactive in helping out anyone with a curiosity.

Cool, I made a wallet, and backup ones on my computer, and phone. I also did one of those faucet things, and and now have 1.245 DOGE Its actually kind of fun to do. Now I just have to wait till it hits Bitcoin money level, and cash in.

[Mr Wiggles]

To the moon!

[F. Dominguez-migration]

To the moon!

 

[CKB]

Tulips.

 

The talk about auto converting to cash seems sensible, though. But I have read that it was not currently possible.

[Balham's Finest]

 

Yea they dont determine the value, unless they declare it an illegal ponzi scheme in which case it will lose any perceived value.

 

do you know what a ponzi scheme is?

 

why because its redundant?

 

So you agree with me

 

 

I asked because it sounds like you either don't know what a ponzi scheme is or don't know what bitcoin is

 

Yeah - Bitcoin might be a lot of things, but it's not a Ponzi scheme by any stretch.

 

In case anyone's interested, "Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend" is a pretty good read.

[Caddotx]

Hello, thank you for posting the article and making some noise about Bitcoin. We at Meltdown love technology and also love to save money. Being a brick and mortar these days isn't that easy, especially in Hollywood. Tech part is easy, we move with it, we stay on top, we like the ride and our customers appreciate how we're still a family store but deep in tech and not stay a stale comic book store.

I heard about Bitcoins a year or so back ago and kept my eye on it. Followed who was taking (merchants) and what the customer response was. Every article I read and people I talked to had nothing bad to say about it. Once I heard the Sacramento Kings were starting to take it, then overstock.com decided to take it, banks around the world started accepting deposits, it was really a no brainer why not to jump on board. I can't say my sales are gangbusters but all my Bitcoin customers but one is a new face. My transactions fees are .99% compared to 3+% with credit card companies and paypal. We're happy to have it, I have no doubts that it will stay, My sales are auto converted to cash and deposited in my account. Don't knock it till you try it. If anyone has any questions or comments feel free to contact me.

F.D.

www.meltcomics.com

 

I think it's awesome, I listed a cookie jar on a bitcoin site but haven't sold it yet. If I do, you can bet I'll be listing a lot more stuff! (thumbs u

[fastballspecial]

I wish I had a PC strong enough to mine them.

 

[Caddotx]

I wish I had a PC strong enough to mine them.

 

Oh... you need a lot more than that. You could have gotten away with just a PC 6-8 months ago. Not anymore. It takes a LOT of money to mine now.

[DeadpoolJr.]

I wish I had a PC strong enough to mine them.

I heard Lite coins are better for that since they are similar to bit coins, but don't require all the expensive hardware, plus their going for around 20 a pop, and for every block you pass you get 50 of them so some money can be made.

[shadroch]

Apple seems to be sepereting itself from bitcoins.

 

 

From Newsday.com

Apple has slowly been pulling Bitcoin trading apps from the App Store, and yesterday it removed an app that claims to have been the "last remaining" one. Blockchain, which says its self-titled app has been in the store for two years, has written a scathing harangue on its blog criticizing Apple for the removal of apps that allow users to trade bitcoins. "These actions by Apple once again demonstrate the anticompetitive and capricious nature of the App Store policies that are clearly focused on preserving Apple’s monopoly on payments rather than based on any consideration of the needs and desires of their users," writes Blockchain.

 

"Bitcoin price-monitoring apps remain in the store"

 

Blockchain suggests that Bitcoin threatens large corporations' control over existing payment systems and could stymie the success of services like Google Wallet. Apple doesn't currently operate such a service, though there have been hints that it is beginning to create one — and Blockchain's CEO, Nicolas Cary, tells Wired that he thinks this potential Apple service is the reason Bitcoin trading apps are being pulled.

 

Over the past several months, Apple also removed Coinbase and CoinJar, apps that similarly functioned as Bitcoin wallets — effectively an account that allows the digital currency to be traded. In a blog post discussing its removal from the App Store, CoinJar wrote that it had been in contact with Apple and was told that apps allowing bitcoins to be sent and received are generally not allowed. It suggests that Apple is concerned about legal issues surrounding Bitcoin trading, writing that it hoped to eventually be reinstated in the App Store "when [Apple has] a more clear view of Bitcoin’s place in their regulatory landscape." Other Bitcoin and virtual currency apps still remain in the App Store, however those tend to focus on monitoring the value of different currencies. Apple declined to comment for this article.

 

Unlike CoinJar, Blockchain says that Apple did not contact it prior to removing its app and did not provide an explanation beyond noting that there was an "unresolved issue" — apparently Blockchain's utility for trading Bitcoin. For now, pulling Bitcoin apps may be an overreaction if Apple truly is concerned over its legal stance. Though Bitcoin itself has been tied up in money laundering scandals, the US government hasn't placed many regulations on personal use of it so far. Nonetheless, Bitcoin's young and niche status may be part of what's lending to this conservative approach.

[PMminer]

Yes, I like Apple products a lot, but they have a bit of the Nazi in them when it comes to BTC (and other things I'm sure people could argue). But, it's their garden and if they want to wall it up that's their choice. Fortunately, smart people can always find ways over, under or through the walls to get into the garden anyway: Coinpunk

[Garf]

http://www.coindesk.com/mt-gox-loses-340-million-bitcoin-rumoured-insolvent/

[PMminer]

This has been dragging out for months and is in fact the 4th or 5th "Goxing" people have had to suffer through. Gox just needs to go under already so that everything can get back to normal.

 

The issue is not with BTC. The issue is with a company run by clownish and incompetent management, as noted many times by Andreas Antonopoulos and others.

 

 

-Edit to remove blanket statement/assumption

[DiceX]

The mystery is over...

Link

 

By Ruairidh Villar and Sophie Knight

 

TOKYO (Reuters) - Mt. Gox, once the world's biggest bitcoin exchange, looked to have essentially disappeared on Tuesday, with its website down, its founder unaccounted for and a Tokyo office empty bar a handful of protesters saying they had lost money investing in the virtual currency.

 

The digital marketplace operator, which began as a venue for trading cards, had surged to the top of the bitcoin world, but critics - from rival exchanges to burned investors - said Mt. Gox had long been lax over its security.

 

It was not clear what has become of the exchange, which this month halted withdrawals indefinitely after detecting "unusual activity." A global bitcoin organization referred to the exchange's "exit," while angry investors questioned whether it was still solvent.

 

A document circulating on the internet, and purporting to be a crisis plan for the exchange, said more than 744,000 bitcoins were "missing due to malleability-related theft", and noted Mt. Gox had $174 million in liabilities against $32.75 million in assets. It was not possible to verify the document or the exchange's financial situation.

 

Tokyo investors in the frontier electronic currency, who have endured a volatile ride in the value of the unregulated cyber-tender, said the problem was with Mt. Gox, not with the revolutionary bitcoin itself.

 

Mt. Gox officials did not answer the telephone or respond to email requests for information. The concierge at the home of the chief executive, Mark Karpeles - an upscale apartment in the Shibuya district - said he was not answering his intercom. His mailbox was so stuffed with mail that the flap would not close.

 

The Mt. Gox homepage was not loading, although no error message appeared. Its source code contained a line saying, "put announce for mtgox acq here."

 

"VERY ANGRY"

 

"I'm very angry," said Kolin Burges, a self-styled "crypto-currency trader" and former software engineer who came from London for answers after Mt. Gox failed to tell him what had happened to his bitcoins, which at one point were worth

 

$300,000.

 

"It looks like that's disappeared," said Burges, one of six protesters outside the Mt. Gox office, which was as deserted as a nearby cafe that had formerly accepted bitcoins as payment. In a statement last week, Mt. Gox said it had moved office because of security issues.

 

Some protesters carried signs saying, "Mt. Gox, where's our money?" and "Mt. Gox, are you solvent?"

 

"They prolonged this and kept telling people everything was OK," Burges said. "A lot of people did believe that, and it's very annoying what they've done to me and up to a million others."

 

Six leading bitcoin exchanges - which allow users to trade bitcoins for U.S. dollars and other currencies - distanced themselves from the Tokyo-based exchange.

 

"This tragic violation of the trust of users of Mt. Gox was the result of one company's actions and does not reflect the resilience or value of bitcoin and the digital currency industry," the companies - Coinbase, Kraken, Bitstamp, BTC China, Blockchain and Circle - said in the statement. "As with any new industry, there are certain bad actors that need to be weeded out, and that is what we're seeing today."

 

On Sunday, Karpeles resigned from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, in a blow to the digital currency. Mt. Gox had once been the largest exchange handling bitcoins.

 

Karpeles told Reuters last week, "We know there are all kinds of criticisms made against Mt. Gox, but we believe we are doing all we can to solve problems as quickly as possible having our customers in mind."

 

His resignation from the foundation, the cyber currency's trade group, followed a number of technical issues, including a massive cyber attack from unknown sources that has been spamming bitcoin exchanges.

 

Mt. Gox was a founding member and one of the three elected industry representatives on the board of the foundation. Mt. Gox, a bitcoin exchange since 2010, is a relatively old player, having grown quickly when there were few alternatives.

 

"TEETHING PROBLEMS"

 

Bitcoin has had a rocky ride, its dollar value soaring and crashing more like a highly speculative investment than a store of value. And oddly for a tradable instrument, its value varies greatly depending on the exchange.

 

The Mt. Gox bitcoin, which traded at $828.99 before February 7, when the exchange halted withdrawals, has since plunged 83.7 percent to $135. By contrast, coins at Bitstamp, another large exchange, have fallen 40.5 percent over the same period to $400.

 

While bitcoin globally has taken a beating to its value and reputation, users say the problem is with Mt. Gox, not with the virtual currency itself.

 

"I think the community will remain very tolerant of teething problems, or whatever you want to call them," said a Tokyo-based investor who noted he had a "negligible" amount of bitcoins with Mt. Gox. "The whole structure is still in its infancy, so there's just certain things that come with the territory as long as you keep people in the loop."

 

The Bitcoin Foundation said in a statement, "Mt. Gox is one of several exchanges, and their exit, while unfortunate, opens a door of opportunity. This incident demonstrates the need for responsible individuals and members of the bitcoin community to lead in providing reliable services."

 

A commenter on the Reddit site, identified as evorhees, proudly defended bitcoin as an epochal development in finance.

 

"We are building a new financial order and those of us building it, investing in it and growing it will pay the price of bringing it to the world," he wrote. "This is the harsh truth. We are building the channels, the bridges, and the towers of tomorrow's finance, and we put ourselves at risk in doing so."

 

REGULATORY RETICENCE

 

Japan's financial regulators, by contrast, have largely given bitcoin a shrug.

 

"Bitcoin is not a currency; it is an alternative to currencies, like gold," said a spokesman for the Financial Services Agency. "We are only responsible for currencies and therefore bitcoin is not subject to our regulatory oversight."

 

Finance Ministry officials also said they are not in charge of regulating the virtual currency. A Bank of Japan spokesman said the central bank had nothing to add to remarks that Governor Haruhiko Kuroda made in December, when he said he was "very interested in bitcoin".

 

"In one sense, it is similar to electronic-funds transfers and the spread of electronic money," Kuroda said then. "But there are also some differences and the price is somewhat volatile. I think each country's central bank is watching this ... but as of now I have nothing specific to report."

 

Other jurisdictions have been more proactive.

 

In the United States, Alabama's securities regulator said he will issue an alert on Tuesday, cautioning consumers and investors to stop trading on bitcoin exchanges or adding to their accounts if they are having trouble redeeming the digital currency or cashing out.

 

Karpeles himself, while insisting on his own exchange's reliability, has made no secret that bitcoin is, as he told Reuters last April, a "high-risk investment".

 

"If you buy bitcoins, you should buy keeping in mind that the value could be zero the day after."

 

(Additional reporting by Chris Peters in Bangalore, Cheng Herng Shinn, Stanley White and Noriyuki Hirata in Tokyo; Writing by William Mallard; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

 

 

[Garf]

This has been dragging out for months and is in fact the 4th or 5th "Goxing" people have had to suffer through. Gox just needs to go under already so that everything can get back to normal.

 

The issue is not with BTC. The issue is with a company run by clownish and incompetent management, as noted many times by Andreas Antonopoulos and others.

 

 

-Edit to remove blanket statement/assumption

 

Irrespective of this company vanishing completely it doesn't mean that Bitcoin suddenly offers any protection against fraud. BTC still has the same problems it started with... which allow even "Clowns" to exploit the market. You can bet your hard cash that whilst they were stalling and dragging this out that all the time they were jumping ship and selling off all of their own BTC. Again, no protection against fraud or market advantage.

[PMminer]

You mean "Clowns" like the federal reserve, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, HSBC...

 

Do we need to look back at the news for the last 5 years to see how "well" the current financial institutions have been protecting you against fraud and NOT abusing their market advantage? If you're distrustful of BTC, then maybe look in your own back yard first and see how well you're being treated by the current status quo.

 

"Irrespective of this company vanishing completely it doesn't mean that the Dollar suddenly offers any protection against fraud. The Dollar still has the same problems it started with... which allow even "Clowns" to exploit the market."

 

Bitcoin, the protocol, absolutely DOES protect against fraud. Institutions, people and companies that transact in it may or may not. Two completely different things.

[NP_Gresham]

Gox just needs to go under already so that everything can get back to normal.

 

 

What is 'normal'?

 

[PMminer]

Progress forward.

[Leescomics]

Bitcoin is too risky for me.

I wanted to take this opportunity to announce that we will now be accepting Green Stamps.