1) medium of exchange
2) store of value
3) unit of account
4) common ground for rumor and speculation!
cf. The Beer Game or Dietrich Dörner's thermometer experiments.
For those that follow bitcoin news, I'm sure there is a plethora of "don't do this," "those guys did this," etc., but what do I do as someone who knows nothing about bitcoins and how to keep them safe?
For how to keep them secure once you have them, I recommend simply doing some research. Coinbase provides a basic wallet and if I remember correctly, they cold store most of their coins offline.
Blockchain.info is another good option for a basic wallet. It's simple with a good amount of features. Your wallet is also decrypted in-browser and not on their server so they don't store compromising information.
There are also concepts such as a paper wallet [1] and a brainwallet [2] for extreme security. A brainwallet is basically what it sounds like - a way of storing your wallet in your head.
[1] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Paper_wallet [2] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Brainwallet
"Sorry, the maximum number of purchases on Coinbase has been reached for today. Please try again in 24 hours. We'll continue raising this limit over time."
These sort of security and reliability concerns are certain to hold bitcoin back. Granted they also represent the opportunity, as surely they will be resolved.
It's not a bubble, it's a snowball - at least in the long run.
Maybe too optimistic, but read http://falkvinge.net/2013/03/06/the-target-value-for-bitcoin...
edit: yeah, brainfart. I meant to say that "people buying a bunch of it" can only make it go up, not that it can't (or won't) go down again.
Unless you also share the cousin belief that things can become "too big to fail".
As a long term (or medium-term anyway) store of value, Bitcoin is really quite useless for the time being.
"This time it's different."
Classic hype-curve hockeystick. Everyone should by now know what comes next.
How thinly is this traded? 20%+ or - in hours can't be good
