Bitcoins.

[xAD]

I want to pay in Pyramid Schemes, too!

[jbrodack]

Though it isn't completely needed it would be a nice feature and supporting it would look good for Ouya as an innovator.

It isn't a pyramid scheme or a virtual currency tied a game or anything like that. There are currency exchanges for it and it is as legitimate as a digital currency can be. It's tied to a lot of shady things because it's harder to track down a bitcoin address to a person who hasn't made that address public, than it is to track down someone's credit card. However, it is getting more and more legitimate use as time goes on. I know humble bundle accepts bitcoins.

Saying it isn't worth it for Ouya to support makes some sense but to make fun of the currency just shows you don't know very much about it.

[Hydrus]

1 week ago: 1 BTC = $195 USD

Today: 1 BTC = $288.53 USD

Crazy...

[RiotingSpectre]

1 week ago: 1 BTC = $195 USD

Today: 1 BTC = $288.53 USD

Crazy...

Yeah, those things fluctuate more sporadically than my mood. As I said before, it could be a option for the future. A good option is something we don't know yet.

[Karyyk]

Bitcoin is probably a bit too fluid right now to be considered for payment for low-profit margin items (the profits from one day could easily amount to a deficit by the next). That said, the upward trend in value is hard to deny. You can laugh and joke all you want about "fake currency," but value is ultimately decided by what and how much I can buy with it. If people decide it has value, then it has value, as crazy as it might seem to those who make the decision that it doesn't (just as someone from 100 years ago wouldn't put much worth into a currency note that has no real backing behind it).

The problem is that now, it's kind of hard to mine the stuff. The difficulty is so high that only those with deep pockets can afford to mine anything but a very negligible (and likely fractional) number of coins. It's become a business where the lionshare of the currency is controlled by a small percentage of individuals...kind of like any other monetary system.

At least the Humble Bundle takes bitcoin.

[InvaderGames]

It's become a business where the lionshare of the currency is controlled by a small percentage of individuals...kind of like any other monetary system.

This is not true at all, it is actually how the system is designed!

The more people mine and use the currency, the harder it gets to mine new blocks, that is how the currency make grow its value, by adding more difficulty to get new coins, just like gold, for the sake of comparission.
The key difference is that NO ONE can have control over the network, that is the only potential flaw of the Bitcoin P2P network, if someone takes over 70% of the network they can potentially disrupt the entire system, but again, 70% of the whole network on only a couple people is INSANE, and in the coming years it will be even more insane, since the network is growing so fast.

[jonbonazza]

For the record, 1BTC = $400 USD now.

[Prometheus]

Couldn't this be used as a means to gamble?

[Schizophretard]

Couldn't this be used as a means to gamble?

To my understanding it is more of a free market freedom oriented currency instead of state controlled and regulated monopoly money. So, imagine what kind of transactions could be done if society was a completely free society with a totally free market and what type of transactions you could do. That would give you your answer.

[Reaperman]

Couldn't this be used as a means to gamble?

The same way one would gamble with stocks or commodities, yes. I've recently cashed out of BTC to USD. Waiting for it to drop again.

For the record, I'm not actually a huge btc fan. I don't like that it's essentially a bunch of nerds who wanted to rich and invented a very silly way for that to be true. But, as long as a bunch of other idiots (such as myself) keep buying into it, there is value there.

What I don't get: as difficulty climbs and people stop mining, how do we expect to process transactions in a timely way? How are the 99% going to get spent when the 1% is mining? I'm sure there must be an answer for it, but I'm not that 'in the loop.'