Google Says It Has "No Current Plans Regarding Bitcoin" 157
An anonymous reader writes "A popular Reddit submission today suggested Google's payment team was looking to incorporate Bitcoin, naturally sparking a lot of excitement in the virtual currency community. TNW reached out to Google regarding the claim and learned that it was indeed false. 'As we continue to work on Google Wallet, we're grateful for a very wide range of suggestions,' a Google spokesperson told TNW. 'While we're keen to actively engage with Wallet users to help inform and shape the product, there's no change to our position: we have no current plans regarding Bitcoin.'"
Why do nerds like the Boorgle? (Score:1, Insightful)
Google collects vast quantities of information about everything everyone does on the internet. And they do it by offering stuff to you for free. Isn't there a catch? Can we honestly believe that the only reason they give you Gmail is to push ads to you and the only reason Analytics is to hope that you'll buy the upgrade? Really?
And even if you trust Google 100%, hasn't it occurred to you that data storage is cheap and management is transient. Add those together, and it means that everything you do on the ne
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It's possible to dislike Google and Microsoft. I refuse to use either one.
Bitcoin? (Score:5, Funny)
Dogecoin is performance art (Score:5, Insightful)
And not even particularly good performance art.
How long can a joke possibly go on before it grows stale? Dogecoin seeks to find the answer.
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"Dogecoin fans raise funds to send Jamaican bobsled team to Olympics" headline feels surreal, but the fact it's not a joke, but a fact, makes this world it happened in feel surreal.
Wait until they retire immediately afterward and start hawking alcoholic beverages.
It's called Gcoin now. (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:It's called Gcoin now. (Score:5, Interesting)
You know, if a company like Amazon or Google -- with their immense server farms for mining -- did come up with its own cryptocoin, it could tilt the masses towards accepting the idea of cryptocurrencies, while simultaneously taking a huge bite out of Bitcoin's future potential.
Imagine an Amazoncoin, AZC, providing everything that BTC provides plus...
- convenient support for payment to Amazon.com or transactions throughout the web
- theft-insurance-backed online wallets for people who are unwilling to manage wallets on their own
- nice incentives for mining companies willing to partner with them to support AZC transactions in the early days.
Who would sign on? (Score:5, Insightful)
if a company like Amazon or Google -- with their immense server farms for mining -- did come up with its own crypto coin
Approximately none of the users of Bitcoin today would switch for (rightful) fear of being tracked out the wazoo. The cash-like nature of Bitcoin would undoubtedly being severely undermined if coming from a company like Google...
It's a lot harder to prop up a currency that a significant number of people will accept than most people think.
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Because the current users of Bitcoin are generally computer-savvy and security-minded -- except for the ones who insist on using wallets hosted in the cloud, but we can assume that they're a minority.
As for the Great Unwashed, though, they're still using passwords like "123456" and shrugging their shoulders at Snapchat's gaping security holes while they sext with friends. Because convenience.
I can't speak for Google -- its business model is a little different -- but Amazon has the customer base, market pene
Re:Who would sign on? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's what they LIKE to think about themselves, but unless they are early adopter perpetrators of this scam they are just deluded suckers instead.
I wonder if we can use the "security" window dressing in bitcoin to track down the ransomware virus people? That may finally be a good use for bitcoin.
Re:Who would sign on? (Score:4, Interesting)
hey are early adopter perpetrators of this scam they are just deluded suckers instead.
So, I want to pay someone in the UK for helping with some development work, and I transfer them some Dollars by way of Bitcoin and they get it in their bank account as Pounds... Then how am I being a scammed deluded sucker instead of benefiting from Bitcoin's cheap (currently free) decentralized electronic global transaction system?
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Your partner would first have to find someone in the UK that changes BTC to GBP for an acceptable price.
And you'd have to hope that the value doesn't change too much while in transfer.
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You can usually get away with free for the Bitcoin transaction itself, but you're right that exchanging at either ends generally isn't free.
Still, I don't think that's quite enough to justify calling the people who do it scammed deluded suckers.
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How is it a scam if I can do my transaction without getting burnt?
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See how stupid your "didn't get burnt this time" line is?
The money has to come from somewhere with those big changes in value so somebody is getting burnt even if it's not you this time.
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Russian Roulette isn't a scam. And I'm asking why Bitcoin is.
Your problem with Bitcoin is that you think it's a way to make money. It's not. It's a payment network. You use it for payments. You don't keep bitcoin; you give it to other people. The only people who lose out when the exchange rate changes are the people trying to make money from holding it (i.e. investors/"stock market players").
Now, as it happens, depending on how you do it, you do sometimes end up having to hold bitcoin for short periods of t
Look behind the "shiny" (Score:2)
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Are you trying to say that Bitcoin is a scam because you think it's a Ponzi scheme?
Bitcoin makes no guarantee of profits, so it's not a Ponzi scheme. Early adopters took a bigger risk dealing with it, and ended up with a bigger payoff for that, and I'm certainly jealous of them for doing so, but that doesn't make it a Ponzi scheme either. And I see no reason to deny myself the useful aspects of it just because some other people took a gamble that paid off.
(This is covered in the FAQ [bitcoin.it].)
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All we've been trying to do is get you to explain why you called it a scam -- and the answer appears to be because you misunderstood it.
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Because just pointing at the Wikipedia entry for Ponzi schemes doesn't make Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme, and I've already explained why Bitcoin isn't a Ponzi scheme in one of my above posts. It's now on you to explain why I (and the Bitcoin FAQ) are wrong.
Just to reiterate: Bitcoin isn't a Ponzi scheme because it makes no guarantee of profits. Also, in a Ponzi scheme, only early investors can benefit (at the expense of later investors). With Bitcoin, everybody benefits from the existence of a peer-to-peer paymen
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I'm sick of the hair splitting - OK so it's a "ponzi-type" scheme instead of an actual ponzi because the name of the token is different, but it's still a blatant scam baited for geek.
Once again, I'd advise people who are interested in bitcoin to take a close look at that wikipedia page on ponzi schemes and compare it to what they can find out about bitcoin from an INDEPENDENT source before getting involved.
It'
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Yet you still haven't answered my question. How is it a scam? Don't just point to Wikipedia and say "it's a blatant scam". If it really is so blatant, you'd be able to actually explain why yourself.
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Blatant pyramid with massive hardwired potential gains to the unknown founder. It should be obvious. Your education has failed you if it hasn't prepared you for things like that - but of course you know all this and just want to prey on others don't you?
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Blatant pyramid
I asked you to explain it, not just declare it blatant again...
with massive hardwired potential gains to the unknown founder
Okay, I'll take this as the explanation. This, by itself, is not enough to make something a scam. For example: every time you pay your monthly electricity bill, your electricity company gets richer. Does that mean you're being scammed? No, of course not.
If Bitcoin really was a scam, I think you would've been able to articulate why by now.
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http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4719055&cid=46084415
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Because you haven't even managed to spell it out once yet, and at the moment it looks like you can't.
That post only covers Bitcoin exchanges, not Bitcoin itself. Yes, I know it's possible to pull scams involving Bitcoin, but that should hardly be surprising (you can pull scams involving dollars, or whatever takes your fancy) and it doesn't make Bitcoin a scam.
So... do you have anything to back up your claim, or should I take your inability to come up with anything relevant as an indicator that it isn't a sc
Caveat Emptor (Score:2)
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I'm not attempting to "convince a mark" here, I just want an explanation of why Bitcoin is a scam. I've asked you repeatedly to explain that, and you haven't. Is there a reason for that? It's almost as if Bitcoin isn't a scam, and the reason you can't answer me is because there is no answer to give.
Like I said, the link you provided talks about Bitcoin exchanges, not Bitcoin. It doesn't explain why Bitcoin is a scam. It's a bit like showing me your email inbox and saying "Look, there's a Nigerian 419 scam e
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This is the main threat of non-governmental currencies -- this transaction you describe is very much like the "tax and hassle free" inner economies of many multinationals.
IBM used to have a good import export business in Eastern Europe for food items for a while -- because they were offsetting investments and earnings. Basically, any company in many nations can transfer profits with internal distributions of goods (kind of the bit-coin model), then when there is an imbalance, they can overpay for a widget c
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It appears you have a personal stake in this pyramid and are willing to demean yourself a great deal to tempt suckers, so that you gain more than you lose. Who is the slave now?
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...and then they get shutdown (Score:2)
Imagine if they just started by basing Amazon Gift Certificates off the technology. Suddenly next Christmas, several hundred million teens and twenty-somethings would have wallets and be spending Amazoncoins. Amazon trumpets the numbers, using them as proof that Amazoncoins are popular, thus setting the stage for further acceptance by people who know nothing about Bitcoin but sure as hell know Amazon.
...and a few months later, the whole operation will get shut down on various grounds.
(Accusation of tax evasion or money laundering or whatever, or simply because they are not legally authorised to create their own money)
That's one of the main strong points of bitcoin: its distributed nature. You can't "shutdown bitcoin", because there's no single entity to go to in order to shut it down.
Whereas, in case of Amazon, obviously you just shut down AZC by going at Amazon and asking them.
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Well, it depends on what "create your own money" means. Certainly we have department stores issuing their own credit cards and gift certificates right now, and airlines allowing you to earn "points" when you fly. In all cases, your balance -- positive or negative -- is just a number in a register somewhere. If you allow people to transfer a portion of that number between themselves via gift certificates, or exchange a portion for goods or services, then it seems to me that you have the beginnings of a cu
Pipedream (Score:1)
"Suddenly next Christmas, several hundred million teens and twenty-somethings would have wallets and be spending Amazoncoins."
this is a fabrication from your mind
this will not happen
wake up
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> users of Bitcoin
> fear of being tracked
ahahahahahahahaha
it's almost like the entire world doesn't know exactly which wallet contains which bitcoins at all times
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Approximately none of the users of Bitcoin today would switch for (rightful) fear of being tracked out the wazoo.
Your use of the word "rightful" does not make it so. Bitcoin is already highly trackable. You have to assume that governments are already tracking it. Therefore, there is no merit whatsoever to this attitude. Bitcoin is highly tracked no matter who is in charge. Bitcoin is immensely more traceable than USD because all exchanges have to go through an exchange. You're talking nonsense.
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Jedi Mind Trick? (Score:4, Insightful)
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The idea is just so stupidly silly. Any major corporation that creates is own psuedo currency, simply provides a means by which credit can be earned from them and they provide services in return, this because they have real capital assets backing.
For example a major banking corporation instead of paying interest can offer services as a tax free percentage of that interest. Things like providing free tax returns (they have loads of lawyers and accounts and fully know the tax law, so it would make sense to
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For non-banking corporations like say Google and MSN, there is the options of adding banking features to their repertoire and credit say something like MSN credits in lieu of interest or other earned income and provide a whole range of services in exchange or even cashing out your earned credits (not the original capital which remains regular local currency and can be withdrawn at any time).
That's exactly what I'm talking about... something like "Amazon Gift Cards", but with an extended range of services so that you can use them for buying Amazon products (perhaps initially at a discount), pool or transfer portions of them electronically through Amazon's website, etc. Earn credits (i.e., interest) towards other Amazon purchases, etc. Perhaps even connect buyers and sellers as per EBay.
All with Amazon certifying the lion's share of the transactions, and hosting the biggest exchange, the walle
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You make the same mistake again, Amazon does not required encrypted fake currency, it has capital assets to back it own creditor system not a fake currency, it backs it credit provision by capital assets as well as the real world currencies of it's investors. No crazy ass bitcoins required, it has the capital assets to deal in real world currencies, get it.
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What does this give Amazon?
Re:It's called Gcoin now. (Score:5, Insightful)
Loads of companies (perhaps even a majority of retailers) already do issue "their own currency"- in the form of in-store credit vouchers. In principal there's no reason why you couldn't go down to your local convenience store and pay for a loaf of bread and bottle of milk with iTunes vouchers- a currency which is "backed" by "real goods" (i.e., the currency can be redeemed at any time at the "central bank" in exchange for useful goods (music and whatnot), in the manner of a gold-backed currency).
The fact that nobody does this tells you a lot about the majority of the population's attitude towards corporate controlled private currencies. To most people, they seem like a completely unnecessary way of abstracting on top of an already perfectly valid currency system. There's no reason to assume people would feel any differently towards "Amazon Coins" than they do towards Amazon gift vouchers, regardless of the techy details behind it.
I still remain deeply sceptical that BitCoin is anything other than an enthusiast's curiosity and/or "get rich quick" scheme, and can't imagine it going the distance. I've been wrong plenty of times before, but...well, I'm not changing my mind on that one yet.
Some of the attraction of Bitcoin (Score:3)
The fact that nobody does this tells you a lot about the majority of the population's attitude towards corporate controlled private currencies.
Bitcoin is attractive in that it's not a corporate private currency. It's not even controlled by anybody (which has some advantage in the eyes of some anarchist or people living with corrupt government, but which also means that currently BTC exchange rates are prone to much more fluctuation).
I still remain deeply sceptical that BitCoin is anything other than an enthusiast's curiosity and/or "get rich quick" scheme, and can't imagine it going the distance.
Well it has a value (at least the bitcoin protocol, not the BTCs themselves) as a system to send money abroad.
More or less the advantages that SEPA has brought to easily push money between european banks, bitcoin bring
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Wow, where to begin.
First of all, in-store credit vouchers are not "their own currency" at all. They're just U.S. dollars with restrictions on where they can be spent. They'll always be worth the same amount in dollars because they're not a separate currency at all. other currencies values are tracked separately from each other. Yes, a particular currency can be tied to another currency, but at any point, that tie can be severed. A voucher's tie to the U.S. dollar can NEVER be severed because it IS U.S. dol
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First of all, in-store credit vouchers are not "their own currency" at all. They're just U.S. dollars with restrictions on where they can be spent. They'll always be worth the same amount in dollars because they're not a separate currency at all. other currencies values are tracked separately from each other. Yes, a particular currency can be tied to another currency, but at any point, that tie can be severed. A voucher's tie to the U.S. dollar can NEVER be severed because it IS U.S. dollars.
That would make it a currency with an exchange rate pegged to the US dollar- it does not negate the fact that it is a separate currency. It is no different to any other currency which is pegged to the dollar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I... [wikipedia.org]
The fact that it seems weird to call it a "separate currency" doesn't make it not so. The only potential difference between an Amazon gift voucher and an "Amazon Coin" would be the rules around it's issuance and exchange- the fundamentals would be the same.
GAE Coin (Score:2)
What happens when Google, EBay and Amazon decide to start offering a pseudo currency of their own? Forget the bitcoin mining aspects of it, the three of them decide to offer people "GAE" coin that's good for buying anything sold by either of those three companies.
The currency is backed by the size and scale of these companies and provides a deep utility considering there's not much you can't buy from any of these three vendors. If you sold something or were looking for a credit from Amazon and they offere
Still. (Score:5, Insightful)
Casinos in Vegas was the last one I recall... maybe this thing has legs.
Can it be that our fiat monetary systems are so flawed that this is a reasonable alternative for some folks?
Transaction system not a monetary system (Score:5, Insightful)
Here lately, more mainstream companies are coming out in favor of accepting it. Casinos in Vegas was the last one I recall... maybe this thing has legs. Can it be that our fiat monetary systems are so flawed that this is a reasonable alternative for some folks?
The casino and various other companies are accepting bitcoins as payment but they do not hold any bitcoins. For the casino your bill is computed in $US, they compute the current bitcoin equivalent when you are ready to pay, accept payment and immediately have the bitcoins converted to $US. The casino avoids the bank/credit card transaction fees and surcharges. The bitcoin payment processor used has no transaction fees, just a flat monthly fee.
It seems that bitcoins are more of a replacement for credit cards, in other words a transaction system rather than a replacement monetary system.
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Can it be that our fiat monetary systems are so flawed that this is a reasonable alternative for some folks?
Going back to a deflationary/metallic currency is not possible, plausible, or remotely rational.
We've been there and abandoned that.
For all the flaws of "fiat" currency, no one has really proposed a viable deflationary alternative that compensates for problems we've already fixed.
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Bitcoins aren't really money; they're more like those tokens you buy in theme parks where you can spend them once you've converted them, but only on a the rides in that park, and you can't convert them back. Bitcoin is always going to be a secondary currency, and big companies are going to be wary of it because there's nothing to prevent a government banning it (specifically, banning companies from converting it back into real money), meaning you'll be stuck in the theme park with a lot of useless tokens,
Re: Still. (Score:2)
The reason we've abandoned deflationary currencies is because government can't steal our wealth by inflating them.
Time for a return to a currency that benefits the little people.
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That's why people laugh at gold standard advocates. You are nothing but useful idiots for old money.
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So, you are saying that it was the specific change to inflationary, centralized currencies that led to modern society, right?
<a href="http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/03/28/the-sixth-great-extinction-a-silent-extermination/">This is the price of your inflation-led modern society.</a>
I am not impressed.
I happen to believe firmly that we will never return to the ages of feudalism, even as we will inevitably ret
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BTW, I was shooting a
Re: Still. (Score:2)
Profanity require to rub it in (Score:2)
Af-fucking-ganistan where everyone has an AK-fucking-47 is just about the closest thing to feudalism currently on the planet. How in hell did you not notice that?
Re: Profanity require to rub it in (Score:2)
Not proving your point at all (Score:2)
Re: Not proving your point at all (Score:2)
You think those women being publicly raped and beaten are armed? Ha! The Taliban could never exist were the general population armed.
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....Can it be that our fiat monetary systems are so flawed that this is a reasonable alternative for some folks?
Even if it has to be "mined", Bitcoin is a fiat currency that is backed by absolutely nothing other than itself.
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Digital tulips
Match Plan (Score:4, Insightful)
there's no change to our position: we have no current plans regarding Bitcoin
In a strage coincidence, I have no interest in Google Wallet - so I guess that works out for everyone.
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there's no change to our position: we have no current plans regarding Bitcoin
In a strage coincidence, I have no interest in Google Wallet - so I guess that works out for everyone.
It would be a first, I guess, that someone does something without planning.
That's all they can say! (Score:5, Insightful)
Just because they say 'we have no current plans for Bitcoin' does not mean they don't have people working on exploring the technical aspects, the legal aspects, the social, and financial aspects. It would be a huge decision for a company like Google to say anything definitive about Bitcoin at this point - considering anything positive from Google would most likely double the Bitcoin price. And, doubling the Bitcoin price would do that much more to solidify its place in the financial world.
In other words, it will happen with or without Google - starting with much smaller companies first. Two years ago, the Bitcoin community was excited to see a $1million/year revenue company announce they are taking Bitcoin. Now, Overstock.com and Tigerdirect both take Bitcoin. Don't expect anything from Google for a while..
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Those few people putting their foot down won't matter. Also, your understanding of Bitcoin is limited by the opinions you parrot.
Everything about Bitcoin - the algorithm, the source code, the markets, the Blockchain - is all out in the open. It's transparent, finite, and enables instant transfers of value anywhere in the world. IMO, sticking your fingers in your ears and shouting won't make it stop. It would be like trying to stop TCP/IP in 1992. Bitcoin is an entire protocol and understanding it may very w
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I would be so disappointed... (Score:3, Funny)
Pump and Dump (Score:1)
Reddit is the Grand Central of bitcoin pump and dump
Here is how to get Google to support Bitcoin (Score:4, Funny)
1) Buy 100 USB sticks.
2) Put a wallet on each with .01 Bitcoin, and the password in a text file.
3) Leave laying about Google campus.
Now all sorts of Google engineers have a vested interest in Bitcoin rising in value...
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1) Buy 100 USB sticks.
2) Put a wallet on each with .01 Bitcoin, and the password in a text file.
3) Leave laying about Google campus.
Now all sorts of Google engineers have a vested interest in Bitcoin rising in value...
If you left $1000 USD worth of Canadian Dollars in Google's parking lot, they'd just take it to a bank and exchange it for $1000 USD.
Why would bitcoin be different, because they can spend it directly online? Then why wouldn't they do that?
I don't get it...
If I recommended investing in penny stocks, that would be a bad idea.
If I recommended stockpiling an unstable foreign currency, that would be a bad idea
Using any of the above to buy local goods, bad idea.
But bitcoin is cool because bitcoin.
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Considering the salaries Google employees get, you might have to put more than 0.01 BTC (at current exchange rates, $9.25) on a USB stick before they get too excited about it.
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Dropping USB keys in parking lots is a known way to infect a network. Any Google employee competent enough to use bitcoin should hopefully also know that picking up random USB keys is a bad idea.
https://www.schneier.com/blog/... [schneier.com]
To the contrary (Score:2)
Being Google engineers they would assume they were too smart to get viruses from the USB sticks.
They smarter they are, the more immune they feel...
of course (Score:2)
Translating Googlespeak (Score:4, Insightful)
As we continue to work on Google Wallet...we have no current plans regarding Bitcoin.
Translation: "We're ignoring the new monetary system that no one controls so we can push onto you the new monetary system that we control."
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Never forget that US companies are in bed with the NSA. They have to be if asked under terrorism related laws, both public and secret.
Google cancelled Wallet for 3rd parties (Score:5, Informative)
Besides, the article is on Reddit, a website that currently has, as it's top story, "This actually happened on MSNBC today (youtube.com)"
This was a horribly uninformed Slashdot article, all around.
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'Upworthy title' (google it) aside, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. That story is actually about how a major news outlet interrupted an actually interesting segment on privacy and monitoring in the U.S., during an interview with a congresscritter, because Justin Bieber got booked for a DUI. That's exactly the sort of slap-in-the-face that people deserve to real
Google explicitly prohibits it engineers from (Score:1)
Google explicitly prohibits it engineers from working on Bitcoin related software. Make of it what you will.
Posting as AC for obvious reasons.
Please keep all this under the bitcoin topic (Score:3)
Argh (Score:2)
No, they didn't "reach out to" Google, they contacted Google. It's not some emo teenager "reaching out to" their ex-girlfriend for love and support. Additionally, "contacted" is only one word instead of three and sounds better.
A Non-Story (Score:3)
The old saying... (Score:2)
"No news is... Slashdot News."
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Yeah, I miss not having two global warming stories every single day... Or a mundane story about Apple daily... Google may have partially taken their place.
I wonder when they'll get back around to that whole hard science and technology thing. Stuff that matters.
Googs vs. Zoins (Score:2)
Even if Google plans to accept Bitcoin ... (Score:1, Insightful)
... it can't say it out loud before everything is in place.
Just because Google's PR piece gave that "No Current Plan Regarding Bitcoin" doesn't mean Google isn't weighting the possibility (or even planning to accept) that virtual currency.
Company as large as Google must weight the pros and cons before it venture into something controversial (I am not saying that Bitcoin is in itself controversial, what I am saying is virtual currency, which Bitcoin is part of, is still being treated as something very alien
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[citation needed]
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