mpescatori wrote on 11/26/13 at 04:51:49:Would you please explain what all this is about ?
Nobody mentions bitcoins here in Europe...
I would be glad too, but honestly.. you would do better just searching on Youtube.
Basically, BitCoins ( aka BTC) is a purely digital currency. There is no physical manifestation, just a transaction log saying what wallet has what. Notice I said what wallet.. not "who". A wallet creates an account ( free) and you can have as many as you want. Folks can give you BTC or you them... no bank... no real centralized function... except the transaction log. A wallet has a claim to BTC because the transactin log agrees that the BTC in it came from somewhere that had them.. all the way back to the begining of BTC. This is called the Block Chain.
Why use it? The creation of BTC ( each coin) is very controlled by a set algorithm. They can only be created so fast, and there will only ever be so many. So governments that steal wealth by inflation cannot do so with BTC. Since transactions function "banklessly" transaction fees are tiny.. and I mean down to hundreths of a percent, versus the 2.9 for paypal or 3.9 for bank wire.
As for Europe not knowing about it... you need to look around abit. When the government cracked down on Cyprus bank accounts, BTC went from nothing to over $200 each. It became a way to secure your wealth.. to store it against the government and the complicit banks. The UK is a huge supporter of its use. You can walk into a pub, hold up your iphone and transfer the BTC needed to buy a pint.
I dont have an account with Reddit - but a google search showed this:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1qd7mc/italian_blog_on_bitcoin/Currently, other than maybe Iceland, every country is in competition to inflate their currency, this was pretty much started by the US (globally). Though of course there are other more sad stories such as Argentina or Zimbabweh (sp).
Personally, I have not "bought" any such digital currency. I still see a hugh risk. But l like tech toys so I played around and "mined" some to see how it would go. It was very fun... but not so profitable. Still my mined coins that I have left are woth $80 up from $16!