Re: [OT] bitcoin donation

[Joakim via Digitalmars-d-announce]

On Monday, 23 November 2015 at 12:11:36 UTC, Steven Schveighoffer 
wrote:
One could ask the same thing about any currency that isn't the 
one accepted at a store.

Sure, online is much less of a hassle, but it's still a little 
time to sign up and administer.  Is that much of Ali's time worth 
spending for at least three donations, likely more?  I bet it 
would be.

I looked with a tinge of fascination at what bitcoin was a 
while ago. I think there is a natural averse reaction to 
something that is valuable but that you cannot understand.
--snip--
I know bitcoin has real math and genius behind it, and this is 
a silly example, but for those who do not understand how it 
actually works (including myself), it seems very similar in 
nature. Dollars (or whatever local currency you use) are 
understandable, and generally accepted at places where I shop. 
It's easy to see how one cannot duplicate them without evidence 
of doing so (the fundamental characteristic of currency). 
Online bits don't seem so uncopyable.

I'm by no means steeped in the tech, but it's pretty 
straightforward to understand the broad strokes.  It's just a 
giant distributed ledger with some crypto to keep it secure and 
hashing to avoid double-counting, ie the duplication you're 
worried about.  But ultimately that doesn't really matter, as 
almost nobody knows how Dollars or other local currencies are 
created or what makes them tough to copy either. ;)

All that matters for a currency is that many buyers and sellers 
will accept it, or at least exchange it quickly and easily for 
your currency of choice, and bitcoin certainly passes that bar.