Is BitCoin the Answer for US Players?

CAMurray

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dmorris68

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Bitcoin has been around forever, but it's been relegated primarily to the geek underground subculture. It's quite popular with the underground type sites -- which I guess online poker in the US has been forced to become -- that want to accept funds or donations from users, since the conventional "legit" avenues like paypal and such often forbid transactions for anything they deem unseemly (porn, piracy, gambling, etc.). For instance PayPal has recently been cracking down on a lot of web sites that cater to downloaders (usenet, bittorrent) who were funding their operations through PayPal donations. A lot of those types of sites are moving to bitcoin. I've also seen a couple of poker sites start up recently around bitcoin.

The problem I see is that bitcoin is still mysterious and inconvenient for most people, and there's the security aspect of it. Just about anyone can become an exchange -- unlike other financial institutions or even online wallets like PayPal (which has become a regulated financial institution of its own), there's little to no oversight or regulation. Sure, the top exchanges are safe and have large user bases who can attest to their credibility, but it's still off-putting to a lot of people. Plus the exchange rate fluctuates daily, something new to most US people (the non-US folks are having a laugh at this notion, I'm sure). Last I looked the rate was around $13US per bitcoin. Also, a lot (most?) exchanges don't accept credit cards or EFT's, only wires or other inconvenient transfer methods.

Poker players though may be just the type of risk-takers who are the ideal market to kick up bitcoin popularity. I guess time will tell.
 
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Madness_does

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dont think I would chance that, I can make deposits at bovada and intertops and carbon poker, so why go through all the hassle when there are still sites the US players can play at.
 
CAMurray

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dont think I would chance that, I can make deposits at bovada and intertops and carbon poker, so why go through all the hassle when there are still sites the US players can play at.

How can you play at intertops?
 
triplesyxx

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I guess I need to find a buddy at intertops then...
 
arahel_jazz

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Bitcoin is going through a bit of a credibility crisis. People have been mining the hell out of it and de-valuing the bitcoin to the dollar ratio. Because of that, BC has said that they will cap the total in circulation sometime this year (I think). If that happens, you then have a static amount of currency that can never be grown. It then becomes fairly worthless.

Also, security is a huge issue - several folks have lost thousands in BCs because they got hacked with no backup.

Also, the fact that it is a decentralized currency with no hard backing (think Federal Reserve Banks) - it will be tough for it to pass beyond a geek culture item.
 
kingme620

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Bitcoin is going through a bit of a credibility crisis. People have been mining the hell out of it and de-valuing the bitcoin to the dollar ratio. Because of that, BC has said that they will cap the total in circulation sometime this year (I think). If that happens, you then have a static amount of currency that can never be grown. It then becomes fairly worthless.

Also, security is a huge issue - several folks have lost thousands in BCs because they got hacked with no backup.

Also, the fact that it is a decentralized currency with no hard backing (think Federal Reserve Banks) - it will be tough for it to pass beyond a geek culture item.

This is all wrong. The stoppage of being able to mine bitcoin was planned since the beginning.
 
Debi

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When I tried to d/l the software, is kicks me in the balls and says," USA BAD, HAUUCK TOUY" and spits.

You had to have an account there before they stopped accepting US players. I have heard that you can get in with invitation only now - but don't know how that works.
 
imafin

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i play all the time at intertops poker, one of my favorite sites. they always have added tourneys related to the holidays where you can get some good bang for your buck. definately the best skin on that network.
this thread caused me to go through all the poker options in the software to find anything about inviting folks. i had'nt seen anything about that before and couldnt find info this time either.
 
CAMurray

CAMurray

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Ive never had an account there, if somebody could sent me an invite, I would be happy to name a puppy after you.
 
kidkvno1

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When I tried to d/l the software, is kicks me in the balls and says," USA BAD, HAUUCK TOUY" and spits.

You had to have an account there before they stopped accepting US players. I have heard that you can get in with invitation only now - but don't know how that works.
I'll see if i can find out how it works:)
 
kidkvno1

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Ive never had an account there, if somebody could sent me an invite, I would be happy to name a puppy after you.
PM me your email address.. triplesyxx you can do the same to :)
 
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JamMastaJT

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I have looked into BitCoin for over a year now for poker. I just cant make the switch, I would go to live poker full time over switching to BitCoin poker personally.
 
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