Blatant promotion:

Debit cards - Who wants one backed with bitcoins?
My company will be selling them soon, and might possibly be giving out a few 1000 or so for free, go to http://www.bitinstant.com and click on cards if you're interested.

I saw an episode of "The Good Wife" last week. It involved the US Treasury attempting to find and prosecute "Mr Bitcoin" on the basis that it is illegal to create a currency in the US. Fictional but interesting.

I watched that episode just after release, it had a few minor technical inaccuracies but was mostly quite good. Of course the biggest issue was the myth that it's illegal to create a currency - in reality it's illegal to distribute coinage that is intended to replace the USD.

sounds interesting but I am broke and in no position to sign up just yet.

Cards aren't shipping yet, but when they do we'll possibly be giving out a few 1000 or so for free, so in fact this is the best time to signup.

Here's a pic:

How does it work exactly Gareth? Do I purchase a bit account and trickle money into it?

Basically it's a prepaid mastercard denominated in bitcoins instead of a more traditional currency, you send the bitcoins to the address printed on the card (or scan the QR code). When you make a purchase it works the same way as using a card in a foreign country.

For example, if I use my british debit card to buy something priced in USD, the bank converts my pound sterling into USD.

With this thing, it'll convert from bitcoins to whatever other currency the product/service you're buying is priced in.

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/08/20...edit-card/

Is there a great advantage to this?

it says its a credit card, not a debit card. I can understand a credit card...it was the debit card that was confusing me.

How does this work? I signed up for one. It asked for my email address only. Is that ok?

It's a debit card, we're not offering credit to anyone.

Then why does it say its a credit card? http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/08/20...edit-card/

This post was last modified: 08-21-2012 05:11 AM by sg1008.

I hadn't heard of bit currency except from you Gareth, how is it valued? Does it change in value over time?

For example, if I put X USD in bit currency, and then sometime later the US dollar drops, will my bit currency be worth more in USD? Or if the reverse happened, will it be worth less in USD?

if you have a reference on hand, you could just post the link, unless you can answer it right out.

This post was last modified: 08-21-2012 05:24 AM by sg1008.