ata comments on Singularity Institute now accepts donations via Bitcoin - Less Wrong

14 Post author: Kevin 28 February 2011 04:03PM

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Comment author: ata 01 March 2011 08:56:15PM 5 points [-]

What are Bitcoins useful for now? About how much are they worth in dollars (if it's possible to say)? Are they currently good for anything that SingInst needs, and/or are they likely to eventually be valuable enough that it's worth possibly giving people this new excuse not to donate normal money?

Comment author: wedrifid 02 March 2011 09:37:24AM 6 points [-]

What are Bitcoins useful for now?

Buying dollars, avoiding transaction fees, dodging taxes, laundering money, maintaining anonymity and feeling nerdy.

Comment author: Wei_Dai 01 March 2011 09:03:52PM 3 points [-]

Chart of dollar value of Bitcoin over time: http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD

Comment author: AlexMennen 02 March 2011 04:35:58AM *  3 points [-]

This doesn't completely clear up why bitcoin is useful for SIAI. Is SIAI planning on making expenditures with bitcoins? Or is it just that giving people more different ways of donating increases the average amount that they will give, and then SIAI can just sell bitcoins for US dollars when they need money?

Comment author: lsparrish 02 March 2011 05:15:25AM *  6 points [-]

While I don't speak for anyone at SIAI, several possibilities spring to mind.

  • Accepting bitcoins relatively early in the game would tend to raise the status of an organization like SIAI should it prove popular, but doesn't cost it much if it doesn't.
  • If the value goes up the organization can profit financially by holding onto them.
  • It may be the case that people will donate bitcoins more easily than equal value in dollars, for psychological reasons (e.g. lack of equivalent ugh fields).
  • It may be that people who initially consider donating in bitcoins will change their minds and donate dollars instead.
  • It could plausibly come about that processing power, and/or the time and energy of AI hackers, can be purchased more cheaply/easily for bitcoin than dollars.
Comment author: Larks 04 March 2011 12:04:34AM 5 points [-]

You forgot

  • It gives SIAI an excuse to remind everyone of the need to donate!
Comment author: Alicorn 02 March 2011 05:46:26AM 5 points [-]

I was recently owed some money by SIAI, and if I had been "doing" bitcoins then, I would probably have been willing to accept some fraction of my money in bitcoin form.

Comment author: rhollerith_dot_com 05 March 2011 02:53:35PM 1 point [-]

It may be that people who initially consider donating in bitcoins will change their minds and donate dollars instead.

The presence of this consideration in your list suggests that perhaps you or some of your readers do not realize that at present, there are web sites similar to foreign-exchange windows where SIAI can probably easily convert bitcoins into dollars.

Comment author: wedrifid 02 March 2011 09:29:25AM 0 points [-]

Or is it just that giving people more different ways of donating increases the average amount that they will give, and then SIAI can just sell bitcoins for US dollars when they need money?

More likely to increase the total - probably at the expense of the average.

Comment author: Kevin 02 March 2011 11:17:34AM *  1 point [-]

Yes... unless Clippy donates $40k!

Comment author: wedrifid 02 March 2011 09:26:16AM 0 points [-]

That chart shows all sorts of technical indicators. Are any of those metrics design to give an indication of how likely it is for a currency to completely collapse, based on what can be gleaned from current performance?

Comment author: Kevin 02 March 2011 11:17:14AM 1 point [-]

I think Bitcoin is quite unlikely to completely collapse in the next year because there are enough people with a vested interest in Bitcoin going up (namely Bitcoin miners/hoarders) that would start buying long before the value of a Bitcoin approached .1 USD.

Comment author: wedrifid 03 March 2011 01:14:48AM *  1 point [-]

I am now somewhat curious in the abstract as to what economists have devised to predict the stability of a currency purely based of historical data. Surely there is something. Anyone familiar with the subject?

Comment author: jsalvatier 03 March 2011 11:02:17PM 0 points [-]

I doubt much of anything can be said about currency based only on historical data. Bitcoins are financial assets, and like other financial assets their future price behavior is very difficult to predict because expectations of future price behavior affect future price behavior.

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