Macrobius
Megaphoron
Stumble Inn
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stumbleinn.net
In the interests of turning the Circle of Crust into a gambling den, I've resurrected a couple of old accounts related to bitcoins (following an SB discussion on the topic of bitcoins).
If anyone wants to play with nominal sums of money (a bitcoin is worth about 13 USD bucks these days and they can be broken indefinitely, so by 'play' I mean with digital pennies and up) --
1. You need to download and install a bitcoin client --
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page
or use an online wallet service, or sign up with a bitcoin exchange (which can be funded in and out by bitcoins -- but are the most complex and speculative option)
NOTE: I've never used an online wallet service, but if I did, I would read this first: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Browser-based_wallet
2. To *get* bitcoins, or fractions thereof (down to millionths) you need to know someone with bitcoins -- 'Happy to oblige. Here's a nickel to get yourself a better currency.' ... or have an account at an exchange -- I use Mt Gox which has had its ups and downs. http://mtgox.com -- and ...
NOTE: for those who missed the memo: http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1995-06-24/
3. You will have to have an e-currency. I use http://dwolla.com which seems to be doing reasonably well (though the competitors massively advertised by VISA and MasterCard seem to be winning the GenY crowd's itch for mobile mail -- you do know what POP Money is don't you?)
dwolla is basically a paypal competitor (paypal is owned by eBay).
Getting into bitcoins (medium): USD bank account -> Dwolla -> Bitcoin exchange
Getting out (hard): Bitcoin exchange -> Dwolla -> USD bank account
Bitcoin to Bitcoin transfers (easy): all clients interoperate -- online wallet, bitcoin exchanges, your personal wallet client on your PC.
Getting in is easy, getting out is hard
when you cross system boundaries.
NOTE and WARNING: Bitcoin is only *semi* anonymous. It is about as anonymous as your 'secret' online identity and fake email accounts -- but no more secure than that. If you do illegal shit with it, you probably can be hunted down, if The Man cares enough. Don't even try. Play money -- have fun.
Longest running thread on this topic at SI: http://stumbleinn.net/forum/showthread.php?t=25004 or see the tags for more.
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Awesome!
Another note for newcomers to this site: the more you poast here, the more Texas Holdem Dollars you earn. You may redeem your virtual 'dollars' in the Gameroom, located at the top of the front page on the right hand side, You will find a variety of slot machine games, a poker table, and more, for your convenience.
If you want to do a fantasy bet on a sports event, or some other topic, post a thread in the 'Help' section and someone who can arrange it might see it in time. Then again, possibly not. Early bird gets the worm.
You will also find that you can *transfer* your Texas Holdem Dollars to each other. I originally bought the bitcoins I currently have because I thought it would be cool if 'Circle of Crust' Texas Holdem Dollars were backed by Bitcoins, at 1,000,000:1 ratio [idea made more sense when 3 sites used the same poker software, and inter site transfers would have been fun]. I might be willing to make a market in bitcoins (or Texas Holdem Dollars -- the the extent I hold any) at that rate. Drop me a PM. I lost too much money at Poker so I can only make a market in dwolla and bitcoin for now, unless my luck changes.
Anyway, 1,000,000 THD = 1 bitcoin (current CofC peg) and screw fiat currencies.