Quote from: Macho on November 13, 2010, 08:31:13 AM

Yeah, that's like complaining about dollars because you can't easily print some more whenever you want

Maybe it was a strategic mistake to advertise that property of the bitcoin system to newcomers as a way to obtain bitcoins, the truth is that the majority will not generate bitcoins nor is it desirable that they would. It's supposed to be a medium of exchange, not a mining game ...

I believe it was a massive mistake, at least the way it was expressed with some of the early posts even on this forum. I've seen some posts full of contempt for the newcomers.

The Bitcoin faucet was a good early source of getting some bitcoins to at least play around with the concept, and I'm glad that at least somebody saw that need. Unfortunately, if that is the only input that can be trusted for bitcoins, it is rather weak.

Quote from: FlyingMoose on November 13, 2010, 02:52:59 PM

Quote from: grondilu on November 13, 2010, 05:47:48 AM

Anyone who really wants to own bitcoins can just buy some.

I think you should re-read some of the complaints. It's become very difficult to get USD into the system to buy bitcoins since no one accepts credit cards or paypal to buy them.

Amen on that point too! Excluding Americans from participating in the system, which is what this implies, is ignoring a huge early market for Bitcoins. The legal issues surrounding alternative currencies in America have been discussed extensively on other threads, including potential problems with converting dollars to Bitcoins and the other way around.

While there may be many who trust the current exchanges within the Bitcoin community, they are all very new ideas themselves and certainly haven't established credibility with the general public. That is going to take time.

On the whole, this is something that eventually will work out of the system as people begin to understand the concept as a whole, It also takes coming up with other ways to both obtain and spend bitcoins.