What a crazy couple of weeks we have had with bitcoins, with the price rising to $30 dollars then crashing with all the negative media hype.  I am pleased to see that things have settled down and back to normal. What is comforting considering all the disasters, is that bitcoin did not crash and burn, but is more than likely starting to regain its momentum up in value and usage.

You have to remember that considering all the hype the official bitcoin video by www.weusecoins.com has only had just over 500,000 hits and I have watched the video more than once. So in my mind it is good to have had some of the negativity out of the way so it can go forward. What is important is that www.mtgox.com had its disaster for a few days and survived and I was pleased to see all my coins still intact, but what I couldn’t believe is the attitude of some of the crazies going bis erk on their forum, even wanting to sue them. You have to laugh at the idiots, do they not understand this is all new!!

All this needs to be put into perspective, bitcoins can be seen as an investment like any company and as a result you can make some cash and like any company you can buy shares in that company and it will either grow or crash and burn. On top of this it is a means to transfer money to buy things without having to use a credit card, I can see the benefit more than most because I sell a service to the world and PayPal and the credit card companies are so fical at times they are impossible to deal with.

So where does silver fit into this, well if you like me has been buying Silver as a protection or hedge against the impending doom in the monetary system it makes sense to cover your back, as I say to many if we do have a financial melt down then it was a good move and if we don’t then we are fine anyway. But this is where the crunch comes, particularly as I was driving in a traffic jam, particularly thinking of all the silver gurus knocking bitcoins, well how the hell am I going to buy a cup of coffee with a Silver coin or gold I certainly do not want my change in dollars, but more importantly you cannot buy anything with a silver coin over the internet!!

I have said this is still very much early days for Bitcoins and I have to tell myself to stop looking at the market price and all the positive and negative comments out there, it can drive you mad.

In addition once the hype has gone and the price has settled, then the true idea of bitcoins will rise to the surface.

So I am pleased to say that during my early work in promoting the bitcoin directory I was pleased to hear back from one company who has already been paid in Bitcoins.

The company is Golden mean calipers which is run by Nick Taylor a specialist in web development and sells Calipers over in New Zealand. I should have asked where the client was based too.

Which means I really need to get bitcoins accepted on my website for the BBC Iplayer Proxy for expats living abroad, a perfect match in actual fact. I just need to find the time to set it up.

OK I have to admit I am only a few days into using the bitcoins, but the more I read and use them, the more I get it!

At the moment the bitcoins are being driven by the speculative market, which isn’t surprising based on two things.

1 It is a bull market, so it is fairly straight forward when it comes to making a profit! As Rick certainly believes
2 It is a great way to transfer money internationally and being an expat this will be very useful.

Having read many articles on whether it is a scam or if it is a license to make money, I find them to be quite negative and detracts from what the true benefit will be. Saying that the hype can only help drive more and more people to the reasons why it should be used or at least be aware of the unique advantages.

The truth is it will be irrelevant what the price is, whether it is $100 or 50 pence, because in the future all we want is the price to be steady and by then there will be millions of people wanting to have an alternative to the current system. In reality it is the next step up from PayPal and it was only a matter of time before there would be an alternative.

So yes you could loose your shirt in speculating in the bitcoin, but that is not what it is all about.

Still things are changing and one other advantage I didnt mention

3 Anonymity, as with this $7000 donation to a group of hackers with bitcoins, by someone who obviously isn’t a fan of Sony

Today I bought my first few bitcoins at $13.7875, so it will be interesting to see how they fair over time and if this new phenomenon will take off.

I have to admit I am no financial expert, but I do have a gut feeling for this in that it could be the next internet sensation. So this time I wanted to get in at the beginning, well as close as possible. Presently the momentum for the coin is as a monetary exchange which is pushing up the price and I cannot see it changing. So presently we are in a bull market which could go on for some time.

Saying that like anything you can loose money and I have done so, like many others over the years.

What has attracted me to bitmoney funny enough, is not trying to make money on the exchange, but on the fact it is an alternative to transferring money and buying products online without the need to go through banks. This I have to admit appeals greatly as I have always hated banks and now it seems everyone is beginning to see through their façade.

So what brings me to building this website, well fundamentally I believe its success will be in the coins being accepted as a form of currency, which means we need to find it easy to exchange our bitcoins for goods. Therefore by grouping together all the stores that accept these coins and with as many different products, we can collectively have an alternative to the corporations.

Just to give you some idea of my mindset, I believe in spending my hard earned cash in the community so I go to the local butcher, bread shop and green grocer, rather than the likes of Tescos. Not that I am against large multinationals, but I also believe in choice and spreading wealth, which I have to admit I do not have a great deal of lol!

Oh and it would be good to have an alternative to PayPal, which is harder said than done