<p>Taking your questions in order:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>How yet another "currency" will solve anything, or what Bitcoin is supposed to be solving?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Because this is a currency that has different properties that avoid the properties of other currencies that create these problems. For example, the supply of Bitcoins is fairly precisely defined and nobody can devalue them through direct supply inflation. Nobody can discover an asteroid full of Bitcoins and increase their supply.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>How computers are creating currency that I'm supposed to trade my labour(or fruits of) to a human being who somehow claims ownership of this currency?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>It's the same way other decentralized currencies work. If you use, for example, gold as a currency, someone goes to the effort of mining the gold. Then they trade that gold for other goods and services they need to continue mining. Others trade goods and services for the mined gold. With Bitcoin, computation work is needed to secure the transactions, miners get newly-created currency in exchange for this service. You have to distribute a decentralized currency somehow.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>How to become the owner of such currency?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Buy it on the open market. There are many sites where you can buy Bitcoins. You can't really mine Bitcoins at a profit easily -- if you could, then the number of miners will increase and they'll each get smaller shares. This will tend to keep mining just barely profitable, for those who do it well, over the long term.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>How the value of this currency is determined, if it came from nothing?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The same way as the value for anything else is determined, supply and demand. It's value is whatever price buyers and sellers meet at.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-28T00:14:27.007Z
2013-08-28T00:14:27.007Z
David Schwartz
<p>(Answering in order):</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Bitcoin is a currency defined by a consensus of the people. Bitcoin takes money out of the hands of bureaucrats and into the hands of the people.</p></li>
<li><p>Mined bitcoins are the start of their life. The miner will most likely sell them for power and more mining equipment (probably with a exchange to fiat in there).</p></li>
<li><p>Same way as USD. Do jobs, get currency.</p></li>
<li><p>The value of a bitcoin is determined by those who trade it. Exchanges like <a href="https://bitstamp.net" rel="nofollow">Bitstamp</a> and <a href="https://mtgox.com" rel="nofollow">Mt. Gox</a> are a somewhat centralized way of defining a value of a bitcoin to fiat, which in turn can be used as the fiat &lt;-> item value.</p></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-27T23:43:54.103Z
2013-08-27T23:43:54.103Z
Zoey Mertes
<p>What I do understand:</p>

<p>Banks have inflated currency and through this the value of just about everything has been manipulated to make people who do next to nothing for it become rich.</p>

<p>What I don't understand:</p>

<p>How yet another "currency" will solve anything, or what Bitcoin is supposed to be solving?</p>

<p>How computers are creating currency that I'm supposed to trade my labour(or fruits of) to a human being who somehow claims ownership of this currency?</p>

<p>How to become the owner of such currency?</p>

<p>How the value of this currency is determined, if it came from nothing?</p>

<mining-theory><mining-reward><currencies><value>
So a computer is now called a "Miner" and is creating currency?
Bitconfused
# So a computer is now called a "Miner" and is creating currency?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-08-27)

What I do understand:

Banks have inflated currency and through this the value of just about everything has been manipulated to make people who do next to nothing for it become rich.

What I don't understand:

How yet another "currency" will solve anything, or what Bitcoin is supposed to be solving?

How computers are creating currency that I'm supposed to trade my labour(or fruits of) to a human being who somehow claims ownership of this currency?

How to become the owner of such currency?

How the value of this currency is determined, if it came from nothing?

**Tags:** mining-theory, mining-reward, currencies, value


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2013-08-28. Score: 5

Taking your questions in order:

> How yet another "currency" will solve anything, or what Bitcoin is supposed to be solving?

Because this is a currency that has different properties that avoid the properties of other currencies that create these problems. For example, the supply of Bitcoins is fairly precisely defined and nobody can devalue them through direct supply inflation. Nobody can discover an asteroid full of Bitcoins and increase their supply.

> How computers are creating currency that I'm supposed to trade my labour(or fruits of) to a human being who somehow claims ownership of this currency?

It's the same way other decentralized currencies work. If you use, for example, gold as a currency, someone goes to the effort of mining the gold. Then they trade that gold for other goods and services they need to continue mining. Others trade goods and services for the mined gold. With Bitcoin, computation work is needed to secure the transactions, miners get newly-created currency in exchange for this service. You have to distribute a decentralized currency somehow.

> How to become the owner of such currency?

Buy it on the open market. There are many sites where you can buy Bitcoins. You can't really mine Bitcoins at a profit easily -- if you could, then the number of miners will increase and they'll each get smaller shares. This will tend to keep mining just barely profitable, for those who do it well, over the long term.

> How the value of this currency is determined, if it came from nothing?

The same way as the value for anything else is determined, supply and demand. It's value is whatever price buyers and sellers meet at.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2013-08-27. Score: 0

(Answering in order):

* Bitcoin is a currency defined by a consensus of the people. Bitcoin takes money out of the hands of bureaucrats and into the hands of the people.
* Mined bitcoins are the start of their life. The miner will most likely sell them for power and more mining equipment (probably with a exchange to fiat in there).
* Same way as USD. Do jobs, get currency.
* The value of a bitcoin is determined by those who trade it. Exchanges like [Bitstamp](https://bitstamp.net) and [Mt. Gox](https://mtgox.com) are a somewhat centralized way of defining a value of a bitcoin to fiat, which in turn can be used as the fiat <-> item value.


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