Bitcoins.....

[righteousdude2]

....is your church prepared to accept bitcoins in the offering plate? Was wondering what your plans are in case this fad replaces the world-wide monetary system!

And more importantly ... are bitcoins and the system that it employs, the initial phase of the sign or mark of the beast?

Would appreciate your observations on this. Thanks!!! :type:

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

Care to explain how a "bitcoin" can go in an offering plate?

You do realize what they "are," right?

 

[SolaSaint]

What is a bitcoin, I'm lazy and don't want to Google it. :laugh:

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

Digital currency - they don't physically exist.

And know - I don't believe they are the start of the mark of the beast.

 

[Don]

Bitcoins are in a bit (all puns intended) of trouble anyway; look up Mt Gox.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

Bitcoins are in a bit (all puns intended) of trouble anyway; look up Mt Gox.

How do you steal something that doesn't exist?

 

[Don]

My understanding is, it was proposed as an alternative form of currency, easier to carry and use than physical currency or credit/debit cards, and people paid into this start-up because it sounded pretty good. If you ever saw "Almost Human," they would wave flash drives at each other or stick them into ATM-like machines and talk about "stealing 1,000,000 bitcoins."

The problem is, we can already do this from our phones. The credit card companies just haven't figured out how to charge the businesses for the transactions like they do for credit/debit purchases.

 

[ShagNappy]

How do you steal something that doesn't exist?

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/25/business/apparent-theft-at-mt-gox-shakes-bitcoin-world.html?_r=0

 

[ShagNappy]

....is your church prepared to accept bitcoins in the offering plate? Was wondering what your plans are in case this fad replaces the world-wide monetary system!

And more importantly ... are bitcoins and the system that it employs, the initial phase of the sign or mark of the beast?

Bitcoins, and the alternatives, are just to crazy unstable and will more than likely remain so because they are to easily to influence. Someone can make a post on Reddit and the entire Bitcoin market can lose 50% of it's value in seconds. With the recent theft, and the massive bust of the darknet drug exchange, they are decades from being remotely popular outside of the techogeek and criminal circles.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

My understanding is, it was proposed as an alternative form of currency, easier to carry and use than physical currency or credit/debit cards, and people paid into this start-up because it sounded pretty good. If you ever saw "Almost Human," they would wave flash drives at each other or stick them into ATM-like machines and talk about "stealing 1,000,000 bitcoins."

The problem is, we can already do this from our phones. The credit card companies just haven't figured out how to charge the businesses for the transactions like they do for credit/debit purchases.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/25/business/apparent-theft-at-mt-gox-shakes-bitcoin-world.html?_r=0

So it was a scam, plain and simple. That's the only way I can describe a scheme in which people pay money in and get absolutely nothing in return. That's precisely what happened here. Even if they got paper "confirming" their "deposit" -- there was never anything there.

So again, I ask, how can you steal something that doesn't exist? They didn't steal "bitcoins" -- they don't exist. They stole money from gullible idiots.

 

[preachinjesus]

We've not had anyone attempted to give in Bitcoin, but it could happen.

We would just cash them ASAP and be done with it.

Not sure how a digital currency could be the "mark of the beast" (I don't think that's real anyways) but some will surely argue for it.

 

[JonC]

It’s just conjecture on my part, but I do see how digital currency could be linked to the “mark of the beast.” (Not that the “mark” would be something someone would unknowingly acquire, but the technology). The acceptance of currency being “faith based” is, and has been, a process. Anyway, that’s just opinion...but it's mine :smilewinkgrin:.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

(Not that the “mark” would be something someone would unknowingly acquire, but the technology).

The mark of the beast is a physical mark or implant. That is the only interpretation of the Greek charagma, which means "a stamp or imprinted mark." There has recently been developed a water-soluable computer chip " ... that can stick to the skin like a child's tattoo and in some cases dissolve in water when they're no longer needed."

How's that for spooky?

 

[JonC]

The mark of the beast is a physical mark or implant. That is the only interpretation of the Greek charagma, which means "a stamp or imprinted mark." There has recently been developed a water-soluable computer chip " ... that can stick to the skin like a child's tattoo and in some cases dissolve in water when they're no longer needed."

How's that for spooky?

It is spooky. While I think the "mark of the best" will be permanent (and I don't think that it will be a mark out of ignorance) I do see technology going that way. I have not received a paycheck in years...in actual currency (I also have not paid a bill in actual currency in years)...and I think that technology lend itself to a future described in Scripture. This is, however, guessing on my part. I think of how the apostles viewed the immanent return of Christ. I don't think that they thought of computer chips and bit currency. I don't know what the future holds...but I do know that we are closer to the return of our Lord.

 

[JonC]

BTW....I've never heard of bitcoins.

 

[righteousdude2]

My Bad ... I Thought ALL of You Knew....

....what bit coins were. In talking with the young people, I hear this brought up a lot, pus it is news and media fodder. I am providing a Wiki link for you to read more about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

My reason for asking about its possible link to the Mark is that it is all cyber cash. It doesn't really exist as hard currency, but rather, well you can read it!

With it being another cyber like tool ... I just wondered if it could evolve into one more way for the devil to implement the money used around the world as a system that is unified, yet not really existing in the way currency now exists! When things go to computerized systems, it will be a lot easier for the anti-Chist to control the world, and from what I have heard about bit coins, it can be manipulated very easy!

Whereas now, we can always have some currency or gold and silver socked away for a rainy day, but not so with the bit coin system! If that is all the world accepts, electronic money, then people can be more easily controlled!

Which is why I ask if anyone has approached the church to make a donation through the struggling, yet supposedly up-and-coming [per the media] bit coin system?

I should have posted this with the OP. my bad, so sorry! I just assumed that since so many of you are younger, you were all up t date on this bit cin movement! I know I kept hearing about it, so I started reading up on it.

I do not like the concept at all! Electronic money in the for of this system, has many potentials to exploit the people who may be forced to use it one day! I still think its a way off, but, I have heard it referred to in televion shows, on the news, and I guess it is being used and accepted in some parts of the world.

Like one brother said, I to havent held an actual pay check in my hand in probably 20 years, but, I have the ability to withdraw hard currency from an ATM machine, and that is reassuring ti me that my money exists. With bit coins, that will all but disappear [the ability to hold money in one's hand]. And I had to wonder if te church is even considering this ossible shift in fiancial transactions! It could be the way of the future, so the church needs to get ith it! :smilewinkgrin:

After all, you don't want to get caught with your offering plates pulled down around your ankles! :thumbs:

 

[MNJacob]

Let me ask a phlisophical question: Does your bank account physcially exist?

What is the real difference between a debit card and a bitcoin other than the specific currency that they represent? Nothing physical exchanges between parties in any event other than bits and bytes which in both case represent nothing more than a promise.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

Let me ask a phlisophical question: Does your bank account physcially exist?

Yes. I can walk into any branch of my bank and withdraw every penny deposited there. Mt. Gox was an exchange for digital (non-existent) "currency" that was played, traded and hoarded like stock. It sounded great at the beginning, but it was a scam. There was nothing there. They may as well have been Poke Mon cards. There is only value to those who value them.

CEO Mark Karpeles was like the "man behind the curtain" in Wizard of Oz who told the intrepid travelers to "pay no attention to." He claims the exchange was hacked. Impossible. There was nothing to steal. The money was not stored online, only the "record" of it, which is a joke. Records are worthless, and if the money spent to acquire "bitcoins" was properly handled, no one would have lost a cent.

Karpeles lied. But the idiots who sent him money are too stupid not to be scammed. Who in their right minds sends cash, whether via transfer or mail, to an unregulated, non-currency exchange? Sheer stupidity.

 

[righteousdude2]

Thanks for asking....

....what bit coins were. In talking with the young people, I hear this brought up a lot, pus it is news and media fodder. I am providing a Wiki link for you to read more about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

My reason for asking about its possible link to the Mark is that it is all cyber cash. It doesn't really exist as hard currency, but rather, well you can read it!

With it being another cyber like tool ... I just wondered if it could evolve into one more way for the devil to implement the money used around the world as a system that is unified, yet not really existing in the way currency now exists! When things go to computerized systems, it will be a lot easier for the anti-Chist to control the world, and from what I have heard about bit coins, it can be manipulated very easy!

Whereas now, we can always have some currency or gold and silver socked away for a rainy day, but not so with the bit coin system! If that is all the world accepts, electronic money, then people can be more easily controlled!

Which is why I ask if anyone has approached the church to make a donation through the struggling, yet supposedly up-and-coming [per the media] bit coin system?

I should have posted this with the OP. my bad, so sorry! I just assumed that since so many of you are younger, you were all up t date on this bit cin movement! I know I kept hearing about it, so I started reading up on it.

I do not like the concept at all! Electronic money in the for of this system, has many potentials to exploit the people who may be forced to use it one day! I still think its a way off, but, I have heard it referred to in televion shows, on the news, and I guess it is being used and accepted in some parts of the world.

Like one brother said, I to havent held an actual pay check in my hand in probably 20 years, but, I have the ability to withdraw hard currency from an ATM machine, and that is reassuring ti me that my money exists. With bit coins, that will all but disappear [the ability to hold money in one's hand]. And I had to wonder if te church is even considering this ossible shift in fiancial transactions! It could be the way of the future, so the church needs to get ith it! :smilewinkgrin:

After all, you don't want to get caught with your offering plates pulled down around your ankles! :thumbs:

With a Debit card, I can go anywhere that accepts them and request actual cash, and walk away with paper or coin, or both, currency. Bit Coins will do away with hard currency!

 

[MNJacob]

Folks, you both missed the point. Bitcoins are just a medium of exchange, the currency of the internet. There are even attempts to tax them as personal property. There really isn't much difference between them and your debit card.

Great. The primary "bank" for bitcoins has crashed. That never has happened in the history of banking either. Regulations just haven't caught up with the reality.......yet.

Your money isn't at the bank either. All that is there is a promise to pay if you make a demand. There really isn't any difference.

We aren't on the gold standard. Your dollar bills don't say "Silver Certificates" any more. What backs up your dollars other than the collective belief that they are worth something.