Schiff has not been a fan of Bitcoin. He has struggled to understand Bitcoin but has improved over time ( I won't post the history of this here, but Schiff was on vid about Bitcoin years ago). Source: http://blog.europacmetals.com/2014/05/euro-pacific-precious-metals-now-accepts-bitcoin/ Even Peter schiff is not right all of the time. Australian company Tomcar proves Schiff wrong on Bitcoin: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXEoRQOqWbg[/youtube]
He hasn't changed his mind (yet), just facilitating future transactions with those that would like to use BTC as payment;
Some customers are now paying with Schiff with bitcoins rather than USD. The bitcoin payments could potentially be from elsewhere rather than just America, from customers whom have never owned a USD (should Schiff ship product abroad). He is accepting bitcoins as payment, but he is not holding onto them. Bitpay processes them to USD for Schiff. With Bitpay, Schiff has the option of holding a percentage of the bitcoin payments he recieves. Two other bullion companies have turned over 10 million USD worth of metals via payments in bitcoin. Schiff is now surely aware of this. He has stated in the past that people don't really buy things with bitcoins (or close to it). Schiff is not right all of time.
With Bitcoin there is lots of money in the hands of people who are not accustomed to having so much. Plenty of people in Bitcoin who are essentially like lottery winners. They got in at the right time and got rewards beyond their wildest dreams... and now have wealth beyond their ability to manage responsibly. If you run a business, it makes sense to tap into this pool of 'stupid money' that is just sitting there waiting to be taken.
I regard, that the early adopters were smarter and more motivated than I was. They also took higher risks, that newcomers to cryptocurrencies eon't be able to appreciate as much now. What examples of 'stupid money' do you refer too?
Stupid money, smart money, it doesn't matter there is people going to want to buy some gold with bitcoin.
Amagi Metals and Agora Commodities have both sold over 10 million in bullion already via bitcoin payments. Schiff has missed out on sales. I recall reading a forum post where a guy purchased gold with bitcoins just to be able to say he owns gold!. Many people in the tech community have probably been introduced to PMs due to PM bugs being part of the cryptocurrenciy community. The tech people involved with bitcoin since the earlier days generally are pretty smart people as far as I can detect. The IQs would be considerably higher than those of the later comers to the market, I would guess. I would bet good money on this.
not everyone who owns bitcoin are tech people, and smart people don't necessarily make good investors.
In the very early days (2009) when Satoshi and a few others like Gavin Andresen and Hal Finney were experimenting with Satoshi's tech and bitcoins did not even fetch a price for 6 months or so, they were probably almost all curious tech people involved. The percentage of tech people is no doubt decreasing rapidly. I'm not a tech person like many others. True. People have intelligences that suit various areas of pursuit. *I try not to lump everyone in one basket with my wording*
Early adopters are seen as smart now, but some of them can most certainly fall into the 'stupid money' category. I class anyone who is inexperienced in handling money and investments as such. That is why I used the example of a lottery winner, as all too often the following occurs: 1. They had no money, 2. they now have lots of money, 3. They now have no money. The little something that occurs between 2. and 3, is inexperience and stupidity. I certainly was not trying to lump all bitcoin owners (or do you prefer investors now?) into one category. I feel as if I made myself very clear to begin with.
Hilarious how some people who are strong believers in gold, silver are now collecting fiat and crypto-fiat currencies. I still highly appreciate the technical achievement behind cryptocurrencies. Time will tell how good they are on the long term. Schiff is selling PM's in exchange for cryptocurrencies, so he's essentially getting rid of PM's and gathering Bitcoins. I wonder what exactly is in his mind. Prolly he's trading them and multiplying his profits (?).
How many people get to experience in life, the volatile ride has provided. Including Wall Street traders? 'To the moon' is now part of the vocab for many coming on board. People will make mistakes, but the tech crowd are going to make less than the general population due to the higher amount of sheer neuronal power. "less" A reasonable basis with many companies involved has emerged, many funded by early adopters. As an aside, here is what one one early adopter has actually achieved beyond common assumptions and stereotypes. The film he dreamed of producing. Budget: $USD 250,000. For him - priceless no doubt. http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/25xfkc/i_am_an_early_bitcoin_adopter_i_used_it_to/ http://imgur.com/a/Hit4a https://www.facebook.com/aimyinacage
You can't be serious LOB, tech people are the general public, how many where employees of companies that became overnight millionares in the 90s with stock options and didn't take any money off the table when they should of. How many university educated professionals do you think have been cheated and sold rubbish they don't understand.
