9 ms·

This is great news. I've always thought teenagers are the biggest market for bitcoin, they're less likely to have a bank/credit card. Knowing you can now exchan

by chuckup 12y ago

This is great news. I've always thought teenagers are the biggest market for bitcoin, they're less likely to have a bank/credit card. Knowing you can now exchange bitcoin for Xbox points makes accepting bitcoin a lot more attractive.

JoshTriplett 12y ago
> I've always thought teenagers are the biggest market for bitcoin, they're less likely to have a bank/credit card. Which makes it rather difficult to obtain bitcoin in the first place. > Knowing you can now exchange bitcoin for Xbox points makes accepting bitcoin a lot more attractive. One major reason for the popularity of the cards you can buy in various grocery/department stores providing points/credit for the various stories (Google Play, iTunes, Nintendo, Xbox, etc) is precisely because you can buy them with cash, redeem them at the online stores, and use the resulting credit to make purchases, all without using a credit card. This really doesn't solve that problem, it just shifts that problem to "how do you obtain bitcoin?" Idea for a business model: make Bitcoin gift cards, and get them into the various grocery/department stores.
- Kortaggio 12y ago
  If you're comfortable with meeting a stranger in a public place and paying a small premium over market rates there's always the option to purchase Bitcoins with cash in person. Simply find your counterparty on a message board or LocalBitcoins.
  - kolev 12y ago
    Meet a stranger and take a risk just to load funds into Xbox Live?! Hmmm, why not just buy a prepaid Xbox card at most stores? Also, add the fact that you can lose value with Bitcoin.
  - GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
    I'm sure parents are going to love the idea of their child going to meet a strange adult from the internet who has unorthodox ideas about the government.
    - tedunangst 12y ago
      Free candy bar with every bitcoin!
- bdamm 12y ago
  Making the equivalent of a coinbase card would be easy enough. Then you get all the app support for spending your coin. Having an actual BTC card could be done with a scratch-off private key I suppose. Buying the card funds the public address.
- chuckup 12y ago
  > Which makes it rather difficult to obtain bitcoin in the first place. True, but now with Bitcoin a teen can do work for pay over the internet (I assume minors cannot easily get a paypal account). I've seen teens draw incredible art, make avatars, do minecraft related tasks, light programming, etc. So while it's not easy, there is a way for them to obtain it. I remember scheming for ways to make money online when I was a teen, but my only options were to get someone to send me cash in the mail, or have my parents cash a check (after asking me a bunch of questions as to why someone was sending their 14yr old a $100 check). Hop over to btc-e and watch thousands of teens daytrade altcoins while chatting, it's eye opening.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - iancarroll 12y ago
    > (I assume minors cannot easily get a paypal account) They can, very easily. I've had one of my accounts banned after applying for their debit card, but I was able to open another one with the same SSN and still haven't been caught.
  - jliptzin 12y ago
    I had a paypal account when I was 14. I used to build websites and sell them on ebay, it was pretty good money for a high school kid. But for some reason ebay/paypal thought I was running some kind of a scam and permanently banned me. I'm 28 and still banned and they refuse to even take a look at my account or listen to any kind of appeal.
    - timboslice 12y ago
      Something similar happened to me too as a kid, but I was able to create a second account (first account was using my Dad's information, with permission). They are notoriously difficult to work with as a vendor. I had someone pay for the last milestone of a project, then after the goods were delivered, filed a chargeback with their credit card company. The CC company ruled in his favor, and Paypal offered no way to dispute. I was left with the -$1,500 balance
- ZoFreX 12y ago
  In the UK there is some sort of electronic cash (I forget the name) that can be bought using cash in almost every newsagents. These can in turn be exchanged for bitcoins online. Pretty simple! That said we also have pre-paid debit cards in some stores now, so it's even easier to have one of those. (Also it is not uncommon at all for teenagers to have a debit card)
  - Jekyll 12y ago
    You mean Ukash? Despite that, there is still a gap for prepaid Bitcoin gift cards which should be filled.
- richardlblair 12y ago
  > Which makes it rather difficult to obtain bitcoin in the first place. Not true. They just need to sell something illegal online and they got bitcoin. :trollface:
- drzaiusapelord 12y ago
  >cards you can buy in various grocery/department stores These are a stop gap measure. Say I have $500 and I put $400 into Xbox points and $100 into Steam points. Then some new game comes out on PC but I'm out of cash because its all tied into Xbox points. This transfer is one-way, so my money is now stuck. With bitcoin, or some other non-vendor middle-man, I have value sitting in my wallet ready for any transaction that accepts this currency. For someone without easy access to credit, buying a couple bitcoins (or some other cryptocurrency) seems like the better move.
  - etchalon 12y ago
    …accept this move by Microsoft makes you add value to your account, that you cannot withdraw. So, at least in this instance, Bitcoin has not solved any problems. Once you can purchase content directly using XBT, instead of merely using it as a funding source, you might have a use case. Otherwise, most people would just buy a prepaid Debit card. It solves actually the same problem you're saying XBT solves, but it's accepted at vastly mere merchants.
    - drzaiusapelord 12y ago
      Except those cards aren't global. In countries with untrusted banking systems they aren't even for sale or they are via their own regional bank that a Western processor will just refuse to accept. There's still a big problem out there with foreign transactions and the credit card system. Paypal kinda handles this in some scenarios, but it still is unsolved, especially when you're discussing non-trivial amounts of money.
Kortaggio 12y ago
That's a great insight, it's incredible as adults how much we take credit cards for granted. An increasing proportion of my non-essential spending (e.g. non-food expenses) now come from online shopping and it's an incredible business opportunity for companies to accept something other than credit cards online, either for teenagers or for adults who can't get a credit card for whatever reason.
- kristofferR 12y ago
  The FDIC estimates that 7.7% of the US adult population is unbanked, and 20% is underbanked [1]. Being un(der)banked is often very costly, it's one of the worst ways where being poor is very expensive [2]. On a global scale the issue is even worse, there are billions of people without access to proper banking services. I can't even begin to imagine how much time/energy/value/productivity is wasted globally due to that. Bitcoin, or another similar solution, may be the key to helping to bring those billions out of their economic exclusion and into a more prosperous reality [3][4]. [1] https://www.economicinclusion.gov/surveys/2013household/ https://www.economicinclusion.gov/surveys/2013household/ (2013 National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked) [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAxL4TB6pmQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAxL4TB6pmQ (Spent: Looking For Change (Documentary)) [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NfNwjJfrOg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NfNwjJfrOg (What Bitcoin Means For Unbanked Economies) [4] https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/cell-phone-connected-unbanked-bitcoin-will-bank/ https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/cell-phone-connected-unbanke... (The Cell Phone Connected the Unbanked, Bitcoin Will Bank Them)
  - pionar 12y ago
    Ok, I'm not sure how bitcoin will "solve" anything related to this issue. The issue is not the currency, the issue is the bank. Who will start the bank and accept the risky customers? Just because the currency changes does not change the causes of being underbanked.
    - celticninja 12y ago
      with bitcoin you are your own bank, you dont need a bank to give you an account. You create your own and people can send you money and you can send them money at very low cost. sure you dont get traditional services such as overdrafts, or bank charges but for the underbanked this is part of the problem not the solution. A user in the Phillipines can create a wallet for nothing. Their relative in the US can send them bitcoin, then they exchange it for cash in the phillipines. they dont need a bank just a local trader who will trade bitcoin for cash, this will become more widespread as adoption grows so finding someone to trade with will be easier.
kordless 12y ago
The idea of being able to use Bitcoin in games is fairly mind blowing, once you start thinking about the possibilities. Build a house in one game, trade it for armor in another.
- chuckup 12y ago
  I think even more interesting is the idea of "colored coins" that represent actual items. I'd start playing Magic: The Gathering again if the digital cards I bought were colored coins or counterparty-style tokens that I controlled, and could trade outside of the game. If the game itself was open source and p2p, even better - there would be no worry of the company shutting down the servers/abandoning the game. The community could take over and make improvements to the client if needed. The initial creation of the game would be funded by selling the digital cards.
  - sublimecalm 12y ago
    I have thought about this problem a bit especially with Wizards encountering forged cards from China. Honestly Magic and MTGO has been a ripe ground for BTC experimentation. I think every card they print will eventually be represented as a member of a blockchain.
    - draaglom 12y ago
      And then someone could create a site to exchange the (bitcoin-backed) cards! But what could we call such a site?
      - capt_obvious 12y ago
        Well, the obvious name would be "Magic the Gathering Online Exchange", but that's slightly long. I guess it should be shortened somehow?
        celticninja 12y ago
        I like your thinking, what about MTGOX? I know just the frenchman in Japan who could code it for us.
palmer_eldritch 12y ago
Next trend on the internet: teens doing webcam shows for pedos so they can get bitcoins to fund their xbox accounts. The medias will love it.

by chuckup 12y ago

JoshTriplett 12y ago

> I've always thought teenagers are the biggest market for bitcoin, they're less likely to have a bank/credit card. Which makes it rather difficult to obtain bitcoin in the first place. > Knowing you can now exchange bitcoin for Xbox points makes accepting bitcoin a lot more attractive. One major reason for the popularity of the cards you can buy in various grocery/department stores providing points/credit for the various stories (Google Play, iTunes, Nintendo, Xbox, etc) is precisely because you can buy them with cash, redeem them at the online stores, and use the resulting credit to make purchases, all without using a credit card. This really doesn't solve that problem, it just shifts that problem to "how do you obtain bitcoin?" Idea for a business model: make Bitcoin gift cards, and get them into the various grocery/department stores.

Kortaggio 12y ago
If you're comfortable with meeting a stranger in a public place and paying a small premium over market rates there's always the option to purchase Bitcoins with cash in person. Simply find your counterparty on a message board or LocalBitcoins.
- kolev 12y ago
  Meet a stranger and take a risk just to load funds into Xbox Live?! Hmmm, why not just buy a prepaid Xbox card at most stores? Also, add the fact that you can lose value with Bitcoin.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
  I'm sure parents are going to love the idea of their child going to meet a strange adult from the internet who has unorthodox ideas about the government.
  - tedunangst 12y ago
    Free candy bar with every bitcoin!
bdamm 12y ago
Making the equivalent of a coinbase card would be easy enough. Then you get all the app support for spending your coin. Having an actual BTC card could be done with a scratch-off private key I suppose. Buying the card funds the public address.
chuckup 12y ago
> Which makes it rather difficult to obtain bitcoin in the first place. True, but now with Bitcoin a teen can do work for pay over the internet (I assume minors cannot easily get a paypal account). I've seen teens draw incredible art, make avatars, do minecraft related tasks, light programming, etc. So while it's not easy, there is a way for them to obtain it. I remember scheming for ways to make money online when I was a teen, but my only options were to get someone to send me cash in the mail, or have my parents cash a check (after asking me a bunch of questions as to why someone was sending their 14yr old a $100 check). Hop over to btc-e and watch thousands of teens daytrade altcoins while chatting, it's eye opening.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- iancarroll 12y ago
  > (I assume minors cannot easily get a paypal account) They can, very easily. I've had one of my accounts banned after applying for their debit card, but I was able to open another one with the same SSN and still haven't been caught.
- jliptzin 12y ago
  I had a paypal account when I was 14. I used to build websites and sell them on ebay, it was pretty good money for a high school kid. But for some reason ebay/paypal thought I was running some kind of a scam and permanently banned me. I'm 28 and still banned and they refuse to even take a look at my account or listen to any kind of appeal.
  - timboslice 12y ago
    Something similar happened to me too as a kid, but I was able to create a second account (first account was using my Dad's information, with permission). They are notoriously difficult to work with as a vendor. I had someone pay for the last milestone of a project, then after the goods were delivered, filed a chargeback with their credit card company. The CC company ruled in his favor, and Paypal offered no way to dispute. I was left with the -$1,500 balance
ZoFreX 12y ago
In the UK there is some sort of electronic cash (I forget the name) that can be bought using cash in almost every newsagents. These can in turn be exchanged for bitcoins online. Pretty simple! That said we also have pre-paid debit cards in some stores now, so it's even easier to have one of those. (Also it is not uncommon at all for teenagers to have a debit card)
- Jekyll 12y ago
  You mean Ukash? Despite that, there is still a gap for prepaid Bitcoin gift cards which should be filled.
richardlblair 12y ago
> Which makes it rather difficult to obtain bitcoin in the first place. Not true. They just need to sell something illegal online and they got bitcoin. :trollface:
drzaiusapelord 12y ago
>cards you can buy in various grocery/department stores These are a stop gap measure. Say I have $500 and I put $400 into Xbox points and $100 into Steam points. Then some new game comes out on PC but I'm out of cash because its all tied into Xbox points. This transfer is one-way, so my money is now stuck. With bitcoin, or some other non-vendor middle-man, I have value sitting in my wallet ready for any transaction that accepts this currency. For someone without easy access to credit, buying a couple bitcoins (or some other cryptocurrency) seems like the better move.
- etchalon 12y ago
  …accept this move by Microsoft makes you add value to your account, that you cannot withdraw. So, at least in this instance, Bitcoin has not solved any problems. Once you can purchase content directly using XBT, instead of merely using it as a funding source, you might have a use case. Otherwise, most people would just buy a prepaid Debit card. It solves actually the same problem you're saying XBT solves, but it's accepted at vastly mere merchants.
  - drzaiusapelord 12y ago
    Except those cards aren't global. In countries with untrusted banking systems they aren't even for sale or they are via their own regional bank that a Western processor will just refuse to accept. There's still a big problem out there with foreign transactions and the credit card system. Paypal kinda handles this in some scenarios, but it still is unsolved, especially when you're discussing non-trivial amounts of money.

Kortaggio 12y ago

That's a great insight, it's incredible as adults how much we take credit cards for granted. An increasing proportion of my non-essential spending (e.g. non-food expenses) now come from online shopping and it's an incredible business opportunity for companies to accept something other than credit cards online, either for teenagers or for adults who can't get a credit card for whatever reason.

kristofferR 12y ago
The FDIC estimates that 7.7% of the US adult population is unbanked, and 20% is underbanked [1]. Being un(der)banked is often very costly, it's one of the worst ways where being poor is very expensive [2]. On a global scale the issue is even worse, there are billions of people without access to proper banking services. I can't even begin to imagine how much time/energy/value/productivity is wasted globally due to that. Bitcoin, or another similar solution, may be the key to helping to bring those billions out of their economic exclusion and into a more prosperous reality [3][4]. [1] https://www.economicinclusion.gov/surveys/2013household/ https://www.economicinclusion.gov/surveys/2013household/ (2013 National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked) [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAxL4TB6pmQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAxL4TB6pmQ (Spent: Looking For Change (Documentary)) [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NfNwjJfrOg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NfNwjJfrOg (What Bitcoin Means For Unbanked Economies) [4] https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/cell-phone-connected-unbanked-bitcoin-will-bank/ https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/cell-phone-connected-unbanke... (The Cell Phone Connected the Unbanked, Bitcoin Will Bank Them)
- pionar 12y ago
  Ok, I'm not sure how bitcoin will "solve" anything related to this issue. The issue is not the currency, the issue is the bank. Who will start the bank and accept the risky customers? Just because the currency changes does not change the causes of being underbanked.
  - celticninja 12y ago
    with bitcoin you are your own bank, you dont need a bank to give you an account. You create your own and people can send you money and you can send them money at very low cost. sure you dont get traditional services such as overdrafts, or bank charges but for the underbanked this is part of the problem not the solution. A user in the Phillipines can create a wallet for nothing. Their relative in the US can send them bitcoin, then they exchange it for cash in the phillipines. they dont need a bank just a local trader who will trade bitcoin for cash, this will become more widespread as adoption grows so finding someone to trade with will be easier.

kordless 12y ago

The idea of being able to use Bitcoin in games is fairly mind blowing, once you start thinking about the possibilities. Build a house in one game, trade it for armor in another.

chuckup 12y ago
I think even more interesting is the idea of "colored coins" that represent actual items. I'd start playing Magic: The Gathering again if the digital cards I bought were colored coins or counterparty-style tokens that I controlled, and could trade outside of the game. If the game itself was open source and p2p, even better - there would be no worry of the company shutting down the servers/abandoning the game. The community could take over and make improvements to the client if needed. The initial creation of the game would be funded by selling the digital cards.
- sublimecalm 12y ago
  I have thought about this problem a bit especially with Wizards encountering forged cards from China. Honestly Magic and MTGO has been a ripe ground for BTC experimentation. I think every card they print will eventually be represented as a member of a blockchain.
  - draaglom 12y ago
    And then someone could create a site to exchange the (bitcoin-backed) cards! But what could we call such a site?
    - capt_obvious 12y ago
      Well, the obvious name would be "Magic the Gathering Online Exchange", but that's slightly long. I guess it should be shortened somehow?
      - celticninja 12y ago
        I like your thinking, what about MTGOX? I know just the frenchman in Japan who could code it for us.

palmer_eldritch 12y ago

Next trend on the internet: teens doing webcam shows for pedos so they can get bitcoins to fund their xbox accounts. The medias will love it.