Buy a car with Bitcoins, save $5,000

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/09/bitcoin_friday_sale_event/

by coinabul • 14 years ago

52 41 14 years ago

theregister.co.uk

guelo• 14 years ago

My main problem with bitcoin is that there's no way to buy them. I've tried using Dwolla and Bitinstant and other methods and so far have failed after jumping through all kinds of hoops including entering bank info and uploading pictures of IDs and utility bills to shady websites. And everyone wants their 4% transaction fees, so if you want to buy this $20k car you'll be paying hundreds of dollars in fees. I don't understand how a new economy is supposed to form around it if it's so hard to enter.

hnolable• 14 years ago

coinbase.com. Link your bank account and then you can buy them with a single click. Same way you get money onto paypal.

taligent2• 14 years ago

Given the appalling lack of basic security across many of the Bitcoin services there is no way on earth I would be trusting them with bank account details.

eloquence• 14 years ago

As long as you stay away from buying from the Silk Road, you should be fine.

taligent2• 14 years ago

The new economy is not supposed to form around purchases as expensive as cars.

It is still optimised for micro-transactions where that 4% fee isn't a significant cost.

olefoo3• 14 years ago

Even for smaller purchases a 4 percent fee is a significant amount of friction.

epscylonb2• 14 years ago

It's actually not really optimised for micro transactions.

The popular gambling site satoshidice is responsible for the rapidly increasing size of the blockchain, now around 3GB.

Bitcoin has two main utilities, firstly it is very hard to prevent a bitcoin transaction from taking place, it can potentially be tracked after the fact if you aren't careful though.

Secondly the fixed limit means that it should become a safe store of value, assuming that bitcoin is successful in the longterm.

Bitcoin isn't really designed to scale up to VISA levels of transaction processing, instead it is more suited to be used as a clearing house, to track deposits and withdrawals.

ams61102• 14 years ago

4% is 4%. How is it ever more or less significant?

doublextremevil• 14 years ago

I find Bitfloor (yeah, that one) to be pretty painless, and basically no fees to deposit.

discountgenius• 14 years ago

localbitcoins.com enables cash-to-bitcoin trades with private people who live near you. It would be difficult to buy $20,000 worth of Bitcoins in one shot for a favorable rate, but you can get significant amounts without going through too much hassle.

fallse7en• 14 years ago

Is it just me or does that car look like it was printed with a 3D printer?

tptacek2• 14 years ago

Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising offer comes from Wikispeed, makers of a custom, modular car that claims to be able to drive 100 miles on a single gallon of gasoline. On Bitcoin Friday only, customers who purchase a Wikispeed SGT01 with Bitcoins can get 20 per cent off the list price, a $5,000 discount.

As the November 9 sale got underway, your Reg reporter checked in with Holmquist to see how it was going. "It's going fantastic so far!" came the response. "We had so many hits this morning that I had to upgrade servers and add some DDoS protection."

So... did they sell anything?

coinabul3• 14 years ago

Currently BitPay is having one it's highest volume days. Some merchants are out of stock already. It's doing well.

chc• 14 years ago

I think he means "Did these WikiSpeed guys sell anything or did they just get a lot of traffic?"

aricg• 14 years ago

I think if that car was real, there would be a video of it running or something.

sukuriant• 14 years ago

me too, so I started perusing their website and found a link to their next website, where I saw...

http://main.wikispeed.softlaunch.352media.com/car

Personally, I'm not liking the chassy and it looks a bit shaky for my interests. That said, if everything is interchangeable, maybe I could get some better suspension in there.

It's an interesting first design and I'd like to see where it goes. Surely there's a way to design this to be more luxurious without sacrificing too much in terms of performance.

notdrunkatall• 14 years ago

100mpg is impressive, but 100mpg with 5 second 0-60 times and 150mph top speeds is unbelievable.

mahmud2• 14 years ago

Why is there a "donate" paypal button on a car maker's website?

olefoo3• 14 years ago

Because they're awesome; and KickStarter! Or something like that.

olefoo3• 14 years ago

The problem with BitCoin at this stage in it's lifecycle is that there is a real tension between its use as means of exchange, and its use as a store of value; and too much hoarding will decrease the utility of BTC as a means of exchange.

If the people behind this effort really want to get the BTC economy rolling, they need to figure out some way for more people to _earn_ their way into it. If you have a hoard of BTC, now is a good time to figure out a project that you want to crowdsource; if you wait too long BTC will be worth nothing, because everyone will be saving theirs for later...

coinabul3• 14 years ago

I agree entirely! Everyone is sitting on their hoards of Bitcoin and not spending it. This is merely one attempt at a solution. One way for people to earn BTC IS to sell things.

icyfenix• 14 years ago

"For those unfamiliar with American customs, Black Friday in the US refers to the day after Thanksgiving Day, which is traditionally considered the first day of the holiday shopping season. It's generally the busiest shopping day of the year, resulting in huge profits for retailers – thus, putting them 'in the black.'"

This is not why it's called Black Friday. It's called Black Friday originally by the retail workers who had to man the stores that day. "Black" meaning bad or dark, in this case, like "this is a black day", rather than any reference to finance (or racism). Those who worked their way into the corporate structure of many retailers, or graduated college and moved on in their careers retained their floor-worker slang, and the term spread.

mahmud2• 14 years ago

Never heard of this theory. Black refers to ink color. Line items in red are loses, black are break-even or profit. Black-friday is when retailer make so much profit they get back in black.

Business type-writters had red and black ribbons.

jeffcoat• 14 years ago

Wikipedia presents both origin stories, but the accounting version (black ink) does appear to be a 1980s back-formation trying to put a nicer spin on the name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping)#Origin_...

oijaf888• 14 years ago

Source?

Buy a car with Bitcoins, save $5,000

Related Stories