Cyprus University Accepts Bitcoin For Tuition Fee Payments 157
An anonymous reader writes "The University of Nicosia has begun accepting bitcoins as payment for its courses, as well as launching a Master of Science degree focusing on digital currencies. The announcement is part of a proposal set up by the university to develop the Mediterranean island into a hub for bitcoin trading, processing and banking, as use of the virtual currency continues to gain traction." Warning: Auto-playing ad, with sound.
Autoplaying ad (Score:3)
Wow. They are now even warning us of their own slashvertisements. What has this site become...
When will people accept it's not a real currency?! (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously when will people recognise it's just a ponzi scheme and not a real currency. It's not real because you can't buy things with it (TFA must be a lie because I know bitcoin is not a real currency). I can't pay my taxes with it, just like Euros, and frankly they even sound fake. And it's not recognised by any governments. I don't trust the recent article about the US government and bitcoin because governments lie.
It's not a real currency!!!
Please can we see an end to the "it's not a real currency" posts. It's money and you can buy stuff with it. The end.
Re: (Score:3)
If you can't buy things with it as you say, then why can you use it to pay for goods and service? The Silk Road was obviously conducting transactions with it. A variety of small business online retailers conduct transactions with it. Numerous online services such as usenet, VPN, hosting, etc use bitcoins as a payment option. And now a university accepts payment with them.
It may not be an official currency, but neither is gold, silver, stocks, or any other item that has value and can be exchanged.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Real currency is also a ponzi scheme. Pick which one you want (or neither).
Re:When will people accept it's not a real currenc (Score:5, Insightful)
Neither is a ponzi scheme:
Wikipedia: "A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation."
This is what Madoff did exactly. He got new investors, skimmed money, and paid off other investors to make it look like money was being earned.
Bitcoin (or any national currency) doesn't fit the definition in any way. If you want to argue that Bitcoin is a scam then do it with facts, but arguing that it's a "ponzi" scheme is an attempt to scare with loaded words and it's a fallacy.
Re: (Score:1)
Bitcoin (or any national currency) doesn't fit the definition in any way. If you want to argue that Bitcoin is a scam then do it with facts, but arguing that it's a "ponzi" scheme is an attempt to scare with loaded words and it's a fallacy.
Of course it does. The high "value" ($600 ish) of a bitcoin is completely a product of new people getting sucked into the scam. Once there are no suckers left who want to buy into bitcoins, the price will fall, leading people to try to flee, and within the space of a day or two the value has completely disappeared.
It's a Ponzi scheme. And those who have bought into the idea will only realise it when it's over.
Re: (Score:2)
Neither a "profit earned" or "subsequent investors" even exists. You're twisting words in a *big* way.
Re: (Score:3)
To add on to my statement above, if someone excepts what you say then EVERY market is a Ponzi scheme. The $480 is not coming from another investor in the same scheme as was with Madoff, it comes from a price that a bitcoin market set. Plus the "investor" is doing business with the 3rd party. Madoff took money from other parties and gave them to original investors without them knowing where the money came from.
If I buy a rare comic book for $10 and sell it for $50 to a 3rd party later have I engaged in a
Re: (Score:1)
To add on to my statement above, if someone excepts what you say then EVERY market is a Ponzi scheme.
No it's only a Ponzi scheme when it relies on new-comers to generate the "profits". As bitcoin does.
For example a market in a blue chip company stock is not a Ponzi scheme, as a share isn't just a trading token. It carries the real value of a fractional ownership of the company, it's assets and potential profits.
Re: (Score:2)
How about 20,000 merchants? (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
How about 20,000 merchants including a bunch of subways around the world that accept Bitcoin.
Might I refer you to this post where I address your points:
http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4471181&cid=45481145 [slashdot.org]
Re: (Score:1)
How about 20,000 merchants including a bunch of subways around the world that accept Bitcoin.
20,000 merchants. There's roughly 200 countries in the world. So on average 100 merchants per country.
And the "bunch of subways" is a single franchisee, who got some media coverage a couple of days ago by the stunt of accepting bitcoins.
It's a small-time fad.
you win (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
Sorry but It's not currency. It's not backed by any government or official body of any kind. It's just a sophisticated form of barter. It's as much of a currency as my old iPad that I sell to someone on craigslist or send into BestBuy for credit.
Re: (Score:3)
It's not a currency if "government" is essential to your definition, true, but maybe that definition is changing.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not changing anywhere of any consequence. It's still mostly nerds, libertarians, and criminals that like it. When the average guy on the street has even heard of bitcoin, then we have something to talk about.
Re: (Score:1)
It's still mostly nerds, libertarians, and criminals that like it.
I don't think most nerds like it either. I'd change those 3 categories to two.
1) Libertarian nerds.
2) Criminals.
For sure other nerds are interested in how it works. But that doesn't mean they have any interest in using them.
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry to feed a troll, but that's not what the topic here was.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
To me, the difference is how widely it's useful. My mom's cat isn't currency, because there's maybe 3 people in the world who would want it, and 2 are probably staving people in Africa. The dirty green paper in my wallet IS currency because I can take it anywhere and exchange it for food, gas, drugs, and tech. Bitcoins are somewhere in between.
Re: (Score:2)
The point of currency is to act as a neutral form of barter. Bitcoin doesn't really fit that category because it's not neutral in that it's value is only to a select group of individuals. Outside of that, it's utterly worthless.
Re: Point of Currency (Score:2)
The point of currency is to solve the "Coincidence of Wants" problem of barter. In pure barter, you have to find someone to trade with who both wants what you have to trade, and has what you want to get. Currency introduces a generally accepted intermediary. You trade away what you have, which for most people is their labor time, for currency. Then later you trade your currency for stuff you want. By separating the halves of a barter transaction, you make it easier for trades to happen, because you onl
Re: (Score:2)
Except that you cannot send your old iPad through the computer to another person on the other side of the planet within 10 minutes. That is what gives Bitcoin it's value.
Shirts for milibitcoins at cryptoanarchy.com
Re: (Score:2)
That still doesn't make it a currency.
Re: (Score:2)
From wikipedia:
"A currency (from Middle English curraunt, meaning in circulation) in the most specific use of the word refers to money in any form when in actual use or circulation, as a medium of exchange, especially circulating paper money. This use is synonymous with banknotes, or (sometimes) with banknotes plus coins, meaning the physical tokens used for money by a government.[1][2]
A much more general use of the word currency is anything that is used in any circumstances, as a medium of exchange. In thi
Re: (Score:2)
Read it more carefully. Bitcoin isn't actually tied to physical money in any way.
Re: (Score:2)
Please can we see an end to the "it's not a real currency" posts. It's money and you can buy stuff with it. The end.
Heh. You waited too long for the punchline... Just about everyone started foaming before they got to the end.
Not everyone missed the bus, though. :golf clap:
Re: (Score:2)
It's a bad currency, and there are dubious investment schemes (not explicitly Ponzi) involving it.
Re: (Score:1)
So, because it's possible to pay for parking in a few places with conkers, you think conkers are a currency?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-24162228 [bbc.co.uk]
( Conkers are the seeds of the horse chestnut tree. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conkers [wikipedia.org] )
Re: (Score:2)
So, because it's possible to pay for parking in a few places with conkers, you think conkers are a currency?
You can buy a lot more than parking places with BitCoins. I am not fairly convinced that unless bitcoin is adopted unilaterally by every country, people will still declare it as "not a currency".
Conkers are...
I'm English. I used to play conkers at school.
Re: (Score:2)
So what's the boundary? How many things do you have to be able to buy with conkers before they are currency?
What is the boundary indeed. Very good question but since you're the one making assertions about the existence of a boundary and what is one side of it then how about you define it. Here's some trite defintions which don't work:
"Can pay my taxes in X". If that's true then US dollars aren't currency since I can't pay my taxes in them.
"must be backd by a government". Because that worked so well for Zimb
Re: (Score:2)
Not so. You said: "You can buy a lot more than parking places with BitCoins." which has the implication that there are a certain number or perhaps certain specific things that you can buy with bitcoins that separates it from conkers. That makes it a currency when conkers are not. That's the boundary condition, and it was implicit in what you said, though not defined. So what is that boundary?
indeed, but you said:
So, because it's possible to pay for parking in a few places with conkers, you think conkers are
Re: (Score:2)
Depends. Does whoever you're paying to then use the conkers to pay for other things? If yes, then yes, they are being used as a currency (physical tokens representing abstracted value, to be exact).
Tuition Costs (Score:1)
Tuition costs this semester will be BTC 9.8738100476. ... well, I'm sure by tomorrow morning the value of a bitcoin will have stabilized, so we'll post the final tuition rate then.
Wait, make that BTC 5.6820973827.
Wait no, make that BTC 3.8260399174.
Ahh wait, it's BTC 24.84028975894.
Re: (Score:2)
Is it BitCoin or the Euro that's doing this? Cyprus, Greece, Spain etc are in serious trouble right now.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
If "stability" is an aspect of your definition of currency then Turkey and many countries in the former Soviet bloc don't have currencies either.
Re: (Score:2)
If "stability" is an aspect of your definition of currency then Turkey and many countries in the former Soviet bloc don't have currencies either.
Turkish lira range over five years: 1.4 - 2.1
Bitcoin range over five days: 450 - 900
Re: (Score:2)
The more people accept Bitcoin for stuff, the more stable the price will be -- when it becomes more of a currency and less of an investment.
Re: (Score:2)
There are ~12 million bitcoins in existence. 1 million of those belong to a single entity, with another large chunk divided among a few related entities.
It seems ridiculous to expect stability when a single person has the ability to destroy the entire bitcoin economy, probably multiple times over.
Re: (Score:2)
Tuition costs this semester will be BTC 9.8738100476. Wait, make that BTC 5.6820973827. Wait no, make that BTC 3.8260399174. Ahh wait, it's BTC 24.84028975894. ... well, I'm sure by tomorrow morning the value of a bitcoin will have stabilized, so we'll post the final tuition rate then.
Bitcoin may stabilize, but the cost of tuition will continue to outpace every index of inflation in the world.
Bitcoin has gone up by a factor of 5 in recent weeks, but it still probably buys the same amount of tuition.
When your economy is trash, take what you can get (Score:2, Insightful)
The Cypriot economy has been in the shitter for a while, Not to the same extent as their neighbours in Greece, but worse than most other European countries. They had to be bailed out by the EU earlier this year, and their banks are still in a period of reorganization.
It's not surprising that their university accepts bitcoins. They are probably happy to have an injection of any currency at all, regardless of whether it is universally recognized as such.
Just Great... Cyprus University? Really? (Score:5, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Cyprus
This is a "close cover before striking" diploma mill in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Taking BitCoin is just out of a desire to avoid the costs of getting money into/out of Cyprus which is in serious trouble. Looking at their website though proves that it's all Greek to me...
Check your facts (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
OOPS... But the situation is still the same. Cyprus is in serious financial trouble and University of Nicosia is a diploma mill, albeit a bit less..
AND it's still Greek to me, although they might be speaking Turkish too..
Re: (Score:2)
No, it doesn't work that way in Cyprus. The ones who speak Greek never speak Turkish. The ones who speak Turkish never speak Greek...
Re: (Score:1)
The "University of Cyprus" it's a small university in the small island of Cyprus (that is Greek actually - both the island and the university!).
Most professors in that university are Greeks from the mainland, the rest are -Greek- Cypriots, but most -Greek- Cypriots study in Greece or England anyway so...
That bitcoin joke -it's a joke!- was an idea of the economy profesor in that university as a way to advertise that university to the Middle-Easterns of the neighborhood that desire a western education (by th
Good Luck (Score:4, Insightful)
Given how unstable this "currency" has been in the recent past, how can anyone set price points without needing hourly updates to make sure they get a consistent payment?
Right now it's valued at $730, 2 weeks ago it was $200 and a few months ago it crashed.
You cannot run a business with currencies this volatile.
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
If you think the value of bitcoin is fluctuating, you should be really worried about the dollar!
A few months ago, the USD was soaring, but then it started it's downward spiral.
Two weeks ago it was on the order of 0.005 BTC, and right now, only two weeks later, it's dropped down to 0.00136986 BTC... that's about 75% loss of value!
Still, somehow there are businesses that manage to run well with such a volatile currency.
Who'd have thought?
Re: (Score:2)
I see what you did there, oh how clever.
See, I thought the value of BTC was changing, but in fact everything else on earth fluctuating wildly in value; meanwhile the value of BTC was completely flat. I was clearly wrong.
Do you also believe that you are the center of the universe and everything revolves around you?
Re: (Score:1)
Sure, USD and USA are not the center of the universe. Still, BTC is even less so with daily circulation and market cap on par with something like a smallish supermarket chain.
Trying to claim "BTC is not volatile, USD and all the other currencies are" is nonsense, because goods and services you try to buy for BTC fluctuate in BTC price wildly - while they don't do that in USD, EUR, RUR or CNY.
Everything is relative, sure, and you can say that Earth is standing still while everything else goes in orbits like
Re: (Score:2)
You're right, the USD is just 62% of the world's foreign reserve currency...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_use_of_the_US_dollar#International_reserve_currency [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Given how unstable this "currency" has been in the recent past, how can anyone set price points without needing hourly updates to make sure they get a consistent payment?
Right now it's valued at $730, 2 weeks ago it was $200 and a few months ago it crashed.
You cannot run a business with currencies this volatile.
This.
What amazes me is that even after the recent stolen Bitcoin news, the prices have actually gone up. I'm still predicting that there will be a really major theft or attack against Bitcoin that will absolutely devastate it. It will be something stupid involving trust where nobody thought that another party would do something, but they will do it, and it will be devastating. Then everybody will cry and moan saying "Why didn't we protect against that?". Of course, I could be wrong, but I have no sk
Re: (Score:2)
What amazes me is that even after the recent stolen Bitcoin news, the prices have actually gone up. I'm still predicting that there will be a really major theft or attack against Bitcoin that will absolutely devastate it.
To date, there have been no successful attacks against the underlying Bitcoin protocol. There have been one or two serious client issues -- for example there was an incident a year ago where the latest version of the Bitcoin network software started creating blocks that older versions rejected. It was fixed in time, but if it hadn't there wouldn't have been hugely serious effects. All the miners would have been forced to upgrade. There was also an issue due to a buggy crypto implementation on Android th
Re: (Score:2)
You don't. You just adjust it to make it advantageous to you.
If it was $200 when you set the prices, and your course was $600, you charge 3 BTC for it. Who cares that it's $730 now? You still charge
Re: (Score:2)
You don't hold any significant balance of bitcoins (cashing them out to local currency immediately) and update the price you charge in real time so that it always equals a certain amount of local currency. The problem of price instability is then moved to the purchaser.
Re: (Score:2)
Or you just price everything in local currency and only accept local currency and let the purchaser deal with all the messy bits.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure you can, you just need a buffer fund that allows you to delay any currency exchanges until a favorable time. Which also serves to reduce volatility.
In other words, you need to keep some cash reserves on hand, for all currencies you use.
Re: (Score:2)
>The people who have lived through hyperinflation or a currency crisis have managed to do it.
Yeah, by using more stable currencies. There's a reason so many countries use the USD instead of their own currency.
Re: (Score:2)
There are no regulated exchanges yet, and the unregulated ones occasionally disappear with all the money.
Sounds like PayPal. :)
Mod Parent Up (Score:2)
That's a genuinely interesting solution, although not a technological one.
Re: (Score:2)
So you're going to depend on USD to using BTC? What's the point of that?
bitcoin tweets available for analysis (Score:2)
I've posted a (torrent of a) 6 month archive of tweets about bitcoin at bitcoinscope.com [bitcoinscope.com]
To be precise, it's 50% of all tweets (every other tweet), so it can be used as a training set, with the other 50% to be used as a test set later (for your sentiment tracker / price predictor, etc.)
Re:Good thing I didn't invest. (Score:4, Insightful)
It was good advice at the time. The chances of it being so successful were rather slim.
Re: (Score:3)
Yes, although at that rate $10 invested back then would be over $200,000 today. I sure wish I'd put $10 into it.
Re: (Score:2)
i dont know about you but i want any alternative currency to be more stable
Re: (Score:3)
$200 is less than most electronic gadgets and those will certainly depreciate to $10 in a few years. It may not be the most prudent investment but if you have the cash lying around it's a fun bet with far better odds than the lottery.
Re: (Score:2)
First, you don’t invest in $200 electronic gadgets, you consume $200 worth of electronic gadgets. Unless you in business, in which case you would expect those electronic gadgets to earn more than $200 over those 2 years.
Second, in response to TacoBill, when you start hearing people saying that you should invest in a investment because it is going to go up because more people are buying it – instead of its intrinsic worth, that is a classic signal that one is in bubble territory.
Re: (Score:2)
The point is that such prognostications turned out to be wrong. Don't get me wrong, I think bitcoins are stupid, but that doesn't make them lacking monetary value to other people.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
There is an obvious difference between investing $200 and investing $10 - one is the price of a few cups of coffee, the other a grocery bill for a month.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, although at that rate $10 invested back then would be over $200,000 today. I sure wish I'd put $10 into it.
That can also be said about stocks/shares in thousands of companies.
The fact is, it's a lottery. Always has been, always will be.
Re: (Score:2)
The difference with stocks is: they represent control of the means of production (at least, stocks in company with an actual product or service in the market). There's something real underneath a stock share.
Actually, as bitcoin starts to gain acceptance it becomes less of a lottery as well. Currency speculation is just gambling, but a small amount of savings in any stable currency can be wise. It will be interesting to see whether bitcoin stabilizes soon - it's still all over the place even compared wit
Re: (Score:2)
However chances of it being so successfull and chances of "it going up from 20ish cents".....
I mean at the time, there was no way to predict it would gain so much interest, but I was pretty confident that it was a good buy at that price....even if it only ever hit $.50 it was doubling your money so it was easy to see it was a great buy then.
Re: (Score:2)
> It was good advice at the time.
Actually, no it wasn't. Good advice would have been: Use your brain. Research Bitcoin until you understand how it works, what it is and what it isn't. Then, decide if it is workable and worthy. If it is, decide how much you are willing to risk investing in it. Don't invest more than you can afford to lose. Note that this is good advice for any new technology.
This is what I did early in 2011. At first I was like most people: "That can't possibly work." But I researched and
Re: (Score:2)
It was good advice at the time. The chances of it being so successful were rather slim.
Maybe, but we aren't talking about pure randomness or pure ignorance of facts here. The fact that most people had no insight into the matter doesn't make it automatically unpredictable. We still don't know how things will turn out about this sort of currency eventually, but I'm pretty sure that it will look very predictable "in hindsight". In other words, whoever had the correct assumptions in the first place had the right insight, and it wasn't random. I guess this applies to all sorts of unprecedented tec
Re: (Score:2)
And they still are.
Cyprus itself is a good example for that. They became Europe's capital of financial fancies, gambling and speculation and they got utterly fucked in the arse in such a way that nobody is giving a shit for them, the EU even refused to bail them out like we did with Spain, Greece, the European banks etc. :P
If they are as successful with Bitcoins as with the real currencies chances are they will have to sell to the Chinese and their bodies for medical experiments
Re: (Score:2)
If that's how you think probability works I would love to play poker with you.
Re:Good thing I didn't invest. (Score:4, Insightful)
So still too soon to tell.
Re: (Score:3)
You'd have to say BTC are a lot more like tulips than credit cards. Credit cards are not really a good with constrained supply that a market can put a price on.
Stolen credit cards, on the other hand...
Re: (Score:2)
One thing that will be interesting to see play out is how well the original tuning scales. BTC depends on both the idea that the market will auto-adjust AND the scaling built in to the original design will be appropriate. In a way it is 'big design up front' and the hope that natural forces will do the corrections from there. If BTC does survive long term it will
Re: (Score:2)
Working with BTC in mining I haven't become convinced that BTC itself is going to be the long next "next thing" in currency, but it has convinced me that something like it will come along. Maybe a cryptocurrency that has origins that mimic more the creation of the internet itself.
However, something like this is on the way. I think decoupling governments from the ability to print currency as they want would be incredibly positive. Even though that's how we as humans have set up monitory currency in the pa
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
the problems that resulted in the creation of state currencies
You mean, the problem that private currencies make it harder for politicians and bankers to steal from everyone?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
A bank printing it's own banknotes? Oh, yes, yes, Awesome idea, the teabagging version of me is already masturbating to it and suffering from a religious rapture, oh, ohhhh, it's p-r-i-v-a-t-e, omg, omg,OMG!!!!
Oh... wait: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1819 [wikipedia.org]
hmmm....
Well, I think I'm going back to coffee and leave the tea resting in it's bag for some time
Re: (Score:1)
The jury is still out on long term viability.
This university could just as easily accept used iPads as tuition fees.
Used iPads have a monetary value, too, but I wouldn't start stockpiling them.
Re: (Score:2)
There is also the question of will BTC settle at all? One of the classic problems with commodity backed currencies (which BTC behaves like) is that they are notoriously unstable and thus unattractive for long term planning.
Re: (Score:2)
I would think not. For one thing, if you could only get out of it what it cost to compute it, then nobody would compute it (outside of the people who are really pursuing it for philosophical reasons. Believe me, those people do exist). Further, at some point, all of the bitcoins will be mined, and then there will be no reason for it to stabilize on.
I think right now the value of it
Re: Good thing I didn't invest. (Score:5, Insightful)
Normally I'd respond with snark about tulips and CROX, but Cyprus is a financial post-apocalyptic wasteland where neither the people nor the institutions trust the kleftes, the bankers and the Russians who now run the smoldering remains of the bank. Plus, Cyprus has been in corralito since the meltdown, which effectively means the Cypriot Euro is worth less than the EU Euro, since the two are not functionally interchangeable across the capital control lines. In Cyprus, Bitcoins actually make sense for all parties to a transaction, because nothing else is safe (Cyprus even lost its gold during the meltdown).
Re: (Score:2)
+1000 informative
Re: (Score:2)
"The obvious path is humble, safe but pays the wages of a cook, not a champion." -Jade Empire
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
No, it's not. It was a free market until ACA. Now it's a semi-planned market. When it was a free market, these people were covered.
Re: (Score:2)
Every year plans change, people loose coverage and have to get new plans. Most of the time these details are hidden behind HR since they do a lot of the leg work, but insurance companies are constantly creating and removing plans, switching which hospital systems they are linked to and which they are not.
And now the market is doing what it always does. The rules have
Re: (Score:2)
If you like your lying troll, you can keep your lying troll.
Medical providers are not required to accept any particular insurance if they don't want to. Most do, out of the desire to help their customers (because, as you've so nicely illustrated, the customers expect it now), but there's no regulation I know of that requires it.
If your particular insurance isn't accepted by the hospital, you're still responsible for paying the bill, and the insurance company is still responsible for covering the cost, but i
Re: (Score:2)
My current health plan my employer doesn't offer isn't accepted at 2 of the 3 closest hospitals to my home. There are 2 major health networks in town and many insurance companies partner with one or the other but not both. It has been this way for as long as long as I've had insurance with 3 different employers myself, as well as when I was under my parents plan as a dependent. Welcome to insurance.
It's not extremely surprising that "one of the world's largest and most respected cancer hospitals" wouldn't
Re: (Score:2)
s/Democrat/politician
Re: (Score:2)
Obama Says He’ll Defend Constitution
Did he happen to mention the constitution of a particular country? Or was he referring to defending the "constitution" as in "the embodied compositional elements" of the present government?