@ivanb
@btcrevel
Google is known to be behind the open source culture whenever it can. It sure must make profit and compete with others, but when having choice they more often choose open source (android, chrome and "google summer of code" are just a few examples).
All that is kind of fluffy in comparison to what companies like Overstock are doing for the community. I'll be much more impressed when Google accepts BTC payments or adds BTC features to Google Wallet.
That is true, that at this point Overstock is doing more. That's not what I mean to say.
Then again I think things needs time and my opinion is that bitcoin might (!) no be ready yet for such a large player like google.
Why? Here is why:
The faster the adoption by hughe players like google (that have Online Wallets, lots of online services, cloud services... so much bigger then dell in regards of innovation and leading the way for developers with tons if APIs,...), faster the price would rise (I know that it does mostly not rise immediately, but google is a different story here due to its innovative leadership and multitude of online services that would be ideal for bitcoin), and the shorter we can be inclusive, meaning people buying at prices that make them feel they make others rich. Of course this is how it goes, but the longer the news are good and the price rises slowly, the better it is for non technical people who do not well understand bitcoin and might not had the time to look into it or have friend to explain the advantages to them or...
Before a company like google joins, it would be good to:
- have some more standards like BIP 38 (we need for example a DNS like system to replace the bitcoin adresses for the masses)
- have side- or even better treechains
- have some more incentives for decentralized mining
- have implemented a pruning mechanism of the blockchain (account tree, ...)
While this could be solved on the way, it is easyer to solve it without hughe mainstream adoption.
Things need to grow in a sane way, and for me it seems that this is the case right know. Companys like TigerDirect, Newegg, Dell are good signs and solutions can be found. Overstock is invaluable by the fact that Patrick Byrne is a die hard believer of the key principles, even comes at conferences and says that Overstock is not converting all Bitciun to USD. I guess the next steps will be paying some employees in bitcoin and paying other merchants in bitcoin.
For me, when Google steps in bitcoin, it will almost (!) be like "story finished", bitcoin IS the new world currency.
