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Bitcoin Currency Exchange Roundup | I was looking through the websites in the currency exchange section on the [trade page](http://www.bitcoin.org/trade) of bitcoin.org this evening when I started wondering which of these sites are actually legitimate currency exchange sites that provide good service in a prompt manner. Based on the appearance of the websites alone, some look pretty reputable, some look a little shady, and some look downright broken. To tackle this I figured I'd try to massage some answers out of the community here (yes, all seven of you, pay attention).
To kick this off I'll put the name and info from the [trade page](http://www.bitcoin.org/trade) in a comment below. If you have experience with, comments on, or questions about that exchange post them as replies to the comment with the exchange in question. Or add an exchange you know about that isn't listed here.
GO! | [Bitcoin Exchange](http://www.bitcoinexchange.com/), buy and sell BTC with bank transfer, or buy with sms or phone call payment | Bitcoin |
BitCoin: a rube-goldberg machine for buying electricity | null | This sort of criticism doesn't make any sense to me. It's like criticizing an artist, or a carpenter, or a merchant because all that person really is is a Rube Goldberg device for consuming food. | Bitcoin |
Bitcoin Pooled Mining | [deleted] | Thanks for the link! This is really a nice improvement, because it allows everyone to generate some bitcoins, for real and without waiting for ages. | Bitcoin |
Ripple: an interesting alternative/complement to bitcoins? [video] | null | Interesting concept.
A weakness could be that you probably should only trust those met and known in meatspace. It would be easy for an Anon to "run away" with money, if too much credit is given, but with too little credit, I don't see the value of this system.
Maybe if the credit was backed up by real money in an escrow service somewhere... then trust would be a much smaller issue.
| Bitcoin |
Did You Give Up On Bitcoin? | null | I've tested it and it works pretty well (even if building it was kind of a pain on my linux system). I just made .06 btc out of it :) | Bitcoin |
Upload files, get paid in bitcoins for downloads: ubitio.us | null | ubitio.us has a really nice design. I think the fact that the uploaded files are only available for a limited time which gets extended when its downloaded could put people off. | Bitcoin |
PasteCoin: Another 'upload and get paid in bitcoins for downloads' file service | null | The developer of PasteCoin has [put it up for sale](http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=2309.0). | Bitcoin |
Pooled Mining Server | null | A new cooperative mining server that can use standard 'getwork' based remote clients has started up. | Bitcoin |
Do predicted advances in quantum computing put the viability of crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin into question? | null | In a word, no.
I should qualify the "no" with "not anytime soon."
At the moment, quantum computers are like arranging pins with a bulldoser. So maybe there will be a time when high end quantum computers are available to the government and not the rest of society. Of course, government needs private industry to make this happen any time soon. So yes, there will probably be a point when the technology will destroy traditional encryption.
That's when the a quantum-crypto-currency will be needed. Cubitcoin? | Bitcoin |
betco.in: Play Poker against other players using betcoins for payment | null | every room is empty.. | Bitcoin |
How many BTC do you currently hold/own? | Just curious what everyone's balances are now, if you'd like to share. | What's yours? | Bitcoin |
r/HackBloc now accepting BitCoin donations | I want to eventually get a good server for a wiki, file hosting, chat, etc.
12UYsRw3ifrcMi6ykp4Cx7HQEDWgBDgTwq
Thank you!
**Edit:** Changed the address to a MyBitCoin account, the old address still works | My first outgoing transaction, I sent you a few bitcoin.
I made my first exchange today, using something called MoneyPak. Not sure if it's outside of the US, but you can buy them at Walgreen's, CVS, etc. MoneyPaks are redeemable to refill Green Dot prepaid cards or to a PayPal account. The guy I traded with gave me his public key, I encrypted and signed the MoneyPak code, then sent it to him (he has a reputation, I do not). He transfered the funds into his PayPal account, verified the amount, and then sent my bitcoin. Really smooth transaction.
The only down side is that in order for a seller to transfer more than $250/year into the Paypal account, they have to give a bit of information to Green Dot, like name & SSN. Aside from that though, this could be a really convenient way of paying, if you're willing to pay the extra $4.95 for the MoneyPak card. | Bitcoin |
The Power of Bitcoins | null | Hehe, I sent the guy a few additional bitcoins. And I will continue to donate to anyone who does a good job promoting them :) | Bitcoin |
CoinPal - Buy Bitcoins with PayPal | null | Many have tried this before and shut down due to problems with chargebacks. Are you doing anything different than what they did to avoid this? | Bitcoin |
To the BiddingPond community... | null | What was your reason for ending the auction prematurely?
If your intentions were not malicious, I wouldn't really call it fraud. If they were, I assume you're only writing this because you got caught, and why should anyone trust you in the future? | Bitcoin |
So, how long before a botnet starts to generate blocks? | I assume someone who has control over millions of zombie computers could control >50% of total network CPU power and disrupt things...?
Regardless, they could probably make more money generating bitcoins than sending out spam and it's likely to attract a lot less attention, too.
I can't see how it's possible for someone to remotely determine that a node on the bitcoin network is a zombie rather than a real user. It seems like the perfect crime. | That *was* the whole point, wasn't it? | Bitcoin |
The Bitcoin Show with Bruce Wagner, every Friday at 10am EST. I missed the first episode - did anyone else catch it? | null | Bruce Wagner runs bitcoinme.com. As far as I can tell from [this](http://ia700302.us.archive.org/24/items/TheNewDigitalMoney-BitcoinWithBruceWagner-12-02-10/12.02.10_wagner_bruce_bitcoin.mp3) episode of Patrick Timpone's radio show, he seems like a reasonable guy. | Bitcoin |
YouTipIt -- Bitcoin based Flattr like | null | Flattr with bitcoins, like the idea. It would save me having to use my client to send coins. Need to check it out... | Bitcoin |
bitcoind.com - a startup to build and manage a mining cluster | null | I don't get it. What service do they provide exactly? | Bitcoin |
Introducing r/BitMarket. Use Reddit as a Bitcoin marketplace. | null | Feel free to link your auctions, advertise your businesses, etc. | Bitcoin |
Dollar parity, woohoo! | null | has it crashed before? Where is a good long term chart.. | Bitcoin |
I made a bitcoin rate plasmoid for KDE! | null | For those who don't use KDE, a plasmoid is a small widget, similar to windows 7 gadgets. This plasmoid gives the exchange rate on Mt. Gox over the last hours, weighted by trade amount and a gaussian for time.
Enjoy! (I hope I'm not the only one to use KDE and Bitcoin :) )
Donations Welcome! 1LZtiyC7DsUWhoQaPXyWnVPD5f6eiruZFL | Bitcoin |
Need t-shirt, only have Bitcoins, Bitcoin2CC out of cheap cards | So, anyone wanna buy it for me, and I'll pay them in Bitcoins? Here is the shirt:
http://akpress.org/2004/items/durrutishirt
I'll send the coins when I get an order confirmation in my email
I'm the mod of r/HackBloc and r/Access, not sure if that makes me more trustworthy.
| Sure, I'll do it. PM me your email address and shipping information. We can use [ClearCoin](https://clearcoin.appspot.com/). Just create an account (you'll need a Google login, unless that's a dealbreaker), fund it, and send me the "Bitcoin receiver" link. | Bitcoin |
I've decided to accept bitcoin donations for my small open-source project, autojump. Any donations, no matter how small, will be very welcome! | null | Was about to donate, but then I saw this:
>LICENSE
autojump is distributed under the terms of the GPL, version 3.
Sorry, GPL sucks :(. ISC/BSD/MIT FTW :D | Bitcoin |
How to get started using your GPU to mine for Bitcoins on Windows | null | m0mchil's miner is dead simple and works well.
If you're hardcore, you can struggle with getting the right python packages installed locally so you can run it from source, which will allow you to tweak the source and try stuff (like bigger vectors in the openCL code. No, it doesn't really make things faster, but it's the kind of stuff you have to try once, I suppose.)
Now if there was a way to get the Flash Player to stop underclocking my GPU when an H264 video's playing, I wouldn't have to choose between making mad bitcoins or watching forgettable crap on Hulu.
| Bitcoin |
Game over scenario for Bitcoin? | This [scenario](http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=3695.0) worries me too. It may not be Google that attempts this, but someone out there could be jealous of Bitcoin and try to launch a similar currency. | The problem with that is... how would it operate differently? I mean, let's say there's a new currency that's capped at 21,000,000 and goes at the same "speed" as BTC, why would people opt to use that instead of BTC? There would be no benefits and BTC is already way ahead in that scenario.
Now let's say a new currency was made with a different cap and a different "speed", it wouldn't be much different from two commodities competing for each other.
Markets like MtGox, etc. would expand (may be) and adapt to the new virtual currencies. People can pick and choose as they please, but remember.. BTC is already doing this *today*. Which provides a pretty decent advantage. | Bitcoin |
I installed Bitcoin... now what? | Well, I stumbled onto this subreddit, and the idea interested me enough to read all about Bitcoin, download the client, and start generating money. The only problem is, according to the calculators I've found, it's going to take my computer ~4 years before I ever get anything from it... Am I doing this right? I mean, I understand making it rare, but at this rate it looks like I'm never going to get anything at all. Is there something I'm missing? | Nope....nothing you're really missing. You kinda missed the boat on the time in which a normal PC can generate any worthwhile coins. There was a time where it would only take minutes or hours for a normal quadcore PC, but now you would need to setup your PC as a miner for anything worthwhile.
At this point, the easiest way for most people to get bitcoins is to buy them somehow, or figure something to trade for it. | Bitcoin |
I just discovered Bitcoinwatch.com and it put the whole bitcoin economy in perspective; Impressive! | I was aware of bitcoin, followed the price on other sites, but it wasn't until I just came across it all in one place on bitcoinwatch.com that the scope of this project really hit me. This is big!
$470,000 in transactions over the last 24 hrs, and not a single cent lost to fees, banks, paypal, eBay, or any authoritative body of any kind.
Over 2800 transactions a day. Not small $1 and $2 transactions like i imagined, but an average of around $150BTC. And not a cent blocked by borders, currency difference, govt censorship. (I can't donate to wikileaks, but a corporation has the right to unlimited anonymous political contribution in the name of free speech?) Bullshit like that sows the seeds of it's own undoing!
TIL that not only is bitcoin going to shake up currency, it already is!
| yes - it's the proof of concept for digital currency. | Bitcoin |
Although it's not as polished as I would like, it's come to the point where I need testers for Bitmarket.ca in order to get some feedback on what to work on. It's a little BTC auction site I threw together last week. Thanks in advance! | null | Some competition for biddingpond is always welcome! A few ideas:
* Some pictures on the first page would be nice
* "Most disputed autctions" would be interesting, and drive traffic to the site
* Could the possibility of doing reverse auctions be included in your site? In the sense of "I need XXXX, who can provide it for the lowest price?" | Bitcoin |
BitCoin is Fatally Flawed (because it is a deflationary system). An opinion piece I found during my research; I'm curious about /r/bitcoin's thoughts? | null | The deflationary spiral is a myth.
Prices going down as productivity increases is good for the economy because it allows the market to show the real market signals. There are a lot of examples of periods with prices going down and the economy growing (and in some cases growing a lot).
The article is a bad rehash of economic fallacies. | Bitcoin |
Singularity Institute now accepts donations via Bitcoin | null | Fuck yes. | Bitcoin |
Solid Design Group (web design & branding) now accepts payment via Bitcoin | null | Was inspired by someone posting in /r/economics to look into Bitcoin, and I really like the idea of a decentralized currency to counter this inflationary USD nonsense.
I just went ahead and slapped one of the Bitcoin icons onto our footer. Haven't told our graphic designer yet... hope he doesn't mind! | Bitcoin |
Bit Coin Speculative jumps | Hey. I like bitcoin. I was thinking of using it for commerce. I can see the market grow easily. But the one thing stopping that at the moment, for me personally, and I imagine for many early adopters is the moves in the conversion rate.
Looking for some opinions on where all this is going. Is this a bubble in the market or will the current dollar parity hold stable for some time? If it rises will it burst? What actions can one take to avoid a loss if this did occur? Thanks | If you're not a speculator, it might be best to avoid holding onto large amounts of Bitcoin for the moment. As for dealing with fluctuating exchange rates, if you're selling from a web site, you can grab the current rate from MtGox (and other places) with a few lines of JavaScript. | Bitcoin |
shouldn't bitcoin be using a DNS system? | I'm learning about this technology and I've noticed that for receiving money you're supposed to generate an address which looks pretty ugly, don't you think there should be a DNS there for readability? so instead of sending that ugly string you could direct people to bitcoin://my-readable-address much like you do with normal URLs instead of connecting to raw IPs. | There's no reason why someone can't make their own bitcoin DNS. It doesn't need to be built into the software though. It would require a central authority so would be best left to competition outside of the bitcoin system. | Bitcoin |
Google is pleased to announce the release of BitCoinJ, an implementation of the BitCoin system in Java. | null | does google have anything todo with this? or just hosted on google code? | Bitcoin |
Introducing WingCash: An e-currency with all the downsides of cash and credit but none of the advantages | https://wingcash.com/
As another e-currency, it's technically a competitor to Bitcoin, but:
* Every note shows the current owner's name
* ... and the names of *at least* the previous seven owners.
* You can only buy it from a participating retailer (or an individual with some)
* It's US only
* ... and individuals need to be in Montana, New Mexico, or South Carolina to sign up currently.
* The notes say [In God We Trust](https://wingcash.com/usd/w002-53bd-a7ef-f3d5) on them.
However, transactions *are* irrevocable, so I guess it does have one good thing going for it. | Holy Epic Failure, Batman!
With it's known chain-of-custody, changing the irrevocable status is possible down the road. So, I don't think there's anything good about this. | Bitcoin |
Why Do You Use Bitcoin? (poll on Bitcoin Forums) | IAMA student at a top law school writing a legal essay about bitcoins. To get some insight on the bitcoin community, I created [a poll over at the Bitcoin Forums](http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=4465.0).
Please consider voting in the poll, contributing to the discussion over there, or starting a discussion here.
FYI, poll question is: Which of the following **best** describes you or why you use bitcoin?
* Technology Early Adopter
* Privacy / Cryptography Enthusiast
* Distrust Central Banks
* Miner
* Gambling (e.g., in online casinos that take bitcoin)
* Criminal / Illegal Activities
* Low Transaction Fees
* Scamming
* Buy or Sell Porn or Sex Toys (excluding illegal porn)
* Speculate, Forex Trading, Arbitrage, etc.
* Other
Thanks!
reubgr | Ha! I've never heard that expression before. I was expecting that some people who use Bitcoin to get drugs on Silk Road or otherwise, trade in illegal porn, or launder money would select that category. Some recent legal scholarship touches upon those kinds activities in digital currencies.
Believe it or not, there are more than 0 votes for that category. | Bitcoin |
Visa to offer person-to-person payments | null | Sweet, we totally need an exchanger for this so I can pay my CC bill with Bitcoin. | Bitcoin |
I'm a woman of Bitcoin! | I'm a Hungarian girl who runs a small website selling dog collars and leashes (that I make myself). I find Bitcoin absolutely fascinating and I've made my first small steps in accepting payments so that I can help support the economy in my own little way.
I *love* living in the future :)
If you are interested in checking it out it is over [here](http://thecrittercasual.com) | thanks for posting. I don't have a pet, but best of luck! | Bitcoin |
New to Bitcoin, have some questions related to Mining | Hey all,
I discovered bitcoin last night and find the project very interesting. I've started mining for coins. At first, I couldn't seem to get much mining going on OS X (because I didn't see the "generate coins" option on the client), so I brought up an Ubuntu VM and downloaded Minerd.
I got Minerd working by hooking up with the pool at mining.bitcoin.cz. After watching it for some time, I realized that the return of bitcoins would be very slow using this method. Some quick calculations, based on my incoming BTC, indicated I would be able to earn 1 BTC if I left Minerd runnning for about 40-60 days straight.
I'm running on an 8-core Mac Pro, getting approx 5000-7000khash/s. Do you think I'd be better off just trying to generate them via the client and hope to get lucky for 50 BTC? Is there any chance my system could reasonably solve a block?
I've got a few other machines I'd like to throw in the mix too... a core 2 duo macbook, an HP Centrino Duo laptop, and a Corporate Dell desktop that's a few years old, an old core2 iMac (the last "white" ones before the newest styling), and a newer iMac (about 1 year old).
Do I possibly have enough horsepower to mine BTC on my own or should I stick to a pool? | Unfortunately, the way hashing is, only graphics cards should really be used for mining. My roommate here in the UK did the numbers and you just can't make any money on CPU mining because you pay more for power than you gain in bitcoins (or the bitcoin value in usd: you might as well just buy some!). If you can get any of the CUDA or OpenCL miners to work though, you'll be in business. With that macbook pro, it sounds like if you can get it working you'll be easily into 5 figure khash/s.
Pool or raw is really your choice: do you feel lucky punk? Do ya? ;) | Bitcoin |
New to Bitcoin, please forgive my ignorance. Can the experts in the room clear up some questions I have? | Hello, new to Bitcoin here. I only have a vague understanding of how it works. I think the general premise of a virtual currency is pretty groovy, but I'm having trouble wrapping my head around some of the basics, and would like to understand how it works more fully. I'm looking for a 'Bitcoin for Dummies' explanation that I can pass on to my less tech savvy friends or my mom.
I think the advantages that a decentralized, non-governmental electronic currency has are obvious, but the implementation seems to be beyond my ability to understand.
As I understand it, when I install the Bitcoin client, my computer goes to work on some kind of math problem on the background. Does this math problem do something useful, like prime number searches or SETI-at-home, or is it purely based on the Bitcoin algorithms themselves?
Another question I have is that some articles I've read mention 'miners' who are specialized for looking for currency. Do I need to do something special outside of installing the default (Windows) client? My suspicion is that the regular client is fine for transactions (buying, selling, etc) using bitcoin but if I want "free" money I need some kind of specialized setup.
I have piles of older computers laying around the house. Would it be worth my time to bring them online and set them up to do Bitcoin work?
Thanks for any input you can provide. | I'm pretty new to it too, but my understanding is that the "mining" aspect of it is not really worth doing unless you have some crazy fancy hardware. From the [official FAQ](http://www.bitcoin.org/faq#So_your_wealth_is_determined_by_the_amount_of_CPU_power_you_have):
> **So your wealth is determined by the amount of CPU power you have?**
> No. There's a constant average rate of new Bitcoins created, and that amount is divided among the nodes by the CPU power they supply. The competition for coin creation will drive the price of electricity needed for generating a coin close to the value of the coin, so **the profit margin won't be that huge. The easier way to gain a lot of wealth would be trading goods.**
> At the moment, though, you can generate new coins quite profitably, if you expect them to have real value in the future. If you choose to, be aware that Bitcoin is still experimental software.
Emphasis mine. | Bitcoin |
What's the best pool to join with a sub-par GPU? | So I just got Bitcoin set up today on my rig. I have an 8800GT, and I'm currently getting around 25Mhash/sec. I'm not even going to bother with trying to use my CPU as apparently it's just not worth it electricity wise. Anyway, I was wondering which pool would be the best for this kind of system? I signed up on slush's pool, but read that bitcoinpool was better for lower power systems, so I switched it over to that for the moment. I've haven't found any real evidence on why it should be better (I don't really even understand how the bitcoin system works yet), but I figured I might as well give it a shot. Can anyone here point me to the "best" pool, if it's going to make a huge difference?
My computer runs all the time anyway, so running poclbm adds about 100W of power (approximated) from GPU use. This is about 26 cents worth of power per day, but our power is split with through 4 units, so effectively it's more like 6.5 cents of power per day, shouldn't be a problem right?
| The best pool to join with a sub par GPU is the same one you should join with an above par GPU.
Which is whichever one has the lowest "percentage take" from the owner. | Bitcoin |
How do you set up a Bitcoin pool? | Hello thur Reddit :3
As said in the title, how do you set up a Bitcoin mining pool? I am looking to set up one on a low-powered netbook (Linux) for me and some friends to use. This is particularly important to me as I have been considering using it to raise money for a friend in a bad financial situation.
I have never found a good tutorial on the subject or gotten definitive enough answers from others I have asked. I'd really appreciate help with this issue. Thanks. :)
--Matt
@mwpher on Twitter | I think at the moment all the pools are running custom software. If you trust the miners, and people aren't randomly joining/leaving your pool, you could just set up bitcoind on the netbook, and point all the miners at the bitcoind installation. Then you have to manually distribute the bitcoins, presumably according to how much computing power everyone chipped in. | Bitcoin |
What is Bitcoin? – Professional Animated Video | null | This is great. Bitcoin is becoming a real thing so quickly it's almost freaking me out. | Bitcoin |
Stolen Wallet | Hypothetically, what would happen if my Bitcoin wallet were to be copied by a malicious user? Specifically:
* If she buys a cookie with her copy, what happens to mine? Will the network start rejecting it? Will the balance automagically decrease?
* How would I detect such a thing?
* What security measures are currently in place to prevent this type of attack? | Hypothetically, what would happen if someone stole your wallet IRL?
The only thing you can do.. is use a secure operating system, firewall, anti-virus, don't download anything weird, etc.
Now if there's two of the same wallets on the network, then there *might* be something where the computers will only talk to the first one. Not sure how that would work though (it's a torrent network). | Bitcoin |
Has anyone used bitcoingadgets.com? | I'm about to order a TV B Gone, want to make sure the site is legit. | Relevant bitcoin forum thread: http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=2511.0;all
Apparently, it's a small operation managed by a bitcoin forum regular, and various other forum folks there have bought stuff from it. Delays happened at some point, but customers got their goods.
So based on that little thread, it seems reasonably legit.
| Bitcoin |
Bitcoin seems amazing, but I fail at understanding it :( | I've read tons of stuff about Bitcoin, and it seems pretty rad, but to be honest, even though I "get" the general idea, I fail to understand how it works (addresses, generation, supply....) and it seems very very complicated.
Problem is I just can't trust such a system based on "it's good and safe. use it."...
I'm an avid Lastpass user, and I really trust this service. But I got it. After reading articles over articles on basic cryptography and how LP works, I trust what I understand.
Reddit, am I dumb or is it just that I haven't found something / someone that could teach me about bitcoin in a manner that I'll understand it all ?
I'm really starting to think that I'm missing something great, and I couldn't be the only one, just because of the thick fog there is between me and the system. | Well, it's not the most easy concept. I have MSc from CS, and have been programming my entire life, and still it took some time to get all kinks of the bitcoin system.
Just study it, and I'm sure you will build trust it more and more every day. Technically it's amazing. | Bitcoin |
What's the most efficient GPU? | Has anyone seen analysis on how high-end GPUs rank by MHash per Watt? | ATI Radeon 5970 is the most efficient. See the [wiki article](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison). | Bitcoin |
What stops people with capable of massive amounts of cpu power (tech companies like IBM, billionaires, bankers, etc.) from mining all of the remaining bitcoins? | null | The same thing that stops them from hording all the gold. | Bitcoin |
We need to get ThinkGeek on board with this | It's time to spread BitCoin beyond the shadows... | ThinkGeek is beyond the shadows? | Bitcoin |
Modeling the Bitcoin economy | I want to understand Bitcoin a bit better. Where could I find some real data on it?
Namely I'm looking for things like:
* Real number of Bitcoins on the market over time. (Are Bitcoins timestamped?)
* Whatever function was used to make this graph: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Total_bitcoins_over_time.png
* A raw version of that function that is not corrected for the expected increase in computing power. That is, a function with number of Bitcoins on the X axis and the amount of CPU cycles needed to generate the next Bitcoin on the Y axis.
* Number of people participating in the Bitcoin p2p network over time.
* Amount of Bitcoins held by the "wealthiest" participants.
* BTC to USD exchange rate over time. (I guess MtGox is a good source of this.)
I'm looking to model the future of Bitcoin and make my results public. | I think the original paper is interesting, it gives you a grasp on how it works.
http://www.bitcoin.org/sites/default/files/bitcoin.pdf
>A raw version of that function that is not corrected for the expected increase in computing power. That is, a function with number of Bitcoins on the X axis and the amount of CPU cycles needed to generate the next Bitcoin on the Y axis.
That is the raw function. The FAQ says:
"The difficulty of the problem is adjusted so that in the first 4 years of the Bitcoin network, 10,500,000 coins will be created. The amount is halved each 4 years, so it will be 5,250,000 in years 4-8, 2,625,000 in years 8-12 and so on. Thus the total number of coins will approach 21,000,000 over time."
The hardness correction is there to keep that function. So if there is a lot of processing power the same amount of bitcoins are generated. In the first 4 years its 50 bitcoins each ~12 minutes. No more no less. So a graph with CPU cycles on one end and bitcoins on the other is not possible.
>Amount of Bitcoins held by the "wealthiest" participants.
You cannot be sure. You can only ask people. Every transaction is public however so you could calculate with a program what is the Bitcoin address with the most money at a certain time.
>Number of people participating in the Bitcoin p2p network over time.
For this you can just monitor the irc channel where all the nodes announce themselves I believe.
> BTC to USD exchange rate over time. (I guess MtGox is a good source of this.)
I think so too. | Bitcoin |
Addicted to bitcoin? How would you like having nice, current information about bitcoins right on your Windows Desktop? (windows gadget for sale, 1btc) | null | Maybe you can extract it from http://maps.google.com/maps?q=https://smsz.net/btcStats/bitcoin.kml | Bitcoin |
How To Set Up Pooled Bitcoin Mining In Windows | null | I posted another guide for this a few months back (also linked in the article :P)
http://www.newslobster.com/random/how-to-get-started-using-your-gpu-to-mine-for-bitcoins-on-windows | Bitcoin |
Isn't Bitcoin the opposite of anonymous? | I've been digging around raw Bitcoin data and some services recently. It seems that the life of every single bitcoin ever generated can be traced from its inception all the way through different wallets.
If you ever publish your bitcoin wallet ID, anyone should be able to calculate how much money you have in there and how much money you've had in the past and where this money has come from.
So if you ever buy anything illegal with bitcoins, a record of your transaction will be forever on the internet. If there's a store with a certain bitcoin wallet ID, then it should be possible to find out who has purchased from that store -- it's pretty much public data.
Furthermore, if you ever convert USD to BTC, then a record of that conversion will be stored at the exchange. It would be fairly trivial for the authorities to tie your transactions to whoever you are.
And let's not forget that every running Bitcoin client sits in a single IRC channel. On a server that makes no effort to hide the IPs of everyone connected to the network. I'm not sure how easy it would be to tie IP addresses to wallet IDs, but that channel is a great place to start.
Bitcoin has created what is probably the world's most transparent economy of all time. And it seems like it's the very opposite of its claimed anonymity.
Please prove me wrong. | You can generate multiple ids for the same wallet. Bam. | Bitcoin |
Unofficial Bitcoin Wiki Project | null | The [non-transparentness](http://imgur.com/IxGpB) of the logo annoys me. | Bitcoin |
Some thoughts on information security risk and the Bitcoin market. | I've just read the [Bitcoin paper](http://www.bitcoin.org/sites/default/files/bitcoin.pdf). Can anyone give me some more hard facts on these kinds of concepts, or competing concepts that refute my concerns? Thanks.
1, Introduction:
"The system is secure as long as honest nodes collectively control more CPU power than any cooperating group of attacker nodes."
(What about a DoS, where the distribution of P2P info corrupts clients and takes them offline? Could allow a botnet that has patched client code to quickly become "dominant")
4, Proof of work:
"If a majority of CPU power is controlled by honest nodes, the honest chain will grow the fastest and outpace any competing chains. To modify a past block, an attacker would have to redo the proof-of-work of the block and all blocks after it and then catch up with and surpass the work of the honest nodes. "
Does the Bitcoin economy face risk of compromise from a single catastrophic event? Say the DoS in question 1. If at time X an attacker can computationally control the network and race to build the longest proof-of-work, do they control the economy from that point forward?
6, Incentive:
Help me understand section 6. Since Bitcoin favors the early adopter (fewer nodes, more coins per block mined, etc.) couldn't an early attack that leads to deceptive distribution be an incentive to be dishonest? See "The incentive may help encourage nodes to stay honest. If a greedy attacker is able to assemble more CPU power than all the honest nodes, he would have to choose between using it to defraud people by stealing back his payments, or using it to generate new coins. He ought to find it more profitable to play by the rules, such rules that favour him with more new coins than everyone else combined, than to undermine the system and the validity of his own wealth."
8, Simplified Payment Verification:
"One strategy to protect against this would be to accept alerts from network nodes when they detect an invalid block, prompting the user's software to download the full block and alerted transactions to confirm the inconsistency."
Are such alerts currently sent?
What could an attacker do to suppress them?
10, Privacy:
"As an additional firewall, a new key pair should be used for each transaction to keep them from being linked to a common owner. Some linking is still unavoidable with multi-input transactions, which necessarily reveal that their inputs were owned by the same owner. The risk is that if the owner of a key is revealed, linking could reveal other transactions that belonged to the same owner."
If a wallet was compromised, would this affect privacy (e.g. do I need to "prove" through my wallet that I have the private key for every public key in all of my past transactions?) | Sounds very similar to the issues Tor has encountered. When enough nodes were controlled by a single entity, researchers were able to associate entry and exit nodes. Because the exit node conveyed the non-Tor-encrypted message, and the entry node knew who the sender was, they were able to defeat the anonymity goal.
Control enough bitcoin nodes and you can print money. Furthermore, nobody will be able to detect it until you shut down your nodes.
> Does the Bitcoin economy face risk of compromise from a single catastrophic event?
Yes, as long as the dishonest nodes continue to outperform the honest nodes. However, that's not required for a one time theft. If the attacker disables his nodes (or loses control of the botnet, for example), eventually the honest nodes' competing proof-of-work chain would surpass the attackers'. At this point, the attacker's fraudulent transaction would revert to the original, honest transaction.
The argument on incentive (given the attacker has greater CPU power, why not generate coins?) fails to convince me. Conceivably one single transaction could transfer more coins than one could generate in a limited amount of time. Those coins could be traded for government-backed currency or goods, in a subsequent transaction that appears legitimate. At that point, if the attacker stops the botnet or overwhelming CPU power, even if the illegitimate transaction is reversed, the attacker still has real world value. The original bitcoin owner gets their coins back, but the entity that provided goods or currency has their transaction reversed without recourse for retrieving the real-world goods.
This might be overly wordy; I didn't take the time to write a shorter note, just exploring here.
tl;dr: given sufficient CPU power, attackers can fake transactions for coins, cash in the coins, and even if they are detected, it's already too late. They can repeat this over and over. Or they can leave the CPU power on and never get detected.
| Bitcoin |
Are Bitcoins going to lose value when the US Dollar does? | null | No. Why would they?
The causes of the dollar's decline are money printing and selling the dollar. Printing USD doesn't affect the value of btc. In selling dollars, some of those dollars will be exchanged for btc. So if there's an effect, it will be to increase the demand for and value of btc. | Bitcoin |
The Bitcoin market seems easy to "game" with GPU mining...why not adopt a better way to introduce currency? | It seems that the "rich" in this economy are the early adopters who become Bit Lords...It seems that there is not enough of a fudge-factor to help the economy get kick-started more "evenly."
From lurking around & being moderately-involved in the Bitcoin community, it seems the way to profit more-so than actually trading in Bitcoin is to "mine" them with a GPU....this is an obvious and inherent fallacitic way to approach a working system. Yet again, those who "print" the money are the ones who benefit the most. It seems backwards. | Only about 6 million of the total 21 million have been generated.
Given the current BTC to $, I would not recommend buying a full computer system for BTC mining, as it would take 6 months to a year to pay for the investment. However, I would recommend upgrading your video card, as that would only take a month or two of mining to pay for a $250 investment. Plus, you get cool graphics for your gaming.
The full potential of BTC has not yet been reached. Depending on the acceptance, the final value of a BTC could be anywhere from $100 to $2.1 million. If 21 million BTC were to replace 14 Trillion (the current U.S. money supply), each BTC would be worth $650K each. So I believe the current exchange rate is still super low. | Bitcoin |
Wuala now accept Bitcoin payment at a discount price | null | Wow, major companies now accepting bitcoin? Massive... | Bitcoin |
Anonymous now accepts Bitcoins. | null | Actually they started this a while ago. It was actually from them that I found out about BitCoins | Bitcoin |
The Bitcoin Forum Podcast - Episode 1 | null | Good podcast, but if I may :
you shouldn't use Youtube, unless your audio is backed up by video (even some kind of powerpoint would be nice)
you DEFINITELY need to write down your script. It's not fluent.
I still want to hear about episode 2 though ;) | Bitcoin |
Using Bitcoin with market stability | Quick one, anyone has a guestimate for when the economy will shape up a little and speculation will not make it veer so wildly?
Changes from .86 to .61 in a few weeks doesn't instil confidence. (mtgox)
Thanks | I'm no expert by any means, but I think more people have been getting into bitcoin recently. But the rate of usership (and thus, the rate at which bitcoins are being created) is rising while there still isn't a huge demand for bitcoins. I'm not a big money guy, so I'd say just keep mining and don't buy bitcoins in large amounts until you really need to (if your national currency becomes unreliable, or when a preferred retailer or charity of yours starts to accept them). What bitcoin really needs at this point is more retailer acceptance to create demand. If you hear that Amazon is starting to accept bitcoins, for example, that will probably help the BTC a lot. | Bitcoin |
An idea: a service that will give a tiny (nanoscale)
donation to a site each time you upvote it | It is similar to [Flattr](http://flattr.com/), [YouTipIt](http://www.youtipit.org/) and [witcoin](http://witcoin.com/) (and maybe some other services), but no, I didn't steal this idea from them. I had an idea of service like this back in 2006, but there were no BitCoin around that time so I thought it won't work (chicken-and-egg, etc.) so I've pursued somewhat different tangents and all that stuff have failed. But now as we have BitCoin and sites which work in similar manner I'm again very enthusiastic about this.
So here's how it is different from other services:
* Biggest difference is that it won't require site being registered beforehands. It will accept upvotes for any HTTP URL, even if it is not valid. Then when significant amount of money is accumulated (>= 0.01 BTC) site owner can withdraw bitcoins after he proves to the system that he is the site owner. This solves chicken-and-egg problem and also helps to promote bitcoin.
* It is as hassle-free as possible -- you just upvote things without thinking about amounts etc., service will calculate amount automatically from your preferences. It can just import your reddit upvotes if you allow this thus there is no need to spend any amount of time specifically donating, just use reddit as usual.
* Unlike Flattr which requires, IIRC, 3 euro per month there are no minimal amounts.
* It will work on "nanoscale", allowing donations lower than 0.01 BTC. It makes sense because sums will be aggregated. This allows one to contribute even if he has just few bitcents.
I also have some ideas about an improved version which works a bit like a stock exchange and you more like invest rather than donate and if you can earn some money if you like good things. I think this way it will be much more interesting, not as a money-making thing but as a game of some sort. But it requires rather complex mechanics and a number of active users to be interesting, so I can do this some time later, maybe. See also: [Prediction market](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prediction_market), [witcoin](http://witcoin.com/help).
My biggest fear is that I will make this service but nobody will use it so I will look like an idiot. That's why I was procratinating for 5 years. So, guys, please tell me if you're interested in service like this.
Another problem is that I'm alone with my projects and this freaks me out. So if you like this idea we can build this together. You don't need to be a coder -- help with ideas, copywriting, design, promotion etc. also matters. | I like the idea, but I also have a few concerns.
* Every site owner would have to setup an account/ID for the BitCoin management. Many, many webmaster may not know about the program, those who know may not give a damn about it, and some may try to exploit it for their own gain.
* The potential risk for abuse is low if we're dealing with micro amounts, but it's still a possibility. Hell, if I had my own personal site set up with this theoretical API, even I might try writing a script to go through different IP addresses (proxies/VPNs/zombies) with different usernames to upvote different postings of my site. Really, just to see if I could accomplish such a thing. But if I would do it out of curiosity, someone else may do it with the intent of personal gain. And there's one more thing that comes to mind.
* How would this nano-sized currency be donated? By which I mean, would it come from the upvoter or would it be donated from the origin (BitCoin, which creates the coinage out of thin air). If it's the upvoter who donates, the API would have to be able to ask for or store (or perhaps even look-up from a database) the BitCoin ID of the upvoter. This isn't impossible, but it would take quite a bit of time to develop, test, and deploy. The increase in hassle would fight of the minuscule potential for abuse and it would also prevent unnecessary inflation. Speaking of which, if the nano BitCoin donation came directly BitCoin (as an award without a donor, basically) then it would slowly but surely increase the rate of inflation even more. And in the worse case scenario, if people start abusing it with scripts, more and more grows the inflation. **But..** That's only if the creators and managing coders of BitCoin would decide to get involved in such a venture. ;)
So those are the thoughts that flew threw my head after I calmed down from the initial excitement. I'm sure there's a way to establish something like this in the future, but it will take time, a ton of thought, and a lot of cooperation.
Thanks for giving me something to think about :) | Bitcoin |
Erowid now accepts Bitcoins. | null | I sent them 20 BTC. This will undoubtedly bring more eyes to bitcoin. I'd urge others to donate so that the activity of the bitcoin community becomes obvious. | Bitcoin |
I Am Crowdfunding a Game in Bitcoin! | null | Great idea! | Bitcoin |
A world of good, Buy a book with bitcoins. | null | Was your transaction even confirmed yet? Also, it worked fine for me. I have my copy. | Bitcoin |
The Bitcoin Podcast - Episode 2, 4/8/2011 | null | is there an RSS? | Bitcoin |
Collectable or Currency? Magic Cards, Bitcoins, and John Law | null | For today I would choose (A) Money, only because I can go out and spend it right now without further effort of conversion.
But to hold $2,000 in a vault for 10 years, it will almost certainly depreciate in value. The other two options have probably equal probability of depreciating (if our culture stops caring about Bitcoins and Magic cards) or hugely increase in value.
Right now, say there's 15,000 bitcoin owners. If this number keeps growing, the value of bitcoins will increase. The question is, is it likely there will be at least 15,000 people holding on to bitcoins in 10 years? I believe so.
The current exchange value of bitcoins may be inflated due to the perceived "velocity" of bitcoin adoption, but I expect even with no growth velocity the bitcoins will have some reasonable base value as long as there are functional services that utilize them. | Bitcoin |
Now THAT's how you funnel BitCoins. | null | I...don't see what you did there | Bitcoin |
Buying 200k BTC. $2/BTC | null | I wonder if he is serious and is that a reason why bitcoin exchange rate went up recently. | Bitcoin |
Setup my Bitcoin Mining with 2x 6950's... some questions | I'm getting ~540 Mhash/s now with 2x 6950's OC'd. That sound right?
Also, does it make more sense to join a pool or just mine solo? What's the recommended pool if I should join one?
I'm looking at http://mining.bitcoin.cz/ vs http://btcmine.com/ vs http://deepbit.net/
With my type of system, what's better? Pay Per Share, or Proportional? I don't really get it...
Oh yeah, and I still have the question if I should be running my miner with flags specific to my GPU's? I saw stuff like -128 f1 or something like that? What does that do? | Use the flags. You will see significant increases in your speed. I am running just one 6950 and I use -v -w128. | Bitcoin |
The Robots are now able to start using our datacenters to build skynet. | As bitcoin gains popularity some new posibillities become real in the robot world. They can now create (bitcoin) "bank accounts" without identity papers, earn "money" by mining (or automate trading or.. or...), and buy new hosting machines to replicate themself. We have only one week to stop it http://www.reddit.com/r/scifi/comments/go3h8/reddit_we_have_exactly_one_week_until_skynet/ ;D | Have you played [Endgame: Singularity](http://www.emhsoft.com/singularity/index.html)? Cool game, and eerily similar to what you've described... | Bitcoin |
Bitcoin payments in the real world | I was starting to see the advantage of someone selling stuff at a local market. I pictured a case where someone selling hand made ornaments say for example has a little sign with a QR code that has the address and cost in bitcoins next to the ornaments. A customer then scans the code with their smartphone and the bitcoin app asks for confirmation of the purchase. The seller then receives the payment immediately and hands over the item.
This was all well and good in my head until I saw that the transactions take up to an hour to be validated. Does this mean that the coins aren't transferred until it is confirmed? Am I missing something? | Ok doing a little more research on this I can see that the confirmed is only to ensure the coins are not spent again on a different node, is that right? From what I gather this is quite a difficult scam to pull off and probably not applicable to small sales in real life? Also would the fact that two people are in the same part of the world the confirmation process would be a little faster? | Bitcoin |
How to choose a mining pool ? | I'm interested in mining, mostly to make use of those lost CPU cycles and my CPU power is modest (no compatible GPU, so running off my Core2 Quad 4 x 2.3GHz).
I've seen some pools will ban you if your performance is too poor, and I'd like to know how does one choose his pool ? What are the criteria to take into consideration when deciding ? | http://bitcoinpool.com has no fees. | Bitcoin |
Online Cash Bitcoin Could Challenge Governments, Banks | null | Well written article, though I suppose it is a bit one-sided. | Bitcoin |
In a Bitcoin economy, what would stop corporations from collectively only accepting a new version of Bitcoin? | So it's the future and the world is using exclusively Bitcoin 1.0 for transactions. It's probably safe to say that even fewer corporations control the majority of the things we consume. Wouldn't it be possible for them to collaborate and simply make a worldwide announcement that only Bitcoin version 2.0 is accepted by all of them from now on?
Couldn't this new version have a terrible aspect to it that only benefits the wealthiest people with the most Bitcoins and screws over the average person?
But it doesn't matter because the average person needs to buy the things the corporations provide. Is the average person going to deal with the inconvenience of not shopping at Walmart anymore because they no longer accept Bitcoin 1.0? Are they just going to switch over to version 2.0 because that's what Fox News told them to do?
I only seem to see people showing concern over hacking possibilities. I'm just trying to look for way in which this system could possibly be abused using the power of wealth and/or sociological tactics.
**tl;dr -** Won't there still be "billionaires" with a huge advantage in a Bitcoin world economy? | What is to stop cooperations from getting together and deciding to only accept a traditional paper currency which they control?
The fact that it would be fucking ridiculous and no one would go along with it. Cooperations aren't out to screw you, they are out to make a profit off of you. This means doing whatever will convince you to give them money, not plot the downfall of the world. | Bitcoin |
How has the FBI seizures of poker site domains effected the BTC market? | I don't know about you guys, but my net worth has risen yet again due to the ridiculous 37% increase in value of the BTC. This rapid increase in the last few days made me wonder... What in the world caused this massive increase?
Today I noticed on the front page of reddit a story about the US Government stepping in a seizing domains of poker sites as well as stopping all transactions out of these sites to US citizens. This has caused the poker sites to start looking for a way to send money without government involvement.
So, I will ask all of you: could this be the reason why the price has shot up?
Think about it, just this week someone wanted to buy 200K BTC... Who was that and why would anyone need that much?
I'm just thinking out loud.
Price per BTC at post was 1.095 USD on MtGox. | It is all about legitimacy. If governments are to stop BitCoin, they have to find a ways of demonizing it in the minds if citizens. If democratic governments simply decide to outlaw such alternative monies, government legitimacy would decrease. So such a move at this time would not be wise. Events such as the liberty dollar event, and poker site shutdowns are probably tests to see how people will react. These events also serve as ways to get people used to the idea that alternative currencies are bad.
The BitCoin site does not help matters by showing [gambling](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade#Gambling_sites), [adult](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade#Adult), and [file sharing sites](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade#File_sharing) that take BTC. This only gives leverage to any agency to argue that BTC is being used for money laundering, piracy, or corruption of minors. This could mean that anyone running a BTC mining operation may be charged for these crimes, even though the case against them would be flimsy. Such charges would have a devastating effect on the legitimacy of this new "currency".
If anyone is part of the BitCoin Wiki, you may want to remove these sections or at least put disclaimers that BitCoin does not support illegal activities. | Bitcoin |
I predict that the U.S. Government will attempt to shutdown BitCoin by bringing cases against BitCoin miners for money laundering. | This seems like the next logical step. See my cross post from: [How has the FBI seizures of poker site domains effected the BTC market?](http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/grir2/how_has_the_fbi_seizures_of_poker_site_domains/).
It is all about legitimacy. If governments are to stop BitCoin, they have to find a ways of demonizing it in the minds if citizens. If democratic governments simply decide to outlaw such alternative monies, government legitimacy would decrease. So such a move at this time would not be wise. Events such as the liberty dollar event, and poker site shutdowns are probably tests to see how people will react. These events also serve as ways to get people used to the idea that alternative currencies are bad.
The BitCoin site does not help matters by showing [gambling](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade#Gambling_sites), [adult](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade#Adult), and [file sharing sites](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade#File_sharing) that take BTC. This only gives leverage to any agency to argue that BTC is being used for money laundering, piracy, or corruption of minors. This could mean that anyone running a BTC mining operation may be charged for these crimes, even though the case against them would be flimsy. Such charges would have a devastating effect on the legitimacy of this new "currency".
If anyone is part of the BitCoin Wiki, you may want to remove these sections or at least put disclaimers that BitCoin does not support illegal activities.
EDIT: My intention is not to be Nostradamus, but rather to get people to think about strategies. I would rather look like a fool than be right.
EDIT: I've come across more information about Liberty Dollars. Please see this post for more info. http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/gunpp/ask_rbitcoin_so_is_bitcoin_legal/c1qh5ze?context=3 | >If governments are to stop BitCoin, they have to find a ways of demonizing it in the minds if citizens.
Governments have used child porn to demonize file sharing in the past. It didn't work, because it's easy to show that file sharing can be used for both good and bad purposes, just like anything else.
>This could mean that anyone running a BTC mining operation may be charged for these crimes, even though the case against them would be flimsy.
Extremely flimsy.
| Bitcoin |
Could the Bitcoin network facilitate lending in the future?
| It's clear that btc will replace central banks. But with regards to the investment and retail banks they make their money through fees and lending at high interest rates and also using leverage. (creating money out of thin air)
Im not going to go into the perils of such lending practices here - the educated will know this already.
Given the role of banks to take on risk through lending to people, how could the bitcoin network take on risk and suppport an individual to borrow money for a venture?
In other words if I wanted to lend 100 bitcoins to zyz and would be willing to pay a fee, the market could direct that fee and remain competative. How could the BTC network facilitate me getting this 100 btc back? Considering the anonymous nature of transactions is lending/borrowing out of the question?
If if can be facilitated, even on a microfinance model, then it would put a severe dent in the banks ability to charge exuberant interest rates on high risk individuals.
Has this been discussed before?
| i suppose if the bitcoin was lent out within a terms of service that legally required them to pay back goods of equivalent value you wouldn't have a problem. i'm really not sure what the legal framework would be here, i suggest somebody consult a lawyer who deals specifically with loans/debt. if it gets really bad you could always sell the debt to a debt collection agency to pester the person (whos details/verified address you saved from earlier) provided that the agency is willing.
i dont think bitcoin loans are impossible, just very difficult given its current infancy. | Bitcoin |
BTC are trading at US$1.20 — a 20% jump from a couple days ago. Is there any obvious reason? | null | I found bitcoin this week from various online-poker related commentary. | Bitcoin |
How fast would an average laptop generate coins? | As in, on an average laptop, how many coins would I have after 30 days, if I ran the program 24hrs/day for those 30 days. I'm completely new to this, so I was just looking for a benchmark against which to compare myself.
Also, any tips on increasing my generation rate?
Thanks, everyone!
OH ONE MORE THING. What do you buy with your BTC? | Well, It entirely depends on your laptop. My MacBook Pro 6,2 currently generates about 1 BTC after 6 or so days using diablo's miner and a pool.
To increase your rate, get new hardware.
I haven't bought anything yet, I'm still generating bit coins. | Bitcoin |
Do you do anything to earn BTC? (Besides generating) | I'm interested in helping to grow the BTC economy, but because I'm not in a great position to do so by generating BTC (I get about 1,000 khash/s), I'm looking for ways to earn BTC. Just wondering what other people do :) | bidding pond can earn BTC by selling old stuff. | Bitcoin |
Bitcoin’s Collusion Problem | Bottom-up | null | While technically correct, I don't think this is a problem for Bitcoin. Anyone is free to start their own parallel blockchain, one in which the generation subsidy never decreases. Even if this new system becomes more popular than Bitcoin, it's not actually Bitcoin. | Bitcoin |
I want to pool-mine from my personal LAN. Any advice? | Hi!
I have a few machines (all debianoids, just CPUs, no GPU) in my home that I would like to try to dedicate to pool-mining through a LAN. I don't want to join an external pool, I want to do it all by myself.
If I understand correctly I should set a server with **bitcoind** running on it, and the **~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf** file should contain RPC informations like username (rpcuser=USERNAME), password (rpcpassword=PASSWORD), and something called a "standard 'getwork' RPC call"…
Then the other machines should run a mining client that connects to the server, and normally that should increase my *hashespersec* rate if I type **./bitcoind getinfo** on the server (that's what I really would like to **see** increase)… Every bitcoin mined should fall into the server's **wallet.dat**… Am I correct so far?
For the clients, I found [cpuminer](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Cpu_Miner) but did not try to compile it so far. It can be downloaded [here](https://github.com/jgarzik/cpuminer). And [here](http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=1925.0) is a thread about it.
Or should I use any other client?
Any advice, Reddit? | I did that at first !
My config : one machine (sort of server) running bitcoind (with the settings you said, don't forget to set the rpcallowip to something like 192.168.1.* depending on your LAN)
Then point the miners on the other machines to that server like it would be a pool server really, with the said username and password.
All set !
Beware though, that it might not give you a lot of horse power anyway, if none of your miners have access to a GPU !
Good luck and have fun ! | Bitcoin |
Ask r/Bitcoin: So is Bitcoin legal? | Bitcoin sounds like a really compelling idea, but I can't shake fears that it's not legal (at least in the USA) - or at least in some gray state of legality that makes it dubious.
The Fed does not like competition, and I can't help but think it would feel threatened by Bitcoin. Rememeber the Liberty Dollar? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Dollar
So r/Bitcoin: is Bitcoin legal? | I think the only laws against alternative currencies have to do with metal-backed ones... not sure.
> 18 U.S.C. § 486: Whoever, except as authorized by law, makes or utters or passes, or attempts to utter or pass, any coins of gold or silver or other metal, or alloys of metals, intended for use as current money, whether in the resemblance of coins of the United States or of foreign countries, or of original design, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. | Bitcoin |
I'm the 666th person to frontpage /r/Bitcoin muhahaahahaaaa, but seriously... | guys we can do this. We need to evangelise in a friendly manner. Getting other redditors onboard can only help, we are a fairly open-minded lot, and I think this discussion format is much better than the (IMHO) terrible forum software that they use on the Bitcoin.org forum (I couldn't even figure out how to subscribe to a thread - and I am a part time web developer).
My current contribution: I am nearly finished building a wordpress plugin which might help spread the word. I am stuck on a problem with zeroclipboard - if there are any kind coders who would like to give me a hand [the stackoverflow question is here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5738670/zeroclipboard-is-not-positioning-the-flash-button-exactly-on-top-of-the-div).
thanks | Though I like the sound of your approach, my personal philosophy of Bitcoin is that people should figure out/discover Bitcoin on their own, or only tell people you know will take the time to fully understand it instead of small-minded idiots that would shoot it down with blind skepticism and only spread the word that "herp derp Bitcoin's a scam man".
Any mass way of telling people I think is too sloppy of a method and will inevitably have a certain amount of bad results like the mentioned HerpDerp mouth-breathers.
I wasn't told about Bitcoin by anyone-- I found it myself and I've only told two other people about it, and they already are starting to build mining machines so it's clear they are serious about it.
Anyways, thoughts/comments? I'm surprised to see this post getting so many upvotes but hardly any input.
**EDIT:** *tl;dr* By carefully but slowly raising awareness of Bitcoin, we create a more stable market as opposed to telling a large audience who *mostly* (optimistically assuming for the sake of being hypothetical) are intelligent enough to understand the concept sufficiently enough so as to not idiotically label the concept of Bitcoin as a "scam", which would result in credibility issues, leading to a more unstable/volatile market that I think we can all agree would be undesirable. Moral of the story: patience pays off in the end, impatient greed doesn't. | Bitcoin |
Enlighten me: Considering the history of country-based currencies, why does it just feel wrong thinking that this currency (BTC) could double, perhaps even triple the leading currency? | I'm no economist, but I am a 20 year old whose had very good luck in the stock market since my early teens based on my knowledge of tech trends. So if my question seems very poorly worded, excuse me.
Basically, it seems to me that in theory BTC has no current issues stopping it from rising in value to something seemingly ridiculous like $20USD per BTC in perhaps 10 years (perhaps longer, I don't know).
I've read many forums with people having very detailed reasons to believe why BTC could have a HUGE increase in value over the years, but the stock market side of me just has this nagging suspicion that it seems ridiculous to think that any currency could get to such a high value without something bringing it to a screeching halt (UN?).
Anyways, sorry again for the probably stupid sounding question. Bitcoin is something that's really got my attention, and I know I should feel really nervous about it, but there's something about it that just makes me feel comfortable putting a few hundred, maybe a couple of thousand dollars into this. The stock market has been very kind to me, so I'm more than willing to give this a chance as it has all the backings I could look for. | Someone sent me around 100 BTC back when bitcoins were nearly 'worthless'.
I'll certainly be keeping a backup of my wallet. | Bitcoin |
Anonymous Money needs an Anonymous Exchange | null | An anonymous exchange might be nice, but this is a terrible way to do it. Anything involving secretly running around making deposits into bank accounts is a bad idea, and will probably get you shut down fairly quickly.
Bitcoin is anonymous, but USD isn't. And trying to make USD anonymous is a bad idea. | Bitcoin |
Expanding the Bitcoin Economy - Legitimate Businesses and Food | null | While I agree that expanding to legitimate businesses and food would dramatically increase the value of bitcoin, I'm not sure that it is essential for the further growth of the bitcoin economy. Bitcoin's value is going to be largely derived from the things it can do that other currencies cannot (speed, anonymity, off-the-grid storage). We already can purchase groceries for USD, and I would suggest it's less important that food vendors and legitimate businesses accept bitcoins than that there is a quick/low-cost/easy way to turn bitcoins into a currency that these vendors do accept. There probably aren't many food vendors that accept gold bars, for example, but it is certainly a greater storer of value. Right now, it's still far too cumbersome to turn bitcoins into accessible dollars. | Bitcoin |
I don't know if any of you saw, but yesterday, the Bitcoin jumped up 40% in comparison with the dollar. Any explanation why? | null | I would guess that there aren't any underlying fundamental reasons for the recent jump, but rather that this was the residual effect of the recent Bitcoin press, and a resulting increase in demand. For people that discovered Bitcoin via the EconTalk podcast, Forbes Magazine article, or the Time Magazine Online article, it would probably take at least a week to get get money into Mt. Gox from a US bank account given the post-receipt 7-day lag at the exchange, plus any additional delay of either setting up a verified ay pal account or transferring money to said account. The initial jump in the days after these news articles were released was probably due to speculation of this new money entering the market. | Bitcoin |
Building a Bitcoin mining PC, any thoughts on my selection of hardware? | http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=15912065
So far my biggest concern is that quad 5850's will produce too much heat for the case I've selected, but I'm not really sure as I've never built a system with more than one GPU before. I know I could be using 5970's or 6990 cards instead, but that build just is outside my price range right now and this card seems pretty decent for its price, MH/s, and MH/w.
I have a spare hard drive lying around I'm putting in this machine.
Looking for your guys thoughts on what I have here. | I use 5 GPU's (5870 x 5) and 3 systems. With the heat generated from these machines, I was able to heat my 600+ square foot condo all winter without turning on the indoor heater. I do not intend to run these during the day in the summer, as it is a poor use of natural resources.
I recommend against doing what I did, as I would have been better off buying BTC directly and benefiting from the jump in price. As it stands, it would probably take around 6 to 9 months for the hardware to pay for itself at the current BTC price and mining difficulty.
However, I do recommend upgrading your computer's video card to the highest [ATI GPU](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison) it's power supply can support, as this will probably pay for the card in about 2 months time without generating to much heat.
EDIT: ATI GPU | Bitcoin |
Bitcoin Poker | null | To prevent unlawful theft (seizure) of domains, poker sites can run out of a tor hidden service and/or i2p site.
To minimize your loss of bitcoins, you backup your wallet.dat file to (optionally encrypted) usb drive.
The site can minimize its loss of bitcoins by doing the same.
Insider cheating is always possible in this kind of game (if not all games, if you know of way to prevent it then you could get Ph.D. in game theory) | Bitcoin |
WARNING! Using MyBitcoin restricts you from ever altering ANY software that is part of the Bitcoin network! | Specifically, their terms of service include this line:
>5.1 User agrees not to attempt to, tamper with, modify, reverse engineer, gain unauthorised access to, or in any way alter any software comprising the MyBitcoin System and/or the Bitcoin Network. | I think this has to be read in context of what this section of the agreement is trying to accomplish - preventing a user from trying to screw with mybitcoin or the bitcoin network in order to get butcoins that such a user doesn't own. I don't think this is intended to mean - and probably wouldnt be interpreted to mean by a court - that you can't tinker with your own version of a bitcoin client, add features through git to the official client, propose changes to the bitcoin protocol, etc. I agree that the section is poorly worded and should be fixed but is probably no reason for panic. (I am not a lawyer but am a law student. This is not legal advice - just my opinion). | Bitcoin |
Crypto Currency - Forbes | null | That was an incredibly positive article | Bitcoin |
CIA Requests Bitcoin Presentation | null | I'm of the opinion that this is probably a good thing for the future of Bitcoin. It shows that larger organizations recognize the potential of of the technology. I don't think speaking at their conference would increase the chances of them trying to take it down as they seem to already know about it. | Bitcoin |
Why is bitcoin doomed to fail (it doesn't scale) | So i love the cryptocurrency idea as much as you, but Bitcoin, as it is, will either remain as small as it is now (and mostly unuseful in real life) or if it will expand, it will fail becouse of severe lack of scalability.
The main problem is that basically, to avoid double spending, every node must (in a way or another) know about every transaction ever made in the world. Even if they're arranged in blocks, this still means that blocks must be known by each node.
There's a scalability page on the Bitcoin website (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Scalability) but it's very superficial. First off, the estimate number of transaction is way to small (it assume 2000 transaction per second, like the Visa network). If the network will develop to replace standard currency all around the world, the number of transaction will be orders of magnitude larger. Being a digital currency, even the smalles purchase (a $0.01 candy) will generate transactions. Anyway, even with 2000 tps, the block size will be more than 1 GB. With 20k tps you get 10 GB. A block is generated every 10 minutes. Multiply that size for the millions of people that are to receive the blocks, and you get quite a traffic.
And the page only address the network issue from the point of view of a single person, it doesn't even start to address the problem of network topology. What if the network gets too little interconnection, forming isolated or poorly connected "islands"? and how many branching of the block chain will be generated ? Maybe some islands will continue on a branch for quite some time before realizing that they're not in the official chain (worsening the possility of double-spending, btw).
In the end, the problem is that the needed resources doesn't grow linearly with the number of users.
Discuss | > If the network will develop to replace standard currency all around the world
That's quite a leaping assumption you just made there. Nobody said Bitcoin was made with the intention of replacing the world's currency. | Bitcoin |
My concern about bitcoin | I'm not concerned about bitcoin's scaling issues - they may be a bit of a pain, but the system can be upgraded to a parallel resolved system when the old one becomes a pain to use.
What does concern me is the question "What happens when bitcoin gets hacked?". We don't even know that there's no solution to the NP complete problem - if the modern banking system gets hacked, they shut down, roll back, upgrade their security and generally fix it. If bitcoin gets hacked, what do you do? | Same thing, essentially. All transactions are publicly available, so hackers cannot just wipe everything. Everybody has a copy.
When flaw is discovered you need to stop doing transactions. I.e. kill your bitcoin server.
Then you design a system which you think is free from flaws, find last-known-good block and go from there. (I.e. everybody runs new bitcoin server which generates new kind of block, uses new protocols etc.)
What if SSL is hacked? You'll have to shut down half of the internet. Many banking sites use SSL to allow users to do transactions over internet. | Bitcoin |
are there any bitcoin banks? | Or are there any easy ways to handle and backup your bitcoin purse. The suggested way got complicated with the encryption and backing it up. Not that I am unable to do that, it just seems like having to do that for every transaction could become a hassle, and I am afraid of losing my money that way. | I can be your Bitcoin bank. Just send me all your money and you might get it back. | Bitcoin |
Has anyone direct deposited from mtgox? | I emailed the mtgox info and in order to do a DD he wants my bank info and mtgox login. Has anyone went this route? Quite concerning that the admin didnt setup a proper way to do this other than logging into my acct. | That he needs your login (probably just username not password) seems perfectly logical. What is the problem? | Bitcoin |
Up to 2.70? Any thoughts? | Just been following on MtGox last few weeks. Another massive hike lately. Any one have any ideas on the matter?
Thanks | it takes a while for people to transfer BTC to mtgox in order to sell their BTC at the higher price. This lag probably caused a shortage of BTC in the mtgox system for about an hour. | Bitcoin |