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One/Few person(s) controlling the market? | I was just wondering if there are any measures in place that limit a single person (or a few persons) from controlling the Bitcoin market? If the trade volume is only a little over 10,000 BTC, then someone with that amount of coins could sell them all to create a market crash, then buy them all back at a cheaper rate to push the market up.
I'm sure early adopters have well over 10,000 BTC. | In January one person owned [400K bitcoins](http://bitcoinreport.blogspot.com/2011/01/latest-bitcoin-top-100-rich-list.html). | Bitcoin |
Why the visceral rejection of inflation? | I don't mean to start yet another deflation vs inflation thread. I'm just looking to understand the visceral repulsion that many Bitcoiners have against the concept of inflation.
I would like to preempt the Zimbabwe strawman arguments by stating that I'm talking about very low levels of inflation (say fixed at 1%/year). And if you think that even 1% is too much, consider an inflation level that asymptotically approaches 0% (if the mining reward were to be forever 50BTC, the inflation rate would tend towards 0%).
Now, why are many of you against this form of controlled inflation? It strikes me as having many advantages over the current deflato-coin model:
* Miners would forever get a reward, thus lowering transaction fees.
* Value would still be largely preserved even if one did not put saved money into productive use.
* The psychological urge to hoard would be eliminated. This would actually encourage people to start using Bitcoins as a currency, which would be a boon to its economy.
So, why are so many of you still adamant to have a deflationary currency?
| But the current fiat systems are neither decentralised nor they have a guaranteed inflation rate. Note that I'm not making a comparison between Bitcoin and current fiat systems. My question concerns deflato-Bitcoin versus inflato-Bitcoin. | Bitcoin |
Bitcoin is on the frontpage of r/Technology | null | http://www.reddit.com/r/technology
http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/hpxf7/why_bitcoin_is_a_scam/ | Bitcoin |
EFF Stops Taking Donations In BTC (After acquiring more than $35,000 in donations!) | null | Dear EFF:
Please donate all the Bitcoins you accepted to a charity that will *stand behind them*.
Thank-you.
Anybody else loose a bit of respect for the EFF today? | Bitcoin |
If Bitcoin mining produces solutions to cryptographic problems, how are the problems generated? | I'm still learning the ins-and-outs of how Bitcoin works. As I understand it now, the best analogy I can think of is that Bitcoin mining is like a brute-force attack. For example, if I had an account at a computer system that was secured by a password, one way to breach the security would be to generate random strings and try them out until one was successful. Bitcoin mining is similar in that each block that is found is like a password (or a key) that matches. The question I am having now is, where do these cryptographic problems come from? Are they also generated by the nodes, or are they pre-programmed by the client or by the network. If so, how does that work? | When you take the hash (or digest) of a larger message, you end up with a sequence of letters and numbers. For example, the md5 hash of your post is 3891369dd09421a4c789090385093956. The leading character can be any number or letter. For bitcoin however, we want to find a hash where the leading character to be 0. This is where the difficulty is at, for it takes a while to find a message that will return a hash with leading character 0. Eventually the computing power dedicated to the network will be so high than finding a hash with a leading zero will be trivial. However, long before this happens*, the bitcoin clients will expect an hash with 2 leading zeros, then 3 leading zeros. This increases the difficulty of the problem as times goes by. It is also why it took considerable less computer power to find hash in the beginning as it does now. It was much easier to find such hashes at the beginning.
*: Each created bitcoin has a timestamp added to it, indicating the time it was completed. The closer the timestamps are to each other (between newly generated bitcoins), the higher the number of leading zero will be required by the clients to accept future hashes. This has the consequences of slowing down the rate of bitcoin creation proportionally to the computing power of the underlying network.
| Bitcoin |
Best way to buy Bitcoins in Canada? | I'm in Canada and cannot create a Dwolla account. Has anybody here used Paxum or Liberty Reserve before to buy/sell? Other than Dwolla, anybody know of a better way to buy the coins? Seems like I need to deal with some pretty obscure companies to actually buy these things, it's definitely one of the systems weakest links! | Some folks are trying to set up a over-the-counter trade market in #bitcoin-cad on Freenode. Drop by :) | Bitcoin |
Is there a graphical bitcoin miner application? | By graphical I mean a mining application that gives some visual feedback on what it is doing at the moment and perhaps some indication on how "close" your client has been to finding a block. | There's no way to know how close your client is towards finding a block. There is a way to know the average number of attempts needed, but you could potential find the right block on your first hash.
| Bitcoin |
Is there an Android Widget that would show the current BTC/USD exchange rate? | If not, I can make one in my spare time. | [Mt Gox Bitcoin Widget](https://market.android.com/details?id=st.brothas.mtgoxwidget&feature=search_result) works pretty well. It's funny to see the screenshot showing $0.883 | Bitcoin |
Bitcoin mentioned on Joe Rogan's podcast #110 | null | In what light did he mention it? I rarely listen to podcasts... | Bitcoin |
Solving scalability and upgrade path problems
through multiple block chains | Recently I've seen a lot of articles/questions concerning Bitcoin scalability and upgradeability problems. So I've started thinking about how it is possible to solve them and eventually came up with an idea which seems to be viable, at least of surface. [Here's](http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=11189.0) whole thought process, but it is rather long and probably boring, so here is a short, no-bullshit version:
1. Let's create another (alternative) block chain called HubCoin which runs in parallel to BitCoin. Just like Namecoin, testnet etc. HubCoin software is 99.9% like BitCoin, with a few changes:
2. Each HubCoin node will also run a bitcoin node and it will monitors transactions of a special kind, ones which burn bitcoins sending them to 'fake' addresses. (See [Mike's](http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=7219.0) post for details.) They would not be wasted: after coins disappear from BitCoin system they will appear in HubCoin as corresponding transaction will be created. This way you can exchange your BitCoins for HubCoins. ('Burning' bitcoins is necessary only in bootstrapping and exodus conditions, otherwise it can be done through exchanges.)
3. Mining won't produce new HubCoins, though, so sum of BitCoins and HubCoins stays constant. Miners can take transaction fees, though.
4. Why would you send your BitCoins to HubCoins? Maybe for a hell of it, because you want to experiment with alternative chains. Maybe HubCoin miners will offer lower transaction fees. Who knows...
5. HubCoin has another (main) advantage: it is interoperable with other chains (which will be created on demand). Let's say there is an alternative chain ChainZ. As an independent chain has little value on its own, it is a good idea to create it interoperable with HubCoin: ChainZ coins can be sent to HubCoin addresses and vice versa. It can be done more-or-less same way as BitCoin->HubCoin conversion: HubCoin will monitor ChainZ block chain for a transactions of certain kind and (after validation) it will create corresponding HubCoin txn. Likewise, ChainZ monitors HubCoin transactions for ones which mention ChainZ addresses.
6. This way we have a number of interoperable chains. The benefit is that transaction handling load is spread among chains, thus node of each individual chain gets less work, blocks are smaller etc. It is an application of the standard divide-and-conquer strategy.
7. Each chain can run somewhat different version of a protocol. So another benefit is that when one block chain goes bad coins can be migrated to other (better) chains and old chain can be abandoned. This provides a way to do updates of protocol.
8. Finally, each chain can have a different transaction fee policies. I'd keep currency in a chain where transaction fees are lower.
9. There is a problem, though: dealing with multiple chains might be inconvenient. This is a price we'll have to pay for further decentralization. I don't see it as a huge problem: major traders/merchants might run a number of chain clients and accept transactions in any of them. Individuals can use just one of chains. It is possible to make client software which will provide smooth/transparent conversion. Then there are eWallets...
What do you people think of it? Does anybody want to try alternative block chains?
I have C++ coding skills and I can probably implement this HubCoin thing. But if I'll be its sole user it doesn't make sense... | A few ideas to run with:
1. Make the fake address something everyone can agree is a fake address... or else people will think there is a way to use the coins sent to the "fake" address. For example, the rule for the "fake" address is that it be a hash of the message "this is a hash of a block" + the hash of a block within the last 24 hours.
2. Make the transaction fees variable from day to day based on a block size of say 10k (or some reasonable size). If the daily transaction size goes over 10k, increase the transaction fees for that chain by say 10%, then 20% if it stays above the 10k on the next day, etc. Do the opposite if the transaction size is below say 9k.
3. Keep a main chain that everyone downloads to demonstrate the number of coins put into the HubCoin system. The main chain can be used to move blocks to the other chains and also keeps track of the number of coins in each of the 'sub' chains.
4. In order to move from a 'sub' chain to another 'sub' chain, coins must be moved through the main chain. (The process would be slow, but it improves accountability.)
5. Create hooks for "money changers" that would allow quick exchange of coins in one chain for those in another. the "money changers" could charge a fee for this service. In this case, coins would not move through the main block chain, but rather coins would be 'exchanged'. The "money changers" would work to balance their funds through the main block chain to keep a quick handful of coins in the various chains.
| Bitcoin |
Idea for encouraging reddit admins to adopt Bitcoin. | My Reddit Gold just expired and I do not want to pay reddit in USD. I would be more than happy to pay them in BitCoin. Perhaps when any of our Gold expires we should message admins and let them know we'd be happy to buy reddit gold using bitcoin?
Your subscription to reddit gold has expired. Click here for details on how to renew, or to set up an automatically-renewing subscription. Or, if you don't want to, please write to us at 912@reddit.com and tell us where we let you down, so we can work on fixing the problem.
| Not a bad idea! However I would wait until the sub reddit approaches at LEAST 10k users before we even bother asking them.
As it stands, they would probably laugh at us.
At the rate our readership has been increasing however (we were at 1,900 just 2 days ago) - we should be able to implement this idea shortly - keep promoting the sub reddit - and most importantly, participate in it! | Bitcoin |
You might find this blogger's rant about Bitcoin mining amusing. I think he nailed it. | null | As it currently stands, the entire point seems to be missed.
Bitcoin is not about mining, it is about actually using it as a currency.
Any currency aspects of it are completely sidelined by a mining gold rush and speculator's bubble.
It makes me sad. | Bitcoin |
I want to get in on Bitcoin, but don't know where to start. | All the info on the web seems **very** un-userfriendly, at least from my point of view. Can some of you nice folks explain Bitcoin in short for me, please?
I downloaded the Bitcoin client, left it on for a few hours (from what I understand, left it for mining), when I came back it was still at 0.00. What gives? Isn't that what mining is? | At current difficulty, CPU mining at 2 MH/s will take on average:
Probability Time
Average 10809 days, 5 hours, 36 minutes
50% 7492 days, 9 hours, 21 minutes
95% 32381 days, 13 hours, 40 minutes
With GPU mining at 100 MH/s:
Probability Time
Average 216 days, 4 hours, 25 minutes
50% 149 days, 20 hours, 20 minutes
95% 647 days, 15 hours, 9 minutes
Your best bet unless you are investing thousands into mining hardware, is to join a mining pool. | Bitcoin |
I have a few questions. | So recently, I discovered bitcoin (obviously) and after some research I understand the basic premise, the technology behind it, and reasoning, but I also have a few questions. Bitcoin is the most exciting thing I've seen in a long time so I REALLY hope to be a part of the developing community behind it. :)
My questions:
1) The coins. The blocks. Are they the same thing? Or is one block 50 bitcoins? When you successfully generate bitcoins do you just get 50? Or can you generate one at a time?
2) How does the mining work? I know that it essentially searches for the correct series of numbers and letters that successfully generate one of the predetermined 21 million hashes (or 420k hashes if they are generated in groups of 50 bitcoins) beginning with 0's, but once the hash is found do you just receive 50 bitcoins to your address?
3) The volatile market. In the last 2 weeks or so, after looking at the history, it seems that the value of bitcoins has gone from around 4.00 USD per bitcoin to now almost 11.00 USD per bitcoin. Will there ever be a time where the difficulty becomes to hard to make mining profitable, if for instance that point of diminishing returns is around the generation of 15 million bitcoins, what incentive is there to continue trying to generate coins?
4) The addresses. I understand that addresses are generated and are able to send and receive bitcoins however I'm wondering how it is that only one person has access to each address/wallet. Also with no password tied to each address what prevents people from finding out your address and using it? What if you forget your address with a lot of bitcoins in it. For instance if I have an account with 1,000,000 bitcoins and I can't remember the address are there now only 20,000,000 bit coins in circulation? (Assuming all bitcoins are generated). I'm also wondering how my addresses are tied to my bitcoin application. If I delete the application I lose my addresses. I think they still exist just that I don't know the address to access my bitcoins anymore. Also, where is the information about addresses stored? For instance, how does it know that address the 19m5FqGP6JkG7rHYaFNKmKwRN9TbZ7f9mz contains 54.4 bitcoins?
I'm sorry if these seem like very trivial or even stupid questions, it's just that I'm very interested in this and it can be kind of confusing even with all of the reading I have already done. Many times people come up with conflicting analogies so it's hard to make sure I understand everything correctly. :)
| So with mining you'll get nothing until you get lucky enough to generate 50 bitcoins? Unless you join a pool in which you get a percentage of successfully generated bitcoins by the pool proportional to the computing power you contributed. Am I close?
The way I understand mining pools is that if the collective power of the is 10Ghash/s and you contribute 500Mhash/s then you would receive 5% of the bitcoins generated by the pool. Provided there's not a fee assessed by the pool. Is that correct?
Also, I feel that many people are just using this as an immediate gold rush instead of trying to generate bitcoins as a viable currency. Any truth to that or do you think it will stable out over time?
Could you maybe walk me through an example transaction using private key's, etc? | Bitcoin |
"When it gets to the point where the largest transaction is less that 1BTC, then it's a simple matter of shifting the decimal place to the right a few places..." WHAT?? | From the [BitCoin FAQ](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ), I simply cannot understand how this answers the asked question. What does this mean?
The only way I can understand what this means is by imagining that if suddenly, through an economic disruption of massive proportions, a single US dollar $1 were able to purchase an Aircraft carrier, then... what? People would have to start pricing rice at nano-pennies? I don't get it. | If 1 bitcoin was worth say $1000 usd then instead of everyone dealing in whole bitcoins, they would start dealing in say 1µ bitcoins (micro bit coins) or nano coins or whatever. | Bitcoin |
Joseph Ducreaux knows exactly what to do.. | null | Shouldn't that be...
RENOUNCE FIAT
ACQUIRE BITCOIN
:) | Bitcoin |
After two weeks of waiting, I finally purchased my first bitcoins. Fuck you dwolla. | Yes, I know, I could have purchased them quicker from another avenue, but with my first transaction I wanted to use MTGox, and had to go with dwolla for the deposit.
For fuck's sake why is this whole transaction business so fucking slow? It's 2011. I had to wait a goddamn week to get dwolla to deposit a few cents into my account, then another week for the deposit to MTGox. I'm paying roughly $4 per extra because of it.
I will definately not be using dwolla for anything else after this. I know paypal sucks but at least it's faster. I sound impatient, but when I could have sent a paper check to MTGox and got faster results, dwolla's service has become irrelevant and useless in this day and age.
| dwolla... 1 week to process.
BitCoin.... 30 minutes.
BitCoin > dwolla | Bitcoin |
Bitcoin Communist Party | Have you noticed huge rich-poor inequalities in the bitcoin world? One guy owns [400,000](http://bitcoinreport.blogspot.com/2011/01/latest-bitcoin-top-100-rich-list.html) bitcoins, worth now more than 3.5 million USD. I bet he is one of the founders, and he got those bitcoins near-free. This is huge injustice, so I thought to create the Bitcoin Communist Party, which declared goal is to properly redistribute the money. The current money pool should be split equally among all bitcoiners!! Cm'on, we can make it. To realize this we need to convince only 51% of all bitcoiners. | **OMG SOME PEOPLE HAVE MORE MONEY THAN OTHER PEOPLE**
| Bitcoin |
What prevents zero-transaction blocks? | Eventually transaction fees will encourage the inclusion of transactions in a block, but it looks like a lot of blocks contain 0 to a few bitcents. Is there anything that reduces the likelihood of miners just "mining to mine?" Everything I've read mentions "longest block chain" and I assume that deals only with the actual blocks and not their inner transactions (as that would cause other problems).
If enough miners mined without including any transactions, it would slow transaction confirmation down. As long as enough miners are honest, I expect that everything will be fine and presumably miners don't want to cause people to lose interest in the currency they are trying to get the generation reward in. I was merely wondering if there was a technological disincentive toward doing that. | It's simple: the transaction fees. I could either sign a 50.00 BTC block, or a 51.50 BTC block with some transactions in it worth 1.50 in fees. It's a no-brainer. If fees are ever so low that miners refuse to include them in blocks, then you're going to have to pony up for the fees. But it'll be insanely hard to form any kind of cartel when so many people own there own mining hardware, can switch pools etc. | Bitcoin |
Should I invest my $1000 into BitCoin [flowchart]?? | null | It is kind of strange. | Bitcoin |
How To Use Bitcoin | null | I wouldn't; the article isn't on the technical underpinning of Bitcoin but on its practical use. As it is, your sentence is a tissue of half-truths that badly oversells Bitcoin's cryptographic security:
1. SHA-256 is not a cipher
2. There is [no built-in way](http://blog.ezyang.com/2011/06/bitcoin-is-not-decentralized/) to upgrade the hash; the expectation is that the community will voluntarily switch over somehow to a new blockchain using a better hash
3. [quantum attacks](http://synaptic-labs.com/resources/security-bibliography/62-hash-functions/182-bib-secure-hash-algorithm-sha.html) on SHA-256 are already known
4. No cryptographer thinks SHA-256 will last forever
5. Indeed, it is often not known whether hashes can be secure; many are based on the [assumption](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provably_secure_cryptographic_hash_function) that a certain math problem is not in P. (SHA-256 is not even this secure.)
6. Comparing AES-128 to SHA-256 is apples and oranges. Their security cannot be compared since they don't do the same things. (If anything, AES-128 is likely to long outlive SHA-256.) | Bitcoin |
Post to BitCoin.org forums: "It's like the Boston Tea Party in 1773."..."The only difference this time is that we are trowing the US dollar overboard" | null | disregard females | Bitcoin |
The Weekly Bitcoin Lotto! (Week 1) | Hello,
I would like to tell you about the weekly bitcoin lotto I am setting up. How this lotto will work is each entry will cost .05 bitcoins. Send the coins to [19H8eDeRqMoUZnD78FPqDzbjs6f4gsanWH](http://reddit.com/blockexplorer.com/address/19H8eDeRqMoUZnD78FPqDzbjs6f4gsanWH), once you have sent the coins send a message to me or post on this forum with a screenshot or bitcoin code. I will then enter you into a table and send you a message with your numbers. At the end of the week (Next Firday), I will uses this [site](http://www.random.org/) to pick two winners. The pot will be split equally between the winners.
EDIT: I will not be entering the lotto, so there is no way I can win unless I steal the money. However I am using my main reddit acount, and would not be willing to ruin my reputation over a few bucks.
EDIT 2: The winner will have the winnings sent to the address they bought that ticket with. If this creates an issue for anyone who bought a ticket already send me a pm. | This sounds legit. | Bitcoin |
Support criminals with Bitcoin | null | I don't want anyone to think I'm judging Bitcoin here. But I think this is a reality its users have to confront: it will be used anonymously by criminals and thus it will attract negative attention - possibly even legal sanctions.
It's TOR for money. | Bitcoin |
Somebody please tell me this guy is wrong. | null | See
http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/hpxf7/why_bitcoin_is_a_scam/
and
http://www.reddit.com/r/NonAustrianEconomics/comments/hputj/is_the_cryptocurrency_bitcoin_a_good_idea/
for more levelheaded discussion about the article. | Bitcoin |
Questions regarding addresses | Basically I want to know how you get a bitcoin address for people to send money to. Is this generated by the ewallet application or website? Can I get a new address for every transaction to add an extra layer of anonymity? Would it be worth me having multiple ewallets? | You can create as many addresses as you want using the standard bitcoin client software. | Bitcoin |
Bitcoins breached $11 according to my android widget | That is all. | Indeed! That appears to be the case. | Bitcoin |
Will code for Bitcoins | I'm a very experienced programmer with a serious bitcoin addiction. C++ and C# are my specialties, but I'm flexible. PC/Mac/iPhone. Need an app written? Some data parsed? Something annoying automated? Send me a message! | I'll charge half of what he offers. | Bitcoin |
The most genius idea behind Bitcoin: Deflation | I believe deflation is the number one reason Bitcoin could succeed. Think about it, while the purchasing power of an deflationary money will always increase in purchasing power... the purchasing power of an inflationary money will decrease. Because of this, it makes sense to save money in the deflationary currency and borrow money against the inflationary currency only to use that borrowed money to buy more units of the deflationary currency. This trading of currency will increase the value of the highly-demand deflationary currency and decrease the value of the 'spend it as soon as you get it' inflationary currency.
Response to likely criticism:
1. *Bitcoin hoarding will be it's own downfall*: Hoarding will not be a problem... people will only hoard it as long as they consider it valuable. And as long as people consider it valuable, it won't devalue. Plus, as the price of Bitcoin increases, the temptation will be there for people to spend it on things they need/want. Even at it's current rate, early adopters may start living off of their Bitcoin savings... allowing more people to get into Bitcoin.
2. *What about Deflationary Spiral*: The deflationary spiral theory doesn't hold up... while it is true that wages will decrease, the purchasing power of people's wages won't. Wages will likely be tied to the cost of hard assets. For example: a worker's compensation may be listed as the equivalent of 5 pounds of rice per hour.
3. *If everyone is saving their money, won't that cause problems for the economy*: People still need to eat, sleep, and drink... therefore, at worst, there will always be that economy. In a deflationary economy, it will be beneficial for people to save their money instead of spending it on things they don't need... but it would be even more beneficial to invest their savings to grow their savings even more, which often creates jobs. The economy may simply shift from being consumption focused to being invention focused.
4. *Deflation is unfair because early adopters receive all the benefit*: Is is also unfair that you didn't invest in Microsoft in the 1980's? Consider them as lottery winners and move on. It's likely that if they're not already wealthy, they won't remain that way.
5. *New people entering the economy would be at a disadvantage*: That's true in all economies, but hard work will have extra pay off compared to an inflationary system, improving that individual's situation.
--
1DgjdmzDSHto6gNsu6eTgySUAwU1NF2aMq | Bitcoin is a revolution. Miners and merchants are the soldiers. I am excited to be alive in this generation. | Bitcoin |
So, say bitcoin takes off | Do people want government tax revenues to fall. Which areas do you want to cut? What happens to those dependent on government medical care? | I want government to do with much less and confine itself to the absolute necessities like national security, courts, law enforcement and infrastructure.
>What happens to those dependent on government medical care?
Government revenue will not fall suddenly, so the transition will be gradual, with those already on government programs continuing to receive it, while people further from retirement age will be told to not expect government aid, and start planning for their own old-age needs.
Society would change from one where people are dependent on a central government for every thing, to one where people are dependent on the help voluntarily provided by their family and those in their local community.
| Bitcoin |
If some people like everything about bitcoins but the deflationary aspect, why doesnt someone use the open-sourceness to make an identical but inflationary clone? | null | Bitcoin is currently inflationary and will be for quite some time. At some point losses will exceed inflation and it will be deflationary. However people will develop methods to ensure that they do not lose their bitcoins and eventually the deflation will all but stop. At that point the currency will be stable. A stable currency is ideal. | Bitcoin |
Looking to build a GPU rig, is ATI vs NVIDIA an issue? Some cards better than others? | Any help is appreciated. | Welcome to mining, these two links should help:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_rig
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison
(Oh! By the way, definitely ATI!) | Bitcoin |
Why this 'deflationary spiral' armchair theory will never have any merit in reality. | Simply put, people are not machines. Everybody is not going to act in their long-term best interest and keep coins forever nor be able to resist the temptation to use said value when desire arises.
I used to have over 1000 Bitcoins. I deleted all of those because I thought Bitcoin was just a small experiment. Then a little less than a year later I had bought over 200 Bitcoins. After a small hike or so, all of those were spent on toys, computers and the like because I felt so good about earning so much money just through a small investment alone. Now that my rationality has kicked-in, I have managed to keep 90 Bitcoins safe in incubation.
My point is: People and investors-alike are going to have a hard time resisting to spend. Short-term pleasure is usually acted on first. It's human instinct. Only the truly patient are going to hoard coins and reap huge awards, and fairly so. So, let's ditch the theory that Bitcoin is going to collapse over nobody spending them.
Not only that, if said hoarding occurs, the incentive to spend would eventually override the incentive to save if the hoarding occurs long enough. It's really the silliest theory of disaster I've ever encountered.
Anyways, I'm done here. | You deleted 1000 BTC ?!?!?! Why? How big is a wallet file? | Bitcoin |
Brainstorm ideas to increase Bitcoin exposure. | We need to come up with ideas to increase Bitcoin exposure. There was talk before of running an Advertisement on Reddit. Did anyone follow up with the project?
If a graphic designer can come up with something worthy of paying to put up there, I will pay for it to run for a few days at Mt. Gox exchange rate 1:1 fee.
What else can we do? Let's brainstorm to get our reader base increased in /r/bitcoin! | Running an advertisement on reddit is an awesome idea! I can't think of anything else though. | Bitcoin |
What happens if miners stop mining? | Assume the difficulty gets recalculated (5 years from now) to an insane level. Something happens for whatever reason and ALL of the miners stop mining with >1000 blocks left to solve before difficulty gets recalculated.
What does this mean for transactions being recorded & blocks being written? Does the economy literally stop if there are no miners? | People will have to submit transactions with a transaction fee in order to make it worthwhile for miners to spend that much effort.
Bitcoin is designed to transition (voluntarily) from mining revenue subsidizing the cryptographic hashing network into tranaction fee revenue doing same.
Nobody seems to understand, the mining thing is there to encourage the construction of a large, robust, distributed tranaction-processing network without a centralized funding source. It's an infrastructure-rollout-tax. | Bitcoin |
Mtgox hasn't credited my account. | They claim a 12 hour processing time after you transfer money on Dwolla. It has been since Tuesday afternoon. I contacted mtgox about the problem 22 hours ago & have heard nothing back. This is really pretty shitty service & I'm starting to think the exchange robbed me.
EDIT: The situation has been resolved. | What do you think I should do about it? I don't want to fuck anyone over, but if they're not crediting my account I feel like I need to make some noise. | Bitcoin |
MtGox.com high this morning was 14.3 | [*Shieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet*](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUjh9Id6Id8&feature=related) | We have downvotes for a reason. | Bitcoin |
A beginners guide to beginning | *DISCLAIMER* I am not saying to support one mining client over another, or one mining pool over another, this is just what I tried and what worked for me. Also, keep in mind I'm a beginner and the experienced people who have been doing this even for a month or two will most likely have much better advice than me.
So, to anyone interested in starting up mining, I got it going last night with no previous mining experience. What I'm going to try to do here is explain the method I took (I tried a few and this one was the easiest method).
**First** thing I did was download the Bitcoin client here: [Bitcoin.org](http://www.bitcoin.org/)
**Second** thing I did was download the GUI mining client [from here](http://forum.bitcoin.org/?topic=3878.0)
**Third** thing I did was sign up for the [Deepbit mining pool](http://deepbit.net/)
**Fourth** step was to take my wallet address out of the bitcoin client and input that into the Deepbit website (once logged in) and just verify my settings.
**Fifth** close the Bitcoin client, open the gui mining program and select "start bitcoin as a server" from the toolbar menu. Then, select deepbit from the drop down menu (you can select solo if you plan to not be part of a pool), fill in your credentials and hit start. I repeated this step three more times for my three other GPU's (in my case it was core0, core1, core2 and core3, representing each gpu in my two 6990's).
**Sixth** step I did, I probably should have done first. My gpu's wound right up under load, and if you are at all familiar with 6990's, they are like banshee's telling a tornado to go fuck itself while an atomic bomb goes off. With all my gpu settings set to automatic, the fans were about 80% wound up with temps ranging from the mid-90's to around 103. Hot, for sure, but very common for these cards. I underclocked my cards down from 830, putting the two hottest gpu's to 600 with one of their fans at 70% and one at 80%. I put the other two gpu's at 700 with both fans at 60%. With those settings, my cards are all sitting at around 84-87 degrees, which is hotter than I would like, but still within reason for long term running.
I'm getting about 1.1 ghash/s with those settings. My computer is a bit sluggish, but not unusable for basic stuff. I'm going to be looking into some waterblocks for the two 6990's, and once i do that, i should be able to overclock to around 950 and still keep temps way down. I expect with those settings that I'll get around 1.6-1.8 ghash/s.
Before going this route, I had played around with the [Python OpenCL Bitcoin Miner](http://forum.bitcoin.org/?topic=1334.0) and had followed [this guide](http://www.newslobster.com/random/how-to-get-started-using-your-gpu-to-mine-for-bitcoins-on-windows) in setting it up. Using scripts gives you more freedom to control how you want bitcoin and the miner to function (you can alter your workload and how much resources you want to dedicate to mining using different operator switch tags in your batch script). Essentially, with this method you will create two batch files: one for starting the server, and one for starting the miner under the conditions you want.
To me, both options work, and do what I want them to. The gui option was cleaner, easier to use and set up and just looks a lot better. The script option gives more room for customization and performance enhancing/degrading so that mining can be done all the time without crushing computer performance. It's all a preference of what suits you best.
For reference purposes, these are my computer specs:
-Coolermaster HAF X case
-Gigabyte G1 Killer Assassin mobo
-Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 990x CPU
-Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold 1200w psu
-XFX Radeon 6990 gpu (x2, run in quadfire)
-24gb Corsair Dominator DDR3 ram
-240gb RevoDriveX2 bootable SSD running win7
-Corsair Hydro Series H70 Cpu Cooler modified with two 140mm Silverstone Air Penetrator's
-200mm side case fan, 230mm front case fan, 2x 200mm top exhaust fans, I believe all these fans are 130 cfm, but I want to swap the side 200mm for a 160 cfm fan.
**EDIT: If you are downvoting and don't agree with what I have written, please explain to me why. I'm a beginner and there are still tons of things I don't understand.** | Your bitcoin client will have to download all the blocks so that transactions will show up in your wallet. In the past three days I have known about this, I've made 4 bucks YAY! | Bitcoin |
If bitcoin is deflationary, will anyone ever take out loans in bitcoins? | I borrow $1000 today, but have to pay it back in a year when it is worth twice as much (even with a 0% interest rate). How will there every be motivation to borrow money?
EDIT: I mean $1000 worth of BTC, sorry for the confusion | Why is borrowing money required? If you are paid in a deflationary currency, then saving becomes much easier. At that point, the only need for loans would be because of crisis. | Bitcoin |
Its all shiny and bubbly! tick tick tick. | Just watch it for 60 seconds or more... its alive! ITS ALIVE!
http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/ | **What goes up...** must be receiving little resistance on it's path? | Bitcoin |
Starting a business with BitCoin | Here is a hypothetical scenario:
I want to start a business, but I have little or no income or savings. Let's assume I have no real-world fiat currency, or that it doesn't exist at all.
What way is there for me to get the financing that I need? I could possibly borrow the BitCoin from someone wealthy, but with the rate of deflation, I would end up paying back BitCoins that are worth much more than the ones I borrowed.
What will happen in a world like this? | A rapidly deflationary currency makes loans extremely problematic.
There's always the option of a negative interest rate.
Let's assume bitcoin is the global currency. If bitcoins deflate fairly stably at 10% per year, if you loan someone some money and credit them an interest rate of 5%, you still increase your effective net worth by the difference.
Let's assume two things. 1 BTC = $10 USD at the start, and that the USD is an entirely stable currency (inflation rate 0%) and BTC deflate at 10% a year.
You start with 10 BTC. After a year it's worth $110. If you loan someone 10 BTC at 5% interest rate in BTC, at the end of a year they owe you 10.5 BTC or $115. If the same loan were made in USD, they'd only owe you $105.
However, if you credit someone a 5% interest rate against the loan, you loan them 10 BTC and at the end of the term you credit them 0.5 BTC. They pay you back 9.5 BTC. You started with 10 BTC and ended with 9.5 BTC on the loan. However, your net worth went from $100 to $104.5 USD.
Edit: edited for clarity and added an example.
Edit 2: Of course, I completely miss the point that it'd be more sensible to hold on to your 10 BTC anyway. Oh well, interesting idea anyway :P | Bitcoin |
The Currency That's Up 200,000% | null | Reddit !! What does the scouter say about Bitcoin's Power level? | Bitcoin |
Is this even possible? O_o | null | He said it's a 5850. Overclocked, one could push past 400 MH/s. It's unlikely, nigh impossible, to get 2000, especially with air cooling.
I'm 99.9% sure you can't flash a 5850 to a 6990. | Bitcoin |
I brought all my old laptops to work and set them up to mine for bitcoins. One is so old that it fluctuates between 0 and 1 khash / s is it even worth keeping this one on to mine for coins? | Seriously it is a 5 year old laptop and I'm wondering if it is even worth it to keep this thing running for the purpose of generating coins. I'm not paying for the electricity, but still what are the odds that something will happen? | No. Especially with a laptop that cannot stand running at 100% utilization for long periods of time. You are also forgetting that a single gpu can produce upwards for 400 million hashes per second. | Bitcoin |
Any redditors in the NY are want to trade BTC for cash? | Trying to get some BTC, been waiting my dwolla acct to verify, and I'm dying to get my hands on some. I can also Paypal if anyone wants to do a transaction online. | Have you tried the over the counter market? | Bitcoin |
BitCents? MilliCoins? Should we move the decimal place? | Having a $1 USD item cost .08 BTC is, at the very least, kind of unappealing to the eye and ear. Should we invent terminology for hundredths of a BTC? 8 BitCents? 8 MilliCoins? Or maybe 1 BitCoin can be 1000 BitYen? | It just leads to confusion imo. However, if it is to be done it should be done now and not later. | Bitcoin |
Here is one ending of this, what do you think? | Just like the guy that posted about formating the drive his bitcoins are on, coins will eventually get lost... Given enough time, all of them. (A lost back up here, formated drives there... Shit just happens and unlike other currencies those are not recoverable.)
This may be only theoretical, but I was wondering if people at some point pick that up to argue against BTC? | It's just part of the deflationary aspect. | Bitcoin |
About the 'math puzzles' | While I agree that to a new comer we shouldn't just lay all of the details of SHA 256 and nonces, I think the way bitcoin is generally represented is sort of annoying
Can we all agree to stop saying "Miners solve math puzzles to get money" and just say something like "Miners are rewarded for securing and facilitating transactions?" | YOU NO GET A, YOU NO GET BITCOIN.
YOU MINE, DO MATH! | Bitcoin |
BitCoins: All Buzz, No Substance (???) | null | Not only that, doesn't exactly understand the concept of "fiat". | Bitcoin |
If Bitcoin becomes popular, what's preventing scammers from writing malware that steals wallet files? | I'm fairly new to Bitcoin and I was just thinking, if this takes off, the scammers are going to inevitably target this. From what I understand, the wallet file is pretty much like cash in hand, right? So if it's stolen by malware, you've lost your money? And since transactions are untraceable, any chance of getting it back is zero? | http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=5194.0
Bottom line - you can Rx BTC without being online. | Bitcoin |
How can I buy bitcoin in Canada?! | Also how can I link bitcoin with my ewallet, or am I missing something here? Sorry for the noob question.
Also, I've seen the other thread about buying in Canada. Is paxum really the best option? If so what are the steps to using it? | interac e-transfer is probably the best
come to #bitcoin-cad on freenode.net and ask for help | Bitcoin |
On the Potential Adoption and Price Appreciation of Bitcoin in the Long Run | null | > For such a replacement to be completed, all cash across all currencies carried around in wallets, locked in cash registers, packed in briefcases, stored under mattresses, secured inside safes, etc. – the total amount of ‘pocket change,’ as it were, the world needs to function every day – would have to be exchanged for bitcoins.
Ok, with you so far...
> The remaining components of the world’s monetary base (e.g., bank deposits, money funds, etc.), which by and large exist only in the form of accounting entries, would continue to exist as such, but denominated in bitcoins. (This is just like what was done to create the euro.)
No, not really, because that would be 'printing money'. Governments could do that with the Euro because they controlled it. You can't generate bitcoins out of nothing, or simply denoting current currency in bitcoin and locking that currency to it without having some sort of control over the exchange. Banks / goverments can't adopt without actually buying bitcoins.
Other than that, good article! | Bitcoin |
The Official r/Bitcoin Advertisement Fund and Campaign. (Reposted) | null | [Understated and highly derivative.](http://i.imgur.com/w60bt.gif)
Edit: Why do we have two threads going again? | Bitcoin |
Noob here. Looking to buy some Bitcoins, but don't know who to go through... little help? :) | Ive been [researching](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_bitcoins) Bitcoin merchants, and was wondering if I could get some feedback from people who have used them.
How long did it take?
Best place to use a Credit Card?
Any other helpful info?
Thanks in advance ;) | Yes, probably the easiest method. | Bitcoin |
Bitcoin is a commodity, not a currency | I think we should stop referring to Bitcoin as a currency. Currencies are certificates. Bitcoins are digital files, of which a limited number will be made. In that respect, it is like a commodity such as gold. Only a certain amount of gold can be mined... just like Bitcoin. You can barter Bitcoin just like you can with gold. Also, perhaps referring to it as a commodity will help keep governments from targeting it.
--
1DgjdmzDSHto6gNsu6eTgySUAwU1NF2aMq | http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/currency "a medium of exchange" i suppose bitcoin fit both, though as it stands, people are just buying them as a commodity instead of using them to buy goods and services. | Bitcoin |
Do I need to link my bitcoin app to my ewallet? | also ewallet wants me to pay in 30 days.. should I use a different client? why do I even need this application? Sorry for dumb questions. | Instawallet seems nice as a way to get introduced to bitcoins in a really basic way, but this part scares me:
>Instead of using a traditional combination of username and password to protect access to a wallet, this service instead uses a secret link
This just seems like an awful security model. If you ever go to your wallet from a public computer, your wallet is compromised. If anyone ever even sees the URL that you use to access your wallet, it may be compromised.
Mt. Gox has all the features of instawallet, but with a sane security model. And it even lets you convert your BTC to USD. | Bitcoin |
Bitcon deflation. | I just went on Mt. Gox. The price per Bitcoin is up to high holy hell. $14.5 per USD. THAT is A LOT.
I know deflation is built into Bitcoin and why it is a problem. Is it possible to remove deflation, or at least make the rate slower? We know what will happen if it gets out of hand. [Read this post](http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/hpxf7/why_bitcoin_is_a_scam/) | You think that's high? Look at it now. | Bitcoin |
Bitcoin currency valued at over 111 MILLION USD! (With MTGOX trading at $17.39!) | Wow. | Bitcoin... good lord... I mined some, invested in some with spare cash. id be, for the most, part of out debt if i were to cash out now... Im almost in tears. and oddly want to make love to my video card for helping me. | Bitcoin |
Are the calculations in mining arbitrary? | If not, wouldn't it be better if they were problems that were solved that were genuinely beneficial for technological development? | Actually, that would be neat, but I don't know how easy it would be. I suppose you could have "proteinFoldingKey" as part of the main bitcoin source code, and then the protein folding experiment could assert that you have done x work, and the system could accept weaker hashes with an assurance of work from the protein folding group. It would have to be built directly into bitcoin, of course, no substitutes, and part of the latest version. It might be difficult to get everybody to upgrade.
I bet it doesn't happen. | Bitcoin |
A prediction: By the end of the month the Bitcoin will be worth ~$100 | null | Your reasoning being...? | Bitcoin |
Why I think Bitcoin is a bubble soon to burst. | According to the latest Bitcoin Watch numbers, there is about 106 million USD worth of BTC in circulation. Am I to believe that current [Bitcoin Merchants](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade), all of which I've never heard of, are collectively offering goods and services the equivalent of anything close to $100 million?
There is nothing driving up the price of BTC but pure speculation, largely from enthusiastic techies who love the concept of an open-source, deregulatory p2p currency. I have yet to read a well-researched article by an economist who would share the same eagerness to invest; in fact, most people with economics backgrounds seem wary.
Given that Bitcoin is currently a rather illiquid asset (only 10% of the total Bitcoin supply is traded daily in currency exchange; presumably, even less in actual purchases), what would motivate people to actually spend BTC for goods and services rather than hoard them? What goods and services are there to spend it on, even in the long-term with less price volatility, when consumers will be hesitant to adopt BTC *precisely because* it is a deflationary currency?
Say I'm offered the choice to buy a product for either USD or BTC. Why would a rational consumer pay in BTC when BTC might increase in value a week from now and he'll have incurred a loss? USD on the other hand, assuming its inflationary trends continue, would be better spent sooner rather than later. This is why I don't see BTC ever replacing, or even competing with, the USD as currency unless the USD completely collapses, and even the most esteemed economists are in disagreement about the USD's power.
Now, some are saying that BTC is more valuable as an asset (because of its deflationary properties) rather than currency. However, the benefits touted for Bitcoin are all related to its use as currency, not as an investment asset. Being decentralized, open-source, and having a strong community - these are traits that do not guarantee or even suggest widespread acceptance. Take for instance, BitTorrent. Yes, in tech-savvy online communities, its use is widespread. However, the average Internet user can't be bothered to figure out how to use it. Similar analogies can be drawn in open-source projects like Firefox or Linux; although proven to have benefits, their market shares in their respective industries are still small.
In short, I strongly believe that Bitcoin's current value is driven by overzealous investors, coming from a very small tech community, that assumes that BTC's real value will continue increasing exponentially when all evidence points to the contrary. The longer it takes for investors to realize it, the greater the fall will be. If I am misinformed about anything, or if you disagree, I'd be happy to know why. | How do we even know how much commerce is going on? Maybe Silk Road is growing quickly in the shadows, and the Russian mafia is already employing it as a means of payment. | Bitcoin |
What is the underlying force that is pushing the bitcoins higher and higher? | is it just people investing? or am i missing something? | Here's some pure speculation (see what I did there?) on my part:
* Some forex traders became interested in Bitcoin when the story broke [in Forbes](http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0509/technology-psilocybin-bitcoins-gavin-andresen-crypto-currency.html) last month. Just recently they've decided to invest some serious play money to ride the sudden [wave of interest](http://www.google.com/trends?q=bitcoin&ctab=0&geo=all&date=ytd&sort=0).
* The Russian federation is currently the most trending nation interested in Bitcoin. Either a bunch of people are buying some up as a hedge against inflation (the Russian economy has been a basket case since capitalism came), or some major criminal syndicates are buying some up to potentially use it for untraceable transactions.
* Linden dollars (a $29.3 million USD economy) can now be purchased with Bitcoins.
* China was a major trending nation last week, there's a good chance people wanted to get a hold of some currency not tied to their authoritarian government.
* Rickard Falkvinge, the founder of the pirate party, recently wrote an article entitled [Why I’m Putting All My Savings Into Bitcoin](http://falkvinge.net/2011/05/29/why-im-putting-all-my-savings-into-bitcoin/). Sweden/Norway/Finland are now the next three highest nations interested in Bitcoin.
* Gawker wrote an article about [Bitcoin and the Silk Road](http://gawker.com/5805928/the-underground-website-where-you-can-buy-any-drug-imaginable) which went massively viral. The delay between that article and the current buying frenzy is a bit too short (Dwolla takes forever to move funds), so most likely it prompted people who had money at Mt. Gox already to buy.
So, *mostly* speculation, IMHO, which could cause a temporary bubble (although I would expect the Bubble to pop maybe a month from now, if no new major articles come out). But **if** Bitcoin succeeds in the long run they'll be worth upwards of $10,000 each so I would hesitate to call them overvalued. | Bitcoin |
At last! This Week in Law covers bitcoin (conv. starts at 20:30) | null | Struck me as generally negative. | Bitcoin |
Bitcoin Activity Map | null | Its cool but it seems to be missing some transactions. | Bitcoin |
I'm collection donations in Bitcoins, 25% of wahtever I get will go to whoever donates the heighest amount or to a source of his choosing | Bitcoin address: 1EFKJJKCi1T3Jd91E317Wog1nPWoM7rmTg
I'm not trying to scam anyone, I just need some money, and I figured it was worth a try.
Edit: Downvote me to hell if you think I'm going to scam you or because you're a grammar nazi. I don't mind. If you do want to donate than use an irregular amount (something along the lines of 0.447442) and send me the amount in a PM with where you want the 25% to go to. your own bitcoin address is perfectly acceptable. | Don't give this guy any money, don't be a chump.
Why not give 100% to charity yourself directly after selling BTC on the market instead of 25% to some random address to someone who can't even spell highest? | Bitcoin |
ROI on rental of pre-made systems specially designed for mining | http://www.bitcoinrigs.com/products/Rig-Rental-Service.html
Why would anybody be doing this except for the expectation that BTC will continue to go up?
Using the [calculator](http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator.php) provided at the bottom of the page, BTC exchange rate needs to be at 35.6 for the 200 MHPS version to even break even. What's the angle here? | It's a rip off. You can buy a rig that can do 1.2 GHs for $1000. | Bitcoin |
Relevant: "Donate BitCoins for more lulz: 176LRX4WRWD5LWDMbhr94ptb2MW9varCZP" | null | "DONATE TODAY" | Bitcoin |
BTC just hit $17USD. What's your take on that? | I'm torn between buying and selling. I've thrown away my automated scripts and have decided to manually buy/sell.
I bought in at $1.15-- is it greedy of me to stay in the game, or should I sell? At this point I'll openly admit I haven't a clue what BTC could do next. | One option is to sell enough to make back your initial investment. Everything after that is pure profit. If BitCoin crashes, that sucks, but you're covered. | Bitcoin |
So the show begins... Business Insider on Bitcoins | null | Oh Shit. Going to $50 now? | Bitcoin |
should there be a bitcoin trading subreddit? | or can we use this subreddit? Not all of us can use MT Gox. I'm in the Canada (GTA) and am looking for someone to sell over paypal + clearcoin or in person but it is difficult =/ | http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinTrade/ | Bitcoin |
Silk Road - The Underground Website Where You Can Buy Any Drug Imaginable Using BitCoins | null | of course not | Bitcoin |
Do bitcoin transactions store ip addresses? If so, why? | null | No, they don't store ip addresses, just the bitcoin addresses that have possessed the coin. | Bitcoin |
Is anyone else as compulsive as me regarding Bitcoins? It's the first time I'm really INTO something and can't get enough information on Bitcoin reading every little thing that anyone has to say about it | It's got to a point where all of my friends are aware of bitcoins, working with a couple of them on doing something profitable in Israel (I haven't met a single Israeli who knew about Bitcoins before I introduced them to the concept), and generally getting high on the Bitcoin bandwagon. | haha. I'm not as crazy as you on it but I have been thinking about it all the time. It just opens so many new opportunities that weren't possible before. Much like the internet opened a huge amount of communication possibilities around the world in the 1990s. | Bitcoin |
Bitcoin Is Inflationary (and, apparently, inflammatory) | The bitcoin supply is *expanding*, and it is consequently undergoing *inflation*. In fact, it is currently expanding at a rate faster than any established currency system in the world. It is only in relation to other currencies that will eventually expand at a lesser rate that it could be deemed deflationary.
Though deflation can occur in a fractional-reserve system due to the evaporation of credit, here there are no such nuances, and the monetary supply [monotonically increases](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/54/Total_bitcoins_over_time.png). If we can't agree on this definition, then let's instead call it a *capped* currency, instead of a *deflationary* currency. All of the usual criticisms can still be made, but there are crucial distinctions here.
Let me address some of the more common ones I see:
**Bitcoins are overvalued because there's nothing to spend them on yet.**
Facebook is overvalued because they don't generate any revenue yet. Some people invest in future potential rather than current utility.
The recent jumps apparently came from two large transactions. It could be the case that someone envisions an application of bitcoins that we don't see yet, or it's some entity that [wants bitcoin to fail](http://www.reddit.com/r/Libertarian/comments/hcdhv/bitcoin_is_a_p2p_currency_that_could_topple/c1ubvbq) and doesn't mind wasting money to do so. Who knows.
**People will never spend bitcoins because they're "deflationary".**
If you accept the premises that (1) people don't mind spending dollars, (2) dollars are interchangeable with bitcoins, and (3) bitcoins are in some ways more convenient than dollars, then this criticism carries its refutation on its face. I was robbed in Peru one time and had a family member wire me money by Western Union that happened to be closed, leaving me unable to pay for my hotel room that evening. If I happened to meet a single bitcoin user in Peru, things might have been different. Bitcoins have short term utility as a medium of exchange and long-term utility as an investment.
Here's another point. If I knew for a fact that bitcoins would increase at 10% per year, I would have already converted every penny I own, and borrowed money wherever I could to buy more of them. The point is that the price can go down as well as up, and there is always that small chance that the value drops to zero when someone secretly invents a quantum computer, so I'm only comfortable having about 10% of my total wealth tied up in bitcoins. Some people are more risk averse, some people are less. As the value of bitcoins grows, I become more susceptible to [currency risk](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_risk), so I become interested in drawing down my investment either by selling bitcoins, or by spending them. At the end of the day, it may be the case that only a fraction of the world population carries 10% of their savings in bitcoin. That's still potentially a relatively large amount.
**People are treating bitcoins like an investment**
It was never an option not to treat currency as an investment. We're all invested in whatever currency we hold whether we like it or not. Whatever I have in cash in the bank is an investment in dollars. I prefer to invest in both dollars and bitcoins to diversify a bit in case one of them does poorly in the years to come. I'm still much more invested in dollars than bitcoins, but this fraction is changing daily as the price fluctuates.
**TLDR**: Bitcoins are *capped*, not deflationary. People are just as likely to spend bitcoins as dollars. You are invested in some form of currency whether you like it or not. | If someone secretly invents a quantum computer powerful enough to cause problems for bitcoin i doubt it would be used to attack bitcoin, nukes and government secrets could be much more lucrative. | Bitcoin |
Satoshi Nakamoto is on Facebook... | null | pgp or it didn't happen. | Bitcoin |
Question about the loss of bitcoin | Wondering if someone could help me better understand Bitcoin or gain technical competence ;).
Basically, being an anonymous currency, how does one prove that they own X amount of bitcoin if their address is lost or computer holding the Bitcoin software destroyed?
Also, if it is simply lost or unrecoverable to the original owner, wouldn't it create a decline in the quantity of bitcoin in circulation over the very long term?
Thanks all. | Basically, being an anonymous currency, how does one prove that they own X amount of bitcoin if their address is lost or computer holding the Bitcoin software destroyed?
You can't, once it's gone, it's gone.
Also, if it is simply lost or unrecoverable to the original owner, wouldn't it create a decline in the quantity of bitcoin in circulation over the very long term?
I asked that one yesterday (and got downvoted for it...), it turns out that should all miners decide to create more coins, they could do so. | Bitcoin |
Best mining rig? Is it worth it? | Thoughts? Also, when is the difficulty level expected to go up? | http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/ 2 days, @ 8.47 blocks/hour and 400 blocks. Claim is that it won't go up by that much.. this time, but it's gone up by 70% in the past when people bought a shitload of mining gear at once.
It's hard to tell. If bitcoins are The Currency and the price is real, then yes. If this is a huge bubble and everyone's mining gear is arriving tomorrow by fedex, then difficulty will skyrocket. | Bitcoin |
How easy is it to make a profit from market price differences? | I've noticed that there is currently a rather signigicant price difference in the availible markets.
So, what if I sell 10 bitcoin for $30USD each at bitcoinmarket.com, then buy more bitcoin from mtgox for $18USD
Seems to me, that as long as I can move the funds before the prices change I could make a decent. Am I missing something here? | That's whats supposed to happen. Like this you equalize the market places. | Bitcoin |
I'm building an Europeon BitCoin exchange site. Which payment options would you like to see? | PayPal is out of the question of course but all the others are in I suppose. At the moment I'm thinking of accepting iDeal (Dutch payment processor and MoneyBookers (for credit cards and e-wallet). Any other suggestions which would be convenient for you? | Straight-up SEPA wire. | Bitcoin |
bitcoinmarket.com invite? | Trying to buy using paypal and don't know of any others besides bitcoinmarket.com and registration requires an invite, any help? | Ill pay it forward if I can | Bitcoin |
Where and how can I buy bitcoins with USD? | null | Dwolla is legit.
I've moved several thousand dollars though them with no issue. | Bitcoin |
Libertarian Dream? A Site Where You Buy Drugs With Digital Dollars | null | OH MY GOD once people find out about this the price of Bitcoins is going to skyrocket.
Welcome to two months ago. | Bitcoin |
Some funny bastard thinks Bitcoin is a bubble... this posted on bitcoin-otc. I lolled hard! | null | Very funny, but didn't the Dutch transact in guilders? | Bitcoin |
Want to get started with Bitcoin? - Here is how to get 0.005 BTC for free! | Hello good scholars of the internets! How are we today? Splendid, now let us talk business!
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If you use the link I provided here, I will also get 0.005 BTC when you sign up, so I hope you will do that, since it doesn't cost you anything to do so, and you won't get any more BTC if you sign up without it.
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Hope you enjoy it, those 0.005 might be worth a small fortune one day, who knows what the future holds? | Do you know of any other legit bonus programs that the website offers? | Bitcoin |
Bitcoin’s Four Hurdles: Part One - by the founder of the Pirate Party | null | tl;dr The bitcoin client is too hard to use
Personally I think is reasonably useable for what it is. Sure, its not perfect, but its at least as easy to use as some of the BitTorrent clients that have become popular. | Bitcoin |
The dangers of software monoculture: how a client bug took down all of Skype | null | It's Skype, not Bitcoin, but both are distributed systems, and the lessons from one are fully applicable to another. | Bitcoin |
Anyone making minimum wage with bitcoin (or more)? | What is your rig and hash/s? | If I worked 16 hours a week, yes. | Bitcoin |
Calculating mhash/s ? | Using the specs from [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Tesla#cite_note-4) wiki page, is it possible to calculate how many mhash/s the Tesla S1070 can perform? | It's an Nvidia, I wouldn't bother. | Bitcoin |
I'm in Japan, how in the world do I buy bitcoins? | Any ideas? Japan apparently has some kind of laws that makes services like PayPal impossible. Anyone else in the same boat that found a decent way to get their hands on bitcoins? | They will take yen but Japanese law insists that yen transfers require a reason and the Mt. Gox interface isn't set up for that. I emailed and Mark Karpeles responded within minutes with that explanation. They have a bank account you can do a furikomi transfer to and then you're all set to trade.
Where are you? I'm also in the sticks of Hiroshima. I'd like a meet up if there are other redditors in these parts. | Bitcoin |
What do you spend your BTC on (if ever) | Now that I have a few, I'm planning on saving them for a bit to see where the price goes. But I'm curious about what anyone here has actually bought or paid for with their BTC. | web design, services. Pizza. I hear poker is also popular? | Bitcoin |
Buttcoin | null | Waiting for the bull trap... | Bitcoin |
What is the Current Bitcoin / Energy Cost Ratio? | For any miner making at least 10 bitcoins per month, what is your bitcoin/energy ratio?
[The number of Bitcoins mined over one month] / [estimated energy cost due to mining]
The cost could either be in dollars, or better yet converted to bitcoins using the one month exchange rate average $8/BtC (say).
I'm estimating this number at 3 bitcoins mined for every bitcoin spent to power the rig, but I really have no idea.
Also, if the value of bitcoins ever drops below the energy cost to mine them (the ratio falls below 1), will you temporarily drop out?
| Student housing -> flat energy bill -> infinite ratio here :)
(Although I should count the slight increased chance of a GPU or PSU failure, but both should come off as negligible) | Bitcoin |
Bitcoin is the Economic Singularity | null | > Do not keep any cash, savings, or checking beyond what you need to pay for goods and services that cannot yet be paid for with bitcoin.
> During the singularity phase, you should also take out loans to buy bitcoin, since bitcoin appreciates far more rapidly than interest on any fiat currency loan.
Nice try... | Bitcoin |
We operate a DNA testing laboratory and would like to offer DNA testing for 15BTC. Ex. Paternity Test, Sibling-ship test, etc. | Hello,
I am the proprietor of the CGML group. We are located in Montreal, Canada and we provide laboratory services related to paternity testing. If you would like confirmation of the biological link between your child and yourself, the best solution is often to perform a dna test. DNA testing provides 100% confirmation. In addition, we can test DNA samples of various origins and obtain a profile for you. To help support the bitcoin economy, we are offering the possibility of purchasing any of our DNA services, at 15BTC for a standard 2 person test.
The DNA can be collected with our mailing kit and returned to our laboratory via traditional mail. We conveniently ship worldwide. All tests can be done privately. Alternatively, we also offer DNA testing for courts (which are performed in front of a witness). All tests that we perform are accredited by ISO 17025.
Here is our website
English : http://www.dnatestlab.ca
French : http://www.centredegenetique.ca
If you would like to pay using bitcoin, please do email us with your shipping information and we will forward you a unique bitcoin address to send the funds to. Do not hesitate to contact us with any questions, by phone (see website) or email. | Consider sharing your offer to http://reddit.com/r/bitmarket | Bitcoin |
Virtual Bitcoins are appealing but probably doomed | Reuters | null | It's not a bad argument. Only time will tell. | Bitcoin |
Future of Money | null | What is this? Just a copied article from the newscientist? | Bitcoin |
Billboard in Silicon Valley: "We Accept Bitcoin" | null | Unfortunately they haven't realized that the exchange rate is in flux.
[163.74*17.5 = $2865.45 for a 6990](http://www.memorydealers.com/radeon-sapphire-hd6990.html). | Bitcoin |
Future of money: Virtual cash gets real | null | Annoying pay-wall is annoying. | Bitcoin |
I will take pictures of me doing stuff for fractions of a bitcoin | Been mining for 5 days now at 80 mhs/s, and I have made .52 BTC. I realize that to do my part to help the market grow I should offer a service that accepts bitcoins. That service is up to you. | You should obviously [put a shoe on your head](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/put-shoe-on-head). Please quote a price for this service delivered as a picture. | Bitcoin |
I caused the price of Bitcoins to go from £6.50 to £15. At least I got a free PC upgrade out of it. | Thursday morning, I had 44.15945876 up for sale with Britcoin at £7 each. The best bid was for £6.50 and had been around that price for some time. I intended to sell at £6.50 and was just holding out to see if I could get £7, but it didn't look like it was going to happen. The next best sale prices were £7, £8 and £10.
So, I sold my bitcoins at £6.50, but they didn't sell for £6.50, they sold for £6.77 making me £300. I was a very happy bunny.
Then, I looked at the order and the market info and noticed that the £7 bitcoins had been bought up as well. A minute later, the £8 bitcoins were sold and a lot of new offers to sell started to appear from £8 to £20.
An hour later the price was at £15 and there was me sitting at my desk, banging my head against it.
"Fuck!, fuck!, fuck!, MOTHER FUCKER!"
Anyway, my brother just told me that the £300 has been deposited in his bank (on a Saturday no less) and now I'm happy again.
Now, I plan on upgrading my computer to something newish, 4 GB DDR3 1600 RAM, Athlon II X3 450, AM3+ motherboard and a Radeon HD 6870 (I hope my PSU can handle it). The plan is to mine whenever I'm not gaming and hopefully by the time Bulldozer or the 7000 series GPUs come out, I'll have enough bitcoins to purchase one.
The funny thing is, I got those 50 bitcoins back in December by mining for 1 day on a CPU that does 2 Mhashes/s. I had a look at what I could buy with 50 bitcoins, and the answer was absolutely nothing. I was going to donate those bitcoins to an indie games dev but then I completely forgot all about bitcoin until a post was on the front page of reddit a couple of weeks ago. | Oh but it did though. It wasn't the actual amount of coins that caused it though, it was the circumstances surrounding the sale. I can state for a fact that my sale of 44.15945876 BTC for 298.82340514 GBP at 09:38 on 02/06/11 was the first purchase in that mad dash. If you can pull up the records for that sale and those immediately before and after, you'll see that it happened exactly like I said it did. | Bitcoin |