Bitcoin discussion and news

[joustmaster]

I've just installed this to try it out. Still downloading the blocks. May leave the PC on over weekend, see if there's any fraction of coinage created. Was just curious to see if my machine could generate any vertual cash. (yeah I know, probably doesn't make economic sense against the electric bill. Not running a beefy graphics card.)

no, it won't. you need to join a pool. try mining.bitcoin.cz

 

[ExtraRefined]

no, it won't. you need to join a pool. try mining.bitcoin.cz

Indeed, even then you'll literally only be getting about 0.02 a day depending on your CPU.

 

[grit]

TBH I've found paypal great for getting funds back for me when people have tried to scam me. Doubt I'd buy so much from ebay if I didn't have this safety backup. It's got to be hard to strike a balance though.

I'm talking about paypal seizing your funds, last year a simple donation to wikileaks would have been enough for them to freeze your funds. There are countless horror stories from web start ups who paypal have shafted with no reason.

 

[xenon]

no, it won't. you need to join a pool. try mining.bitcoin.cz

Ah, OK, Will have a look. Admittidly I don't really understand how coins are created or have a use for them at the moment.

 

[Wolveryeti]

When your computer is 'mining' does it become part of the cloud and crunch someone elses' numbers?

 

[ExtraRefined]

When your computer is 'mining' does it become part of the cloud and crunch someone elses' numbers?

Not really, the calculations are just proofs of work, so that when you say "this block is valid" everyone can easily check that you've put a lot of compute power to work checking that.

 

[joustmaster]

If mining alone. Then its a race to get 50bc. you won't win. If in a group, you get paid for your contribution to the group.

 

[ExtraRefined]

If mining alone. Then its a race to get 50bc. you won't win. If in a group, you get paid for your contribution to the group.

Your expected value is actually the same either way in the long term, pools just reduce the variance.

 

[joustmaster]

Your expected value is actually the same either way in the long term, pools just reduce the variance.

mining alone on just a desktop machine, your probability approaches zero..

 

[fractionMan]

yeah, you wont generate anything like that. You need to join a mining pool. A pc won't generate much, but if you have a good graphics card, you can use its many many cores to get some bitcoin

ponders use of underused datacentre

 

[fractionMan]

We have a 24 core vmserver at work, that has a spare 16 core capacity at the moment. That gets me only 0.3 bitcoin a day.

But as grit says, you need a fat graphics card. the top end ones these days have some thing silly like 400 cores.

ah, see you've already looked into it

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Does it pay for the electric running it?

 

[joustmaster]

yes, it does as the bitcoins exchange rate is growing.

and especially so if you are running it at work.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

and especially so if you are running it at work.

 

[spacemonkey]

Just reading about this today. I saw a thread about a guy who traded 10,000 bitcoins for a pizza about a year ago.

That's about $80,000 at today's exchange rate!!

 

[spacemonkey]

So....bitcoins currently trading at £13 per BTC. Anyone here still interested?

 

[paolo]

A hyper deflationary currency entirely dominated by speculator transactions.

It's not really a nirvana is it?

 

[joustmaster]

its made me a lot of money though

 

[King Biscuit Time]

So are Bitcoins a speculative bubble then? Or is it more like a Ponzi scheme?

 

[netbob]

There's an interesting (if slightly OTT) article about a system like bitcoin could mean for taxation and welfare: http://owni.eu/2011/05/30/the-information-policy-case-for-flat-tax-and-basic-income/

 

[paolo]

So are Bitcoins a speculative bubble then? Or is it more like a Ponzi scheme?

Speculative.

You can't buy anything with them, because no one will want to set prices using such a massively volatile currency.

At some point there'll be a crash. Anyone holding large amounts at that point will take a very big haircut.

 

[shaman75]

WTF is the silk road???

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/06/silkroad/

 

[paolo]

There's an interesting (if slightly OTT) article about a system like bitcoin could mean for taxation and welfare: http://owni.eu/2011/05/30/the-information-policy-case-for-flat-tax-and-basic-income/

It entirely ignores the fact that - in practical terms - it's little better than a south american style pyramid scheme.

I'm all for sticking it to the man, but there's waaay too much zombie-like belief going on here. Making a p2p currency that's usable is more than a case of writing cool code.

Bitcoin = massivefail.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

I gave up on it, just felt like a waste of time tbh...

 

[joustmaster]

Speculative.

You can't buy anything with them, because no one will want to set prices using such a massively volatile currency.

There's quite a big gambling market, and a market for illegal stuff in them. The illegal stuff, has the price tethered to the dollar, so the bit coin price keeps dropping.

The price is nearly 20 dollar a bitcoin now

 

[grit]

It entirely ignores the fact that - in practical terms - it's little better than a south american style pyramid scheme.

A comparison that leaves no doubt of your misunderstanding of the situation.

 

[kabbes]

Like all speculative bubbles, it's a great thing to be invested in until it bursts and whoever is holding the baby loses everything.

In the meantime, fill yer boots and pray.

 

[magneze]

It's like regular money, but "fun".

 

[camouflage]

Lulsec got over $7000 worth of btc donations for the 16th Sony hack they did recently.

The hacker group LulzSec has struck again and the target (surprise) is Sony.

This time they’ve released 54MB of source code for Sony Computer Entertainment’s Developer Network, and an internal network map of Sony BMG. The group say this is their fifth Sony hack, and the 16th overall against Sony. The website attrition.org has a timeline of the recent Sony hacks that would suggest this is indeed attack No. 16.

Sony has been the victim of a stream of cyber attacks since mid-April, when hackers broke into its PlayStation Network and compromised the details of more than 100 million registered users.

LulzSec posted a terse press release on its website saying, “Konichiwa from LulzSec, Sony Bastards!” and “That’s hackers 16, Sony 0. Your move!” They signed the missive, “Lulz Security,” and uploaded the data as a torrent onto PirateBay.

The hacker group also announced on Twitter today that they had received $7,200 worth of BitCoin donations, bringing their total balance to $7,853.35.

They'll probably blow most of it on servers, hookers and blow.

 

[camouflage]

So are Bitcoins a speculative bubble then? Or is it more like a Ponzi scheme?

Research the matter, come to your own conclusions. It's a judgement call.