spectre 633 Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 dang, just leaving work right now, I'll get back to this proper tomorrow morning after I have some coffee in me Keep calm and question nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plumbers Crack 4,035 Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 What I don't understand is:- What are you mining exactly? If there is a finite number of Bitcoins, how can you mine them and who determines what this finite number is? spectre 1 Thanks to Capn_Underpants for the artwork Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectre 633 Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 I agree with Dave, why is it called mining and how do you get access to it? How did you know what system requirements it takes and why in the world does it take some much computer resources? How many bitcoins are left to be "mined"? How long does it take to mine one? It seems there are "mining farms" being set up all over that the limited amount will be reached in no time. Upon which I'm sure the solution will be to expand the inventory. An analogy would be akin to splitting stocks maybe? But that's just conjecture since I know nothing about the stock market. How will they stop people from mining further after the limit is reached? Keep calm and question nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chookes 965 Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 It's something to do with a formula and it takes a lot of resources to figure it out. Be cheaper to get an Asian kid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chookes 965 Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 spectre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diddums 4,305 Posted January 18, 2014 Author Share Posted January 18, 2014 This article explains it better than I could, but I'll have a go anyway. Basically, all mining is is confirming the transactions made by others. Say I give you a bitcoin, from my wallet to yours (we have digital wallets), that transaction gets an ID. Loads of these IDs are rolled into blocks. Blocks are sent to miners to get confirmed. If your wallet has an ID of x and mine has an ID of y, then there will be miners all over the world confirming that I sent one bitcoin from wallet x to wallet y. If someone tries to get funky, those blocks won't match and the transaction will be void. In those blocks are Bitcoin rewards. Not all of them have rewards, which is why some people create "pools" and share the rewards if they find a coin. Still with me? The number of coins hidden in blocks is reduced every so often, so technically speaking we will never hit the cap of 21m coins. We'll get close, but the rewards will be halved over and over until there's almost nothing left. What happens then? When the miners have no incentive to confirm blocks? Well, that seems to be anybody's guess, but this quote makes sense: The difficulty of a block is independent of its reward so that would continue to match the hashing power of the network. The reason that people will continue to mine is because they will receive the transaction fees for their effort. If the value of bitcoins rises then the number of bitcoins needed in fees and/or mining reward decreases; certainly although the number of coins obtained for mining a block today is basically half what it was a year ago the value is significantly higher thanks to the exchange rate. As the mining reward goes away transaction fees will tend toward whatever they have to be to keep the service running. As for requirements, the way that the coins are kept valuable is by making it exponentially harder to "mine" them. The first Bitcoins could've been mined with a device no more powerful than a calculator. Now, you need some serious hardware to even consider it, and people are investing in this hardware. I don't mine Bitcoins. As silly as this may sound, I mine Dogecoins. These were initially started as a joke but took off like a house on fire. Their value at the moment is fairly high, so I mine them and then exchange them for Bitcoins. I'l also hoarding Worldcoins at the moment because in February a company called Scharmbeck is going live which allows people to buy Worldcoins directly using their bank accounts, which is eliminating a lot of hoops which you currently have to jump through to buy other currencies. Once this service goes live, myself and many others are hoping that the coins value rises. I think it will, provided Scharmbeck don't fuck it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectre 633 Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 I hear you can buy drugs with bitcoins. Sounds like a winner to me. But in all seriousness, it's way too complicated for me to understand. I'm with you a little, but I don't grasp it 100%. I'll read the article you posted. I hope you're right that this is the next monetary system because our current system has failed and is currently collapsing all around us. As I mentioned above, currency only holds value for as long as the people have faith in it and certainly all fiat currencies collapse eventually; especially after they are no longer back by gold/silver. I suppose that is my main concern here. That the perceived value is based on faith alone and they are not backed by anything of real value. I'm also a fan of having my wealth within arms reach. BO7H B4RRELS and Plumbers Crack 2 Keep calm and question nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diddums 4,305 Posted January 20, 2014 Author Share Posted January 20, 2014 Not just drugs, but guns too. Rumour has it that at one point you could put hits on people too. Dunno how true that is though. Isn't it amazing how much tech comes from shady practices? Take a look at what the porn industry has given us, it's insane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectre 633 Posted January 20, 2014 Share Posted January 20, 2014 They arrested that guy for advertising hits. It was the creator of the silk road, I believe. To get the site going, he grew an insane amount of magic mushrooms so there would be something to sell once the site went live and to attract other vendors. Keep calm and question nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectre 633 Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Creator Of Netscape Praises Bitcoin, Compares It To The Invention Of PCs And The Internet Keep calm and question nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectre 633 Posted January 27, 2014 Share Posted January 27, 2014 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGh22RoXnwI Keep calm and question nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectre 633 Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 Beware when a Government institutes Capital Controls. Keep calm and question nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diddums 4,305 Posted January 28, 2014 Author Share Posted January 28, 2014 It's all very interesting all of this, and today has been very interesting to say the least. Basically, there was a hearing in New York which is split into 5 segments, each tackling a different aspect of "what now?". The only one I heard so far is the point of view from the coin's backers and supporters. Tomorrow there is another segment (panel) which will be a law enforcement perspective and a retail perspective, which will be attended by Overstock, the first large company to accept Bitcoin (and took $130k worth of Bitcoin sales in the first 24h). The general consensus I got from the state (I know the coin's stance, I was interested in what the gov had to say) wasn't "make it worth my while" but rather "ok, this is all cool, but how are we going to make it work?" It's all quite exciting really. The archive is a two hour long video, but for those who are interested, it can be found here: http://www.totalwebcasting.com/view/?id=nysdfs spectre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectre 633 Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 I see news stories all the time about bitcoin. I hope you don't mind if I keep this thread up to date with the news about it? From 'Ripples' To 'RonPaulCoin'; There Are Now 83 Cryptocurrencies In The World BO7H B4RRELS 1 Keep calm and question nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OTC Mike 53 Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 I see news stories all the time about bitcoin. I hope you don't mind if I keep this thread up to date with the news about it? From 'Ripples' To 'RonPaulCoin'; There Are Now 83 Cryptocurrencies In The World Gotta love the one called "SexCoin"...wonder what that's used for? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diddums 4,305 Posted January 29, 2014 Author Share Posted January 29, 2014 Of course Lee, I'd appreciate if you could post as much as you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectre 633 Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Gotta love the one called "SexCoin"...wonder what that's used for? Sexcoins are for coin operated beavers. lol, I thought the Unobtainium was hilarious. Keep calm and question nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harrison 202 Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Holy shit.. > http://imgur.com/a/IISox#OeXLhKn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diddums 4,305 Posted January 29, 2014 Author Share Posted January 29, 2014 Holy shit? That's nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harrison 202 Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Its like a farm, mental! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectre 633 Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 DHS = All Powerful - apparently. reported jan 29, 2014 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OalSqRV7ySs Keep calm and question nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plumbers Crack 4,035 Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Just heard on BBC News that Mt.Gox has disappeared owing million to Bitcoin holders. Can't post link as it's on the TV Edit: link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26333661 Thanks to Capn_Underpants for the artwork Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Docwagon 856 Posted March 4, 2014 Share Posted March 4, 2014 Just heard on BBC News that Mt.Gox has disappeared owing million to Bitcoin holders. Can't post link as it's on the TV Edit: link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26333661 Its funny on some of the forums. People who constantly bitch about the lack of intrinsic value in fiat currency and preach a return to the gold standard also tend to be the strongest proponents of bitcoin. The irony is thick. lepercolony 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lepercolony 275 Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 saw an article this morning, sounds like a pretty cool project so i thought i'd share: http://www.boston.com/business/innovation/2014/04/29/each-mit-undergraduate-get-bitcoin-part-student-project/rGL9oZb3vacEG6hcb9bcLJ/story.html frankly if you have an entire class at MIT actively working on ways to assign value to bitcoin, it could result in some interesting applications in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J4MES OX4D 9,812 Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 The real quesiton is, will the bitcoin make me lose my job? As far as I'm aware; McDonalds won't be accepting bitcoins for Big Macs anytime soon so you're position is safe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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