Bitcoins?

[Jamie101]

I see sometimes the ads at the top of Acorn are bitcoin ads from CoinURL, nice. (usually wouldn't notice with adblock but I'm in college!).

 

[Admin]

I see sometimes the ads at the top of Acorn are bitcoin ads from CoinURL, nice. (usually wouldn't notice with adblock but I'm in college!).

well spotted! I'm just testing them out.

Admin

 

[Murray]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22153687

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...g-is-a-real-world-environmental-disaster.html

Pretty interesting about the energy requirements of mining.

 

[HarryDomains]

No need for high energy consumptions anymore, look whats on the way! 300 mega hash per second with hardly any power consumption. Think I know what I'm pre ordering!

http://mineforeman.com/2013/04/13/asicminer-to-release-a-usb-asic-bitcoin-mining-devices/

Harry

 

[Admin]

Bitfloor.com ceased trading

Bitfloor.com has just announced it has ceased trading

 

[scooter]

Bitfloor.com has just announced it has ceased trading

USA bank account closed.


https://bitcoin-24.com/
Still closed due to Polish authorities closing their Polish bank account




.

 

[Admin]

Well figures the banks won't support anything to do with Bitcoin, it's too much of a threat to their existence.

Admin

 

[Edwin]

Could this be a (dodgy) "business model" for some scammers?
- Start a bitcoin related service
- Build up some traction by operating it "for real" and providing ok service
- Get "shut down" (note the quotes) by some supposed authority (in a way that's unprovable for anyone not directly involved)
- Gradually dribble refunds but then go silent and/or make up other excuses as time drags on
- Keep the remaining funds

Not suggesting any of the recent closed services operated on the above basis, but if they're scams it's an illegal template that makes sense. I would also have thought that there are likely to be more scammers operating in the Bitcoin realm than in "real currencies" because they enjoy a greater feeling of security from Bitcoin's supposed anonymity (if you're setting out to rip people off from the outset with your eyes wide open, anything that pushes the likelihood of prison that little bit further away is an edge worth having)

 

[Jamie101]

Edwin - I know what you mean, something like that could easily happen unfortunately.

Just saw Anonymous post this on twitter : http://netlookup.se/free-bitcoins/382150 (changed to my link though )

Enter your address and get sent some free bitcoin. No idea how much though, but I presume it's something small. Spelling on the site is bad but if it works then I'm not complaining

 

[Edwin]

Interesting analysis of how custom mining hardware will absolutely destroy the ROI of bitcoin mining (even for the owners of the custom mining hardware)
http://mineshaft.me/2013/04/initial-roi-estimates/

In other words, Bitcoin's popularity will also be its undoing. If you couple the data above with the projected power consumption costs then basically the day that the custom mining devices get switched on, the Bitcoin network suddenly costs a lot more per day than the value of the Bitcoins generated, and the ratio gets worse and worse as more devices come online.
http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/13/the-cost-of-a-bitcoin/

 

[newguy]

If it became more expensive for people to mine, many would leave, which in turn would make it easier, hence more profitable for more efficient miners. It will likely settle at a level where some people have potential to make a profit else none of them would even bother to mine. No doubt these things will take a while to settle down though. I'm not sure how all of this would impact the price of bitcoins, as that seems pretty unpredictable as it is.

 

[Systreg]

One other thing to consider is, I reckon a lot of people running heavy usage hardware to mine, will be doing so using an electric supply that isn't their own, I've read before about people wired up to other properties and businesses unrelated to them, wired to lamposts etc, then they move on to another place and do the same again.

 

[Edwin]

If it became more expensive for people to mine, many would leave, which in turn would make it easier, hence more profitable for more efficient miners. It will likely settle at a level where some people have potential to make a profit else none of them would even bother to mine. No doubt these things will take a while to settle down though. I'm not sure how all of this would impact the price of bitcoins, as that seems pretty unpredictable as it is.

Not the case. The custom mining hardware is so overwhelmingly more powerful than "normal" computers that it will be pointless for anyone without custom hardware to mine. The current GPU/CPU miners will be an irrelevant rounding error compared to the aggregate THash/s rates that the custom hardware folk will be achieving.

The point of the article is that once everyone has taken delivery of their custom hardware and switched it on, the economics of Bitcoin "break" i.e. even though you could be running super-duper-mega-fast hardware, thousands of other people will too, so your own return will be microscopic.

The other point of the article is that the vast majority of people only look at the current aggregate hash rate and compare it to the power of one custom mining rig to figure out their expected ROI, without taking into account all the other people who've also ordered their custom rigs who are therefore about to send the hash rate into the stratosphere.

 

[anthony]

There's a market out there for 'solarpoweredbitcoinmining.com' equipment perhaps! Or maybe more sensible to go after PPCoins now!

 

[newguy]

Not the case. The custom mining hardware is so overwhelmingly more powerful than "normal" computers that it will be pointless for anyone without custom hardware to mine. The current GPU/CPU miners will be an irrelevant rounding error compared to the aggregate THash/s rates that the custom hardware folk will be achieving.

The point of the article is that once everyone has taken delivery of their custom hardware and switched it on, the economics of Bitcoin "break" i.e. even though you could be running super-duper-mega-fast hardware, thousands of other people will too, so your own return will be microscopic.

The other point of the article is that the vast majority of people only look at the current aggregate hash rate and compare it to the power of one custom mining rig to figure out their expected ROI, without taking into account all the other people who've also ordered their custom rigs who are therefore about to send the hash rate into the stratosphere.

Where people find that they are losing money through hardware and electricity costs they are very likely to stop mining. That in turn will tip the scale back somewhat. Miners leave, difficulty decreases. Whoever is most efficient or has the lowest outgoings for whatever reason will likely still be on the right side of things to the point where it's worth doing. Of course there is always risk, as no-one actually knows what bitcoins are going to be worth at any given time.

In a scenario where the supply of new bitcoins dry up... well that point will be reached at some point anyway, as there's a finite supply. That no doubt could also create problems for the currency, some have predicted. I don't even own any bitcoins at this time, but it does seem more resilient that it's sometimes given credit for. I think both the ultra enthusiastic and pure doom and gloom outlooks might be off.

 

[Edwin]

Where people find that they are losing money through hardware and electricity costs they are very likely to stop mining. That in turn will tip the scale back somewhat. Miners leave, difficulty decreases. Whoever is most efficient or has the lowest outgoings for whatever reason will likely still be on the right side of things to the point where it's worth doing. Of course there is always risk, as no-one actually knows what bitcoins are going to be worth at any given time.

Not necessarily. A few thousand dedicated hardware devices (if you read the article I linked to, you'll see there are good reasons to believe pre-order numbers in the thousands or even tens of thousands) will easily out-mine millions of GPU/CPU miners - so even if all the owners of the latter give up it will hardly affect overall mining rates.

 

[newguy]

Not necessarily. A few thousand dedicated hardware devices (if you read the article I linked to, you'll see there are good reasons to believe pre-order numbers in the thousands or even tens of thousands) will easily out-mine millions of GPU/CPU miners - so even if all the owners of the latter give up it will hardly affect overall mining rates.

That's certainly a significant number. It will be interesting to see how this pans out that's for sure!

 

[Jamie101]

Could PayPal start accepting bitcoins to find accounts? They are "thinking about it".

Interesting.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1d09zg/paypals_director_says_that_theyre_considering/

 

[Retired_member41]

Could PayPal start accepting bitcoins to find accounts? They are "thinking about it".

Interesting.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1d09zg/paypals_director_says_that_theyre_considering/

Never.

Just watched the interview and his thinking about it comment was more like they are just thinking about bitcoin in general.

You will see some retraction or clarification sooner or later.

The rampers will be happy.

 

[stevebrowne]

I should add that TransferWise is currently not an option:

http://transferwise.com/blog/2013-04/notice-to-bitcoin-users-april-2013