Bitcoins

[NorthernLights24]

Anyone dabbled in the digital currency of choice?

 

I was was fascinated by the idea a few years ago when it first appeared. It does make you think about how we value things and the concept of currency. I never really got round to looking into the whole mining thing you can do to gather Bitcoins. With the awesome power of hindsight I wish I had now!

 

The value of them has sky rocketed over the last few months and a Bitcoin is now worth over $1000 each. There are a few people who have become rich because they managed to get their hands on some back when they had little value compared to now.

 

One guy though has managed to throw away a hard drive that contained Bitcoins that are now worth £4million - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-25134289

[minijc]

Spamx3 will have had a decent return, he did tell people to get involved when they were only £100+ I think and that was last month, notice aswell you can get Litecoins too, much cheaper but growing more valuable each day

[Bluto10]

Currency is pointless we should all live and contribute in a free society

[minijc]

Currency is pointless we should all live and contribute in a free society

You're pointless you fat, odious mess. xxx

[ChutneyLove]

Ok, I want to buy some lite-coins - how do I do it - just download the software and pay some money?

[dave_min]

I'm still not convinced that these aren't just all a big con.

[Bebo]

Looked into it in 2011 and used my graphics card to generate a bunch of coins while messing about. They were worthless at the time so didn't spend much time on it.

 

Completely forgot about them until i heard they reached $800 this month and promptly sold them.

[ChutneyLove]

That's nae helping me get litecoins.

[The Oxford Don]

There seem to be some online marketplaces where you can buy and sell. Just google 'buy sell litecoins uk' and then do some research on which sites are most trustworthy; there are plenty of forums with decent advice.

[ChutneyLove]

Ok, got on to a Noggie site called Justcoins. Problem is, for 200 US dollars they will give me 0.178 bitcoins. I then trade them for litecoins and I land up with just over 3. Problem is, their marketplace price at the moment is $38. So I'm fucked if I'm paying $200 for $114 worth of litecoins.

 

Spamx3 hurry up and get on here and show me how to do it properly.

[ChutneyLove]

Well Rumpus, we need the Spammer or someone of his ilk to come on here and sort out a good deal for us. I'm up for anything up to 500 US investment. If it blows out to a grand a coin like bitcoins have, looking at a nice return. Nae exactly retirement money, but enough for a wee sesh. Should've bought bits & lites both a month ago when Spammer was expounding their virtues.

[ChutneyLove]

Ok, I'm in. Might have to nick a few strimmers to fund this without the wife noticing, but hey-ho.

[beef_sister]

I just gotten intosilk road yesterday so a bit coin account may be getting opened very soon.....

[spamspamspam]

all my bitcoin buying was done through bitstamp.

 

litecoins available here

 

you can also get both from http://www.plus500.co.uk/

 

As I said on the shares thread I originally bought my coin for silkroad for $18 a pop and then completely forgot about them until all the shit blew up with the guy that ran the website. Wasnt me being smart to start off with but once I did a bit of reading thought they were worth holding onto at $150. Sold them at just over $900 a few days ago. NO idea if or when the bottom will fall out of them but they are still going up ATM.

 

Personally though I dont think they'll rise much longer, the bottom will fall out of them soon or more will have to be generated and the rest devalued at some point. No point in having a currency for online sales thats in limited supply, cant really use them properly anymore when they are a grand a pop.

[Bluto10]

You're pointless you fat, odious mess. xxx

 

say that to my face and ill burst you like the annoying swollenb balloon you are

#sumo

[Bluto10]

out of the 21million available how many you got spammer?

[spamspamspam]

out of the 21million available how many you got spammer?

 

3

 

the rest have been sold

[dervish]

Looked into it in 2011 and used my graphics card to generate a bunch of coins while messing about. They were worthless at the time so didn't spend much time on it.

 

Completely forgot about them until i heard they reached $800 this month and promptly sold them.

 

Confused how did that work?

[Bebo]

 

Confused how did that work?

 

Bitcoins are created by solving equitations. Graphics cards basically solve equations to display complex graphics. But you can use them for more than just playing games, but solving mathematical problems. They are far more efficient at crunching numbers than CPUs.

 

These days there's no point in using GFX cards to mine bitcoins due to the increasing difficulty in cracking the equations and the emergence of ASIC (Application-specific integrated circuits) which are hardware designed specifically to crack bitcoin equations.

[dervish]

Whoa people are actually laying down silicon just to hack these?

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

 

[Bebo]

Whoa people are actually laying down silicon just to hack these?

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

For comparison, Back in 2011 my gfx card was doing 220 Mhash/s. The top of the range CPUs at the time were doing just 50Mhash/s.

 

In 2013, the introduction of specifically designed ASCI rigs are doing 1,344,000 Mhash/s and cost $4,000 to buy.

 

They probably pay for themselves in a few hours due to the price of bitcoins.

 

Here's a link of comparative hardware and cost.

[jassb]

Can you buy beer with them?

 

Is there a pence equivalent, and do 8 bitcoins make a bytecoin?

[dave_min]

It may be written in English but fucked if I know what it means. I solve problems by using larger hammers.

 

I feel my lack of knowledge is holding me back.

 

Not necessarily.

 

If you attack a bitcoin owner with your hammer, then you will inherit their assets.

[dervish]

It may be written in English but fucked if I know what it means. I solve problems by using larger hammers.

 

I feel my lack of knowledge is holding me back.

Spot the clanky. :D I've got a msc in chip design shit and I've no idea either.

[Ke1t]

I still have no idea what the basis of Bitcoin value is.

 

What material value does a bitcoin have?

 

I mean, if you have a pound it's backed by the treasury. If you have a lump of gold then you have a physical lump of gold. If you have stock then you own a legal percentage of a company.

 

Bitcoin 'mining' is a combination of processing power and the energy used to process/mine, if I have my facts straight.

 

Creating 'wealth' that has no inherent value, physical presence, or government backing, makes no sense to me.. it's virtual wealth that can buy real things?

 

I understand the abstraction, I do it all the time with a credit card... I'm handing over a square of plastic that has no inherent value, and receiving goods in exchange. But my credit card is backed by the credit company, which is in turn funded by my bank, which in turn has cash I earned, cash which is backed and guaranteed by the Treasury, ergo government. So at the end of the Credit Card chain is a governmental guarantee, backed by national wealth.

 

I hand over a Bitcoin, I recieve goods, where is the chain that leads to bitcoin's inherent value?

 

Someone explain this to me as though to a 5 year old.

[woohoo]

I still have no idea what the basis of Bitcoin value is.

 

What material value does a bitcoin have?

 

I mean, if you have a pound it's backed by the treasury. If you have a lump of gold then you have a physical lump of gold. If you have stock then you own a legal percentage of a company.

 

Bitcoin 'mining' is a combination of processing power and the energy used to process/mine, if I have my facts straight.

 

Creating 'wealth' that has no inherent value, physical presence, or government backing, makes no sense to me.. it's virtual wealth that can buy real things?

 

I understand the abstraction, I do it all the time with a credit card... I'm handing over a square of plastic that has no inherent value, and receiving goods in exchange. But my credit card is backed by the credit company, which is in turn funded by my bank, which in turn has cash I earned, cash which is backed and guaranteed by the Treasury, ergo government. So at the end of the Credit Card chain is a governmental guarantee, backed by national wealth.

 

I hand over a Bitcoin, I recieve goods, where is the chain that leads to bitcoin's inherent value?

 

Someone explain this to me as though to a 5 year old.

 

From my understanding of Bitcoins, you're on the right path Kelt, there is no inherent physical value associated with a Bitcoin.

 

It's only value is derived from a system of wants only... I have Bitcoin... other people want Bitcoin... hence it has value. The 'mining' part is important as it ensures there is only a finite number of coins in issue.

 

It was originally set up to allow for anonymous transactions on places like Silk Road and was essentially only trade-able on these 'other internet' markets.

 

Since almost the whole world got rid of the gold standard, all monies value comes solely from it's 'wanting' power. As you say though, stability is lent by having the backing of sovereign government's Treasury. No such stability with Bitcoin, and this is why we see the wild fluctuations in prices when they are given validity by the federal judge in the US hearing declaring them a valid currency.

 

Similarly, I'd imagine it's value would decline if sites that currently accept payment via Bitcoin were to stop for whatever reason. And it's a volatile currency because there is nothing stopping vendors putting their hands up and going 'fuck this... too much of a headache, I'm not dealing with this currency anymore', which is something retailers can't do with GBP/USD etc. In fact, I'm sure their value did plummet to next to nothing when Silk Road was shut down.

 

What confuses the life out of me in the whole process, is why would seemingly legitimate online businesses accept it as payment for goods. If I was in charge of any of these below businesses, there is no way in hell I'd accept payment for goods in a currency so volatile, that comes with a fairly high likelihood of being sourced from shady activity. But the fact that they do accept Bitcoin is what gives it its value.

 

https://www.spendbitcoins.com/places/

 

But yeah, it's a mindfuck and the woohoo could be completely wrong on all of the above

[dervish]

What I don't get is if you need to do fancy maths to get one. With computers getting faster why don't they get cheaper? Or is it that the "easier" bitcoins get found first? Also having read it a few times no idea what a hash is.

[dave_min]

What I don't get is if you need to do fancy maths to get one. With computers getting faster why don't they get cheaper? Or is it that the "easier" bitcoins get found first? Also having read it a few times no idea what a hash is.

 

Cause the problems you have to solve get harder and harder quicker than computers get cheaper and cheaper.

[dervish]

So in the hypothetical situation where quantum computers become available bitcoins would be fucked?

[dave_min]

So in the hypothetical situation where quantum computers become available bitcoins would be fucked?

 

Or when people don't want to buy them anymore.