Author Topic: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency (Read 199237 times)

Red Cez · « **Reply #40 on:** April 8, 2013, 04:11:43 pm »

Was advised to invest in it by a mate last year. The mate in question is a total conspiracy loon so I gave it a miss without doing any research. May have made an error there.

Marty 85 · « **Reply #41 on:** April 8, 2013, 05:27:22 pm »

Even if BTC isn't around for the long haul, I think Cryptocurrency will be. I think it's comparable Napster when it first launched, what it did for file sharing and the music industry. Even if BTC fades, a more popular, user friendly cryptocurrency will take over.

Kashinoda · « **Reply #42 on:** April 9, 2013, 03:58:31 pm »

Just hit the $200 mark - topping out at $219 (£143), and with that an increased wave of media attention. The bubble continues to grow!

Skidder. · « **Reply #43 on:** April 9, 2013, 04:45:09 pm »

If something looks too good to be true, generally it is.

Someone somewhere will get too greedy on this and find some way of cheating to rip other people off...

I'm sorry, I'm not sold, I really think it will be a fad (albeit an expensive fad), have it's day, someone will make money, and it will die out.

I'd just like to add, that all the best scams (not saying this is), have explainable processes which the common man would never understand, even if you gave him the handbook.

Things of true value, like Gold, Oil and Diamond on the other hand, are simple, you find it, you mine it, you sell it, you make money.

DanFromMars · « **Reply #44 on:** April 9, 2013, 06:07:54 pm »

Do you have to buy a bitcoin to start mining with your computer?

Kashinoda · « **Reply #45 on:** April 9, 2013, 06:32:24 pm »

No you don't, but you wont achieve worthwhile results without a top end AMD graphics card, even then you're looking at a £1 a day or something.

I could give you a few links if you're interested to see how it works, nothing stops anyone mining.

Kashinoda · « **Reply #46 on:** April 9, 2013, 06:43:26 pm »

Quote from: Shauno on April 9, 2013, 04:45:09 pm

You find it, you mine it, you sell it, you make money.

Spot on, that's exactly how Bitcoins work

Niru Red4ever · « **Reply #47 on:** April 9, 2013, 07:01:48 pm »

Lets start a RAWK mining pool. With the current inflation rate we will buy up our club in 6 years

Marty 85 · « **Reply #48 on:** April 9, 2013, 07:36:20 pm »

Quote from: Kashinoda on April 9, 2013, 06:43:26 pm

Spot on, that's exactly how Bitcoins work

Your 1.75 coins are worth about £234 now lol I can't see this stopping anytime soon. I think it's going to go into the hundreds as the frenzy surrounding it only grows.

Prelude no.5 · « **Reply #49 on:** April 9, 2013, 08:02:43 pm »

So I have an ATI HD 7950. Is it efficient in this 'mining' ?

DanFromMars · « **Reply #50 on:** April 9, 2013, 08:07:09 pm »

Quote from: Kashinoda on April 9, 2013, 06:32:24 pm

No you don't, but you wont achieve worthwhile results without a top end AMD graphics card, even then you're looking at a £1 a day or something.

I could give you a few links if you're interested to see how it works, nothing stops anyone mining.

I've got a 7970 overclocked and an overclocked i5. Got any links so I can start making sweet monies?

I heard the electricity used to crunch though is more than whatever you'd make, is this true?

Niru Red4ever · « **Reply #51 on:** April 9, 2013, 08:12:38 pm »

Quote from: DanFromMars on April 9, 2013, 08:07:09 pm

I've got a 7970 overclocked and an overclocked i5. Got any links so I can start making sweet monies?

I heard the electricity used to crunch though is more than whatever you'd make, is this true?

Maybe you can make a profit right now; considering the price.

.......... and you can all check this two sites out - will give you all the info. I still think its better to just buy 'em.

http://www.bitcoinx.com/profit/
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

Kashinoda · « **Reply #52 on:** April 9, 2013, 08:18:56 pm »

Quote from: Prelude no.5 on April 9, 2013, 08:02:43 pm

So I have an ATI HD 7950. Is it efficient in this 'mining' ?

UPDATED

The 7950 can perform at a rate of 685 mh/s, without factoring electricity costs and assuming you ran it all day - at the current exchange rate ($230 per BTC) and difficulty (how hard it is to mine) you could make about $10.00 a day. Obviously the value of this could increase.

I got the information from here:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

Calculator here:
http://www.alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator

If you want to start mining, sign up to deepbit:
http://deepbit.net/

Select proportional mode when it asks you.

Download GUI miner from here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3878.0

Extract and open guiminer.exe

Select Deepbit from the dropdown menu, enter your email and password. In the extra flags box put -f60. Then click start mining!

You can see how much BTC you've earned here, there is also a box to enter your Bitcoin address.
https://deepbit.net/account

If you download a Bitcoin wallet they will generate an address so you can send the files to your wallet. The BTC will be stored as a key within this wallet. You can then either sit on it, try to cash out at like www.localbitcoins.com.
http://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

-----

There is dedicated hardware, see this product from Butterfly labs:
https://products.butterflylabs.com/homepage/5-gh-s-bitcoin-miner.html

It can mine at 5,000 mh/s and only costs $274. This would earn you $75 a day at current rates. The problem is they're about to start shipping them and if you ordered one you won't receive it for about half a year or probably longer. By this time mining will be more difficult due to these devices being flooded onto the market, you probably wouldn't make much money by that point.

Make the most of graphic card mining whilst the exchange rates are good and these devices aren't in the wild yet.

Marty 85 · « **Reply #53 on:** April 9, 2013, 08:23:19 pm »

Quote from: Prelude no.5 on April 9, 2013, 08:02:43 pm

So I have an ATI HD 7950. Is it efficient in this 'mining' ?

According to https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison the 7950 will give you a hash rate between 510 - 605 MH/s and the 7970 between 555-825 MH/s, if i'm reading it right. My Gtx 650 produces around 13 MH/s lol

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=102279.0 7950 thread

It's easy to get started just read through the mining section of that forum and you'll pick it up in a few minutes. I think the software I used was GUIminer http://guiminer.org/. You'll need to sign up to a pool or mine solo. From what I gather it's near impossible to mine solo using GPUs so I joined slushys at http://mining.bitcoin.cz/. The rewards are shared but something is better than nothing.

Kashinoda · « **Reply #54 on:** April 9, 2013, 08:29:37 pm »

Marty didn't like my guide

Marty 85 · « **Reply #55 on:** April 9, 2013, 08:31:32 pm »

I changed a few of the hashrate figures I was quoting from the cards, We quoted the same link but I must've been reading them wrong.

Butterflylabs appear to be scammers, they've been taking preorders for a year and a half and have yet to ship anything but those hashrates are incredible compared to GPU mining.

Niru Red4ever · « **Reply #56 on:** April 9, 2013, 08:48:42 pm »

Wow, looks like the boom has caught a second wind.

DanFromMars · « **Reply #57 on:** April 9, 2013, 09:13:11 pm »

Still a bit confused. I've got the program running GUIminer at 550mhs. But after about 5 minutes it stops and I have to click stop mining and start to get it running again.

Skidder. · « **Reply #58 on:** April 9, 2013, 10:20:51 pm »

Quote from: DanFromMars on April 9, 2013, 09:13:11 pm

Still a bit confused. I've got the program running GUIminer at 550mhs. But after about 5 minutes it stops and I have to click stop mining and start to get it running again.

Doesn't happen to throw an advert at you each time does it?

I'm sorry mate, I'm still not convinced...

I'd be interested to see how people get on.

Kashinoda · « **Reply #59 on:** April 9, 2013, 10:23:50 pm »

Quote from: Shauno on April 9, 2013, 10:20:51 pm

Doesn't happen to throw an advert at you each time does it?

I'm sorry mate, I'm still not convinced...

I'd be interested to see how people get on.

There's no con for mining.

You open a program, contribute to solving complex equations using your PC.

You are given BTC instantly, which you can exchange for cash.

I appreciate there is skepticism regarding people simply buying BTC due to a boom, but mining is sound.

Skidder. · « **Reply #60 on:** April 9, 2013, 10:28:49 pm »

Quote from: Kashinoda on April 9, 2013, 10:23:50 pm

There's no con for mining.

You open a program, contribute to solving complex equations using your PC.

You are given BTC instantly, which you can exchange for cash.

I appreciate there is skepticism regarding people simply buying BTC due to a boom, but mining is sound.

Do you remember Seti@home? Folding@Home? Rosetta@Home?

They where quite big in their day and I remember anyone who was anyone had a crack at it. Still haven't found E.T and they are they any closer to discovering a cure for cancer due to it? I dunno, perhaps...

As you said, there'll always be skeptics and I aint trying to be a keyboard warrior, I'm just trying to decode in my head how this all works.

Marty 85 · « **Reply #61 on:** April 9, 2013, 11:09:48 pm »

Quote from: Shauno on April 9, 2013, 10:20:51 pm

Doesn't happen to throw an advert at you each time does it?

I'm sorry mate, I'm still not convinced...

I'd be interested to see how people get on.

I can understand your scepticism as I'm abit of cynic myself and if something seems to good to be true, then...... BUT this is a bubble, people are able to comfortably retire on such investments. It happened with the internet and real estate. You just need to get in there early and get out in time. The big question is - Is this still early days?

Quote from: DanFromMars on April 9, 2013, 09:13:11 pm

Still a bit confused. I've got the program running GUIminer at 550mhs. But after about 5 minutes it stops and I have to click stop mining and start to get it running again.

Join the above forum and ask in the newbie section. Somebody will surely help. After a few post and 4 hours login time on the site, they will let you out onto the main board. or you could try using http://bitminter.com/. It's very noob friendly and here's a guide https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=22432.0

flashman · « **Reply #62 on:** April 10, 2013, 07:53:15 am »

Have been reading up on this, its quite fascinating. I think the spike at the moment has to be a bubble, surely, and you would imagine the price will come crashing down. Its difficult and dangerous to call the top of the market. Anyway I have a couple of questions:

1. What is the best way to buy coins, from what I have read it seems like a hassle.
Is it possible just to go on a site, pay by debit card and the coins are deposited.

2. How can you store the coins safely, in simple terms i.e for someone who is not computer literate.
I'm sure if they were just stored in a wallet on my pc some hacker would have them off pretty easily?

danwms · « **Reply #63 on:** April 10, 2013, 11:40:49 am »

I was looking at buying 10 coins for £360 on ebay last week, wish I went through with it now.

Kashinoda · « **Reply #64 on:** April 10, 2013, 12:32:20 pm »

Ouch, just digged up an old wallet file, has no bitcoins in it but has some transaction history.

On the 18th of July last year I transferred 41.5405BTC - probably worth about £200 then.

Would now be worth £7000

Quote from: flashman on April 10, 2013, 07:53:15 am

Have been reading up on this, its quite fascinating. I think the spike at the moment has to be a bubble, surely, and you would imagine the price will come crashing down. Its difficult and dangerous to call the top of the market. Anyway I have a couple of questions:

1. What is the best way to buy coins, from what I have read it seems like a hassle.
Is it possible just to go on a site, pay by debit card and the coins are deposited.

2. How can you store the coins safely, in simple terms i.e for someone who is not computer literate.
I'm sure if they were just stored in a wallet on my pc some hacker would have them off pretty easily?

You could just encrypt it on your PC (wallet programs have this built in, all you'd need to do is think up a password), and keep a backup of it on something like Dropbox. Should be safe.

Niru Red4ever · « **Reply #65 on:** April 10, 2013, 12:38:07 pm »

Quote from: Kashinoda on April 10, 2013, 12:32:20 pm

Ouch, just digged up an old wallet file, has no bitcoins in it but has some transaction history.

On the 18th of July last year I transferred 41.5405BTC - probably worth about £200 then.

Would now be worth £7000

Ouch!!

Makes me feel better though (as in I am not the only shortsighted idiot out there).

Marty 85 · « **Reply #66 on:** April 10, 2013, 12:50:35 pm »

Quote from: flashman on April 10, 2013, 07:53:15 am

Have been reading up on this, its quite fascinating. I think the spike at the moment has to be a bubble, surely, and you would imagine the price will come crashing down. Its difficult and dangerous to call the top of the market. Anyway I have a couple of questions:

1. What is the best way to buy coins, from what I have read it seems like a hassle.
Is it possible just to go on a site, pay by debit card and the coins are deposited.

2. How can you store the coins safely, in simple terms i.e for someone who is not computer literate.
I'm sure if they were just stored in a wallet on my pc some hacker would have them off pretty easily?

You can't reliably buy Bitcoins using PayPal or credit cards, because it is risky for the seller, and therefore few sellers will offer this. There are basically 4 reasons for that:

The TOS of PayPal actually prohibit buying digital currency with it
The buyer of bitcoins can always perform a chargeback and there is no way for the seller to contest that
There are many hacked accounts and when PayPal realizes that such an account has been fraudulently used, they will also perform a chargeback
PayPal doesn't like bitcoin, as the bitcoin network is in direct competition to it.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_Bitcoins_%28the_newbie_version%29

Marty 85 · « **Reply #67 on:** April 10, 2013, 01:48:11 pm »

Yeah, I was looking at Localbitcoins but as you said, the prices are fairly high. I've yet to buy any, but I will either transfer to transferwise, convert into EUR and then forward it onto Bitstamp or MTGox or just use Localbitcoins if I can find someone who prices fairly. Block chaim ceased all transfers from UK bank accounts the other week.

Marty 85 · « **Reply #68 on:** April 10, 2013, 02:43:53 pm »

Thanks for that. I guess it's why i'm cautious about jumping in right now. I almost wish it would crash or there would be some sort of correction, just so I could invest.

Marty 85 · « **Reply #69 on:** April 10, 2013, 03:26:06 pm »

Do you think Max Keiser is Satoshi Nakamoto?

Azi · « **Reply #70 on:** April 10, 2013, 04:49:51 pm »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22064534

Marty 85 · « **Reply #71 on:** April 10, 2013, 05:36:07 pm »

Interesting but they would have to infect millions of computers for it be any way effective as it's using your CPU to mine, rather than a GPU.

Niru Red4ever · « **Reply #72 on:** April 10, 2013, 06:21:06 pm »

Doesn't seem to have increased over yesterday's - boom phase over (for now, that is)?

There will be a lot of overnight millionaires cashing out now.

DanFromMars · « **Reply #73 on:** April 10, 2013, 07:21:27 pm »

Quote from: Kashinoda on April 9, 2013, 08:18:56 pm

UPDATED

If you download a Bitcoin wallet they will generate an address so you can send the files to your wallet. The BTC will be stored as a key within this wallet. You can then either sit on it, try to cash out at like www.localbitcoins.com.
http://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet

How do you connect your guiminer to the wallet? it says label and address, what do you put in here?

Also my miner program stops after about 5 minutes, how do I keep it constantly running? It says it's running, but my gpu activity suddenly dies.

Alan_X · « **Reply #74 on:** April 10, 2013, 07:26:30 pm »

Quote from: MichaelA on April 7, 2013, 10:40:10 pm

When the tulips blossom.

Haha - I was going to post exactly that.

Malaysian Kopite · « **Reply #75 on:** April 10, 2013, 08:37:38 pm »

Selling at $130 now.

Marty 85 · « **Reply #76 on:** April 10, 2013, 08:40:19 pm »

Quote from: DanFromMars on April 10, 2013, 07:21:27 pm

How do you connect your guiminer to the wallet? it says label and address, what do you put in here?

Also my miner program stops after about 5 minutes, how do I keep it constantly running? It says it's running, but my gpu activity suddenly dies.

Have you downloaded the official Bitcoin client http://bitcoin.org/en/download ? Yu will need to download that first. There's an option within that client to create an address. This is what you will input onto your mining pool website so that all shares are paid direct to you. You can join a pool like Slushy's, there you can register an account, then input your username and password into GUIminer to link everything together.

There's an autostart button, have you that selected? If that doesn't work try using the Bitminter client. It has a large graphical interface is easy to setup bitminter.com

Quote from: Malaysian Kopite on April 10, 2013, 08:37:38 pm

Selling at $130 now.

Apparently it's just another spate of DDOS attacks causing the price to go down. I was wondering because alot of the Litecoin sites were being attacked today and had alot of down time.

Kashinoda · « **Reply #77 on:** April 10, 2013, 10:32:03 pm »

Quote from: Alan_X on April 10, 2013, 07:36:04 pm

I'm not sure this thread belongs on this site. Someone feel free to give me one or two good reasons why it doesn't get binned.

Because the fundamentals of Bitcoins are things that we should fight for, a currency that isn't run by banks or government but by the people that use it.

The bubble is the result of significant real world problems, the banking crisis in Cyprus for example lead to a 100% increase in Bitcoin value a few weeks back.

The media hype due to price increases has made people invest in this big time looking to cash in, that's the way of the world. But the long term implications of having a worldwide decentralised currency is something we should pay attention to.

All that aside, it is big news right now.

TravisBickle · « **Reply #78 on:** April 10, 2013, 11:06:33 pm »

I find it hard to believe Bitcoin was created by one hacker. I've been studying it for a while and it's such an incredible idea. The understanding of so many different fields that would be required to develop something of this complexity is absolutely huge. If it was indeed one bloke, he's a fucking genius.

Skidder. · « **Reply #79 on:** April 11, 2013, 02:58:09 am »

Quote from: Shirley. on April 10, 2013, 11:06:33 pm

I find it hard to believe Bitcoin was created by one hacker. I've been studying it for a while and it's such an incredible idea. The understanding of so many different fields that would be required to develop something of this complexity is absolutely huge. If it was indeed one bloke, he's a fucking genius.

Better the story, bigger the effect.

I really hope some normal, every day Joes like you guys in this thread make a killing from it, but anyone thinking of investing their hard earned cash should do as much empirical research as possible into it before gambling on something that has no actual material in the real world.

After reading a Guardian Article on it. (I know, I'm lazy and all that shit!). The one worrying element which should worry everyone involved is this:

"Dealing in the currency is volatile as has been the history of the services that allow people to trade in Bitcoins. Mt.Gox has been subject to repeated hacking attacks. Instawallet, a popular service for storing Bitcoins, had to be suspended after it was hacked."

The hackers won't stop. They'll spoil it for everyone...