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Buying bitcoins

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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 13,252 ✭✭✭✭kowloon


    pH wrote: »
    When was this? By "price of an indian" I guess you mean 30-40 euro?

    What mHash/sec and what guild?

    AFAIK a good modern GPU was getting 100Mhash/sec - this would earn you about 20c a day on slush's pool. Just wondering as gpu mining is not profitable any more, and even the FPGA mining rigs are being replaced with ASICs. Currently it would take someone with a desktop rig single GPU 200+ days to mine 50 euro!

    Was joking about the Indian, I think it was more like a starter. Maybe a Peshwari naan after transfer fees :D.

    I got about 300-320 Mhash/s out of half the card. Even when the reward was 50BTC a block and the difficulty was a lot lower I still can't see how it was worth it to buy a machine and dedicate it to mining. I spotted forum posts with return on investment more than a year away, continuously running.

    Either way, it's not nice to hear about people losing the larger chunk of their retirement fund after buying up at the peak and panic selling.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,157 ✭✭✭srsly78


    id imagine it would be one of the bigger uses of bitcoins, besides speculating on them.

    so if they were able to regulate them in the states would that have an effect on people wo use them for gambling?

    Ehh the gambling is illegal there (depends on state etc etc) in the first place - nevermind anything about bitcoins :pac:

    Ireland is actually a very "gambling friendly" country, we take it for granted here.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,538 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Interesting from 1933 HG Wells - The Shape of Things to Come

    http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301391h.html
    The explicit repudiation of democratic control by the Technologists at that date is very notable. The unit of energy was to be the basis of a new currency. So every power station became a mint and every waterfall a potential "gold-mine", and the money and the energy in human affairs remained practically in step.

    Two ways of looking at this

    a - simplistically in that bitmining uses energy

    b - someone could create a new bitcoin like currency and limit it to something like the GWh produced per year.

    As a medium of exchange bitcoins has many advantages.

    As an investment opportunity one big risk is that someone launches an alternative currency that won't significantly appreciate in value but has all the other medium of exchange advantages of bitcoins.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,188 ✭✭✭pH


    b - someone could create a new bitcoin like currency and limit it to something like the GWh produced per year.

    So consider each SolidCoin to be backed by energy, no one can produce them unless they expend a certain amount of energy and from that comes a stable value.
    http://solidcoin.info/faq.html


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,538 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    pH wrote: »
    So consider each SolidCoin to be backed by energy, no one can produce them unless they expend a certain amount of energy and from that comes a stable value.
    http://solidcoin.info/faq.html
    Very different.

    Solidcoin is now Microcash :rolleyes:

    it's calculations are supposedly hard to do on GPU's and dedicated hardware,
    but that just means no one has really tried hard.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,188 ✭✭✭pH


    Now the bubble has burst and things are getting back to normal - if anyone wants to buy a few bitcoins then I could help - PM me if you'd only like a couple of coins and find the hassle of setting up an exchange account and SEPA transfers too much.


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,977 ✭✭✭✭Giblet


    I don't think we've seen the bottom yet. Still rolling down that hill.


  • Registered Users Posts: 330 ✭✭xertpo




  • Registered Users Posts: 559 ✭✭✭Amberman


    haha...these idiots give cops a bad name.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,538 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-12/virtual-bitcoin-mining-is-a-real-world-environmental-disaster.html
    Blockchain.info, a site that tracks data on Bitcoin mining, estimates that in just the last 24 hours, miners used about $147,000 of electricity just to run their hardware, assuming an average price of 15 cents per kilowatt hour (a little higher than the U.S. average, lower than some high cost areas like California). That, of course, is in addition to the money devoted to buying and building the mining rigs.

    ...
    One of the strangest aspects of the Bitcoin frenzy is that the Bitcoin economy replicates some of the most archaic features of the gold standard. Real-world mining of precious metals for currency was a resource-hungry and value-destroying process.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 5,982 ✭✭✭Caliden



    "The site estimates the profits from the day of mining at about $681,000, based on the current value of Bitcoins."

    So....profit?


  • Registered Users Posts: 559 ✭✭✭Amberman


    Ofcourse, thats only true if you assign no value to Bitcoins...which flies in the face of what the free market has decided.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,538 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Caliden wrote: »
    "The site estimates the profits from the day of mining at about $681,000, based on the current value of Bitcoins."

    So....profit?
    Article date was 2013-04-12 ;)

    http://blockchain.info/stats
    Electricity Cost $169,582.40
    Mining Profits
    Operating Profit $362,487.40
    Electricity cost is 46% of "profit"

    Also price is still yoyo-ing was as low as $55 earlier today


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,554 ✭✭✭zonEEE


    Electricity cost is going to drop hugely with the introduction of ASIC's. Butterfly labs 60GHz runs @ 60watts


  • Registered Users Posts: 498 ✭✭Roonbox


    Well for some reason MT.gox denied my membership :) so I guess that makes my mind up for me.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,538 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    zonEEE wrote: »
    Electricity cost is going to drop hugely with the introduction of ASIC's. Butterfly labs 60GHz runs @ 60watts
    So only those who invest in dedicated hardware will mine in future.

    And don't forget the difficulty is adaptive.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,554 ✭✭✭zonEEE


    So only those who invest in dedicated hardware will mine in future.

    And don't forget the difficulty is adaptive.

    yep, there's many that have already 25k+ orders with bufferfly labs. Its to late to make money mining bitcoins unless you already have a pre order in. Difficultly will go insane.

    Pre orders can be bought on ebay, they have gone for 10k plus in the past few weeks.

    One with three days left.

    http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Pre-Order-1-x-60-GH-s-Bitcoin-Miner-BitForce-Single-SC-ASIC-Butterfly-Labs-/271188485081?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f2417e3d9#ht_1870wt_906


  • Registered Users Posts: 1 vanbrah


    hey, does anyone live around galway and own bitcoins? im just looking to buy 2 for an online purchase - have cash :/ i cant get the online wire transfer bull**** to work. driving me nuts!


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,157 ✭✭✭srsly78


    Are you guys undercover guards?

    From the other thread -> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=174918.0


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,739 ✭✭✭scamalert


    There was recently a lot of hype from media as bitcoin value soared over 100$ per coin,what began as 7c-20c value at the beginning.its one of those currencies that can range a lot-but the main idea of creator was to create currency that government wouldn't have any intervention on it and it would be an independent currency.The only flaw with that is that its prone to be more dependent on those who have money,so basically anyone who has access to computer lab or some sort of render farm could make more money then average miner.The process to make coins is called mining and anyone with a pc can do it,but the problem with that is it basically uses up all cpu and graphics card resources to solve hard math equations,which take days to months to make a coin.so dunno if taken all electricity required and basically powerful pc to make best of it at the end,i would see it more like waste of resources then money making.Also its acceptance is very slim,but it has huge potential for black market online,as its non traceable,easy to transfer,and not to hard to cash out.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,922 ✭✭✭fergalr


    scamalert wrote: »
    as its non traceable,

    Its not as untraceable as many people think.

    If you use it without care, you can leave a pretty large amount of information about your activity.
    That problem will only increase over time, unless people change how they use it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,739 ✭✭✭scamalert


    dont see any risk in using it for purchases or leaving a trace its up to people what they buy.But as i mentioned whats the point of currency,if someone with a proper gear can make dozens of it a day,its not a real labor using up your gear and electricity for pc to do f all is it,then put a value on it which in reality doesn't have any,thats why banks dont have fear of it,as its prone to vulnerabilities then a real currency which is controlled by government,imagine someone country wanted to sabotage that,the only thing they would need is one of them super computers,and you'd have market flooded with bitcoins.
    Don't have anything against this project,as the guy who created it seems genius enough.But long term i dont see it having much of a future to replace real money.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,188 ✭✭✭pH


    Bloomberg have some sort of irrational hatred for bitcoin.

    Seeing as all their financial reporting spectacularly failed to warn anyone about the US subprime meltdown and pretty much everything that happened in Europe, I'd take their dismissal of the future of bitcoin as a huge positive endorsement.

    Global energy usage is somewhere around 300,000 gwh per day and bloomberg are calling an energy usage of 1gwh per day an "environmental disaster"?


  • Registered Users Posts: 650 ✭✭✭euroboom13


    i only know two things about bitcoins

    1)i wish boughts some to sell now
    2) I would n`t even consider entering the game now , even if i could double /triple /quad....

    RUN....to much hype


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,538 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    zonEEE wrote: »
    yep, there's many that have already 25k+ orders with bufferfly labs. Its to late to make money mining bitcoins unless you already have a pre order in.
    actually you could make more money on the pre orders

    http://www.ebay.ie/itm/60-GH-s-Butterfly-Labs-Bitcoin-Miner-BitForce-SC-ASIC-Preorder-/321108528557?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ac38f4dad
    At the time of this auction all I have is a order number and email from Butterfly labs


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,554 ✭✭✭zonEEE




  • Registered Users Posts: 491 ✭✭brendan86


    can someone please explain to me how to mine bitcoins.. what software etc would I need? Im google'ing it but cant seem to find much information about the process

    Thanks
    Brendan


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,188 ✭✭✭pH


    brendan86 wrote: »
    can someone please explain to me how to mine bitcoins.. what software etc would I need? Im google'ing it but cant seem to find much information about the process

    Thanks
    Brendan

    http://www.newslobster.com/random/how-to-get-started-using-your-gpu-to-mine-for-bitcoins-on-windows

    However
    A) It's pretty much pointless mining solo - you need to be in a guild.
    B) Even with one of the very latest GPU cards running flat out 24/7 you will only make a few cents per day.
    C) FPGAs are much more involved, you might pick them up 2nd hand but ...
    D) ASICs are now here and nothing else really matters.


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  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,538 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    pH wrote: »
    D) ASICs are now here and nothing else really matters.
    Some hardware to choose from.
    http://www.bitcoinx.com/bitcoin-mining-hardware/

    Of course the chances of a newcomer having it arrive in time is fairly small as it's an arms race.


    Also this knocks out namecoin
    http://dot-bit.org/Merged_Mining
    its like a lottery where everyone generates tickets until someone finds the winning one. Normally you make tickets and check them against the Bitcoin block chain to see if they are the solution. With merged mining you create a ticket and check it against both the Bitcoin block chain and the Namecoin block chain, Bitcoin and Namecoin know nothing about each other, they are two totally different lotteries with different winning numbers, you just sent a copy of your ticket to both



    Exchange rates. ( Facebook likes are at the bottom )
    http://liliontransfer.org/?cms_www=cennik


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