Bitcoin sellers remorse.... how many people are kicking themselves for cashing out>?

[Train]

But there's no benefit. You're burning processing power for a random reason to generate questionable income. Why not put that to good use and have a paid distributed computing model where your processing power is used to actually do something useful...

If it were possible to integrate such a problem into the mining of bitcoins, I am sure it would be done. However bitcoin was setup so that the answers are unknown (and can't be known until previous blocks are uncovered) or else someone would just "discover" all possible blocks at once.

But don't worry, once all possible blocks are found, mining will stop forever. Until someone invents a new digital currency.

 

[Newbian]

Wow, I held on to mine. Last I checked they were worth $6, I stopped mining a while back, figured it wasn't worth the electric cost. I assume the difficulty is way up now?

I just logged in, I have 2.36xxxx bitcoins in my wallet yet, and maybe another couple in a different wallent if I could find the code. Would you sell or wait? I assume it should go higher as the difficulty increases?

At $70 or so each I vote sell them and get a new video card.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

But there's no benefit. You're burning processing power for a random reason to generate questionable income. Why not put that to good use and have a paid distributed computing model where your processing power is used to actually do something useful...

link?
and how much? enuf to cover the cost of electricity?

link???? cmon!

 

[WiseUp216]

I was in pretty early (May 2011). I sold them as I mined them for around $25 each until eBay banned them. Hell, I was selling 1/10 of a coin on eBay for $5.00

After that first crash, I bailed on it. I never thought it would rebound at all and never expected anything like this.

If I had stuck with it, I would have made a decent chunk of change. So yea, I do regret it.

 

[Zstream]

It's pretend money, just like US currency. It's worth what people say it's worth.

Understood that the currency is pretend in most circumstances but I would like to ask again.

What does building a block of data give the world? I can give someone gold, silver, us dollars and even euro in return for labor. I cannot give this block of data to anyone because it's not useful to the world.

Let me ask again. Why is a block of data worth gold, silver, us dollars or euro if that block of data has no value to anyone or anything?

 

[darkewaffle]

Wow, $75 now? Wasn't it just like $36 last week?

It's going up way too fast at this rate - there's going to be a huge crash here sooner rather than later. Someone is most definitely manipulating the market.

Same thing that happened about two years ago. It's going to continuously spike and crash circuitously because people think of it as a commodity and not a currency.

 

[Juddog]

Understood that the currency is pretend in most circumstances but I would like to ask again.

What does building a block of data give the world? I can give someone gold, silver, us dollars and even euro in return for labor. I cannot give this block of data to anyone because it's not useful to the world.

Let me ask again. Why is a block of data worth gold, silver, us dollars or euro if that block of data has no value to anyone or anything?

That's the whole point - it has value because people give it value, the same exact thing as US dollars. Currency only works if the two parties involved in a purchase agree to use it - same thing here.

 

[darkewaffle]

Also price/coin has increased due to perception of their value being greater as a result of continual "difficulty" hikes rather than recognizing how large the currency "pool" of them still is. People think they're more valuable because they're reacting to them being created more slowly and using that as a measure of scarcity. When in actuality I would not be surprised at all to see early adopters still holding on to thousands of them (when the program was in its infant stages coins were produced at relatively incredible speed).

Though given their nature it's also possible some (or even a lot) of them have been "destroyed" through people losing access or losing interest.

 

[Train]

... I would not be surprised at all to see early adopters still holding on to thousands of them ...

Since the entire history of all bitcoins is in the block chain, you could look up how many have never been circulated. Ars had an article on someone who actually built a graph using the data. Something like 25% (totally from memory here) have never been exchanged once since being discovered.

 

[vshah]

i definitely am. i had about $500 worth when it was around $3 a coin. cashed out at around the same shortly after the mtgox hack

 

[IceBergSLiM]

I never said it was.

The government owes you nothing if tommorow your dollars are worth nothing so I'm not sure what your point is that the "government backs it" ...there is literally nothing of substance backing the money.

 

[airdata]

To those who are sitting on a stock pile of bitcoins : I'd say sell them... chances of prices being this high or higher are questionable...

Also, 1JYdDv2YHXthtLjEiwtLSW9LjsN4ehQjkc I wouldn't decline a finders fee if my thread just made you aware that you're sitting on thousands of dollars.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

But the government has assets, and has the ability to levy taxes to extract value.

There is nothing in writing that says the government must liquidate its assets to prop up the value of your dollar. Just look at some countries in central and south america that are on their 3rd/4th/5th currency in the last hundred years. Tell me how many government assets were liquidated.

 

[airdata]

i definitely am. i had about $500 worth when it was around $3 a coin. cashed out at around the same shortly after the mtgox hack

Yeah, that's the thing about btc.... there's people sitting on millions of dollars of btc.

screw robbing a bank and risking life/limb/life behind bars... etc.... I'm sure hackers are working round the clock trying to get people's btc.

 

[z1ggy]

There is nothing in writing that says the government must liquidate its assets to prop up the value of your dollar. Just look at some countries in central and south america that are on their 3rd/4th/5th currency in the last hundred years. Tell me how many government assets were liquidated.

Supposedly we have gold backing up our currency at Fort Knox...But yeah....I don't think we have enough gold in there to back up all the money we say we print every year, especially with this inflation crazy shit going on because they just keep inventing money out of thin air.

btc and any commod. are going to be worth what the market says it is. If suddenly we disocover tomorrow than you can use rice to cure cancer, the price of rice is going to sky rocket like a mofo.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Supposedly we have gold backing up our currency at Fort Knox...But yeah....I don't think we have enough gold in there to back up all the money we say we print every year, especially with this inflation crazy shit going on because they just keep inventing money out of thin air.

btc and any commod. are going to be worth what the market says it is. If suddenly we disocover tomorrow than you can use rice to cure cancer, the price of rice is going to sky rocket like a mofo.

The dollar hasn't been backed by gold for like 200 years.

 

[Sloper]

Transaction fees are expected to replace the reward for mining blocks.

Miners are a misnomer. What "miners" are doing is maintaining a universal transaction ledger. In doing so, they get a reward based on their computer cycle contribution to this network. The reward includes both the block reward (currently 25/block) and transaction fees. The transaction fees are minor now but if bitcoins continue to grow, it's expected to the transaction fees alone would be enough enticement to keep "mining".

 

[skimple]

The dollar hasn't been backed by gold for like 200 years.

Actually, only about 40 years ago. Best thing to ever happen to gold.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Actually, only about 40 years ago. Best thing to ever happen to gold.

Really? Man my time scales must be completely off.

 

[AstroManLuca]

That's the whole point - it has value because people give it value, the same exact thing as US dollars. Currency only works if the two parties involved in a purchase agree to use it - same thing here.

Except the US dollar is backed by the US government, not by nobody.

 

[lxskllr]

Except the US dollar is backed by the US government, not by nobody.

Backed? How so?

 

[TwiceOver]

So I think I'm getting a handle on this. So there's a finite amount of these Blocks... So my computer chugs away at finding a block, meanwhile someone else finds it before I do and he gets a coin? So all my effort to this point was waste?

 

[lxskllr]

So I think I'm getting a handle on this. So there's a finite amount of these Blocks... So my computer chugs away at finding a block, meanwhile someone else finds it before I do and he gets a coin? So all my effort to this point was waste?

Yup.

 

[WelshBloke]

Since the entire history of all bitcoins is in the block chain, you could look up how many have never been circulated. Ars had an article on someone who actually built a graph using the data. Something like 25% (totally from memory here) have never been exchanged once since being discovered.

I'd bet that a significant amount of that 25% have been "lost down the back of the sofa".

 

[Hugo Drax]

I will stick to equity derivatives. that whole Bitcoin market seems too much of a mystery.