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

[SSSnail]

Hmm, perfect opportunity to buy some puts...

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Experimented. Cashed out at soon as I met the paypal minimums. Too likely to get an input cable plugged into the ol' output port, if you catch what I'm saying.

Also not too keen on how the bitminer and BTC clients monopolized my internet connection and stashed several GBs of data on my HD, too. (Supposedly just transaction records, I know, but... yeah.)

 

[airdata]

Also not too keen on how the bitminer and BTC clients monopolized my internet connection and stashed several GBs of data on my HD, too. (Supposedly just transaction records, I know, but... yeah.)

Yeah,

Wait until everybody who's ever used bitcoin learns it's the chinese government cracking everything we have.

 

[purbeast0]

after reading the explanations of bitcoin in this thread, i still have no clue wtf it is.

so you use cycles of your vid card to "find" bitcoins. where is it "finding" them and why are they valuable?

 

[lxskllr]

Experimented. Cashed out at soon as I met the paypal minimums. Too likely to get an input cable plugged into the ol' output port, if you catch what I'm saying.

Also not too keen on how the bitminer and BTC clients monopolized my internet connection and stashed several GBs of data on my HD, too. (Supposedly just transaction records, I know, but... yeah.)

The block chains are huge, and take a lot of resources when starting. Like every other software, you need to use libre software to trust it.

 

[Blackjack200]

This is the problem with bitcoin, people are not using it as a currency, they are using it as an investment. A currency that fluccuates in value as wildly as bitcoin isn't really usable.

 

[halik]

Yeah,

Wait until everybody who's ever used bitcoin learns it's the chinese government cracking everything we have.

Heh

 

[lxskllr]

after reading the explanations of bitcoin in this thread, i still have no clue wtf it is.

so you use cycles of your vid card to "find" bitcoins. where is it "finding" them and why are they valuable?

It's finding them by solving math problems. It's a cryptographic currency. They're valuable because people value them. It's highly unstable atm, but it should gain stability if it lasts.

 

[Train]

This is the problem with bitcoin, people are not using it as a currency, they are using it as an investment. A currency that fluccuates in value as wildly as bitcoin isn't really usable.

actually quite a few people are using it as currency. Since online poker became illegal in the US, millions of people are using it to get money into overseas gambling sites. Convert money to bitcoin, deposit in casino, convert back to dollars. Reverse the process when you cash out.

Some legit businesses are allowing you to pay in bitcoin now. Wordpress, Reddit, and a few others I can't remember.

 

[desura]

I had heard of it but not done any of the mining early on.

How much could you mine in the early days? I hear stories of people making like 2-4 bitcoins per day...?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

after reading the explanations of bitcoin in this thread, i still have no clue wtf it is.

so you use cycles of your vid card to "find" bitcoins. where is it "finding" them and why are they valuable?

It is "finding" bitcoins by decrypting stuff. When you get a match to a predetermined number, you get a pack of bitcoins. w@@t, prize!

Bitcoins are just used as alternative currency, mostly by people who have reasons to use untraceable, anonymous currency. And folks who think that this arbitrary fiat currency is somehow "cooler" than the arbitrary fiat currencies they're used to.

If you've played an MMO and bought/sold WoW gold or something, it's basically the same thing except that bit coins have a very limited supply and therefore are artificially highly valued. (And you're getting them by letting your GPUs do math instead of Mining 4 Fish.)

 

[dave_the_nerd]

actually quite a few people are using it as currency. Since online poker became illegal in the US, millions of people are using it to get money into overseas gambling sites. Convert money to bitcoin, deposit in casino, convert back to dollars. Reverse the process when you cash out.

Oh... that's probably why the rapid inflation.

 

[AstroManLuca]

They're not backed by anyone or anything, and they have no intrinsic value either. They could be worth a thousandth of a cent tomorrow, or a million dollars each, depending entirely on what people will pay. The only way you can "invest" in them outside of buying them from people (which seems outrageously stupid with the price as high as it is given the volatility) is to "mine" them, which also costs money.

 

[QueBert]

This is one of those rare things where when I understand what it is, I actually understand it less.

 

[Printer Bandit]

can't a hacker just create the 1s and 0s, i.e. bitcoins ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKprr3tEBew

 

[JM Aggie08]

This whole concept sounds insane...

 

[xj0hnx]

Holy crap, I am going to trade in my .75btc TODAY!!!!

 

[purbeast0]

It is "finding" bitcoins by decrypting stuff. When you get a match to a predetermined number, you get a pack of bitcoins. w@@t, prize!

Bitcoins are just used as alternative currency, mostly by people who have reasons to use untraceable, anonymous currency. And folks who think that this arbitrary fiat currency is somehow "cooler" than the arbitrary fiat currencies they're used to.

If you've played an MMO and bought/sold WoW gold or something, it's basically the same thing except that bit coins have a very limited supply and therefore are artificially highly valued. (And you're getting them by letting your GPUs do math instead of Mining 4 Fish.)

okay i kind of get that. i don't know much about cryptology other than cracking stuff can take years, and i'm guessing this cpu power is being used to brute force these problems.

but once the key is found and the bitcoins are found, what are they actually used for? so the people who are wanting to purchase them, what do they use them for?

 

[manimal]

Hmm, perfect opportunity to buy some puts...

put in the french definition? hell ya ill brink the coke

 

[lxskllr]

but once the key is found and the bitcoins are found, what are they actually used for? so the people who are wanting to purchase them, what do they use them for?

You use them to buy products/services. You can use them directly with people that accept them, or convert them on a currency exchange. The benefit, is it's pseudo-anonymous, and it isn't dependent on a single failure point. Want to donate to Wikileaks? Well, your fucked because the US government put pressure on conventional payment processors to eliminate funding(Wikileaks was DDoSed). With bitcoin, anyone willing to convert the currency to something else can be processor.

It also doesn't have the protections of conventional currency, so you can get burned. It's non-refundable, and it's a bearer instrument. You have to take responsibility for your finances.

 

[silverpig]

I had heard of it but not done any of the mining early on.

How much could you mine in the early days? I hear stories of people making like 2-4 bitcoins per day...?

Depends on "early on". There were people who had a few hundred thousand bitcoins because they stared really early on. I got in on it fairly late, ran my cpu at 100% for a week and think I earned $5 worth. It just wasn't worth it for me.

 

[Sonikku]

For those living in an apartment building where the utilities are rolled into the rent and cost the name every month, there is no reason not to mine.

 

[sunzt]

Depends on "early on". There were people who had a few hundred thousand bitcoins because they stared really early on. I got in on it fairly late, ran my cpu at 100% for a week and think I earned $5 worth. It just wasn't worth it for me.

totally sounds like a pyramid scheme

 

[T9D]

So wait is this a fake problem just to make it difficult to find? What a damn waste of energy if it is. Horrible for the environment just to waste an incredible amount of electricity like that. And like someone else mentioned it makes me wonder if it's some nefarious cracking it's doing.

Now if it was doing something like folding@home or helping to solve some other problem for the betterment of mankind that would be great and worthwhile. Otherwise was a flipping shameful waste.

 

[rsutoratosu]

the reason not to mine is they jack up your maintenance fees every year because more utility are being used. i'm sitting in an office with 10 empty seats, i could mine at work with a few machines