Bitcoin. Anyone playing?

[BLINGMW]

I managed to mine half a bitcoin 2 years ago. :lol: I was probably using more electricity than the value at the time, I gave up, lost interest. Market fell to $5/coin for a long time. Suddenly it's up to $200 over just a couple months.
Any of you use them or holding any? There's got to be some rich geeks out there now!
You may or may not believe in the system, or think it may inevitably fail, but that's true of all currency.
I don't know what to make of it. :dunno:

[CaptainHenreh]

Bitcoin is a fantastic subject for a CS senior project and not much else, IMHO.

All it tells me is that everyone is looking for a hedge.

[JPolen01]

How does this shit work?

[CaptainHenreh]

How does this shit work?

Bitcoin is a digital currency. It was created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto.
Unlike most currencies, Bitcoin does not rely on a central issuer, like a bank or government. Bitcoin uses a log across a peer-to-peer computer network to record transactions.
Bitcoin's design allows for anonymous payments online.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin</a><!-- m -->

Basically, a bitcoin is a representation of the calculation of an algorithm. This calculation had to be done using resources (CPU cycles, which are powered by electricity), which become ever-scarcer as the calculations get harder and harder, eventually capping out at 21 Billion. (Whether we'll ever see this many bitcoins remains to be seen.) This is called "mining bitcoins" and it's pretty much exactly like mining precious metals. The low hanging fruit calculations got done first and quickly...the ones left are really hard and require a lot of CPU time, (and therefore electricity, cooling, etc)

Since the bitcoins are effectively of finite supply BUT infinitely divisible AND are "trusted" implicitly by all the users (and not, say, by a bank), it could, in theory, represent a stable, "ideal" currency that isn't subject to the whims and machinations of governments and banks.

It probably doesn't but it could.

[DavidL]

Learned a fair bit from this WP article from earlier this week...

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-04-04/world/38280106_1_bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto-monetary-policy">http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013 ... ary-policy</a><!-- m -->

[JPolen01]

Learned a fair bit from this WP article from earlier this week...

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-04-04/world/38280106_1_bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto-monetary-policy">http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013 ... ary-policy</a><!-- m -->

That was a good read. Thanks.

[mrbaggio]

I bought 10 coins back when they were valued at $14 bucks. I have used them to play poker and sports bet. The majority of this recent rise is due to speculation and the financial issues in a few euro countries.

The BTC system and technology is pretty interesting. For that reason I hope it takes off. In reality, I think this bubble pops and everyone says I told you so then BTC goes back to only being useful in black markets.

I've already made my money back so I'm just along for the ride up. (I hope) Let me know if you have any questions.

[davej]

just in case...

[CaptainHenreh]

[Mike]

Good article I read yesterday. Considering doing it on the handful of machines I have sitting in my office that do absolutely nothing. I need to perform a task on them maybe twice a year for five minutes. Otherwise, they sit on and idle.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://m.techcrunch.com/2013/04/08/how-to-mine-bitcoins/">http://m.techcrunch.com/2013/04/08/how- ... -bitcoins/</a><!-- m -->

[HAULN-SS]

Wait - I didnt realize that mining actually meant something when i first casually heard of mining bitcoins back in the day. Can you implement the algorithms yourself, or do you have to run their software? I.E. can I write optimized parallel GPU code to run the algorithms on the Amazon EC2 GPU clusters and....profit?

[davej]

[CaptainHenreh]

[BFisch06]

I read into this a year or so ago. Algorithms already exist that take advantage of GPUs (I was looking into nVidia's CUDA language primarily), but as Rex pointed out the low hanging fruit is gone. Given my electricity rate here in town it would take me months to make anything at all, but that was at current conversion rates, which have now changed. However, more bitcoins have been mined, so I don't know how the numbers would pan out now. Good thing is that GPUs continue to get faster without substantially increasing power usage, so the possibility of profit is still there.

[mrbaggio]

I get free power in my building. Bring your rigs over to my house.

[BLINGMW]

haha Rex has been redacted!
Well you guys go right ahead and mine, but yes, I have to think this is a bubble. The last one when it only went to something like 35 was. The market is still relatively small and the early adopters holding all the coins can make the market move, so I certianly cannot invest much time or real money in it without knowing what/who is really driving this.

Well if someone wants to buy my half a bitcoin, please do. And maybe I'll buy a few when it falls back down. I just cannot bring myself to sign up for a service like MtGox to exchange when they keep getting hacked. And when I put a "I'll buy bitcoins in person" ad on craigslist now and then, I never get any responses.

I too hope it takes off, and I think it's as "real" as any fiat currency, but there's no reason it would happen THIS fast. Once some real exchanges start offering them, then it might be useful.

[Mike]

I get free power in my building. Bring your rigs over to my house.

like

[Evan]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania</a><!-- m -->

not a backed currency, yet no intrinsic value either. tries to be both and neither at the same time, depending on what you ask.

its uncharted economic territory, but maybe it has legs in the long term? in the short term it seems pretty clear to me that the buying is based on hedging and mistrust of european banks, especially cyprus who is seizing bank deposits.

economically, it would be pretty awesome if there were one global currency that isnt manipulatable by governments. one less way of governments to fuck with free markets.
not so sure if bitcoin is the long term solution though.

[HAULN-SS]

Did you just advocate for some Revelation 13:15-18 shit?

[G.Irish]

Well, the crash has already happend, bitcoin went from about $230 down to about $130 today.