Author Topic: Bitcoin - the currency of the internet.  (Read 24307 times)

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Offline Snake X

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Bitcoin - the currency of the internet.
« on: May 29, 2011, 10:28:30 pm »
That's right. I recently found this out on pc world on how to make money. You are appearantly able to make money by generating bitcoins. This is achieved via a bitcoin miner. There is an informational video here:


Also http://www.weusecoins.com/

So check it out! :D

Here is a list of sites that you can buy products.. with bitcoins!

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade

Also be sure to check this out as well for questions: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ

edit: The main site is located at bitcoin.org

edit 2: just for fun it seems like you can buy a snes unit for 7.05 bitcoins over at JJgames :P
« Last Edit: May 29, 2011, 10:30:37 pm by Snake X »
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Offline ruler501

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Re: Bitcoin - the currency of the internet.
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2011, 10:37:14 pm »
This looks awesome I'll have to start mining now.
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Offline Snake X

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Re: Bitcoin - the currency of the internet.
« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2011, 10:40:45 pm »
First thing you want to note is when you download the application,  you will see in the bottom right hand corner 'blocks'. You will want to wait until it gets to 127571 at the moment (subject to increase every 10 mins or so). Then you can start generating. However, you might want to think about mining with your GPU instead of your cpu. If you have a powerful gpu, this might be a good alternative.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Why_a_GPU_mines_faster_than_a_CPU

edit: http://www.newslobster.com/random/how-to-get-started-using-your-gpu-to-mine-for-bitcoins-on-windows
« Last Edit: May 29, 2011, 10:41:03 pm by Snake X »
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Offline ruler501

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Re: Bitcoin - the currency of the internet.
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2011, 10:47:23 pm »
How do I get this working for ubuntu(well mint but same thing for this purpose)?
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Offline Goplat

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Re: Bitcoin - the currency of the internet.
« Reply #4 on: May 29, 2011, 10:51:40 pm »
Bitcoin is a pyramid scheme. It is intended to create a very few, very wealthy people by ripping off everyone else who participates.

The way it works is that the total rate of bitcoins that can be produced over time is controlled so that the more people are mining, the fewer bitcoins they each will get. The handful of people who knew about it in 2009 were able to mine millions of coins using very little computational power. Once they had enough, they started advertising bitcoin on Slashdot and other places. Now that everyone knows about it, the mining difficulty has increased a millionfold, making coins rarer and thus more value (as long as enough people can be duped into buying and selling with them).

Humanity already has plenty of undeserving, parasitic elites on Wall Street, we don't need to create them on the internet too. The ethical thing to do is to avoid bitcoin transactions to prevent it from rising in value further.
« Last Edit: May 29, 2011, 10:56:59 pm by Goplat »
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Offline ruler501

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Re: Bitcoin - the currency of the internet.
« Reply #5 on: May 29, 2011, 10:56:39 pm »
Now that you explain it that way it does seem much worse.

EDIT: I guess things like this always are too good to be true. It sounds like a nice idea though. How exactly does this create monetary value?
« Last Edit: May 29, 2011, 10:59:56 pm by ruler501 »
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Offline Snake X

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Re: Bitcoin - the currency of the internet.
« Reply #6 on: May 29, 2011, 10:59:18 pm »
The handful of people who knew about it in 2009 were able to mine millions of coins using very little computational power.

But wasn't it made in 2010?
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Offline Goplat

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Re: Bitcoin - the currency of the internet.
« Reply #7 on: May 29, 2011, 11:13:40 pm »
The handful of people who knew about it in 2009 were able to mine millions of coins using very little computational power.

But wasn't it made in 2010?
That's what they'd like us to think, I'm sure ;)

There is a graph at http://bitcoin.sipa.be/speed-ever.png that shows on a logarithmic scale, the amount of computation, and the difficulty (which is periodically adjusted to the amount of computation). Mining was super easy all throughout 2009; notice that the difficulty is now almost a million times higher.
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Offline ruler501

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Re: Bitcoin - the currency of the internet.
« Reply #8 on: May 29, 2011, 11:15:35 pm »
According to that it started in '09. I wonder if something like this could ever work.

Could someone please explain why this makes the coins of monetary value?
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Offline Snake X

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Re: Bitcoin - the currency of the internet.
« Reply #9 on: May 29, 2011, 11:16:27 pm »
x.x so I will probably be waiting how long you think for 1 bitcoin?
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Offline ruler501

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Re: Bitcoin - the currency of the internet.
« Reply #10 on: May 29, 2011, 11:19:28 pm »
A very long time

EDIT: I wondered what happened when it hit 0 difficulty?
« Last Edit: May 29, 2011, 11:21:13 pm by ruler501 »
I currently don't do much, but I am a developer for a game you should totally try out called AssaultCube Reloaded download here https://assaultcuber.codeplex.com/
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Offline tloz128

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Re: Bitcoin - the currency of the internet.
« Reply #11 on: May 29, 2011, 11:36:24 pm »
Ugh, I've heard about these before. I have no plans getting my hands dirty with them, and I hope that you do the same... for your own good, too.
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Offline Goplat

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Re: Bitcoin - the currency of the internet.
« Reply #12 on: May 29, 2011, 11:38:06 pm »
Could someone please explain why this makes the coins of monetary value?
The way any currency has value is that you can buy things with it. The value is basically proportional to the amount of trade that takes place with the currency, divided by the amount of the currency in existence.

Bitcoin has a tightly controlled rate of creation (more people getting into it does not mean more bitcoins will be created), so the more people involved, the more valuable it gets. Once that gets as high as it's going to get, the 2009ers will cash out, making themselves rich, but causing a large drop in bitcoin value (due to the millions of "new" bitcoins entering circulation), which will very quickly turn into an outright crash (nobody wants to be stuck holding a currency that's rapidly dropping in value, so people will try to get out while they still can, causing a positive-feedback loop) - so everyone else is stuck holding now-worthless imaginary money.

A very long time

EDIT: I wondered what happened when it hit 0 difficulty?
Actually that wasn't the difficulty that hit 0 briefly, only the amount of mining.
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Offline calcdude84se

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Re: Bitcoin - the currency of the internet.
« Reply #13 on: June 01, 2011, 09:37:41 pm »
I've heard of this before, but never gotten involved, and now Goplat's given me excellent reason not to.
It seems that mining would be fair as long as the difficulty remains constant, but that remains ignorant of increasing computing power.
How badly could things go if the system was open-ended, that is, if there was no fixed limit on the amount of coins in the system? (It's probably a bad idea. If so, please state this outright and say why. ;)) This would make it necessary to mine all the time and consistently upgrade one's hardware to protect oneself from the ongoing hyperinflation, but at least it prevents early adopters from creating a vast store of easy money...
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Offline ruler501

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Re: Bitcoin - the currency of the internet.
« Reply #14 on: June 01, 2011, 09:53:20 pm »
YOu could just increase the difficulty with how computing power increases instead of by people. SO liek every 18 months it doubles
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