$93

Quote :

"So how long does it take to mine for them now with it getting so popular and everyone is adding to the transaction?"

You can always ask this guy: http://bitcoinminer.com/

Quote :

"I'm not so sure that mining activity is increasing, just speculation."

Mining activity should go up as it becomes more profitable, which should occur with large spikes in price. The price has increased 5x in 2 months. It went from $13 to $88 on the last fucking page.

Newer, cheaper hardware is probably increasing activity too.

[Edited on March 28, 2013 at 10:27 AM. Reason : asdfgdsafsadfsdaf]

3/28/2013 10:25:45 AM

even with the best hardware, it still not profitable to mine.

3/28/2013 10:44:21 AM

I've been hearing about this for a long time, but had no idea the value had spiked so much.

Is the client still very AMD biased? I don't understand why a specific CUDA based client couldn't be made.

For example how long would it take to mine 1 Bitcoin with a 3570K and a GTX 660 Ti?


BTW Silver Lining sounds awesome, but also sounds like another great way to get arrested for using your PC, especially since Obama wants to start Internet Drivers Licenses.

3/28/2013 12:19:37 PM

^^Really? http://www.bitcoinx.com/profit/

The default settings here are based on this: http://www.butterflylabs.com/landing/

Break even in 4 days. Profit of $400/day after that.

Quote :

"Is the client still very AMD biased?"

Maybe I'm confused, but wouldn't it be the protocol that is biased, rather than a specific client?

At bottom, you're just doing SHA256 hashes. I don't see what the client has to do with it.

3/28/2013 12:41:14 PM

Quote :

"For example how long would it take to mine 1 Bitcoin with a 3570K and a GTX 660 Ti?"

Again, maybe I have forgotten how this works, but at this point it has jack do with your CPU. According to this, you'd get ~100MH/s with that card. It would take over 4 months to get 1 BTC with that. I wouldn't bother.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-660-ti-benchmark-review,3279-12.html

[Edited on March 28, 2013 at 12:52 PM. Reason : this]

3/28/2013 12:51:16 PM

1. Those butterfly boxes aren't out yet so good luck trying to gain money on vaporware. If they do live up to the hype, then cool beans, but for normal PC bit mining, its piss par performance, even with AMD gpu's.
2. Yes, its still heavy biased towards AMD cards compared to Nvidia.

3/28/2013 1:20:00 PM

I didn't do an explicit count, but it sure seems like SatoshiDice accounts for a lot of the transactions in a block. Those guys must be raking in tremendous cash.

This is the latest cleared block:
http://blockchain.info/block-index/368624/0000000000000078f4851089724d8c065992769d79a1d01d8ea99747ce9b8a45

Quote :

"At bottom, you're just doing SHA256 hashes. I don't see what the client has to do with it."

I think you get much higher hash rate on AMD cards than any other. The miners are optimized that way. It was that way last year and I can't find anything to indicate it was changed.

[Edited on March 29, 2013 at 5:23 PM. Reason : a]

3/29/2013 5:16:58 PM

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Why_a_GPU_mines_faster_than_a_CPU#Why_are_AMD_GPUs_faster_than_Nvidia_GPUs.3F

Quote :

"Firstly, AMD designs GPUs with many simple ALUs/shaders (VLIW design) that run at a relatively low frequency clock... This translates to a raw ALU performance advantage for AMD"

Quote :

"This approximate 2x-3x performance difference exists across the entire range of AMD and Nvidia GPUs. It is very visible in all ALU-bound GPGPU workloads such as Bitcoin, password bruteforcers, etc."

Quote :

"Secondly, another difference favoring Bitcoin mining on AMD GPUs instead of Nvidia's is that the mining algorithm is based on SHA-256, which makes heavy use of the 32-bit integer right rotate operation. This operation can be implemented as a single hardware instruction on AMD GPUs (BIT_ALIGN_INT), but requires three separate hardware instructions to be emulated on Nvidia GPUs (2 shifts + 1 add)."

Quote :

"Combined together, these 2 factors make AMD GPUs overall 3x-5x faster when mining Bitcoins."

It is not because someone wrote an inefficient client for Nvidia cards and it's not going to change unless the cards change.

3/31/2013 8:14:14 AM

I am 100% positive the bottom will fall out of this market soon. Regulators are already peering at it from on high with their beady little eyes.

3/31/2013 11:37:01 AM

Quote :

"Break even in 4 days. Profit of $400/day after that."

well that seems totally legit. something that makes $144,000 a year for a minimal investment. sign me up

3/31/2013 11:52:19 AM

^^you want to specify what you mean by "soon" for your 100% guaranteed prediction?



people have been saying that for years now

3/31/2013 4:08:57 PM

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/willardfoxton2/100007836/bitcoin-pirate-scandal-sec-steps-in-amid-allegations-that-the-whole-thing-was-a-ponzi-scheme/ - SEC investigates fradulent S&L scheme set up using bitcoin

http://www.ecb.int/pub/pdf/other/virtualcurrencyschemes201210en.pdf - European Central Bank - equiv of the Fed - 40+ page whitepaper on bitcoin and other virtual currencies


if the SEC is investigating fraud and the ECB is looking at it strongly enough to write a long paper on it, then regulation is not far behind.

also, unabated growth like that is wholly unsustainable. OH MAN ITS UP NEAR $100 NOW AFTER HAVING BEEN $4 BEFORE - get ready for the bubble to pop, son. It's happened before in every market and it will happen in this one as well.

so take that nice little and jam it up your ass.

[Edited on April 1, 2013 at 8:32 AM. Reason : .]

4/1/2013 8:29:33 AM

Quote :

"In the 1920s, Ponzi claimed he was using telegraphs to move postal coupons from Europe to the USA and making a killing; arguably, the only real difference between the two schemes is that Pirate claimed to be selling on Bitcoins at a profit locally, where they apparently traded at a premium."

So what you're saying is that after Ponzi was discovered, the value of the dollar plummete- oh wait, no that doesn't make any sense. Hmm.

Please note that kiljadn did not specify a time period for "soon."

AT AN UNSPECIFIED TIME IN THE FUTURE, THE VALUE WILL BE LESS THAN IT IS NOW. EVEN THOUGH THAT HAPPENS EVERY DAY. I AM NOSTRAFUCKINGDAMUS

4/1/2013 11:08:55 AM

$104

4/1/2013 11:09:23 AM

You're a fucking moron, who obviously lacks the ability to grasp basic economics. Enjoy it when your Imaginarybucks(TM) dry up.

4/1/2013 6:17:58 PM

^

I love seeing these comments. It's like the only options are: put every dollar/asset into bitcoin or nothing at all. There are of course a thousand other possibilities, like putting some small percentage of savings in BTC and sell off a percentage of that to get a decent return over time. I wish in hindsight I'd put all my money into it, but I hedged quite a lot and had minimal risk for what turned out a great return. I'll continue to do that and when it crashes I'll take my 30000% gain for my 5% loss.

4/1/2013 6:23:31 PM

I too think bit coin is dumb, but that doesn't mean it can't be a worthwhile investment mechanism until it collapses.

4/1/2013 6:34:36 PM

^ That's the fucking problem with shit like this. Sure it's a neat game to make a quick buck playing, and I can't blame you, but then there are the fucktards that see that and actually believe it's a legit long term investment that they can ride forever.

[Edited on April 1, 2013 at 6:48 PM. Reason : bleh, it's what's wrong w/ all markets - people treat it like a game]

[Edited on April 1, 2013 at 6:49 PM. Reason : ]

4/1/2013 6:47:35 PM

the trick is to figure out how to get out of the bubble before it pops

4/1/2013 6:51:12 PM

The trick to immortality is know why you're going to die

4/1/2013 7:08:32 PM

Quote :

"You're a fucking moron, who obviously lacks the ability to grasp basic economics."

Actually, no. I haven't made any claims about economics. I've asked for some clarity on your vague ass predictions... which you have failed to provide. The same predictions people have been making for literally 2 years now and we've yet to see it happen.

You're the one who thinks that fraud committed using a particular currency leads to a collapse in that currency.

Quote :

"Enjoy it when your Imaginarybucks(TM) dry up."

Actually, I don't own any BTC. Thanks for playing.

4/1/2013 7:22:38 PM

Quote :

"^^you want to specify what you mean by "soon" for your 100% guaranteed prediction? people have been saying that for years now"

Dude, the bottom fell out of the market a year and a half ago and you posted about it 3 or 4 pages earlier in this very thread. You don't think it might happen again when the bubble is blowing even higher this time?

[Edited on April 1, 2013 at 8:35 PM. Reason : ^ literally less than 2 years ago.]

4/1/2013 8:35:15 PM

Sure, but I don't think that's what kiljadn is referring to. If so, it wouldn't be a very impressive prediction would it?

It sounds like he is alluding to a total, irreversible collapse caused specifically by regulation. But not only is he convinced it's going to happen, but that it is guaranteed to happen soon. All I'm asking is when is soon?

4/1/2013 8:51:18 PM

BitCoin has built-in deflation and is prone to technical glitches that don't plague other currency (like the recent version split issue).

In order to depend on it as currency, they'd have to have a really good case why the extra risk is worth people storing their savings and paychecks as bitcoins (i assume their long-term goal).

4/2/2013 12:59:30 AM

^With the problem plaguing the version upgrade (in which a performance improvement broke an aspect of the system relying on the older performance, much like how old DOS and Windows games are unplayably fast on computers from the late '90s onward), it's even worse than I laid out back in August of 2011: http://thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=614388&page=5#14914560

[Edited on April 2, 2013 at 8:53 AM. Reason : BTW "built-in deflation" is a strong point for using it as savings...but the volatility

4/2/2013 8:52:13 AM

Yeah in a vacuum, deflation is good for saving. But this combined with real world adds extra volatility. Our economy prefers slightly inflationary money, and has pretty much built up around this.

4/2/2013 9:33:12 AM

$127

4/2/2013 11:36:14 PM

^^I was talking about Bitcoin as an investment rather than as its intended purpose (circulating currency); if not for the speculative flurry it would serve a similar purpose to gold, and indeed it is better for currency to slightly inflate, to encourage spending over saving hoarding.

4/3/2013 5:01:51 AM

I just cashed out more "imaginary money".

4/3/2013 7:34:31 AM

I just started reading this thread today, had no prior knowledge of Bitcoin. This is un-fucking-believable. It's like the same people arguing for it's legitimacy are the ones cashing it in for real dollar bucks.

4/3/2013 10:14:35 AM

$145

One Strategy...

1) Monitor number of sellers on Silk Road, number of SatoshiDice transactions.
2) ...
3) Profit



[Edited on April 3, 2013 at 10:48 AM. Reason : a]

4/3/2013 10:42:58 AM

If it gets any higher i'll definitely need to track down my BTC change.

^How much does #1 factor in if the currency itself is in demand but the true value of the items remains static?

e.g. Two months ago you purchase an item with a real world value of 100.00 and used 10 Bitcoins to do so. Today you purchase the same item, but you only need .68 bitcoins.

[Edited on April 3, 2013 at 11:50 AM. Reason : ]

4/3/2013 11:44:33 AM

Nevermind that was a pretty dumb question.

4/3/2013 12:24:03 PM

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22026961

4/4/2013 4:39:59 PM

I just heard a story explaining Bitcoin on NPR, which means I now know what this thread is about and I know about bitcoin. Since I'm pretty much TWW's Katie Couric I predict this little bubble bursting soon.

4/5/2013 9:09:20 AM

Quote :

"lol i had 1 or 2 BTC left over from when they were 10 bucks and I bought something but I lost my Tails flash drive and doubt I could remember the encryption password anyway. HMM, I suppose I should look for that since there's a possibility my change just turned in to 140 bucks."

Found them. $170 bucks lol.

4/5/2013 2:52:00 PM

^Nice. That's more enjoyable as finding a $20 bill on the bottom a Holiday Inn pool...

4/5/2013 3:01:41 PM

Quote :

"Yeah in a vacuum, deflation is good for saving. But this combined with real world adds extra volatility. Our economy prefers slightly inflationary money, and has pretty much built up around this."

Re: Bitcoin sucks because it's deflation and deflation bad.

In the past when we were using gold, like during the Civil War, we couldn't pay soldiers due to the massive cost of the war so we went to greenbacks (paper money like today). That allowed the soldiers to get paid so we could continue to fight the war. Gold obviously has a physical practical limit that can be traded and transfered. When a gram becomes worth so much it buys a house that makes other purchases of food and bills become impractical and people stop buying, and when building a billion dollar construction project moving it and protecting it has another set of problems and overhead. Bitcoin does not have the division problem--a single coin can be divided into pieces 10^8 pieces as the code currently works. That can also be changed in future versions to be divided even smaller. Ie, when one bitcoin can buy a house, you can just pay 0.0000001 for your stick of gum. So, we are then left with the argument, "Oh My God people won't buy because of the psychology that 0.01 coin today that currently buys a pack of gum being able to buy a car in the future." But, that's almost true now with savings and stocks and people still spend their money today and go into debt. Everyone knows if you save starting in your early 20s compounding interest it will be worth a ton more in 10 years, 20 years, etc.

Loans clearly have issues in a deflationary system. If you loan someone $10 today and that's worth $100 tomorrow how do they ever have a chance to pay it back? Payback would have to be on some growth rate where you owe "less" the longer the life of the loan with some interest built in. Venture Capital also would have issues, but if the rate of return on investments is greater than growth of the currency price that wouldn't be an issue either and one would expect it to stabilize over time.

Inflation is built into the current model to encourage investment and prevent concentration of capital. Clearly, given the wealth divide that isn't working (blame exploitation of 3rd world or robots). The argument from the anarcho-libertarians and socialist-libertarians is to try something new.

[Edited on April 5, 2013 at 6:18 PM. Reason : e]

4/5/2013 5:56:02 PM

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-05/bitcoin-really-is-an-existential-threat-to-the-modern-liberal-state.html

And

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

Money quote, "Bitcoin is a valuable part of a portfolio."

Bloomberg talking about it every day, speculation that investment banks have open orders totaling 100K and I think we will see 200 soon.

4/5/2013 7:06:26 PM

Ok for the casual miner person, whats the best way with little fees to cash in on this?

4/7/2013 10:00:10 AM

Sounds bubbly.

4/7/2013 11:23:27 AM

Bitcoin is like Dubstep... wait for the drop

4/7/2013 3:31:40 PM

$194

4/8/2013 10:45:46 AM

I have 5 more coins left in my stash, trying to wait for $200 a coin.

4/8/2013 11:36:30 AM

Not that big of a jump from last time, but perhaps significant:

$204

4/9/2013 8:03:22 AM

$253

4/10/2013 9:56:47 AM

i still don't understand how this is a thing...i'd have freaked out and sold everything already, knowing that this made up currency was going to disappear in a blink, at some point

4/10/2013 10:15:29 AM

i thought for sure it was going to pop before it got to $100. i sold several when it was looking like a plateau around $135. now i have no idea what the fuck to do. but i'm not selling any more. this thing could go a lot higher. i'm just hoping when it pops and the dust settles, it goes low enough so that i can buy a fuck-ton. hoping it lands under $50.

4/10/2013 10:29:47 AM

I sold 1/4 last night. I predict 150 by end of week

Looks like it's on a major downswing, don't have access to tell if it's a huge sell off or panic feeding on it itself.

4/10/2013 1:37:06 PM

This was the most predictable bubble I have ever seen.

4/10/2013 2:32:54 PM