Bitcoin mining

Raymond Lin said:
Seriously though, what is the point of it anyway?

People who are mining are mining it for money, real money.

People who are trading are doing it for money, real money. Large or small quanities, they are hoping the market will rise so they can cash in. Note, CASH in. Something that bitcoin isn't.

It is just a way for people to make money. It is the real reason. You can say people in black market uses it, well when the value hits the floor then they will go back to the dollar. Honestly, how exactly would you do trade with a currency that fluctuate by 50% in a single day? If you agree on a price and finds it is now worth twice as much would you sell or would you wait? On the other side, how would you feel if you all of the sudden need twice as much bitcoin as yesterday?!

And it always come back to this, the whole thing is measured against the dollar. For people like you and me, the only way this bitcoin is of any use is to cash out and get some real money from it. If I can't buy my lunch with it, it is worthless to me.
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No international transaction fees, anonymity (to a degree) and quick(ish - certainly quicker than some banks are) confirmation of transactions are some of the reasons people are using BTC. It's not just for the cashing in, but in the current market (and lack of adoption) yes, you'll need to exchange for many things. Much like going to Europe with pockets full of Sterling is pretty much pointless.
 
Take BTC-E prices with a pinch of a salt - their trading network is scam heaven.

Users of it will know what I'm talking about, others will question - don't have the time to back it up.
 
Dj_Jestar said:
There were also trades for $130+ at the same time. This is my point. You've taken the low price and posted it like it is the average price. It's not. The average price at the time was $116. Really, it was.
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You still didn't answer the question :P

But OK, you've got me, I didn't check every bitcoin exchange. I just picked the one I knew other than mtgox.

I really wasn't trying to pull anything, I was just typing what I saw, so I obviously didn't appreciate your "talking out of your arse" comment.

I think the problem is with bitcoin itself, there's no way to know exactly what the price at a given point because it's not traded centrally.

Sorry to everyone else in the thread, a bit of a derail.
 
Stop thinking about it in terms of $ and £ bitcoin is used for being anonymous and a way to keep funds away from the state which can inflate/deflate as they wish.
Also great to transfer funds between people with very little fees
 
They are not idiots. They are merely speculating.
Is BitCoin going to tumble? Wait and see.

The currency has seen a huge bubble in recent weeks, rising from around $10 at the start of the year to a peak above $260 on April 10. The rise has been put down to the economic troubles in Cyprus, online retailers begining to accept bitcoin as payment and a general increase in public awareness. But in the last two days there has been a dramatic correction, with prices slumping to around $77.
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I believe that the main reason why BitCoin was introduced was because it was a currency which Governments could not track or regulate. So for drug dealers, arms dealers and those who wanted to make purchases without a paper-trail, this currency is ideal.
 
sunama said:
They are not idiots. They are merely speculating.
Is BitCoin going to tumble? Wait and see.



I believe that the main reason why BitCoin was introduced was because it was a currency which Governments could not track or regulate. So for drug dealers, arms dealers and those who wanted to make purchases without a paper-trail, this currency is ideal.
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You don't have to be some shady criminal to place value in anonymity. But as it stands, I think it's too volatile to be used as a serious currency. Who would sell a thing for bitcoins when the value of those bitcoins may halve the next day?

Is MtGox down again? Are the hamsters powering their servers just getting tired, or are they constantly getting DDoSed?
 
SlyReaper said:
You don't have to be some shady criminal to place value in anonymity. But as it stands, I think it's too volatile to be used as a serious currency. Who would sell a thing for bitcoins when the value of those bitcoins may halve the next day?

Is MtGox down again? Are the hamsters powering their servers just getting tired, or are they constantly getting DDoSed?
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It will settle eventually, it was completely smooth before the last few days.

You seem a little upset you didnt invest in BTC early on, and are now completely against it. Don't worry, we can't all make money from it.
 
Addicted said:
You seem a little upset you didnt invest in BTC early on, and are now completely against it. Don't worry, we can't all make money from it.
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Was that directed at me? I made one post that said something negative about bitcoins, and suddenly I'm completely against it? :rolleyes:
 
SlyReaper said:
Is MtGox down again? Are the hamsters powering their servers just getting tired, or are they constantly getting DDoSed?
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Fun fact. MtGox got its name from the website it used to be before it saw the value in being a bitcoin exchange. Magic the Gathering online exchange. Not sure how much the infrastructure has been updated since then!
 
sunama said:
Can you give me some examples of where you would want to pay/receive money anonymously, for a 100% legal transaction? Off the top of my head, I can't think of any.
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Porn. And sex toys. I can imagine people buying porn or sex toys wouldn't want that appearing on their monthly bank statement. That's just an example off the top of my head; there may be many others.

But of course, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear, right? :p

iviv said:
Fun fact. MtGox got its name from the website it used to be before it saw the value in being a bitcoin exchange. Magic the Gathering online exchange. Not sure how much the infrastructure has been updated since then!
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I did not know this. That's interesting in a slightly worrying way.
 
Adsta said:
This thread and the whole Bitcoin saga is rather ammusing and really interesting in my opinion. Its quite remarkable seeing how people can place value in random things. Then to assign a "real world money value" to it.

I personally have nothing to do with bitcoins. But I still find it extremely interesting to read about.
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Same as share dealing. Sure some companies pay dividends but your basically betting against other people whether you think the price will go up or down.
 
AndrewNR said:
Same as share dealing. Sure some companies pay dividends but your basically betting against other people whether you think the price will go up or down.
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Not really, there are fundamental value drivers behind stock appreciation based on all future earnings.

Bitcoin does not have any fundamental value drivers and it's value derived purly based wishful faith.
 
SlyReaper said:
Porn. And sex toys. I can imagine people buying porn or sex toys wouldn't want that appearing on their monthly bank statement. That's just an example off the top of my head; there may be many others.

But of course, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear, right? :p



I did not know this. That's interesting in a slightly worrying way.
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Why would porn and sex toys be a problem on bank statements? You are not going to be arrested for it, nor is HMRC going to care. If you are embarrassed then get a separate card with online statement, then who is going to know?

I cannot think of a single legal transaction bitcoin comes in handy.
 
To put it in simple terms, the way I see it, you do something like a bit of the old Folding@Home type number crunching.... but get paid for it. Yes?
Some server somewhere utilises your CPU/GPU abilities and pay you in bitcoin for the privilege?
 
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