wtf is bitcoin?!

SheepBeast

SheepBeast

SheepBeast

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i've seen many posts about it and googled it but still can't really figure out what it is, why i would want it, how i get it, and what i could spend it on... can you guys fill me in?
 
i already read the wikipedia but still dont really understand it's use. i'm also confused by the concept of bitcoin mining. can i just set my computer mining and get free money to then buy real stuff with? how does that work!?
 
Mining is just a way to distribute coins, you are basically number crunching and helping process transactions between people. If you solve a block, you get 50btc, this can take a while at the current difficulty level, probably unlikely you'll solve a block alone in any decent time. What miners generally do is pool their computing power (most miners use their GPU to crunch numbers due the the awesomeness of GPU parallel number crunching) and when a block gets solved, everyone who helped solve it gets a share of the coins earned from that block.

Once you have coins you can go to an exchange and put up a sell order, someone who needs coins will buy them from you for whatever currency you are requesting, you can transfer this to your bank account and buy stuff with it if you want. You can also buy things directly from people who accept bitcoin, or buy bitcoins from other people.
 
so how much real money do i earn from leaving my PC on all day and night ?
enought to retire to the South of France?
 
You download some mining program, leave it running (for a long time) and you'll eventually mine some bitcoins. Bitcoins can be sold to other people for actual currency. It's not a proper currency. It's an asset with absolutely no purpose and its value is derived from the buyer's perception on how much they can resell it for.

I wouldn't personally bother.
 
Efour2 said:
so how much real money do i earn from leaving my PC on all day and night ?
enought to retire to the South of France?
Click to expand...

Probably not enough to cover the energy costs of leaving your computer on with CPUs and GPUs at 100%.
 
Efour2 said:
so how much real money do i earn from leaving my PC on all day and night ?
enought to retire to the South of France?
Click to expand...

Unlikely, it depends on how much your electricity costs and how much processing power you have to mine with, you can crunch > 350 million hashes a second with a single 5850. The more power you have the more you can contribute to solving a block so the more shares from that block you can earn.

BTC are pretty volatile and willl likely inflate in value until the overall cap is reached, if they stay around long enough to actually reach the cap.
 
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