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Last post Author Topic: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?  (Read 546282 times)

Mark0

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #450 on: January 02, 2014, 05:02 AM »
Beware of Butterfly Labs! They have built quite a "reputation" in the last months.
Quite a bit of not brilliant feedback around, starting from reddit r/bitcoin.
« Last Edit: January 02, 2014, 06:41 PM by Mark0 »

Arizona Hot

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #451 on: January 08, 2014, 12:20 PM »

Renegade

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #452 on: January 09, 2014, 05:46 PM »
Economist Paul Krugman on why he's not a fan of bitcoin:

http://www.nytimes.c...s-and-barbarism.html

Krugman is just a complete idiot. His basic premise is that if we all just "believe" hard enough, things will magically become wonderful and rainbow farting unicorns will be given to every child.

For an excellent experiment illustrating just what a total moron he is, have a look into Bernankoin:

https://bitcointalk....x.php?topic=375010.0

For a literal illustration of what kind of nitwit Krugman is, see here:

https://bitcointalk....sg4393471#msg4393471

ATM I'm not trading COYE, but I'll trade you 10 of my BEK for 20 of yours. Just send me multiples of 10 BEK and keep multiples of 10 BEK for yourself and we'll call the deal done. Send to this address: BndanZXsyDjnrP8dkwgbo87jExvk96tj8z ;D
-RenegadeMind link=https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=375010.msg4393471#msg4393471 date=1389208453

And the reply:

Ill take you up on that trade!  Traded you 2000 BEK for 1000 BEK, great deal! :)
-artiface link=https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=375010.msg4394106#msg4394106 date=1389210538

And yes. He did send me 1,000 BEK.

To really get the joke though, you need to understand a bit monetary policy, a splash of economics, what Quantitative Easing is (printing money), what a "rewards system" is in crypto currency, and how Bernankoin illustrates QE through its rewards system (named "Quantitative Easing").

Krugman is a troll.

Here's another bit of trolling by Krugman:

http://krugman.blogs...itcoin-is-evil/?_r=0

Bitcoin Is Evil
-KrugTroll

There's nothing else in the article worth quoting.

In the comments:

However, Mr Krugman is right about bitcon being evil, at least for socialists. Bitcoin threatens socialist economies, central banks and all government monopolies on money. It is a libertarian tool, so all socialists should hate it.
-Roger McKinney - Broken Arrow, OK

Bitcoin threatens centralisation and collectivism. It is anathema to authoritarians and rent-seekers. Bitcoin is "neutral". To understand what "neutral" means in terms of a currency, I'd strongly recommend viewing a few of the videos posted with Andreas Antonopolous. Here's a link to many videos with him speaking:

https://www.youtube....ntonopoulos&sm=3

Here's a video entitled "Bitcoin Neutrality - Andreas Antonopolous"



The concept of neutrality is really, really important to understanding what Bitcoin is, and in light of what Bitcoin is, further understanding on just how corrupt our current system of fiat currency is.

But, the comment there on Krugtroll's article is quite correct. Socialists should both hate and fear Bitcoin (and by extension, all crypto currencies) because they strip the state of much of its power to dominate and control people.

Remember, Bitcoin has its roots in crypto-anarchism or cypherpunk. It is an anti-political technology. Krugman is a collectivist and hates Bitcoin because of this.

The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in "Metcalfe's law"--which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants--becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine's. - Paul Krugman, 1998

 :)

Exactly. This fool is one of the crowd that helped bring you the sub-prime mortgage crisis. His credibility is negative.

The mining window is closing as it is getting increasingly difficult to do (unless you have really serious dedicated hardware). When I first started I was getting over 10,000 coins a day ... Now I'm lucky to break 100.

While it sucks to mine less, this is actually a good thing. It shows that there are more miners (diggers) out there digging for Ðogecoins. The more miners a currency has, the more secure the network.

I touch on this topic a bit in this blog post:

http://cynic.me/2014...ists-hate-shitcoins/

The mining window is closing as it is getting increasingly difficult to do (unless you have really serious dedicated hardware). When I first started I was getting over 10,000 coins a day ... Now I'm lucky to break 100.

Bingo StoicJoker.

That's the big flaw that keeps bothering me. "Look, here's a new crypto-currency and only a hundred people know about it! Nice advantage to us! Then later when it gets popular the algo will slow down and no one can get much more!"

Reminds me of the day when I cared about Magic the Gathering and bought a pizza with two Sengir Vampires!  :D  (The clerk made a note of the sale and said he would pay back his register.)

There are a lot of considerations in looking at rewards systems. Your comment applies to some, but not all currencies.

I wrote up a joke currency here:

https://bitcointalk....x.php?topic=390735.0



It's a joke from top to bottom.

But the rewards system completely eliminates the objection that you just raised. It's based on the Fibonacci series.

Now, while this is an extreme example, there are other currencies that have done similar things to eliminate the scenarios where early adopters jump in and snatch up massive amounts of coins. Some do the exact opposite and reward early adopters.

This should be enough, given the objection/concern, to illustrate just how important rewards systems are for a currency. (The other consideration there is "pre-mining".)

Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

bit

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #453 on: January 10, 2014, 03:30 PM »
No, I never bite my coins, and if I saw anyone else biting one before giving it to me I'd refuse to accept it in case I got rabies or something.
wahahahah!  :P

By the way, my user name has nothing to do with this thread or post.

Renegade

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #454 on: January 12, 2014, 07:46 AM »
Good grief...

Andreas Antonopoulos - blows me away all the time.



Long, but the section up to about 15:00 is just mind blowing. And it gets better!  :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup:

EDIT: Non-stop mind-blowing awesomeness. Luckily I have super powers of not pooping my pants. They were much needed. ;)
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker
« Last Edit: January 12, 2014, 09:10 AM by Renegade »

Arizona Hot

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #455 on: January 13, 2014, 12:06 PM »
Gyft bitcoin.jpg

Why more businesses may adopt bitcoin

Will this feed the Bitcoin frenzy here or are you already completelly manic and restrained only by a straitjacket?


tomos

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #456 on: January 13, 2014, 02:04 PM »
Andreas Antonopoulos - blows me away all the time.

a big plus one there Ren :up:
I've only watched the first 30 mins yet, and want to watch it again -- there's a lot in there.

I've listened to, I think, four videos by him -- each about different aspects of Bitcoin, and he really is *very* good. He's got great vision -- but with his feet firmly on the ground. It's refreshing to hear someone who supports bitcoin say that the US dollar is in reasonable shape (for a fiat currency).
He's also the only one I've heard or read so far who addresses the questions I had about possible problems with bitcoin. (I'll have to try find a suitable video by him on the practical aspects of Bitcoin to post here.)
Tom

Renegade

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #457 on: January 14, 2014, 07:30 AM »
Andreas Antonopoulos - blows me away all the time.

a big plus one there Ren :up:
I've only watched the first 30 mins yet, and want to watch it again -- there's a lot in there.

I've listened to, I think, four videos by him -- each about different aspects of Bitcoin, and he really is *very* good. He's got great vision -- but with his feet firmly on the ground. It's refreshing to hear someone who supports bitcoin say that the US dollar is in reasonable shape (for a fiat currency).
He's also the only one I've heard or read so far who addresses the questions I had about possible problems with bitcoin. (I'll have to try find a suitable video by him on the practical aspects of Bitcoin to post here.)

Dude is like a force of nature - unstoppable.

The biggest problem that I see is that nobody really understands Bitcoin yet. Andreas is so way far out there, and man... do I ever learn a lot from him. But there don't seem to be many people that understand even 1% of what he does. And from listening to him, I get the feeling that he still doesn't even remotely understand the implications yet - he goes on about so many possibilities, but there are just too many to really understand well (e.g. what happens if Africa gets out of the debt slavery that has been imposed on it? That's a big deal.). This is uncharted territory. The very early adopters sailed on the May Flower. We're now in the Wild West and there be gold rushes everywhere.

Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

Renegade

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #458 on: January 15, 2014, 06:10 AM »
http://sourceforge.n....php?msg_id=31813471

A Stealth Address is a new type of Bitcoin address and related
scriptPubKey/transaction generation scheme that allowers payees to
publish a single, fixed, address that payors can send funds efficiently,
privately, reliably and non-interactively. Payors do not learn what
other payments have been made to the stealth address, and third-parties
learn nothing at all. (both subject to an adjustable anonymity set)

Graphic here:

http://imgur.com/rHhNKL6

tl;dr - Game over. Anonymity wins. Establishment loses.

Implications? Beyond your wildest dreams. This is MASSIVE!

Easier explanation... (bastardized)

I send you an address. You combine that address with a key to create a new address. You send Bitcoins to that address. I get my Bitcoins at my address. Untraceable. No record of it is stored in the blockchain thanks to the wonderful magic of cryptography.

Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

Renegade

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #459 on: January 15, 2014, 05:00 PM »
Ah... a CEO that I can admire~! ;D

http://rare.us/story...sthash.bGfa0Sui.sfju

Overstock.com CEO attacks Krugman: “Hopefully Bitcoin will destroy central banking”

Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne discusses Bitcoin and the fears of central planning economist Paul Krugman who claims Bitcoin is evil.

Byrne says “Krugman did some great work before he went crazy” he then goes on to explain his hope that Bitcoin can destroy central banking.

Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

Arizona Hot

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #460 on: January 17, 2014, 08:13 PM »

Renegade

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #461 on: January 19, 2014, 02:09 PM »
25% of Porn.com's payments are in bitcoins!

http://www.nerve.com...rchased-with-bitcoin

Bitcoin—you know, that cryptocurrency you pretend you know all about at parties but secretly search on Wikipedia when you're drunk in the bathroom, has met its match. In a combination almost as perfect as chocolate and peanut butter, bacon and eggs, or water-based lube and silicone dildos, you can now purchase your spank videos with your fave digital currency. In December, Porn.com announced that it would now accept confidential bitcoin payments for its premium services, and Bitcoin users quickly shot up to 10 percent of all sales. That was just the beginning of the love affair, because after the Bitcoiners of Reddit proudly announced their acquisition just 15 days ago—in a synergistic explosion of Moms Bang Teens and cryptography— bitcoin now accounts for a staggering quarter of all Porn.com sales.

But perhaps more telling about the general success of Bitcoin...

Porn.com's current owners aren't too invested in seeing how this whole digital currency phase works out, though. They're already reportedly looking to sell the domain for $50 million in, well, Bitcoin. It's the circle of life. And it jerks us all.

Follow the money crypto~! ;D
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

Stoic Joker

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #462 on: January 20, 2014, 07:02 AM »
You're having way too much fun with that.

 :D

wraith808

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Renegade

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #464 on: January 20, 2014, 02:23 PM »


It's bobsleigh time: Jamaican team raises $25,000 in Dogecoin


You beat me to it! :) (And actually $34,944, not $25k.)

This is the donation site:

http://dogesled.net/

The site I made with a few other guys is at the bottom (we didn't ask - they just posted it):

How do I get started with Dogecoin?
howtodoge.com provides some great tutorials on how to get started using Dogecoin!

In other charitable news:

http://www.thedrinki...naire-saves-openbsd/

Romanian Billionaire Saves OpenBSD

In #bitcoin-assets.

Meanwhile, in the MSM...

OMG! Bitcoin can be used by terrorists and kiddie pornographers! OMG! Money laundering! Crime! Tax evasion! NOOOO~!

Pfft!

And it can save OpenBSD and send the Jamaican bobsled team to the Olympics. Reality trumps paranoid delusions. :P
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

barney

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #465 on: January 20, 2014, 09:34 PM »
Reality trumps paranoid delusions.

Ya might wanna rethink that statement  :-\.  Money laundering, crime, tax evasion, et al., have been around - i.e., reality - a lot longer than even the concept of bitcoin and other cyber currencies.  Evil or good is not the realm of any currency medium, just the uses to which it is applied.  To paraphrase an old saying, "What Man can create, Man can pervert."  :o :P

Stoic Joker

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #466 on: January 20, 2014, 09:56 PM »
Reality trumps paranoid delusions.

Ya might wanna rethink that statement  :-\.  Money laundering, crime, tax evasion, et al., have been around - i.e., reality - a lot longer than even the concept of bitcoin and other cyber currencies.  Evil or good is not the realm of any currency medium, just the uses to which it is applied.  To paraphrase an old saying, "What Man can create, Man can pervert."  :o :P

I think that's Ren's point. The MSM is trying to spin crypto as causal when it neither is nor can be.

Renegade

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #467 on: January 22, 2014, 04:29 PM »
Reality trumps paranoid delusions.

Ya might wanna rethink that statement  :-\.  Money laundering, crime, tax evasion, et al., have been around - i.e., reality - a lot longer than even the concept of bitcoin and other cyber currencies.  Evil or good is not the realm of any currency medium, just the uses to which it is applied.  To paraphrase an old saying, "What Man can create, Man can pervert."  :o :P

I think that's Ren's point. The MSM is trying to spin crypto as causal when it neither is nor can be.

Exactly. If they wanted to "stop all bad things", they'd outlaw the USD as it's used for more criminal activity than any other currency. Which is just complete insanity.

Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

Arizona Hot

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Renegade

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #469 on: January 23, 2014, 04:53 AM »
Terrorism! Drugs! Online Assassinations! Money laundering! Tax evasion!

No... This is what bitcoins are really used for:

http://www.forbes.co...ng-on-overstock-com/

1. Sheets

2. Cell Phone Accessories

3. A/V Accessories

4. Appliances

5. Computer Accessories

6. Computers

7. Men’s Shoes

8. Hard Drives

9. Bedroom Furniture

10. Keyboards & Mice

11. Men’s Watches

12. Computer Hardware

13. Storage & Blank Media

14. Living Room Furniture

15. Shirts

16. Perfumes & Fragrances

17. Networking

18. Cookware

19. Memory Cards

20. Towels

21. Area Rugs

22. Computer Components

23. Decorative Accessories

24. Fiction Books

25. Lighting & Ceiling Fans

Half a million dollars worth in 2 weeks. At 1 store.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

40hz

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Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?
« Reply #470 on: January 23, 2014, 05:57 AM »
Terrorism! Drugs! Online Assassinations! Money laundering! Tax evasion!

No... This is what bitcoins are really used for:



From what I've been given to understand, uncut diamonds (and to a lesser extent cocaine/heroin) are the actual preferred currencies for financing terrorism, revolutions, independent mercenary forces, assassinations, major drug deals - and about half of all national government-sponsored black ops programs throughout the world.

A diamond is forever. And things go better with coke. :(



eleman

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Bitcoin mining craze
« Reply #471 on: January 23, 2014, 04:38 PM »
I wonder what's all the fuss about this. Computing power costs electricity. Here in Turkey, a 7/24 draw of 300 watts would cost about 25 Dollars a month. Does the bitcoin mining thingie produce more than this (+ the capital expenditure of course)?

And why are the people make their computers burn fossil fuel (albeit indirectly) to solve useless hash algorithms? I can justify folding@home, and even seti@home... but as far as I can see, the computing power used for bitcoin mining is used just for the sake of proving it is used. Like counting sands on a beach. No use whatsoever.

Am I the only one who does not get it?
« Last Edit: January 23, 2014, 05:16 PM by eleman »

tomos

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Re: Bitcoin mining craze
« Reply #472 on: January 23, 2014, 04:54 PM »
I'm presuming you havent seen the Bitcoin thread ?
(I suspect this might get merged to it).

This aspect of it hasn't bothered me, but I suspect many would agree with you about the power waste.
Tom

tomos

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Re: Bitcoin mining craze
« Reply #473 on: January 23, 2014, 05:01 PM »
There's also a couple of good posts by f0dder here giving a general introduction.
Tom

eleman

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Re: Bitcoin mining craze
« Reply #474 on: January 23, 2014, 05:03 PM »
uhh.. yes, obviously missed those. Thanks for pointing them out. I'll be reading now :)