Jump to content

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

bornontheblue

Bitcoin

Recommended Posts

I have been doing some research regarding Bitcoin lately as more and more of our clients will probably get involved in it. 

I even bought a little to see how it all works. It is more interesting than I thought it would be

Do we have any miners or traders here? 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is insane. I didn't put much money into Bitcoin because its is too risky. The price is about to go over $17,000. I bought yesterday when the price was about $12,500. You can buy fractional amounts of a coin which  is what I did. This will probably crash and end very very badly for people who have put a lot of money into this. 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bitcoin seems to be pricing itself right out of the market.  I don't see how its ever going to be able to be used as a real currency and instead be some sort of investment like gold. It doesn't really have any underlying value (like gold).  Its value mostly derides from its limited supply and that its not really taxable.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, AndroidAggie said:

I mine monero.  I started 6 weeks ago on two machines.  I've got a pittance, .35XMR.  It's worth ~$115 as of last night.

AA, you might have tried to explain this before but help me out. What are the machines dong to "mine" monero? Are they keeping track of transactions in a block chain?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, pokerider said:

Bitcoin seems to be pricing itself right out of the market.  I don't see how its ever going to be able to be used as a real currency and instead be some sort of investment like gold. It doesn't really have any underlying value (like gold).  Its value mostly derides from its limited supply and that its not really taxable.  

Any gains you have from selling Bitcoin are certainly taxable. If you held Bitcoin for investment purposes it is a Capital Gain. If you are in the business of buying or selling bitcoin it is treated as inventory. 

The IRS just won a lawsuit against Coinbase allow them access to some of their records . So the IRS will know who has been buying and selling. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

50 minutes ago, pokerider said:

Bitcoin seems to be pricing itself right out of the market.  I don't see how its ever going to be able to be used as a real currency and instead be some sort of investment like gold. It doesn't really have any underlying value (like gold).  Its value mostly derides from its limited supply and that its not really taxable.  

But does the dollar have an underlying value anymore?

Bitcoin feels like black magic though. I'm staying away from it. Too risky for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

42 minutes ago, renoskier said:

AA, you might have tried to explain this before but help me out. What are the machines dong to "mine" monero? Are they keeping track of transactions in a block chain?

Each transaction uses a big special number to verify itself. The numbers are special like primes are special; I don't math enough to remember or care if it is actually a prime or if it is just special some other way.

The numbers are big like the number of atoms in the ocean is big. They're huge, and the calculations required to find them are laborious and time intensive. That takes a lot of computer time. Once you verify or find a number, you get rewarded with a little bit of the currency you just effectively unlocked with the big special number you found that is used for verification. People can freelance with their computer, but big currencies like bitcoin use giant server farms to mine because with such a high value, it is actually lucrative. 

 

Remember that every argument you have with someone on MWCboard is actually the continuation of a different argument they had with someone else also on MWCboard. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, SharkTanked said:

But does the dollar have an underlying value anymore?

Bitcoin feels like black magic though. I'm staying away from it. Too risky for me.

I agree way too risky. I had to do some research for work and I bought $150 worth of it just to see how it all works. Its kind of fun, but I won't invest anymore in it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, renoskier said:

AA, you might have tried to explain this before but help me out. What are the machines dong to "mine" monero? Are they keeping track of transactions in a block chain?

That's precisely what they do.  In exchange for being part of the de-centralized ledger verification process, you are potentially rewarded with a slice of the currency attached to the blockchain.

It's a race, in essence.  The first person to solve complex mathematical equations is the one who gets the right to sign the new transaction that's added to the ledger.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@renoskier

This is what I wrote awhile back:

 

two things to keep separate in your mind.  think of them like this: the internet is to email as blockchain is to cryptocurrency.  bitcoin is simply a flavor of crytpocurrency.

the blockchain is an inventive bit of software that removes the onus of keeping a list of transactions from a centralized entity like the bank to everyone involved in the process.  and for the record, we could be talking about ANY flavor of transaction, but for the sake of all this we'll keep it financial.

it is a record of every single solitary transaction dealing with that currency from its inception to now.  it is distributed among everyone involved.  it is decentralized.

its integrity could come under attack, as you might imagine.  who is to say you actually agreed to the transactions? firstly each transaction must be digitally signed with an encryption method whereby no one other than you could possibly be the signer.  there can be no forgery of your signature, for all intents and purposes.  how this is accomplished is a matter of math and cryptography, but you may want to brush up on 'public and private key pairings.'  each transaction is signed off on and agreed to and then re-submitted back to the pool of users who then validate that new transaction.  there is also a unique number applied to the transaction to prevent a copy of a previous transaction from happening multiple times over to fake out multiple payments and steal money from you.  all the participants race to be the first person to be the validator of the new transaction and the first one who wins the race is allowed to be one to add the new transaction block to the chain and then re-send it out to everyone.  the race is the guessing of a ginormous random number, a random number so huge that it takes a long time make a guess but each guess can be validated or invalidated in very short order.  this mathematical function is called a 'hash.'  it's part of the technology used to sign the transaction and verify integrity of information.  the miners are the people in that race.  when you find the correct random number that was issued by the blockchain software, and again, everyone involved has a chance to guess this number and the software's source code is provided along with the programs that actually run on your computer so there's openness and honesty and everyone trusts that the system is working, you are rewarded for your efforts with a slice of the cryptocurrency.  that's how new bitcoins are created.

the guessing of the random number for bitcoin is based on math that is very easily scaled in parallel.  i'll spare you the headache of an example (and i also can't think of a good one off the top of my head) but when mathematical operations can be executed in parallel, then off the shelf hardware (like video cards) can be used to parallelize that operation and do things much more quickly.  but they generate heat and consumer electricity, so you go someplace where that stuff is cheap...  like mongolia.

your identity is unique and it's also your wallet identity.  so when you engage in mining, you're validating blockchain transactions and are rewarded for your part in maintaining integrity with a slice of coin.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, AndroidAggie said:

@renoskier

This is what I wrote awhile back:

 

two things to keep separate in your mind.  think of them like this: the internet is to email as blockchain is to cryptocurrency.  bitcoin is simply a flavor of crytpocurrency.

the blockchain is an inventive bit of software that removes the onus of keeping a list of transactions from a centralized entity like the bank to everyone involved in the process.  and for the record, we could be talking about ANY flavor of transaction, but for the sake of all this we'll keep it financial.

it is a record of every single solitary transaction dealing with that currency from its inception to now.  it is distributed among everyone involved.  it is decentralized.

its integrity could come under attack, as you might imagine.  who is to say you actually agreed to the transactions? firstly each transaction must be digitally signed with an encryption method whereby no one other than you could possibly be the signer.  there can be no forgery of your signature, for all intents and purposes.  how this is accomplished is a matter of math and cryptography, but you may want to brush up on 'public and private key pairings.'  each transaction is signed off on and agreed to and then re-submitted back to the pool of users who then validate that new transaction.  there is also a unique number applied to the transaction to prevent a copy of a previous transaction from happening multiple times over to fake out multiple payments and steal money from you.  all the participants race to be the first person to be the validator of the new transaction and the first one who wins the race is allowed to be one to add the new transaction block to the chain and then re-send it out to everyone.  the race is the guessing of a ginormous random number, a random number so huge that it takes a long time make a guess but each guess can be validated or invalidated in very short order.  this mathematical function is called a 'hash.'  it's part of the technology used to sign the transaction and verify integrity of information.  the miners are the people in that race.  when you find the correct random number that was issued by the blockchain software, and again, everyone involved has a chance to guess this number and the software's source code is provided along with the programs that actually run on your computer so there's openness and honesty and everyone trusts that the system is working, you are rewarded for your efforts with a slice of the cryptocurrency.  that's how new bitcoins are created.

the guessing of the random number for bitcoin is based on math that is very easily scaled in parallel.  i'll spare you the headache of an example (and i also can't think of a good one off the top of my head) but when mathematical operations can be executed in parallel, then off the shelf hardware (like video cards) can be used to parallelize that operation and do things much more quickly.  but they generate heat and consumer electricity, so you go someplace where that stuff is cheap...  like mongolia.

your identity is unique and it's also your wallet identity.  so when you engage in mining, you're validating blockchain transactions and are rewarded for your part in maintaining integrity with a slice of coin.

It's posts like these that make my realize how many brain cells I have destroyed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember like 4 or 5 years ago when this gaming site I used to play on had an anti-cheat client.

One of their employees placed a mining code into it and it mined all the users who had the client installed while they were offline, but computer on. It melted quite a few users who had weaker GPU's.

It only ran like 3 weeks before someone caught it and they got into big trouble.

It mined like 27 BTC in 3 weeks. WOrth about $140/per back then.

 

Kinda crazy that'd be worth almost $450k today.. :blink:

All is well, For Rice is gone.                  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, k5james said:

Bumping this because I'm thinking about jumping in.  Anybody else still heavy into crypto?

 

I'm thinking about going long on bitcoin and litecoin 70/30.

I think the ship has sailed on Bitcoin as an investment. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, k5james said:

Bumping this because I'm thinking about jumping in.  Anybody else still heavy into crypto?

 

I'm thinking about going long on bitcoin and litecoin 70/30.

I'd recommend being modest in your investment: 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-12/its-official-bitcoin-surpasses-tulip-mania-now-biggest-bubble-world-history

 

bsu_retro_bsu_logo_helmet.b_1.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites



  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



×
×
  • Create New...