Gaz Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 I had a look into something called Cloudhashing a few months ago. Essentially you pay a company a fee, they do all the mining for you (and give you an estimated return) and you get the coins mined as a result. Didn't go through with it although I wish I had, it was about £600 I think. Cheaper than building a rig (and paying for the electricity to run it). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ric Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 I'm not a stupid man but I will be honest with you, I find the whole mining of Bitcoins and how it affects the currency is still a bit confusing. I've read enough articles about it, but the idea that you can "create new money" simply by running an application on your PC is a bit odd. I like Bitcoins as a concept, but in practice due to it's almost untrackable nature I just cannot see how it is viable in the world economy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ham89 Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 You dont so much "create" the coin, you more simply "unlock access" to it. Its basically like the bank of England producing £1m all in £1 notes. They release an equation and first person or team to crack the equation wins the £1. After this they releas another and so on until all the notes are handed out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 Yes but with any other currency quantitive easing (creating new money) dilutes the currency's worth, the fact that bitcoins value continues to grow is both a surprise and hasn't mirrored any previous stable currency or economy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ric Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 (edited) You dont so much "create" the coin, you more simply "unlock access" to it. Its basically like the bank of England producing £1m all in £1 notes. They release an equation and first person or team to crack the equation wins the £1. After this they release another and so on until all the notes are handed out. I understand the technical principles, but using your analogy above you are effectively describing quantitative easing which the BoE was forced into due to the crash. However printing money has obvious knock on effects, if it was as easy as that then the BoE would just continue printing money until there was so much of it we would all end up millionaires. Edit: Loki was quicker.. Edited November 18, 2013 by Ric 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ham89 Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 But bitcoins have a fixed total quantity. Although there are only x amount in circulation today, there is a maximum total and that total is getting closer by the day. This along with the simple fact that it is very easy to "destroy" units of the currency make it rare by design. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ric Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 There is also the situation that, where there is money to be "made" and the only resources you need to make it is lots of electricity and some high power computers then the "big boys" will step in. We will have companies (or other associated financial groupings) who can afford the initial outlay on the equipment and as result will reap bigger rewards than your average Joe with a spare PC. This will create a "class system" where the rich will simply get richer, and in doing so will have a currency that can't be easily tracked allowing for all sorts of untraceable financial misdemeanour's. Now while not every company wants to avoid tax, or has a need to syphon off money to nefarious operations, but the truth of the matter is the crash has shown that a large percentage of them when given the chance, have. I don't think virtual currencies are not possible, in fact I think they are an integral way in resolving a lot of the problems that have developed in the modern global economy, but Bitcoins as they are (and imo) I have some difficulty in believing they can succeed and more so if they do they don't open the door to the issues I mentioned. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ric Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 Two questions in regard to this.. But bitcoins have a fixed total quantity. Although there are only x amount in circulation today, there is a maximum total and that total is getting closer by the day. If that is the case, why is their value increasing. By all logic they simply shouldn't. As they have no relational real world value (ie: 1 bitcoin = 1 oz of gold) they are worth only what someone is willing to give you for them. This along with the simple fact that it is very easy to "destroy" units of the currency make it rare by design. Well, yes and no. Technically you can burn a tenner. That is that item of currency "destroyed". The second part of this is who *would* destroy them? They have value. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al B Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 (edited) Fixed limit of 21 million BTC and 81 million LTC. It's being discussed in the Senate in a few hours in regards to the government embracing BTC as a viable currency to be taken seriously in the long term. LTC is essentially being looked at as the pence to BTC's pound, or the silver to BTC's gold. 1BTC was sitting at 595USD earlier today, and 1LTC has gone from 3.5USD yesterday to 9.4USD today in advance of the anticipated governmental acceptance of crypto-currency in general. Edited November 18, 2013 by Al B 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCR Posted November 18, 2013 Share Posted November 18, 2013 (edited) LTC value rose 38% overnight edit: oops, didn't read the last line of your last post Al B! Looks like it's about to break the $10 mark Edited November 19, 2013 by RCR 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ric Posted November 19, 2013 Share Posted November 19, 2013 I still maintain they are a bubble. Markets regularly pick up technological ideas run with them on the market then when people find out they are not the endless money pots they stupidly believed they were, it all falls down. This is what happened during the tech crash of 2000/2001. By all means people should get on board as their prices rise, but it's going to burst, the price is just not maintainable. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted November 19, 2013 Share Posted November 19, 2013 Ric has covered pretty much everything I was going to say after my last post. I do not think it is sustainable. The fact that they are "free" money to be made and this makes up the finite amount of currency that will be available is just bizarre. With the rate of inflation currently why would anyone part with bit coins? I can only imagine that it is quite a popular fad currently and the popularity of that is driving the price up. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCR Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 The price is crashing pretty hard just now for both bitcoin and litecoin. Bitcoin dropped about $300 in the past 24 hours. Hoping it picks up again, if it does it's a perfect time to dive on board. Ignoring the peaks and troughs the value increase has been pretty steady. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fanny paddery Posted November 27, 2013 Share Posted November 27, 2013 Bitcoins pass $1000http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25120731 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted November 27, 2013 Share Posted November 27, 2013 Sure I heard on the news the other day it's being used to pay for assassinations. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al B Posted November 27, 2013 Share Posted November 27, 2013 So is money. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted November 27, 2013 Share Posted November 27, 2013 Fair point. Should probably have posted a link to an article about it: http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/18/5117450/bitcoin-powered-assassination-market-targets-obama-bernanke 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCR Posted November 28, 2013 Share Posted November 28, 2013 (edited) More importantly, litecoin hit $40! It was $5 at the start of this thread when we were all talking about it. Who all jumped on board? I bought $78 of litecoin, bought 13, gave away 1, and my 12 is currently worth $472. I was about to pump $500 into bitcoin, but I'm seriously considering sticking it in either more litecoin or the other "altcoins", like namecoin and PPC. While bitcoin's a safer bet, I'm pretty sure those 2 are going to take off to some degree soon. edit: apparently peercoin's supposed to maintain an inflation rate of 1%, making it a good currency but not a good investment. There's an infinite amount of them too. Edited November 28, 2013 by RCR 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted November 28, 2013 Share Posted November 28, 2013 Oooft James Howells searches for hard drive with £4m-worth of bitcoins storedA Newport man has been searching a landfill site in south Wales hoping to find a computer hard drive he threw away which is now worth over £4m. James Howells's hard drive contains 7,500 bitcoins - which is a virtual form of currency for use online. It had sat in a drawer for years and he had forgotten it contained the bitcoins, which he obtained in 2009 for almost nothing, when he threw it out. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-25134289 A big Homer Simpson D'oh. Nugget. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaffenThinMint Posted November 28, 2013 Share Posted November 28, 2013 Oooft James Howells searches for hard drive with £4m-worth of bitcoins storedA Newport man has been searching a landfill site in south Wales hoping to find a computer hard drive he threw away which is now worth over £4m. James Howells's hard drive contains 7,500 bitcoins - which is a virtual form of currency for use online. It had sat in a drawer for years and he had forgotten it contained the bitcoins, which he obtained in 2009 for almost nothing, when he threw it out. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-25134289 So as if matters weren't bad enough, he tells the BBC to let everyone know there's £4 million in the local landfill stored in a hard drive. Expect bedlam shortly. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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