The Bubbly Bitcoin Thread -- Merged Threads

[The Masked Tulip]

This is like Apple at 700 bucks. Loads of people were saying it was cheap as Apple would be a 1,000 bucks within weeks.

[NatterJackToad]

This is like Apple at 700 bucks. Loads of people were saying it was cheap as Apple would be a 1,000 bucks within weeks.

This isn’t like anything that has been before.

[goldbug9999]

Buying bitcoins is ridiculously hard here and there are consumer protection issues.

Well I dont know about "ridiculously" hard - most UK banks will happily do a SEPA transfer to bitstamps account, its just 5 mins on the phone.

[miggy]

Well I dont know about "ridiculously" hard - most UK banks will happily do a SEPA transfer to bitstamps account, its just 5 mins on the phone.

Take my 'ridiculous' to mean to the lay person. Transferring money internationally to some eastern european bank when they have no idea even how to use an exchange and they need to upload their ID etc... that's pretty ridiculous if you ask me.

Despite all the publicity, I'm adamant we're going to see a correction before the new year and then stability for a while. Whether the new price is going to be $300 or $1000 I don't know but typically the correction has been very big and includes a bounce. That will put a lot of people off for a few months.

Edited November 29, 2013 by miggy

[erat_forte]

I found it fairly easy to buy on bitbargain but that was before the sellers got gteedy and the spreads got massive.

To crashmonitor, you can save your wallet remotely, email it to your gmail account. As long as you have a strong password for it. Or memorise the private keys if you are that paranoid.

One of the points of Bitcoin is that you are not depending on a third party. It's called counterparty risk.

[justthisbloke]

Agreed - it's not so much the "hard" factor as the risk-revulsion factor.

Sending large wads of wonga along with passports and swathes of other identity paperwork to an unknown bank account of an unfamiliar entity in Eastern Europe or the Far East is just too scary for most (sensible) people. Throw in the fact that the press has associated BTC with general shadiness and you can see why people find it "ridiculously hard" to buy BTC in the UK.

It's put *me* off buying any more - and I'm reasonably bitcoin-aware. I was thinking of localbitcoins face to face but Mrs JTB said "let me get this straight - you're planning on telling random people on the internet that at a given time and place they'll find you carrying a four figure sum in untraceable notes?" and convinced me of the error of my ways.

[goldbug9999]

So a tiny number of people could be trading with each other, or even themselves (shock, horror) and ramping the price up astronomically?

$60 million / day current being traded. That is obviously exchange based only and excluded peer to peer transfers.

[evetsm]

It may be even more extreme than that, because all that can be looked at is what bitcoins are held in what wallet accounts identifiable by public key. Some of the wealthiest may have several 'accounts'.

No doubt that 50 include the Winkledork twins and that Silk Road guy. In the latter case, those coins may well be lost forever, unless he strikes a deal with the FBI. Efectively, the number of available Bitcoins will be reduced.

i wonder how many Bitcoins will be lost over the years, with IT geeks sending HDDs to landfill, people dying without telling people their passwords, etc. In the long term the Bitcoin money supply may dwindle considerably.

if the Silk Road guy encrypted his wallet and made copies accessible to confidents, then by the time the FBI cracks the wallet open they may find the digital equivalent of cobwebs in there. The contents already transferred by the confidents. The beauty of BTC is that your wallet can be in many places simultaneously.

[ChumpusRex]

I'll have to admit, I'm very hesitant to get into anything "new" or "edgy". But I've finally capitulated, and I'm getting myself some litecoins.

I've got a pallet (*) full of AMD 7950 cards arriving tomorrow, having cleaned out a major retailer.

(*) This might be a slight exaggeration. Stock on these things is very, very tight.

Edited November 29, 2013 by ChumpusRex

[SNACR]

Something just doesn't add up about the story - he has quickly been picked up by all the MSM outlets in a very short period. I wasn't even looking for the story, and it found me several times yesterday, from a full length feature on Jeremy Vine to interviews on ITV and Sky News.

He seems remarkably relaxed for someone who has "thrown away" £4.5M, even delivering the story with a smirky smile on ITV last night.

The journo then finished the story by saying "well, he may have thrown away £4.5M, but who knows, soon they could be worth tens, if not 100's of millions".

He couldn't have given a stronger advert for Bitcoin, if he had said "Go out and buy Bitcoin!"

It definitely had that beeb exposition vibe of 'sheeple, here's something you need to know about, remember this thing as you'll need to know what it is for some big news later' followed by a crashing of the Bitcoin wiki page a few seconds later.

Would think it's too good an opportunity to miss for an abject lesson in why everyone should stick with nice safe government backed investments. The irony being that the popularity of these kinds of thing is because people no longer feel there's as much safety to government backed investments, so they probably aren't going to go away.

[markyh]

I'll have to admit, I'm very hesitant to get into anything "new" or "edgy". But I've finally capitulated, and I'm getting myself some litecoins.

I've got a pallet (*) full of AMD 7950 cards arriving tomorrow, having cleaned out a major retailer.

(*) This might be a slight exaggeration. Stock on these things is very, very tight.

Which 7950's did you get? The best two where the MSI HD7950 Twin Frozr 3 OC boost edition or the Sapphire HD7950 Vapor-X boost edition but in the UK these aren't available from general e-tailers any more. I got my additional units off ebay 2nd hand.

MSI's are awesome, mine can undervolt to 1038mv and still pull 631k/h for 24/7 rock solid @ 70 deg C and 220 watts.

Good luck with the setup if you've not done this before.

M

[happy_renting]

$60 million / day current being traded. That is obviously exchange based only and excluded peer to peer transfers.

Where do you get the $60m figure from? And are you sure it is exchange only?

I would think that peer-to-peer transaction volumes could also be worked out, from the blockchain.

[ChumpusRex]

Which 7950's did you get? The best two where the MSI HD7950 Twin Frozr 3 OC boost edition or the Sapphire HD7950 Vapor-X boost edition but in the UK these aren't available from general e-tailers any more. I got my additional units off ebay 2nd hand.

MSI's are awesome, mine can undervolt to 1038mv and still pull 631k/h for 24/7 rock solid @ 70 deg C and 220 watts.

Good luck with the setup if you've not done this before.

M

I've got XFX cards. I've been testing 1 for the last few days to make sure that I can set it up. It works great at about 660 kH/s 24/7, but the voltage isn't tunable so is stuck at 1.25V. That said, the cost of power is negligible given the current difficulty and value of LTC. Aside from the XFX ones being the only brand available, they are about £50 cheaper than any other brand.

When the bulk pack of cards and motherboards arrives, hopefully the setup will be quick, as I've got a whole stack of USB keys which are clones of the current test miner rig. With a bit of luck, should be totally plug-and-play.

[The Masked Tulip]

I've got XFX cards. I've been testing 1 for the last few days to make sure that I can set it up. It works great at about 660 kH/s 24/7, but the voltage isn't tunable so is stuck at 1.25V. That said, the cost of power is negligible given the current difficulty and value of LTC. Aside from the XFX ones being the only brand available, they are about £50 cheaper than any other brand.

When the bulk pack of cards and motherboards arrives, hopefully the setup will be quick, as I've got a whole stack of USB keys which are clones of the current test miner rig. With a bit of luck, should be totally plug-and-play.

I fear that this is how the Borg came into existence.

[justthisbloke]

I'm considering giving this litecoin mining a bash - to flex my now rusty engineering sinews and as a Christmas hols project for the sprogs who return from school a week today.

Is there a layman's guide anywhere? I had a good page a while ago - maybe linked here but the search function is lamentable on hpc.

Secondly, how much bandwidth does the mining process require? Looking at what it actually does, I'd presume not much on an ongoing basis. I don't have a landline so am a bit bandwidth constrained.

[NatterJackToad]

another of China's state owned companies now accepting Bitcoin (China Telecom):

http://js.189.cn/w2014

reddit discussion:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1roulj/china_telecom_accepts_bitcoin/

[happy_renting]

Anouncing... hpccoin. Index-linked to Foxton's share price.

[markyh]

I've got XFX cards. I've been testing 1 for the last few days to make sure that I can set it up. It works great at about 660 kH/s 24/7, but the voltage isn't tunable so is stuck at 1.25V. That said, the cost of power is negligible given the current difficulty and value of LTC. Aside from the XFX ones being the only brand available, they are about £50 cheaper than any other brand.

When the bulk pack of cards and motherboards arrives, hopefully the setup will be quick, as I've got a whole stack of USB keys which are clones of the current test miner rig. With a bit of luck, should be totally plug-and-play.

1.25v ouch, thats the full whack boost voltage on the MSI TF3. Have you put a watt meter on the multiplug that powers the 1 card rig, becuase I think you will find full chat 660k/h (excellent BTW) you will be pulling something like 500+ watts!!

This could be of interest to you, a thread about custom bios to force voltage lower. It's for MSI TF3 and Sapphire VX 7950's but............ the last page 9 delves into moddying your own cards bios and lowering the bios voltage setting with a hex editor.

If you can get your cards down to say 620-630 k/h but only pulling 250-300 watts you will ahve a much higher kh/watt ratio means more $$$.

https://forum.litecoin.net/index.php/topic,4999.120.html

M

edit : You also want to watch your temps as anyting over 70 deg c will hugely shorten the life of the cards, especailly XFX ones which have lower quality VRM's and voltage controls. You may burn them out in months. My MSI has been going 24/7 since April, still healthy as a mule.

Edited November 29, 2013 by markyh

[ChumpusRex]

1.25v ouch, thats the full whack boost voltage on the MSI TF3. Have you put a watt meter on the multiplug that powers the 1 card rig, becuase I think you will find full chat 660k/h (excellent BTW) you will be pulling something like 500+ watts!!

A 1 card system draws 280W according to my watt meter.

[markyh]

A 1 card system draws 280W according to my watt meter.

Full chat mining? ok nice. what temps does MSI Afterburner report?

M

[markyh]

I'm considering giving this litecoin mining a bash - to flex my now rusty engineering sinews and as a Christmas hols project for the sprogs who return from school a week today.

Is there a layman's guide anywhere? I had a good page a while ago - maybe linked here but the search function is lamentable on hpc.

Secondly, how much bandwidth does the mining process require? Looking at what it actually does, I'd presume not much on an ongoing basis. I don't have a landline so am a bit bandwidth constrained.

JTB I posted a good beginners guide on page 70 of this thread post #1046.

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=194150&view=findpost&p=909437733

M

[FreeTrader]

The FT is reporting that Alderney is formulating plans to become the first international centre for Bitcoin transactions.

Alderney's finance minister has had discussions with the Royal Mint on licensing a physical coin, and the Treasury (which oversees the Royal Mint) has invited the Alderney team for talks on how a licensing scheme would work.

The Bitcoin financial services hub would include exchanges, payments services and physical storage for coins for wealthy clients – and would diversify the island’s revenues from gambling alone.

Island territory seeks self-sufficiency with virtual currency

[markyh]

The FT is reporting that Alderney is formulating plans to become the first international centre for Bitcoin transactions.

Alderney's finance minister has had discussions with the Royal Mint on licensing a physical coin, and the Treasury (which oversees the Royal Mint) has invited the Alderney team for talks on how a licensing scheme would work.

Island territory seeks self-sufficiency with virtual currency

Nice. I wanted a gold physical BTC loaded with 1BTC to carry in my pocket for the pub etc as a crypto talking piece. But that was when it was $100. Did mind losing or having £60 nicked. Now it's $1000+ I've gone off that idea funny enough. Price mugging target for the clued up thugs!!

M

[Rave]

(*) This might be a slight exaggeration. Stock on these things is very, very tight.

So the smart play is...AMD stock?!

I decided today that I might as well get my underused 4850 doing some mining, and figured Worldcoins were as good a punt as any. Try as I might though, I cannot get cgminer or multiminer to recognise the card and do anything. I fired up a 3d game, and it's definitely still working for its intended purpose. If anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears.

[happy_renting]

The FT is reporting that Alderney is formulating plans to become the first international centre for Bitcoin transactions.

Alderney's finance minister has had discussions with the Royal Mint on licensing a physical coin, and the Treasury (which oversees the Royal Mint) has invited the Alderney team for talks on how a licensing scheme would work.

Island territory seeks self-sufficiency with virtual currency

Alderney seems to think they are the first to come up with the idea of a physical bitcoin.

The physical bitcoins in the past have been novelty tokens that carry the number of a bitcoin. If the number is used (spent) then the token has no Bitcoin value.

However....

What if Alderney held a 'stock' of Bitcoins in their own wallet, and then issued their own, unnumbered Bitcoins, on the assurance to the public that they can be redeemed for a real Bitcoin at any time. That could have 'currency', I suppose.

Then they could shoot themselves in the foot by hypothecating their Bitcoins and issuing too many physical Bitcoins.

The questions to ask is; what is Alderneys angle? How do they expect to make money from Bitcoins? Perhaps as a tax haven for Bitcoin trading. I hope they don't have designs on fractional reserve Bitcoins - they would be avoided by any Bitcoin fan with any sense.