Bitcoin mining made easy

[smoth]

Of course, the fundamental problem with Bitcoin mining hardware is the obvious: if the devices were profitable, wouldn’t the manufacturers just keep them and use them to mine Bitcoins themselves?

during the gold rush, the person selling pickaxes and shovels was the one who profited the most.

[klapmongool]

Of course, the fundamental problem with Bitcoin mining hardware is the obvious: if the devices were profitable, wouldn’t the manufacturers just keep them and use them to mine Bitcoins themselves?

during the gold rush, the person selling pickaxes and shovels was the one who profited the most.

Yep :) And considering that the manufacturers wouldn't even have to put in the work like those miners would the answer is obvious.

[varikonniemi]

Of course, the fundamental problem with Bitcoin mining hardware is the obvious: if the devices were profitable, wouldn’t the manufacturers just keep them and use them to mine Bitcoins themselves?

during the gold rush, the person selling pickaxes and shovels was the one who profited the most.

Those who have invested directly into Bitcoin have made orders of magnitude greater profit than those who invested in mining. Once again your analogy is one of the worst imagineable.

[FireStorm_]

I so agree with you that using bad analogies can cause very strange idea's, and weird conclusions. I don't like Bad analogies either, that's what made me turn off the video you posted.

In de video there was a man talking about No-one wanting to print to much paper money, because then the money would be more useful as fuel when burned. And because fuel is a power-source or something, bit-coin is good because it is clearly better than the situation of the Weimar-republic...

I think it a bit ironic that the fear of inflation seems to be one of the motivators for using bit-coin. It seems that arguing against comparison with tulip mania, is part of a bigger argument that just denies inflation will ever occur all together.

Also
please explain the difference between: 'Those who have invested directly into Bitcoin' and 'those who invested in mining'
Or did you mean gold-mining?

Then how can you at the same time use smoths analogy for your greater-profit-argument? And also say at the same time that the analogy does not apply? Which one is it? You want to use the analogy or you want to dismiss it?
Please explain, if you would be so kind.

[smoth]

Those who have invested directly into Bitcoin have made orders of magnitude greater profit than those who invested in mining. Once again your analogy is one of the worst imagineable.

Ok. I was answering the dude's question. It isn't an analogy, that happened. Why don't you give him a better answer?

Then how can you at the same time use smoths analogy for your greater-profit-argument? And also say at the same time that the analogy does not apply? Which one is it? You want to use the analogy or you want to dismiss it?
Please explain, if you would be so kind.

because he insults everyone who questions his beloved bitcoin. The guy has so much bias in this stuff it isn't even funny.

[FireStorm_]

I guess I took the statement, about people making certain comparisons being seen as naïve and ignorant, personal. Guess I'm just as fallible as the next person.

[smoth]

I used to think a lot more of the dude, but in this thread the level of cognitive distortion I am seeing him display is as big as some religious people's. Each time I tried to actually learn about BT he presumes I am here to deride his choice or whatever. Any information to the contrary about BT he rages over and any negative opinion(or perceptively so) about it he seems to rage over.

Look at the way he took the whole tulip bud thing. That is some serious distortion on varions with respect to his reaction. I think cheesecan hit the nail on the head with his more recent post.

[knorke]

Watched two minutes of the video, seemed too general ("blabla as innovative as combustion engine blabla encryption blabla decentral", I knew that much) to answer my questions.

You keep on belittling it as lottery wins, when in fact it was enthusiasts who were of great importance to allow for Bitcoin to come alive, who spent resources against all odds to make it happen. If everyone jumped on the bandwagon only after it was in motion, we would have zero innovation in our society.

Think that is praising the early investors a bit too much
A first it was at best curiosity and then the hope to gain some easy money. "Real" money by exchanging into dollars&co, not bitcoins. As the speculation part of bitcoins currently vastly outnumbers its "real currency use", I bet very few bitcoins owners care about the greater ideas behind it and do not seriously consider using it as money. Most will be happy to exchange to normal money before the bubble bursts and then forget about it. If it was otherwise actually then surely using bitcoins would be much more popuar.

My estimate of a "big enough market cap" would be about a hundred billion dollars.

Is there estimations of long that will take? Of course establing a new currency takes a while but it has been 4 years already.

[varikonniemi]

please explain the difference between: 'Those who have invested directly into Bitcoin' and 'those who invested in mining'

When you invest in Bitcoin you purchase the currency. When you invest in mining, you invest in hardware that is capable of mining that currency.

knorke: 15 billion dollars for something completely virtual and just running on faith is huge. 100 Billion dollars would be life changing. Will we ever get there? i don't know. But if we get there it will happen in a year.

To be honest there has only been a week of real widespread consumer adoption of Bitcoin (after the senate hearing). Most of services and functionality it allows have not been even implemented yet. The reference client is still at version 0.85.

I think we are getting towards widespread consumer adoption once those consumers slowly realize all the benefits of Bitcoin. And the 3-5% rebate compared to CC:s/paypal i have talked about here is only the tip of the iceberg.

[varikonniemi]

ZipZap adds 25k locations in UK and 240k locations in Russia for Bitcoin for Cash, beginning Jan. 2014

A spokes person of ZipZap announced last Saturday on the Bitcoin Expo in London that ZipZap is adding bitcoin to their business model. That means that from the second week of January 2014 there will be 25k small shops in UK that will hand out Bitcoin for Cash and 240k locations in Russia. Basically every small shop that is selling lottery tickets or doing money exchange will give out Bitcoins automatically because they are already connected with ZipZap.

I think we are getting there

[smoth]

it is all this "we" stuff that is making you sound like a cultist.

[SinbadEV]

I wouldn't be terribly surprised if adoption is already significantly higher in countries with less stable or poorer economic situations... and places around the web accepting bitcoin for variable price transactions (like Humble Bundle) seem to be more numerous these days than even a few months ago. I feel like either it's finally catching on or we are seeing the effects of heightened media intention attention due to the recent hyperinflation.

[Bob_Sacamano]

I am still on the fence about all this. I don't know if buying bitcoins will put you on a watch list or something like that. My dad and I have been mistaken in the past for a massively unsavory guy and we just recently cleared that up. I am not sure if the "guilt by association" is worth fooling with bitcoins.

Now you are on my watch list! For making the most stupid comment within this thread



Considering that varikonniemi started this thread with the intention to contribute to the community (as he did with his other projects), I don't think the way you are carrying out this discussion is very constructive.

[smoth]

I don't get who you think you are or why I care about you in this community

[Bob_Sacamano]

That's ok. No problem.
Honestly, I didn't expect you to
:)

[luckywaldo7]

This idea of "buy bitcoins before they run out" seems like quite a bad trend for something which is supposed to be used as a currency. If you have to be an early adopter of this currency for it to work in your favour then it won't be widely used.

Now, I'm not saying that bitcoins are a pyramid scheme but the argument "buy into this thing before other people do, be an early adopter" is basically the only 'good' reason to buy into a pyramid scheme. There need to be other reasons to buy bitcoins.

To be honest, it feels more and more like a pyramid scheme because the adopters are incentivized to advertise out (by telling people 'you will make money!'), because more adoption increases the value of bitcoin, and therefore increases their own profit. (And of course, hand-wave away criticisms with 'you are stupid' rather address them directly)

[smoth]

ANDI hate thst as well. By and large the community here isn't stupid. It is a fairly intelligent community here and to see that over and over in this thread is frustrating..

[varikonniemi]

By and large the community here isn't stupid.

Anarchid bitcoin cannot be used as currency. It cannot be split into smaller denominations.

varion bitcoin has nothing to do with merits.

I hope this exception solidifies the rule. Now on to something not completely retarded:

Google Searches for 'Bitcoin' went up 60% in Dec '13.


The exact same trend is also seen at Baidu. SindbadEV: This seems to be one of the hardest biases to shake. People living in the west seem to forget that they are highly privileged in terms of what services they have available. Millions of people have gained worldwide financial access solely thanks to Bitcoin.

Finally i would like to point out that the Bitcoin community switched over to milliBitcoin last night. So one mBTC is worth 1.167$, which is much easier to work with than 1167$/BTC.

[zwzsg]

If bitcoins really proves to be a convient way to transfer money, won't the bank corporations lobby the governement to outlaw it?

[varikonniemi]

Oh they might try. But the first step would be to convince the public why that is needed. Not many people are that gullible in this day and age after 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria etc.

Que story about boy who cried wolf...