I think a web wide bitcoin tipping bot would be amazing.  And I think I have some ideas on how it could be accomplished...

Basic Requirements:
1) Has to know what pages people have tipped on.
2) Has to be able to create posts on said pages.
3) Has to be able to authenticate individuals (so one person cannot withdraw another person's Bitcoins).

How can we do this?
1) User submits URL of page to tipping bot after writing up a tip.  The tipping bot forever stores that page and checks it in the future for more tips at regular intervals.
2) This is the biggest problem, and might require a lot of manual work for each new page submitted.  I am thinking that the bot could store credentials for each domain managed, then attempt to use said credentials to log in whenever a new URL is submitted under that domain.  If it fails, then whoever is managing the bot would be notified.
3) Authentication is another big challenge.  Many login systems are unique in how they will act, and whether they will let users send private messages to each other.  So, different rules will have to be created with each system.  Disqus, for example, allows users to "leave a message" on another user's profile, but those are likely public.  Still, allowing users to withdraw money publicly would still be better than nothing.

Bottom line is, it could most definitely work, but would require a lot of setup for each comments system that is used.  It is good that news sites are trending towards using already-standardized platforms (like Disqus and OpenID), and may be incredibly easy to implement because of that.  But there are more websites than just news site that people might want to tip on.  Forums, for example, would be a big one.  The user could certainly sign the bot up for numerous forums as needed, but the forum admin could always ban the bot and cause tipping to come to a standstill there.

Thoughts?

Whilst we have yet to even begin drumming up interest in our upcoming platform (or even make the launch page public), I've decided to post some information about it here in order to celebrate the fact that we've finally settled on a name (of which a domain was actually available). We highly doubt that we will be launching to the general public before at least six months from today, due to the legal groundwork involved - and also due to the fact that we also have no intention of releasing a faulty product.

-----

[ About ]

crypto.pm is an advanced cryptocurrency exchange featuring state of the art security and performance enhancements. Our goal is to provide a trading platform that offers 100% highly performant uptime, whilst providing the highest level of resilience and security available.

We treat every single bit of information that we store as if it was our own credit card number. With hashing and encryption taken to a level that some might find overkill, we ensure that the security of your data is absolute. Beyond this, to ensure performance - we have built a highly redundant self scaling architecture that grows as traffic levels rise.

Sadly, we won't be ready to launch to the general public for quite a while. After all, we want to do this properly and ensure that we release a resilient platform that will be used for many years to come (and let's not forget all the legal paperwork that we need to deal with). In the interim, what we mostly need are ideas. Whilst donations are always appreciated, we are far more interested in what we can get out of your brain. So, if you have any suggestions for us - then please, let us know.

Now, for the interesting part. Our fee structure. To be blunt, we are not looking to make a profit with this exchange, as long as costs are covered and we can ensure that there is a healthy safety buffer - then we're happy. As a result, we have a flat fee of 0.18% across the board. There are no volume discounts, and we're pretty sure that despite that, we will have the lowest trading fees on the market.

-----

[ FAQ ]

Currencies
At launch, we will be supporting the following currencies.

AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP, USD

Fees
0.18% (flat rate)

* additional fees charged by payment processors may be incurred.

Security
We take security very seriously. Each and every bit of information that we store (and we try to make it as minimal as possible) is treated as if it were the credit card number of a staff member. Numerous forms of encryption and hashing are used in order to ensure data security and core system access is multi-factored and highly limited.

Beyond this, we highly recommend that you withdraw any large amounts of BTC held in your account following a trade to cold storage unless you intend to use them in the near future. Support for automated transfers if no account activity has happened within <X> days is provided for people wishing to take advantage of this feature.

Verification
People trading over a certain level of currency will be required to verify their identity. This is a regulatory requirement and if we chose to ignore it, we could not offer this service and would possibly enjoy some prison time for facilitating money laundering.

-----

[ Technology ]

Client Side
html
javascript
websockets

Server Side
aggressive caching
clustered architecture
geodns balancing
mongodb
node.js
postgresql
redis
websockets

Development Side
caffeine
snacks

-----

[ Contact ]

Have any questions? Interested in potentially joining this venture? Get in touch.

Email
hello@citrus.pw

Telephone
Available on request (to prevent mass spamming).

-----

[ Donations ]

Always appreciated, I am bootstrapping the initial development and legal framework without taking a penny. I recently did the same with an upcoming home media appliance/platform and before that, a large public metadata search engine. I have a large amount of experience in highly available and secure systems, and extensive experience in developing for the financial sector.

15AUQm2tu6gLvtX4afdG9GBFaebR6CPTqK

Whilst we have yet to even begin drumming up interest in our upcoming platform (or even make the launch page public), I've decided to post some information about it here in order to celebrate the fact that we've finally settled on a name (of which a domain was actually available). We highly doubt that we will be launching to the general public before at least six months from today, due to the legal groundwork involved - and also due to the fact that we also have no intention of releasing a faulty product.

-----

[ About ]

crypto.pm is an advanced cryptocurrency exchange featuring state of the art security and performance enhancements. Our goal is to provide a trading platform that offers 100% highly performant uptime, whilst providing the highest level of resilience and security available.

We treat every single bit of information that we store as if it was our own credit card number. With hashing and encryption taken to a level that some might find overkill, we ensure that the security of your data is absolute. Beyond this, to ensure performance - we have built a highly redundant self scaling architecture that grows as traffic levels rise.

Sadly, we won't be ready to launch to the general public for quite a while. After all, we want to do this properly and ensure that we release a resilient platform that will be used for many years to come (and let's not forget all the legal paperwork that we need to deal with). In the interim, what we mostly need are ideas. Whilst donations are always appreciated, we are far more interested in what we can get out of your brain. So, if you have any suggestions for us - then please, let us know.

Now, for the interesting part. Our fee structure. To be blunt, we are not looking to make a profit with this exchange, as long as costs are covered and we can ensure that there is a healthy safety buffer - then we're happy. As a result, we have a flat fee of 0.18% across the board. There are no volume discounts, and we're pretty sure that despite that, we will have the lowest trading fees on the market.

-----

[ FAQ ]

Currencies
At launch, we will be supporting the following currencies.

AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP, USD

Fees
0.18% (flat rate)

* additional fees charged by payment processors may be incurred.

Security
We take security very seriously. Each and every bit of information that we store (and we try to make it as minimal as possible) is treated as if it were the credit card number of a staff member. Numerous forms of encryption and hashing are used in order to ensure data security and core system access is multi-factored and highly limited.

Beyond this, we highly recommend that you withdraw any large amounts of BTC held in your account following a trade to cold storage unless you intend to use them in the near future. Support for automated transfers if no account activity has happened within <X> days is provided for people wishing to take advantage of this feature.

Verification
People trading over a certain level of currency will be required to verify their identity. This is a regulatory requirement and if we chose to ignore it, we could not offer this service and would possibly enjoy some prison time for facilitating money laundering.

-----

[ Technology ]

Client Side
html
javascript
websockets

Server Side
aggressive caching
clustered architecture
geodns balancing
mongodb
node.js
postgresql
redis
websockets

Development Side
caffeine
snacks

-----

[ Contact ]

Have any questions? Interested in potentially joining this venture? Get in touch.

Email
hello@citrus.pw

Telephone
Available on request (to prevent mass spamming).

-----

[ Donations ]

Always appreciated, I am bootstrapping the initial development and legal framework without taking a penny. I recently did the same with an upcoming home media appliance/platform and before that, a large public metadata search engine. I have a large amount of experience in highly available and secure systems, and extensive experience in developing for the financial sector.

15AUQm2tu6gLvtX4afdG9GBFaebR6CPTqK

I am very surprised to see a lot of postings on here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=21112.920 of people mining at rates of 30-300 Mhash (just randomly chosen numbers)
I'm pulling about 3 Ghash and I'm debating when should I stop and sell my 7970's to recoup some of my investment.
I think that at the current difficulty, almost 5m, it gets pretty pointless to mine at anything less than 2 Ghash/s unless you have free power.

10000 khash? That's 10 mhash, so just about anything can do that, couple of good CPUs, an old nvidia card, whatever.

If you meant 10000mhash or 10 ghash, that cannot be done easily. Assume you grab a bunch of cheap 5870s off eBay for $150 a pop that can each do 400mhash, you would need 25. That's already 3750 dollars. Assuming you can get 5 motherboards with 5 pcie slots, at 85 bucks a pop that's another 425. To power 5 5870s you need a 1250w PSU which is gonna be at least 200 bucks for a decent one, and you're already past 5000 dollars without any casing cables fans etc.

Thats probably one of the more efficient builds and it won't work, not to mention being a bad investment right now.

There is a DIY ASIC project getting started, you could build a 10 ghash miner for about $500 with some know how. You might want to look into that.

http://youtu.be/IbSOHwCOnG0
The guy talks about how the trades take place in today's exchanges. EDIT: Honestly don't know if an implementation of that technology he talks about would be good for bitcoin...Maybe not for speculators, as the price couldn't swing too much in a short time.

World GDP = $69.97 Trillion US dollars at current prices

EBAY Mkt cap = 73.10B


As of 2008, PayPal's total payment volume, the total value of transactions, was US$60 billion, an increase of 27 percent over the previous year, and US$ 71 billion in 2009, an increase of 19 percent over the previous year. As of 2012, PayPal's total payment volume processed was US$145 billion.


If it captures 1% of global GDP, that would equal 699.7 billion US dollars which would equal $33,300 per coin if there are only 21mil coins.

If it captures the payment volume processed of paypal in 2012, it would be worth $6,908/coin.

... I know, I'll sell at $50.

 

Get your shit together people.

It is nearly impossible to buy.
Mining is really the only way.   I wanted to buy 50k worth, you cannot.   The exchanges act like they are brokers also and none seem worthy of any trust whatsoever.   Most do not accept wire transfers (WTF???) and many suggest you go buy a money order??   What kind of legitimate business does that?
Basically, I would rather send $50k to that Nigerian General's wife that keeps emailing me.

It was fully my expectation that when "mainstream" news got out about Bitcoin that we'd see a lot more people buying in.  I see more and more people and companies wanting to use it, so why aren't we seeing a price increase?

I figure it's due to one of four reasons:
1) Lag time between hearing about it and actually buying some.
2) Difficulty in buying Bitcoins.
3) It was previously overvalued.
4) Many people have heard of it for the first time, and do not yet believe in it; they are waiting to "see what happens" before they dive in to the world of Bitcoin.

Thoughts?

I only bought 2 BTC so not worried either way but interested to see what peoples opinions will be.

If all the GPUMiners leave BTC for LTC you may never see a ROI since that prebuilt is way too expensive.

You should be able to make a good $329.17 per month at current difficulty and price.

However, for the $2400 price tag, your purchase is definitely not worth it. You have to account for both electric costs and the heat for AC, which will be quite significant (it will heat up an entire room pretty fast).

In the best case scenario you would break even in ~10 months, which would have been only 4-5 months if you had built a rig yourself.

In general, if you want to buy a PC, you must buy and build it yourself. Ever notice how expensive prebuilt desktops and laptops are? They are A LOT more expensive then they really are worth.

I know much of the discussion around Bitcoin has always been that the Governments of the world can't shut down bitcoin because of it's peer to peer nature.

This much is pretty true,  but I want to point out the fact that they don't have to shut down Bitcoin,  but they can effectively turn it off anyway.

All they need to do the same thing they did to Iran,  North Korea and everyone else they don't like...  in those countries they basically attacked their central bank and made conversions from each respective currency to something else far more difficult.

In our case they do the same thing to Mt.Gox and any other exchange they want to.  

bitcoin won't shut down,  but buying and selling them would head underground along with volume and liquidity.    What would that take,  a list of 5-6 exchanges...  and now everyone is forced to use face to face transactions and cash type exchanges?

My point is that they don't have to shut down bitcoin to shut down bitcoin....  hell even the underground sites like Silk Road would disappear to a large extent because the sellers there wouldn't be able to easily convert their currency into whatever the grocery store in their area accepts..  (and it wouldn't be bitcoin in that place because the grocery store would run into the same problem).

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't send my bank account info though a faceless peer to peer system as they don't have the same level of protection that bitcoin does (which was designed for that).

Yes more exotic, and it is ASIC.  

The difficulty is already rising and it's going to get worst in the future. You could try mining LTC.

the profit exemple used today's difficulty and a price that may not come back for quite some time.

You can take it out of the case and point a box fan at it.

Difficulty adjusts ever 2016 blocks. For litecoin, that seems to be about every three or four days, and the difficulty goes up by about 10% each time it adjusts. (Based on recent adjustments.)

If that rate of increase continues, difficulty will go up around 100% each month. Double the difficulty in a month means half the return. Four times the difficulty in two months means one fourth of the return. Etc.

It's probably more realistic to expect full ROI in six to eight months, and then maybe another few months of profitability before the difficulty is so high that the return is less than the power cost.

Of course, if BTC and LTC go stratospheric again, you'll pay off sooner and stay profitable longer.

I was just going by the components that were listed on the Amazon page, which lists 7950s. If you and the vendor agreed to upgrade the machine to 7970s, you should certainly expect to receive that, and I don't see any reason you wouldn't.

2000 KH/s is not unreasonable to expect from 3x 7970s. Heat is definitely a concern, though. 3x 7970s generate a good bit of heat, and that case may not handle it.

Profitability is hard to guess, because it really depends on how much the difficulty will increase as more and more ASICs come online and all the GPUs that are currently mining BTC get switched over to LTC. Chances are, eventually the machine will pay for itself. But unless you took difficulty increases into account, it probably won't pay off as quickly as you think it might.

Anyhow, if you're actually getting a turnkey mining solution with 3x7970s that does 2000 KH/s, it's probably not that bad of a deal. A 3 GPU gaming machine from a boutique PC vendor would have had the same kind of markup.