Don't make sweeping conclusions on the nature of this forum based on my replies. I'm probably atypical, and generalizing from a singular data source is a horrible idea anyways.


Trying couldn't hurt, to be sure.


It isn't; it's my policy.


The vast majority of miners can use a flash drive for storing the OS. Again, trying couldn't hurt (much), but don't expect miracles.


Fair enough, but I agree, you won't find much demand here.


You Brits get ripped off for computer fans, apparently. If someone will really pay that much, it might be worth it.


It's a gamble. You avoid Ebay's astronomical fees and annoying payment systems, but you give up a lot of potential buyers. I would suggest trying here (or Bitmit) first and moving there as a last resort


Dummy plugs are no longer, in many cases, necessary - and new GPU miners are a dying breed. But as with above, if you can find a buyer, what I say matters little.


As no proper way to address my points ever existed or will exist, you could not have done this. Don't worry about it.

Don't mistake me for an idealist. My point is simply that China's government has limits. Note also that there's a significant difference between advocating for Bitcoin and merely using it.

And I completely agree: Bitcoin has problems; quite a few serious ones. However, I strongly suspect that if we fix those, with a bit of luck and a bit of time, the China problem may well fix itself.

Oh, I see - excuse my moment of hopefully temporary stupidity. I agree; without changing the underlying protocol structure, there is no concrete record of a hash being checked. One could look at the submitted nonces - but then you'd have to have control over miner code to ensure accuracy. I suppose I could write a custom miner, but any trust-independent verification procedures I can think of at the moment would require the purchaser to compute the hashes on their own, which rather renders the appeal nonexistent. A problem indeed. I'll take a look at SHA256 internals - it's possible something could be found there, though again it seems likely that completely unforgeable verification would require computation of the hashes by the verifying party, but worth checking out at least.

Txn-fees/merged mining income concerns are a non-issue in a competitive open market; these would be factored into the purchase price of shares. RAH will support GBT, Stratum, and Vardiff. Stability, of course, I cannot guarantee, but wait and see. Leasing would be, essentially, always available - the price would be set by the market, not us.


And I thank you for it!


Honestly, because I think no one has done it particularly well yet, and because I think many of the problems faced with these services were tactical rather than strategical. I used GPUMAX; it was atrocious. 10% fee, nonsensical pricing algorithms, unusable interface, the list goes on. HashPower I haven't used extensively, but my impressions seem to be corroborated by yours.


With your last point I cannot disagree; I would have come to the exact same conclusion in your position. If in a year this has fizzled out and died, and I have been proven merely yet another incompetent teenager with too-high aspirations, you will have full right to say I told you so. That said, I do intend to prove you wrong.

I'm not sure I completely agree with your assumption of PGP-savviness, but I certainly agree that PGP verification would be superior to password-based authentication, and it would make implementing a user-accessible API, which I wanted to do anyways, far less of a security risk. It would reduce accessibility somewhat, but the more people who learn how to use PGP the better, and anyways, I'm sure the 80-20 rule applies here. This is extremely useful, thank you.


Hmm. Without sacrificing direct real-time user control of share destination, this may be difficult - an estimate of likely received hashing power would be possible, as well as real-time statistics, updates, and control, but a guarantee of constant hashrate over any significant time period would be much harder (a 100% guarantee would be impossible without personal hardware backing) - still, I'll look into it, and again thanks.

I concede my lack of domain knowledge pertaining to the Chinese government's actual power inside their country. That said, they are neither omnipotent or omniscient - cracks exist, and they will be found. Passionate individuals will find ways around limitations. This may limit adoption, perhaps even severely, but it cannot completely stop it - and if the rest of the world accepts Bitcoin, China's hand will be forced, or economic damage of unimaginable magnitude will ensue.

You're in the wrong forum. Actually, the wrong internet. Perhaps even the wrong multiverse.


Don't even try.


Probably not, but you can sound out interest if you want; "Services" would be the subforum to use.


Please do not cross-post Bitmit links on the forums; that's just spam.


I have a Pentium IV 1.8 GHz lying around somewhere. Definitely useful, that. You could probably find some sucker on Ebay who'll buy these, though.


Don't make me laugh.


Shipping would cost more than the fan is worth.


You could probably sell these; use "Computer Hardware" under "Goods".


See my response to #6.


I don't understand why anyone does this. Would you sell your t-shirt real estate to mega-corporations? Besides, if you haven't been too active recently, no one will be interested.


Selling junk computer parts won't cut it. If you want to "thrive", whatever exactly that means to you, you need to innovate. No one can help you do that.

1) Stop writing in all caps; it offends the Fates.
2) Don't use too many exclamation points; see #1.
3) Explain your problem in detail, using screenshots if possible.
4) Take a break and read some Douglas Adams.

You'd really be best suited just stopping with #4, but if you must:

5) Check back here, where the denizens of this particular layer have probably debated a few non-sequiturs, posted links to unbelievably stupid Youtube videos, and, if you're lucky, fixed your problem.

And that post was actually pretty useful.

On-topic:

legendster: That is correct. Bitcoins per block (excepting transaction fees, which are still fairly negligible) and block generation time are fixed, so your dividends should be proportional to whatever percentage of the network ASICMiner controls at the given time. If their rate of growth is slower than the network's overall rate, dividends will go down.

If Mircea wasn't such an egotistic narcissistic megalomaniacal asshole, he would probably recieve a few more well-wishers, but c'est la vie, I suppose. Tell him to keep it up - he makes me look like a nice guy full of magic, unicorns, and large yellow smiley faces like you see on those atrocious Walmart salesperson T-shirts. Also, I sure do enjoy reading those blog posts.

And hey, why not - happy birthday!

Also, and completely unrelatedly (I figure this thread will be off-topic anyway), I'd appreciate your/his opinion on this.

I've heard crazier conspiracy theories. That said, you should take a long, hard look at Hanlon's Razor.

In most of the developed world, torrenting is illegal, and that never happens, right?

People with fancy suits and fancier titles like to utter grandiose declarations. You can choose whether or not to care.

Naw, he's just got an excess of grit, which is academia's sauce secrète of success du jour, so he should be fine, or a bit better, though the whole poker thing might impress them somewhat less.

The best suggestion I can give is to start doing things and stop posting on Internet forums. The former generally takes you places, the latter generally dumps you off on dimly lit street corners in Shanghai sans future prospects. Code; it doesn't matter what, just start typing. Launch a venture; even if it's been done already, it probably was either absolutely horrible or a complete scam. Go to all the meetups/conferences/Bitcoin-cum-poker-addicts-anonymous-meetings you can find even if you have nothing to offer; a unique perspective is worth more than you think, and you might find inspiration there.

For starters, you could stop writing transparent guilt trip threads in an attempt to make money. All humans look out for themselves (and their offspring) first - those that didn't were quickly removed from the gene pool. If you believe you prioritize otherwise, you're either horribly deluded or long due for a sharp thwack from Darwin's cane.

Begging in the big bad world of reality is generally considered a despicable occupation, used only as a last resort - yet here, in our little microcosmic "advanced" civilization, innumerable forum users post "donation" addresses - for projects, sometimes, but more often simply for themselves - and, unlike beggars on 123 Main Street, are apparently offended when people do not send them bitcoins! If wealth is what you or your friend (if he actually exists, which I doubt) desire, and so it would appear, there are far more productive ways to acquire it. Bill Gates did not become the common metaphor for wealth in sardonic sentences he is today by begging on Internet forums!

RAH could be used for money laundering, but there are far cheaper and easier ways to do so. Pool hopping is likewise possible, though I don't think it's particularly profitable these days as most major pools are hopping-proof. Double spending I've addressed above.

I can think of quite a few reasons to purchase hashpower:

• Pool testing / launching (especially with a non-PPS pool, initial "seed" hashpower is usually required)
• Merged mining (i.e., purchase shares at a pool performing merged mining, receive profits in the form of alt coins)
• "Betting" on returns - purchase shares at a variable share-payrate pool (e.g. PPLNS) in the hopes of making a profit

Most of all, though, RAH is designed to simply enable more efficient market competition. At the moment, there's a fairly large gulf between pool PPS rates - up to a few percentage points in some cases.

Cross-post: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=186134.0.

I'm excited (and a bit terrified) to announce the upcoming launch of RentAHash (RAH), an intermediary system designed to connect buyers and sellers of hashing power in a manner efficient and safe for both involved parties and the chief consumer of my Friday nights over the past few months. Think GPUMAX, just less sucky and not run by a $5M USD Ponzi operator.

First, a disclaimer:

I am a legal minor (age 17). Some members here, for reasons I do not entirely disagree with, prefer to avoid conducting business with minors. My age is neither a hindrance nor an excuse, but if you wish to avoid RAH because of it, let this serve as fair warning. If you have legitimate concerns with my ability to successfully execute a project such as this due to my age, by all means, let me know, but otherwise I have no desire to debate or argue over this.


This community being what it is (40% ex-SA trolls, 30% clueless idiots, 10% intelligent assholes, 10% blatant scammers, 5% psychopaths, 2% bored college kids, 2% eccentric entrepreneurs, 1% Phinneaus Gage, and 1% people who can't count), I think I'll somewhat reverse the usual marketing strategy and start off by attempting to convince you that I fall into whichever of those categories you find least objectionable.

When GPUMAX launched, quite a few prominent members of this community expressed concern over the danger this kind of service could pose to the network. Mike Hearn put it best upon the launch of a similiar service "Hashpower" a few months ago:


While I agree with most of Mike's excellent points, I actually think that this kind of service will help, not hinder, the network. Moreover, I think may even be necessary for the network. Crazy? Perhaps, but hear me out.

First, to address Mike's concerns:

Security risks associated with "anonymous" miners:

RentAHash is pseudononymous much as Bitcoin is. While usernames, IPs, and other such potentially identifying information are not public, the current active clients (share purchasers) are publicly displayed (connection information, name if applicable) along with the approximate amount of hashpower being directed their way. Miners, if they so wish, can limit their share destinations through their choice of either a whitelist or blacklist (default-deny/default-accept). Whether they choose to do so or not, no one can "secretly" purchase hashpower through RAH, just as no one can "secretly" send bitcoins.

Risk of double-spends:

RentAHash limits any individual client to approximately 5% of the current total network hashrate (clients are manually reviewed upon submission to ensure no duplication or proxying takes place). Once a running order has reached this speed, the system automatically adds another order with a different client running in parallel to the first. This continues indefinitely as required; order parallelism is unlimited (the backend algorithm is a bit more complicated, but this is essentially what happens).

"Selling votes":
This is true for RAH just as it is true for pool mining. You take a risk by selling your shares to any potentially untrustworthy entity in return for the reward of increased revenue. If you can realistically solo mine, I encourage you by all means to do so. Most of us, however, don't have that ability. RAH minimizes this risk as much as possible by allowing you full control over where your shares do or do not go. You can use whitelist (default-deny) filtering, blacklist (default-accept) filtering, or no filtering if you should so prefer.

Now, some benefits:

The myriad of pools, protocols, reward division methods, fee structures, share difficulties, and the like is intimidating and confusing, especially for those new to Bitcoin. RAH gets rid of nearly all of this.

Ease of connection:

To mine at RAH, all one need do is register for an account, enter a URL into their miner, and press enter.

Simple, understandable fees and payment:

Fees are 2% flat globally and applied to clients (share purchasers) only, miners need not deal with them at all. Payment is simple PPS, tracked and visible sitewide.

Competitive, open market:

Clients bid for shares; the client (or clients, if multiple orders are running) with the highest bid at any given time receives shares. All relevant market data is completely public. (read: fancy statistics and pretty charts)

Share difficulty independence:

Shares are tracked, purchased, and paid for on a difficulty 1 equivalent basis; though difficulty is set by the client in question, miners need not understand or deal with it at all.

Protocol conversion:

We support all three major protocols (Getwork, Stratum, and Getblocktemplate), and convert between them when possible. Neither miners nor clients need concern themselves with this. Clients set the order protocol at time of purchase, miners connect with whichever protocol they prefer. Our system handles all the rest.

Security:

No system is impenetrable, but we try to approach as close to that asymptote as possible through systemwide default deny, multiple safeguard levels, automated monitoring, and frequent penetration testing.

A few specifics to note:
1) All user data is completely immutable from creation. No one can hack your account and withdraw to a different address, simply because it is impossible to change the withdrawal address of an account. (The only exception: If you absolutely need to, you can sign a password change request with the Bitcoin address registered when you created your account, though this is intended only for emergency use.)
2) Emails are never required or used. To access your account, an attacker must possess both your username and password. To actually steal money from it, they need your username, password, and private key, in which case you're probably screwed anyway. (Constructing arbitrary-high PPS value orders to quickly empty an account is, however, possible; there is no easy way to prevent this. Though our automated monitoring system should theoretically flag the order for manual inspection and shut it down, we highly recommend that you keep your password safe. If password security is an recurring issue for you, I recommend a password manager such as KeePass)
3) We have an active bug bounty of value proportionate to the severity of the exploit. If you find one, let us know - we'll pay you, no questions asked.

And lastly, why is it necessary?

In short, Bitcoin is transitioning from the plaything of early adopters with deep pockets to a serious contender in the financial scene. We just recently hit a $1 billion market cap. Especially with recent fiascos in the EU and general global economic instability, this currency is attracting interest from more than just the far reaches of the early adopter side of the bell curve. With that comes popularity, soaring prices, and optimistic predictions, but also danger. So far, we've been hit with a few psychopath Ponzi operators, many less prominent scammers, a few private key thefts, and a handful of network exploitation attempts. Nothing even near catastrophic. I suspect that, no matter what measures I implement, some hacker cleverer than I will probably attempt to use RAH to implement a double-spend attack. Better the network face that now, in a protected, monitored, limited, and easily terminatable enviroment, rather than when a major government decides Bitcoin is a thread, invests a few million in ASICs, and brings the network to its knees in a matter of hours.

All the above said, the last thing I want to do is hurt, whether directly or otherwise, the Bitcoin network and by extension Bitcoin itself. I'd appreciate any thoughts, concerns, criticism, or comments you'd be gracious enough to send my way. And if RAH ever becomes a serious threat to the network, I will shut it down immediately, regardless of personal cost.

The site is mostly built; I'm putting on a few final touches and running a smorgasbord of tests at this point. Launch will probably happen in a few weeks, assuming nothing goes awry. I put this thread up in an attempt to garner useful feedback, suggestions, concerns, comments on my personal hygiene, large-font trolling, stupid youtube links, etcetera.

Fire away!

Disclaimer: I am a US citizen by birth.

Disgusting. All idealistic notions of liberty just get thrown away without a second glance when someone introduces a little chaos into our precious order. Self-appointed internet justiciars completely destroying the future of perfectly innocent people based on racial profiling of cell phone pictures and speculative Facebook profile browsing. Street mobs cheering on the police, waving American flags, chanting "USA". "Euphoria in Boston" tops the CNN front page. Constitutional rights tossed aside at the whim of prosecutors. And I thought witch hunts ended a few centuries ago.

Perhaps Christopher Nolan was not a director, but a prophet.

Mostly just sounding out the arena here. I'm nearing completion on a Bitcoin-related project of mine, and I'm interested to know if anyone here would be capable of providing penetration testing services for BTC. References required; I'm not interested in hiring random denizens of the 'net. Payment negotiable. If you are interested or know of someone who might be, please let me know on this thread or via private message.

Simply swapping to little-endian does the trick.

For reference: