Sounds like you picked up a bad clipboard virus.   Good thing you noticed.   I don't have any good recommendation to get rid of it, If it was my machine, I'd probably work out a path to flush and reinstall the OS.

I hadn't considered that angle, but that makes better sense.  The DOS / STONED incident made for a good read.

You need to take into account future blocks to detect orphans.   The longer path is the main chain.

This is one I enjoyed reading and following when first trying to understand the structure.

https://21.co/learn/mine-the-genesis-block/

Once you've been around and active on the forum for a while a little area is appended to each of your post where you can put your signature like in an email.
If you wish you can attempt to rent that space out to some advertisers.

Here is a list of those advertisers and links to their rules for participating:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=615953.0

Put the directory in the exclude from scanning option.   Virus scanners look for "signatures" including some BTC addresses and the block chain will at some point also contain random sequence of characters that will inadvertently trigger it.

The address only exists due to a bug.   It is impossible to generate a working private key for it.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=8728.msg202068#msg202068

"(an address derived from pubkey of length 0 which cannot exist)."

Can the tesla powerwall be used for such a scenario?   Looked pretty cool when I read about them last year.

There is the mempool and there is the blockchain.   The process to add and reject transactions getting on the blockchain is done by all mining nodes (confirms).  The flux you are observing is mempool activity.

The S9 demand is still around.  They presale their gear.   Currently sold out, I believe, is a batch to be shipped in late August. 

Yeah, trivially breaking sha256 encryption will bring bitcoin mining to a halt.    The landscape of computing and security will undergo a massive evolution in general.   Though quantum computers has been within 5-10 year grasp for ages, depending on who you talk to, be skeptical it will happen as soon as advertised by those with an agenda.   I'm still waiting for graphene to do something cool.

You should rephrase your question.   There's no need for justification.   Isn't knowledge similarly made out of thin air?   You would quantify its value the exact same way.   Based on it's usability, reliability and demand.

Look into a free dyndns service/client to run.    It will give you a fixed subdomain to use and will resolve the changing IP issue.

Looks like it may already be starting to move back up.   I wonder if the summer heat can keep it at bay for another cycle.

Might not help much, but I'm going to bump up down the frequency on my usb miners for the next hour to cheer you on.

Acting on transactions in the mempool is a bit foolish.   Only when it is on the blockchain does it matter.   Faking transactions on the blockchain is not possible at this time.

I remember reading somewhere that the odds of flipping a coin 1 million times and getting 20 heads in a row at least once, is about 38%.

Think about how many times that roulette table has spun since the casino opened (at least a few dozen million times) and how many time 20 back-to-back black has occurred.

Probably never, nor does past results matter, yet it could just happen to be as soon as you apply this strategy.

Mining is a central component in recording transactions onto the blockchain.  Splitting doesn't stop transactions from occurring in the future.   It's the reliability of those transactions that give bitcoin value.

The catch is, unlike other dead coins, there may still be people mining bitcoin when bitcoin has no market value.  Bitcoins will only die when they stop getting mined and halving can go on for quite some time even when rewards are sub 1 BTC.

If you intend to do exchange often keep it there, if you are holding for long period keep it closer in your control (private key control).