Well just to play devil's advocate there is some environmental cost to Bitcoin mining. Worthwhile, yes, of course I think so, but there is certainly a cost.  By design mining is an inefficient. If you look at the total power used or just the raw amazing amount of computational power that must be lost / wasted in order to maintain a correct rate of block discovery it is pretty awe inspiring.

Then again you have Bitcoin'ers such as [damn forgot his name] who used the excess heat from his mining operation in a liquid cooling operation that was modified to heat his bathroom tiles. Now stuff like that is pretty damn cool.

For myself I merely just have a really hot apartment.

Anyone who feels guilt about energy waste could though instead just switch to vegetarianism for one day, or one half day, of the week and than be okay with the world.

Sealand I'm all for.

Zimbabwe not really.  That economy is a massive mess and this whole idea doesn't make a lot of rational sense to me.

GPU mining won't die.

It'll just go to razor-thin profit margins and won't be worthwhile for many people to do.

Wish more folks would switch from MTGOX though... you'd think we'd have learned that by now...

[waves hands]

Me...I know what I'm talking about...

I'm a sandwich expert...

Sealand should totally adopt Bitcoin.

Then become a semi-legal micro-nation with a datacenter based economy.

On a converted repurposed mishmash of once ocean-traveling ships, while the polar ice caps melt at an ever-alarming rate.

Holy crap.... it must be 'the future' because that straight-up sounds like a plot from a '80s cyberpunk novel  

71.48 was already taken      pg .3

71.48

I think Bitcoin needs to be the crypto gold standard. Ideally it would be used as a safe place to put money, and to make large transactions.

Whereas a second coin, such as Litecoin or what-have you, would be set to a much smaller fiat value. This coin would be used for your everyday online purchases.

I think about it this way: if each *coin was worth, say 10 cents , or even pegged to USD 0.01, then it would be far less volatile in price, making it a much more a usable currency.  Instead of the fiat-worth price of the coin fluctuating a great deal, instead, it should just be traded according to how many *coins  = a bitcoin.

The problem with Bitcoin (or any coin) changing value so fast is a definitely a problem. Not that BTC doesn't have its uses, but when your currency changes +/- 30% value a day on the regular that's an issue. Yet I don't think we could or would want to get rid of speculators; they play an important role.

Hmmm sure wish it was 2014 or 2015 when we'll have those neat 3D PCB printers. Would make this a snap!

I'm going to research this a bit more before deciding upon it; sure would be fun to throw this together but I have to do some research...

Product sounds good, but I hope some other ASIC companies get going. It would not be good to only have one company dominating the aSIC market. Competition always helps.

Nope there's hope for BFL -- didn't you hear, Avalon is selling batches of 10,000 chips.

Latest inside rumor is that BFL is just going to buy a batch of these chips and get soldering. That way, they'll at least be able to ship something before September. 

I'm surprised at how consistently wrong my price predictions are.

Anyone want good market advice?

You should ask me...

And then do the opposite.

Came on to see if anyone had the same problems.

Well crap. That sucks.

Just when I finally found a good pool (I thought) with a good stale rate it turns out it's now not paying out? Ugh.

Hrmm maybe the owner lost his shirt in the crash?  Or had a heart attack, expired, and is currently slumped over his keyboard? Hrmm...

Gonna give this give-ltc a go.

'Don't call it a come back '

Each individual participator in the BTC economy should see what trouble has been caused by relying so much on MT.GOX, and change their behavior accordingly. 

I think the community seems to be moving in the right direction and this last week was hopefully a final wake call.

It's great to read some of these new ideas folks are coming up with as well, on new directions to move forward.

Markets go up and down but ideas never die

If you are looking at BTC purely as a money making venture than, ya things don't look that great in the short-term. But think: you can only ever make a really big profit when stuff is cheap. No one gets in at the top of a peak and makes a lot of cash. The cash is made by taking a risk when things are closer to the bottom...

Besides money, if you are looking at the big picture of BTC and how far it has come in a few years & on top of that, how well it has been weathering some very big storms, then there is nothing to be glum about at all. I'd say BTC is doing fantastic.

There was a bubble. It's popped. BTC is fine though. It's gonna keep rollin' along and getting stronger...  

edit: I think the wildness of the last few weeks have made it easy to lose perspective. Look at BTC's price over the last year. We are at 75$ right now. I'd say this is really strong. Honestly. I would say sub $40 is a weak price for BTC right now, and $50 is reasonable, and $75+ is strong.

Bubble burst. Tons of money in and out like that. Most of it speculation. Still a great many of BTC holders have coins and held on and will continue to hold on for a long while yet...

bitcoin: too big to fail?  

Don't think I've ever been this entertained, by a chart, in my life .