No... If you pick up a really cheap and silent older ASIC, you can use it as a space heater while mining, but that's about the only other thing you can use them for...

THE most important factor: what's your electricty price in cent/Kwu...
Personally, i'm also from the EU, and i can tell you that the price i'm paying for my power doesn't allow me to mine at all (i'm basically losing money as soon as i would start up an ASIC, even the latest generation).

One single S9, running in a datacenter where you only pay $0.05/Kwu (this is very cheap!!!) will earn you ~6€ in profit a day, at current diff, block reward and BTC price:
http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator/?h=14000.00&p=1472.00&pc=0.05&pf=1.00&d=392963262344.37000000&r=12.50000000&er=905.27000000&hc=0.00

So, in order for you to make 1000€/day, you would need at least 167 antminer S9's... But since they're prone to hardware defects, and the diff is rising really fast, you'd have to buy at least 180-190 S9's in order to be sure you'll make about 1000€/day for a couple of months (after this, the diff might have risen so badly you cannot even make 1000€/day with your hardware anymore)

180 S9's will set you back 351350€. I didn't include any discounts, because an S9 from china will also cost you a lot shipping, handling and custom fees. So I assumed that the discount you'd get would be cancelled out by the french customs and DHL costs. Also, PSU's are not included...

Your antminers would draw 265.000 Watt (that's 0.265 MegaWatt), so they'll also produce a lot of heat, they'll need their own network infrastructure and you'll need professional shelving...

I have no idear what the real setup cost would be, but you'd basically need to rent serverroom space, since a domestic hoursehold wouldn't be able to house so much machines, power them, cool them, secure them while making sure the network is OK... I wouldn't be supprised your real startup cost would be close to half a million euro if you want to make €1000/day.

Offcourse, if you pay less than 5 cents/Kwu, the numbers are a little bit better... If you pay more, it gets worse.
But, in the end, even in the most unrealistically positive situation where you'd setup your own pool (0% pool fee), never had a single hardware failure, no diff rises and have free power (don't know where you would find it tough), your antminer would only make you around 7,5€/day:
http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator/?h=14000.00&p=1472.00&pc=0.00&pf=0.00&d=392963262344.37000000&r=12.50000000&er=905.27000000&hc=0.00
So in this, nonexisting, utopian, situation, you'd still need at least 134 S9's, costing you 262.000€ in hardware costs alone

Just a quick question: are you able to push transactions into a block for one of the bigger pools? If so, which one? I just ask because i've been pointing people to https://www.viabtc.com/tools/txaccelerator/, quickseller and/or macbook-air... So it would be nice if there were other people i could recommend.

You're welcome  

I just wanted to add that copay is also available as a desktop wallet, I have never used it, but AFAIK, it should be safe if you run it on a clean PC... Since i never used it, i didn't include it in my post, but i'm pretty sure you could run it safely.

About the paper wallet: you can just start learning right away by making a testnet paper wallet, use google to find a testnet faucet and claim some testnet coins to your testnet paper wallet . This way you can experiment with the technology without risking any real money.

About the hardware wallet: don't forget, a couple companies like Ledger have secure hardware wallets costing less than 20 bucks ... I personally think this is a small price for the added security.

I'm just guessing here, but there are several possibilitys:
they have different configuration...

* source: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Running_Bitcoin

OR, they might have restarted their node, clearing their mempool

If you're serious about investing in BTC, please consider moving your funds away from online wallets...
It's simple really: if you're not the only one in controll of your private keys, you don't controll your funds. In your case, you're depending on the sustainability, goodwill, TOS, support staff, hardware,... at coinbase. If they ever decide to lock your funds, if they become hacked, if they turn scam or if they go bancrupt, you'll be in troubles.
Same goes for any online wallet provider (including blockchain.info). Even if the online wallet provider gives you access to the private keys, you must realise it's possible they also have access to these keys, so in this case, they can still get hacked or use your unspent inputs to create tx's themselfs.

The safest alternatives for long term storage are:
Paper wallets, hardware wallets or offline (cold) storage.

In case this is to expensive or to complex, a decent desktop wallet on a clean PC, with decent backups will do the trick to... You can pick any decent wallet, like bitcoin core or armory (they need to sync the full blockchain tough, so it'll take a while before you can start using them + they'll take up ~+100Gb of diskspace unless you prune your db).
If this sounds unacceptable to you, you could also go for an SPV HD wallet like electrum or multibit HD (these wallets only download the block headers, and they use a seed phrase to generate all private keys/public keys/addresses, so you only need to backup this one phrase to backup everthing).

The main point is that by using desktop wallets, paper wallet, hardware wallets or offline wallets, you're the only one controlling your private key, so you're the only one in controll of your funds.

If, for some reason, the wallet dev's stop working on the wallet, you can just move your funds to a different (supported) wallet. Using the seed, exported private keys, xprv, you should be able to restore your private keys and import them in a different wallet even if you can no longer access the wallet itself (for example: if you would chose to use the electrum wallet, but the development stops and all the electrum servers go offline, you can still use the seed to create the xprv, and generate all private keys for all addresses that were in your wallet... This isn't an easy process, but it can be done)

EDIT: i was wrong, so i edited my post... I supposed that the fee wasn't high enough (70 satoshi's per byte instead of the preffered 110 satoshis per byte), and i started to explain your options, but since the tx is already confirmed, this would be useless information, so i deleted it.

In reality, https://blockchain.info/tx/71ce7073436d2b8b1d5c7e278ab056134c89e59ca3c42c1eb148ed84376c8ae0 is already included in a block, it has +300 confirmations.

I do find it strange tough, https://blockchain.info/address/1GBkX2KuHDdLRhGP7ZtBGJwyeU9CkfMmVd only received a  ~0.00015BTC input from transaction 71ce7073436d2b8b1d5c7e278ab056134c89e59ca3c42c1eb148ed84376c8ae0

What i suspect happened: you asked for a 0.15 mBTC withdrawal instead of a 0.15 BTC withdrawal.
This way, you might be looking for the wrong amount in your coinbase wallet, since you expect 0.15BTC instead of 0.00015BTC... If you can't even see 0.00015BTC in your coinbase account, double check the deposit address, and see what fees and minimum amounts are required by coinbase.

If you really asked for 0.15BTC and not 0.00015BTC, it's also possible BitsForClicks made an error, in this case you should contact their support dept.

I don't see where you "have us".

It doesn't matter if you can make 1, 10, 100 or 1000 victims... Offcourse, if you're one of the first "investors", you can actually make some money, but as a later investor, you're screwed, no matter how wide the pyramid gets... It's the setup of the system that's the problem, not the specific parameters (how many layers, how many %, how wide,... It doesn't matter if the main setup is the setup of a pyramid scheme)

A quote from http://money.howstuffworks.com/ponzi-scheme3.htm


I have to admit that as a non-scammer, i didn't know the exact difference between a ponzi and a pyramid (they look alike, but apparently still have some differences)... But i did know that in my country both are illegal.

Btw: am i safe to assume you're the one trying to drive traffic towards this pyramid scheme, since you're so keen on defending it?

Very simple, straight from their website:


This is the textbook defenition of a ponzi scheme: early investors get payed back by the money that gets stolen from late investors. The first investors usually make some money, while the late investors get nothing... Also, nothing is stopping the operator from closing up shop and running with all the remaining funds (this is what usually happens)

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme


Notice the word: fraudulent

EDIT: franky1 is completely right (see next post of franky1)... It's a pyramid scheme, and not a ponzi scheme (apparently, the main difference between the two is that in a pyramid scheme, the "investors" need to find new victims)... Those things look alike, and they're both illegal in my country

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/09/ponzi-vs-pyramid.asp

It works... But you'll only be included in the next block viabtc mines... If they dont' hit a block, you won't be included...
On average, they seem to hit a block every 2-3 hours
https://www.viabtc.com/pool/state/


Both Quickseller and Macbook-air have been know to do this service, but i doubt the 1€ reward will tempt them tough... There is no harm in trying.

Macbook-air : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=16114
But once again, i seriously doubt if 1€ will be sufficient for him to push your tx.

Wouldn't https://www.viabtc.com/tools/txaccelerator/ help you? I you can request them to put your tx in their next block if you tx had more than 10 sat/byte fee.

https://blockchain.info/tx/cf700b19e142c627fadace5ea81c9c91bb6fff6026d24af4c715f5259d883748
Size = 191 bytes
Fee = 7535 satoshi

Fee in satoshi/byte = 39 satoshi's/byte.

https://bitcoinfees.21.co/ teaches us that at the time of writing you'll have a 90% chance of getting into the next 5-inf blocks.

The way this works: you added a certain fee per byte of transaction. On average, 1 block is added to the blockchain every 10 minutes. One block has a fixed size of max 1 Mb.
The miners are completely free to pick any unconfirmed transaction residing in their mempool to fill the block they're currently working on. Usually, the miners will fill their blocks with the transactions having the biggest fee per kilobyte, because that way, they'll earn the most from the fees.
But, because they're completely free to chose which unconfirmed tx's they add to their blocks, it's possible that with your fee, you'll be added to the very next block, or you might never be added at all.
It's just odds, averages and luck... bitcoinfees.21.co indicates which interval has a 90% chance of getting your tx in a block, but there is no certainty.
Theoretically, you could send a tx having a 0.1BTC per byte fee, and it might never be added to a block (for example: because the funds come from a BTC heist, and all bitcoin miners decide together that they'll never include the tx stealing BTC to any block ever again)

It's pretty simple: don't ask for a loan using the above collateral... The only thing that would actually happen if you really asked for a loan with those accounts is: you would get mocked and you would receive red trust.

Basically, my recommandations for you would be:
1) get your funds out of all those ponzi's
2) in the future, don't invest in ponzi's, basically do your research before investing into anything (and use a trusted escrow whenever possible)
3) if you have skills that translate well into the online world (designing, coding, marketing), you can sell your skills and make some BTC. If you don't have online skills, take a real life job and convert part of your income into BTC
4) if you're really desperate for a loan, and you have no collateral, get a loan from somebody you know IRL.

To be honest... No, i wouldn't take this collateral.

If you want to lend 0.3, your collateral should have a net worth of at least ~0.4 (120% of the loaned amount + the intrest).

0.0058 + 0.00237410 + 0.00170628 =~0.01... Even if the collateral was valid (which i doubt), you'll need at leat 40 times as much collateral to get the loan (and valid collateral for that). Now, even IF the collateral was valid, i doubt anybody wanting to secure 120 accounts for a 0.3BTC loan.

Some interesting reading material on the topic: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=577765.msg6311902#msg6311902


BitMagnet.biz => never heared of it
BitcoFarm => never heared of it
4BCnetwork => never heared of it

https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=016660200577587308545%3Aesf40ml9aag&ie=UTF-8&q=coincrest.com&sa=Google+search#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=coincrest.com&gsc.page=1

I haven't investigated myself, but it seems the owner is red trusted, and several members pointed out red flags in their system.

you don't, at least not from coinbase...

I'd suggest you download a decent desktop wallet, generate an address in this wallet and then withdraw your coins from coinbase to your local wallet.
This way, you have controll over your own private keys, since you'll manage them with your desktop wallet. Do make sure you make a decent backup of your local wallet, since you'll be the one responsible for it

Sorry, but i can't really understand your question... I think you're saying that you can not import a private key into an existing electrum wallet.

This is partly correct.

You either generate an HD wallet, this wallet uses a seed in order to generate an xprv. This xprv is used to generate a bunch of derived addresses.
Once you used electrum to generate a HD wallet, you can no longer use this wallet to import private keys, since theys imported keys could not be derived from the wallet's xprv.

But, if you generate a new wallet in which you restore the wallet from a private key, the resulting wallet won't be HD. Since the wallet isn't HD, you can import extra private keys.

Long story short: if you want to import private keys into electrum, make sure you generate a wallet that isn't generated from a seed, but from a private key... Once you have a wallet that is generated using a private key, you can add extra private keys to it.

Yes, bitcoin isn't a physical thing, it's more like some records into a database. Since the database is decentralised, it is very unlikely that somebody messes with it, or that at one point, the complete database will be lost.
The second part is also correct, blockchain.info is just a company. If they ever go bancrupt, or just disappear, a lot of people using the blockchain.info wallet will potentially have problems accessing their wallets (unless they made proper backups). But this has no impact on your paper wallet. You could just import your private key into a synced bitcoin core wallet, or into an SPV wallet like electrum, and you can just use your unspent inputs to generate a transaction without ever needing the company blockchain.info

Some more misconceptions...

First:
It has been stated before: bitcoins aren't a physical thing... You cannot hold a bitcoin.
Bitcoins exist as a number of unspent inputs, records into a decentralised database that say that address x has x BTC worth of unspent inputs.
The person holding the private key for address x can also generate a valid record that can potentially be added to the same decentralised database, that transfers the unspent inputs of address x to address y. In that case, the person holding the private key for address y can use the new, unspent inputs.
If you want to know more, i suggest using google to find more info on how bitcoins work exactly. There are tons of sites dedicated to this topic.

Second:
blockchain.info => a company that owns a block explorer and an online wallet provider
the blockchain => the ledger (database) consisting of physical files stored on hundreds of computers... The database of each and every transaction ever made.
Your transactions are stored on The Blockchain, offcourse, the node(s) of blockchain.info also downloaded The blockchain, so they also store your transaction, but they're just a company running a couple of nodes, they do not own the blockchain itself.
I know, it's confusing that a company chose a name that is the same as the technology they're using, but that's just the way it is...

Sorry to hear you got scammed, but could you please follow the correct scam report format?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=260073.0

It makes it a lot easyer for people on the default trust network to verify your claims, and tag the (potential) scammer if they feel you have a valid point.

The main thing i'm missing in your report:
- Link to the scammer's profile
- Screenshots of any ICQ communication
- tx id of the payment
- some proof the icq address is connected to the bitcointalk user.