Once you have the block chain you don't have to redownload it. It's a one time thing. Every time you'll open your client it'll only download the newest blocks that you are missing.



You're not considering the cost you incur for that instant payment. Also you can use an escrow/3rd party for instant payments.

His point is that mining is the only source of inflation in the system. If the network hashrate increases a lot compared to difficulty, let's say 12 blocks an hour instead of 6, then for the time, until the difficulty adjusts, the supply of Bitcoin will increase.

The point about mining being only 20% of the total market is irrelevant. It is the only inflationary component to the market, so it is the only one that naturally reduces price.

2 points towards that:

1) Even though people are culturally attached to strong governments, they are also culturally repulsed by the financial world in general, particularly by banks and bankers. I think one of the strongest sales pitch of Bitcoins to the masses is that it allows them to completely bypass banks. It doesn't matter how hard people are attached to the government and the currency it issues, this aspect of Bitcoin will sway them, because the populace instinctively knows their hero, the government, will never do a thing about the banks.

2) Tax evasion. Countries with high taxes also know a high level of tax haters and wannabe evaders. I am thinking about Western European countries. A tax inspector in France is akin to a rapist in people's heart. A more critical example is Greece, where tax evasion is almost a national sport. It is estimated over 60% of the Greeks evade taxes, and the government, under the pressure of the IMF and the EU, is starting a witch hunt. I think these people, even though they might not understand the full set of Bitcoin advantages, have a strong incentive to join it too.

It's illegal, but nowhere as bad as rape.

You should add "don't join Deepbit" at the end...

Too much caps, scary.

Implying the guy looking for it doesn't know? That's kinda odd. There's a wealth of information on the forum and anyone slightly better than me (not hard) with the search function can find answers faster than creating a thread about it.

The other thing is, wouldn't it be nice if 5 out of 10 newcomers wouldn't start threads about deflation being bad or the network being vulnerable to the latest chimera Bitcoin haters come up with? I'm quite certain if people tried and search the forums for their questions instead of making a thread the second they have a question, we wouldn't be seeing such catastrophic headlines on the forums all the time, and we wouldn't have to perform damage control.

You guys are forgetting one point.

When the difficulty changes, the supply supported by a block resolution rate of about 10 per hour is now reduced to 6 per hour. That's effectively a lower supply for the days to come. Anyone selling for cheap right before a difficulty change is just throwing his coins away.

#bitcoinOTC on IRCfreenode if I recall correctly

There's the OTC (over the counter) channel on IRCfreenode with a web of trust application attached to it. Some of the most trusted traders over there have a lot of BTC on their hands. It's probably the second best place after MtGox to get ahold of BTC and it's definitaly further away from the spotlights than Gox.

Yes.


Mining is a different approach to entering the BTC market. It is highly profitable right now, but it takes some time to set it up and get it running and requires rapidly depreciating computer hardware to run it, not to mention it his highly competitive. It is simply easier and faster to buy some BTC.

Also anyone who bought BTC in early April is looking at much higher profits (3-4 times) than those who spend the exact same amount in mining rigs.



BTC as a store of value has the same properties as gold, it thus naturally attracts anyone who can appreciate the qualities of gold. It offers those qualities in a different aspect, mainly that it is fully digitalized. That's the "sales pitch" to gold bugs. It is expected that anyone who values gold will value BTC for the same reasons, and part of those people will want to buy into BTC for the digital aspect. This is only considering BTC as a store of value. If some vendors start supporting it, then the sky's the limit.

Given these points, the more BTC is publicized, the more newcomers show up wanting to buy some, and the higher the exchange rate goes. As long as BTC doesn't encounter a major system failure, there is nothing to stop it from growing.


Gold appreciates like 1% a month right now I think. From my own estimate, gathered from the recent press hits and the upcoming CIA conference in June, I'd expect BTC to be around $15 at least by early July. Considering it's waving around $6~$8 right now, that's about double in value. But don't take that for granted, it only my humble guess, establish your own estimate from the informations you gather.

Just the some pointers from the client's GUI classes that aren't deallocated at clean up. Nothing serious, just messy coding.

I got owned

My first hit, after looking for 2 minutes:

search "network hashing", match any words, check search in topic subjects only, limit it to the mining sub section. Only one page of results, 3rd from the bottom. Thread if from February.

Because the DGC provider of your choice can chose tomorrow to freeze your account, let's say because some government felt like getting in the way at a whim. With BTC, your wealth is in your wallet and no one can do a thing to it. To use DGCs, you have to go through a middle man. That middle man is a single point of failure, because he has full control over your entire deposit. With BTC, there is no need for a middle man, for BTC is naturally digital. This avoids that single point of failure case.


That is true, for the BTC market is still quite thin. It still needs time to grow. That's a disadvantage. The advantage is that this growth holds a much higher potential for appreciation than gold does, since gold has already spread to its full market capacity. Technically, you'd be willing to sacrifice convenience for more security and the chance to get a great return on investment for simply sitting on your wallet.

As such, you should consider keeping a little of your wealth in BTC, let's say 1-10%. If you find it to eventually suit your expected level of convenience and usability, you can then start to move more of your wealth on the system.

That estimate too is based on estimate network hashrate estimate. First corruption implies second corruption of estimate.



When I see something odd, I search the forums first. Then if I can't find, I'll post. Just sayin

No, that's global. If global hashrate goes up, blocks are found faster, thus drop shares increase regarding your hashing output. The size of a single pool doesn't influence that, since you'll drop a share once a block is found anywhere else in the network, for the pool has to build up a new block header.

It's funny because that question is answered every time the difficulty changes. Maybe these people could use the search function once in a while, you know...


More or less. The network hashrate is established by comparing block resolution speed with difficulty. It's simply an estimate. The block resolution speed is an average taken on whatever period of time. The thing is, when the difficulty jumps up, the average used is still the one established on data from the previous difficulty. Until that sample time spans entirely into blocks found at new difficulty, the estimate will be corrupt.

Those services are centralized in that you HAVE to go through a 3rd party that has absolute control over account and balance. Simply put, it's not easy to hold "digitalized" gold, and it creates a security gap. Bitcoin goes around that, since it's digital to begin with. Bitcoin also has the potential to turn into a currency as is, when gold needs that digital layer.

Go ahead, I know you're burning to explain it!