It is back onlline.


Ya, like this one (thanks to BitcoinX).

The chart on the top clearly shows difficulty barely moving but when it does, it follows the direction of a price move (after a long lag behind).  Because the costs to mining vary, from one mining operator to the next, what likely has been happening has been a rotation of GPU mining capacity from those whose electric rates are not competitive to those whose is competitive.  Thus overall little net new investment in mining capacity, just that the possession of the capacity has changed.



 - http://bitcoinx.com/charts/chart_large_log.png

Just like driving down the street while looking only in your rear-view mirror is a bad idea, this price vs. difficulty relationship will likely look different going forward versus how it has looked in the past.

The block reward drop to 25 BTC, likely in less than five months, will decimate GPU mining profitability.  Additionally, because FPGA mining is still nicely profitable at sane difficulty levels (due to a 5:1 to 10:1 efficiency advantage over GPUs), the electrons will be allowed to continue flowing through them.

And if the ASIC designs truly arrive around that same time, difficulty will skyrocket, regardless of any directional change in the exchange rate.

I see the site shows:

There are some people who won't (yet) use bitcoin but would use this service for purchasing wireless refills.  This is true particularly for businesses.  Would you consider some day accepting Dwolla as a payment method for these?

The disk i/o that the Bitcoin client does to verify each block as the blockchain gets downloaded is immense.  Having that i/o occur on an encrypted filesystem (the truecrypt container) will degrade performance.


Yes, each block has more data, stating in April, thanks somewhat to a widening interest in Bitcoin for speculation and commerce, but more significantly due to SatoshiDICE.

The Bitcoin client now supports passphrase encryption so there may be less necessity to hold the wallet.dat on an encrypted filesystem.  You could also keep the wallet.dat on the encrypted filesystem but keep everything else on disk and use a symlink for the wallet.dat to point to the wallet.dat on the encrypted filesystem.

You specifically mention a hidden container, which would likely mean you want plausible deniability.

One option might be to keep a several GB partition on the flash media as a staging area and before launching the client, temporarily copy the two blockchain data files (but not the wallet.dat, which you use a symlink to the wallet.dat that remains on the encrypted filesystem) to the staging area.  Launch with -datadir= the staging area.

That way you still never have any Bitcoin files on the hard drive, yet the blockchain data isn't being written to the encrypted filesystem while the app is running.  After shutdown of the Bitcoin client, then move the two blockchain datafiles back to the encrypted filesystem for use the next time.

Well, unlike games of chance where you need to trust a machine or a human, SatoshiDICE's results are verifiable, thanks to cryptography, once the secret is released (the next day).

This can be verified without needing any software installed.  Here's how:

So for your wagers from Jul 10, 2012 (UTC), get the secret from:
 - http://satoshidice.com/secretlist.php

That has been released, and it is:
  ctygmtZjw7xTnLou7u9cWVYiOd79xAMJK5aJJBBD3w2Su8vGMHPDwP1f4O1eBPek

Then create the SHA-256 hash of that secret with:
 - http://md5online.eu/3,sha-256

Which yields:
 - d75e37bc91915af566276e34624e7477c2a6771fb7898bc4dd1b30ccc0022cfe

Then verify that the resulting hash from that jives with the has from hash.keys for Jul 10, 2012:
 - https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/satoshidice/hash.keys

So next you grab the transaction ID for your transaction (from the Transactions tab of Bitcoin.org client).

Then plunk those values in ... for Text to convert, paste the Transaction ID, and for Shared Secret Key use the secret for the day that you verified above.

 - http://www.online-convert.com/result/3a4827ec61a06ed23ce463afd509c4ce

After you click Calculate hash, you'll get a hex string in the results.  The first four alphanumeric characters is the hex representation of your lucky number (from 0000 through ffff hex, or in decimal, 0 through 65,535 decimal).  You can convert those values to decimal here:

 - http://www.binaryhexconverter.com/hex-to-decimal-converter

So if you had bet the "less than 8,000" wager and your lucky number was 8,000 or higher, ... that specific wager didn't win.

As long as the hashes to the secrets are known in advance (and they are, that hash.keys was published in April, a copy of which has been archived here) you can always verify if you should have gotten a winning payout or not:
 - https://raw.github.com/sgornick/satoshidice/master/hash.keys

What is the difference between backup of the wallet (as a QR Code) and export private key (which is also a QR code)

I think I found a convenient way of backing up my wallet.

So after copying to clipboard, I launch my Pastee Droid app and paste the contents of the clipboard there.  I then set it to one hour expiration (TTL = 1 hour), and give it a password to encrypt it.   After it creates the secure paste on Pastee.org, I share the URL by sending a text message (to my Google Voice number, which I will archive).  

And that's it.  I now have a link for a URL that holds password-protected copy of my BitcoinSpinner wallet.

I then, from my desktop, took that copy of the wallet (from the URL) and added that to my KeePass. I suppose if I were a user of Lastpass that pasting the data there would work just fine as well.

Here's the Pastee Droid App:
 - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=byrne.utilities.pasteedroid

There are two methods of sending bitcions, one as "Withdraw" and the other "Send Bitcoins".  This is confusing.  Other wallets apps and services use the term Send bitcoins to send them to another bitcoin address.

WalletBit uses "Send Bitcoins" to navigate to the send via e-mail form, and "Withdraw" to navigate to the send to a bitcoin address.

Perhaps the menu should be "Send via email"?  Or perhaps, make it one form and let me choose the destination, bitcoin address or e-mail?  I do see that the forms are for different purposes so I don't know that trying to use just one form would work though.

Another question ... is it necessary to have Secure Card for all withdrawal actions?   That is overbearing  for typical transactions.  As a user, I might be willing to risk a daily withdrawal of, oh, say 7 BTC (about $50 USD worth) without having to enter a Secure Card.  If there were a threshold in settings that I could set myself, that way the wallet would be secure for a little larger amount of bitcoins (where Secure Card is required to withdraw) yet remains convenient for routine purchase amounts.

Since, BitcoinX is down, I thought I'ld post another variation for this:

This is Jul 16, 2010 through July 4, 2012:




This really should be logaritmic, but Google Docs charts are lame.

The data is from here:

 - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmcTCtjBoRWUdHVRMHpqWUJValI1RlZiaEtCT1RrQmc

Well, here's one approach:
 - http://tpbitcalc.appspot.com/

Say you want to amortize the cost of a rig with say 3 ATI 5970s.  That rig might run $1,250 (buying used), and consume about 1050W.

Each 5970 might produce 700 Mhash/s so the rig hashes at 2.1 Ghash/s.  There is 12,700 GHash of current capacity on the Bitcoin network, all competing for 7,200 BTC per day.  So that 2.1 Ghash/s will yield 1.19 BTC per day  (7,200 * 2.1 / 12,700) -- and that amount produced daily is currently worth about $8.33.

If your cost of electricity is $0.15 per kWh, power that rig will cost $3.78 per day  ($.15 * 1050 * 24 / 1000).

Amortize that rig over one full year, and the expense is $3.42 per day for the equipment ($1,250 / 365)

So using the one-year amortization your your rig costs $7.20 per-day ($3.78 + $3.42)  and brings in $8.33 worth of bitcoins.

Thus it currently takes $0.864 to mine $1.00 worth of bitcoins assuming you have worthless equipment after one year, and that the "mining profitability" (the ratio of BTC/USD versus difficulty) doesn't change over the next year.  Also, that is assuming there is no (zero, nada, zippo) labor costs.

Since nobody knows what levels these factors will be in the future, there's no projections that can be made reliably.

What is likely to happen is that the mining profitability for GPU miners will change dramatically, as the cost of electricity currently gives gross margins of 55% for a GPU miner with typical U.S. electric rate but for an FPGA miner those gross margins run from 90% to 95%.  For ASIC, those gross margins might run from 98% to 99%.  (at current difficulty and exchange rate levels).  Obviously, as more FPGA s ship and once ASICs start to be produced, those gross margins will be falling dramatically.

The best deal around today is the GPU miner whose electricity is included in the lease.    For that person, the hardware is cheaper than ever, and gross margins then are 100%.   Many of these people are likely still acquiring more equipment, up until the point that heat removal and per-circuit capacity limits block further expansion.

But for the typical mining operator, the calculator above will let you do your own projections, if you might want to take a stab at a few different scenarios.

With just one of BFL's $30K USD SC mini-rigs equal to 8% of all the hashing occurring today, the addition of those Ghashes actually has de-stabling potential, at least until enough of the technology is distributed and in the hands of regular, profit minded mining operators.

As far as a chart, BitcoinX has a great chart showing difficulty and price relationship.  (and yes, moves in mining capacity simply lag moves in price and to relatively proportional degrees.)

About the closest functioning chart is the "miner's profitability", which shows margins for mining based, presuming typical electric rates and mining performed with GPUs.  (right now mining is generating pretty decent returns even with a rising difficulty, thanks to the rising BTC/USD.)
 - http://blockchain.info/charts/miners-operating-profit-margin

Once a transaction has been broadcast, there's nothing that can be done to speed it up as far as making it into a block.  If it is a valid transaction (i.e, not a double spend) it will eventually make it in.

If you are using the Bitcoin.org client, it must be caught up for it to show the transaction confirmations.
 - https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ#I_was_sent_some_bitcoins_and_they_haven.27t_arrived_yet.21_Where_are_they.3F

You can check the status of the transaction using Blockchain.info:

 - http://www.Blockchain.info

And this is why for most bet statements that I create I set the bet deadline as early as I can (i.e., a full 30-days before the event date).

For most events, when the event date approaches there is less and less risk to the better as the most-likely outcome becomes more and more certain.   So there are more bets occurring as the event date approaches but they do nothing for me, income-wise, as the creator of the statement as they are mostly likely to be on the winning side, which I get no commission for.  

Just to clarify that ... that comment is describing a problem when using that third party tool for verifying the published results, not that the results published were wrong.

There is money "on the sidelines" that is not in the orderbook.

Additionally, wire transfers can be processed in hours so if there was a huge selloff, there would be new funds arriving within the 24 hours period you mention.

Though I do respect that a even very small amount of bitcoin currency (percentage-wise) sold can impact the market rate drastically.

Also, identity management is part of PeerPoint:

PeerPoint
An Open P2P Requirements Definition and Design Specification Proposal
 - https://docs.google.com/a/digicoast.com/document/pub?id=1TkAUpUxdfKGr_5Qio2SlZcnBu_sgnZWdoVTZuD_Regs

Identity Management and Complementary Currency (specifically referencing Bitcoin) are both "first tier" services and applications of PeerPoint.

On Google Groups:
 - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/building-a-distributed-decentralized-internet/CQBhaEcqGUc/

If you aren't running the Bitcoin client on your website, then:

 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Merchant_Howto#Pre-generating_Bitcoin_addresses

Just to eliminate the chance that the delay might be on the StrongCoin side, check to see if perhaps the blockchain shows a transaction:

 - http://www.BlockChain.info

I'm starting to wonder if instead of people's systems or e-mail accounts getting compromised that actually what is happening is that there is sniffing on the wire occurring.  

Presumably you received an e-mail previously from BitDayTrade (e.g., the initial confirm your account).

So let's say an evil admin at the hosting company where BitDayTrade sends e-mail from simply sniffs for email traffic (SMTP is sent clear text) and harvests the account e-mail addresses.

Then, after giving sufficient time for the account to become funded, fires off a "recover password" action which sends out an e-mail.

The admin sniffs the SMTP traffic and gets a link to reset the password.  Login, witdhraw, and done.

The sniffing is passive, so there would be little in the way of footprints.

The revcover password action and eventual login can be done from Tor, so there's no trail.

Plausible?

Or better, why are Bitcoin business architects creating this security vulnerability or allowing it to persist?  These links for regaining access to an account are like bearer instruments.  Whomever has access to the link has access to the account and all funds it contains.  Restricting withdrawal for at least a day after a password change should be standard practice, for one thing.

If you weren't aware, you get a better deal than that using BitInstant:

 - http://www.bitinstant.com/

Also, AurumXChange will trade that 1:1 into Mt. Gox USD:

 - http://www.aurumxchange.com/rates

I can't imagine an approach that would give less bang for the bitcoin, except maybe sending them to 1BitcoinEaterAddressDontSendf59kuE

[Edit, don't send bitcoins there -- they disappear.]


In the past 24 hours, I got timeouts trying to use Bitcoin's most popular eWallet and I got a "sorry this site isn't important enough for us to fix it right now" message for one of the most popular Bitcoin web sites.

I don't know that promoting to the masses would be something that helps anyone, at this point.