I ve read a very nice piece on Bitcoin mining these days, basically comparing mining rig to a golden goose, very interesting. It sums up to the following, why would ASIC manufacturers sell their machines if they can use them for mining:

“The only logical reason would either be because you know the productivity of the golden goose (ASIC) will go down over time — something which is the case for bitcoin because its hash rate doubles roughly every month — the goose was faulty or because someone was offering more than its value in the first place. Which means — unless you know how to make a rig yourself — chances are you won’t be making millions from a rig investment any time soon because the Bitcoin system is literally “rigged” against you from the outset.”

Here is the entire piece:

http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/mining-rigs-killed-golden-goose/2014/05/20

Think twice before buying.

I use Mintpal, very happy with them.

May 19 trading result: +0.96%

Everything works great so far.

I suggest you do some reading. Lots of reading.

Why, oh why would anyone trade BTC face to face? Unless you manage to find total idiot who is prepared to pay significantly over the market price. In this case it is probably a scam anyway.

Well, trading Darkcoin has been very profitable lately, the price swings 30-40% per day, buying low and selling high has been quite fun recently.

I agree with most of things already stated but somehow I do not like this prolonged period of stagnation. I agree this is great as a sign of market stabilization but what I do not understand is how it is possible that the price stays at the same level when we see lots of new users/miners/investors every day, creating additional demand for BTC. We all know that the quantity of BTC supplied to the market is more less the same since difficulty has been adjusting constantly to accommodate this. So, we have been having 140ish BTC added to the market every hour and the supply constantly goes up, why is the price stagnant? Why do I have a feeling someone has been dumping BTC for a long time, thus suppressing the price. Gox anyone?

Hah. Please do not call this mining rig. I would label it as Bitcoin mine. )

I see lots of threads about Circle trying to centralize BTC. I think this is a nice add on to Bitcoin ecosystem and I like it, it ll help wider BTC adoption.

That means absolutely nothing. Mtgox was registered in Japan and look what happened with them. BTCe is registered where? Nobody knows where, some say Russia, some say Ukraine. Who owns it? Nobody knows, completely anonymous. I can bet you have used one of these two websites in the past.

Anyway, it seems BTC trader will appoint an external auditor to audit their accounts next month and present it to the public. I would really like to see this data.

This is bad, sorry for your loss.

But one short remark. Out of all these big and widely used exchanges, you decide to use the one which is completely unknown. Why?

April 16 trading result: +1.06%

As usual, no trading over weekends.

+1.02% Bitcoin trader result, April 15, 2014.

More news, Payeer has been implemented as a new payment method starting yesterday.

Bitcoin trader is going to sponsor another Bitcoin event, this time CEBE, Central European Bitcoin Expo 2014, to be held in Vienna from May 31- June 1, 2014.

Well, I plan on keeping my investment on the same level for now meaning that once I reach 100% ROI, I will reinvest the principal again. In a month or so these guys will be 8 months old, this means 2 full investment cycles will be complete. If everything goes well, at that point I might consider increasing my investment but for now I stay on my current investment, which is still quite sizable. Sure, will report back once my shares expire.

Bitcoin trader May 14 2014 result: +0.87%

In addition to all this, I really do not see what is a problem in getting a cheap latop/netbook or similar for a couple hundred $, put your wallet on it, DO NOT USE it for anything else besides your wallet and keep if OFFLINE at all times. Obviously you need to sinc your wallet from time to time. Also, adding top shelf antivirus and antispyware software is a must.

May 13, 2014 trading result: +0.81%

Yes, I guess they definitely sponsor this event, among others.