I just got bought two of the 4 GB version MSI RX 470's from NewEgg ($199) and I can confirm that out of the box you get 20.5 MH/s at default settings.

The memory clock on the MSI 4 GB model is 1650 factory default, but I have been able to increase it to 1850 to get another 1 MHs (21.5 MH/s) stable. I have tried clocking the memory up to 2000 where I can get 22 MH/s for a bit before it crashes. I will need to work on trying other settings and voltages to make it stable at that speed, but I think it is possible, being so close out of the box.

The power draw is about 110-120 watts per card from my initial measurements. I am going to try to focus my efforts more on getting 22 MH/s stable before worrying about reducing the power draw, as for now it is still better than my other cards in terms of watts/hash.

I just got in two of the MSI 4 GB RX 470's to test with, and I can confirm that out of the box you get 20.5 MHs at default settings.

The memory clock on this particular model is 1650, but I have already successfully increased it to 1850 and am getting another 1 MHs (21.5 MHs) stable.

I also tried clocking the memory to 2000 (which does bring it to 22 MHz), but it crashes after a little while. I need to play around with the other settings and voltages a bit more to make it stable at that speed, but I have hope.

Also the power draw is about 110-120 watts per card. For now I am happy with the power draw and might even give it a bit more voltage to stabilize at 2000 memory for the 22 MHs.

He could have possibly made more by holding on longer, but he did get 150% return on his money, so nothing shabby about that at all. Plus he said he sold some, so perhaps he simply ROI and is letting the rest ride for profit.

I am unfortunately a bit late to the Qora party, so the lowest I have been able to grab it for thus far is 10 sat, and a bit more was acquired at 11 sat. I think 5x return or around 55 sat is certainly possible, but I too may sell some off a bit earlier depending on how hard and how fast it spikes, or for that matter if it spikes and doesn't just tank to 0.

Just another example of why not to leave funds on an exchange for extended lengths of time. 

I feel bad for those who lost out, I hope the amounts were minimal and Bitfinex is able to make everyone whole.

I don't think there will be a 51% attack on ETC (at least in the near term), and I think the announced attack last week was a clever ploy to bring in more hash-rate and attention (money) to the chain.

At the time of the announcement of the impending 51% attack, the ETC hash rate was already going down on its own and not many people were paying attention to the ETC (non-forked) chain at all. Once the 51% post hit Reddit, many people took notice who weren't even paying attention before. This brought additional hash-rate over as some people simply like to take sides on something and wanted to help prevent this attack, and at the same time many more people became familiar with the non-forked chain and its potential. The price/hash rate ratio was also very favorable where early/clever miners could jump on the ETC chain and make more money, thus drawing even more attention, resulting in higher prices, perpetuating the cycle.

Now the real question is why. My suspicion is this is a clever ploy to get enough interest in the ETC chain to spike the price high enough/long enough for those with big bags to dump at a sizeable profit. On this level it appears to be working. Now the question is will the price and interest remain high enough, long enough, for the ETC chain to take on a life of its own.

I suspect within the next week or two we will see a substantial correction on the ETC price bring it sub .001 again. Once this happens we will also see a substantial decrease in hash-rate (as only the most true believers will mine at a loss for any length of time) and at this point it would open up the avenue for a 51% attack. If ETC can survive the next month or two will determine its long-term fate of either going into the dustbin of history or become a viable standalone coin of its own.

Yes, it has always been profitable to by a GPU to mine ever since you could profitably mine BTC with it. Another truth is since that time people have also been giving advice to new users that they missed the boat, it's too late, etc. Considering most of them are miners themselves, it is not surprising they do not want to encourage more competition.

Now with that said I will point out that at times the profits get really slim, and depending upon your electricity rates may even temporarily dip into the unprofitable area and you may need to shut your miners down for periods of time. I mined through the 2015 winter at slim margins, but it was somewhat offset because I also used my miners to heat my house, which would normally cost $200/month, so in some sense it was free power in that I would spend $200 on heat either way. Now it actually worked in my favor as I was mining Ethereum most of that time before it spiked, so in the long run I made out handsomely, but you should not count on that type of luck all the time.

All in all I think anyone buying a GPU at any point over the past 5 years would have made profit, as it seems there is always a new coin or algorithm introduced to replace the ones that die off or go asic. Some months you may only be making a few dollars or cents per GPU profit, but then it seems every 6 month or so something new hits where you can hit hardware ROI in as little as 30 days.

Now is a great time to trade it, as the volatility is what offers the opportunity to profit. You can make money both ways, not just buy and hold.

Good point, as I haven't made up my mind on this aspect yet.

I wouldn't necessarily call it dying, but with such a high difficulty and relatively low earnings, I can see some borderline miners maybe dropping out for greener pastures. Rest assured that it will only drop so far, as a decreased difficulty will increase revenue for those that remain thus locking in the remaining hash-rate.

Actually the easiest way on Windows (assuming Bitcoin is installed in default location) can be boiled down to simply:

• Backup Wallet (always before messing with your wallet)
• Start->Run->type "cmd" -> hit enter, a black command prompt window should appear
• Type

in the window and hit enter

No need to mess with shortcuts or anything, this will launch the GUI one time using the -zapwallettxes flag which is what you want in this case.

Lots of places become available once you indeed have a million dollars to spend. BTC exchanges have dark pools, private deals can be negotiated with miners, etc. All large purchases like this have mutual benefits for sellers and buyers in private. As explained earlier, buyers do not want the price of their large transactions to cause price to go up, likewise miners don't want their dumping of $1 million in BTC to cause the market to drop.

Disclaimer: The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons, places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

Scene: Office setting the day following a neighborhood barbecue hosted by S. Notamoto.


Themmos: Hey Notamoto, thanks for that great cookout last night, by all standards it was the best one we've had in the neighborhood for years.

Notamoto: Thanks Themmos! I really try to help out where I can. After all our neighborhood and community is very important to me. I have put my life into building my home and grounds, as well as the foundations for our great community, and want everyone to know how much I appreciate everyone's support.

Themmos: Yeah, that's great Notamoto. Hey, umm, I been meaning to tell you something.

Notamoto: Yes?

Themmos: Well, a couple of us happened to notice a few of the locks on your house were quite old and maybe a bit of a security risk.

Notamoto: Really?

Themmos: Yes, you see, we were hanging out by the front door as the party grew, and while you were out back cooking up some of those delicious seafood kebabs, we got to talking about the vintage style of your locks.

Notamoto: My locks?

Themmos: Yes, yes, your locks Notamoto. Charlie and Bob, they were saying they appeared to be an earlier design, a less secure design mind you.

Notamoto: I think my locks are just fine.

Themmos: No, no Notamoto, I assure you they are not. In fact they are quite insecure. You see after a few drinks we got to theorizing on how some ambitious criminal could somehow in the future come up with a way to circumvent your locks and steal all of your possessions.

Notamoto: I think my possessions are quite safe. After all they been that way for years.

Themmos: I realize that Notamoto, but you are not seeing the big picture. The way Charlie and I figure it sometime, perhaps in as little as 10 years, someone might come up with a way to break in to your house and steal everything you own.

Notamoto: Well as unlikely as that sounds, let's just play along with your fantasy for a minute. They steal all of my stuff, so how does that concern you?

Themmos: It concerns me and the rest of the neighborhood greatly Notamoto. You see we are still recovering from Carpet-les staging his home robbery a few years back. Property values are just now beginning to recover. We as your neighbors cannot allow that type of thing to happen again. After all, who would want to buy a home in a neighborhood so infested with crime?

Notamoto: I think you are overreacting and stretching things a bit here?

Themmos: Well, I hate to have it come down to this Natamoto, after all you were the first to build in the neighborhood and laid the foundations for such a great community for the rest of us to come in behind you and build upon, but not this is no longer just about you. It is about our right to have our property values remain stable, if not continue to rise.

Notamoto: Uhh..

Themmos: Ok, well what I been meaning to tell you, no use protesting as it is already in motion, Charlie and Bob are burning your house down as we speak.

Notamoto: WHAT!!!!?

Themmos: Yes, Natamoto, you see a house burns down, it is a sad tragedy, but long term no harm is done to the community, it is JUST a house fire. Buyers are not scarred off.

Notamoto: My house?

Themmos: But if someone were to break in and steal all your possessions, well now, I don't think the community could recover, at least not in the time-frame myself and others are comfortable with. I mean no one would pay top dollar to buy a house in a community with a burglary problem.

Notamoto: My life, my dreams, my passions?

Themmos: Yes, yes, I hate to be the one telling you this Notamoto, but don't think of yourself, think of the community. After all, you brought this on yourself, as you could have moved all your possessions and changed your locks long ago. You have had like 7 years man, what were you thinking.

Notamoto: I can't believe this, someone call the police, the fire department, uhhhh?

Themmos: Too late for any of that Notamoto, well I need to get back to work, nice chatting with you.

It is doubtful the price would go up much if any. Larger deals such as this tend to be arranged privately and/or through dark pools so they do not impact the price directly. You do not want to place your orders on a public exchange to cause the price to go up where you would end up paying more than you could by simply negotiating a private sale. Plus, while it is still a good sized order, $750k is not such an excessively huge amount to take off the market at once to cause a huge run on bitcoins.

Wow, that is a much fairer distribution than that of USD in which the top 0.1% own more than 90% of the share. http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/11/inequality-now-king-serf-level.html

Did some quick math and the top 0.1% of DAO holders (13 out of 12,640) only control 25.94721%.

Of course this assumes that each account == 1 person. This is most likely a faulty assumption and it is quite possible one individual or entity controls multiple address out of the top 100 list.

Well even though the DAO is not a coin, that would be the only thing on your list they might even consider listing.

It is interesting that you left off the only two other coins with a $100 million+ market-cap, Ripple and Litecoin. Besides customer demand, I am sure they look at profitability, or how much interest and trading volume a coin has, before making the decision to add a coin to their exchange. So I believe there is a much higher bar to be met than simply people demanding that such and such shitcoin get added to their exchange.

In the early days, I thought the DAO would easily hit the 2nd spot on the crowdfunding comparison wiki (that is posted everywhere so I won't again) which would mean it had raised over $25 million, but I thought it would have a hard time surpassing the $110 million first place spot. However, seeing the large influx of cash during the past 24 hours, I think that goal is now obtainable. Although I will admit I do not really think the DAO belongs on the crowdfunding list to begin with, even though it makes an interesting comparison it is not really crowdfunded in the strictest sense, but more of an investment.

Could you please elaborate on what exactly "it blared out" so we can properly evaluate your argument? Also, could you provide a link to the "Vitalik himself said so" reference so we all can be sure what you are actually referring to?

Its funny as these "limitless supply" arguments are never made against the fiat you so gladly cash out. Myself, I think having a reasonable amount of growth is a good thing if you want a usable currency in the future. With the DAO absorbing up to 10% of the ETH (granted it will at some point be released back into the market) we can already see that 100 million of a currency is not all that much. If a few other projects come down the line taking such shares, over half of the supply could get locked up easily.

Then there is also the question of mass adoption. Right now Bitcoin's 21 million and Ethereum's current ~80 million supply seem like large numbers only because of cryptocurrecny's small user base. If and when this user-base grows significantly, these numbers will become rather limiting. Just for an example, lets suppose that one of the every 100,000 household's in the US would want to own just one whole unit of each of these coins, there would not be enough supply to meet the demand. Then we have the rest of the world. So the too big of a supply argument is ultimately just FUD and a narrow minded view of the world.

The halving is definitely going to have an effect, but I think everyone watching the countdown clock in anticipation of "something" big happening between now and then, or even on that date, are going to be in for a big disappointment. The bitcoin ecosystem is large enough with plenty of coins on the Exchanges looking to be bough or sold each day, that the drop in production due to the halving is not going to have an immediate effect on anything. Most of the effect is in speculation and anticipation that is already happening, which is what is currently driving the price up, albeit slowly.

My personal guess as to how this will playout is that the daily BTC price will continue to slowly edge up to maybe the $500-$550 range just before the halving, maybe even a few days past, and then plunge again by $100-$150. It will go through some period of price instability before settling out. After this it will resume its upward rise, although again at a rate slower than most people expect or would like, and by this time next year (2017) it might be stable in the $500-$600 range.

I think the larger problem is network bandwidth rather than hard device capacity. Even with high speed Internet connection (> 20 Mbit/sec) it can take a couple of days to download the block chain from scratch.