Thanks for that. I do have a BlockChain wallet so I'll start there.

I was expecting a manipulated drop before they even launched the public offering or whatever the term is. I expect nothing less of our fair Wall Street traders. And we complain about BTC's shady side!

Where do you recommend buying BTC in small amounts?


What does that mean?

I personally think that's a really good plan. My view of BTC as an investment, which may be proven utterly wrong of course, is that it will crash in value periodically and gain even more value in long cycles, like Coca Cola stock once did.

I'm a little reluctant to start such a plan right now while BTC is (apparently) peaking...but I'm just guessing like everyone else. I wish I had been doing what you are doing for a few years.

BTW, it was mentioned that Coinbase is busy.

I coincidentally started this project shortly before the IPO of BTC (or whatever you call the appearance on the Market) happened. I had no idea that the IPO was pending. The busy notification was not there at the when I began and had my first problem. All the sites have become busier since then.

Has either of you actually received your BTC, however small an amount?

I've already agreed they are probably complete scams, but just to play devil's advocate, why would anyone want to draw attention to themselves if they are outright stealing? In my naiveness, I had thought that maybe investment money went to pay for all that equip and electric, like crowdsourcing. I looked into actual mining and it is indeed not cheap and not for the novice.

If there was an honest start-up with that in mind, I'd go for investing in it, as I myself don't have the brains to put together a mining platform. Nor do I have the money, but if I knew someone with the brain part I'd chip in. (At this point, I'd have to know them really well.)

It seems like being led on, doesn't it.

I've always taken the fact that I have 'no skin in the game' (no USD or other invested) pretty seriously. On the one hand, I have nothing to lose. On the other, I don't expect to have my concerns taken as seriously as those of someone who lost real money.

In my optimism, I hoped that these sites, which tend to be new, were interested in the free advertising and chat that free accounts generated. Thus they would make small payouts in order to look good and get positive buzz. If the owners of the site were actually mining, their payouts would be far less than their profits in any case, scam or not.

Even Ponzi schemes, which were mentioned earlier, used that method. They baited people with surprising returns until their victims had been lured sufficiently. That probably would have worked on me. If I saw real returns once I'd be 100% more inclined to make an investment.

I was surprised that I never even got any spam from having my address sold. After all this chat about these sites, it seems like they are scams with crappy business models. We have not heard from a single person that actually was paid by any of the 'free' sites so far.


All the sites I've seen pay out starting at .005. I know that Coinbase's addresses change with every transaction and my research tells me that is the norm. I don't know about the paper wallets mentioned earlier in the thread. I haven't looked into them yet, nor have I 'played' with my Blockchain wallet.

In a way, I wouldn't mind a year...if I felt sure of a site and the fact that it wouldn't be hacked. My strategy is more long-term and less daily play.

BTW as a follow up to my experiment, the transaction still has not posted to Coinbase. I haven't checked Startminer for any updates as per yet.

Re:
When I press 'deposit' on my Coinbase account, I get this message:

I had forgotten about that exact message but it caused my concern about the address changes. I'm still not entirely sure which message to believe regarding m Coinbase wallet.

Frank,

I received the PM-not sure how to reply directly. I'll look at those and message you back tomorrow...everyone's home for the evening at the moment...and, thank you!

Hi,


I'm giving that a try. Read the article (noted that it says to buy BTC, not to deposit) and I tried again with Start Miner to see.

The transaction hasn't gone through but, interestingly, SM is showing a new interface page where both my transactions can be seen. Both are marked 'pending'. This page didn't show up before.

I'm still interested in more info. I'll keep an eye on the transactions and let y'all know if the 'pending' status ever resolves itself into anything. I looked and looked for a page like that...swear it wasn't there before...

Hi Frank,

Yes you can PM me...I don't know how that works on this site yet but I have notifications on...I'll look into HashFlare.

Deathwing, I'm sad to say that that sounds pretty likely. I was hoping that the free accounts provided something that benefited the sites (good ratings, lots of users). Since I didn't invest anything I didn't look as closely as I could have at the negatives. Even if I had funds to invest I wouldn't do so until I have more experience with the system, i.e., how to withdraw, deposit, and exchange BTC.

I'm still open to more ideas about sites that work and how to work them. I don't mind investing a little time and computing power.

Hi Frank,

I've been wondering about that. I know I am being self-depreciating throughout this thread... but I wanted to eliminate my own fallibility before coming to that conclusion.

I do like the idea of playing with these sites though. I'm currently online all day doing freelance work and have time but not money to invest. Had a health issue last year. Are there legitimate sites like SM out there?

tx, TC

***edit: I meant to say, are there mining sites that are legit that are similar to the SM concept, not to imply SM is legit. Or not.

I don't know if I made this clear or if it is common knowledge but I can't change my address with Start Miner. That was the first issue I looked into. If I have, for example, .0512 BTC in my SM account and try to deposit .05 in my wallet, the .05 disappears and I can't port the .0012 to a new address.

That would be okay; just withdraw everything at once, right? But Coinbase generates a new address for me whenever I try and the .05 that technically would have gone to my now 'old' address vanishes.

I think I'm going about this all wrong.

Thank you for replying!

It is when I choose 'deposit' on Coinbase that my address changes...my amounts are too small for me to get really concerned about hacking just yet. Do paper wallets have stable addresses? I understand why addy's need to change periodically but I can't seem to interface with Start Miner correctly this way.

I actually have 3 (free with an option to buy in) accounts but none of them give detailed withdrawal instructions, so when I ran into this problem I decided to conduct my experiment with SM until I get it right...could you give a step by step on withdrawals from this type of account?

Hello out there,

Acknowledgment: This is a dumb question.

A month or so ago I saw an ad banner and whimsically signed up for a free bitcoin mining site, Start Miner. (there are paid options but I used the free one). I know a bit about how mining works, at least in theory.

I created a wallet (actually 2, Coinbase and Blockchain) and submitted my address. Feeling that Coinbase looked like a more secure site and having nothing to lose, I used that wallet.

Coinbase auto changed my address when I tried to withdraw from Start Miner. and I couldn't withdraw BTC from Startminer to either address. It's a tiny amount, just trying to learn things before putting skin in the game, but I can't figure this problem out. When I attempt to withdraw my address changes before I can do so. I know I'll probably need to start over, but please educate me.