Say you used one credit card for all your transactions and say you used it at Target this past holiday season. Then say that you were one of the folks whose credit card company said: "We're cancelling your current card and will send you a new one." What, exactly, would you use to pay for things until the new card arrived? That's one reason for cash.

Say you're dining out and say that the power goes out, or simply the credit card processing companies are down when you try to pay. What do you do? If you actually carry cash, you have a significantly smaller problem.

The problem with credit/debit cards is that they are entirely dependent on services being up 24/7. Bitcoin has a similar problem but with less opportunities for problems. Cash on the other hand (and I'm talking about the paper version not the 1s and 0s that banks count as 'cash') doesn't rely on anything of the sort. There are too many points in the credit card transaction process where a point failure can cause significant problems.

So, we still use cash because it can be used when credit/debit cards cannot. Assuming, of course, that the recipient knows how to count (and make change in the case of retail outlets).

Then there are those who prefer that there not be an electronic trail of all their purchases. With the Government trying to pin the 'terrorist' flag on everyone from those trying to be self-sufficient to those trying to prepare for a potential catastrophe, a lot of those folks prefer a cash purchase with no other records than their receipt and their name uninvolved and unrecorded.

On a side note, has anyone else ever realized the humor in FEMA advising everyone to prepare for X number of days in case of a natural disaster while other branches of the government say that those who do things like that sort of preparation are potential terrorists? It's almost enough to make you cry, unless you're already cynical about government in general.

Thralen

Do they even have the private keys for the addresses? I thought that the .gov had not recovered those. If they don't have them, they won't be selling...

This quote right here makes me wonder what the heck you're doing on this forum? "All of u"? Insinuating that you don't own any BTC. Oh yeah, that's right. You're the one trying to start panic sells so you can buy in low. At least that's how you come across in every single post you make. I have an idea. STFU and GTFO, I'll be using the ignore function for you, you've lost humor value even with your broken record (old technology, you may not get the reference) habit.

Thralen

Since the OP is feeling free to toss questions around, here's one for him.

You feel that your advice is such that you could be a bitcoin wealth adviser and yet, self-admitted, you owned no BTC when it topped over $1200. Why exactly is that? Didn't see it coming? You could've made lots of cash following your own advice there.

I have an idea, make yourself rich following your own advice (or go broke, which is more likely) then come back and try again.

Personally, I'll hold my bitcoins, spending a bit at each top I find attractive, meanwhile replacing what I spend by mining.

Thralen

Cool, my little Jalapeno (running at about 7GH) pulled a block today. #256635

I'd wondered if it was worth running it any more when 7GH only pulls around .0034 +/- per block. Guess it was.

Thralen

Username: Thralen

Thank you...

Thralen

Actually yes I have, re: mining with GPU. I had a caseless, headless BAMT mining rig set up with three cards. The card in the center habitually stayed between 80 and 85 Celsius, the max I was willing to run it at. I ran the rig until I got my jalapeno. That rig was tucked out of the way though, the jalapeno isn't and I've got kids, so I consider it hot since they can come into contact with the case on this one but not with the previous rig. Just a comparative thing.

Thralen

Actually I'm running the jalapeno (the low end entry) from BFL. I did pay for the upgrade as well. So I should be running at 6.5 GH minimum. Instead I'm getting 7.45 GH. Admittedly it runs a touch hot for my taste (averaging around 46-50 celsius depending on ambient temp. in room) but if the 50 GH model were to show a similar increase over its minimum hashrate claimed it would be running around 53 GH/sec.

Using CGminer and running it off of a raspberry pi with a powered USB hub. Nice low energy consumption to keep the jalapeno profitable as difficulty, and network hash rate, rises.

For anyone unaware, Jalapeno is what BFL used to call their entry level miner, now known as the 5 GH miner.

Thralen

ETA: the 6.5 GH figure is taken from the current claim on older orders of the jalapeno doing 4.5 GH, so with the upgrade 6.5 GH/s.

I just wanted to drop a thumbs up into the thread here.

There was some miscommunication on the numbers of an item they had available. We managed to arrange for a substitute via their customer service and the day after I sent my final reply confirming the substitute would be acceptable, I had my order in my hands.

So from ordering on 5/16, we arranged a substitute for a portion of the order on the same day. I confirmed the substitute was acceptable on 5/17 and received my order on 5/18.

I'll certainly be doing business with Amagi metals again (and most likely again and again and again each time I mine enough BTC for more orders).

Thanks...
Thralen

Actually the seven years to return Germany's gold has been all over the news for a while now. This isn't a new thing. If you go and use your Google-Fu to research it, you'll find that the story is entirely true. Several nations have been repatriating their physical gold reserves in the last couple of years. I don't blame them. If you can't pick it up and hold it, you don't own it.

Thralen

You haven't been scammed, you've simply been stupid. Are you aware of how most merchants accept BTC? They never touch the BTC itself, it is immediately sold and they receive USD or Euros or whatever. Therefore they don't have the BTC immediately on hand to refund.

Coinabul has done good business with me, slow but reliable. I don't know who has been complaining lately, but most of them are of a similar nature. It sounds more like you are trying to scam them than them trying to scam you. Here is what I hear from your complaint:

"I changed my mind and Coinabul refuses to lose money refunding me in BTC so they are scamming me."

I can tell you didn't read their schedule on their website as to how their process works.

I can tell you're new to this board, but I wonder if your account is a sock puppet for one of the other people that tried to slander Coinabul.

In my opinion, they offered to work with you on a fair deal and you decided to try to gouge them for more BTC.

Thralen

Quite simple, if you had read my entire other reply. The price is so high due to speculation. People thinking they can make a quick buck (or euro) off of it. Bitcoin certainly deserves a higher exchange rate than the 1 euro to 1 btc conversion you suggested earlier. After all, we know that there will never be more than 21 million BTC however the ECB and the federal reserve both create (and dump into their respective economies) more than 21 million units of their respective currencies in a single day on average.

So your idea of a 1 euro to 1 btc equivalency would mean that BTC was constantly losing purchasing power. Why tie it down that way, just to make things more convenient for you? While we're at it, if we're going to do that, why don't you make a grand statement that 1 oz of silver is worth 1 euro and 1 oz gold worth 10 euros. See how much you can purchase at those prices.

The price BTC should be at would be discovered by 'price discovery' which is what people are willing to set the value at. This soars when people try to abuse the system to make quick buck.
The price BTC is at is due to speculation, from people who don't care about the cryptocurrency itself and (much like it sounds you feel) just want to be able to make some money off of it.

Now do you understand why the price is so high? Because that is where the speculators have driven it. There is no high supply of BTC, so I don't understand that part of your question. If you don't understand now, kindly go read up on economic theory and then re-read the answers in this thread and perhaps you'll understand then.

Thralen

Strange, I always thought the word 'never' meant past, present, and future. Since I've already used bitcoin as a currency to purchase coffee, food, honey, silver, and gold I do have to wonder where you got your definition of 'never' from. If we're lucky and want bitcoin to succeed then we should hope for bitcoin to 'never again' be used as a speculative tool since that is what leads to the volatility that you mentioned in a sideways manner by referring to price increases.

Gee, sounds like you tried to mine with your CPU or something. Strangely enough I invested in several video cards and the value of the items I've bought using bitcoin as a currency (there goes your never again) exceeds the money I spent on GPUs by a factor of 3 or 4 already and they're still mining. They don't make as much now but I get as much in a single block on Slush's pool as you claimed to get in a couple of hours. I guess you never actually researched how you should mine or decided you could make BTC on advertising sites.

As a previous poster mentioned, you seem to have a serious lack of a grasp on bitcoin as a concept and on how to mine it, please study up on it before making ridiculous blanket statements like you've done here.

Thralen

Cool,

Once I receive my first order I placed with you on march 26th (a 10 oz silver bar and a freedom girl round) I'll see about getting one of these from you also.

Thank you...
Thralen

I'd love to see the 2.5 and the 5 gram pamp gold bars. I was just thinking that with the current 1 gram bar costing less than half a Bitcoin, there might be interest in the larger ones as well (well I know I'd be interested, stacking the 1 gram bars in their packages is unwieldy). I don't know if anyone else would be interested or not though. So, it might not be the best plan for you to order them just on my request.

Thank you...
Thralen...

I was wondering if you had any plans to stock any of the other pamp gold bars such as the 2.5 gram, 5 gram, or 10 gram. I know you have the 1 gram and 1 ounce bars but there is quite a disparate difference in the value between them.

Thank you...
Thralen

Actually I consider the USD to be backed by the world economy. The petro dollar is the only thing keeping the USD afloat (although it may be replaced by an agri dollar instead). If the rest of the world decides that the USD isn't worth having any more, then the USD is sunk. It'll be around for a while after that happens (not if, but when) but as for its value? It might be cheaper to use singles as toilet paper at that time.

Thralen

Honestly I've always considered Bitcoin to be backed by anything and everything that people are willing to sell for BTC. So that would make it backed by a basket of commodities (PMs, honey, coffee, etc...) and services. Sounds pretty sound to me.

Thralen

$15.37

Thank you Slush, I knew there had to be a way to do it just hadn't been able to figure it out yet.

'screen' did the trick, I had the BAMT box running overnight with my windows box shut down. Stales were under 0.2%, Considering my stales on Slush's pool were always in the 1% - 1.5% range before (don't know why but was willing to accept that to use the pool) it is a massive improvement.

I'll give that entry a shot Slush and see how it works, thank you.

Thralen