Is there any way to create a signature and change your settings if you are using a blockchain wallet. I am sure many people have a hard time with this. Any help you can give is appreciated.

About the best you can do is to spread your hashing power with 2,3 or 4 pools to reduce your risks associated with variance.

If you like Slush's pool or any other one that is great, but to just mine one pool is not the smartest thing to do. This is especially true when it comes to smaller pools!

If you are to small to diversify, then you need to go with a large pool.

Small pools when they get to small have no choice but to somehow increase their has rate or shut down.

I remember give-me-coins.com shut down the "BitCoin" mining pool they were running as it was just to small.

I use to mine litecoin and feathercoin with them. A very nice smaller pool.

The problem is they start a pool, and most stop development. They don't really want to put any more money or time into development.

Some people don't like GHash.io because they are so large, but I feel the reason they are so large is because they have a great platform. I am confident that they have put in extreme amounts of cash and labor and it shows.

Hard work pays off.

I know Slush could have just as good a platform if he tried, but I have not seen anything change here really. (In a very, very long time.)

How much more do you think a pool could make if they went from 5 to 35 petahash and stayed at 2% fees. I bet they make a lot more :-)

Freedom and Capitalism go hand in hand. There is no silver spoon for most people and there is not supposed to be. Look at Gates, Buffett and the other smart people around the free world. They all worked very hard and built great companies and societes.

They were free to succeed or fail.

The smartest people in Communist societies try hard to take their wealth, and their families away from oppression to a more free society. They leave the less fortunate, stuck in stagnate government controlled societies.

Those who learn will thrive, and those who do not will suffer.

China will thrive because it will embrace Capitalism, with some state controls.

Russia, North Korea and Cuba are doomed.

The real utility of Bitcoin is to help oppressed people flee oppression. To get their wealth, and their families to Freedom.

The border guards can strip you of everything they can find, but they can not get your Bitcoins that were created specifically for that purpose.

That is very powerful, and a direct threat to Communism, and all other oppressive regimes.

Bitcoin is one on the Free Worlds most powerful tools to fight against oppression!

Capitalism is our only hope. The Freedom to struggle, fail, succeed, and prosper is what give people hope and the desire to struggle to succeed. Succeed for themselves and their families. In a planned society, their is no light at the end of the tunnel to struggle to get to. Look at Cuba, Russia, North Korea. They are all failed Government run societies.  If the government is going to punish people who want to build and struggle to succeed, people will stop trying.

Even China is slowly changing and allowing it's people to fight to grow and succeed.

China is now growing and will keep growing.

It is the Governments version of Capitalism, but Freedom is blooming in China, and I hope it will Bloom everywhere else.

The flowers in spring, are so beautiful.

Hello,

I think the true value of Bitcoin now, and into the future is not determined by what I would like it to be (As I am A miner :-) .

I think the true vale will be established simply by it's long run utility, and safety.

For strengths I think it is a limited resource and can thus hold real value longer term than other things where the supply can actually increase dramatically over time. I do not mean only money, but other things like Gold, Silver or anything I can produce or dig out of the ground. The supplies of Gold, Silver, Diamonds, etc can increase rapidly over time.

The downside of Bitcoin is basically you can't really use it for anything except speculation. Kind of like gambling. Is it worth $1 or one million dollars ?

The other problem is it's difficulty to use safely for the average non technical person, who can barely turn a computer on or off. I am sorry to say there are Billions of people on planet earth that fit that category.

It is just a dream to expect them to all learn computers, bitcoin wallets, paper wallets, mind wallets, etc.

They can't really grasp that. It is just to hard.

If you hand them a $20 Bill they can firure out that, and can count change. They are fine with that, but not getting an Android phone, setting up a wallet on their phone, buying or earning Bitcoin and somehow getting it on their phone, Finding some store to buy food, and figure out how to pay with their Android Bitcoin wallet.  The first time they send their Bitcoin to a wrong address and it's lost. Their money is gone!

Until you can use Bitcoin as easily as a $20 Bill, it will have a very hard time in the real world.

Please do not get me wrong. A lot of people are going to make a lot of money with Bitcoin. Companies, Miners, App developers, Smart businesses that want their share of Bitcoin, Hedge Funds, Traders, etc, etc, etc.

Just not average people.

I think Bitcoin will end 2014 around $350 to $675. Maybe 2015 $500 to $800 With lot's of up and down along the way.

Hello,

I have a new Antminer S1 and when I turn it on after 5 minutes the whole room smells like burning plastic. My other Antminer does not smell like that, and never did.

Does anyone have the same issue? Has it gone away? Any ideas?

It looks fine and runs cool. Better than my older one, but a terrible smell.