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1  Bitcoin / Mining speculation / What if network hash rate drops? on: June 12, 2013, 03:04:46 AM
This is never gonna happen, but interesting to think about: if I understand correctly, the bitcoin network difficulty adjusts every 2000 or so blocks, in order to keep blocks being generated once every 10 minutes.

Now at current network hash rate of 130 TH/s (well, more like 150 TH/s recently), the difficulty is 15,605,633. What if suddenly the network hash rate drops by 90%? Although the difficulty will adjust downwards to compensate, that difficulty will take 2000 blocks to "readjust" since it doesn't happen instantaneously.

But if the network hash rate is reduced by 90%, it'll take a looooooong time to generate 2000 blocks before the network difficulty compensates. Is it feasible that a sudden, extended drop in hash rate will lead to a long, dry spell due to the lag time before the difficulty drops in response?
2  Economy / Trading Discussion / Fastest way to exchange fiat for BTC? on: June 09, 2013, 11:13:12 AM
In researching BTC exchanges, it seems like a transfer of fiat from a traditional bank to Dwolla takes 3-4 business days, way too long. Other than their "FiSync" network, which provides instant transfers but requires an institution to use that interface. Currently, I believe there is only one FiSync bank participating.

Any other options that are faster for getting fiat into an exchange, and ultimately buying BTC?
3  Economy / Computer hardware / FS: PCI-E Express x16 To x16 Riser Card Extender Flexible Ribbon Cable on: May 27, 2013, 12:50:46 PM
Full details and photo here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261221128350?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1586.l2649

You can buy via my eBay auction above, or I will accept 0.1 BTC per item, free shipping within USA. Please PM me if you wish to purchase via BTC!

4  Alternate cryptocurrencies / Altcoin Discussion / Decoupling LTC from BTC on: May 24, 2013, 10:02:04 PM
Does anyone think that LTC will one day be decoupled from BTC?

In other words, currently:

1 LTC = 0.0236 BTC
1 LTC = $3.01
1 BTC = $128

If you converted 1 LTC into USD, then used those USD to buy BTC, you would get 0.0234 BTC, which is pretty close to what you'd get if you just converted LTC into BTC directly at BTC-E.

There are some who feel that they should primarily mine LTC today, because they speculate that the value of LTC would rise in the future? But since LTC/BTC are linked currently, why not just mine BTC instead? It seems to me that if LTC were to rise in the future, so would BTC.
5  Economy / Computer hardware / FS: PCI-E Express x4 To x16 Riser Card Extender Flexible Ribbon Cable on: May 22, 2013, 09:45:12 PM
Full details and photo here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261218682688?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1586.l2649

You can buy via my eBay auction above, or I will accept 0.1 BTC per item, free shipping within USA. Please PM me if you wish to purchase via BTC!
6  Economy / Digital goods / FS: Bioshock Infinite, Crysis 3, and Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon on: May 18, 2013, 01:34:15 PM
I'm selling an AMD NeverSettle Reloaded Bioshock Infinite Crysis 3 Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon promo code. This code will allow you to download Bioshock Infinite, Crysis 3, and Farcry3 Blood Dragon from Steam, UPlay, and EA Origin. It is an online code only, and you will have to download the software! There are no CD/DVD included.

You can choose to have me mail the card containing the code to you, or I can simply email you with the code. Let me know your preference! You can PM me here and I'll accept 0.2 BTC for it.
7  Economy / Currency exchange / Dwolla <-> MtGox under investigation? on: May 15, 2013, 01:03:54 AM
Not sure if this article is true. I thought Dwolla only processes fiat, not actual BTC. So I'm confused by this article entitled, "Homeland Security cuts off Dwolla bitcoin transfers Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirms an "ongoing investigation" that led to Dwolla cutting off bitcoin transfers to Mt. Gox."

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57584511-38/homeland-security-cuts-off-dwolla-bitcoin-transfers/

And more here with reported copy of letter

http://www.businessinsider.com/dwolla-mt-gox-2013-5
8  Economy / Economics / Relativity on: May 10, 2013, 11:01:57 AM
I'm still relatively new to BTC, but I still find it hard to think in terms BTC pricing. For instance, if you told me a watch costs $10 USD, I'd say that's fairly cheap. If you told me the same watch costs 1 BTC, I wouldn't be able to say whether that was "cheap" or "expensive" unless I knew what the BTC/USD exchange rate was.

My point is, when I think of pricing in USD, I don't have to convert USD to JPY or CNY or EUR ... I just "know" because I have a feel of what other things cost in USD, so I have a frame of reference.

Anyone else have trouble gauging BTC's relative worth/cost?
9  Bitcoin / Mining support / user-selected difficulty? on: May 02, 2013, 02:08:32 AM
I notice in some pools you can select the difficulty for a miner:
https://50btc.com/faq

So if you have a high hashrate worker, you can increase difficulty to reduce network traffic. How does this benefit you (the miner)? If you have higher difficulty, doesn't it take longer to return a share? Which in turn would lead to less rewards?  Huh

10  Bitcoin / Mining support / reducing discarded work? on: May 02, 2013, 01:40:02 AM
So I use BFGMiner on stratum for BitMinter mining, and have two workers:

Worker A = 260 MH/s
Gets about 68% discarded work
A:3192, R:0, S:6
ST:2, DW:7059, GW:1867, LW:17310

Worker B = 1800 MH/s
Gets about 24% discarded work
A:11414, R:8, S:0
ST:2, DW:3677, GW:924, LW:22936

Any idea why my slower worker (A) seems less efficient and seems to have more discarded work? How I can reduce this to mine more effectively?
11  Other / Beginners & Help / Which wallet are you using? on: April 27, 2013, 02:51:20 AM
So which wallet are people using?

I know there's the "official" Bitcoin-Qt, but also Electrum, Armory, MultiBit, etc. So far, I've been using Qt but am getting annoyed at the transaction fees I have been paying to send BTC.

Any suggestions, and please give a reason. Thanks!
12  Other / Beginners & Help / Mining pools - Eligius? on: April 21, 2013, 02:35:54 AM
I thought Eligius was one of the bigger mining pools out there? But I dont see them even listed on this graph:

http://blockchain.info/pools?timespan=4days

What pools are other people using?
13  Other / Beginners & Help / best way to over/underclock on: April 20, 2013, 02:00:12 AM
So I'm using BFGMiner on a Win7 x64 platform and two 7970 cards. My question is, is it better to use the BFGMiner CLI to change GPU core/memory clock settings and voltages, or is it better to use a dedicated utility such MSI Afterburner?

Seems like BFGMiner is the easiest way to do it. I can't think of a reason why using MSI AB would be any different than BFGMiner when it comes to stability or the degree to which I can undervolt/overclock core/underclock memory.

Thoughts?
14  Other / Beginners & Help / Sidebar gadget on: April 19, 2013, 02:07:52 AM
Found this nice desktop sidebar gadget which keeps stats on bitcoin trading value, your pool balances, wallet balances, etc

http://www.domchi.cc/mybitcoins/
15  Other / Beginners & Help / Mining = nuclear arms race? on: April 19, 2013, 01:22:51 AM
Seems to me like bitcoin mining is basically an arms race. Those with the biggest baddest weapons (greatest Mhash/sec, like how GPUs surpassed CPUs) will profit until the next guy comes along with a bigger gun (ASICs).

I just started getting into bitcoin mining, and I suspect if I invest in GPU hardware now, it will not be able to compete with ASICs once they are out in full force because:

1. price of hardware/Mhash rate is in favor of ASICs
2. Mhash/watt is in favor of ASICs
3. difficulty will increase once ASIcs come out
4. Bitcoin rewards for blocks will decrease in the near future

As such, GPUs will become obsolete. The market will become flooded with users selling their GPUs, and cards like the 6990 or 7970 will become dirt cheap on eBay.

Maybe I should just give up now and stop investing in my GPU mining rig?
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