Could you in theory run an antminer S5 direct from a 12 volt battery bank if you had a voltage regulator in between to ensure no voltage spikes? What problems do you forsee? Any workarounds on those problems?


A little about why.

I like to tinker, i knew since last week when i got into it that bitcoin was never going to be a money maker or an investment for me. But that does not stop me from blowing a little money on trying to tinker with things involving bitcoin.

I have recently ordered ONE OF THESE 800 WATTERS from ebay. I picked up a 12V 65 Amp 750 Watt charge controller, a dozen batteries, all the cables. some PCIE cables, and just incase i cant figure a way to direct wire without the PSU in the middle, a 1,000 watt inverter and Gold PSU.

90% of the year i have a steady 6-10 MPH wind 12-16 hours a day in my back yard. I intend to set up a "mine when the wind blows" little rig that converts wind into bitcoin, BEFORE ALL OF YOU START IN, i am well aware that i will never in my lifetime recover the cost of the investment i made alone by running 1 miner when the wind blows. This is simply a tinker fart around project. Last year i made a wind powered desktop PC that seeds movies to the P2P network when the wind blows and it runs smooth 6-12 hours a day without problems. I also make no money from that either.

A special agent with the US Secret Service (USSS) is speaking out against bitcoin and digital currency technology on the grounds that criminal activity is its most compelling use case.

Taking place during a talk at the 17th annual OpRisk North America conference, USSS agent Tate Jarrow suggested that without digital currencies, "cybercrime would be much more difficult", according to report by Buy-Side Technology.

The magazine reports Jarrow "did not hold back" his opinion at the conference, alleging that the majority of digital currency activity is generated by criminals.

Jarrow asserted:

    "They want to use anonymous currency that allows them to do transactions, move large amounts of money, without ever being traced. That's why digital currency is very important. It's used for all this bad stuff."

In his talks, Jarrow highlighted past examples of illicit services enabled by digital currency, including the now-defunct payment processor Liberty Reserve and black market Silk Road, which he alleged could not have been enabled by companies like PayPal.

"Digital currency exists because people want to be outside that system," he added.

Jarrow was awarded the Secretary's Exceptional Service Award, which honors exceptional leadership or service that improves US homeland security, in 2014.


Original Article

I didnt see an introductions section or a new members section so i figured meta would have to do.

I'm new here, obviously. New to bitcoin, and just getting started learning.

Was hoping someone could give me the short version about this bitcoin stuff. I tried browsing the forums but everything seems to be just one garbled mess of randomness and to be honest its a bit painful to read anything useful as far as discussion goes as most of the things that would be useful have 20+ pages of posts filled with little to no relevant info and its painful to try and sort through.

So how's about it. Someone want to give me the short version on things i should know just starting out?