My mother is terminally ill with lung cancer. She is getting pain killers (morphine based patches since today), but I was wondering if anyone here has experience vaping CDB (Cannabidiol) in an electronic cigarette?

The goal, obviously, is not to get her 'high', its to reduce her pain and anxiety, which is why I like the idea of vaping CDB without the THC. It would also help if it created some food craving, like a regular joint often does, because she is not eating well at all.

I noticed you can buy CDB based eliquids, apparently even ~legally, but I have no idea if the those concentrations are high enough to do anything, or if its just a marketing gimmick. Also, Im a moderately experienced vaper myself, but have no idea if I need a special atomizer for this, I heard it was very thick ?

Any pointers would be appreciated, doctors here are not well versed in this yet.

Im always interested in buying stuff with my bitcoin, but when the seller is on the other side of the ocean, it rarely makes sense due to shipping/taxes. So the vast majority of offers dont interest me, and I can usually only find out after actually clicking the topic and reading it.

Therefore I propose that forum be divided per continent or economic block (US/EU/Asia/other or something), while also having a "global" section for those purchases where buying across continents can be sensible.

[100% PPS]

I offer anyone, regardless of rank or post count, a 10TH "Masters Cub" cloudy mining contract completely for free and for as long as your signature is something similar(*) to this:

Code:

[url=https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=878387.msg9697654#msg9697654][color=orange]  ▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ Cloudmining 101: how to avoid scams  ▆ ▅ ▄ ▂ ▁[/color][/url]

Newbies who cant put links in their signature can use something like this instead:

Code:

> Most cloudmining companies are ponzi scams <

"Masters Cub"  is operated by me, it is a perpetually cloudy bitcoin mining operation that pays out a theoretical 100% PPS with zero fees and automatically reinvests 100% of your revenue in additional hashrate, using the best market rates available. So your hashrate will grow constantly.  It does so forever, or for as long as you use this signature. The process is 100% automatic, you dont have to do anything other than adopting the signature and post in this thread to start your contract.  (that said, if you want to know how many TH your contract is worth at any point, you will have to do the math yourself).

Additionally, each month this campaign runs, I will select one post that I consider the "least useless post of the month" that is carrying this signature,  and award the person a 10 million satoshi (0.1 BTC) bonus. The selection is completely arbitrary, and can be based on being funny, useful, creative, innovative or any other reason that makes me think the post stands out among this ocean of scams, shill and post-count-bump posts that we call "bitcointalk".

(*) Feel free to change the signature design in to something far more creative, as long as it points to the same thread.

Why do I do this?
Because I want to push back at least a tiny bit against the countless (cloudmining) ponzi scams that seem to appear on a daily basis. Their biggest tool is this very forum and the fact it allows renting signature space for ads, pays users per (nonsense) post and allows referral links even to obvious scams. I do not understand why forum adminstrators allow this to continue, as it results in a forum thats almost devoid of content while being inundated by meaningless posts, obvious shilling and non stop scams. Many of the substantive posters that actually contributed have long fled (if not, sold their account). If this is allowed to continue, soon there will only be scammers, scam shills, referral whores, and scam victims left. I dont pretend this effort will help a lot, but its better than doing nothing.

Am I serious?
Yes. I will award the 0.1 BTC each month, assuming there is at least one post worthy of consideration. Of course the cloudy mining contract value is rather questionable, but then so are most other cloudmining contracts, and at least on this one, you wont lose any money.

Gusti sold his legendary account that had positive default trust and its being abused now to scam people.

Here is where a legendary, "1k+ activity 1k+ post count" is being offered:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=840130.0

Same seller gave some additional details previously here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=711892.msg8040993#msg8040993
"Account creation: 1st half of 2011."

All that matches Gusti's account perfectly:
Posts:   1097
Activity:   1096
Position:   Legendary
Date Registered:   January 25, 2011, 02:04:46 PM

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3738

Recently that account resurfaced here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=883534.msg9785026#msg9785026

To give credibility to what otherwise would appear a pretty blatant scam. I dug some deeper and emailed an address that I know belongs to the original Gusti and confirmed the gusti account was sold. I quote from his email:

Yes, the account was sold as I was not using it anymore, and the
monetary offer was good.

Anyway, I sold it to a broker for advertizing purposes, I do not
condone any scam or impersonating.

Buyer has not leverage over me, but I do not want my name or email
address appear in the forum anymore.

More evidence can be provided to people on the default trust list if required, just PM me.

Im not a chemist or biologist,  and a fair bit of this went over my head, but I found this series of lectures fascinating nontheless:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqPGOhXoprU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ5jh33OiOA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfq5-i8xoIU

It explains how chemistry and physics could have produced simple, RNA based life.

For the record, Im a firm atheist, but what little I know of how a (modern) cell works and how extremely unlikely it appears something that complicated  "just happened", always made me think it gave good ammunition to deists or people who want to believe life was seeded by aliens or whatever. Not that either proposition explains anything, its just that I doubted science would be able to explain it in my lifetime.

Anyway, seeing the above lecture, Im stunned to learn how simple and common chemical and physical processes make it entirely plausible that cell  based life just "happened". Or even "had to happen".  So much so, that Im even taking much more serious the odds of finding life within our solar system (like on Europa moon). Given the number of stars and planets in the universe, I never really doubted there is other life out there, but within our solar system, that seemed a huge stretch to me. But now I cant wait for us to drill in Europa or land on Titan.

[Cloudmining 101]

(this is a self-moderated thread to avoid being spammed. Every post that contains a referral link to any cloudmining site will be deleted, for reasons explained below).

Cloudmining 101

Everyone here is focused on ROI, hardly anyone seems to care if these companies are legit. The majority of cloudmining websites dont do any mining whatsoever. They pay out old customers via coinmixers from revenue that comes from recruiting new ones. This is the common definition of a ponzi scheme. No surprise, to keep the game going they usually heavily emphasize referrals and signature campaigns to make you do their dirty PR work.

Now why would you care if these companies are mining or not? All that matters is they pay out, right?
Wrong.

If the company (or more aptly: scammer) isnt mining, then its impossible on average for the investors to profit. Early investors might, but only at the expense of later ones and only if the ponzi can survive long enough.  If no mining is going on, then there is nothing to generate those profits. So dont be fooled by low prices or high payouts. Ponzi miners will drop prices as low they need to keep the game going until one day they vanish.

And dont think because its been running for 10 months, that it has to be legit either. Unlike traditional ponzi's, mining ponzi's dont risk a bank run. You cant get your money out if you begin worrying, so they can run a fairly long time.

Take PBmining,  they have been around since the beginning of 2014 and havent failed to pay so far. Does that prove its not a ponzi? Hardly. Based on their own stats, in the past month they sold ~1.5  PH worth of contracts. Good for around ~2200 BTC. During that same month they paid around 1600 BTC in dividends. A net profit of  ~600 BTC or nearly a 1/4 of a million dollar. Just for running a website. So the fact they are still paying out doesnt prove they are legit, its actually far more likely they are still paying out because it maximizes their profits ( update: pbmning meanwhile collapsed: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=887871  qed.).

Of course that cant last. At some point the new sales will slow while the owed dividends keep going up. Once the latter becomes bigger than the former, guess what the anonymous operator will do? The same thing lunamine, coinsoncloud, pirate, bitcoin-trader and countless other (mining) ponzi's before did.



Be smart. Think before you invest. Dont trust *anyone* with a referral link in his signature.

Criteria to help you spot a cloud mining scam/ponzi.

1) No public mining address / no user selectable pool.
A cloud mining company that wont let you direct the hashrate to your pool of choosing and cant prove its actually mining bitcoins itself, is very likely a scam. There is no reason to hide mining address or not sign blocks. None.

2) No endorsement from any asic vendor
Asic vendors will gladly make a simple post to show the company in question is a significant customer of theirs. Its free advertisement for them and it helps their customer grow their business, so there is absolutely no reason they wouldnt. If a (cloud) mining company cant get any asic vendor to post such endorsement, you should assume they dont have any hardware to mine with.

3) No relevant pictures of their hardware and datacenter
There is no reason not to provide such pictures, except of course, if there is nothing to take pictures off. Mind you: pictures can be faked. Picture dont prove current ownership. So like all criteria listed here, by themselves they are by far insufficient proof.

4) Open ended IPO / fractional reverse mining risk
Unless the cloud mining is operated by the asic vendor himself, you can not sell an unlimited amount of hashrate. Hardware takes (usually a long) time to order, arrive and deploy. Any company that doesnt limit sales or make public how much hashrate they sold vs what they have (provably) deployed should be considered  suspicious.

5) Referral programs and social networking
Referral programs, especially ones that pay almost 10%, are a huge red flag. The mining market is cut throat with razor thin margins. No real company can afford to pay 10% referrals on below market cloudmining prices. Referral programs almost always serve only to feed the ponzi and provide financial incentive to posters to lie about the true nature of the company. Never trust anyone with a referral link in their sig.

6) Anonymous operators
If the operators are hiding behind whoisguard, provide no provable identity and especially when, like in some cloudmining cases, they use demonstrably false ID or company registration information, you have to be nuts to trust them with your money.

7) No exit strategy
If you cant sell your position, you cant get your money out. Thats the ideal case for a ponzi and allows it to run for a  long time.

8 ) Bonus point for "guaranteed profit"
So far, Ive only seen bitcoinmaker.ch do this. If anyone guarantees you a bitcoin denominated profit, and especially a 30+% one, you can be sure its a ponzi, all the other criteria become unimportant. There is no such thing as certain profit when it comes to mining, no one knows how the network will evolve, or what btc exchange rate will do. If anyone could somehow be certain of making a 30% profit, they wouldnt need your money (and they wouldnt give the profit to you).

Application of these criteria to some cloudmining companies

Feel free to post corrections or additions.

Ponzi's that have already collapsed as predicted:

Code:

PBmining.com          1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponzi
Lunaminer.com         1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponzi
coinsoncloud.eu       1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponzi
Cryptomine.io         1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponzi
hashie.co ("gen1")    1+2+3+4+5+6        => 6/7 = Ponzi
bitcoinlabmining.com  1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponzi
ltcgear               1+3+4+5+6          => 5/7 = (very) suspicious
hashprofit.com        1+2+3+4+5          => 5/7 = (very) suspicious
minethatcloud.com     1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponzi
CoIntellect.com       1+2+5+6+7          => 5/7 = (very) suspicious
terabox.me            1+2+3*+4+5+6+7*    => 6/7 = Ponzi (pictures are not convincing to me for now, exit strategy involves  60+ days stall tactic)
chabatmining.com      1+2+3+5+6+7        => 6/7 = Ponzi
Ecrypto.co.in         1+2+3+4+6+7        => 6/7 = Ponzi (+ confirmed scam, they are no partners of cex.io)
GenerateBTC.com       1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponz

Likely Ponzi scams that have yet to collapse:

Code:

cloudminr.io          1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponzi
cloudmining.website   1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponzi
Skycoinlab.com        1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponzi (+ organized by serial ponzi scammer: ?topic=583177.msg10298730)
btcslice.com          1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponzi (+ pays out in reversible paypal ?)
grmining.com          1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponzi
bitcoinmaker.ch       1+2+3+4+6+7+8      => 7/7 = Ponzi
eobot.com             1+2+3+5+6+7        => 6/7 = Ponzi (+ possible malware/wallet stealing software)
hashwar.co            1+2+3+4+6+7        => 6/7 = Ponzi
bitrush.com           1+2+3+4+6+7        => 6/7 = Ponzi

Code:

nexusmining.com       1+2*+3+4+5+7       => 6/7 = Ponzi (Guy from Spondoolies says im wrong, but I cant score what I havent seen and he seems to confirm they have no hardware)
minerslab.com         1+2+3+4+6+7        => 6/7 = Ponzi (+ selling hardware that doesnt exist + using purchased "legendary" account)
bitcoincloudservices  1+2+4+5+6*+7       => 6/7 = Ponzi (+ founded by known scammer  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=860400.msg9638868#msg9638868)
scrypt.cc             1+2+3+4+5+6        => 6/7 = Ponzi (preliminary assessment)
Kryptologika          1+2+3+4+*          => */7 = Ponzi -> passthrough of AMhash which is defunct. Currently operating as fractional reserve/ponzi.
hashcoins.com         ~1+2+3+4+7         => 5/7 = (very) suspicious (user selectable pool requires fee, dc pictures show no miners, linkedin profile doctored, hardware sales very dubious,..)
Zeushash              1+2+3+4+5          => 5/7 = (very) suspicious

Rest:

Code:

Cryptsy MN            1+2+3+4            => 4/7 = Possibly/partially legit ( + no details on fee structure)
cloudmining.sg        1+2+4+7            => 4/7 = Possibly/partially legit
genesis-mining        1+4+7              => 3/7 = Probably legit (risk of fractional reserve mining)
Megamine.com          1+4                => 2/7 = Probably legit
Bit-x.com             1+4                => 2/7 = Probably legit (preliminary assessment, partnership confirmed by Bitfury)
pow88.com             1+2                => 2/7 = Probably legit (preliminary assessment)
KNCcloud              7                  => 1/7 = Legit (but as hardware vendor, they broke their promise not to selfmine with more than 5% of customers hashrate )
Hashnest (umisoo)                        => 0/7 = Legit

Obsolete or suspended:

Code:

AMhash                                   => 0/7 = Legit (if you buy directly) / divs momentarily (?) suspended
Cex.io                4                  => 1/7 = Legit
Cryptx PETAmine                          => 0/7 = Legit
GAWminers             1+4+5+~7           => 4/7*= Possibly/partially legit based on criteria set forth. Based on wider context: more suspicious than a nun squatting in a cucumber field

Proving a ponzi

A ponzi is defined by the absence of a mechanism to generate revenue or profits (in this case: mining hardware). Proving something is a ponzi would therefore require proving a negative. You can not prove a negative, so in theory its possible any of the companies I labeled as "ponzi" are in fact mining. But thats like saying in theory its possible unicorns do exist or that its possible that Nigerian Prince who emailed you yesterday, really inherited a $500M gold mine concession and wants to share it with you. You can not prove thats not true either, but to most sensible people the complete absence of evidence is a very compelling reason to dismiss the claim, and thus certainly reason enough not to invest there.

Success rate so far

Recently imploded cloudmining scams that where  rated as (very) suspicous or ponzi: 14/14 (100% hit rate)
Companies that were rated as probably/legitimate yet substantially failed to honor their contracts: 1*/7 (86 % hit rate)
(*) Amhash which may yet resume payments, though I wouldnt bet on it

Overall hit rate: 95%

Want to help out ?

You can help out by reporting new ponzi's and preparing the assessment.

You can tip me on this address: 15YNTMoAzTCve64rveEka75qCeJMZpmDCx
Anything I receive there will be used to further this cause, like doing signature campaigns to raise awareness.

Here is the current signature campaign thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=888864
Feel free to join, you'd be helping a good cause and you might win 0.1BTC

Disclaimer

being legit does not equal being a good investment. By and large, cloud mining has not been profitable historically, and I dont expect it  will.  I do not recommend you invest in (cloud) mining at all, but if you do, at least invest in a company that will actually contribute to securing the blockchain and is not extremely likely to just steal your money.

Also, being rated as legit here doesnt guarantee you anything. All it shows is that said company has provided reasonable evidence it is a real company and your investment is backed by actual hashrate. It doesnt guarantee they wont scam you, and it certainly doesnt imply anything about profitability.

[Cloudmining 101]

Discussion moved here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=878387.msg9697654

Cloudmining 101

Everyone here is focused on ROI, hardly anyone seems to care if these companies are legit. The majority of cloudmining websites dont do any mining whatsoever. They pay out old customers via coinmixers from revenue that comes from recruiting new ones. This is the common definition of a ponzi scheme. No surprise, to keep the game going they usually heavily emphasize referrals and signature campaigns to make you do their dirty PR work.

Now why would you care if these companies are mining or not? All that matters is they pay out, right?
Wrong.

If the company (or more aptly: scammer) isnt mining, then its impossible on average for the investors to profit. Early investors might, but only at the expense of later ones.  If no mining is going on, then there is nothing to generate those profits. So dont be fooled by low prices or high payouts. Ponzi miners will drop prices as low they need to keep the game going until one day they vanish.

And dont think because its been running for 10 months, that it has to be legit either. Unlike traditional ponzi's, mining ponzi's dont risk a bank run. You cant get your money out if you begin worrying, so they can run a fairly long time.

Take PBmining,  they have been around since the beginning of 2014 and havent failed to pay so far. Does that prove its not a ponzi? Hardly. Based on their own stats, in the past month they sold ~1.5  PH worth of contracts. Good for around ~2200 BTC. During that same month they paid around 1600 BTC in dividends. A net profit of  ~600 BTC or nearly a 1/4 of a million dollar. Just for running a website. So the fact they are still paying out doesnt prove they are legit, its actually far more likely they are still paying out because it maximizes their profits:  they are still getting far more revenue from new victims than they are paying out.

Of course that cant last. At some point the new sales will slow while the owed dividends keep going up. Once the latter becomes bigger than the former, guess what the anonymous operator will do? The same thing lunamine, coinsoncloud, pirate, bitcoin-trader and countless other (mining) ponzi's before did.



Be smart. Think before you invest. Dont trust *anyone* with a referral link in his signature.

Criteria to help you spot a cloud mining scam/ponzi.

1) No public mining address / no user selectable pool.
A cloud mining company that wont let you direct the hashrate to your pool of choosing and cant prove its actually mining bitcoins itself, is very likely a scam. There is no reason to hide mining address or not sign blocks. None.

2) No endorsement from any asic vendor
Asic vendors will gladly make a simple post to show the company in question is a significant customer of theirs. Its free advertisement for them and it helps their customer grow their business, so there is absolutely no reason they wouldnt. If a (cloud) mining company cant get any asic vendor to post such endorsement, you should assume they dont have any hardware to mine with.

3) No relevant pictures of their hardware and datacenter
There is no reason not to provide such pictures, except of course, if there is nothing to take pictures off. Mind you: pictures can be faked. Picture dont prove current ownership. So like all criteria listed here, by themselves they are by far insufficient proof.

4) Open ended IPO
Unless the cloud mining is operated by the asic vendor himself, you can not sell an unlimited amount of hashrate. Hardware takes (usually a long) time to order, arrive and deploy. Any company that doesnt limit sales or make public how much hashrate they sold vs what they have (provably) deployed should be considered extremely suspicious.

5) Referral programs and social networking
Referral programs, especially ones that pay almost 10%, are a huge red flag. The mining market is cut throat with razor thin margins. No real company can afford to pay 10% referrals on below market cloudmining prices. Referral programs almost always serve only to feed the ponzi and provide financial incentive to posters to lie about the true nature of the company. Never trust anyone with a referral link in their sig.

6) Anonymous operators
If the operators are hiding behind whoisguard, provide no provable identity and especially when, like in some cloudmining cases, they use demonstrably false ID or company registration information, you have to be nuts to trust them with your money.

7) No exit strategy
If you cant sell your position, you cant get your money out. Thats the ideal case for a ponzi and allows it to run for a  long time.

Application of these criteria to some cloudmining companies

Feel free to post corrections or additions.

Code:

Lunaminer.com         1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponzi already collapsed
CoIntellect.com       1+2+3+4+5+6+7++    => 7/7 = Ponzi ( + requiring likely malware/wallet stealing software)
coinsoncloud.eu       1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponzi already collapsed (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=853837.0) apparently
Cryptomine.io         1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponzi
cloudmining.website   1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponzi
PBmining.com          1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponzi
cloudminr.io          1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponzi
grmining.com          1+2+3+4+5+6+7      => 7/7 = Ponzi
terrabox.me           1+2+3*+4+5+6+7*    => 6/7 = Ponzi ( pictures are not convincing to me for now, exit strategy involves  60+ days stall tactic)
bitcoincloudservices  1+2+4+5+6*+7       => 6/7 = Ponzi ( + founded by known scammer  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=860400.msg9638868#msg9638868)
hashie.co ("gen1")    1+2+3+4+5+6        => 6/7 = Ponzi
ltcgear               1+3+4+5+6          => 5/7 = (very) suspicious (info welcome)
Zeushash              1+2+3+4+5          => 5/7 = (very) suspicious (info welcome)
GAWminer              1+4+5+~7           => 4/7*= Possibly/partially legit based on criteria set forth. Based on wider context: more suspicious than a nun squatting in a cucumber field
genesis-mining        1+4+7              => 3/7 = Probably legit
Megamine.com          1+4                => 2/7 = Probably legit
Cex.io                4                  => 1/7 = Legit
KNCloud               7                  => 1/7 = Legit
Hashnest(*after merge)                   => 0/7 = Legit
AMhash                                   => 0/7 = Legit
Cryptx PETAmine                          => 0/7 = Legit

Not rated yet:

Cloudhashing.com    2?+4?+7?   (looking in to it, feedback welcome)
hashprofit.com          1+3+4+~6+7     (looking in to it, feedback welcome)


Disclaimer

being legit does not equal being a good investment. By and large, cloud mining has not been profitable historically, and I dont expect it  will.  I do not recommend you invest in (cloud) mining at all, but if you do, at least invest in a company that will actually contribute to securing the blockchain and is not extremely likely to just steal your money.

Also, being rated as legit here doesnt guarantee you anything. All it shows is that said company has provided reasonable evidence it is a real company and your investment is backed by actual hashrate. It doesnt guarantee they wont scam you, and it certainly doesnt imply anything about profitability.

Discussion moved here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=878387.msg9697654

Not too sure what to make of this:

http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/02/bitcoin-brothers-aim-to-disrupt-bitcoin-mining-with-new-more-powerful-supercomputers/

Fairly confused article.

After over two years in stealth mode, the bitcoin mining supercomputer manufacturer, Bitcoin Brothers is launching its hosted bitcoin mining services, powered by what the company claims are better, stronger machines to make the mining of bitcoin more efficient.

..

Financed in part by money the Welle brothers made as bitcoin miners in the technology’s early days, Bitcoin Brothers is working with TSMC to manufacture its proprietary 3D 16nm FinFET application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), which the company designed itself.

When you visit the website of "bitcoinbrothers" there isnt much hard data either, perhaps this is most the interesting tidbit:

Mark adds: “by pushing 300-400 petahash into the market quickly in Q1 2015, and growing our presence from there, we triple or quadruple the difficulty for a limited time, to achieve a new efficiency standard in mining and on the blockchain"

http://bitcoinbrothers.de/press/pr20141103


Are they for real? Searching for bitcoinbrothers I came upon this:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=377701.0

Looks like nothing ever came of that, though Ive not seen any scam accusations either so make of it what you want.

IN case you missed it, Erik Voorhees has been fined $50K and barred for 5 years from offering bitcoin securities for breaking SEC regulations:

SEC Division of Enforcement director Andrew Ceresney reiterated that entrepreneurs need to remember that the agency’s regulations still apply to bitcoin-related ventures, saying:

“All issuers selling securities to the public must comply with the registration provisions of the securities laws, including issuers who seek to raise funds using bitcoin."

http://www.coindesk.com/sec-eric-voorhees-deal-unauthorized-securities-sales/

Please note that the issuer of the security was targeted here, not the exchange (at least not yet), so forget the argument that because Havelock or whatever exchange is located in some fiscal paradise, or even if it is decentralized, that EU or US laws dont apply. Thats hogwash if those securities are being offered to investors in the US or EU. Ive been saying that for years now.

Erik got off extremely cheaply IMO, but thats besides the point. Id suggest you all think what will happen to your bitcoin investments if or when the issuer gets targeted, be it by the US SEC or similar organizations in EU, Japan and elsewhere. A hint of those consequences is offered by what Gigaminng had to do after GLBSE shut down, or the arrangement Ken Slaughter of active mining made with local authorities.

Of course, this being the bitcointalk security subforum, feel free to just carry on as usual

Ive been using this forum for 4 years or so now, with different accounts,  I used to spend several hours every day on here and early on actually read most posts, but its just become unusable to me, its impossible to keep up with the flood of posts, and 99% of them just arent worth reading. Whats worse is that its impossible to find the few posts that are worth reading.

Part of this is due to bitcoin going more mainstream and logically creating a lot of new users,  but whats greatly exacerbating the problem is forum policy and forum software.

The policy that allows users to put spam in their signature and have casino's and what not pay out (newbie/alt account) posters based on how much (nonsense) they post each day is the straw that broke the camel's back. At least 2/3 of the activity I see is just alt accounts posting whatever in order to boost their activity and collect more bitcoins for their signature spam. How this is allowed is beyond me.

Another part of the problem is the relaxed newbie restrictions; with so many new accounts being registered every day, the bar to post should be raised, not lowered. Who wants to see 16 newbie spam accounts push down some of the rare pearls of wisdom, say posts by DeathandTaxes to the point where you cant possibly find them?

Finally the forum software thats absolutely unhelpful. Despite the fact that Theymos was given enough money to buy a medium sized software development company, in all these years, it hasnt improved one meaningful yota. The few changes that were made, made things worse, not better (think trust system)

Its really sad but these days I need to get my bitcoin updates from google news or reddit.

 

A few few weeks ago, before the complete unraveling of Gox, but I think after they stopped BTC withdrawals, I read a post on this forum that said that Mark K had said a long time ago that there was a big secret that needed protecting, because unveiling it would cause great damage to bitcoin. The context of the discussion where I read that was the malleability bug.

I dismissed it at the time, but it stuck in my head. Now on hindsight, when it appears Gox may have been operating fractional reserve for many years,  obviously Id like to find it again. Does anyone remember reading that too, and who made that claim, or even better, does anyone know what the source for that claim is (assuming there is one) ?

[AMT 2/5]

I thought this might be useful for newbies, to give them an idea of the track record / reputation of the various bitcoin asic vendors.

Consider this work in progress, its based on things I read, I dont have first hand experience with any of them, let alone all of them,  but a single person's experience wouldnt be very representative anyway. Im very much open to changing/updating this based on feedback posted in this thread, particularly for vendors Im not too familiar with, but I will weigh your opinion/experience against your own reputation. Ie, opinions and stated experience of newbie posters or known trolls wont carry the same weight as those of trusted long time members.

This is not meant to be a scientific study, its my personal and therefore subjective interpretation of what I know about these companies. I dont have a bone in this fight, I hold no shares nor preorders for any of them, which should make me unbiased, but Im a human being with my own opinions so YMMV.

In alphabetical order:

AMT 2/5
Doesnt produce asics, but assembles miners based on bitfury and bitmine chips. Have shipped a handful (possibly as few as 2) Bitfury/technobit based 55nm miners so far. Currently 6+ weeks overdue on their bitfury orders and advertising highly implausible specs and delivery dates for their Bitmine based 28nm gear. Customer support is very poor, reportedly very rude and mostly non responsive. Have a very unfortunate (published) policy of giving 5% discounts and shipping priority to shill accounts posting in their favor, making any posted positive customer experience automatically suspect, particularly from new (often fake) accounts.

Avalon ?/5
Delivered on their promises with batch 1 of their first gen (110nm) devices, royally screwed their customer on batch 2. Their second generation 55nm asic appears to be shipping from stock, but is aimed more at system integrators than end users. Ive not heard enough recent feedback to make a judgement, but it appears they may be trying to salvage what little is left of their reputation. Specs for their 55nm chip suggest their design is less power efficient than current competitors, but it should also be pointed out their miners are quite price competitive atm.

Asicminer
Asicminer is a startup that was publicly funded with bitcoins, through the issuing of btc denominated shares that can be traded, similar to ActM/VMC, but with a proven trackrecord. Asicminer was a pioneer in bitcoin asics, along with Avalon. They mostly self mine and at one time they owned about 1/3 of the network. Currently they only have an almost obsolete chip. A new generation is supposed to be under development, but AFAIK, they are no longer selling directly to end users atm. Their products like the blockerupter and cube are still available from some third parties, as well as various boards based on their chip.  Keep in mind these miners have very high power consumption for their hashrate and especially the USB sticks at todays difficulty are all but obsolete.

update: asicminer announced tapeout of their 45nm follow up, due in May. It has pretty incredible low power usage specs, lower than any 28nm chip.

BFL 1.5/5
Have delivered several PH of 65nm hardware, but are notorious for delivering extremely late and often underspec. Customer support is completely inadequate and incapable of handling the volume they receive . Their own forum contains countless reports of DOA's and machines breaking down after only a few weeks. In particular, dying/sparking/burning PSU's. TO be fair, BFL is one of the largest suppliers out there, its difficult to estimate what % of their sales these stories represent. Their 28nm product is already 2-3 months late and no silicon in sight so far.

Bitfury -/5
Have shipped several PH worth of 55nm asics, delivered pretty much on time but below spec. I have not read anything on customer service, so I will refrain from assessing that. Currently seems to focus on working with third party providers like Technobit so may not be relevant anyway. Performance and power efficiency of their 55nm product was revolutionary at launch and still is impressive today, rivaling that of many 28nm designs.

Bitmain 5/5
Relatively small and new vendor, doesnt do preorders, instead sells mostly through auctions,  shipping quickly and from stock, specs are as promised, few reports of DOA or needs to RMA. Bitmain doesnt even have a website yet (sales happen through auctions on this forum), but customer support appears very good from what little Ive read about it. Like Bitfury, Bitmain "only" has a 55nm chip to date, but its also competitive in power efficiency with Bitfury and current 28nm alternatives.

Bitmine.ch 3/5
Havent shipped any 28nm miners yet, currently a few weeks overdue on their initial promises. Have shown working silicon and might be close to shipping. Too early to assess. (note: I believe bitmine used to ship avalon based gear? If so, some feedback would be welcome, Im not aware of their track record).

update: although more than a month late, full scale production is underway and shipping supposedly imminent.

Black Arrow 3/5
Have only shipped FPGA miners and recently Bitfury based gear. Their 28nm asic wasnt due until late february, but is now delayed until May 1st. Customer support track record seems fair, but recent feedback from customers experience with their bitfury based gear is welcome.

Cointerra 3/5
Despite very high expectations, CT are over 1 month late, and missed both power and performance targets by almost 20%.  Supposedly just started shipping, Im not aware of any retail customers having received their gear yet, but should happen any moment.

Hash Fast 2/5
Still havent delivered anything yet in meaningful quantities. Currently >2 months overdue on their inititial shipping promise and causing a lot of controversy surrounding their MPP and refund policy. Facing litigation. Have shown working silicon, its assumed / hoped they will start shipping very soon, but confidence is this company is in free fall.

KnC 4/5
Have shipped several PH worth of 28nm miners and are the only company so far to have done that. Delivered (way) over spec and only marginally late on their first batch. High number of reports of defects and RMA's, especially on the first batch, but decent customer service. Currently no longer selling 28nm miners, only preorders for Neptune, a 20nm product with vague specs and vague delivery date (Q1/Q2). Optimists expect KnC to again vastly over deliver on their specs and achieve that on the early end of their shipping estimate, pessimists (like me) fear that while the specs are probably indeed understated, 20nm products are not likely to appear before summer. Based on their past achievement, which also exceeded my expectations, I wont deduct points for that though.

edit: One point that was raised by other members, and which is quite valid, is that KnC really dropped the ball on their hosting service. Prospective customers may want to think twice before trusting them with hosting.

Technobit 3/5
Doesnt produce asics, but produces and sells boards based on 3rd party ASICs like Avalon and Bitfury. Have shipped a lot of hardware already, but despite claims of ample stock, currently seem to take ~1 month for shipping. Also lots of complaints about their parcel service (speedy/DPD). Customer support seems to be reasonable though, even if stretched a bit thin.

Virtual Mining Corporation (VMC/AMC) ?/5
VMC is developing and selling preorders for 28nm structured asics, but havent shipped anything yet and havent really shown anything yet. Not much is known of their schedule and even less of the current project status, other than that its being delayed. Despite a public and verifiable partnership with eASIC, a well known semiconductor company with unquestionable expertise, and a business approach that in theory should enable fast time to market at relatively low risk, VMC is cloaked in so much secrecy that serious questions can be asked about their credibility.

edit: ActM announced a change in plans, their 28nm structured asic appears DOA, and instead a 55nm custom asic is promised. Probably too late to really matter, unless its one really efficient design.

[Q Why do you this?]

Printer has been upgraded to an all metal E3D hotend, allowing even better prints

Here is a small sample, printed in PLA at medium resolution (0.125mm) and medium speed, untreated:



Same object printed at low resolution (0.25mm), medium speed in ABS:



I can do any PLA print you want in one of the following colors:
- Black
- Gold (/yellowish)
- Red

And small to medium size ABS prints in
- Glow in the Dark white (glows green in the dark)
- Blue
(I dont have an enclosure yet, and I have a fine nozzle, so large ABS prints tend to warp and split. Working on a solution.)

Just in, but not tested yet:

- Taulman Nylon. Supposedly even stronger than ABS, and very flexible in thin prints. Natural white/translucent but this material can also colored with textile paint. Special color effects are possible too by dying the filament in various colors before printing.  Not tried yet.
- SoftPLA. Rubber like material, broken white.
- SmartABS. Pretty much like ABS but would be easier to print large objects with. Also white.

Pricing:
Currently im offering the service for free. You only pay for the filament (~5 euro per 100gr) and shipping from the EU.
I will not print (or at least not ship) guns, no point in asking.

FAQ
Q Why do you this?
A Because I like playing with my large toy and its idle often enough that I may as well print your designs at cost. Im also curious what kind of demand there is out there for such a service.

Q What size can you print?
I can print up to 20x20x20cm with my current printer. However, large objects in ABS are still problematic due to warping of the material. If your object is large, PLA will work better until Ive upgraded my printer.

Q Can you print any shape?
A Hmmm, not really. My printer only has 1 extruder, so I cant print washable support material. That means that objects with very steep overhangs or large "bridges" where I would have to print "in the air" can not be printed, or only with generated support material (think scaffolding) which to be honest, is a PITA to remove and you will have to do that yourself. When in doubt, just give me a link to the object, I can usually tell on sight if I need support material or not.

Q Can you paint printed objects?
Yes you can. Its recommended you use a (automotive) primer first, then acrylic paints will work fine on both ABS and PLA

[$0.043 per KwH]

Hi all,

Today, few among you will care about electricity price. Its only a tiny fraction of your mining investment and revenue, and your ROI is determined almost solely by when you receive your hardware. I dont think many people would be interested in shipping their beloved hardware far abroad right now, I guess many would rather sleep next to it

However, this will change. In 6 months or so, profit margins will dwindle and at some point, most of our revenue will be eaten up by electricity (and hosting) costs. Many among us who pay residential electricity prices will not be able to compete with large scale mining operations that get their electricity far cheaper. So, lets solve this

Im considering setting up a company to provide bitcoin collocation services in Iceland. Why Iceland?
- $0.043 per KwH for industrial contracts, guaranteed for up to 12 years.
- 100% green energy from hydro and geothermal power plants.
- attractive business climate, unlike most other countries that offer such low electricity cost (Iran, Venezuela, Kuwait,..).
- not too far from either the EU or US.

The plan currently is simple and consists of 2 phases. First phase is simply a group buy to rent rack space at an existing tier 3 or 4 datacenter in iceland.

I requested a few quotes, and what I got so far is substantially lower than the hosting that Cointerra advertises on their website.
Cointerra charges $2599 for 6 month hosting of a terraminer 4, or $433 per month.
What I got so far works out to about $200 per month, less than half Cointerra's price and competitive with many European domestic electricity rates alone.
Remember, this is for hosting in a tier 4 datacenter with all provisions, like UPS, diesel backup, multiple backbone connections, fancy access control, fire suppression, on site permanence etc. Price is based on the assumption the machine will use ~1400W and if we can get enough interest to fill at least 5 racks.

In a second phase, if our margins drop even further and $200 per month per 4U miner begins to hurt,  assuming we can get enough miners to fill 20 or more racks, I am looking in to buying one or several modular datacenters (fancy word for a datacenter container) and putting them in Iceland. Something like this:



(And yes, I will be looking at asicminer's submersion cooling solution if/when it becomes available, although I have my doubts it will be economically more viable).

These systems would have their limitations, for instance I would likely not be providing UPS power and diesel backup, but at a later stage in the mining game, if our margins are that thin, I dont think those costs are warranted. If you only pay for the electricity you use, downtime would be "cheap" because our margins would be low anyway. I may reconsider that, but thats my current thinking. I cant give a reasonable price estimate for those containers yet, but obviously the idea is to be significantly below that of tier 3/4 datacenters. I suspect we may be able to cut that price by another 30-50%, but thats only a rough guess.

Before anyone asks, this wont become a bitcoin security that you can invest in, nor will it be a preorder scheme, if I decide to go ahead I will fund it myself, or at most accept private investors.

Time frame I have in mind, is to start renting the racks in spring 2014, meanwhile prepare everything for our own modular datacenter and depending on market conditions, likely implement that by summer/autumn 2014.

Right now, I would just like to hear from people if they are interested, and how many U you may want to rent and for what timeframes. Feel free to PM if you dont want this in public.  IM also open to suggestions and criticism of the concept.

[Successful]

IM curious how many bitcoin securities ended up paying their investors more than was invested originally.  With your help, Id like to compile a list.

Successful means the asset issuer returned to its investors more than the IPO price either through dividends or through buy back, so I am not interested in reading how you successfully flipped some shares. If you can, please list the amount of BTC raised through IPO and how much was returned.

I will include ongoing securities only if the outcome is already clear. To get this list started:

Successful

SatoshiDice:
raised 320,000 BTC (not sure if all shares were sold at 0.0032?)
returned to shareholders:  423,865 (350K buyback, rest in dividends)
Profit ratio: 32%

AsicMiner:
raised 16,000 BTC (?)
returned to shareholders:  80,000
Profit ratio: 400%

Unsuccessful

GigaMining
raised (?)
returned to shareholders:  ?
Profit ratio:?

BTCS&T
raised (?)
returned to shareholders:  ?
Profit ratio:?

Fun stat of the day.

The network seems to be close to 3PHs right now and daily growth rate is ~3.5% (1 week avg):
http://bitcoin.sipa.be/

Thats 105 THs thats added to the network per day.
Or 1.2GHs per second

Roughly a Jalapeno every 5 seconds, or a KnC jupiter every 5 minutes.
Every hour of the day, every day of the week.

Im slightly confused looking at the network hashrate graphs. First I thought it was just statistical variance, but its been going on for too long now. The past 4-5 days hashrate has been flat or even down slightly.

http://bitcoin.sipa.be/speed-lin-10k.png

Yet at the same time, we know KnC is cranking out >100TH per day and if you look at the pool stats, they all seem up significantly. BTCguild, eligius, Slush, ghash.io, they have added several 100TH to their hashrate over the past few days.

Whats up with that? Did someone turn off a large private pool or something?

[310 799 561]

24h average just smashed through 2PH:

http://bitcoin.sipa.be/speed-lin-10k.png
https://blockchain.info/charts/hash-rate

Granted, 24h isnt enough to get an accurate estimate, but its a milestone anyway.

Next difficulty currently estimate:

Last 120   12/10/2013 18:38   263176-263296   310 799 561   x1.64
Last 10   13/10/2013 05:35   263286-263296   256 016 117   x1.35
Next   16/10/2013 16:01   264096   263 548 604   x1.39
http://dot-bit.org/tools/nextDifficulty.php

I love sipa's charts:
http://bitcoin.sipa.be/

but they go "off the chart" most of the time. Does someone know of a good alternative, one with similar resolution and log axis?

Ive been keeping an eye on bitfury's pool here:
https://ghash.io/

Its been steadily but slowly growing from 175TH to 200TH over the past few weeks, it gave the impression they were adding hashrate to maintain a constant % of the nework. Now its accelerating, and fast. 235TH atm.

Has anyone made a chart of this?