*EDIT I was putting my replacement wallet in appdata/roaming/bitcoin, not in the datadir folder! USER ERROR*

Ive had a bitcoin QT wallet since April 2013, right now I cant access any coins because the wallet shows zero transactions ever, everything is zeroes. I had it backed up in several places including google drive, thumb drives, etc.

Ive tried replacing the wallet.dat file with my backup, and run -rescan and -reindex, Ive updated to .13, and still cant see my coins or any transactions. My last transaction was in July.

At this point Im getting concerned. It seems like my wallet is lost, because I cant see any transactions. But the original wallet.dat file in google drive still says modified April 2013, I can see the history of the file and it hasnt changed. If I was hacked, wouldnt there just be no wallet.dat file at all, a recently modified one, or I could see my wallet but the coins would be emptied?

Ive tried two different (win7) PCs at home with no luck, and at this point Im concerned. I feel like Im missing something, any suggestions?

My level of technical expertise is low, but at least Im able to identify/solve the problem here, which Im sure is a common problem from googling

"connected to bitcoin network, no block source available" yet I have 50+gb of blockchain in my appdata/roaming/bitcoin folder and Im connected to 9 nodes.

Im not sure how/why this happens, bitcoin qt is properly configured to see the right folders, maybe the blocks became corrupted.

Whatever the reason, the process to reindex should be automatic in this case, no? If Im connected to the network and theres no viable block source, at least prompt me to reindex.

Just stop it. People, this is madness. There nothing worth buying, and by buying a dream you allow these companies to give BTC a bad name.

If you arent paying the foundry to fabricate the wafers and putting chips on boards yourself, THERE IS NO PROFIT IN BITCOIN MINING.

Its just smoke and mirrors, please shut off that greedy lizard brain for one moment and think about how many companies sell items that are worth more than their purchase price outside of the bitcoin world just by plugging them into the wall/internet and hitting a button.

Thats right, zero. Its a great con, people want to believe in easy money, and theres a sucker born every minute. 

BUMP this if you have lost BTC/fiat trying to mine, or have a preorder which wont ever ROI if you ever even receive it. 

And this has caused me to rethink my views. Im such a believer in personal freedom, but I dont really see how the endgame for freetrade can be anything other than disaster.

There is a selfishness to Libertarianism which is unappealing to me. It isnt explicit, and it isnt necessary by default, but human nature is by default selfish.

When you extrapolate this selfishness out a thousandfold into the future, the disparity between the haves and have nots becomes cataclysmic to civil society.

The only way I can see a libertarian capitalist utopia actually working is when people at the very very top, the .001%, act in a manner which benefits society at large.

But the problem is, for every Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, there are 10 Dick Cheneys and Mitt Romneys.

Sadly, the 1% are not a benevolent group: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/27/the-rich-are-as-selfish-as-you-think.html

Im interested in buying some physical Bitcoin, either bills or coins but ideally both. I did a little searching, but Id like some new input.

What are my options currently? What is the state of the art right now and in the near future in terms of manufacturing these?

Is the climate for creating/selling them still good or have various cease and desist type letters and warnings put a damper on production/demand? (Im speaking of the USA)

I have a couple Lealana Litecoins which I really like, and I want to add Bitcoin both paper money and coins, in various denominations, please advise.

The bitcoin network needs more full nodes. If you own a computer, and arent running a full node, Id like to hear why.

Its no secret that most people who are mining are simply submitting shares to pools, and dont actually run the full Bitcoin software (this goes for alts as well).

This declining node trend decreases the security and reliability of the Bitcoin network.

More nodes means more security. Download it here:

https://bitcoin.org/en/download

I read in one of these threads that Gavin considered transaction malleability something like 11th out of the 10 most important updates and fixes that Bitcoin-qt needs. Its been known about for years but never addressed until it was exploited to great effect. Do you think the Bitcoin Foundation should pay for more full time developers, so that these known problems can be fixed ahead of time, not after someone finds out how to exploit them? Or is the Foundation better off sitting on their coins for now, or investing them in other ways like education and marketing? Im interested in hearing your answer.

In my opinion, Bitcoin is viewed as a high tech niche product/service, so to maintain appeal in this circle it needs to be perfect. People need to feel confident in the technology that its secure and safe to use: as much as the dev's notion was correct that flaws such as transaction malleability were not immediately dangerous, the fact that it eventually directly affected people with assets frozen on the exchanges and indirectly affected all BTC users by lowering its value should be sobering. Even if it will be fixed by next week, and the exchanges open and BTC goes on a rally, the damage has been done to peoples perception of Bitcoin. Its still early in this game, Bitcoin will recover in the public view but I think the software product itself needs maximum attention before the next wave of adoption so we dont have a repeat on a larger scale.   

Im not sure how many coins the Foundation has, but when you consider how big Bitcoin has become, and how much is riding on its success, even paying a princely sum for speedy development seems reasonable.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/bitcoin-is-not-yet-ready-for-the-real-world/

This is from the Dealbook section of the Times, which is like a blog of business related opinion pieces. Still, its troubling that a venerated institution such as the NYT would host such uninformed opinions as:

"Could it be that this coding genius is instead enjoying computer-manufactured riches on some remote, tax-free island, or is he a cyber-terrorist who upon Bitcoin adoption will activate a Trojan-horse virus to bring world commerce back to the Stone Age?"

Simple poll, how many TH will a miner need to strut out a year from now to mine one BTC in the month of January 2015?

For those thinking about getting into mining now, or selling some coins when BTC goes back over $1k, you might want to pay careful attention here.

Personally, I think its a great time to buy some coins. 2014 is going to be epic!

[PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THOSE NEW TO BITCOIN OR BITCOIN MINING]

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THOSE NEW TO BITCOIN OR BITCOIN MINING

Bitcoin is going to blow up in 2014, we all know that. So what better way to get involved than start mining it! Right?

Wrong, dead-on-arrival, dead as a doornail, reaper with scythe cackling over your rotting corpse wrong. If you intent to profit, that is.

If you are OK to mine at a loss, because you enjoy the technology, or because you want to do your part to secure the network, good for you.

Every single day I see a new thread, "I have XYZ amount of BTC/USD and I want to get into mining!" The unsurprising part of this is that these posts are almost always from new BitcoinTalk members who have little to no technical understanding of mining, no experience mining, no understanding of how to properly calculate the profitability of mining hardware, but plenty of enthusiasm and money for what they perceive as a cash grab or get rich quick scheme. The surprising part of this is that many of these people are actually intelligent, well educated individuals. However, the desire to earn a quick and easy buck has a blinding effect on them; their most powerful tool - the logical part of their brain - stops functioning because another, reptillian part of their brain is screaming "MONEY. LOTS AND LOTS OF MONEY."

The press certainly does their part to propagate this - every day there is a new story about people making tons of money from mining, or some new manufacturer or new hardware which is certain to bring untold riches to those who purchase it.

Stories like this:

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/12/23/morning-agenda-the-bitcoin-mines-of-iceland/?_r=0
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/01/03/the-craziest-bitcoin-business-making-money-minting-machines/
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/05/butterfly_live/

My opinion, which is informed by a fair bit of research, is that for-profit-mining for the hobbyist, enthusiast, or semi-pro is effectively over as of 2014. There is still profit to be had in the mining game, but its going to go mostly to large professional mining conglomerates, pool operators, and hardware manufacturers. This is not news per se or anything like a revelation, and its no secret among people who have been around here for a while. And although there are other threads out there which warn new users about getting into the game, apparently they arent being read and in my opinion having one more cant hurt - all Im trying to do is save people money and heartache. My comments also apply to alt-coin mining, although there is a bit of life left to be squeezed out there, the writing is on the wall with people moving 100mh/s+ rigs into datacenters. Economies of scale, tiny margins, etc. Big money is now deeply into mining, it wont ever go away, and you wont be able to compete with it, unless you also go fulltime pro and invest a very large amount of capital.

But there is another, more important point I want to make, and thats why I created this thread rather than bump an existing one.

There is HUGE profit to be made in the Bitcoin space. There is an entirely new digital economy full of goods and services that is being created as we speak, and if you were to secure just a microscopic fraction of a percentage of that revenue, you would realize your financial dream. Furthermore, you as an intelligent, well educated person with a solid work ethic are uniquely positioned to capitalize on this new space. All of your expertise and experience in whatever field it is that you specialize in is highly valuable, and if you apply this to the Bitcoin space, you have an opportunity of a lifetime to get in on the ground floor of a revolution. Yes, starting a new business or expanding an existing one into the Bitcoin space is difficult and there is risk involved of course. But just recognize that the upside of a successful business in the Bitcoin space is potentially much, much higher than that of a traditional one.






FULL DISCLOSURE: I have been into Bitcoin mining for almost 1 year and have sometimes made a profit - in the past. I have a pre-order for an ASIC due to ship this year, but I wont be surprised at all if I dont turn a profit on it. Furthermore, the money I spent on a preorder was profits from previous ventures, not fresh capital. Also, had I invested 100% of my investment money into buying Bitcoin from Day1 and never got into mining at all, I would have more total Bitcoins than I currently do. Furthermore, the money I spent on a 2014 preorder is fairly trivial to me and losing 100% of the investment would not shock me or put me in a bad financial situation. Finally, Im one of those people who is OK with mining-at-a-loss, because Im interested in the technology and helping to do my part to secure the network so that less overall hashpower is concentrated in the hands of a few companies and pools.

[part of the wallet, not the whole thing]

Well, as embarrassing as this is, apparently I cant remember the password to one of my wallets. Ive been trying for the past two days with a text editor, writing down all the combinations that I think it could be but ultimately none has worked. The most frustrating part is I feel like I do remember it because Im not going crazy, but its just not working. 100% I know parts of the password so I do believe that recovery should be technically possible with some type of brute force attack.

http://www.walletrecoveryservices.com/ claims he can do it, however when I email him he said he is super busy right now, cant take the case yet and charges 20% of the funds recovered, which in this case is 10BTC or roughly $5,000 USD. Now, Im willing to pay that, as gross as it is, because 40BTC is better than 0 BTC however because 1) he cant even take the case yet and 2) when I tried negotiating a lower rate, he stopped responding to my emails, so for now Im looking to the community for help.

I think this could potentially be very easy, as I know that the prefix and suffix to the password is "XXX" and the words in between do not contain spaces or symbols, are ONLY lowercase letters and numbers and are probably only around 15 characters long, and I have some other good guesses about what they are. Brute force could maybe do this in a matter of days.

What are my options here? Im considering some type of homebrew solution, but my technical knowledge is extremely low as Im not a programmer or coder, just a miner/technology enthusiast. I have a bunch of GPUs! Surely these can help with PW cracking. Ive read this thread obviously: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=85495.0 but it seems a bit beyond my capabilities and Im not on Linux - just win7, and I have NO experience in this field.

If a known, reputable poster here has experience and ability in these types of solutions, please contact me via PM and we can arrange something. I would be sending you part of the wallet, not the whole thing. Im perfectly happy to pay for help, but sadly I dont have as many BTC as a lot of people on here who have been in the game for years, 50BTC is a lot for me, and its very hard for me to replace that amount. Thank you

So I have a wallet installed on one machine, I encrypt it with a password, and then backup the wallet.dat to a USB stick

Now I take that USB stick to a new machine, install bitcoin-qt and drag the wallet.dat from the USB stick and replace the default wallet

NOW I change the password on this new machine. So now the same wallet has 2 passwords which can access it?

If you want to get better at poker, I can help you. Ive coached several players on the twoplustwo poker forums and staked/coached players on Seals With Clubs as well, where I play under the name "chronicdog" and have won well over 100 coins from a deposit of 7. Ive been a professional No Limit Holdem player live and online for over 5 years.

No matter your skill level from total novice to advanced player looking to plug some leaks I can help you, whether its tournament play or ring games from 9max all the way down to headsup play. I will set you on a path of becoming a winner or increasing your winrate through some time tested concepts which cover not only the technical aspects of the game of poker but also the meta-game such as game/seat selection, bankroll management, and emotional control. I can offer coaching which applies to both live and online, as Im quite familiar with both aspects of the game and can tailor what we do to the games you play. 

The time is spent analyzing your play through database analysis, "sweating" where I watch you play via Teamviewer and analyze the play in realtime, and playing each other heads up (for insignificant stakes - Im trying to teach you not take your money). You will also take a custom multiple choice test that I have designed to analyze your basic playing ability and poker knowledge. I will get a sense for where your game is at and design a course to improve your play as rapidly as possible.

My time is not cheap as anytime I am teaching you I wont be playing myself, and I am essentially teaching you how to make money/bitcoins anytime from anywhere, which is a highly valuable skill. Its $85/hour + a flat rate for database analysis which is somewhat variable depending on the stakes/games you play and number of hands youve played online. At this point Im only accepting Bitcoin payments but I may consider paypal after we establish a relationship. We can arrange payment via the hourly rate or if you want I can offer a slight discount for time purchased in 10 hour blocks which is highly recommended as I will not charge you separately for the database analysis - this is done on my own time and can take quite a while. The minimum time is two hours, and we will chat via Skype to set everything up, or if you are in the NYC metro area I also offer sit-down, face-to-face in person coaching.

Please PM me if you want more details. Thanks

Im looking to sell my Studio Electronics Omega 8, you dont see these up for sale very often. Amazing analog synth. Mint condition.

If you are a keyboard/synth guy you know what these are: http://www.studioelectronics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SE&Product_Code=OM8

Asking for 10BTC, and I can do an in person trade here in NYC or talk via skype. I know some posters on here like FreeMoney and Micon who could probably vouch for me. Im not in a rush to sell, so please no lowball offers.

Aint that some bullsh*t? I can understand profanity or drug references, but Bitcoin? Really Microsoft? REALLY???

edit: I81TC01N doesnt work either. I cant get anything going here. What the...?

Ideas people?

PM me. We can talk on the phone and I will ship 1st. I want to buy a bunch of coins but we cant start with small transactions. BTC-e spot price.

We can do it over 2 or more payments, and Im willing to talk on the phone if you want to confirm that Im not some shady character.

Im pretty well known on Seals with Clubs and the TwoPlusTwo poker forums.

Ive done a few transactions for GPUs on here, and a few bets like this one: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=207379.0

Thanks

Make me offers. Cash/BTC local sale in NYC or BTC escrow is OK. They hash at 301gh/s.

Will sell individually or all 5. If you have free or cheap power these will be great for you.

Reasonable offers, Im not hard up for cash, they are just too loud for me, and use a lot of my limited 20amp breaker for my room.

Id prefer this to ebay.  

[aluminum foil]

So the fan died on one of my MSI 7950s - not the awesome Twin FrozrII but the basic crappy one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127737&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Desktop+Graphics+Cards-_-N82E16814127737&gclid=CKqbq8H-r7gCFYyd4AodAiQANA

So I took everything apart and the fan is very stiff and it feel like I will probably break it off if I try to pull it off from the plastic casing.

So I have a few options:

1. Buy an expensive aftermarket cooler for $70: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Arctic-Cooling-Accelero-Xtreme-7970-VGA-Cooler-Support-AMD-Radeon-7970-7950-/350825593466?pt=US_Video_Card_GPU_Cooling&hash=item51aed5ba7a

2. Buy a replacement stock cooler for $30: http://www.ebay.com/itm/75mm-VGA-Video-Card-Fan-For-MSI-R7950-4Pin-0-50A-FD8015U12S-278-/121135629515?pt=US_Video_Card_GPU_Cooling&hash=item1c343f04cb

3. Make my own cooler from a 80mm case fan for $3: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-IDE-Black-80mm-Chassis-Crystal-Fan-for-Computer-PC-Host-5844-/190645117960?pt=US_Computer_Case_Fans&hash=item2c6355a408


By far my first choice is to make my own replacement, but in the past when I did this I had a couple of issues. One, the larger 120mm case fan doesnt fit flush against the heatsink, and ends up being very bulky, and I have to have the fan blow INTO the heatsink because its very inefficient trying to draw air OUT without any casing.

So Im looking at the 80mm or 60mm. Now, I think I could fit these (def 60mm) flush against the heatsink, but with a smaller fan I dont know if blowing IN will be enough cooling, so Im considering how to fabricate my own casing for it to optimize airflow. The first thing I thought of was aluminum foil, as I can mold it to the exact shape I want and it wont be affected by the heat. However, it is conductive! Is there any way around this? If Im careful and dont have it touch the main board, do you think it would be OK?

So I went to buy some cheap $65 BTC yesterday at Bitinstant, as I had done in the past. Sure Im paying a decent fee but its straight cash to BTC. I did this a bunch in the past. Now I see they have a formal ID verification process, like Im applying for a freaking home loan or something. Basically, they fully complied with the feds because it was that or fold up shop. So, you cant buy BTC anonymously through any type of company as a USA resident because they need to comply with FinCEN and AML laws.

So as far as I know, you can only get anonymous bitcoins:

1. Mining (the grinders game - "slow and low, that is the tempo, unless you gots, a jalapeno" [R.I.P Adam Yauch])
2. Person to person $ for BTC transactions (face to face or over the net)
3. Selling products or services for BTC (probably the fastest and most secure way, but you needs good margins/markup on what you sell)
4. Win them gambling (Seals With Clubs etc - this is how I got the bulk of mine)