Hi Matt,

Thanks for your work on this, I'm very impressed by the simplicity of it - Bitcoin code that is easy to follow, what a novelty !

I want to do some experimentation with a slightly different blockchain implementation i.e. yet another worthless altcoin and thought that cbitcoin might be a good starting point. Is there a rough example on how to use cbitcoin to create a basic full validating node as I've looked through all the classes and can't find a 'main' function or a basic entry point anywhere ? None of the examples seem to cover this basic case, unless I've missed it.

Thanks

Andrew

Hi, is there a guide to building from source on a Mac ? I can build on Linux OK, but I really need to use a sensible IDE like xcode rather than vi. Thanks.

Hi All,

I'm trying to build Cryptonite on a Mac but it fails because clang (xcode) does not support gcc TLS which seems to have been used extensively in the source code. I notice that there is a Mac binary so somebody must have managed to build it on a Mac, is there a build guide somewhere ?

I wanted to play around with the code and try and merge some of the cryptonote anonymity features and bitcoin SVP with the mini-blockchain idea unless somebody has done this already ?

Thanks

Here's a hypothetical question but I ordered a $400 laptop last weekend when BTC was $1200 but after a week of waiting and it looking like no stock is arriving anytime soon I might ask for a refund.

Now if I get a refund will it be for the $400 onto a debit card, $400 in BTC at today's exchange rate or the original amount in BTC which is obviously worth a good deal less than it was last week ?

Thanks

For Bitcoin, forget using a GPU or Block Erupters because the difficulty is now so high that you'll get almost nothing from them.

As an example, I have 2 block erupters that I've been running for 3 months and I've made around 0.25. Now with current difficulty, I make 0.01 BTC every 3 weeks and in 4 weeks time it'll probably be half that so even if I left them running another year then I'd probably only make another 0.03 in total.

Luckily with BTC at $1,100 I've made a little profit on the one that I paid £60 for but a big loss on the one that I paid 0.9 BTC for (about the same amount at the time).

You'll need to buy something with 100's GH/s to accumulate any significant BTC, and that'll cost you $1000's. If you think BTC will continue it's exponential growth then just buy BTC directly. The only certainty is that difficulty will continue to grow exponentially so mining is pretty much a loser all round. 

For $91k, I'd be tempted to hire a hitman since the law won't be able to help you. Maybe somebody already has which is why we haven't heard from them since !

Don't forget to factor in difficulty doubling every 4 - 6 weeks - you'll probably find that you won't make back it's current BTC value. But, if you are paying for it with $ or €, it's probably still worth doing assuming that BTC continues to appreciate in value.

Just don't do what I did and bought a USB block erupter for 0.9BTC which has made me back 0.3BTC and now earns dust. I should have paid the $90 at the time and kept the 0.9 and I would have tripled my money.

If you think that BTC will continue to rise and it's easy for you to buy and sell BTC then just buy the BTC - it's less risky. If it's not so easy to buy and sell BTC then mining is an option albeit very risky.

The hard disk, if it is still readable, belongs to the council (or waste company) now. It's not like salvage where who-ever recovers it owns it.

I'm amazed that a week or two of mining produced 7,500 BTC back in 2009. I know a guy that was mining back then and, come to think of it, I haven't seen him around work for months - I bet he owns a Caribbean island now.

I'm sure I'm not the only one but I've bought a domain registration for $150 and a USB Block Erupter for $900 in today's money !! I could have had a nice new laptop had I not squandered it.

Done: 15pyfrxNEeKfBCofuzVc5qiRoAWpwqV6jA

Thanks

I still have a small balance at 50BTC that I want refunding and I'm sure that I'm not the only one. Anybody interested in a group legal action against the owners  as they must have some assets that can be seized ?

I feel sorry that they've been the victims of crime, although we only have their word for that, but they should have carried insurance to cover that eventuality.

Dear 50btc,

My balance has become corrupted and I can't withdraw it and you've now stopped crediting any mining shares so obviously I've moved elsewhere.

Please restore my balance and allow me to withdraw it. If you can't recover it, I'll happily settle for 10% of the 776 btc balance that's currently showing.

Thanks

1PfrknByvCN4g1CcQf37pd2sV3guz37Et4

Thanks

I can understand that mining is often the only practical way to obtain BTC even if it isn't cost effective.

The problem with USB Block Erupters is that they are now very underpowered compared with what the serious guys are using and so you'll make very small amounts with them and unless you were practically given them, you will never make a ROI - but don't worry the same can probably be said for any mining hardware that is bought now.

It will take you months to accumulate even 0.2 BTC which is only $25 of spending money.

Actually you've got a 50% chance of making a profit with a USB Block Erupter by solo mining from now until you die. If you're lucky and get a block then you'll get 25BTC+ which should give you a clear profit on the purchase cost plus all the electricity that you've used. If you're not you won't hence 50:50 = 50%.

So, by my simple and unflawed maths, you buy two USB block erupters (= 2 x 50%) and you're certain of a profit :-)

Is that where the DWave quantum computer was delivered that Google and NASA jointly purchased ?

Thanks, that sounds like a possibility. Is Bitcoin Wallet the app that adds an extortionate fee onto every transaction ?

5% fee is a little steep IMHO. As an alternative I was thinking of modifying P2Pool to create 10 times as many shares with a 10th of the difficulty but otherwise identical, would anybody be interested in running this ?

I run a bitcoind server but would like a client with a similar interface to bitcoin-qt on Android. Does such a thing exist ?

Thanks

Welcome to the end of bitcoin. Nobody can make a ROI mining and so existing miners will just consolidate until one has 51% and then everyone will stop using bitcoin.

It's pointless for anybody to buy new hardware now as the more is actually delivered the more it will become obsolete by rising difficulty.

No new miners means no new bitcoin owners with money to spend so shrinking bitcoin economy. It's been a fascinating experiment that looked as though it might actually work but alas the rising difficulty that protected it will actually kill it IMHO.