You have to factor in equipment and space too. Electricity isn't the only cost to mining. I would think it lower, 3.5 mil, perhaps. And most big mining operation are counting on the continued success of bitcoin to justify initial costs. I think the past months troubles have made some question that.

I dislike the colors, but the model is obviously great. It feels like maybe it should be thicker, but maybe not. It has something of a sleekness to it that thin, which could be good.

The network did shrink a little for the first time. But because difficulty is often delayed (it averaged the entire last two weeks, which it not where the network currently is), the difficulty didn't go down. It might go down next time if there isn't a big rally between now and then, but I'd give 3:1 odds that there will be.



Notice it poking under 0 recently in the 3-day growth rate. Although, that might have something to do with the recent DDOS'es. In any case, I'm happy, good mining.

Heh, I can see myself. All alone in hickville.

You should be able to see that the transfer has been initiated immediately, from either the buyer or seller perspective. It will still be "unconfirmed" though. Unless you have reason to believe that the sender is a computer whiz trying to con you, that stage is good enough. The transfer will be "confirmed" within 1-3 hours. At that point, nothing in the world could undo it.

Make sure that both your client show the full block chain. The number of blocks the client shows in the bottom right of the window must be 135063 or greater. If that isn't the case you have to wait for the client to finish catch up to date. (this could take a while)

Yes, random pops like that have been happening, one time down to $2! No idea whether they are just a display issue, or whether actual trades are happening. There are other threads on the issue.

Man, even if I could figure out the code, I've got no idea how to import private keys. I should figure that out.

Google is creating an online wallet for bitcoins? Why haven't I heard about this and where can I find more information. Sounds far too good to be true.

you know what else is a reserve asset? Gold. Gold is doing really well. So bitcoin will do really good.

Note: the previous statement was silly.

PS -- Guys, it is so easy to troll you on linguistics that I feel like doing it myself. Can we try to stay on topic.

Play poker online in the US.

A prediction market, based on bitcoins, like intrade.

So SDR was a decentralized, p2p, deflationary, pseudo-anonymous currency?

NP, you are right. There are pros and cons to both sides of the argument. No one can say one is better than the other. The traditional view is that deflationary investments, like rare commodities (gold), are better to store value in, and inflationary investments, like most currencies, are better at promoting economic growth.

There has never really been a by-design deflationary current before (at least, not to my knowledge). So in a way bitcoin is a new experiment. I feel like the deflationary nature of bitcoin has helped it get off the ground. I know I wouldn't have started mining, or looked at investing, if I didn't know that my share of the pie would be permanent. The deflationary nature lets me imagine a future where it is widely used, and very valuable. If it was inflationary, then wide use would just mean wide inflation, and my wealth would still be small.

Now we have to see if the deflationary nature of bitcoin can withstand a move into wider adoption. Some argue that people are less likely to spend because it is deflationary. And so it makes a crappy currency. They might have a point, but if that case it also encourages people to try to get their hands on bitcoins, which could encourage growth and business adoption.

There is no right or wrong answers in this debate, just different pros and cons. Bitcoin is an experiment in something new, and that is why a lot of people like it. If it were "the same", then it probably wouldn't have as much appeal to a lot of people.

If mining stopped completely there would be no bitcoin. Bitcoin is the mining. But even one person on a cpu could continue to mine. And my guess is that even if bitcoin fails completely, there will be a few people that keep mining for the next few decades.

I mean, I know people who's tamagotchi is still alive.

Really? That is news to me. But I guess I'll take your work on it.

How have you gone from "they are the same thing", to "inflation is better" so quickly? The inflation vs deflation argument has been had many time. In the long run, bitcoins will be deflationary. Don't like it? Don't invest. It is an alternative option for people who do like it.

Told you. Now he is hoping someone jumps on the "you don't use language the way it is defined?" argument, because that could go on forever and he'll get a kick out of it the whole way.

When I went to sell a bitcoin, it gave me an estimate of how much I would get "after commission", and it was lower than the amount I asked. But I though commission was 0 until July 15th.

Also, I would like to be able to get my bitcoins back without paying the transaction fee, if I so choose.

Don't pick on his word usage. We know what he meant. He is just waiting to start up a different straw-man argument, don't feed him. He meant something like decimalize or decimalisation.

I think we've answered this one about every way it can be answered.