Ouch! I just very recently withdrew a few hundred NMC to the btc-e site to play around a bit with some alt currencies. (was very much considering going with vircurex but I couldn't remember the password for the account I set up months ago)

now I worry greatly about btc-e as well. is this a well-run exchange? trustworthy? is it only a matter of time before they are hacked as well?

^this^ sounds more realistic. I am not impressed with BFL's manufacturing setup. Their estimate of 400 units per day is grossly unrealistic. I placed an order in late Jan/early Feb sometime and I would be ecstatic if I could receive product before difficulty hits 50 million. (Before purchasing I made estimates assuming 40X current at the time (was around 100-150 mil, I don't remember exactly) just to be *safe* but I'm growing less optimistic by the day)

does any one know the dimensions of the 5 GH/s miner vs the "little single" 25 GH/s miner? actually, dimensions of all the products would be nice info to have...

I'm a little dubious that it would be that easy. If it were based on the same algorithm as bitcoin, they would have a very hard time securing it. (bitcoin hashrate will completely dwarf anything previously imagined before the end of this year)

even if it's a completely closed-source project, (and it would presumably have to be, if you want to limit participation to "only big boys") all it takes is one person involved to become compromised and it's game over.

Perhaps it would be possible for these very wealthy people to use some kind of private ledger to "keep score", but unless the ledger is open and verifiable, the accounting of transactions is susceptible to fraud.


In the end, I don't think it's feasible, mainly for the reason that 99% of the "very wealthy" got to be in that position by leveraging the current debt-based system against the "lower classes".

200 by may 3 might be overly optimistic, but that bitcoin atm is sexy as hell.

My biggest problem is that I'm worried about the gov't taxing bitcoin earnings when I take profit from mining. (not that I'm against paying taxes on real earnings, just that Canada will not let me write off my expenses (electricity, hardware, maintenance, labour, rent etc...) unless I register an LLC)

I've thought about localbitcoins.com - but an ATM would be much less hassle...

First off, thank you for the interesting thought experiment. Also, it warms my heart to know that my usual, overly long-winded posts might be somewhat at home in this thread

anyhow, the strategy is interesting, but it's starting to make my head hurt. As a kind of thank-you for my newly acquired headache, I would like to posit an alternative strategy. (not feasible for some) -- My own investment began with the purchase of some mining equipment (I have very little capital to invest, so the amount of equipment I have is quite easy to manage... I expect this would be much more difficult for someone trying to invest large amounts)

I simply buy hardware. If I've made the purchase with fiat, I will sell the coins it mines until I've recovered the fiat. Once this threshold is reached, I sell half and hold half. This allows me to take some profits, and also to grow my bitcoin position. I feel that growing the position in bitcoin is important because of the potential for a great amount of profit down the road that I don't want to miss out on. Also taking profit along the way protects me in case of a catastrophic failure in bitcoin. (which is a very real possibility)

Purchasing the hardware in bitcoin however makes the whole thing quite messy, as I would have to mine until I had recovered the spent bitcoin before doing the 50-50 sell-hold strategy. With the increase in hashrate, the prices being asked (recent auction reaching 75 btc for 10 GH/s), it becomes less likely that hardware purchased in bitcoin will ever return an equivalent amount of coins. - If I could do it over, I would have bought the equivalent amount of bitcoin immediately, effectively pegging the price to the dollar.

I've read a lot of speculation about the 51% attack but a recent bit of FUD made me reconsider.

For your consideration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2u3BNiANVA   skip to around 3:40 for the juicy part.

Basically he is saying that any entity with roughly 35% of the network could reasonably expect to be able to perform a 51% attack within 7-10 days...

I thought this was nuts. no chance. so I went and checked the last 100 transactions at btc guild and boom, 6 blocks in a row (233302-233307 check it yourself)

since you can currently spend bitcoin after 6 confirmations, does that mean that creating the last 6 blocks allows you to double-spend?

what exactly is required to perform a "51%" attack?

wow, dude, can't believe I had never heard of JB before.

Thank you very much...

....how much?

.0321 btc incoming in ... 3... 2... 1.... oh wait, forgot to add transaction fee... this might take a while

:edit: how does the network figure out what a fair transaction fee is anyways? .0005 on this transaction is like 8 cents! that's like 1.6%!! I feel like I'm being robbed blind here!!! (*finds a dime in the couch*) oh, ok, I don't feel so bad now. 

56.82106592 BTC

just a guess

I must admit, I voted solely on the strength of the "Wha'choo talkin bout Willis" argument.

I'm sorry as well, Josh. If your history of posts is evidence of restraint, I am truly fearful of what you might say were you "unrestrained"...

regardless, this is your day, that does indeed look like a working device, and I don't understand what you think to gain by trying to defend your supposed success?

ftfy

what came to my knowledge after reading that guy's account was the response from BFL_StevenM:

"The 45-day default limit on PayPal refunds does not mean that we can't just click "Send Money". "

Clearly stating that they are willing, and able, to refund money above and beyond the 45 day limit set by pay-pal.

I like this thread.  ---Even though I have some suspicion that the OP is just trollin'...

BUT - for the purposes of this thread - I have suspended my automatic response that everyone on the internet lies.

Soooo, I thought I'd tell my story of failure during the first bubble. Perhaps the OP can take some solace from the tale. I'd like to title it:



"A Short History of Woe and Enlightenment"

I first heard about bitcoin around late March 2011 - shortly after the Fukushima incident. (*footnote* - I personally was 100% completely asleep until this moment. I probably still would be if I didn't have friends who were living in Japan at the time. This caused me to start looking into things and realizing that the world was not as I had imagined)

Even though I'm kind of a hardware geek, I still didn't really get into bitcoin at that time (first mistake) - It wasn't until bitcoin hit 2, then 3, then 4+ that I actually looked into mining. I already had a 5850, but as the price continued to climb, I bought more and more hardware. As the price continued to rise, I was hooked. I started telling everyone I knew about how cool bitcoin was. (second mistake)

And then the collapse, and that infamous string of unfortunate incidents and bad press. My friends all thought I was a fool. I didn't sell on the way up, I didn't sell on the way down. I told myself that this thing I had discovered was real, that it did have value. I refused to sell for anything less than 30. "Once it recovers back to 30, then I'll sell and pay off these video cards." This limit changed to 20, 15, 10... Finally I broke. I sold enough to cover my initial costs for the cards, and a little extra just for "bragging rights".

Looking back, I didn't really sell because I couldn't afford to lose the money I had spent on hardware. I sold so that I could tell my friends that I hadn't lost money on bitcoin, that I wasn't a fool. (first lesson learned)

Then the tide turned. Bitcoin didn't fall to zero, didn't fail, at least not yet. I don't remember exactly when the 7970 came out, or what the price of bitcoin was at the time, but I decided to make an investment (4 cards cost me $2600 CAD at the time, THAT part I remember) - This time it was different. This time I didn't care what my friends or anyone else thought. (second lesson learned. and all my friends thought I was completely nuts, btw)

The rest, as they say, is history. There have been many mistakes and lessons learned. The most important part is to be honest with yourself. Sure, It's difficult to admit to others when you've made a mistake, but it can be much more difficult to be impartial enough to admit to yourself that you've made a mistake. If you can achieve this, however, you will then be able to look back at your decisions, analyze, and then move boldly on to the many new mistakes you will make in the future.


p.s. I have no idea if selling at 57, buying at 90, or any of this will turn out to be a mistake, or a gloriously fortuitous decision. One can only hope to make the best decisions they can at the time, and learn from the results.

I don't know the exact details of why the RBC account was closed, here is an excerpt from their announcement:

" 1. Our Royal Bank account will be closing on April 5, 2013. Cash payments will no longer be accepted at any RBC branch after April 5, 2013. You may still make cash payments to BMO and Scotiabank. Bill payments are not affected by this close."

Bill payments are by far the easiest of all the payment types, it's exactly like paying your cable bill. and it's pretty fast, like a couple days? I've only tried it once, just to verify how it worked (I'm a miner, when I want to invest in bitcoin I give money to the computer hardware vendor, not the exchange)

I've also verified that this change had no effect on withdrawing fiat dollars from the exchange, which also takes a couple days. (at about the same time as this announcement, I had run out of bitcoins that I was willing to part with and I cashed out)

In my experience cavirtex is top-notch. When gox is lagging this little canadian exchange just keeps on chugging. Though be warned the fees are rather high.

it seemed safe to come back, but my apartment is getting a little chilly again, and the website is currently unavailable...

Please let us know when it is safe to come back. This is my preferred pool because of the extremely low stales and the negligible (until recently) downtime.

Thank you Coinlab.

*disclaimer* I am a miner, though I do speculate (poorly) with the leftovers

anyways, I lost a ton of "potential" profit by selling at 20, 40, 100, 150, etc... all the way up to 200 at which point I was tapped out (I have a small hoard of coins that I am not putting up on the exchange, just in case)

I can't call the tops, or the bottoms, and I've quit trying.

I just sell enough to pay the rent, and if I have extra, I'll just hold on. When the price goes ballistic I might sell a little more and consider buying more mining equipment, but asics are kinda ruining it for me. (I don't like that I can't just go to the store and pick up some hardware, maybe someday)

lately I've tried to just keep half and sell half, but during the run up I couldn't hold back and sold nearly 3/4 of all my coins...

I cashed out and bought silver, and I kind of regret it, because I had no money left in the account to buy back in when it dropped, but I don't worry too much 'cuz I'm still hoarding some, and I still can make a few per week...

but still, moving forward I think I will try to keep at least some kind of minimum amount of both BTC and fiat in my account so I can take advantage of moves that go way beyond my expectations.

Same, except now they stopped working altogether... It's getting really cold in here

virtex (*canadian exchange*) seems relatively immune to this lag you speak of...

that being said, the orderbook is ridiculously small and the price swings wildly there at times...

hey Adam, I think you need to stop and think about what you are typing.