From reading the OP one would guess Freicoin would be a nice compromise between something that has a reasonable chance of working/succeeding and the impractical ideals expressed in the OP shared by others who hold a similar concept of 'fairness'.  However although I for one mentioned Freicoin a good while back in this thread it appears by now despite the efforts of many who understand and explain these things pretty admirably the OP is more interested in bitching about Bitcoin and coming up with the obviously-fairest-system-that-nobody-has-already-thought-of coin than in learning what's out there and how and why it works as it does.

I was just wondering the same myself and came here to see if there was any news that could explain the drop in the last few days.  Seeing as it doesn't look as if there's anything substantive I'll stick with my stock holding for the time being.

I have another couple of possibilities for the low price to throw into the mix which are to do with the increase in the purchace price of Bitcoin relative to fiat.  I shouldn't have been but I was surprised the other day when they were trading higher when I calculated what the fiat value of my holding.  Whilst relative to my Bitcoin holding the value of shares were the same as they were a few weeks back I would not have gone out to buy that many GBP's worth of shares of anything!  Maybe others in a similar position (more than likely including some of those deciding to short Bitcoin at current prices) are reducing their exposure by reducing their positions?

Then there are reasons other than the retired whale, some of which I've seen before as possible explanations for any reduction in S.DICE profit growth for instance:  

• Less directly related to the BTC/USD ratio is even though the numbers of Bitcoin users are increasing somewhat in relation to the increase in price, the amount they're getting for their fiat is less than previous newcomers so they have fewer BTC to throw around as earlier adopters.
• We may have got to the stage where more early or recent adopters are beginning to believe in the exponential growth potential of BTC and may therefore be less inclined to treat it like monopoly money and spend less?
• Maybe long-term players through repeated play and experimentation with 'sophisitcated' staking plans etc. are by their losses beginning to understand probabilities better* and may decide to play occasionally for fun rather than trying to play as 'serious' means of making money?
  

* btw if this was the primary reason for the amount played per person going down over time I'd be happy to live with the reduced return on my S.Dice investment to have contributed to a more numerate Bitcoiner population from which I believe we'd all benefit in the longer term.

And right now this means power efficiency of the various ASIC options and variations in power prices counts for very little.  But for how long?  I was referring to a time after the initial mayhem has settled.

It's a fibrous material that chokes the chain and rapidly brings it to a halt.  We have a pair that did exactly that and saved a leg hanging up at that home to remind not to get careless.  I'd recommend Stihl, Husqvarna or other reputable brand.  Also, seeing as you mentioned your feet you can also get chainsaw protective boots.  It can seem like a lot of money for occasional home use.  However, unfortunately it's those with least training often with amateur tools (that don't have the safety features of the pro-tools) who are in most need of the protective gear.  In my opinion your best investment would  be a half-day training course in chainsaw use.  However if you took that the likelihood is you'd end up wanting to spend on protection and the better tools too!

Edit: It's the protective trousers that are hanging up at home not the leg   I just read it but decided to leave it for comedic effect.

It seems that you have now recognised that your 'fair' system is not Bitcoin.  Maybe now is the time to take this thread to the Alternate cryptocurrencies sub-forum.  Then I would suggest looking through there to see what others have come up with that could be more in line with your principles.  For instance Freicoin as I understand it only gives 20% of new currency to the miners with 80% available to go to charities/worthy causes.  If nothing there is to your satisfaction then see if you can, with help from others there maybe, come up with an alt that suits you.  


If you do manage to get over the technical challenges (courtesy of the generosity of Satoshi et al at least some of the problems you are likely to encounter have been addressed and are available for your use free of charge) then it is a matter of seeing if you really do have a candidate to do better than Bitcoin.

If you prefer instead to stick to the Bitcoin forums dissing it for some of the aspects many believe are central its current and future success then don't be surprised if the responses aren't exactly positive and encouraging.

All the best with it

+.1BTC for my membership of the dooglus limb preservation society too

I believe you are mistaken on this.  You are correct when you say timing counts 'only in the very short term' but that 'only' makes a massive difference to the overall profitability of the equipment.

More importantly is this idea of 'lion's share' and 'amateurs'.  The implication is that those buying on an industrial scale will do much better than those who don't.  My point on this is per $ for anyone buying from the current ASIC offerings there is very little difference whether you're buying $1,000 or $100,000's worth of kit.  The margins and ROI is not far off the same offering virtually no economies-of-scale advantages to big spenders.  The ASIC manufacturers have very little incentive to offer big discounts for those buying bulk because each unit out of the door decreases the value of the remaining units.

Sorry to all those reading me saying this for the umpteenth time but I don't like potential 'hobbyist' ASIC miners being put off by the idea that ASICs means we'll get squeezed out by the big boys.  We may make very little money other for the few who receive early (depending ultimately on power costs) but rest assured the big spenders are in the same boat unless they have sourced cheap power.

Edit:  Just saw Puppet's post which more-or-less says the same.  No harm in repeating though

Doesn't 'rule of thumb' comes out of a sort-of common sense borne of experience?  My problem with this and many of the arguments coming out of 'typical adoption charts' or classic bubble charts etc. is that Bitcoin is too different to anything that has been before for us to be able to be able to reliably pin it to anything of that ilk.

Here's another one:  "If it sounds to good to be true it probably is".  Those who have been around Bitcoin some time have got used to a price range that 'seems' reasonable.  I don't need here to point out what its potential is.  We all know it.  But given that Bitcoin's valuation, should it fulfill anything near its potential is totally off the map by today's price and that we have no way of quantifying the various risks to its future I don't think we have anything other than 'best guesses' as to what today's value should be.

All those saying 'it's definitely overvalued' as with those saying 'no way does its price reflect anywhere near as high as its value' are simply expressing (and trading) their beliefs rather than 'what is'.  Currently I think the former, along with weak hands who just don't have the stomach for it, are the ones causing today's spikes and average price drop.  Good luck to them   I'm tending to think every time an opportunity for a big correction comes along (like today) and the bears aren't jumping on it to plummet the price the less likely it is that we will ever again see prices much lower than what we see today.

Come on bears do your worst.  I'm getting bored with seeing the 'overvalued' comments  Let's see if you can take it down to where you believe it belongs.  Even just to take it back to the the last low of 5 days ago it needs to go to $21.721 which I don't think will satisfy the 'overvalued' posse.  We need a lot lower than that for it to be considered a 'correction' by all those who believe it is not worth anything near as high as what it's being traded for.  All we need is for the new folk who want to buy in to look the other way and twiddle their thumbs for a few days to give the bears a chance to get confident.  I'm intrigued to see how low this will go but I won't hold my breath

Nobody's 'taking' anybody else's money.  At whatever level the 'last ones to convert' happens if they were buying purely in order to make money from increasing BTC value relative to fiat then they will have 'lost'.  They will have made a bad judgement call assuming the future to repeat the past.  However if they are buying Bitcoin for any other reason such as a store of value or in order to use it to buy stuff (which even if those buying today are the 'last ones' is reasonable) they will have not lost.

However the longer and wider the distribution goes on the more robust Bitcoin becomes, the less prone it is to being devalued overnight by one means or another.  The reward for 'early adopters' (whether you're talking 2010/11 folk or today's) will have come from having taken that risk.  People keep knocking hoarders.  With bitcoin being as divisible as it is it REALLY doesn't matter how many people just buy and hold nor does it matter how much they hoard.  The amount that's left, however tiny, is still plenty to be used for trading for day-to-day goods and saving.  It doesn't deprive anyone else of anything. It's all good

I would tend to agree but it's fun watching it going the other way right now   With the $27 bid wall that was there for best part of the last 24 hrs gone I think those wanting to buy are pulling back waiting and hoping it goes lower to get back in.  There seems to be enough people here believing there's a significant correction coming to let it fall for now.  How far before a significant chunk goes 'OK, it may go lower but I don't care.  I'm buying back in now?' nobody knows but when it does obviously it will halt the drop.

@ Cypherdoc.  Thanks for this link.  Prior to this article I'd not come across credible counterarguments having the potential to discredit some of the seemingly sound arguments for the role of regulation as primary cause of the 2008 credit crunch.  I'm yet to be convinced but this looks like it leads to some very interesting commentaries and analyses.  It amuses me that my first reaction is still disappointment when I come across something that may undermine some of my favourite ideas and beliefs!  However, these days it is usually closely followed by excitement at the potential to learn and understand better so thanks again.  I'll take some time researching and rethinking my position on this in due course.

Tf

If your only criterion for blame is the beneficiary then I can see how you would conclude the bankers are proportionally immensely more responsible for the problems than the politicians.  But some of these big bankers and the politicians were (are) in each others' pockets - at least if looking back at how Gordon Brown as Chancellor of the Exchequer (prior to becoming Prime Minister) in the UK behaved is anything to go by.  These politicians want power; and to do that their parties need funders.  From what I understand it's even worse in the US.  But that you seem so incredulous that policies brought in for popular political gain, followed by more to try and solve the unforeseen problems of the first, followed by more to try and solve those etc. would leave us in such a precarious position is surprising to me.  In the UK they're doing it again.  Bringing in policies to guarantee first time buyers mortgages to encourage banks to lend, thus starting the balmy process once again.

I do believe it is a myth that entirely free markets would provide the mechanism to banish boom and bust to the history books but without all the laws and protectionism both preventing newcomers from entering the market and from irresponsible establishments reaping the consequences of their ridiculous risks - all the fault of politicians - and those who vote them into power - I can not believe we would not be much better off.

GBP is also at an all time high, also at XE exchange rates before the US dollar.  I wonder if anyone's done statistical analysis on this to see whether there is some predictive  value in spotting these?

Point taken.  Apologies

Well I've got my big bar of chocolate to sit back and watch the show

At least two are (from Avalon) and it's looking like there may be some from other suppliers (or self-miners) very soon.

Was 24.11 really worth getting THAT excited about?

There's more than one reason to mine.  If BFL comes good and I get a couple of ASICs I'll be happy to make something off them if and for however long it is worth it in terms of electricity consumption but I also recently read it may be possible to have ASICs for the longer term off line, not hashing or consuming, on stand-by to be brought into play if and when there is an attack and the 'reserve army' of ASICs need to get to work to protect Bitcoin.  It's all very well most people putting their money into Bitcoin instead of mining but we are and will remain for some time vulnerable to attack and I'm quite happy to 'be a sucker' having a role in keeping your Bitcoin safe as well as my own;)