= USD$416.00 at the time of writing.  For a unit showing a payments receipt @ USD$274, that is unlikely to ROI.  Which you don't have in your hand.

O.o

O.o  Was there no backup of data or balances that they could refer back to?

As you say, leaving this down to the reports from members of their balances prior to the attack opens up a huge potential for them to be defrauded

OK  With many thanks to Thomas_S and -Redacted- for clearing up a newbie question for me, I am happy to say I am in for 3 shares and very excited!  Payment will be on the way to you in a few hours, thank you!

Will/should I still complete a reservation for 3 shares on the site?

The even bigger question is, if you receive an incoming payment, how will you know it's from a terrorist group?

Further to that, how would one go about tracking down the owner of any BitCoin address (unless the owner voluntarily posted that information somewhere)?

I know this is way off topic - but there is a good reason most servers use Xeon's and ECC ram... it's called reliability.

Sure, I understand that perhaps for what you want to do, that combination doesn't work very well, but don't diss hosting companies for using something reliable for services that need to be... well... reliable

I'm sure there's an element of that going on - but I would answer that myself anyway based on the last 12 month trend, the fact that it's already $16 or more, and scarcity of coins/effort of mining is going up.

On the basis of the above, I'd be hard pressed to see it not surpassing $20, and probably fairly soon!

Wow - this is something new to me... being a 5 day old newbie, I've been reading a LOT, but there's obviously a lot more yet I have to read!

What on earth is pyramining?  O.o

A five-day-newbie here, and I haven't yet obtained my first bitcoin.  I've a few fractions of one though!

Why I'm here is simple - this is a very unique "experiment" (and I use the word in quotes, because I can't think of the right word).  When you consider all of the various traditional payment systems we use - credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, fiat currency in general, they all fit into a paradigm we're comfortable with - even though we shouldn't be.  And we shouldn't be, because these systems are outside of our control, the rules can be changed at will, and not by us.  And the powers that be can (and have) decided to erode the value of these currencies with their continual printing of more fiat.

This is *almost* like growing up knowing the world is flat, and then having the opportunity to take part in a voyage that will prove it isn't so.

Here we have, with Bitcoin, a non-inflationary currency system, with clearly defined rules, and a decentralised control system that no "powers that be" can change for their own advantage.

The more you stop and think about it - the more incredible and brilliant the design and outcomes of the design become.

I'm not here to make a few shekels of fiat, I'm sad I didn't discover this a long time ago, but glad I have now.  Call this silly if you will, but I grabbed an ATI 6xxx card second hand today, just to set up a mining client on a box in the corner to eke out a few bitcoins just to be part of the whole thing, and perhaps one day, to be able to actually spend a few coins on something, knowing I *earned* those coins.

Yes, I know about ASIC's etc - this isn't a money making thing for me, it's a participation thing

I'm thinking a little more "outside the square" here, taking your bare essentials, and adding in "somewhat" essential items.

Mobile phone plan/cost/service.
Car servicing/repair
Gas to home (you mentioned electricity, missed gas)
Appliance repair & servicing

Don't also forget - getting the necessities in life is a good thing, of course, but people like to reward themselves too... I don't quite know what your planning in terms of this site, but other things to consider:

Wine/liquor
Restaurants/home delivered meals
Cinema or other outing

Look forward to seeing the results of your thinking!

I'd agree with what Lethn has said wholeheartedly, and throw a couple of thoughts in for good measure.

Whilst I'm very new to Bitcoin, I have done a reasonable amount of reading on economies in general, and how our current fiat currencies work (without wanting to give the impression I'm an economist or an expert - I'm far from that, but am aware of what's going on).  I will also say at the outset that I take many things back to their very fundamental roots, or core, when considering things in general.

One thing to consider in the overall picture here is that, relatively speaking, Bitcoin is a very new currency - so much so that it hasn't yet 5 years of history.  That alone is enough to cause a fair degree of uncertainty in many people's minds when asking them for a "value" for Bitcoins in any other, more "traditional" currency.

Being so new, at this time, I'd suggest that current price is more dictated on short term supply and demand - and as a result, it won't be very stable just yet.

I have read some comments from folks who seem "surprised" at the fact that BTC is around USD$16-$17 about now, and their surprise is the fact that the price is so high.

Here comes the "fundamentalist" in me.  Consider a few very important facts about Bitcoin:

• It is the first currency (I believe, certainly that I have heard of) that is designed with absolute limits with respect to how much can be created
• The use of Bitcoin grows steadily, as more and more businesses begin to accept payments in Bitcoin (this is crucial for the survival of the currency), and on a positive note, there are no indications this will stop
• The day is fast approaching where the flow of new Bitcoins available by mining will become irrelevant in the big picture (next change of block reward to 12.5BTC in 4 years IMO)
• Especially at the time that "faucet" slows to a trickle, combined with continuing economic activity in Bitcoin, you will see much higher prices for BTC when compared to other currencies

The above, in my opinion, will have some people kicking themselves for not buying Bitcoin today - in some time to come, I am sure folks will look back to Bitcoin prices today, and think "Wow, they were very affordable back then".  That's also the time when we will become much more familiar, and used to spending fractions of Bitcoins in a transaction rather than whole, or multiples, as we're used to today.

Being very new to all of this, I went with the original (Bitcoin-qt) client.

It seems to do the job, I'm not sure what else a client is supposed to do other than store coins, and offer encryption?

Forgive me sir, I am new, and literally only discovered Bitcoin a few days ago.

I heard, however, that one distributor, Avalon, have sent out their first 300 units a few days ago?  Has no-one received theirs yet?

Have a quick look here: https://localbitcoins.com/

Disclaimer: I'm very new to bitcoin in general, so this may NOT be the best solution, it just happens to be a place I came across in my research/Googling