Thanks for sharing that and taking the time to write it. I just had one read through and I honestly have to let things sink in and give it a few goes as I hadn't given this topic much thought.
I had though, come to a similar, albeit quick, conclusion (Money flowing into other Cryptos partly from BTC's price and partly from "useless" older miners). This is an incredibly interesting topic to discuss. I'll be back!

Critiques - I think you should go further into the start of Part 2, when you said "NO" on ASIC's for Quark, or not anytime soon. You threw out a $1000-$3000 dollar number to justify the No.
I don't get that as ASIC's though expensive to design and get going are actually quite cheap once in production. But Quark is mostly already mined, right? So, perhaps go deeper here, go into those mentioned numbers, etc. and connect the dots.

IAS

Hey Otoh,

Thanks for that last post, BTC's sun is going through Capricorn, both of which are very significant in BTC's chart. The Sun reasons I noted above. And Capricorn is symbolic of Saturn. BTC's Saturn in Virgo is in an extremely hard aspect to Uranus in Pisces (opposition). This is the central "theme" in a way of BTC's chart. This "fighting" with the establishment is strong for us.

And, as BTC's sun enters Capricorn (started on Dec 22) we might see the above revived. It is hard to say how it pans out, but of interesting, it is fascinating that at that/this time, the situation in China looks to slowly being resolved (ways to get fiat into BTC). And also, BTC and the cryptos just started a move up again.

At the start of this (Dec 22nd) we can see that Venus in the Sky touched BTC's Jupiter in the 6th house in Capricorn. Very nice way to start this journey. I'd say a very good omen. And Venus sits once again there retrograde. Hmmmm.....

And, lastly, Pluto in the sky is starting it's approach to BTC's sun. This was certainly interesting the last time it happened - I believe the huge run up and pop at 266.

Hmmmm.....

 

I remember being a kid and getting some US Bonds and not knowing what the heck they were, but being told "In ten years it will be 50 bucks." and thinking "cool." Perhaps that is often enough...

Do people really need to understand something when they are gifted it? I think most times not. It certainly is interesting to watch this unfold.

IAS

It is certainly interesting to watch this unfold. And now we are trying to understand if Quarks very early mine is indeed a good thing. I can see arguments both for and against. Time will tell.
Just the aspect of profiting and selling allows for distribution, regardless of when mined. The larger question I have is support of the network, where as BTC's model seems exemplary.
I'm a holder of quark, primarily because of the uniqueness of the algorithms used and also, tbh, to diversify.

I get the strong feeling that this next year (2014 is almost upon us) is going to be incredible with Cryptocurrencies. Just as BTC went from pennies, to dollars, to hundreds, etc. I think we will see a rollover into the alt coins. But beyond that we will see developments that are organic and a bit out of our time horizon. Enjoy guys.

IAS

I'm talking about which companies. It is clear the Fabs are in China.
It just seems strange that the large companies are not shipping right now (that I have heard) and the difficulty is still rising.

So, which companies are and have been shipping lately?

I don't get something though, where are the recent shipments coming from?
Strange...

It is interesting that the US, in an regulatory way  , is leading the BTC charge! Do we cheer or cry?
I think it will play itself out and make adjustments (e.g. China, India, etc.) as necessary.

Argentina, etc. where are you?

IAS

You have to consider many factors. As I stated above it was the most well received gifts I have given. But they knew what it was. If they hadn't and I gave a Christmas day presentation, that wouldn't have been nice or well received. And somehow I think you know that. Don't simplify, group,etc.

I teach English.

Thx for the reply.

So next time it would be a good idea to send the coins from an exchange, at least that makes it simple.
Though not a big deal to me. Not a big holder!

I gave paper wallets I made to my employers and students. By far got the best reception of any gifts ever given! But we had talked about it before, so it was a piece to the puzzle so to speak.

Question/concern - can they see my wallet history now by using blockexplorer? I played with it and I know BTC very well but couldn't make a whole lot of sense from it except to confuse me LOL! Is the only way to protect my BTC financial history by using a coin mixing service and/or another wallet.

IAS

From first post, wow, didn't realize they were so far behind:

 - Shipments begin: October 20th-30th, in order of purchase
 

And the difficulty is still skyrocketing, and yet all these failures.
Not poking, I was an Avalon victim and a current BFL one.

Just started back up with Bitminter 2 weeks ago and pretty happy.

Is there a graph or the like to see the different pools, their hash rates and payouts? (So as to keep all things open and honest and point out problems, as Slush recently has been off by being proportionately lower in payouts for their hashrate.)

It is a bit simplistic to say that for every BTC bought there is one sold. You can say that is what took us from $1 to $1200. But that would be incomplete.
The greater question and I'm not sure if Fiatleak considers this, is "Were the BTC bought at ask or sold at the bid?"
Obviously, the rally the last few days consisted mostly of the bullish former.

Anyway, let's hope the Chinese figure it out. 

Perhaps that is true but then we have a bigger issue, or rather the Chinese government does - It doesn't look like people are selling their BTC's anymore. They aren't moving that money off of the exchanges, rather they are moving more money back into BTC.

When and if fiat dries up on the exchanges, the demand is there, and the people will find other ways to buy BTC is my bet. Remember, the government hasn't made it illegal. And we don't even yet know
their intentions. Will banks be doing the deposits back into the exchanges as the announcement implied and no longer 3rd party's? Will we see bitcoin.de escrow like sites set up? Will we see squares set up where people are buying them from one another? It looks like the government is just trying to slow things down and not stop BTC.

BTC's price before China got involved was $150-$200 or so. Considering we are around $700 now, the next few weeks will be very telling. Demand is going up, news stories abound - we don't "need" the Chinese but of course they would help in a huge way and in many ways as I alluded to above.

IAS

I don't get this, if there is a suspension on bringing money into Chinese Bitcoin exchanges, how is China up there with Gox regarding Volume? http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/
And, China is #1 with BTC purchases, just watch Fiatleak. I've had it going for a while and right now it is showing 37,500 BTC buys in CNY and 8600 in USD. http://fiatleak.com/
And of note, when the news was first made a couple of days ago, fiatleak showed 1 BTC bought. Then yesterday it just started going crazy again.

Ideas?


IAS

This is a bit interesting. I still imagine we need lots of miners to secure the network. This is the strength when it comes time that we are attacked, and I imagine that is inevitable.
Though we can look at electricity as being "wasted" I think that isn't the case. We are keeping a hopefully large and attack proof network up. If we don't have more miners every
month (up to a reasonable future point), then we have problems. Look at BTC's network strength. That is partly why we see services being built ON TOP of it's blockchain. It
is a secure space. Even if Quark only ever is "just" a currency, having a strong network is VERY important and a must.

Thanks again for your answers,
IAS

I'm all for Quark becoming a more known and solid Crypto, but I watched this Keiser report and to say Bill was giving great answers, when he said "I'm no expert here" like 3 times, is a bit overboard.
He is on the show, he SHOULD be an expert HERE. See what I am getting at?

We need some difficult questions answered honestly (like I asked the page before) and that will help us more than cheerleading from people (albeit with a big mouth and big following) over the long term.

I'm not so concerned with the short term though it is nice to have more eyes, of course. We have some serious hope though as the Crypto space is really growing and I hope people (miners) and more nodes (e.g. me and hopefully you guys too) come in and support thisCrypto. Price is just one measure of success.

IAS

4X + as many coins going into China compared to USA right now. http://fiatleak.com/
Absolutely amazing to watch this for a while. Looks like money is once again flowing into China BIG.

Thanks for the replies guys - all of them.
Even though Quark is a combination of algorithms, can't we still compare some available figures, like number of nodes, miners, Gh/s, etc?
There must be a way of fairly comparing these coins, at least within reason. Promethium listed Gh/S in that chart and I wonder if that if a fair measure?
Quark doesn't look bad there, but of course needs a stronger network, or rather more people involved in the network.

Very important question that I originally asked. I imagine Quark can't yet have the network presence that its market cap suggests, just due to how long it's been around - but prove me wrong, please.

Thanks again,
IAS

Where can we find out how the network hash rate of Quark coins stacks up against other cryptos?
I see the market cap is at a nice level but to be fair there are a lot of quarks out there, and so I wonder how well the network is being supported and not just coins being held.

Appreciated, holding long btw just a concerned holder,
IAS