Bitcoin cannot be filled with Tungsten

[BitPay Business Solutions]

to all the goldbugs out there, beware!

Tungsten-Filled 10 Oz Gold Bar Found In The Middle Of Manhattan's Jewelry District

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/tungsten-filled-10-oz-gold-bar-found-middle-manhattans-jewelry-district

What makes so devious is a real gold bar is purchased with the serial numbers and papers, then it is hollowed out, the gold is sold, the tungsten is put in, then the bar is closed up. That is a sophisticated operation.
 
MTB, the Swiss manufacturer of the gold bars, said customers should only buy from a reputable merchant. The problem, he admits, is Ibrahim Fadl is a very reputable merchant.

 

[1714806247]

1714806247

[evoorhees]

Bad news: I just checked one of my Bitcoins. I opened it up, and inside I actually found a LiteCoin!!!  This is a serious problem. I'm worried if I check my other Bitcoins the same thing will happen :/  Should I tell Gavin?

[MrTeal]

Bad news: I just checked one of my Bitcoins. I opened it up, and inside I actually found a LiteCoin!!!  This is a serious problem. I'm worried if I check my other Bitcoins the same thing will happen :/  Should I tell Gavin?

Hey, it could be worse. You could have gotten a bunch of Microcash.

[imsaguy]

Bad news: I just checked one of my Bitcoins. I opened it up, and inside I actually found a LiteCoin!!!  This is a serious problem. I'm worried if I check my other Bitcoins the same thing will happen :/  Should I tell Gavin?

Hey, it could be worse. You could have gotten a bunch of Microcrash.

FTFY

[jojo69]

Bad news: I just checked one of my Bitcoins. I opened it up, and inside I actually found a LiteCoin!!!  This is a serious problem. I'm worried if I check my other Bitcoins the same thing will happen :/  Should I tell Gavin?

shit

they must have salted it with some folded proteins to make up the difficulty

[kokojie]

This is actually more wide spread than you think, I know lots of Chinese factories are producing
these tungsten filled "gold bars" that is flooding the market. Most of the time even the merchant would not
know, since it's difficult to know unless you destroy the bar and reveal what's inside. I think at least
20% of gold bars on the market right now, are tungsten filled.

[Hawkix]

Bad news: I just checked one of my Bitcoins. I opened it up, and inside I actually found a LiteCoin!!!  This is a serious problem. I'm worried if I check my other Bitcoins the same thing will happen :/  Should I tell Gavin?

Lucky you. I hurried to test my Bitcoins .. opened them .. and found that they are inside made of just some random ASCII letters! Damn!

[Inaba]

I found chocolate in mine... at least it wasn't a complete waste.

[evoorhees]

I found chocolate in mine... at least it wasn't a complete waste.

LOL chocolate would be better than tungsten... that's kinda funny

[Bitcoin Oz]

ITT we find out the US seized everyones gold and has now cornered the market on tungsten 

[Severian]

I think at least 20% of gold bars on the market right now, are tungsten filled.

I'm going long on tungsten tomorrow.

[phillipsjk]

I was wondering why Tungsten and not Lead (which has a higher atomic number than Gold):

Also remarkable is its high density of 19.3 times that of water, comparable to that of uranium and gold, and much higher (about 1.7 times) than that of lead.

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungsten

[jojo69]

I was wondering why Tungsten and not Lead (which has a higher atomic number than Gold):

Also remarkable is its high density of 19.3 times that of water, comparable to that of uranium and gold, and much higher (about 1.7 times) than that of lead.

-

specific gravity

[benjamindees]

The funny part is that these polished, stamped, numbered bars tend to fetch a premium over the spot price.  This makes them easy targets, since the owners would be less likely to perform any type of destructive testing on them.

[Melbustus]

Can't these bars be tested electrically? Pump enough current through, and the performance characteristics of a solid gold bar should be sufficiently different from a gold-plated tungsten bar... Or would the current have to be high enough that you'd just melt part of the bar, thereby not solving the non-destructive test problem?

Meh. Seems like there's a business selling reliable non-destructive gold-bar test equipment somewhere in here... 

[enmaku]

Can't these bars be tested electrically? Pump enough current through, and the performance characteristics of a solid gold bar should be sufficiently different from a gold-plated tungsten bar... Or would the current have to be high enough that you'd just melt part of the bar, thereby not solving the non-destructive test problem?

Meh. Seems like there's a business selling reliable non-destructive gold-bar test equipment somewhere in here... 

You'd be quite right in suggesting that the conductivity characteristics would change, tungsten has resistivity of 5.60e−8 Ω⋅m (at 20C) where gold has resistivity of 2.44e-8 Ω⋅m. You're also right in suggesting that you'd need quite some amperage to measure anything more than surface conductivity, which would be unchanged since the shell is still gold.

There are other characteristics that would probably be more useful - the speed of sound through tungsten differs from the speed of sound through gold, so an ultrasound could be used. Electrical conductivity could also be used in the form of eddy currents, introduced inductively, since they have more penetrating power than just passing current through the bar.

[Detritus]

Ultrasound would probably work. you could see the boundary layer between the gold and tungsten.

[Jan]

Can't these bars be tested electrically? Pump enough current through, and the performance characteristics of a solid gold bar should be sufficiently different from a gold-plated tungsten bar... Or would the current have to be high enough that you'd just melt part of the bar, thereby not solving the non-destructive test problem?

Meh. Seems like there's a business selling reliable non-destructive gold-bar test equipment somewhere in here... 

Use ultra sound http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FvM_4B7Pkc

[Stephen Gornick]

The funny part is that these polished, stamped, numbered bars tend to fetch a premium over the spot price.  This makes them easy targets, since the owners would be less likely to perform any type of destructive testing on them.

We have that same risk with physical bitcoins.    I hated to peel a 25 BTC coin I had purchased as it holds a premium over the 25 BTC it protected by the hologram.  But I did eventually for two reasons, one -- I wanted to be able to confirm first-hand that the code underneath was truly valid -- funded and matched the code on the outside of the coin.  The second reason is because I'ld nearly lost it several times showing it around (as a prop whenever I'm describing Bitcoin to someone in-person.)  At least now, fully spent, I'm only losing a few dollars worth of value if it gets lost.


Here's the tungsten incident from earlier this year:



Bitcoin, 100% Pure w/No Tungsten - Miners Make Sure Of It

  - http://www.bitcoinminer.com/post/19914661084

[fornit]

We have that same risk with physical bitcoins. 

there are no physical bitcoins.