tester??

[caseydean81]

hey i am new to the bitcoin but do understand the basic workings. I have a question, How can I become a tester for new mining hardware and give reviews. I do not have the money to spend $20,000 on mining hardware I currently have 1 ASIC usb miner do plan on getting more but i am a new stay at home father and that's has it challenges and money i very slim. if any one can give me pointers or on who to contact please do any info will help. thanks. 

[BoozeHoundPoker]

For what it is worth, just to kind of throw a thought out there -

ASICs generate crypto coins.  Crypto coins have value.  If I were an ASIC developer, I would not be interested in having random people test them.  I could simply test run the rigs in a lab, or basement or wherever, and collect coins.

I suppose maybe along the lines of why Ben Bernanke doesn't have beta testers for his US dollar printing press 

There are sites out there that allow you to earn bitcoins for free - I think that may be more productive than the 1 ASIC miner.

Hope that this may help 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

hey i am new to the bitcoin but do understand the basic workings. I have a question, How can I become a tester for new mining hardware and give reviews. I do not have the money to spend $20,000 on mining hardware I currently have 1 ASIC usb miner do plan on getting more but i am a new stay at home father and that's has it challenges and money i very slim. if any one can give me pointers or on who to contact please do any info will help. thanks. 

You should never invest more money than you have to lose.  If you are a stay at home father and money is very slim, then bitcoin mining may not be for you.

[caseydean81]

For what it is worth, just to kind of throw a thought out there -

ASICs generate crypto coins.  Crypto coins have value.  If I were an ASIC developer, I would not be interested in having random people test them.  I could simply test run the rigs in a lab, or basement or wherever, and collect coins.

I suppose maybe along the lines of why Ben Bernanke doesn't have beta testers for his US dollar printing press 

There are sites out there that allow you to earn bitcoins for free - I think that may be more productive than the 1 ASIC miner.

Hope that this may help 

true never thought about that guess that is out of the question  well i will look into those sites thanks

[HenryRomp]

I would advise you to throw your entire life savings and every penny you can spare into a cold wallet and try not to touch it.

No, really.

Everybody likes to say

You should never invest more money than you have to lose.

I, for one, feel that now that Bitcoin is here, the longer you wait before you invest, the more you will lose when all the fiat currencies in the world crumble and are replaced, entirely, by Bitcoin.

You should never put more in the bank than you can afford to lose.

You should never hold more in fiat currency than you can afford to lose.

Your money's not safe unless it's in Bitcoin or gold. And even gold may lose, when people begin to see that Bitcoin is a better store of value than gold ever could be.

[J603]

I would advise you to throw your entire life savings and every penny you can spare into a cold wallet and try not to touch it.

No, really.

Everybody likes to say

You should never invest more money than you have to lose.

I, for one, feel that now that Bitcoin is here, the longer you wait before you invest, the more you will lose when all the fiat currencies in the world crumble and are replaced, entirely, by Bitcoin.

You should never put more in the bank than you can afford to lose.

You should never hold more in fiat currency than you can afford to lose.

Your money's not safe unless it's in Bitcoin or gold. And even gold may lose, when people begin to see that Bitcoin is a better store of value than gold ever could be.

I'm sorry but I see posts like this all the time, and I have to ask why exactly Bitcoins are so invincible. The fact that there is a maximum number that will ever exist shows that one day all of the bitcoins will be destroyed, unless more are added, in which case they are the exact same thing as fiat but more complicated to use.

But say that bitcoins can't be destroyed, and are never lost. Less than a third of the world has Internet access. How exactly can bitcoins replace fiat currencies? Is everyone going to one day be rich enough to own a computer? No. That will never happen. Internet access may become more prevalent, but there will never be a day when everyone, or even the majority of people, have the Internet.

Fiat currencies have the advantage of being accessible to everyone. Bitcoins do not, and they never will. They will always be a niche currency. Investing money in bitcoins may be smart- I've definitely invested in them. But they are an investment, nothing more. I wouldn't bet all of my money on them.

Finally, how exactly are fiat currencies "crumbling"? They aren't going away. The USD, or Euro, or Pound, or Yuan or whatever will never reach a value of 0- whereas bitcoins could. Bitcoins are not nearly as stable as other currencies, and it's entirely possible for them to plummet and never recover.

[polrpaul]

hey i am new to the bitcoin but do understand the basic workings. I have a question, How can I become a tester for new mining hardware and give reviews. I do not have the money to spend $20,000 on mining hardware I currently have 1 ASIC usb miner do plan on getting more but i am a new stay at home father and that's has it challenges and money i very slim. if any one can give me pointers or on who to contact please do any info will help. thanks. 

Become a well known member of the community, whom hardware manufacturers might trust to provide a good review. An example would be a Journalist or a Blogger, apparently. Get to work!

[greyhawk]

I, for one, feel that now that Bitcoin is here, the longer you wait before you invest, the more you will lose when all the fiat currencies in the world crumble and are replaced, entirely, by Bitcoin.

You're a pretty funny guy. Do you do standup routines?

[BoozeHoundPoker]

But - "what if"? 

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

I, for one, feel that now that Bitcoin is here, the longer you wait before you invest, the more you will lose when all the fiat currencies in the world crumble and are replaced, entirely, by Bitcoin.

You're a pretty funny guy. Do you do standup routines?

greyhawk, you seem to be following me around on the forum lately, and I think I like you!

[greyhawk]

No touching, please.

[HenryRomp]

I would advise you to throw your entire life savings and every penny you can spare into a cold wallet and try not to touch it.

No, really.

Everybody likes to say

You should never invest more money than you have to lose.

I, for one, feel that now that Bitcoin is here, the longer you wait before you invest, the more you will lose when all the fiat currencies in the world crumble and are replaced, entirely, by Bitcoin.

You should never put more in the bank than you can afford to lose.

You should never hold more in fiat currency than you can afford to lose.

Your money's not safe unless it's in Bitcoin or gold. And even gold may lose, when people begin to see that Bitcoin is a better store of value than gold ever could be.

I'm sorry but I see posts like this all the time, and I have to ask why exactly Bitcoins are so invincible. The fact that there is a maximum number that will ever exist shows that one day all of the bitcoins will be destroyed, unless more are added, in which case they are the exact same thing as fiat but more complicated to use.

But if no more coins are generated, what happens when Bitcoins are lost? Won't that be a problem?

Because of the law of supply and demand, when fewer bitcoins are available the ones that are left will be in higher demand, and therefore will have a higher value. So, as Bitcoins are lost, the remaining bitcoins will eventually increase in value to compensate. As the value of a bitcoin increases, the number of bitcoins required to purchase an item decreases. This is a deflationary economic model. As the average transaction size reduces, transactions will probably be denominated in sub-units of a bitcoin such as millibitcoins ("Millies") or microbitcoins ("Mikes").

The Bitcoin protocol uses a base unit of one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin ("a Satoshi"), but unused bits are available in the protocol fields that could be used to denote even smaller subdivisions.

But say that bitcoins can't be destroyed, and are never lost. Less than a third of the world has Internet access. How exactly can bitcoins replace fiat currencies? Is everyone going to one day be rich enough to own a computer? No. That will never happen. Internet access may become more prevalent, but there will never be a day when everyone, or even the majority of people, have the Internet.

I think one day everybody will have a cell phone. http://qz.com/57504/31-of-kenyas-gdp-is-spent-through-mobile-phones/ This article isn't the best on the subject but it has some nice statistics.

Fiat currencies have the advantage of being accessible to everyone. Bitcoins do not, and they never will. They will always be a niche currency. Investing money in bitcoins may be smart- I've definitely invested in them. But they are an investment, nothing more. I wouldn't bet all of my money on them.

Investing money in bitcoins?  Bitcoins are money. Fiat is monopoly money. It will inflate naturally as more and more of it is printed off, and it will inflate with alarming rapidity as more and more people realize that they've been fooled. Even gold will lose it's value as people storing their value in gold will have so few advantages and so many disadvantages compared to people storing their value in bitcoin. It will naturally become the universal measure of value and we will someday look back upon the days of fiat with incredulity. Gold will naturally hold some of it's value but it has been replaced already, as it is no longer the overall best store of value on the market.

I look at it this way--Fiat currency is so fundamentally flawed that holding your wealth in any fiat currency is a dangerous and risky "investment." Bitcoin is so fundamentally suited to being used as currency that it will undoubtedly become the universal standard for exchange. Therefore, switching from holding your wealth in fiat to holding your wealth in bitcoin is a near sure bet.

Finally, how exactly are fiat currencies "crumbling"? They aren't going away. The USD, or Euro, or Pound, or Yuan or whatever will never reach a value of 0- whereas bitcoins could. Bitcoins are not nearly as stable as other currencies, and it's entirely possible for them to plummet and never recover.

Well, no fiat currency has ever been successful in history, I see no reason to expect the USD, Euro, Pound, or Yuan to do any better. In fact I think it's a near certainty that all of the above will reach a value of 0 in our lifetimes. Read http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2011/08/average-life-expectancy-for-fiat.html and http://dailyreckoning.com/fiat-currency/ and maybe try the wikipedia entry for "fiat currency" and the dictionary entry for "fiat." 
While bitcoin could plummet and never recover, I think it's far more probable that it will not, and I have a hard time coming up with any scenario in which bitcoin would reach a value of 0. Anything is possible, of course, and if the internet were entirely eliminated, bitcoin would likely eventually reach a value of 0.

So basically, I disagree with all of your statements.  I think you are invested for all the wrong reasons, looking at it like a stock to buy and sell, and fail to see the enormous globe-changing potential ramifications of this elegant idea we call bitcoin.

[J603]

I think one day everybody will have a cell phone. http://qz.com/57504/31-of-kenyas-gdp-is-spent-through-mobile-phones/ This article isn't the best on the subject but it has some nice statistics.

Well I think that there will never be a day when everyone has a phone. If everyone could afford a phone, then everyone can afford food and a house. And if everyone is living in some utopia where there's no starvation or homelessness then why would we need a currency in the first place? Like I said, 70% of the world does not have Internet access. Kenya has only 28.08 million cell phones (CIA World Factbook) in a country of 44 million. That's only 63% of the population if each person has only one phone which is rare in Africa where phone services drop all the time.

Investing money in bitcoins?  Bitcoins are money. Fiat is monopoly money. It will inflate naturally as more and more of it is printed off, and it will inflate with alarming rapidity as more and more people realize that they've been fooled. Even gold will lose it's value as people storing their value in gold will have so few advantages and so many disadvantages compared to people storing their value in bitcoin. It will naturally become the universal measure of value and we will someday look back upon the days of fiat with incredulity. Gold will naturally hold some of it's value but it has been replaced already, as it is no longer the overall best store of value on the market.

What did you purchase your first bitcoins with? More bitcoins?

Currently, bitcoins are not viable money. There isn't much you can buy with them. I can't buy gas or groceries with them, and those are necessary purchases. You can't argue with that. The biggest bitcoin market seems to be the silk road, which is far from and will never be mainstream.

I look at it this way--Fiat currency is so fundamentally flawed that holding your wealth in any fiat currency is a dangerous and risky "investment." Bitcoin is so fundamentally suited to being used as currency that it will undoubtedly become the universal standard for exchange. Therefore, switching from holding your wealth in fiat to holding your wealth in bitcoin is a near sure bet.

Explain to me why bitcoin is foolproof- you haven't so far. Explain why fiat money can collapse but bitcoins cannot. Bitcoins can be destroyed, much like fiat, however they are never reprinted. And like I said before, I don't have a choice but to invest in fiat. I don't want to starve.

Well, no fiat currency has ever been successful in history, I see no reason to expect the USD, Euro, Pound, or Yuan to do any better. In fact I think it's a near certainty that all of the above will reach a value of 0 in our lifetimes. Read http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2011/08/average-life-expectancy-for-fiat.html and http://dailyreckoning.com/fiat-currency/ and maybe try the wikipedia entry for "fiat currency" and the dictionary entry for "fiat." 
While bitcoin could plummet and never recover, I think it's far more probable that it will not, and I have a hard time coming up with any scenario in which bitcoin would reach a value of 0. Anything is possible, of course, and if the internet were entirely eliminated, bitcoin would likely eventually reach a value of 0.

No fiat has been successful? The Euro is the most valuable currency in the world (not per note, but overall) and it was introduced in 1996. Bitcoins have existed for only 4 years, but they have not surpassed a single fiat currency in value. If the euro fails (which I don't think it will as it is more popular than any other currency that has ever existed), it will be replaced by another fiat. If bitcoins fail, they will be done.

So basically, I disagree with all of your statements.  I think you are invested for all the wrong reasons, looking at it like a stock to buy and sell, and fail to see the enormous globe-changing potential ramifications of this elegant idea we call bitcoin.

What "globe-changing" ramifications are there? And why are fiat currencies destined to fail, when they have existed for thousands of years versus bitcoin's four?

Because of the law of supply and demand, when fewer bitcoins are available the ones that are left will be in higher demand, and therefore will have a higher value. So, as Bitcoins are lost, the remaining bitcoins will eventually increase in value to compensate. As the value of a bitcoin increases, the number of bitcoins required to purchase an item decreases. This is a deflationary economic model. As the average transaction size reduces, transactions will probably be denominated in sub-units of a bitcoin such as millibitcoins ("Millies") or microbitcoins ("Mikes").

The Bitcoin protocol uses a base unit of one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin ("a Satoshi"), but unused bits are available in the protocol fields that could be used to denote even smaller subdivisions.

You tell me not to treat it like a stock, yet you do the same. "when fewer bitcoins are available.. therefore higher value". This implies that not everyone has one- that fiat is not dead (unless the people without bitcoins have no form of currency) and that people are still purchasing bitcoins with fiat, as if they were stock. What value would bitcoins have at this point? 1 BTC may be worth 1 billion dollars some day, but then it's worth 1 billion dollars. Without anything to buy with that bitcoin, it's only value comes from its exchange rate with fiat.

[macmn]

You are probably better off trying to buy some form of FPGA to mine, they are cheaper than asics and can be had right now

[HenryRomp]

I was about to reply to J603 when I realized that my conversation was getting a bit off topic. To the OP, I would say if you would like to understand more about why I suggest investing everything you've got in bitcoin, read this new thread I am posting as a reply to J603 here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=261504.0

[justin7674]

You have to know people. To know people you must be well known around the community. I am not well known but yet I know a few people. Not enough to do what you wish to.