So, what does a bitcoin WEIGH?

[Taras]

How can something as abstract as a bitcoin have any weight? It's just a number next to your name, isn't it? Well, think about your hard drive, on which your qt client sits. Imagine you have 100 GB of porn on it (you sick bastard). Well, as a pure file, your hundred dirty gigs take up physical space on your hard drive. Ultimately we can break down 100 gigabytes into a lot of bits. A bit is either a 0 or a 1; and your hard drive keeps track of them all. This eventually comes to create your files, in this case your exotic porn which is probably illegal somewhere on earth. The difference between the 0s and 1s is that the 1s have added weight, rather than just the empty 0s. For a 0 to be a 1, it has to receive an electrical charge. The electrons that compose this charge are (as cited by several sources) about forty thousand strong. Our scientist friends who have a lot of time and money to waste have calculated the weight of an electron to be 2.074108*10^-29 oz. This is, unsurprisingly, extremely small, but relevant. We know there's forty thousand electrons in a 1 that otherwise wouldn't be there, so we can conclude that a 1 weighs 8.296432*10^-25 oz. So, great, that's a 1. But how many bits are in your hundred gigs of questionably-legal-porn? Well, a gigabyte is basically 1,073,741,824 bytes. A byte is also divisible in that is is the manifestation of 8 bits. So, we can multiply the number of bits in a byte with the number of bytes in a gigabyte and... That's 8,589,934,592 bits in a gigabyte. But it's not just ONE gigabyte... No, you're too sick and tasteless for just ONE. You have one HUNDRED gigabytes of porn, which means you have 8,589,934,592,000 bits manifesting porn. So we know that a 1 weighs 8.296432*10^-25 oz but remember that bits compose of not just 1s but 0s as well. Typically this is pretty much half and half, and on this scale it's okay to just assume 50% 0s and 50% 1s, so if half of your porno-bits are 1s then that's 4,294,967,296,000 1s. The 0s we can just ignore, as without the 1s it'd be empty disk space. Now let's see how much these 1s weigh! A single 1 weighs 8.296432*10^-25 oz, so by multiplying that by the number of 1s in your whackass porn, 4,294,967,296,000, we'll get the weight in ounces of your 100 gigabytes! After punching that into my stock windows calculator, we find your dirty filez weigh 3.563290*10^-12 oz! This is basically 3 million millionths of an ounce. So fricking small nobody should even care. Not even me. But we do care, because now we want to know what our magic internet money weighs in at!

First we have to define what a bitcoin 'is.' Sure, your private key is what lets you SPEND your bitcoins but the number of BTC available for spending on any given private key is not always exactly 1. If a bitcoin isn't an address, it is what it looks like. What goes INTO the address. Below is a transaction I pulled randomly from a recent block.



Now, this is a full transaction. Not only is it a bitcoin, it's the transporter OF a bitcoin. That which makes the bitcoin move from point A to point B is spending previous outputs and creating new ones. The output of the transaction is the coin, without question or doubt. Let's have a look at the transaction in a more sophisticated manner (get your wine glass!)

Code:

{
  "hash":"658b286847d57f01997dfe5fe557dadea3d17df74f3adff93487afba98e81a15",
  "ver":1,
  "vin_sz":2,
  "vout_sz":1,
  "lock_time":0,
  "size":340,
  "in":[
    {
      "prev_out":{
        "hash":"8302fb1695cf8077d30e6a0c51dde3ba09c6850fb1ca6c9fa1cdc73788fa1307",
        "n":1
      },
      "scriptSig":"3045022100e3a8a88d9354c894b69865cf872b699e3ce5a167c5610f7531e0e1bbcd56370002207810698af68911296b65c96aa619f5f0d82a413081bc45ef4567972f6535c59401 026e1c90bc590d4384c34821a34e7fad44d4e562b4fd106621f5f8d57b331107ba"
    },
    {
      "prev_out":{
        "hash":"2d3db3dc61639e06b5d39a1a2298fdd346ca9b7692b66ce934ac344b7226b4cf",
        "n":1
      },
      "scriptSig":"30450221009ea9d8c150d9ec1b7e1dc248d47cae148cf481cdfc43c1209dfb5311639296ad022019233456cf51fca1a0267f409ee85f33162b5397198cbd9169cb84484953ecb101 0317e76906da1b7994598c18a373e1e66ee084d060a5608fc50989d664d768ff46"
    }
  ],
  "out":[
    {
      "value":"1.00000000",
      "scriptPubKey":"OP_DUP OP_HASH160 03df0ccc7df89082fba7ea25313398b851b058bc OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG"
    }
  ]
}

Sure, this is the entire transaction. It's a file, 340 bytes. But we want the output. Conveniently, it is as codey and sophisticated as the transaction itself. It's right there, at the bottom of the transaction. That section labeled “out.” In txt format, the transaction as a whole appears to be 1,096 bytes. The output solely returned as 147 bytes. When expressed as a ratio to its 340 byte form on the blockchain, we will blatantly assume 46 bytes. That would be 368 bits to make our bitcoin. We know from earlier to assume that half of the bits are 1s. This is a bit riskier on such a tiny scale; but since I'm too lazy to measure it myself it's what we're going to do. 184 1s in this output. We know from earlier the weight of a 1 is typically 8.296432*10^-25 oz, so we can derive that the output “weighs” 1.526543^-22 oz on your computer. But that's your computer. How many other computers do these bits have to be represented on in order for there to be consensus that the bitcoin represented by them is there? Every node on the network has 1.526543^-22 oz dedicated to your bitcoin. This is a bit funky; Bitcoin is affected by gravity, but its effect is on every computer in the network. And as more computers join the network, the combined effect this coin has on the weight of the computers will grow. Someday there will be millions of nodes and they'll all remember your coin and in doing so they will weigh a little more because of it. Although the “weight” of a bitcoin is as incalculable as any physical aspect of it, we know it will have a lasting (although pathetic) effect for millenia after you yourself won't. RIP, you.

TL;DR: The weight of a bitcoin is fricking crazy. It doesn't make any sense and it doesn't have to. It's a fucking bitcoin and that's that, but it was cool to think about.

I wouldn't advise you to take this study for granted at some points, but I thought it would be a fun concept to ponder. Comments?

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[QuestionAuthority]

Fascinating - all I can say about this is to sing you a song. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5XcKBmdfpWs&feature=kp

[Rannasha]

The mass (weight) of Bitcoin is much lower than what you estimate if it's stored on a regular hard disk. It also depends on the type of disk used. A hard disk stores data by altering the magnetic alignment of particles on the platters (the disks inside the device that are spun around). No particles are added, removed or relocated during this process, so the mass of a certain amount of data can't be computed from adding up the masses of some particles (electrons in your example).

However, since changing the magnetic alignment of the particles on the platters changes the energy level of the hard disk, it is possible to assign a mass value to a state that has more alignment (which corresponds to a higher energy state) through Einsteins mass-energy-equivalency relation. From this you get a very rough estimate, which is orders of magnitude lower than yours. See also: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/31326/is-a-hard-drive-heavier-when-it-is-full (which fortunately doesn't use funny units for its calculations).

[Taras]

Fascinating - all I can say about this is to sing you a song. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5XcKBmdfpWs&feature=kp

The mass (weight) of Bitcoin is much lower than what you estimate if it's stored on a regular hard disk. It also depends on the type of disk used. A hard disk stores data by altering the magnetic alignment of particles on the platters (the disks inside the device that are spun around). No particles are added, removed or relocated during this process, so the mass of a certain amount of data can't be computed from adding up the masses of some particles (electrons in your example).

However, since changing the magnetic alignment of the particles on the platters changes the energy level of the hard disk, it is possible to assign a mass value to a state that has more alignment (which corresponds to a higher energy state) through Einsteins mass-energy-equivalency relation. From this you get a very rough estimate, which is orders of magnitude lower than yours. See also: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/31326/is-a-hard-drive-heavier-when-it-is-full (which fortunately doesn't use funny units for its calculations).

I like where this is going. There's no way I'm ever going to think about this again (I've wasted too much time on it) but I will at least let myself read this article

[railzand]

Another excellent contribution to the corpus. You win two internets, a gold star from theymos and a lollipop.

Your next mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make p2pool idiotproof, or something similarly trivial.

[pungopete468]

I could be wrong but this is my take...

The electrons are always present in a conductor even when no current is flowing, the electrical current only moves electrons from one place to another in a chain; they aren't added in a sense comparable to the number of electrons increasing. Hard drives store data by magnetic polarization... The number of electrons would remain unchanged but the orientation of the magnetic surface coating will be affected...

The data is magnetic more than electric...

[Taras]

Another excellent contribution to the corpus. You win two internets, a gold star from theymos and a lollipop.

Your next mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make p2pool idiotproof, or something similarly trivial.

I'll see what I can do

[Taras]

I could be wrong but this is my take...

The electrons are always present in a conductor even when no current is flowing, the electrical current only moves electrons from one place to another in a chain; they aren't added in a sense comparable to the number of electrons increasing. Hard drives store data by magnetic polarization... The number of electrons would remain unchanged but the orientation of the magnetic surface coating will be affected...

The data is magnetic more than electric...

I honestly have no idea

[railzand]

Another excellent contribution to the corpus. You win two internets, a gold star from theymos and a lollipop.

Your next mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make p2pool idiotproof, or something similarly trivial.

I'll see what I can do

you also won six porn stars and some pictures of karpeles and vessenes being hit by a bus

[notbatman]

Bitcoins weigh zero as they are entirely virtual; they exist outside of time and space. The blockchain simply points to them.

May I recommend the works of Plato?   

[Bigeyeone]

Your hard disks weighs more when you write files onto them ? really ?

[S4VV4S]

Your hard disks weighs more when you write files onto them ? really ?

Yep, just unplug it from your PC and shake it. You will hear all the stuff inside it bouncing around 

[eddy1982]

Was an interesting read.

[S4VV4S]

Ask this guy how much does his BTC weight

[BitcoinTate]

... I think I should finally go to bed now. I just read through that and in my mind I am now asking how much several files on my computer weigh.... cool ass post man. Really got me thinking, am going to bookmark this one. Tis a mind bender.

[Mrrr]

The true question of course is: How much does Mark Karpeles weigh?

[Carl Quesadilla]

bitcoin is based on the total supply of gold (and precious metals) in the world.  it is a very versatile currency which represents our complete wealth as citizens of Earth. 

[vpitcher07]

The true question of course is: How much does Mark Karpeles weigh?

I'd put money on 220.

[S4VV4S]

The true question of course is: How much does Mark Karpeles weigh?

I'd put money on 220.

Kilos or Pounds?
It does matter

[ns12123]

I guess Pounds x)

[Carl Quesadilla]

nada.  

edit:  the price in gold??   

[tkbx]

I would argue that a bitcoin doesn't have a set weight. Even if you accurately calculated the weight of the bits of a private key in one place, it would weigh more or less on a different storage device, and that private key can hold anywhere from 0 to 21M coins.

[birr]

If it takes 2 or 3 kWh to mine a coin, it "weighs" or has mass on the order of a femtogram.
E=m*c^2
Edit:  looks like coins are even heavier than I thought.  Apparently it might take several hundred kWh to earn a coin.  So ~100 fg?

[Beans]

How much energy was used to create this thread? Can we ever get it back?

[freedomno1]

How much energy was used to create this thread? Can we ever get it back?

Unfortunately its a non-refundable product unless you control time and space 

[birr]

How much energy was used to create this thread? Can we ever get it back?

Energy conserves.
Entropy -- TO DA MOON

[Gladdy]

It weigh 630 USD now

[notbatman]

How much energy was used to create this thread? Can we ever get it back?

The answer to your second question is yes. Every point in space and time can be calculated. If you can calculate enough points within a given volume of space you can reproduce a any moment in time.

Just calculate the space this server rack occupied before OP asked his question and there you go, Bob's your uncle. This same technique could also be used to recover the empty gox server rack; it would still be empty though...

[JohnnyBTCSeed]

I'd like to cut your head off, so I can weigh it, what'd you say?

5lbs? 6lbs? 7lbs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IrIiG5wDeY

[Taras]

How much energy was used to create this thread? Can we ever get it back?

Unfortunately its a non-refundable product unless you control time and space 

Looks like this is a job for the Doctor.

[BruceFenton]

So what you are saying is that people should definitely not delete Bitcoin in order to make the laptop lighter?

[freedomno1]

How much energy was used to create this thread? Can we ever get it back?

Unfortunately its a non-refundable product unless you control time and space 

Looks like this is a job for the Doctor.

Nice quick lets go get the Tardis ^_^

[jonald_fyookball]

OP you think too much

[Joshuar]

OP you think too much

This. xD

[acs267]

Infinity.

Bitcoin exists only digitally, much like the Internet. Could you weigh the Internet?

It's not physical or in any liquid or gaseous state. So it weighs infinity, just like the Internet.

[Dabs]

Okay. My bitcoins and altcoins all fit in one small USB flash drive. That's light.

They also fit in a single sheet of paper sealed in an envelope. That's about close to similar weight.

Of course, I've got the private keys etched or carved on to some stainless steel sheet, that's pretty heavy.

This one is pretty heavy, being that it's tungsten.

Early last year, someone engraved a private key in WIF (wallet import format) on a tungsten block.

The bank can burn down around it and it will still be readable.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=60903.msg710662#msg710662

[Taras]

OP you think too much

This. xD

Expect more topics of me thinking too much.

[Taras]

Probably impossible to calculate.

Admittedly, this is almost certainly the case.

[bountygiver]

actually, since every node contains a copy of the block chain, you should multiply the weight by the number of nodes.

[pungopete468]

It's simple to calculate...

The net difference is 0 because data isn't stored as an electrical charge. The data is stored by the orientation of a magnetic coating on the surface of the disk. When the head energizes it simply acts as an electromagnet and changes the magnetic orientation on the face of the platter... A binary 1 is observed when the positive pole is facing the head and a 0 is when the negative pole is facing the head.

So the weight and mass of a Bitcoin is 0.

[notbatman]

It's simple to calculate...

The net difference is 0 because data isn't stored as an electrical charge. The data is stored by the orientation of a magnetic coating on the surface of the disk. When the head energizes it simply acts as an electromagnet and changes the magnetic orientation on the face of the platter... A binary 1 is observed when the positive pole is facing the head and a 0 is when the negative pole is facing the head.

So the weight and mass of a Bitcoin is 0.

Materialists don't believe in anything non-physical. They'll find some underhanded way of discrediting your logic. Failing that they'll resort to ad-hoc personal attacks.

[Nicolas Dorier]

If I am storing my bitcoin key on 256 light bulb.
Given a lightbulb weight 10 gram, my key weight is 2kg 560g.
Given that my key store 0.05 bitcoin, it makes around 51 kg by BTC.

But I can influence the weight of a bitcoin by storing more on my key, or using lighter light bulb.

[Soros Shorts]

If I am storing my bitcoin key on 256 light bulb.
Given a lightbulb weight 10 gram, my key weight is 2kg 560g.
Given that my key store 0.05 bitcoin, it makes around 51 kg by BTC.

But I can influence the weight of a bitcoin by storing more on my key, or using lighter light bulb.

I think it is about time for you to switch to LEDs.

[Nicolas Dorier]

wish you said it earlier... 64 of the light bulb just burned... I lost my key ! 

[nkocevar]

Im gonna have to say that markie mark weighs about 250, 260