Journalists are total buffoons

[RawDog]

They don't understand this stuff...  so they just make up a bunch of crap.

For the uninitiated, Bitcoin “mining” is the process that creates Bitcoin by solving a complex mathematical equation through the use of specialized computers. Bitcoin miners work together on a global peer-to-peer network, logging onto a central website, where they attempt to break the code protecting the Bitcoin database. The first Bitcoin miner to solve the current equation brings home the bacon.

Every time the code is broken, the Bitcoin system awards the Bitcoin miner that breaks the encryption code with a number of Bitcoin determined by the complexity of the code that was broken…and the system then adds more lines of code, making it more difficult to solve. In addition, the open source software that runs the Bitcoin system automatically upgrades the complexity of the encryption by another 10 percent every 10 days adding more lines of code to the equation that Bitcoin miners have to solve in order to earn more Bitcoin.

Alan Milner is a bozo.
http://guardianlv.com/2014/04/bitcoin-warning-signs-for-new-investors/

Could somebody please contact this guy and tell him he is not even close?  

"solving a complex mathematical equation"
you don't 'solve' any equation and it is not complex.

"logging onto a central website"
They don't 'log on', and there is no central website.  

"where they attempt to break the code protecting the Bitcoin database"
lol - what a dumbass.  There is no code protecting any database.  There is no database.


"adding more lines of code to the equation that Bitcoin miners have to solve"
Does he just make this shit up?  Lines of code are not added to any equation.  

Why, oh why, are these idiots permitted to use the keyboard?  Haven't they any editorial oversight?  Pure garbage.  Journalism school is a raging joke.  

[franky1]

instead of crying about it on a forum. contact them yourself and correct them.

email is your sword, correcting them is your battle. don't be afraid, no blood will be spilt...

its just an email after all.

[drawingthesun]

They don't understand this stuff...  so they just make up a bunch of crap.

For the uninitiated, Bitcoin “mining” is the process that creates Bitcoin by solving a complex mathematical equation through the use of specialized computers. Bitcoin miners work together on a global peer-to-peer network, logging onto a central website, where they attempt to break the code protecting the Bitcoin database. The first Bitcoin miner to solve the current equation brings home the bacon.

Every time the code is broken, the Bitcoin system awards the Bitcoin miner that breaks the encryption code with a number of Bitcoin determined by the complexity of the code that was broken…and the system then adds more lines of code, making it more difficult to solve. In addition, the open source software that runs the Bitcoin system automatically upgrades the complexity of the encryption by another 10 percent every 10 days adding more lines of code to the equation that Bitcoin miners have to solve in order to earn more Bitcoin.

Alan Milner is a bozo.
http://guardianlv.com/2014/04/bitcoin-warning-signs-for-new-investors/

Could somebody please contact this guy and tell him he is not even close?  

"solving a complex mathematical equation"
you don't 'solve' any equation and it is not complex.

"logging onto a central website"
They don't 'log on', and there is no central website.  

"where they attempt to break the code protecting the Bitcoin database"
lol - what a dumbass.  There is no code protecting any database.  There is no database.


"adding more lines of code to the equation that Bitcoin miners have to solve"
Does he just make this shit up?  Lines of code are not added to any equation.  

Why, oh why, are these idiots permitted to use the keyboard?  Haven't they any editorial oversight?  Pure garbage.  Journalism school is a raging joke.  

These people are either completely stupid or spreading misinformation on purpose.

I'm not particularly bright or intelligent but I got a general gist of Bitcoin mining that is about 95% accurate within 10 minutes of reading about it. That includes learning what the hell hashcash was and such.

[drawingthesun]

The best thing to do is create a website that outs bad Bitcoin journalists as a name and shame.

Or perhaps that is going to far.

[Lethn]

The best thing to do is create a website that outs bad Bitcoin journalists as a name and shame.

Or perhaps that is going to far.

I think that would be perfect, as long as we point out the journalists who do well meant explanations rather than just making up whatever they want, I think it's time we started hitting back with our own methods and go Jon Stewart on them, that said, I wouldn't be surprised if at some point he started doing Bitcoin segments of his own exposing all of this lol.

[Light]

This journalist is clearly writing out of his ass - he has not even the slightest inclination of how the system works. No surprise really - journalists aren't exactly the brightest bunch not to mention humanity ain't that smart either.

[SolarGalaxa]

They don't understand this stuff...  so they just make up a bunch of crap.

For the uninitiated, Bitcoin “mining” is the process that creates Bitcoin by solving a complex mathematical equation through the use of specialized computers. Bitcoin miners work together on a global peer-to-peer network, logging onto a central website, where they attempt to break the code protecting the Bitcoin database. The first Bitcoin miner to solve the current equation brings home the bacon.

Every time the code is broken, the Bitcoin system awards the Bitcoin miner that breaks the encryption code with a number of Bitcoin determined by the complexity of the code that was broken…and the system then adds more lines of code, making it more difficult to solve. In addition, the open source software that runs the Bitcoin system automatically upgrades the complexity of the encryption by another 10 percent every 10 days adding more lines of code to the equation that Bitcoin miners have to solve in order to earn more Bitcoin.

Alan Milner is a bozo.
http://guardianlv.com/2014/04/bitcoin-warning-signs-for-new-investors/

Could somebody please contact this guy and tell him he is not even close?  

"solving a complex mathematical equation"
you don't 'solve' any equation and it is not complex.

"logging onto a central website"
They don't 'log on', and there is no central website.  

"where they attempt to break the code protecting the Bitcoin database"
lol - what a dumbass.  There is no code protecting any database.  There is no database.


"adding more lines of code to the equation that Bitcoin miners have to solve"
Does he just make this shit up?  Lines of code are not added to any equation.  

Why, oh why, are these idiots permitted to use the keyboard?  Haven't they any editorial oversight?  Pure garbage.  Journalism school is a raging joke.  

If you think journalists are that stupid, then wait until you see one of the comments. For reference:

Warning still sinking until the less than one percent start buying again but be careful. Even the Winklevoss brothers may realise bitcoin is a dead duck. Its on the nose for being a criminalcurrency so no-one decent wants to own it….work it out. Its on the way down. It wont unencrypt itself so is favoured by …you guessed it…crooks. Watch out it doesnt get hacked by…you guessed it…crooks.

Further more, if you visit her twitter, it just screams "Uneducated Dumbass".

Bitcoin, Tor browser, online drug sites = expansion of the global drug trade. Curtail the activities of black market cash Bitcoin dealers

Wow. Seriously? Doesn't she even realize that there has been a drug trade powered by her "beloved cash" for DECADES?

[drawingthesun]

I'm doing an assignment so I haven't got time to pick this one apart, if any of you have a free 20 minutes feel free to quote the below (the entire shoddy article) and correct mistakes (of which there are a lot)

Bitcoin warning signs for new investors are increasing rapidly as negative reports tarnish the once bright image of the world’s leading digital currency. Before the spectacular collapse of the Mt. Gox Bitcoin Exchange on February 7, 2014, after an estimated 745,000 Bitcoin worth approximately $9.5 billion went missing, the only people who were aware of Bitcoin’s promise of a fast track to easy wealth were computer geeks and currency traders. Stories about Bitcoin billionaires surfaced and disappeared again as the news media, obsessed with Obamacare, failed to pick up on them.

After Mt. Gox collapsed, Bitcoin suddenly became front page news all over the world, and millions of would-be Bitcoin miners have been looking for a way into the business ever since, despite recent Bitcoin warning signs, including an IRS decision to tax Bitcoin as real property, ending a presumed tax exemption for Bitcoin currency speculators. Russia, China, Australia, New Zealand and Iceland have either banned or restricted the use of Bitcoin within their jurisdictions. Iceland released its own auroracoin digital currency on March 25, issuing 31.8 coins (equal to $400 US) of the currency to each citizen in an attempt to revive the country’s moribund economy. Since then, auroracoin’s value has dropped from $12.58 per coin to $1.16.

The most telling blow to strike the embattled digital currency movement has been the precipitous collapse of Bitcoin values, which have fallen from a record high of US $1124.74 on November 29, 2013 to $423. Nevertheless, more and more people are looking at Bitcoin mining as a means to fast, easy money. Those numbers are reflected in the shrinking earnings in the Bitcoin mining industry. Last week, miners’ weekly earnings were down by 40.9 percent to $14.9 million compared to weekly earnings of $25.2 million in December, before the bad news began to accumulate.

bitcoin warning signs

Not so fast, warns Vancouver Island’s Jonathan Kervin, owner of Kervin Marketing, a confessed computer geek who has been studying the Bitcoin mining process for the past six months. Kervin, who has a small Bitcoin mining “guild” of his own, believes that newcomers can still make money “mining” digital currencies but only with the right equipment and under the right circumstances.

Kervin first heard about Bitcoin mining from fellow computer geeks. Over the past six months, his research has shown it is quite possible to make money mining digital currencies, but would-be Bitcoin miners have to do the homework required to understand the industry.

For the uninitiated, Bitcoin “mining” is the process that creates Bitcoin by solving a complex mathematical equation through the use of specialized computers. Bitcoin miners work together on a global peer-to-peer network, logging onto a central website, where they attempt to break the code protecting the Bitcoin database. The first Bitcoin miner to solve the current equation brings home the bacon.

Every time the code is broken, the Bitcoin system awards the Bitcoin miner that breaks the encryption code with a number of Bitcoin determined by the complexity of the code that was broken…and the system then adds more lines of code, making it more difficult to solve. In addition, the open source software that runs the Bitcoin system automatically upgrades the complexity of the encryption by another 10 percent every 10 days adding more lines of code to the equation that Bitcoin miners have to solve in order to earn more Bitcoin.

Bitcoin warning signs for new investors

Bitcoin mining machines are graded according to their Gigahash characteristics. One Gigahash is approximately equal to one billion computations per second. Eight months ago, a Butterfly 600 Gigahash Bitcoin mining card was priced at $2,196, or $3.66 per Gigahash, making it 151 times more powerful than typical PCs, which clock in at speeds up to 3.96 GHz. Today, a current AMT 1.2 terahash machine sells for $5,599 or $4.67 per Gigahash.

One of the most powerful systems is the relatively affordable $10,0000 3.0 Terahash (equal to three trillion instructions per second) unit from KNC. At the current hashing rate, this unit will break even in 102 days…but the complexity of the algorithm that must be solved will have doubled over those 100 days, so that the AMT machine’s operating efficiency will have been cut in half by then. Over the next 100 days, the complexity of the Bitcoin algorithm will automatically increase by another 10 percent every ten days so that, after 200 days, the machine will be running at 25 percent of its original efficiency, putting it out of the money as newer, faster machines flood the market.

With efficiency decreasing by 10 percent every ten days, the user may earn another $5000 before the machine is outclassed. A 50 percent net profit margin over 200 days is a reasonable return on investment, but the Bitcoin miner who owns that machine is going to be effectively out of the business unless the miner re-invests the profits earned after breaking even on the next machine.

The problem Kervin himself encountered while trying to get into the business is that many Bitcoin mining machine makers are six to 12 months behind their delivery date which means that, by the time those prepaid machines are delivered, they are already obsolete, too slow to earn any Bitcoin.

While some companies, such as Butterfly, are notorious for never hitting their delivery dates, others, likeBitman, are right on the money, delivering their machines often with 48 hours of confirmation. It is, however, difficult to recommend one company over another because things change so rapidly in this business.

Anyone thinking about getting into Bitcoin mining today who is not put off by the Bitcoin warning signs for new investors, should consider the risks carefully. Kervin recommends joining a Bitcoin mining guild, where members share their knowledge and processing power to generate better results. Be especially careful about purchasing used machines, because a six-month old machine is no longer competitive in the Bitcoin mining business. Not knowing this, newcomers often buy used machines to lower entry-level costs.

Used, older Bitcoin machines may be competitive, however, for  mining some other digital currencies, and are being used for that purpose.  Recently,  an increasing number of Bitcoin miners have shifted their attention to other digital currencies like Litecoin. A $3,500 Litecoin GPU system can generate $25 worth of coins per day, at a cost of $3 for electricity. Let the buyer beware, however, because the break-even on Litecoin is 159 day, one-third more than Bitcoin’s break-even point. The math indicates that, in this scenario, a Litecoin miner would be 450 days from earning enough money to replace the first machine with the updated model required go remain competitive.

Look for hardware suppliers with guaranteed delivery policies. Find the ones that offer upgraded chips to offset delivery delays. Consider manufacturers who only accept payment in Bitcoin, which will automatically adjust the price of the machine to the current value of the coins….and do not  ignore the Bitcoin warning signs for new investors. Remember your caveat emptors!

By Alan M. Milner

[hilariousandco]

Well most journalists are not experts in most things especially not Bitcoin so that's why they're often wrong after only quickly checking their "facts" over on wikipedia, but there are decent articles from journalists too, so to tar them all as one is quite unfair.

[drawingthesun]

Well most journalists are not experts in most things especially not Bitcoin so that's why they're often wrong after only quickly checking their "facts" over on wikipedia, but there are decent articles from journalists too, so to tar them all as one is quite unfair.

I only suggested outing the ones that are almost making things up. I am not sure where they get their fantasy from it certainly isn't Wikipedia.

I don't recall any bitcoin material about cracking codes and increasing complexity of 'encryption'.

[hilariousandco]

Well most journalists are not experts in most things especially not Bitcoin so that's why they're often wrong after only quickly checking their "facts" over on wikipedia, but there are decent articles from journalists too, so to tar them all as one is quite unfair.

I only suggested outing the ones that are almost making things up. I am not sure where they get their fantasy from it certainly isn't Wikipedia.

I don't recall any bitcoin material about cracking codes and increasing complexity of 'encryption'.

They're getting it from somewhere because I often hear the "mining is the process that creates Bitcoin by solving a complex mathematical equations" line in the media.

[drawingthesun]

Well most journalists are not experts in most things especially not Bitcoin so that's why they're often wrong after only quickly checking their "facts" over on wikipedia, but there are decent articles from journalists too, so to tar them all as one is quite unfair.

I only suggested outing the ones that are almost making things up. I am not sure where they get their fantasy from it certainly isn't Wikipedia.

I don't recall any bitcoin material about cracking codes and increasing complexity of 'encryption'.

They're getting it from somewhere because I often hear the "mining is the process that creates Bitcoin by solving a complex mathematical equations" line in the media.

That isn't so bad though, as mining is a complex logical/mathematical operation. (Try doing a hash by hand) so I would be ok with that line. But the breaking encryption code stuff really is bizarre.

Of course the solution to a solved block is to solve trillions of the "mathematical operation" per second to beat the next fastest guy. I can really see where some people simplify the process.

However I still can't seem to think about where the breaking and complex encryption comes from. Also this journalist is crazy, like where on earth does the network make it 10% hard every retarget? Like I think it's been 10% on only a handful of occasions in the past four years.

[Nancarrow]

They're getting it from somewhere because I often hear the "mining is the process that creates Bitcoin by solving a complex mathematical equations" line in the media.

Bitcoin is mathematical. Most people are crap at maths and never paid attention in school and promptly forgot what little they retained. But one thing that everybody who is innumerate knows without question, is that maths has equations. So bitcoin has equations. That's it really.

OTOH the rest of the OP's quoted part is quite inventively stupid. "Adding more lines of code to the equation"... "the code protecting the database"... "adding 10 percent every ten days"... the journalist is taking great pains to tell everyone who knows even a little maths, just how clueless the journalist really is.

[drawingthesun]

"where they attempt to break the code protecting the Bitcoin database"
lol - what a dumbass.  There is no code protecting any database.  There is no database.

The blockchain is in fact a database. It's a transaction database, and one of the most secure and distributed databases that has ever existed. It's one of the true marvels Satoshi brought into this world.

I guess the database is protected by the miners and the nodes. You could argue that the Elliptic curve cryptography protects the database for if that crypto was undone many addresses (but not all) would be open to theft.

Of course the miners are not attempting to break Elliptic curve cryptography.

[RawDog]

"where they attempt to break the code protecting the Bitcoin database"
lol - what a dumbass.  There is no code protecting any database.  There is no database.

The blockchain is in fact a database. It's a transaction database, and one of the most secure and distributed databases that has ever existed. It's one of the true marvels Satoshi brought into this world.

I guess the database is protected by the miners and the nodes. You could argue that the Elliptic curve cryptography protects the database for if that crypto was undone many addresses (but not all) would be open to theft.

Of course the miners are not attempting to break Elliptic curve cryptography.

In the loosest definition, the blockchain is barely a 'database'.  But one thing which is not up for debate: the author is an idiot.  Full stop.  His license should be terminated.  Writing about things you don't understand should not be permitted in professional journalism.  Making shit up - is just plain wrong.  The guy is not even close on most of this stuff.

[LiteCoinGuy]

at least he writes about bitcoin

[Gervais]

It's better than just an article saying its the tool of choice for criminals and peados.

[MUFC]

It's better than just an article saying its the tool of choice for criminals and peados.

Thats very true. Hopefully we'll see less of these articles with time.

[Gervais]

It's better than just an article saying its the tool of choice for criminals and peados.

Thats very true. Hopefully we'll see less of these articles with time.

I'm sure we will but there will always be the people trying to put or keep it down.

[RawDog]

It's better than just an article saying its the tool of choice for criminals and peados.

At least there is some truth to what you said unlike the rubbish that dumbass is selling.