How did you guys get into bitcoin?

[redmist]

I had a look on the deep web and on silk road, and i saw if you wanted to buy stuff, you needed BTC. From there, i just sort of looked it up 

[Omni]

Found out  trading on  Silkroad.

Anyways Goomboo great post.

[finkleshnorts]

Wikipedia. I am still very skeptical but I want to be a part, because I love the ideals and the implementation. Here are my two reservations about bitcoin:

1. the longterm viability of mining/transaction fees is really dubious to me. Even now, as evident in this thread, people are not mining because it is not profitable. It should always be profitable, whether it is by mining or by transaction fees. Thoughts, all disclaimed with a "maybe":When they cut the reward in half, sh*t is gonna happen, right? Even after the transaction fees stabilize, only the miners with access to the cheapest electricity and most efficient machines will come out on top. Nobody else will be able to compete. Is it heading towards a monopoly? Also, why not gradually reduce the reward instead of cutting it in half intermittently? It's pre-programmed market trauma, as it now stands.

2. Some more "maybes": The vision seems too small scale. People talk all day about how infinitely divisible coins is so amazing, but it's really not that great considering that a very small handful of people are sitting on 5%ish of the long term total and 12%ish of btc in circulation. I realize that they deserve a payoff, and that early adopters in any bubble are rewarded. But until all of the hoarders and speculators (early and newcoming) start spending, btc will remain a daytrading playground and retirement delusion. Hell, I wish Mt. Gox made their limit even smaller. I also think the 21 million get out way too fast.

Unless we have a few more Mt. Gox freakouts in a short time, I think btc will be around for awhile.

1.  Why would mining become a monopoly?  There's many people with good electric rates that have huge mining farms - not just one person.  And to make the argument that in the future, mining will be viable to few enough people that Bitcoin is susceptible to a 51% attack, you'd have to do some detailed analysis to figure out what total hashing power makes staging a 51% attack practical/profitable.  Mining doesn't need to be profitable to everyone, just so long as there are enough miners to secure the network from a single party taking over the network.

2.  I agree with you there.  Having 7% of the coins owned by a single person (Satoshi), and several others with smaller whole percents is absurd if this can ever hope to be a currency on the scale of the USD.  The current richest man in the world only has enough wealth to equate about 0.5% of the USD in circulation.

Who knows though - maybe 50 years down the road, if none of those original coins are moving, people might assume that Satoshi got hit by a car and died, without leaving anyone else any information about his wallet.  In other words, those coins would be assumed dead and never moving.

Good points. It would be cool, though, to see a system where mining would be profitable for everyone willing to run the software. That would be the most badass network ever. Our grandparents would be running it.

[BTC guy]

I sold computer stuff to some guy on CL. After the sale we were talking computers. He asked me, are you mining? Thats how i got in to this.

[JennyHill]

I started using them because I own and run a small graphic design school and I have about 85 always on computers with high end graphics cards. I learned about Bitcoin from a student that said these cards could be used to mine bitcoins and he taught me about it. I started reading here and realized that Bitminter could be easily turned on and off using a timer in a simple script so I'm in. Everything I bought for everyone in my life last Christmas was paid for with Bitcoin. 

[FreeMoney]

Good points. It would be cool, though, to see a system where mining would be profitable for everyone willing to run the software. That would be the most badass network ever. Our grandparents would be running it.

That would be cool, like unicorns who crap skittles. Think about it, if mining is profitable no matter how inefficient you are it's endless free money and all resources on the planet will eventually be dedicated to it.

It's wonderful as it is, the amount of resources dedicated depend on the worldwide demand for the system and the supply is anyone who can provide the service we need cheaper than average. To me it's more magical than (impossible) free money.

[triplehelix]

I started using them because I own and run a small graphic design school and I have about 85 always on computers with high end graphics cards. I learned about Bitcoin from a student that said these cards could be used to mine bitcoins and he taught me about it. I started reading here and realized that Bitminter could be easily turned on and off using a timer in a simple script so I'm in. Everything I bought for everyone in my life last Christmas was paid for with Bitcoin. 

that rocks.  whats your hash rate?

[JennyHill]

I started using them because I own and run a small graphic design school and I have about 85 always on computers with high end graphics cards. I learned about Bitcoin from a student that said these cards could be used to mine bitcoins and he taught me about it. I started reading here and realized that Bitminter could be easily turned on and off using a timer in a simple script so I'm in. Everything I bought for everyone in my life last Christmas was paid for with Bitcoin. 

that rocks.  whats your hash rate?

It fluctuates greatly by time of day and at no time are they all used to mine at once but 20-40 ghash is about what I get spread among several different pools.  I ramped up slowly to where I am now for fear of damaging the machines but it seems to be working.

[intertrade]

I started mining with some low-end hardware. Now im interested in more economic contacts that are bitcoin related.

[triplehelix]

I started using them because I own and run a small graphic design school and I have about 85 always on computers with high end graphics cards. I learned about Bitcoin from a student that said these cards could be used to mine bitcoins and he taught me about it. I started reading here and realized that Bitminter could be easily turned on and off using a timer in a simple script so I'm in. Everything I bought for everyone in my life last Christmas was paid for with Bitcoin. 

that rocks.  whats your hash rate?

It fluctuates greatly by time of day and at no time are they all used to mine at once but 20-40 ghash is about what I get spread among several different pools.  I ramped up slowly to where I am now for fear of damaging the machines but it seems to be working.

very nice.  what is your electricity situation?  industrial rates?

[JennyHill]

I started using them because I own and run a small graphic design school and I have about 85 always on computers with high end graphics cards. I learned about Bitcoin from a student that said these cards could be used to mine bitcoins and he taught me about it. I started reading here and realized that Bitminter could be easily turned on and off using a timer in a simple script so I'm in. Everything I bought for everyone in my life last Christmas was paid for with Bitcoin. 

that rocks.  whats your hash rate?

It fluctuates greatly by time of day and at no time are they all used to mine at once but 20-40 ghash is about what I get spread among several different pools.  I ramped up slowly to where I am now for fear of damaging the machines but it seems to be working.

very nice.  what is your electricity situation?  industrial rates?

Ha ha, I could have predicted the next question. The campus is mostly solar power, photovoltaic cell with solar radiant water heating systems. My building feeds back into the grid so much that we routinely get a check from the power company for back spinning the meter.

[triplehelix]

I started using them because I own and run a small graphic design school and I have about 85 always on computers with high end graphics cards. I learned about Bitcoin from a student that said these cards could be used to mine bitcoins and he taught me about it. I started reading here and realized that Bitminter could be easily turned on and off using a timer in a simple script so I'm in. Everything I bought for everyone in my life last Christmas was paid for with Bitcoin. 

that rocks.  whats your hash rate?

It fluctuates greatly by time of day and at no time are they all used to mine at once but 20-40 ghash is about what I get spread among several different pools.  I ramped up slowly to where I am now for fear of damaging the machines but it seems to be working.

very nice.  what is your electricity situation?  industrial rates?

Ha ha, I could have predicted the next question. The campus is mostly solar power, photovoltaic cell with solar radiant water heating systems. My building feeds back into the grid so much that we routinely get a check from the power company for back spinning the meter.

sounds like you have it made in the shade.  power usage is a massive part of the profitability equation.

[TheHeroMember]

I sold computer stuff to some guy on CL. After the sale we were talking computers. He asked me, are you mining? Thats how i got in to this.

Cool. 

[JennyHill]

I started using them because I own and run a small graphic design school and I have about 85 always on computers with high end graphics cards. I learned about Bitcoin from a student that said these cards could be used to mine bitcoins and he taught me about it. I started reading here and realized that Bitminter could be easily turned on and off using a timer in a simple script so I'm in. Everything I bought for everyone in my life last Christmas was paid for with Bitcoin. 

that rocks.  whats your hash rate?

It fluctuates greatly by time of day and at no time are they all used to mine at once but 20-40 ghash is about what I get spread among several different pools.  I ramped up slowly to where I am now for fear of damaging the machines but it seems to be working.

very nice.  what is your electricity situation?  industrial rates?

Ha ha, I could have predicted the next question. The campus is mostly solar power, photovoltaic cell with solar radiant water heating systems. My building feeds back into the grid so much that we routinely get a check from the power company for back spinning the meter.

sounds like you have it made in the shade.  power usage is a massive part of the profitability equation.

I still have maintenance and upgrade expenses but this sure is a nice way to offset the costs. 

[Serenata]

I was on this page http://ottopress.com/2010/wordpress-3-0-multisite-domain-mapping-tutorial/ looking for instructions to help a friend setup Wordpress Network. At some point I noticed this "Or, send me bitcoins!". That was it! I immediately started my research I have read a lot of topics on this forum; for 4-5 days without registering. I consider it to be revolutionary and I just couldn't resist being a part of it

When I manage to get some bitcoins, I'm thinking of sending Otto a Bitpresent.

[Dansko]

I seen a Post on Slashdot and decided to check it out. At first I thought it was doomed to fail but later changed my Mind.

[MoneyIsDebt]

I was looking for a way to do microtransactions online. Most solutions out there require a US bank account, which I don't have.

[finkleshnorts]

Good points. It would be cool, though, to see a system where mining would be profitable for everyone willing to run the software. That would be the most badass network ever. Our grandparents would be running it.

That would be cool, like unicorns who crap skittles. Think about it, if mining is profitable no matter how inefficient you are it's endless free money and all resources on the planet will eventually be dedicated to it.

It's wonderful as it is, the amount of resources dedicated depend on the worldwide demand for the system and the supply is anyone who can provide the service we need cheaper than average. To me it's more magical than (impossible) free money.

touche

[jlambert]

I heard/read about it a year or so ago and recently (last week) stumbled on it again.  I bought some coins to test out and love it.  I see it as an investment and also a way for us to change internet money transfers.

[twoglovedanny]

My dad owns a few buildings on Montreal's south shore, and one of the renters disappeared off the face of the earth, He had a mining operation going in one of the spaces that used to be a printing company. Until the space gets rented again I can use it to run all the equipment. Once it is rented I need to find a spot for everything, but I am not too sure about the power requirements. Once the weather starts to warm up I might start selling things off I just hope the price of 5870 and 5970 series are still worth about 175$ and 350$ each.

I have been doing this for about 6 months now and am using my own private pool and things have been going great.

I love the chalange and the tweaking, learning Linux is an eventual task i will get to, but for now strictly windows 7.

The hardest part is keeping my day job, with this easy money coming in its not the easiest thing getting up and starting work at 4 am.