Making a BTC pitch to a billionaire

[mb300sd]

Suggest that he set up a benevolent mining monopoly which controls the majority of hashing power, but excludes all other miners. Point out the profitability of this venture as the ability to earn 100% of newly generated bitcoin with just 51% of available hashing power.

I doubt this billionaire would want to become a millionaire for the sake of bitcoin.  51% would require the largest datacenter in the world.

10 terahash is 10 million USD or about 1% of the billionare's net worth. He won't actually need 10 Terahash because many miners will exit once one agent fires up so many rigs. Once he has 51% and is able to prohibit competition, all other miners will exit mining because private mining will no longer generate bitcoin. As a result, he will be able to mine all of the world's bitcion using just a few hundred gigahash. The other 9.5 terahash can be kept offline as a threat to any potential competition. Using just a few hundred gigahash  worth of electricity expenditure per month, he will take in a revenue of 216,000 bitcoin per month or about 1 million USD per month. In about one year he will have recovered his initial investment. Certainly, if he is aware of safer investments which also have a 100% per annum expected return then he should pursue them. However it is extremely difficult to find opportunities this good.

That's hardware only.... you need a building, huge power lines, a massive cooling system, and 24 hour security to keep people from running off with your expensive hardware.  Not to mention, keeping that many rigs running would be a full time job for at least one person.

You obviously have never dealt with large-scale computing.

Anyone with enough money wouldn't use GPUs to mine though, it would be far more cost effective to develop an ASIC that could do a GHash/watt. Actually developing it wouldn't be that hard, you could even use the open source FPGA code, but implement it much more efficiently in hardware, the main barrier is having a run of the chips produced. With ASICs, I could see a single rack containing several THash.

[cunicula]

Suggest that he set up a benevolent mining monopoly which controls the majority of hashing power, but excludes all other miners. Point out the profitability of this venture as the ability to earn 100% of newly generated bitcoin with just 51% of available hashing power.

I doubt this billionaire would want to become a millionaire for the sake of bitcoin.  51% would require the largest datacenter in the world.

10 terahash is 10 million USD or about 1% of the billionare's net worth. He won't actually need 10 Terahash because many miners will exit once one agent fires up so many rigs. Once he has 51% and is able to prohibit competition, all other miners will exit mining because private mining will no longer generate bitcoin. As a result, he will be able to mine all of the world's bitcion using just a few hundred gigahash. The other 9.5 terahash can be kept offline as a threat to any potential competition. Using just a few hundred gigahash  worth of electricity expenditure per month, he will take in a revenue of 216,000 bitcoin per month or about 1 million USD per month. In about one year he will have recovered his initial investment. Certainly, if he is aware of safer investments which also have a 100% per annum expected return then he should pursue them. However it is extremely difficult to find opportunities this good.

That's hardware only.... you need a building, huge power lines, a massive cooling system, and 24 hour security to keep people from running off with your expensive hardware.  Not to mention, keeping that many rigs running would be a full time job for at least one person.

You obviously have never dealt with large-scale computing.

Anyone with enough money wouldn't use GPUs to mine though, it would be far more cost effective to develop an ASIC that could do a GHash/watt. Actually developing it wouldn't be that hard, you could even use the open source FPGA code, but implement it much more efficiently in hardware, the main barrier is having a run of the chips produced. With ASICs, I could see a single rack containing several THash.

So you could potentially run it out of your garage. Awesome.

[Otoh]

Gosh!..., I had written a very long post that unfortunately disappeared. Will try to remember and spew parts of it since I'm now very tired.
--------
I always found the speculation sub to be the best place to find trools, / not surprised.

I would be very careful in spending large amount of money onto bitcoin before it has matured natually.

Core:
First, There are some needed changes and research to be done around the core protocol definition that would benefits from minimal funding, ~250k$

Ecosystem - distribution :
Then supporting development of related software and services...
Finding new ways to distribute bitcoins as evenly as possible via freebies and offers but mostly through empowering people to work and earn them for simple yet engaging tasks.

Mining:
Bitcoins generation (mining) is more and more at risk of being centralized and prohibitive due to private large scale fgpa / ASIC mining operations.

We are struggling to coordinate and fund development of dedicated mining hardware.  People in the industry give estimates between 500 000 and 10m$ for a fully custom ASIC (depending on technologies and scale).  This would be the holy grail for affordable network security.  

There has to be a balanced momentum of people joining in, security going up and affordable mining hardware being deployed.

Increased network security would in turn attract biger player.

Re long posts disappearing before posting, I mostly write ones that I don't wish to risk of that happening on gmail compose which auto saves every couple of minutes or so & you can save at any other time with 1 click (after  something that you particularly don't want to lose say) or keep as a draft & add to, tweak, finish later - so at least the bulk of one's text is usually not lost

All your points sound good to me, unless E was one of the few peeps who became an instant Bitcoin fan on coming across it & seeing it's revolutionary potential then I doubt that a 6 figure grant application would be the best way to start, I was thinking more of a small project that could be achieved in under 1 year say & would be relatively peanuts to the foundation, under $100,000 - preferably low 5 figures, my friend's first was for $13,300 & that worked very well. The main point being to get the foundation & E interested in Bitcoins as a concept & maybe they will start coming up with potential applications of how it could benefit their other projects, once 1 Bitcoin related project had been funded then it would be easier pitching the more technical, esoteric, less sexy ones that were more important to Bitcoin development

So maybe a smallish project, maybe something that could have a very obvious benefit to a cause that E likes & already supports (see my OP), maybe something Africa related, I also have a friend who is communications director of a company & dealing with the launch of a product in to a new market, the US & she may be willing to do some freelance media relations on this NPO project, I can already see some fairly snappy headlines for press releases ie, Billionaire Backs Bitcoins - blar, blar, blar or perhaps better more low key

Also if it tickled E's fancy that the application was coming from a neighbor & friend of a couple of E's buddies, then I imagine future & more ambitious Bitcoin related project would be way easier to get funded & there's even a slim chance E may wish to hear more about Bitcoin in person from me - which would be awesome

[Otoh]

Maybe E could fund a "Bitcoin Foundation" which would advertise/advocate Bitcoin and provide legal help for people regarding Bitcoins.
Sort of like the EFF.

If I knew a billionaire I'd ask him to fund an independent evaluation of Bitcoin. Hire a prominent IT firm to take it completely apart, evaluate it's properties, it's soundness but avoid any economic evaluation, just the functionality. And then have them give it their stamp of approval.

Bitcoin doesn't need big money investment. It needs small money to feel comfortable using it.

That and throw some lawyers at it to see what they might have to say.

all of these suggestions sound good to me, but for later down the road if E was showing an active interest in Bitcoin's development & potential

[Otoh]

I've checked out & read all the Africa links & topics suggested & something that made mobile to mobile (smart phones being big there) Bitcoin payments & linked to M-Pesa or was an alternative for it would be excellent, as would exchanges in Africa so that peeps could get the local fiat - but if something linked BTC to M-Pesa then that would work & once done money can be easily transferred back home to Africa from abroad in Bitcoins saving the senders being ripped off for up to 20% of their funds by Western Union etc

Obviously the apps for Bitcoin mobile function-ability are in the works & already coming out, so the link to M-Pesa or African exchanges is all that's needed right now - it has to be an initiative from a NPO though to apply for foundation funding

[Otoh]

http://www.technologyreview.com/business/39829/?p1=BI

I'm still interested in trying to help fund any NPO doing this btw

[benjamindees]

Based on the size of the investment and expected balance of trade, this is going to end up being one guy in Nairobi buying Bitcoins until his $20,000 runs out, isn't it?

I mean, do you have any idea how much was invested in Tradehill?  And it failed and could never even afford a MSB license.

[notme]

Based on the size of the investment and expected balance of trade, this is going to end up being one guy in Nairobi buying Bitcoins until his $20,000 runs out, isn't it?

I mean, do you have any idea how much was invested in Tradehill?  And it failed and could never even afford a MSB license.

I have a feeling licensing would be less of an issue outside the US.

[gewure]

No offense, but the speculation forum was the worst place to put this

Our goal is not to sell billionaires large quantities of bitcoins so that the price can go up... instead, we want these billionaires to support adoption with whatever influence they have.  This should be moved to Bitcoin Discussion.

Agreed. Enough with the penny stock nonsense.

The more I read about such stuff the more bearish I become because it’s like we are desperate.

yes. promote the adoption of bitcoin. after all, we don't just use it for speculation, or do we? i at least don't. and i would love to see a bright future for bitcoin guaranteed!

[Otoh]

"This should be moved to Bitcoin Discussion"

I agree

[Otoh]

many thanks for the move & those I know who could potentially help move this forward have been very positive about that so far

[LightRider]

He should get his movie star friends to talk about it.

[Raize]

Otoh, I'm in a similar situation. I know a millionaire who I've been talking to about Bitcoin myself so I'll provide some advice.

I'd just talk to them about money and ask what they think is the makeup of sound currency.

This is of course, a discussion best had after a ton of research, but I'll be frank with you and you can be frank with him: There is just too much risk in fiat money right now.

There was a documentary called "The Money Masters" that I saw about a decade ago. It completely changed my life. It's done in perfect 90s theme, a complete three-and-a-half hours long. Don't let that scare you, though, ultimately it was the most informational piece I've ever watched in probably my entire life, and it does so in a very non-conspiratorial fashion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXt1cayx0hs

Most of our political differences could be resolved if we just had sound currency. From there we could deal with issues in a very straightforward fashion. Bitcoin provides us an avenue to do so.

PLEASE watch Money Masters some night after you've put the kids to bed and have nothing else to do. I promise you that you will not regret it. The guy who made it has also gone on to do other things, and he was wrong with some of his predictions, but ultimately he provided enough warning for me to make adjustments to my investments that have saved me and helped me preserve my finances over the years.

[blablahblah]

You're probably looking at a situation where that billionaire might be willing to be an angel investor. But this means that you need a solid business idea. After all, what I think bitcoin needs right now is an economy, and that means LOTS OF BUSINESSES.

If you want to somehow give your idea a philanthropic slant, how about creating a non-profit consumer protection scheme that provides a viable alternative to chargeback? A "consumer insurance union" of some kind?

[Phinnaeus Gage]

You're probably looking at a situation where that billionaire might be willing to be an angel investor. But this means that you need a solid business idea. After all, what I think bitcoin needs right now is an economy, and that means LOTS OF BUSINESSES.

If you want to somehow give your idea a philanthropic slant, how about creating a non-profit consumer protection scheme that provides a viable alternative to chargeback? A "consumer insurance union" of some kind?

For the past few days, I've been thinking about something like this, but didn't know how viable it would be until now--seeing it penned by another user.

~Bruno~

[finway]

I want to know how this going.

[Electricbees]

Fuck the billionairas



that is all.

I have to agree with this. We don't need 'em...

[unabridged]

The best thing a billionaire could do would be to buy into companies (or use companies they already have large investments in) and convince them to add bitcoin to their payment/withdraw methods. A few midlevel online retailers accepting bitcoins could make a huge difference. Also another area would be companies that buy/sell online ads, imagine an ad network that could pay out hourly/daily with no chargebacks.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

If I were a billionaire, and I wanted to give a few of my friends/cronies a nice Christmas present, I would tell each of them, independently, to invest part of their portfolio in Bitcoin, for come later this year I'm going to announce something big. Most likely, each investor will at least double their investment due in part to me following through with my kind gesture.

~Bruno~

[blablahblah]

For the past few days, I've been thinking about something like this, but didn't know how viable it would be until now--seeing it penned by another user.

~Bruno~

Thanks! All I know is there's a gap and ordinary buyers can be easily caught out with no easy recourse. I'm thinking it's really an amalgamation of two ideas.

1) A "Fair Go" like website that educates people with a list of known scams, a stay-safe checklist, basic training on web security/encrypting wallets etc, instructions on going to the police with the right information, and maybe a database of suspicious recipient addresses and/or convicted individuals. An FAQ? And definitely balance it out with some coaching on Bitcoin's natural advantages. Basically a sincere place that I could send my Aunt to arm her with knowledge without worrying (too much) that's she'll get put off.
2) Insurance where members are willing to pay a fee to a "refund pool" that they own shares in. I suspect there could be loopholes, which would make that a trickier venture.