Bitcoin

Stephen

Who Dares Wins
Moderator
I know there are a few of you to there doing Bitcoiny stuff. What is your experience? How'd you start into it? Have you used it to make actual purchases? Ups, downs? Use any of the alternatives (Litecoin, Peercoin)? How do they compare?
 

Kevin B.

Big hippy
Moderator
Location
Vehicular limbo
I though Bitcoin was entirely virtual, how do you store it offline? And with the hullabaloo over Silk Road, what's out there you can actually trade Bitcoin for?
 

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wyoming
I though Bitcoin was entirely virtual, how do you store it offline? And with the hullabaloo over Silk Road, what's out there you can actually trade Bitcoin for?

Once created, your wallet public key becomes part of the blockchain. To spend/widthdraw/transfer coins from your wallet, you need the private key. Simply create a new public/private key on a throw away operating system, write or print it out, store in a safe

There are thousands of online companies that now accept bitcoin, including recently overstock.com.
http://coinmap.org/
 

Stephen

Who Dares Wins
Moderator
Once created, your wallet public key becomes part of the blockchain. To spend/widthdraw/transfer coins from your wallet, you need the private key. Simply create a new public/private key on a throw away operating system, write or print it out, store in a safe

Explain. Once you've done this, you wipe the OS? Why?
 

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wyoming
Explain. Once you've done this, you wipe the OS? Why?

Kinda. You just boot from a live OS. Run it from a USB stick. Something that won't store your private key after you write it down or print it.
I'm even weary of printing it because some printers keep a record of what's been printed over a certain period of time.

This is what the btc millionaires are doing anyways. I don't own nearly enough btc to be paranoid.
 

Stephen

Who Dares Wins
Moderator
Kinda. You just boot from a live OS. Run it from a USB stick. Something that won't store your private key after you write it down or print it.
I'm even weary of printing it because some printers keep a record of what's been printed over a certain period of time.

This is what the btc millionaires are doing anyways. I don't own nearly enough btc to be paranoid.

Interesting. Why is this?
 

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wyoming
Interesting. Why is this?

It's just the safest way. There are already stories of people getting 100+ coins stolen from their wallets because of malware and other issues. Taking your wallet offline ensures that you won't fall victim. Only take what you want to horde offline as it makes it pretty difficult to spend. But there are ways to create multiple "wallets" with set amounts in them that you can trade for goods off-line. It's pretty interesting how far you can take it.

Honestly, it's not too different from storing a bunch of gold bricks in your house that somebody can see from the window. Somebody will break in and take it if the reward greatly outweighs the risk. Need to take away that initial incentive. Hide your wealth.
 

ozzy702

Well-Known Member
Location
Sandy, UT
I mined around 150 coins back in the day and had no idea it would ever get this big. I made good money and it payed for a bunch of cool hardware but man... every time I hear the word bitcoin I cringe at all the money I missed out on.
 

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wyoming
It's over 2 hours, but Andreas Antonopoulos is pretty much a genius on this topic. He breaks it down very well on this JRE podcast.
If you haven't listened to JRE before, sometimes the language can not be very work safe. Use headphones.

The first little bit are his podcast ads, just skip past it.

[video=vimeo;85214726]http://vimeo.com/85214726[/video]
 

Caleb

Well-Known Member
Location
Riverton
Nowadays you have to be very careful with bitcoin. There is a reason Overstock accepts it but doesn't own any as a company. You can take huge losses if you're not careful. As mentioned, even using super powerful a sic chips, your chances of mining a coin any more is almost impossible. Joining a pool is the only chance you have. Most reports now are you won't ever break even on the amount of power it takes to mine a coin. Ofcourse there's always those that get lucky, but as a general rule, you'll spend more to mine the coin than it's actually worth.

I'm 100% in favor of bitcoin, I think decentralizing money is going to be key to a stable financial market. The market is there for it, the other day, Tesla sold a Model S using bitcoin. Overstock made around $130K in sales the first day they started accepting it. It's pretty cool to see this happening.
 
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Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wyoming
Absolutely, it's nearly impossible to mine btc right now, even being part of a pool your chances are extremely slim of actually making much like you said. LTC and a few other namecoins are still 'mine-able' by most average people. But even ltc is getting out of range in difficulty.

Overstock may not own any as a company, but I understand your CEO has a few million packed away in BTC. :eek: I think it's awesome and I love seeing more and more companies stepping up to accept it.
 

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wyoming
Meet Patrick Byrne: Bitcoin Messiah, CEO of Overstock, Scourge of Wall Street

The problem with the modern economy, Byrne says, is that it rests on the whims of our government and our big banks, that each has the power to create money that’s backed by nothing but themselves. Thanks to what’s called fractional reserve banking, a bank can take in $10 in deposits, but then loan out $100. The government can make more dollars at any time, instantly reducing the currency’s value. Eventually, he says, laying down a classic libertarian metaphor, this “magic money tree” will come crashing down.

But bitcoin is different. It’s like online gold: The supply of the digital currency is controlled by software running across a worldwide network of computers, and its value is decided not by the feds or the big banks, but by the people. “It can make our country more robust,” says Byrne, a disciple of the Austrian school of economics, which holds that our economy should rest on the judgments of individuals, not a central authority. “We want a money that some government mandarin can’t just whisk into existence with a pen stroke.”

‘You would have an instant, frictionless market, while having the added benefit of wiping out a whole parasitic class of society — that is, the whole financial industry’

The entire article is worth the read.
 

ricsrx

Well-Known Member
I do not understand the bit coin economy, but my brother who is in sales for an electronic board manufacturer was contacted about a year ago, the dude was offering to pay big bucks for a specifically designed board to be installed in PC's that would mine bit coins?? Does this make sense to any one?
 
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