Bitcoin

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SquidInk
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Bitcoin

Post by SquidInk » 01-04-2011 11:22 AM

Could a peer-to-peer economy actually work?

http://www.bitcoin.org/
Bitcoin P2P Virtual Currency

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer digital currency. Peer-to-peer (P2P) means that there is no central authority to issue new money or keep track of transactions. Instead, these tasks are managed collectively by the nodes of the network. Advantages:

* Bitcoins can be sent easily through the Internet, without having to trust middlemen.
* Transactions are designed to be irreversible.
* Be safe from instability caused by fractional reserve banking and central banks. The limited inflation of the Bitcoin system’s money supply is distributed evenly (by CPU power) throughout the network, not monopolized by banks.

Bitcoin is an open source project currently in beta development stage. Development is hosted at SourceForge.

Using Bitcoin:

For the first hour or two the block count will increase rapidly as the block chain is received.

Turn on Options->Generate Coins to contribute your idle CPU time to the network. Bitcoin runs in the background when your computer is idle and should not slow down other programs.

The total eventual circulation will be 21 million bitcoins. There will never be more coins than that. The coins are entering circulation gradually, at a steady pace over many years, to nodes supporting the network in proportion to the CPU time they contribute. With the current total CPU power on the network, most CPUs will usually take months between successfully generating 50 BTC.

You can get a few free bitcoins from the Bitcoin Faucet. If Bitcoin is running when you receive a transaction, you can see it immediately, otherwise it may take 10 minutes or more after it was sent, and all blocks need to have finished downloading. As of December 2010, there are 97000 blocks.

To receive incoming connections, set your firewall to forward port 8333 (TCP) to your computer. This increases the number of nodes you can connect with.


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Re: Bitcoin

Post by Riddick » 01-04-2011 06:47 PM

SquidInk wrote: Could a peer-to-peer economy actually work?
Maybe... it's certainly worth a try, IMHO. Then again, what would it be worth to those that have substantial stake in the way things are now?

That is to say, with vested interests in the current system being as they are, I have to wonder how long WOULD a peer-to-peer economy actually BE ALLOWED to work?

Especially if it's a threat to Homeland Security, y'know.

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Post by SquidInk » 01-12-2011 10:14 AM


For if it profit, none dare call it Treason.

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Post by Riddick » 10-17-2012 09:08 PM

78 percent of Bitcoin currency stashed under digital mattress, study finds
Significantly fewer digital coins are in circulation than previously presumed.
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Post by Riddick » 03-27-2013 03:19 AM

When Governments Take Your Money, Bitcoin Looks Really Good

Three years ago, when the currency was unveiled in February 2010, one bitcoin was worth just $0.03 - but a single BTC is now worth a record 75 US dollars thanks largely to Europeans, spooked by the financial crisis in Cyprus, buying up bitcoins at a blistering rate.

Interest in the digital cryptocurrency makes sense: As an asset class, it’s more or less the equivalent of hiding gold bars under your mattress without the hassle. Like real gold, Bitcoin arguably has no intrinsic value, but a limited supply in both has steadily helped push up its valuation as demand outstrips supply--albeit without the historical credibility of the yellow shiny stuff. And since bitcoins are currently unregulated, it’s an obvious hedge against government wrongdoing.

In the face of financial calamity, Bitcoin is beginning to look not just like another another viable alternative, but perhaps the only option.

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Post by Riddick » 03-27-2013 03:28 AM

Last edited by Riddick on 01-07-2017 04:03 PM, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by Riddick » 03-28-2013 12:50 AM

How To 'Mine' Bitcoins And Make Real Money

Bitcoins are a completely anonymous digital currency that can be converted into real cash.

And most interestingly, you can use your computer to "mine" them.

It's something akin to prospecting for gold, except now you're hunting for 64-digit numbers. By having your computer repeatedly solve puzzles, you're competing with other miners to generate the number that the Bitcoin network is looking for. If your computer generates it, you receive 25 Bitcoins.

We're going to show you two ways to get mining as part of a pool. The first is a no-frills get-started-right-away method. The second is slightly more involved and lets you take advantage of your computer's graphics processing chip to mine alongside a network of others.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-m ... ins-2013-3

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Post by Dale O Sea » 03-28-2013 11:13 AM

If your computer generates it, you receive 25 Bitcoins...
Sounds like the lottery..

May as well use your cycles for SETI or making proteins.

I've heard it's a bitch to convert them too. Limits and very volatile pricing. Almost as hard as the Cypriots getting at their cash.
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Post by Fan » 03-28-2013 11:20 AM

Bitcoin is a fine idea. I would not bother trying to mine them unless you have some serious computer systems, and I don't mean a quad-core.

No Agenda is not really understanding the whole concept I think... bitcoin is still in early stages, but it has survived more attacks than I thought it would.

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Post by Dale O Sea » 03-28-2013 11:26 AM

Agree - The idea is great. It's the implementation I have problems with, but then I don't even get it as well as Dvorak, and he has a less favorable opinion on this than me.

Surviving is one thing, but being a viable, useful currency may be in bitcoin's future, but is not here now..at least from what I'm reading online. I have none myself and have researched it little, very little.
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Post by Fan » 03-28-2013 11:50 AM

Think of it like a barter system. You can only barter for what other people are offering... we could say that farmers bartering goods is useless because if I have carrots I can't get an ipod, but that is simply not how it works. It is not a currency accepted worldwide, it is a fledgling barter system, with an amazingly large adoption in such a short time.

In reality currency is the same way, the only reason you can trade one type of currency for another is because someone is willing to buy it.

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Post by Riddick » 12-11-2013 03:06 AM

927 People Own Half The Bitcoins
Ownership of Bitcoins appears to be highly lopsided.
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Post by Cherry Kelly » 12-12-2013 12:56 PM

CANNOT find article - but read it -- think it said JPMORGAN has now PATENTED the Bitcoin which means everyone will owe $$ on their use. ???

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Post by Fan » 12-12-2013 01:08 PM

Cherry Kelly wrote: CANNOT find article - but read it -- think it said JPMORGAN has now PATENTED the Bitcoin which means everyone will owe $$ on their use. ???
they can't patent it since it exists and they did not invent it... they have come up with an alternate system, which they will push now. Lots of money in this! Look how much PayPal made :)

http://rt.com/business/bitcoin-jpmorgan ... -cash-116/

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Could Bitcoin Be The Solution To Governments' "War On Cash"?

Post by Riddick » 01-07-2017 04:27 PM

Whether they’re Indians struggling with the effects of demonetization, Chinese currency speculators, Swedish pensioners, or desperate Venezuelans, people on the sharp end of the war on cash might be starting to find the idea of a stateless cryptocurrency controlled by no-one a little more attractive.

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