BITCOINS...tax free money.

well there's a good chance that your money will become worthless in a couple of years and we'll all be rich.

 

There is indeed a chance of that.But I'm keeping my cards close to my chest here.I wish you all the best with your get rich scheme.

 

is there a pretty good chance that bitcoin will eventually become worthless?

also, as computing power increases exponentially....can we assume that hackers will eventually be able to crack the encryption on bitcoin making it unsafe?

 

it's not a get rich scheme. it's meant to be an alternate form of currency that isn't affiliated with any government "bank."

a good thing.

but since you're not american, maybe you don't have as much distrust for federal banks like we do...

 

I also thought it was just an alternate form of currency,etc.it's only recently that I've heard you can scam money out of it.I'm sure if it really catches on and goes mainstream all of us doubters will end up using it.I just think it's too early days to trust.Of course it requires belief to make it work,just like any exchange mechanism.

Don't worry,I am also mistrustful of the fed,even here across the pond,as what they do heavily impacts the world economy,including the UK.We also have a central bank that prints money from nowhere,although it is not technically "owned" by other private banks as the fed is muted to be.

 

well I believe in btc in general because of that mistrust, but to properly fight that system, we'll need more than btc. We need a couple successful cryptocurrencies out there...

And btc isnt a get rich quick scheme, but if you happen to be around for the beginning of any currency's development, you might get rich quite quickly. I know a few people who just had btc sitting in their wallet that they bought for silk road, forgot about it, and ended up with 10k.

 

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/427430/canada-to-mint-its-own-crypto-currency/

 

Aaand we've broken through the $200 barrier once again. Congratulations gentlemen/women, we are getting rich. arty:

 

I understand that people who had bitcoins in the Silk Road exchange have had their bitcoins confiscated.

http://rt.com/news/silk-road-bitcoins-us-britain-934/

 

I have a lot more distrust for a currency that is not backed by anyone or any government then I do of the federal banks. The later at least have some interest in the currency maintaining its value.

 

Ponzi Scheme?

From the Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin#Bitcoin_as_an_investment

 

Why bitcoin isn't a Ponzi scheme:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Myths#It.27s_a_giant_ponzi_scheme

 

Just because it's not technically a ponzi scheme doesn't mean it's not a shady scheme nonetheless. And even if it wasn't outright devious, doesn't make it any less sketchy or environmentally irresponsible. Bitcoin mining uses twice as much energy to turn a profit than extracting tar sand oil.

 

Shady as in early adopters who believe in it get the highest rewards?
So exactly the same as what happened with Microsoft and Apple etc.?

About the environmental issue, I can direct you here again.

And if you are interested in keeping a minute to minute eye on the volatile rollercoaster fun, you can click here.

 

Cracking the encryption is how bitcoin works, it's a proof of work cryptograpic system. Faster computers just mean more work for the new block chain, and the networks running at like 3 petahashes now.

 

I am trying to crack the encryption as we speak. But with the current difficulty of 390 million it's not all that much fun anymore as a miner.
The future of mining is for the rich or for big companies. Only a few will be able to play that game and I am sure that is not how Bitcoin was originally intented. Or was it...?

 

I bet it was more an experiment than anything. I may be wrong, but I suspect the inventor of Bitcoin is surprised by it's success.

You've got one of those BFL miners correct? There are other interesting crypto things to do with those besides mine bitcoins.

 

Nope not BFL, I wouldn't ever order something from them.
I got a KnC miner and once the Bitcoin difficulty is too high I'll switch to other coins.

 

I haven't looked into suppliers too much, I just use an old 7970 for litecoin. Are BFL not known for reliability?

That KnC looks really cool. What's your average with that?

The only hesitation I have with those ASIC's are they are SHA256 limited, but I'm a bit jealous. I'm not certain if I want to invest more in mining now, but I kinda think I do.

 

BFL does still have a backlog of many months worth of orders. Some people who ordered last year don't even have their rigs yet.

My KnC Jupiter does an average of around 470 GH/s, which is not the 550 is it supposed to be able to hash at, but it's still more than the 350 it was originally intended to do.

Your limitation shouldn't be the SHA256, although I do admit I would like to be able to mine scrypt too, but your limitation should be the dangerous fast rising difficulty. This is a miners nightmare and it doesn't seem to slow down anytime soon.
There are still plenty of altcoins to mine with SHA256, I even merge mine NameCoins along with BTC. How many Litecoins do you mine with your 7970?

I do look into next generation rigs, but I doubt next year anything less than 5 TH/s (terrahash per second) at a price of more than 1$ per GH/s will be worth it. Even as a miner I'd recommend to buy BTC now rather than investing in a rig. But we'll see, for sure some interesting months are coming up.