Poll: How many Bitcoins do you own? • Hacker News Board

Re: Poll: How many Bitcoins do you own?

#71

Post by the_watcher » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 4:25 PM UTC

crisnoble wrote: post #36

theboss wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly this. I have some nonzero amount when I mined for 1 afternoon. Technically I don't have zero but I shouldnt be in the same category as people with a thousand dollars worth. With that said.... I said I have zero in the poll.

I think I have .0005 left over in a wallet somewhere. I also said zero. Seeing all this loose change and no easy way to get it out of there I'm wondering if someone can suggest a charity who would accept the measly amounts but use the aggregate for good.

This is a good idea for a charity. Wonder how tough it would be to set up? Anyone with interest in looking into it, email me, might be a fun side project to play with some BTC tools.

Re: Poll: How many Bitcoins do you own?

#72

Post by the_watcher » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 4:26 PM UTC

Fuxy wrote: post #65

I have 1 BTC I really love the idea of using it and if a had a easy and consistent way of getting it i would use it for most of my online transactions. As it stands now it's incredibly hard to find someone selling BTC unless you're willing to mail a copy of your ID over the internet something i would never do.

What's wrong with Coinbase? I'm genuinely curious, I had no idea that people have issues buying and selling it, since I've only ever used Coinbase.

Re: Poll: How many Bitcoins do you own?

#73

Post by the_watcher » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 4:29 PM UTC

Thiz wrote: post #33

In a couple of years it will be nearly impossible to own ONE single bitcoin for the majority of the population of the world. Satoshis aplenty but bitcoins, fugget about it.

At that point the microBTC will become the de facto denomination. It's already fairly close to that, IMO. When 1 unit of something is worth 100x the most widely available currency, it's no longer useful to list prices in that denomination.

Re: Poll: How many Bitcoins do you own?

#74

Post by the_watcher » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 4:30 PM UTC

okasaki wrote: post #28

I mined about 50BTC years ago (when it took around 1 day CPU time), but a constantly deflating currency seemed like a dumb idea so I deleted it. It still seems like a dumb idea, but now I wish I hadn't.

Wait, you just deleted 50 BTC? That was possible?

Re: Poll: How many Bitcoins do you own?

#75

Post by olalonde » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 4:31 PM UTC

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #9

Shouldn’t option 2 be ‘0.00000001-10’ instead of ‘0-10’? As it is stated now, someone with no BTC should vote for option 1 as well as option 2. Actually, the other options overlap too. I suggest using ‘11-20’, ‘21-50’, ‘51-200’, ‘201-1,000’, and ‘1,001-10,000’. EDIT: I adjusted option 2 to start with less than 1 but more than zero. Thanks for the correction. I also agree with other commenters that the ‘1-10’ range is…

Oops, good catch... I just edited the poll.

Re: Poll: How many Bitcoins do you own?

#76

Post by mgkimsal » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 4:34 PM UTC

TomGullen wrote: post #57

mgkimsal wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go talk to Burnley S&L http://www.burnleysavingsandloans.co.uk/about-us/ See if Dave can help.

Thanks! Loved that documentary on Channel 4. Have dropped them an email asking if they can help. I'm not clear if they provide online banking or instant transfer notifications (SMS for example) which would be a core requirement for running a Bitcoin exchange. But I've asked, and hopefully something could come of it!

Would love to know if they can help you take up the banner for btc. It may be too 'new fangled' for Dave to get involved in, but the democritazation(?) aspect may be something he'd be willing to help out with.

In any event, let us know if something comes of it! Go Dave!

Re: Poll: How many Bitcoins do you own?

#77

Post by olalonde » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 4:34 PM UTC

jere wrote: post #59

4 poll responders have over $1.5 million in BTC?

Those polls are rarely accurate especially at the edges (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5536734). I added a "5,000,001+" option just to see how many people will click it.

Re: Poll: How many Bitcoins do you own?

#78

Post by eliben » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 4:35 PM UTC

mozboz wrote: post #51

eliben wrote: post #24

The dominance of 0 in the answers is illuminating

At time of writing 2/7ths of respondents own > 0 bitcoin. Are there many other new technologies you'd expect 2/7ths of all respondents to use/own? Especially one that doesn't really have a direct use to most consumers yet and high risk for people investing. 2/7th's is huge.

From HN I'd expect more than that. Don't confuse HN-ers with "general population".

Re: Poll: How many Bitcoins do you own?

#79

Post by znowi » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 4:45 PM UTC

I'd like to hear some stories from the 10k crowd :)

Re: Poll: How many Bitcoins do you own?

#80

Post by gus_massa » Mon, Oct 14, 2013, 4:46 PM UTC

the_watcher wrote: post #74

okasaki wrote: post #28

I mined about 50BTC years ago (when it took around 1 day CPU time), but a constantly deflating currency seemed like a dumb idea so I deleted it. It still seems like a dumb idea, but now I wish I hadn't.

Wait, you just deleted 50 BTC? That was possible?

Actually, he hasn’t deleted the 50 BC. They are still there but they are trapped. He only deleted the only copy of the key to transfer them, so those BC will be trapped there “forever”.

Actually it’s possible to brute-force search for the key and make the BC free, and transfer them. But with the same method it’s possible to steal BC. The brute-force method is just too slow, and would require a few thousands or perhaps millions of years. (I don’t remember the exact estimation.)

With the help of the Moor’s law and some advance breaking the cryptographic security measures, this can happen sooner, but this would be a problem for every BC user.