People keep asking me "What is the best way to convert my bitcoins to cash?"... anyone know a good answer that you know works (first hand)?
If in Europe - Bitstamp.net? Just remind them of tax issues if they earned money on speculation.
Bitcoin nodes surged to 200k
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Re: Bitcoin nodes surged to 200k
#22People keep asking me "What is the best way to convert my bitcoins to cash?"... anyone know a good answer that you know works (first hand)?
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Re: Bitcoin nodes surged to 200k
#23This is _highly_ misleading. The actual number of nodes that they're measuring is 11,664, which is a sudden increase from a slowly declining level of about 4,400 as of a month ago. The 196,123 number is a count of the number of distinct IP addresses being rumored between nodes. Most of them are never working garbage sent into the network by confused software, misguided would-be DOS attackers, etc.
> a sudden increase from a slowly declining level
That's worrying. I'm much more concerned about a Sybil attack or similar attack on the P2P network than an attack on the cryptography. Given the current size of the ledger, the average person will not want to run a node. I guess one mitigating factor is that the mining pool operators can take steps to ensure they are well connected to each other.
Re: Bitcoin nodes surged to 200k
#24This is _highly_ misleading. The actual number of nodes that they're measuring is 11,664, which is a sudden increase from a slowly declining level of about 4,400 as of a month ago. The 196,123 number is a count of the number of distinct IP addresses being rumored between nodes. Most of them are never working garbage sent into the network by confused software, misguided would-be DOS attackers, etc.
If the actual number is still doubling rapidly from a recent nadir, isn't the implication the same? Also, for people who don't see this as natural (and I agree that it looks almost mechanical), is this a misguided "51%" attack? (Seems unlikely given that if you have the resources for that, you also probably understand how it works.) Just curious what people see this sudden change as representing.
> Also, for people who don't see this as natural (and I agree that it looks almost mechanical), is this a misguided "51%" attack?
No. The whole point of the POW mechanism is to frustrate cheap easy Sybil attacks where someone sets up a few thousand IPs and dictates what the network says.
Re: Bitcoin nodes surged to 200k
#25People keep asking me "What is the best way to convert my bitcoins to cash?"... anyone know a good answer that you know works (first hand)?
One relatively easy route is to setup a coinbase account, link it to your bank account, and have your coins converted and deposited from there.
Coinbase handled the recent surge in traffic pretty poorly. When prices tanked / fluctuated heavily, they turned off the ability to buy citing "a lack of bitcoin" and told users they could put in buy orders now for the market price on Friday or Monday. Two days later when the price is back up to ~$700 you can mysteriously buy again.
I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but USD liquidity has been extraordinarily frustrating over the past several days since most exchanges are foreign (and US bank wires take days to weeks).
Re: Bitcoin nodes surged to 200k
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
It depends heavily on where you are, which bank you're with, with whom you're a citizen of, and a myriad of other factors. Canadians may have an easier time than Americans, but Britons will be SOL.
> Britons will be SOL Is it that hard to set up on BitBargain?
VAT applies to BTCGBP, so that really dampens adoption in the UK.
Re: Bitcoin nodes surged to 200k
#27I think that perhaps a large portion of Bitcoin nodes are "dormant," i.e. offline until the owner feels like updating in order to make a transaction.
Re: Bitcoin nodes surged to 200k
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
One relatively easy route is to setup a coinbase account, link it to your bank account, and have your coins converted and deposited from there.
Coinbase handled the recent surge in traffic pretty poorly. When prices tanked / fluctuated heavily, they turned off the ability to buy citing "a lack of bitcoin" and told users they could put in buy orders now for the market price on Friday or Monday. Two days later when the price is back up to ~$700 you can mysteriously buy again. I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but USD liquidity has been extraordinarily frust…
I thought we were talking about converting to cash, not buying. I agree that the hard stop on buying is extremely annoying, and that makes coinbase a bad choice for playing the market. If you want to do fast transactional orders, CampBx is probably a better choice.