The fireworks and sound were extremely annoying. I'm not used to web pages making noise on my iPhone and was unprepared for it.
It's just for fun...
Bitcoin Block #210 000 mined - reward halving
61–70 of 118 posts
Re: Bitcoin Block #210 000 mined - reward halving
#62After the bitcoin debacle, it went from $30+ to $3- and I knew if it were to rebound to that same price again, that would be the perfect time to buy.
Three dollars, now I regret it.
Re: Bitcoin Block #210 000 mined - reward halving
#63Is it time to haunt eBay for cheap video cards unloaded by miners who no longer find mining worthwhile?
Re: Bitcoin Block #210 000 mined - reward halving
#64The fireworks and sound were extremely annoying. I'm not used to web pages making noise on my iPhone and was unprepared for it.
Nobody is, that's why it's usually pissing everyone. A "Party" button might have done a better job.
Some kind of fuse or something to show what was about to happen with a 'stop' button might have been better. I don't think anyone would click a 'party' button.
Re: Bitcoin Block #210 000 mined - reward halving
#65What might this do to the acceptance of bitcoin? In an article yesterday, someone mentioned in the comments that it was no longer financially viable to make money from mining, I would assume that this would make it doubly so. If that is the case, will there be required transaction fees for processing transactions, and how will that effect the price of BTC?
This person is misinformed. Mining is still quite profitable to many of us. Eg. each one of my Cairnsmore1 FPGA boards makes about $43/month, after the halving. Before the halving, they made $86/month. I paid $640 for each one. Electrical cost for one of them (40W) is $2.90/month at the worldwide average rate of $0.10/kWh.
This sounds like good business. Any links on getting started? I'm especially curious about the legal aspects like how you report mined-Bitcoin income when you do taxes.
Re: Bitcoin Block #210 000 mined - reward halving
#66Bitcoin is looking increasingly less practical. The size of the block chain is becoming massive. Recently I tried downloading the official client, and after 2.8GB of downloading with the progress bar only about half way through I gave up. If Bitcoin becomes more popular in future the block chain really isn't going to scale well, and that's going to result in a more centralized system in which there are fewer block ch…
I think that the sustainability issue can be managed with bloom filters etc, but you are correct. Under the current model where the entire block chain must be in the possession of every client, Bitcoin is not remotely close to sustainable. Imagine if, in order to process credit cards, you had to download transaction data for every credit card transaction in the history of credit cards. What surprises me is that the o…
They never expected anyone to actually use it.
Re: Bitcoin Block #210 000 mined - reward halving
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
So it takes the better part of a year to make your money back? What kind of money do you make on transaction fees?
You can make your money back in 3 months. Because after 3 months you would have mined $129, and the resale value of the board is at least $500 on eBay. So, in essence, anything mined after 3 months is pure profits. However I don't recommend anyone to buy FPGAs right now, as ASICs are coming in December/January, and they will change the game. Transactions fees only increase my revenues by ~1%.
What do you think the resale value of that board will be after everyone switches to the next great tech? The long-term trend for BTC mining is always going to be that it is not profitable for people who pay average or above-average for electricity. If you invest capital at the right point in a tech-surge then I'm sure you can see some profits but this business has almost no barrier to entry so you should not expect it to be something you can rely on for profits.
Re: Bitcoin Block #210 000 mined - reward halving
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
What happens when nearly all of the 21 million Bitcoins are mined[1]? Will transactions not happen anymore? [1] - https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Controlled_Currency_Supply#Projec...
The reward for mining a block just halved; it'll continue to halve as the supply increases, so that 21 million is not the endpoint so much as it is an asymptote.
That's why I said nearly all.
By the end of the century, there will be one Bitcoin left to mine.
Re: Bitcoin Block #210 000 mined - reward halving
#69Looks like the exchange rate didn't fluctuate too much during this time: http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#rg5ztgSzbgBzm1g10zm... I wonder what will happen to the difficulty over the next couple days: http://bitcoin.sipa.be/ Considering the exchange rate remained stable, I expect the difficulty to halve.
I expect the moon to be made of green cheese. ... GPU mining is still fairly profitable with the half reward for ~most people (those who don't have electricity over $.15/kwh or so). My expectation is that the difficulty is currently lower than its proper equilibrium because people have opted to not purchase more GPUs while anticipating the introduction of ASIC devices.
Where do you get the $0.15/kWh figure from? I am curious, since this seems to make it sound like there is a stable formula for converting kWh's to BTC's. That will of course depend on the exchange rate, but I'd like to see the figures.
Re: Bitcoin Block #210 000 mined - reward halving
#70Bitcoin is looking increasingly less practical. The size of the block chain is becoming massive. Recently I tried downloading the official client, and after 2.8GB of downloading with the progress bar only about half way through I gave up. If Bitcoin becomes more popular in future the block chain really isn't going to scale well, and that's going to result in a more centralized system in which there are fewer block ch…
I think that the sustainability issue can be managed with bloom filters etc, but you are correct. Under the current model where the entire block chain must be in the possession of every client, Bitcoin is not remotely close to sustainable. Imagine if, in order to process credit cards, you had to download transaction data for every credit card transaction in the history of credit cards. What surprises me is that the o…
So, what I don't get is why can't I, as a user, just pick how far back I want to go? Why can't some trusted party, like bitcoin.org post a their best guess for the block chain state 10 days ago. Isn't that sufficient to determine with a high level of certainty that I am on the correct branch and that there has been no funny business in the history?