Bitcoin

[jimdt7]

Many thanks to Grix for getting me into this bitcoin thing! Looks like more and more stores accept bitcoins nowadays! :beer:

Jim

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

[Jmillerdoc]

Grix- according to today's value you gave away over $800 USD at the start of this thread! Like anything good I always show up too late. Would have been nice to buy 100 Bitcoins at the start of this thread.

 

[3Pig]

One of my pet peeves with using bitcoin as money (love to trade it though ) is that when you buy anything with it from a store which has adopted btc they charge at a horrible exchange rate. Its also way too volatile to be taken seriously as a currency, I see it more like a stock.

I also hate to see bitcoin take all the media flak for all cryptos, stupid news outlets...

 

[Grix]

One of my pet peeves with using bitcoin as money (love to trade it though ) is that when you buy anything with it from a store which has adopted btc they charge at a horrible exchange rate.

What do you mean? Nearly all bitcoin accepting stores operate at the most realistic exchange rate based on the highest solid bid rate across multiple exchanges, how it that horrible? For example, bitpay's rate is as of now $565.04, exactly the same as the bid price on the largest exchange, bitstamp. Perfectly fair.

Its also way too volatile to be taken seriously as a currency, I see it more like a stock.

I disagree, I have used bitcoin as a currency for almost three years now and I don't worry too much about the exchange rate. Massive spikes or drops are much rarer than the media/etc makes it seem, I am comfortable storing hundreds of dollars in bitcoin long-term and certainly short term.

I also hate to see bitcoin take all the media flak for all cryptos, stupid news outlets...

Like it or not, bitcoin is an order of magnitude larger than all the other cryptocurrencies combined, both in market cap and adoption. Of course it gets the most attention.

 

[3Pig]

I have to agree with why Bitcoin is seen as the face of cryptos, but when I saw how Mt.Gox closing down influenced the bitcoin price I came to think that bitcoin is not a place for my money. Basically I panic sold and I'm a little mad. Overall I LOVE cryptos and hope for their growth in the future.

 

[ARG]

Never panic sell. Always worth more to old onto it.

Next time when everyone is panic selling, buy some coin instead!

 

[Sigurthr]

I still kick myself for not jumping on BTC when I could have when it was $2.50/BTC.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

I disagree, I have used bitcoin as a currency for almost three years now and I don't worry too much about the exchange rate. Massive spikes or drops are much rarer than the media/etc makes it seem, I am comfortable storing hundreds of dollars in bitcoin long-term and certainly short term.

Are you kidding me? Look at the change in exchange rate over just the past half year.

Even soon after were first giving away half a BTC in this very thread when a BTC was worth about $7 it shot up by about 10x that value in about three (3) months. That was just a tiny jump in value compared to what would come. In December we saw BTC shoot up to over $1000/BTC, about 100x its value a year before. Look at how things have changed. Now it's about 50x that in value, and that was only in a matter of a year.

Rarely would even the most volatile of stocks fluctuate like that except in a massive financial disaster. It didn't mean that people were making huge amounts of money though, because nobody would trade BTC because of the volatility. It caused a huge credit crunch of sorts. That's what we don't want out of a currency.

Perhaps the only reason you can comfortably store hundreds of dollars in BTC is that it has jumped in value so much that the fluctuations don't seem as big relative to the exchange rate as they once were. Still, even now, BTC is very volatile even on those scales. From Feb 1st, the currency has lost 1/4th of its value. In early March it spiked 15% or so, only to slide back down.

What BTC really needs is to stabilize so that people don't feel compelled to hoard the currency or dump it, but rather spend and exchange it for goods. I thought it would settle around $100/BTC, which I was quite amazed at, but instead it is 5x or even 10x that. I don't even know what it'll settle at, but it'd be nice if it were relatively stable over longer periods like a year or so. It was pretty good in May to October, but the last four months alone have been ridiculous.

I want BTC to succeed, but it needs to settle down.

 

[ARG]

I still kick myself for not jumping on BTC when I could have when it was $2.50/BTC.

I'm kicking myself for not mining more. I mined 0.2BTC back when it was 4$/BTC and was rather disappointed that after a weeks I only got 50 cents.

Luckily I still had my BTC guild password

Edit: I can't math or somthing.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Well, it's like buying certain stocks at the right time. Who even knew that BTC would skyrocket after having such mediocre exchange rates for so long? For a while it was just a novelty currency, or a way to buy black market goods.

 

[Grix]

Are you kidding me? Look at the change in exchange rate over just the past half year.

Even soon after were first giving away half a BTC in this very thread when a BTC was worth about $7 it shot up by about 10x that value in about three (3) months. That was just a tiny jump in value compared to what would come. In December we saw BTC shoot up to over $1000/BTC, about 100x its value a year before. Look at how things have changed. Now it's about 50x that in value, and that was only in a matter of a year.

Rarely would even the most volatile of stocks fluctuate like that except in a massive financial disaster. It didn't mean that people were making huge amounts of money though, because nobody would trade BTC because of the volatility. It caused a huge credit crunch of sorts. That's what we don't want out of a currency.

Perhaps the only reason you can comfortably store hundreds of dollars in BTC is that it has jumped in value so much that the fluctuations don't seem as big relative to the exchange rate as they once were. Still, even now, BTC is very volatile even on those scales. From Feb 1st, the currency has lost 1/4th of its value. In early March it spiked 15% or so, only to slide back down.

What BTC really needs is to stabilize so that people don't feel compelled to hoard the currency or dump it, but rather spend and exchange it for goods. I thought it would settle around $100/BTC, which I was quite amazed at, but instead it is 5x or even 10x that. I don't even know what it'll settle at, but it'd be nice if it were relatively stable over longer periods like a year or so. It was pretty good in May to October, but the last four months alone have been ridiculous.

I want BTC to succeed, but it needs to settle down.

That's a little unfair consider the last six months have probably been the most drama-filled period in bitcoin's history, of course that will have an impact on price. But between bubbles the price is much more stable. Of course the best thing would be a constant price but I stand by my opinion that bitcoin is, even now, stable enough to be used as a currency.

And many people seem to agree, for example even though I also accept paypal in my store, the majority of my customers choose to pay using bitcoin! And look at stores like tigerdirect.com and overstock.com, both of which have reached a million dollars in bitcoin sales within just a month or so of when they started accepting it, and that in these very days when the price is relatively unstable.

 

[Sigurthr]

I'm kicking myself for not mining more. I mined 0.2BTC back when it was 4$/BTC and was rather disappointed that after a weeks I only got 50 cents.

Luckily I still had my BTC guild password

It's too bad ASIC mining equipment is so expensive. I did some searching recently before becoming an adopter and promoter of Dogecoin of the various profitability and mineability of various cryptos and found to break even on BTC you need like 9.6Gh/sec for a 12 to 18 month ROI given the price of current ASICs.

Conversely if you can afford $3000 for a 600Gh/sec card you can make about $12000 profit in a single month.

That's the one thing altcoins have over BTC right now, anyone with a gaming pc can still turn a minimal profit or break even. It won't last forever though as scrypt ASICs are due out later this year and there is evidence that manufacturers are delaying release so they can warehouse farm now with the ASICs they plan to sell later so that they are recouping their investment now via the altcoins and the device sales later will be pure profit. Anyway, it is very hard to get started in BTC now unless you're wealthy.

I started mining Dogecoin about 56hrs ago and I've already made a profit of about $7 with zero investment in hardware over what I already had. Also being winter I was able to lower the furnace thanks to the heat from my pc so even the electricity isn't cutting into profit.

 

[FlutterPie]

Im thinking about scrypt mining. I remember seeing a website once that showed exactly how fast each video card could mine. I cant seem to find it anymore, Im guessing R9 would be the way to go. But even if so, exactly what R9 would be the best?

 

[3Pig]

r9 290x, sadly the high end amd cards prices are being inflated because of crypto mining.

 

[ARG]

Is there any ROI on building a mining computer? :thinking:

 

[MarioMaster]

Scrypt coins are heading towards the toilet, Gridseed's scrypt ASICs are already flooding the market (ROI is terrible though so I haven't bought any) but people continue to buy them.

Maybe once they make a decent size miner with the Gridseed chips I would consider it. The round 5 chip miners are the equivalent of the BFL Jalapeno. Cute, but impractical to implement in large numbers.