Bitcoin Q & A - Ask Me Anything

[ViruZ_HUN]

I have a sticky thread about the introduction to bitcoins here.

To keep things clean I am opening a different thread for you guys to ask questions. Whether it be about mining, the currency, anything.

Hopefully others who are knowledgeable in bitcoins can answer any questions I do not know as well.

So it is really so easy to get money by having a mining rig going everyday and making 1000s of USD?

 

What is the recommended GPU for this work which gives most money?

 

how to earn bitcoins? becuze i am just mining and nothing about bit coins.

 

 

(i am just a test miner i get only 47 Mhash/s i will MAYbe do a mining rig a fue years later if this bitcoin game is not just a joke)

[nickpc]

What do I do when cgminer says not finding opencl.dll

 

[Zeo2002]

I've read through this thread and the sticky one. I've read a few of the links and sites about bitcoins and apply that knowledge to Litecoins/feathercoins as I best understand.

 

I've broken down my understanding to the different parts and questions relating to those parts. I'm sorry it got pretty long! I just haven't seen answers to these questions, please confirm and/or quote a specific part and a link if I missed a site that answers the questions.

 

Mining: Mining is basically getting data, working through that data to solve (or confirm ) transactions AND I assume other information. I have a hard time believing that the information is just transactions as the first people who started mining must have had some sort of information to mine.

1) Do we have any idea what the other information is?

2) Are we opening our own computers to potential hackers/people who want to view data on our system(s)?

3) Can you run this off Linux/another free OS?

 

Coins: There are multiple "stocks" out there, Bitcoin being the proverbial Disney. Bitcoin is riddled with ASIC miners because of the hashing that they use and others like Litecoin or feathercoin have a different hashing. Bitcoin is also mined and therefore the "difficulty" has been ramped up so much which makes it take many more attempts at a hash before getting lucky. The problem I have with this (and partly goes to the question above) is that we are "investing" our electricity and computing power into a company that has just said "we created x million coins now mine them" (granted this is much like governments creating money) and there is nothing to back them up.

4) What benefit is there to the person who creates these coins?

5) Theoretically, could I start a "Zeocoin" and have 50 million coins to be mined, give everyone hashes that I'm getting from Bitcoin (if possible, otherwise just create my own) to work on so that I give them a currency and ultimately make it unprofitable to mine (like bitcoins) by lets say 45 million "Zeocoins" mined (so I keep 5 million)?

5a) Would this allow me to have the 5M un-mined coins i could then sell at whatever rate (lets say $50/Zeocoin) if people would buy/trade it?

6) Could I go back in and say "Hey, I created another 30 Million coins, go mine some more!"?

 

Wallets: Wallets are attached to a specific key that only your HD/phone has to basically prove you are the holder of an account. You should never give out your private key (like your debit card and PIN).

7) If someone hacks your computer/phone and grabs the key - you are ultimately screwed with no recourse?

8) If the drive crashes and you don't have a copy of the key elsewhere, you lose everything?

9) You can set up (at least with Bitcoin?) a way to say: My first account is A and all my mining has gone in there. I then spend coins on products from Random person and transfer to their account B. Because I've spent money, I can now create and transfer all remaining coins to Account C (which I can still access). To try to hide who bitcoins ultimately belong to (though I believe this can still be tied to IP addresses and tracked by ISPs) - so what would ultimately be the point of this?

10) Does my wallet need to be on the computer that is mining (my belief is no)?

 

Exchanges: So, there are exchanges like the NYSE (to like it to the Stock analogy above). These exchanges are set up by people as a way to act as the middleman in transferring coins between parties for actual currency. They generally take a percentage like a "finders fee" such as most companies (ie: Ebay) do. They allow users to "deposit and store" real life dollars and coins in their accounts and only withdraw a limited amount to their wallets.

11) Do these exchanges have your personal information or just bank account and routing number?

12) I assume the transaction to the exchange is also recorded, therefore when you deposit and sell the coins and withdraw the money into your account it leaves an "electronic trail"? that can ultimately be tied back to you?

13) Is there any actual legal recourse if these exchanges act like a Ponzi scheme? One I saw said that they can take up to a month to convert into cash and you can only make one request every 20 days. To me, that's a huge threat of a Ponzi scheme (even though they are getting some kickback).

 

Other:

We are legally expected to keep track of said profits/sales of goods and services and report them. In general practice this will not be done - this acting like cash, especially with #7 above.

Currently, to me this is "creating wealth from nothing" (again, same thing as paper money) and the whole process to create into "paper money" has many potential points of failure. This very much feels like another form of "currency trading" without the backing of any specific government or country and that part scares me a bit (for the long haul).

14) Is anyone (here) investing money (cash) to buy coins?

 

Thanks so much for all your time in reading and commenting.

Edited November 29, 2013 by Zeo2002

[RuecanOnRails]

-snip-

 

 

First I'd like to say you currently don't fully understand what Bitcoins are and how they work. There's nothing wrong with that, and I'd like to help. That being said it makes many of the questions unanswerable as they don't apply. I'll post a few links with some things to read up

http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf - Original White papers

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ - Worth reading and answers most of your questions/concerns

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Myths - common myths and misunderstandings

http://evoorhees.blogspot.ca/2012/04/bitcoin-libertarian-introduction.html - Great introduction for Bitcoins - contains a list of resources at the bottom of the article.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgo7FCCPuylVk4luP3JAgVw/videos - Great video set for understanding Bitcoin and it's value

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP9-lAYngi4 - Quick crash course on Bitcoin

 

After reading up, please feel free to revise questions, or ask other specific questions.

 

 

On the Wallet subject, A hacker could potentially get into your computer and spend/steal you coins. You need to take the steps to protect your money, similar to how banks use vaults, you need to take the necessary steps to protect your holdings. 5 minutes worth of security is not recommended for any type of sensitive information. http://bitcoin.org/en/secure-your-wallet

A wallet keeps tracks of the public/private keys for every address you add. You can and should make multiple copies of your keys and store in multiple locations to protect against damaged hardware, fires, etc.

If you lose access to your keys or you're unable to decrypt your encrypted drive those coins are gone forever.

You can use mixing services to help keep your anonymity such as coinjoin https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=279249.0

Or you could use throw away accounts on various exchanges which offer multiple currency pairs. Exchanging coins to different ones  and moving them between exchanges would be adequate for mixing.

 

 

Exchanges, Are not regulated, they can be made and hosted by anyone, same with online wallets and apps. They only have as much information as you give them. You should not blindly trust anyone online, always look into the history of a site and it's legitimacy. There is little to no legal recourse outside of someone or an exchange disappearing, there are no charge backs with Bitcoin, nor can they be seized or frozen. Here's a recent case of a ponzi scheme run using Bitcoins http://www.sec.gov/News/PressRelease/Detail/PressRelease/1370539730583#.Upm2IcRDtGY

 

 

Other, As with most places around the world, you need to keep track of transactions regardless of what currency you use and pay appropriate taxes. In the case of Bitcoin, profiting would fall under Capital gains and is taxable.

Many people have, are, and continue to invest in Bitcoin.

[whatthe_fuzz]

Quick question

I'm currently mining in wemineltc.com pool and I'm curious if anyone knows how to transfer my litecoins to a wallet on my HDD

[whatthe_fuzz]

Quick question

I'm currently mining in wemineltc.com pool and I'm curious if anyone knows how to transfer my litecoins to a wallet on my HDD

[Judahnator]

Quick question

I'm currently mining in wemineltc.com pool and I'm curious if anyone knows how to transfer my litecoins to a wallet on my HDD

Go to the litecoin website and download the wallet. Launch and wait for it to finish updating.

In the client it will have your address. Copy it and go to your pools site, and send to the address you just copied.

[Zeo2002]

First I'd like to say you currently don't fully understand what Bitcoins are and how they work. There's nothing wrong with that, and I'd like to help. That being said it makes many of the questions unanswerable as they don't apply. I'll post a few links with some things to read up

http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf - Original White papers

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ - Worth reading and answers most of your questions/concerns

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Myths - common myths and misunderstandings

http://evoorhees.blogspot.ca/2012/04/bitcoin-libertarian-introduction.html - Great introduction for Bitcoins - contains a list of resources at the bottom of the article.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgo7FCCPuylVk4luP3JAgVw/videos - Great video set for understanding Bitcoin and it's value

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP9-lAYngi4 - Quick crash course on Bitcoin

 

After reading up, please feel free to revise questions, or ask other specific questions.

 

 

On the Wallet subject, A hacker could potentially get into your computer and spend/steal you coins. You need to take the steps to protect your money, similar to how banks use vaults, you need to take the necessary steps to protect your holdings. 5 minutes worth of security is not recommended for any type of sensitive information. http://bitcoin.org/en/secure-your-wallet

A wallet keeps tracks of the public/private keys for every address you add. You can and should make multiple copies of your keys and store in multiple locations to protect against damaged hardware, fires, etc.

If you lose access to your keys or you're unable to decrypt your encrypted drive those coins are gone forever.

You can use mixing services to help keep your anonymity such as coinjoin https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=279249.0

Or you could use throw away accounts on various exchanges which offer multiple currency pairs. Exchanging coins to different ones  and moving them between exchanges would be adequate for mixing.

 

 

Exchanges, Are not regulated, they can be made and hosted by anyone, same with online wallets and apps. They only have as much information as you give them. You should not blindly trust anyone online, always look into the history of a site and it's legitimacy. There is little to no legal recourse outside of someone or an exchange disappearing, there are no charge backs with Bitcoin, nor can they be seized or frozen. Here's a recent case of a ponzi scheme run using Bitcoins http://www.sec.gov/News/PressRelease/Detail/PressRelease/1370539730583#.Upm2IcRDtGY

 

 

Other, As with most places around the world, you need to keep track of transactions regardless of what currency you use and pay appropriate taxes. In the case of Bitcoin, profiting would fall under Capital gains and is taxable.

Many people have, are, and continue to invest in Bitcoin.

First, I haven't read the whitepaper yet but have gone through almost everything else.

 

So further research and I still have some basic questions and answers. So I'm going to list them off in the order and either give my answer or "unanswered" and hopefully clarify.

1) Still open: As to what is and has gotten decoded - I don't see if anyone has actually explained it fully or say they have actually gone through it. My understanding now is that it's a bunch of mathematical equations which grows over time. Still not 100% sure if there are any other bits of additional information coded in. Seems like bitcoin states they don't do anything but mathematical calculations or have codes for other things (but there is the cynic in me still).

2) Answer: Technically, you're opening up your computer and could be opened more so for hacker attacks. Just another thing you have to be careful of (and I will be limiting my exposure as much as possible).

3) Answer: Yes, you can use Linux and boot from a USB drive. I found this article to be a guide but haven't done it yet (http://www.cryptobadger.com/2013/04/build-a-litecoin-mining-rig-linux/)

4) Answer: Apparently it depends on what the creator of a coin really wants. From what I have seen, about 200K coins were "pre-mined" of (I believe) NovaCoin - 90K is still outstanding. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=144158.0)

5) Answer: No - can't keep them on the back end, but you could "pre-mine" (see #4 above).

6) Open: Still unclear about this exactly, it almost sounds like more coins could potentially be added if the majority of users/coin holders voted it in. But I am not sure. It also tends to defeat the purpose of the currency (which is why I originally asked).

7) Answered: Basically, yes - you can be hacked and lose your coins and you need to take steps to secure it (think of yourself as a bank).

8) Answered: Yes, you can lose everything if you don't have your wallet and private key backed up/stored somewhere. I would suggest offline storage and not online wallets.

9) Semi Answered: Yes, you can basically have, I believe, 100 or so transactions or wallet addresses, more than that and I've seen suggestions to "back up" your wallet again. Not exactly clear on this, but this is something you may do more of if you are really attempting to hide your trail and make it more difficult. There are also ways of encrypting and securing transfers so that it takes two signatures to pay out (so a HDD signature and a mobile signature).

10) Answered: You can have an "open wallet" on the computer mining (or no wallet I believe). The computer mining generally logs into a pool as a "user" and starts mining, the pool will then pay out based upon the payout address you've listed in the pool. Same could probably be said for solo-mining, but everything I read suggests staying far away from that unless you want to play the lottery.

11) Semi-answer: I haven't spent much time delving into exchanges, but basically they can/will have some information about you. They will need your bank account and information to deposit money into. Extreme caution should be taken when using exchanges and I personally wouldn't suggest keeping much funds (coins or "cash") in their "accounts".

12) Answer:  Yes, it leaves an electronic trail that could be followed if enough time is given to look through it. I don't know how one would request or review the data though, and getting bank account information/identification would probably take government intervention or the person willfully giving the information.

13) Answered: There is a threat that a ponzi-scheme could happen. It would then fall under the countries governance to prosecute and could be extremely difficult. As suggested, do your thorough research and limit your risk exposure.

14) Open: Hard to get a read on who/how many use cash to buy coins.

 

I know this topic is more for bitcoins, but I believe I'm going to primarily stay away from bitcoin mining and go for Litecoin as I am more GPU based and don't have ASIC miners that would make it more profitable. Some of those ASICs can go for a TON of money! I know you can run two instances of CGminer, one for Litecoin and one for Bitcoin if you have ASICs. Are there companies (not the butterfly one) that are building/sending good ASIC miners quickly to people? What makes these miners so great (granted, I assume most of that knowledge is more proprietary)?

 

Other than that, I also have another question. Can coins be mined on XP machines (I know there are security issues and a 4GB RAM problem for BTC) or Vista 64bit (solves Ram maximum issue)?

 

Thanks!

[ZuluRoo]

how much is one bitcoin worth in USD?

Right now (04-Dec-2013) it's over US$1,100 and climbing.

[RuecanOnRails]

-snip-

 

1) Yes it really is just math, there is nothing else added in. there are no nefarious tools, or apps taking your computing power and using it to hack government computer or anything like that. In fact you can mine Bitcoin using a pen and paper. http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1r3wau/ It's not very profitable, but you can do it

Bitcoin is designed to have a block solved every 10 minutes, the way it keeps the 10 minute goal is by adjusting the difficulty of the math question asked based upon the amount of people trying to solve it. 

Similar to someone saying pick a number between 1 and 10, expecting it to take a set amount of time before they guess the answer, when someone else joins in the guessing rate is doubled so. Now the question is guess a number between 1 and 20. As more people try to guess, the difficulty increases to keep the same time frame of 10 minutes per solution.

Bitcoin is self regulated in that it automatically adjusts the difficulty of the questions it asked based on the time it took for the last 2016, every 2 weeks.

 

6) A change that large would require a fork, which creates two separate blockchains (essentially two coins). While you could do it and convince the network to accept the change, it wouldn't happen due to it not being in the interest of the network. It would be rejected. Even if you were able to get it accepted it would divide the Bitcoin network in half creating competing, incompatible chains. Both would be used by their supporting parties and have the same name, A name change would likely occur at some point to differentiate them where you have "Bitcoin", and "Bitcoin Inflation edition" The inflation edition would have all the previous balances and addresses prior to the fork, but completely incompatible where you could not send inflation edition coins to Bitcoin.

So yes, it could be changed and more coins could be added. But it wouldn't be Bitcoin anymore. It would divide off into it's own mutant coin. This would be true of Alt coins as well. When you create a major fork it requires the network to accept it.

If you want to make your own coin to try and learn more about it you can do so here http://devtome.com/doku.php?id=scrypt_altcoin_cloning_guide

 

9) You can have multi signed transactions, sort of like an escrow where two of the three parties have to agree for a transfer to occur. Use this to make it so you need 2 out of 3 pieces of paper to transfer money. Placing each piece of paper in a different safety deposit box in different banks would make it very difficult for anyone to gain control and steal from you. You can create infinite wallets and addresses. https://www.bitaddress.org/ is one site to create bulk addresses and private keys, make sure you take necessary steps before using them. Create those wallets offline in a secure boot live linux distro.

 

Mixing your coins is very important, because Bitcoin is completely transparent if someone knows your public key they can try to find out how much money you have. It's like keeping bank statements and account balances hanging on your front door. By mixing and sending small amounts to different addresses you control can help to hide your overall holdings. By taking various steps you wont be able to track or know who owns what. Bitcoins transactions are not linked to IP, you can easily use a proxy, VPN or TOR to sign the transaction.

 

11) An exchange has as much information about you as you give them. If you want to send fiat money via a bank transfer, they will need some sort of verification to link the account with your identity so they can correctly add funds to your account. Same with withdrawing Fiat, they need to know where to send the money, and need verification to ensure someone didn't just hack your account and request a withdrawl.

 

Personal information is only required when you have to deal with Fiat and wire transfers. You can entirely avoid this by purchasing coins directly from someone local https://localbitcoins.com/ then creating an account with an exchange and providing no personal information. You will be able to trade Bitcoins for other coins, even fiat, and vice versus. Essentially you can do all your day trading on exchanges and withdraw the coins without giving any personal information. If you want to sell them, you can choose to give personal information to an exchange, or you can sell them back to people at https://localbitcoins.com/ by meeting in a public place and selling for cash.

 

You can look up local exchanges here http://howtobuybitcoins.info/

 

In short, there is no information required when you are dealing with Crypto-Currencies. The only time information is needed is if you want to do wire transfers of fiat money between your bank account and the exchanges. By purchasing Bitcoin in person with cash, you can safely use exchanges without revealing identity.

 

 

13) I do. I purchase Bitcoins and I mine Litecoins. I won't say how much, how often, or reveal any other personal financial information If you want to watch some of the transactions of fiat into Bitcoin you can do so here http://fiatleak.com/

 

 

You can mine coins on just about anything. For Bitcoin mining, you need powerful ASIC's which are more or less all long off pre-orders, by the time you get your pre-order filled it will likely be barely profitable. Litecoin mining on the other hand requires only a high end AMD GPU.

Here's what a single 7970 can do today. You can compare other mining hardware here https://litecoin.info/Mining_Hardware_Comparison

https://www.litecoinpool.org/calc?hashrate=730&difficulty=1964.83427079&power=&energycost=0.10&currency=USD

 

Here's a Bitcoin calculator, it also includes a list of ASIC's available for purchase and pre-order. http://mining.thegenesisblock.com/

What makes an ASIC great is in it's name. Application Specific Integrated Circuit. It's designed for one thing, and one thing only. It does that thing very well and efficiently. In this case Bitcoin ASIC's are designed for Bitcoin's Sha-256 hashing algorithm and nothing else... If it becomes unprofitable to run, then it turns into a paper weight as it has no other use.

 

Hope this jumbled mess of a reply helps in some way.

[Zeo2002]

<snip>

You've been extremely helpful with what you write and the links you provide, so thank you very much!

 

1) Nice explanation - especially about the difficulty and how it's calculated. So basically, if new people come in you generally won't see a huge increase in difficulty immediately but it'll be felt more and more over a two week period (depending on, I assume, their hash rates). The same could be said about people leaving mining, except it would get easier.

6) Thanks for the link to "create your own coin" - Zeocoins here I come! Just kidding - no way I'm going to start one.

9) You make a great point about mixing accounts (and possibly currencies). As I'm a little fuzzy on this, does that mean you would have the same wallet containing each of those accounts or have multiple wallets. Also, as far as I understand right now, you need different wallets for different coins (ie: 1 for BTC, 1 for LTC, 1 for FTC, etc)?

11) I didn't quite connect exchanging coin for other coin (BTC -> LTC or vice versa) through exchanges, though I understood it could be done (I blame information overload). I've seen some offers to sell BTC/LTC over craigslist (public meeting) and I'm not at the point where I am going to do that, but it seems to best way (no fees) to do such. I saw the localbitcoins site before, but glad you placed it up as I had lost the link. I may ask some questions when I get into in person trading.

13) Fine fine... if you won't give me that information (or your address and keys) at least provide me your name, address, and SSN. :-)

 

I want to build a LTC mining rig and get going - unfortunately all the good (efficient and expensive) GPU cards are taken. My current computer has a HD4870, but I'm getting windows errors and crash anytime it starts the mining process in the cmd window (and no, the error isn't that I need to install drivers - I've installed/uninstalled about 10 times and tried 3 different sets of Catalyst and the AMD SPK). I don't want to hijack this thread with my problems, so generally speaking, where is the best place to get help for errors and getting the script running; in the pools, on these forums or another forum?

[RuecanOnRails]

 

 

No problem, always happy to help.

 

The difficulty adjusts to people jumping on and off the network. With recent interest in Litecoin and GPU's flying off the shelf, expect massive increase in difficulty over the next few weeks. On this forum alone, it seems like people everywhere are jumping at the chance to build a miner due to the price increase, wont be long before all the new comers increase the difficulty and bring the mining profitability down, but at the same time increase the distribution and security of the network.

 

If you made Zeocoins I'd throw a few hash at it for fun No better way to understand how coins work than making a few slight changes and compiling your own. Don't let it get confused by Zerocoin

 

A wallet is just a bunch of addresses linked together. The wallet manages multiple addresses and makes their combined balance usable in single transactions. There are services available which for a fee will mix your coins without the need for attempting it yourself. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Mixing_Services By using two wallets (groups of individual addresses which are not linked) you can use multiple exchanges to mix them yourself. For example You send Litecoin to exchange 1, sell it for Bitcoin, then withdraw those Bitcoin to a different exchange which also offers a LTC/BTC trading pair and buy back the Litecoins. Withdraw those now mixed Litecoins to an address/wallet that has no connection to the original. To someone tracking them, it will add a massive caveat to their search due to the exchanged coins now being owned by someone else and no way to identify what you got for them, or where they went.

Each coin, BTC, LTC, FTC, Zeocoin, all have their own wallet/addresses. You can't store different coins in a single wallet, they all require their own wallet plus software to run them. The QT client is not a wallet, but a server node which creates a wallet every time it's launched and one isn't available. The wallet is a simple file named Wallet.dat It can be found in  %appdata%\<coin name> You can make backups and manually manage multiple wallets by closing down the QT client then renaming wallet.dat to something like ORIGwallet.dat. When you launch the QT client again it will generate a new wallet with a single address inside.

 

Here's two exchanges which you could use to exchange Bitcoin for Litecoin, or other coins.

https://btc-e.com/ - A fairly large exchange for both Bitcoin and Litecoin, also contains a handful other coins.

https://www.cryptsy.com/ - Contains markets for 93 different coins. Great market for speculating 

 

I didn't give out personal information because you didn't say please

 

 

That wouldn't be the first 4870 I've seen have issues with mining, I've seen one or two that mined Bitcoins, but couldn't mine Litecoins for some unknown reason. You could always try a much older version of CGminer  http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/

If you're looking into making a miner by picking up one or two GPU's it would be better to do so sooner rather than later as the difficulty will be jumping up quickly. Of course mining isn't the only way to get into Crypto-Currencies and some could argue money is better spent investing in coins directly then investing time and money into maintaining miners. I usually recommend to split investment into both purchasing coins directly, and buying mining hardware. At this rate with AMD cards flying off the shelf for new miners, might not be a bad idea to pick up some of their stock haha.

 

The best place to find help is anywhere Crpyto-Currencies are discussed. Just about everyone who knows about crypto-currencies are more than happy to help. It can depend on the issue, if your having issues connecting to a pool, would probably be best to look for help there in their FAQ. If you want to create a thread here I'm sure some people will chime in with help. If it's a specific problem with a miner you can always ask on the official forum thread, here's CGminers thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.0

[Zeo2002]

<snip>

I completely agree it would be better to pick up cards for mining sooner than later because of everyone jumping on board. Part of the problem is that I want to also pick up r9 290 non-reference for my personal rig as well, I've actually been considering, for mining purposes, picking up a... reference card... there I said it - you happy now?

 

There are lots to speculate about with crypto currencies and I believe as a lot of new people get into it (like a fad) some will, in a few months, want out as it becomes less (to not) profitable (Like BitCoin mining with GPUs). While I would love to get in short term high investment yield (granted, I could be "getting in at a peak"), I am looking for longer term investment with small dividend payments here and there. While I normally would agree that a mix of investing and mining would be optimal, circumstances aren't in my favor to be spending money on investing into stocks/currency at this time (great idea with AMD stocks though!). Whereas investing into hardware (and slight increase in energy costs) is more optimal for me as I could, if needed, either sell the cards for slight losses or use it in my gaming rig for further personal gain.

[FlakeyBanana]

did you know that FTC is 51% 'ed by someone

[RuecanOnRails]

did you know that FTC is 51% 'ed by someone

 

FTC has been 51%'d several times.

 

It's no longer a decentralized currency either. They use centralized check points to fight when 51% attacks happen. Kind of providing a single point of failure in my opinion. if someone were to strong-arm the developer to implement a change that would be potentially damaging to their coin, they could place a checkpoint which doesn't require 51% of network consensus. In other words, FTC has a kill switch coded in.

Bitcoin and Litecoin do not have this kind of central control and any changes require a mass majority of the network to fully accept it.

 

 

I completely agree it would be better to pick up cards for mining sooner than later because of everyone jumping on board. Part of the problem is that I want to also pick up r9 290 non-reference for my personal rig as well, I've actually been considering, for mining purposes, picking up a... reference card... there I said it - you happy now?

 

There are lots to speculate about with crypto currencies and I believe as a lot of new people get into it (like a fad) some will, in a few months, want out as it becomes less (to not) profitable (Like BitCoin mining with GPUs). While I would love to get in short term high investment yield (granted, I could be "getting in at a peak"), I am looking for longer term investment with small dividend payments here and there. While I normally would agree that a mix of investing and mining would be optimal, circumstances aren't in my favor to be spending money on investing into stocks/currency at this time (great idea with AMD stocks though!). Whereas investing into hardware (and slight increase in energy costs) is more optimal for me as I could, if needed, either sell the cards for slight losses or use it in my gaming rig for further personal gain.

 

GPU's and hardware always have additional use outside of mining. Gaming, rendering, use as a small inefficient room heater, etc. You can even resell them for near face value if mining continues to be popular. People will always pay a premium for guaranteed mining specs. By listing a GPU for sale, providing all settings and hashrates achieved with mining can increase it's value to a potential buyer.

 

I've wanted to pick up a reference card too but I haven't been able to bring myself to do it hehe. Only downside with the 290/290X are that they run at a very high intensity rendering your computer useless while mining. The 7970 is one of the few GPU's which mine at full speed using a low intensity allowing menial tasks such as web browsing, checking email, office programs, and watching some youtube videos. For most people that's all they use the computer for, any time you need to do something else, turning off the miner is simple.

[Zeo2002]

FTC has been 51%'d several times.

 

It's no longer a decentralized currency either. They use centralized check points to fight when 51% attacks happen. Kind of providing a single point of failure in my opinion. if someone were to strong-arm the developer to implement a change that would be potentially damaging to their coin, they could place a checkpoint which doesn't require 51% of network consensus. In other words, FTC has a kill switch coded in.

Bitcoin and Litecoin do not have this kind of central control and any changes require a mass majority of the network to fully accept it.

I understood they were 51%'d (once before - thought it was much earlier). But the checkpoints as described is something that combats the point of these coins. Thanks for the information because I was interested in potentially mining (secondary after Litecoin) another one which was probably going to be FTC. This bit of info tells me I'd be best to look elsewhere. Granted, it's still going to be a bit before I get to that point - I think Christmas 290 non reference releases will give me the opportunity to "gift" myself a few 290 cards.

[RuecanOnRails]

I understood they were 51%'d (once before - thought it was much earlier). But the checkpoints as described is something that combats the point of these coins. Thanks for the information because I was interested in potentially mining (secondary after Litecoin) another one which was probably going to be FTC. This bit of info tells me I'd be best to look elsewhere. Granted, it's still going to be a bit before I get to that point - I think Christmas 290 non reference releases will give me the opportunity to "gift" myself a few 290 cards.

 

You can definitely still mine them, But holding them is very speculative due to how small and easy the network is to attack. Jumping between mining different coins is easy to do. In fact there are a couple pools which are set to try and automatically mine the most profitable coin. https://www.multipool.us/ It can get stuck in mining loops of non profitable coins but overall appears to work well.

 

Here''s a couple other interesting links

http://coinchoose.com/ - current profitability mining coins compared to Bitcoin. Also has an estimate of the network hashrate. The higher the  hashrate the more secure it is. (Sha-256 is different from Scrypt,1 M/hash scrypt is equal to 1 G/hash Sha-256)

http://coinmarketcap.com/ - Current market caps of various Crypto-Currencies.

[Zeo2002]

<snip>

That wouldn't be the first 4870 I've seen have issues with mining, I've seen one or two that mined Bitcoins, but couldn't mine Litecoins for some unknown reason. You could always try a much older version of CGminer  http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/

If you're looking into making a miner by picking up one or two GPU's it would be better to do so sooner rather than later as the difficulty will be jumping up quickly. Of course mining isn't the only way to get into Crypto-Currencies and some could argue money is better spent investing in coins directly then investing time and money into maintaining miners. I usually recommend to split investment into both purchasing coins directly, and buying mining hardware. At this rate with AMD cards flying off the shelf for new miners, might not be a bad idea to pick up some of their stock haha.

 

The best place to find help is anywhere Crpyto-Currencies are discussed. Just about everyone who knows about crypto-currencies are more than happy to help. It can depend on the issue, if your having issues connecting to a pool, would probably be best to look for help there in their FAQ. If you want to create a thread here I'm sure some people will chime in with help. If it's a specific problem with a miner you can always ask on the official forum thread, here's CGminers thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.0

 

Ok, so I'm a little confused when I attempt to use the cgminer link you used. I downloaded the 3.0.1 and 3.3.4 version (zip) and extracted it. I then ran a virus check on it with Malwarebytes and it shows cgminer.exe as a Trojan. I've downloaded 3.5 earlier from a different location, have the (I'm assuming) same cgminer.exe and it does not show as a Trojan (or even Potentially Unwanted Program such as version 3.1.0 does). Any idea why this might be?

 

EDIT: I don't know why it changes per file, but it appears it is "normal" for these programs to catch cgminer as a Trojan/PUP.

[Judahnator]

Ok, so I'm a little confused when I attempt to use the cgminer link you used. I downloaded the 3.0.1 and 3.3.4 version (zip) and extracted it. I then ran a virus check on it with Malwarebytes and it shows cgminer.exe as a Trojan. I've downloaded 3.5 earlier from a different location, have the (I'm assuming) same cgminer.exe and it does not show as a Trojan (or even Potentially Unwanted Program such as version 3.1.0 does). Any idea why this might be?

EDIT: I don't know why it changes per file, but it appears it is "normal" for these programs to catch cgminer as a Trojan/PUP.

It might see the file as a piece of software designed to peg the cpu at 100% while uploading unknown information to an unknown server. I can see how that could be a threat.

It's likely nothing, if your worried make a system image before running it

[LAwLz]

Looks like bitcoins are falling. They have already went from 1200 USD to 877 dollars (right now).

This is why I again and again keep saying "don't invest anything you can't afford to lose". I suspect it will go much lower in the coming hours as more people start panicking and selling their coins to avoid losing money.

 

 

Edit: Down to 800 now, but some people are trying to manipulate the market by buying at huge overprices (and by overpaying they are raising the average price). Changes are it's just bots buying from each other over and over to inflate the price.

 

Edit 2: Seems like it is stabilizing slightly.

 

You can follow the changes here: BitCoinWisdom

[Zeo2002]

Very interesting drop. Wonder if people are trying to manipulate the market. :-)

[RuecanOnRails]

Ok, so I'm a little confused when I attempt to use the cgminer link you used. I downloaded the 3.0.1 and 3.3.4 version (zip) and extracted it. I then ran a virus check on it with Malwarebytes and it shows cgminer.exe as a Trojan. I've downloaded 3.5 earlier from a different location, have the (I'm assuming) same cgminer.exe and it does not show as a Trojan (or even Potentially Unwanted Program such as version 3.1.0 does). Any idea why this might be?

 

EDIT: I don't know why it changes per file, but it appears it is "normal" for these programs to catch cgminer as a Trojan/PUP.

As long as your downloading from the official location, it's fine. You can download the source code and compile it yourself if you'd like to.

 

It gets flagged as a trojan because a lot of "hackers" are trying to take advantage of their botnets by including mining software in their malware. I'd say it's nothing to be too worried about. As for it changing from version to version, it could be part of the code and how it allocates resources could trigger A/V protection. The creator may have changed it over time so it wouldn't get flagged with newer versions.

 

Looks like bitcoins are falling. They have already went from 1200 USD to 877 dollars (right now).

This is why I again and again keep saying "don't invest anything you can't afford to lose". I suspect it will go much lower in the coming hours as more people start panicking and selling their coins to avoid losing money.

 

 

Edit: Down to 800 now, but some people are trying to manipulate the market by buying at huge overprices (and by overpaying they are raising the average price). Changes are it's just bots buying from each other over and over to inflate the price.

 

You can follow the changes here: BitCoinWisdom

 

Nothing to be too concerned with at the moment, just the market reacting to China and their recent announcements. Following the announcement a couple big places halted their Bitcoin sales. Baidu, and a telecom both made statements that they are temporarily stopping Bitcoin transactions until further regulation and clarity has been made in order to comply with their government.

You should be watching the large China markets as the others are simply following, while attempting some profit taking with exaggerated dips.

 

Very interesting drop. Wonder if people are trying to manipulate the market. :-)

 

People are always trying to manipulate the market It never works out in their favour unless their intention is to lessen their holdings. Just normal growing pains and the free market reacting to legitimate news, terrible FUD headlines, and itself.

 

A lot of the panic is being done by only the new investors. We will just call this bubble pop number 7 in the past month or two  :rolleyes:

 

 

[LAwLz]

Nothing to be too concerned with at the moment

I am not sure about you, but if my investments lost 33% of their value in just a few hours, then that would be a huge deal. Just imagine if the entire stock market fell 33% in a few hours.

[RuecanOnRails]

I am not sure about you, but if my investments lost 33% of their value in just a few hours, then that would be a huge deal. Just imagine if the entire stock market fell 33% in a few hours.

 

Lost 33%, after a 400% climb? you're point.. The growth is pretty normal for any tech start up prior to it's IPO, ask any venture capitalist or angel investor that have an interest in upcoming technology. You know what I'm doing on the way down, buying more, because today Bitcoin is on sale. Increase holdings while lowing overall average buy in. Also thanks to diversification my portfolio as a whole didn't lose the 33%.

 

Felt this Meme was needed.

 

[Zeo2002]

Yea, that's the trick. For people who have been in it for a while who have seen 200, 300, 500% profit, losing 33% is only going down to a PROFIT of 133%, 200% and 333%. I'll still take that!