Bitcoin Mining

[MachineGhost]

Well, never count out the market leader.

Rootstock aims to transplant Ethereum's functionality to the Bitcoin blockchain, enabling all kinds of smart contracts, near instant payments and higher scalability. It works by running a Turing Complete Virtual Machine on a Rootstock sidechain. Using a two-way peg, you can lock your Bitcoins on the Bitcoin blockchain and transfer that value to "rootcoins" on the Rootstock sidechain. And vice versa. It will use merge-mining so you can still mine Bitcoins and benefit from the new functionality <wipes sweat>.

Here's the white paper: https://uploads.strikinglycdn.com/files ... erview.pdf

[bitcoininthevp]

I think sidechains will address the "bitcoin doesnt have any new features" concern.

I think that lightning network will address the "bitcoin cannot scale beyond 3 transactions per second" concern.

[MachineGhost]

Bitcoins are NOT fungible:

http://www.bitcoinisnotanonymous.com/fungibility.html

[bitcoininthevp]

I think fungibility is the biggest concern and should be the biggest effort in the coming years.

Coinjoin, MimbleWimble, Confidential Transactions, Ring Sigs, Zerocash.

All ideas being tossed around to solve the fungibility problem. There is hope on this front.

[MachineGhost]

Bitcoin is working great as a currency hedge in China and Venzeuela. So while it may not replace gold, it has none of the negatives and scarcity is guaranteed.

I grow increasingly skeptical any of the me-too alternative currencies will be major players judging by their xxx/USD value, but ZeroCash is truly anonymous and just launched. I suspect going forward that the emphasis will be less on being a cryptocurrency and more on the specific benefit they provide to the end user via sidechains to the Bitcoin blockchain. Cryptocurrencies are literally a dime a dozen and no longer a big deal.

I'm mining Bitcoin, Steem (social network) and Zerocash at the moment and keeping an eye on Hivemind. I successfully got the HEAT IPO coins for which I had sold half of my Litecoins for (that I mined before it because unfeasible). The other half went to MaidSafe which still hasn't launched. So it's alot like startup investing now in that any "killer app" will matter a great deal in terms of first mover advantage and quasi-monopoly position.

Sure wish I knew about Bitcoin back in the beginning. The number of millionaires and billionaires that arised out of it from mining or buying a few hundred or thousand coins at <.10/BTC is astounding.

[Jack Jones]

Sure wish I knew about Bitcoin back in the beginning. The number of millionaires and billionaires that arised out of it from mining or buying a few hundred or thousand coins at <.10/BTC is astounding.

I started following it around the $10/BTC mark. I considered buying some back then, but it seemed like a bad place to invest my money, and it still does. I don't regret my decision just like I don't regret not playing last night's winning lottery numbers.

[bitcoininthevp]

I grow increasingly skeptical any of the me-too alternative currencies will be major players judging by their xxx/USD value, but ZeroCash is truly anonymous and just launched. I suspect going forward that the emphasis will be less on being a cryptocurrency and more on the specific benefit they provide to the end user via sidechains to the Bitcoin blockchain. Cryptocurrencies are literally a dime a dozen and no longer a big deal.

Sounding like a Bitcoin Maximalist!

I'm mining Bitcoin, Steem (social network) and Zerocash at the moment and keeping an eye on Hivemind. I successfully got the HEAT IPO coins for which I had sold half of my Litecoins for (that I mined before it because unfeasible). The other half went to MaidSafe which still hasn't launched. So it's alot like startup investing now in that any "killer app" will matter a great deal in terms of first mover advantage and quasi-monopoly position.

Wait... what happened to the previous paragraph and all that "dime a dozen" "skeptical of alts"?

Sure wish I knew about Bitcoin back in the beginning. The number of millionaires and billionaires that arised out of it from mining or buying a few hundred or thousand coins at <.10/BTC is astounding.

"The best time to plant a tree..."

This is still the beginning.

[bitcoininthevp]

I started following it around the $10/BTC mark. I considered buying some back then, but it seemed like a bad place to invest my money, and it still does.

Perfectly reasonable stance:
Rule #9: Don't ever do anything you don't understand.

[MachineGhost]

Wait... what happened to the previous paragraph and all that "dime a dozen" "skeptical of alts"?

I was referring to all of the me-too cryptocurrencies that don't offer anything that Bitcon doesn't (well other than a fancy name), i.e. Litecoin.

This is still the beginning.

Not for Bitcoin it isn't. The blockchain technology is already divorced from it if Barclays is any indication*. So the chance to become a millionaire or a billionaire in Bitcoin is over. $700 just doesn't have the same upside potential as < .10c. Short of innovative new cryptocurrencies, we'll have to start investing in actual companies using blockchain technology or mining their sidechain cryptocurrencies, if any.

I actually bought Bitcoin at around a few couple bucks but stupidly sold around $15-$20 after the "enormous" rise.

* http://wavebl.com/

[bitcoininthevp]

I was referring to all of the me-too cryptocurrencies that don't offer anything that Bitcon doesn't (well other than a fancy name), i.e. Litecoin.

"Me too" vs actual innovation is all subjective, I guess. Zcash adds to fungibility. Litecoin adds faster confirmation times and a different mining algo. They all add something subjectively and en masse the market decides the value as represented by the market cap.

This is still the beginning.

Not for Bitcoin it isn't. The blockchain technology is already divorced from it if Barclays is any indication. So the chance to become a millionaire or a billionaire in Bitcoin is over.

Id be curious where these "blockchain" projects end up. I know people are investigating it, VC money going into it, but I just dont see it working out yet and dont see anything even close to approaching to bitcoins success.

Even if there are "blockchain" successes, will they be true competitors to bitcoin? I see true competitors as uncensorable currencies. That is bitcoin's value proposition. I dont think Barclays is going to create an uncensorable transaction network...

I believe bitcoin investing is still in the beginning. The price is going up over the last several months. More bitcoin millionaires and billionaires are being created every day as a result. I believe we will see a $10,000 coin.

I actually bought Bitcoin at around a few couple bucks but stupidly sold around $15-$20 after the "enormous" rise.

You sold because you thought it rose too much? Then it rose more. Now you think it rose too much.

I think it will continue to rise.

[MachineGhost]

I believe bitcoin investing is still in the beginning. The price is going up over the last several months. More bitcoin millionaires and billionaires are being created every day as a result. I believe we will see a $10,000 coin.

Well, they're only being "created" every day because they bought at <.10 originally and we're still substantially down from the all time high so you could say they are just being reappointed millionaires and billionaires all over again. Going to $10K isn't going to create new millionaires or billionares as there's not enough juice to do that and if you foolishly had enough capital to risk to make such a small relative upside move make you one, you'd be better off trading or speculative in regulated financial assets where there's more safety, more variety and less crazy to predict.

You sold because you thought it rose too much? Then it rose more. Now you think it rose too much.

At the time I thought it had rose too fast on purely speculative media hype because there was no value proposition and it was becoming a bubblicious overcrowded trade. That was correct in hindsight, except for the timing! I was planning to buy back in using TA but got sidetracked (had difficulty finding clean historical data, etc.). I still don't have that I don't think, so maybe its time to deal with the issue.

[bitcoininthevp]

So bitcoin is not a _buy_ for MG then?

[MachineGhost]

So bitcoin is not a _buy_ for MG then?

No, as I already alluded, I feel other cryptocurrencies that fix Bitcoin's flaws or use blockchain technology (which do seem to be using the Bitcoin blockchain, even that Barclay's outfit I mentioned) have more upside potential at this point. The novelty is no longer in being a cryptocurrency, but in the actual end-user "killer app" potential now. Let's face it, the vast majority of humanity doesn't give two shits that Litecoin uses a different mining algorithm, its just not relevant in a real world use case.

I do think that given the hasing power and electricity used that in combination with regular difficulty increases and a fixed amount of Bitcoins to be mined, one could arrive at a fair value estimate. Have you seen anyone attempt to do this?

[bitcoininthevp]

I do think that given the hasing power and electricity used that in combination with regular difficulty increases and a fixed amount of Bitcoins to be mined, one could arrive at a fair value estimate. Have you seen anyone attempt to do this?

The amount of money people are putting into the hashing power of the bitcoin network is tied to the price of a bitcoin but I think they play off each other mutually and it is not a one way causation.

Here is a price vs hashing power graph for the curious: http://www.bitcoinx.com/bitcoin-average ... mic-chart/

[MachineGhost]

They don't disclose the algorithm, but:



http://www.alfaquotes.com/

[bitcoininthevp]

They don't disclose the algorithm, but:



http://www.alfaquotes.com/

Dont buy all the BTC at once, MG, youll drive the price up.