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“What the hell is a bitcoin?”

Started by Kate the Bionic Uterus, December 20, 2013, 11:35:32 PM

wr250

Quote from: Kate the Bionic Uterus on July 07, 2014, 05:16:59 PM
Yet it is happening eh? 8) You and your constitution. Don't you realize that your own right wing republican party has sold you out to the Corporations. They are investing BILLIONS into the new infrastructure that the banks will soon adopt. It's happening right in front of your face and yet you still deny it  :o

I guess your the type that won't admit that a truck is coming until it runs you over  :P
im a republicon? lmao.
libertarian that leans to the left, is what i am.
[rant]
i am aware the corporations drive both the republicrats and the demicons (yes i say they are one and the same. individual persons may have differing ideas, the end result is always the same no matter who is elected). the constitution is basically ignored in DC, and apparently in most states to, unless its politically advantageous to point out "i adhered to the constitution"...
all politics and money. that is all
[/rant]

Quote from: Kate the Bionic Uterus on July 07, 2014, 05:22:00 PM
rrlol awesome XDD thanks for that! ;D

Finally. I found a way to work "quatloos" into a joke that is relevant to the topic AND someone gets the joke immediately.

Time to catch that subway to Wonderland.

I am running very late.

wr250

Quote from: Camazotz Automat on July 07, 2014, 05:30:17 PM
Finally. I found a way to work "quatloos" into a joke that is relevant to the topic AND someone gets the joke immediately.

Time to catch that subway to Wonderland.

I am running very late.
just watch out for the catsmile whilst you go.

Mr. Fidget

Quote from: Camazotz Automat on July 07, 2014, 05:18:03 PM
I bet three thousand quatloos on the Earthling with a greenhouse and water wheel.
Ahh yes... Star Date 3211.7 aired January 1, 1968
For the (albeit sadly so) uninitiated... a quatloo is "Units of exchange on Triskelion. The Providers offer various amounts of quatloos for bets, and the purchase of thralls."

Quote from: wr250 on July 07, 2014, 05:24:35 PM
im a republicon? lmao.
libertarian that leans to the left, is what i am.
[rant]
i am aware the corporations drive both the republicrats and the demicons (yes i say they are one and the same. individual persons may have differing ideas, the end result is always the same no matter who is elected). the constitution is basically ignored in DC, and apparently in most states to, unless its politically advantageous to point out "i adhered to the constitution"...
all politics and money. that is all
[/rant]

I never insulted you by naming you republican. I just purposely left out democrook <(o_~)>


Quote from: Camazotz Automat on July 07, 2014, 05:30:17 PM
Finally. I found a way to work "quatloos" into a joke that is relevant to the topic AND someone gets the joke immediately.

Time to catch that subway to Wonderland.

I am running very late.

You take a Subway to Wonderland? You're cooler than I thought. I have to ride my Segway  :'(

Foodlion

Quote from: Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost on June 18, 2014, 11:49:25 AM
One of my favorite Doomsday Preppers episodes featured a guy who was raising sugarcane for moonshine and generator fuel, and tobacco, because he figured people would still want to smoke and drink, and would be willing to pay premium prices with things he needed.  Brilliant!

Assuming people were willing to premium prices with things he had it would probably end with a 9mm round to his temple, and some one making off with his jackpot of supplies.

Catsmile

Quote from: Camazotz Automat on July 07, 2014, 05:30:17 PM
Finally. I found a way to work "quatloos" into a joke that is relevant to the topic AND someone gets the joke immediately.

Time to catch that subway to Wonderland.

I am running very late.


I don't get it?

Quote from: wr250 on July 07, 2014, 05:10:10 PM
unfortunately that is unconstitutional under the US constitution,but then again so is paper money:
Article I
Section 10
No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

You can still be prosecuted in federal court. The amendment just takes away the state's costs/responsibility to prosecute.

Quote from: Kate the Bionic Uterus on July 07, 2014, 05:43:57 PM
You take a Subway to Wonderland? You're cooler than I thought. I have to ride my Segway  :'(

I was somewhat exaggerating.

My trips to the underworld usually start out like this:

[attachimg=1]

Mr. Fidget

   Isn't it one part crypto-yoshi, one part ram-o-munching, and three parts marketing hype... with an exponential ramp up in ram-o-munching?

My best guess.
MF
ps. I could be a black ops project to track private electronic commerce, charge the offenders, seize their assets, and sell them back to the public to cover the project costs...  again. That's not likely though, who could ever imagine a plan like that. I need to quit reading all these crazy websites, so I can watch tv to catch up on current events.

Quote from: Catsmile on July 07, 2014, 06:23:20 PM


Leave it to Catsmile to post an extremely rare, deleted scene from Boston Legal.

"Can we really expect justice from disembodied judges? I'm Denny Crane."

Article I
Section 10
"No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility."

I see nothing wrong with allowing states to grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal and Titles of Nobility.  If they could do that,  maybe this country would have a lot fewer problems.

Quote from: Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost on July 07, 2014, 11:30:29 PM
Nobility.  If they could do that,  maybe this country would have a lot fewer problems.

BitNobility

...my patent application is in the mail.

Quote from: Mind Flayer Monk on July 07, 2014, 11:32:23 PM
BitNobility

...my patent application is in the mail.

Will that make you a Virtual Viscount?



The many named actress who played Shahna, Kirk's thrall in "Gamesters" had a bit part as one of the repo wives in "Repo Man" and also appeared in some adult films, where she did pretty much everything people do in those movies. Or so I've been told. 

[attachimg=1]


zeebo

Quote from: Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost on July 07, 2014, 11:44:12 PM
The many named actress who played Shahna, Kirk's thrall in "Gamesters" had a bit part as one of the repo wives in "Repo Man" and also appeared in some adult films, where she did pretty much everything people do in those movies. Or so I've been told. 

I wonder how many bitcoins it would take to anonymously obtain some of those racy Shahna films, ya know, hypothetically.

Quote from: Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost on July 07, 2014, 11:44:12 PM
The many named actress who played Shahna, Kirk's thrall in "Gamesters" had a bit part as one of the repo wives in "Repo Man" and also appeared in some adult films, where she did pretty much everything people do in those movies. Or so I've been told. 

Let the meme begin here.

Isn't this Lady Gaga's aunt?

(btw, other than her hair frightening me, I liked her and her giant crab claw toothpick.  On the other hand, Checkhov's thrall really harshed my young buzz.)

Quote from: Camazotz Automat on July 07, 2014, 09:26:30 PM
I was somewhat exaggerating.

My trips to the underworld usually start out like this:

[attachimg=1]
That pic reminds me of Naked and Afraid on the Discovery Channel! Dumbest show ever... yet I can't stop watching.

Quote from: Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost on July 07, 2014, 11:44:12 PM
The many named actress who played Shahna, Kirk's thrall in "Gamesters" had a bit part as one of the repo wives in "Repo Man" and also appeared in some adult films, where she did pretty much everything people do in those movies. Or so I've been told. 

[attachimg=1]

A star trek porn star? Holly cripes that's an awesome trivia question. Now i need to watch the movie... you know, for research ^^


Quote from: Camazotz Automat on July 08, 2014, 01:39:42 AM
Let the meme begin here.

Isn't this Lady Gaga's aunt?

(btw, other than her hair frightening me, I liked her and her giant crab claw toothpick.  On the other hand, Checkhov's thrall really harshed my young buzz.)

Lady Gaga's aunt? Too fuckin funny!XDDD It's true it looks just like her hehehe omg what a life eh? I am going to use the picture for my new Lady Gaga roll play twitter account! *runs to twitter*

WOTR

I seem to have missed this for quite awhile.  Yes, I have followed bitcoins for quite some time and have mined (bitcoin, litecoin, darkcoin...)  I do it for the amusement it affords me rather than because I will be getting rich any time soon.  Also, I would never consider bitcoin an "investment"... possibly more of a gamble.

Also, governments seem to be legitimizing cryptos.  There have been rulings about taxes and how to treat them.  In Canada, cryto currencies are subject to money laundering laws (know your customer and all of that.)  They were mentioned specifically.  There have been European rulings that they are subject to VAT and other taxes.  The US is just starting to consider what to do with them.  Also, the US government just auctioned off 18 million dollars of bitcoin (seized from the silk road.)  It certainly sounds like they are worth something and that the government thinks they are an asset of some sort...

Somebody thinks they are worth something... Consider that just the bitcoin network presently has 120 PH (what is that, 120 quadrillion hashes per second?) If you are wondering, miners use up roughly 1000 megawatt hours a day producing virtual money (@ $.15 / KWh it should be around $150 000 spent each day to mine bitcoin alone in electricity + the cost of hardware.)  It could be a case of "the greater fool theory"- but it continues for now.  (If Agent Orange is reading this he may make note that is half of what it takes to run the most useful tool in his field- the Hadron collier and all it produces is heat...)

The biggest problems with these "currencies" has not been raised yet.  Security and spending.  The main idea behind them (next to the fact that they cannot be inflated like fiat) is that they are secure and not subject to the traditional financial system.  There is no processing fee, no banks and no way to do a "charge back."  This really has lead to a wild west mentality where scammers, thieves and hackers live (the difference is in the wild west they hung thieves.)  Even the companies making ASICs are in on the action with court cases, law suits, accusations of profiting from the hardware and shipping it used.  All kinds of things (and the real kicker is that it is the American companies with the worst track record while bitmain and other Chinese companies deliver on time and on budget without scamming customers.  Kind of a funny turn of events...)

I have no illusions- it will never be adopted by the majority for a host of reasons.  However, you can now use bitcoin on major, mainstream sites like expedia...

The 51% pool is, overall, minor (there have been two other instances in the past with other pools reaching over 51%- but bitcoin was smaller and more obscure.)  It has the potential to spell the death of the coin- but the one breach is not it... 

Where bitcoin shines is the silk road and gambling.  Again, you need some technical know-how, but it is not difficult.  The problem with bitcoin is that the blockchain is public.  However, there are now "mixers" to make transactions harder to track.  There is also darkcoin (and by the end of the year there is supposed to be zerocoin that has some very interesting ideas on how to provide anonymity and security if you read their white paper.  It is one of the few coins that has taken years to come out as the developers seem to be thinking and not just getting a coin out there...)

One of the major problems is that if any government really wanted rid of it, they could do so easily with a relatively small investment in "miners."   However, to do so would almost admit that they are scared of crypto's and I do not think they care to draw that much attention to them.

I could ramble on for a long time.  To sum it up- I doubt bitcoin is going anywhere for quite awhile.  There have literally been hundreds of alternate coins released just last year- but the acceptance is very low.  The only real competition (litecoin) had decoupled and is tanking.  I blame scrypt mining ASICS (bitcoin used to have them and people would still mine litecoin with GPU's.  Once ASICs became available the market decided that there is no advantage of litecoin over bitcoin and people bailed.)

There are lots of coins with some novel addition.  Vertcoin is mined by lots of people who used to mine litecoin (ASIC resistant.)  Darkcoin is mined by people who think anonymity is paramount.  Fractalcoin incorporated a feature that is resistant to 51% attacks (now need 71%).  Talk coin provides a way for people to communicate in a way that (so far) is not tracable using the blockchain.  Curecoin (I have not read much on it) is doing something with folding at home and aiming to help fold proteins to allow a search for cures to (I think) cancer and Alzheimers???  Nxt was the first "proof of stake" where you do not mine- but it "pays" your wallet interest based on your holding coins (though I have read papers arguing that it is not sustainable...) 

And then there are hundreds of scamcoins and shitcoins where the developer just copied the program, premined (also revealed that litecoin was premined) or even "stealth" launches where only a select few mine with low difficulty and build up a pile.

As mentioned... There are lots of scams... But Bitcoin has the potential to remain around.  It will never be an alternate to gold- but the premise is interesting and the ideas (read Satoshis' white paper if you are interested) provide some insight and advantages of crypto's.  All of this and the fact that the governments seem to hate it forces me to run a graphics card or two dedicated to mining because glancing at the heat producing, energy wasting box in the corner makes me smile as it attempts to solve completely pointless blockchain and produces completely worthless virtual coins.

This thread is officially back on topic. Definitely.

When I joked about the Star Trek Quatloos, I was completely unaware that it has very recently come into being. If I understand it, they are a live fork of LiteCoin and "not very exciting" because it's "just another script coin."

article at GryfenCrypto blog:

http://blog.gryfencryp.to/2014/06/29/quatloo-digital-currency-original-star-trek/#sthash.loOthR6S.dpbs

one of the pools:

https://qtl.suprnova.cc/

It's odd that no one had decided to create the quatloo crptocurrenncy until  "just now."

If only I had joked about it sooner, we could claim we created a group thoughtform.

I agree with the blogger that the graphic representation of the coin is weak. What with all the nerds and fans and computer power out there, I think it's possible to come up with something more inspiring. Instead, they are allowing themselves to be a slave to the Triskelion emblem.  I think the word "Quatloo" is more than enough of a Star Trek reference and they need to think outside of the fandom box and come up with something more.... profound.  I don't "hate" the current representation... just don't "love" it, either. They can do better, else it's just going to evoke some RPG device.

[attachimg=1]

When Kate first started this topic, I was, frankly, annoyed and dismissive of the subject.

I have since slowly come around to being intrigued and educating myself on the various cryptocurrencies and the implications thereof.

Due to her persistence and to other comments made here, you can color me "pro researching" if not specifically "pro BitCoin."

It's similar to others deciding to become pro fidget and to maybe not worry so much if they agree or disagree with Mr. Fidget, but to enjoy his art.

I'm certainly enjoying Kate's tenacity and all the members' posts at this point.

And I'm learning a lot.  Always a good thing.


b_dubb

Quote from: Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost on July 07, 2014, 11:44:12 PM
The many named actress who played Shahna, Kirk's thrall in "Gamesters" had a bit part as one of the repo wives in "Repo Man" and also appeared in some adult films, where she did pretty much everything people do in those movies. Or so I've been told. 




"Shahna ... I have present for you" - Captain Kirk

Quote from: wotr1 on July 09, 2014, 02:28:22 AM

Somebody thinks they are worth something... Consider that just the bitcoin network presently has 120 PH (what is that, 120 quadrillion hashes per second?) If you are wondering, miners use up roughly 1000 megawatt hours a day producing virtual money (@ $.15 / KWh it should be around $150 000 spent each day to mine bitcoin alone in electricity + the cost of hardware.)  It could be a case of "the greater fool theory"- but it continues for now.  (If Agent Orange is reading this he may make note that is half of what it takes to run the most useful tool in his field- the Hadron collier and all it produces is heat...)


The LHCs main export is knowledge, not heat. In both scientific and engineering endeavors. Todays theory is tomorrows tech. 

Quote from: Agent : Orange on July 09, 2014, 05:25:58 PM
The LHC's main export is knowledge, not heat. In both scientific and engineering endeavors. Today's theory is tomorrow's tech.

And tomorrow's theory is day after tomorrow's tech, but next Tuesday's theory is almost science fictiony.

WOTR

Quote from: Agent : Orange on July 09, 2014, 05:25:58 PM
The LHCs main export is knowledge, not heat. In both scientific and engineering endeavors. Todays theory is tomorrows tech.

No, no... I must have mistyped that.  What I meant was that the general layman believes would be the most important piece of equipment in your field only uses twice as much energy as a completely useless process called "bitcoin mining."  What produces only heat is a bitcoin miner.  Feed 1000 megawatt hours into it each day and come away with a few "newly minted" bitcoins.

I was simply meaning that you may find it particularly depressing to think that people spend 50% of the energy necessary to run such an amazing piece of technology that really does teach us something to product bitcoins (and heat...)  As a matter of fact, add in all of the other cryptocurrencies and the air conditioner (many large "farms" are hosted in data centers) and I bet the energy used to mine for virtual coins is more than that used to power the collider.  Hell, I find that thought depressing (and I run a miner in the corner...)

Can you imagine if people actually spent some of the time, effort, money an energy that is wasted on bitcoin to produce something useful.  (As mentioned, there is talkcoin and curecoin that seem to suggest that at least there are a few people asking if the hundreds of PH could be used to produce something useful...)

I really did not mean to suggest that the Hadron collider only produced heat- and I only brought the collider up because the comparison between it and bitcoin was used as example of the massive waste of energy  and was quoted in Forbes and Bloomberg awhile back.  I found it an interesting comparison between energy used for a purpose and energy wasted.  There was also a comparison to how many homes it would power... but that is useless as many people waste huge amounts of energy and it does not drive home the point nearly as well.  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-12/virtual-bitcoin-mining-is-a-real-world-environmental-disaster.html

***Edit: is the Hadron collider really the most important thing in your field of work... or are there things that are not as discussed or hyped in the media that are more important?***

Quote from: wotr1 on July 09, 2014, 11:26:13 PM
I bet the energy used to mine for virtual coins is more than that used to power the collider.  Hell, I find that thought depressing (and I run a miner in the corner...)

Are you looking at the amount of energy actually used or the amount of energy they purchase under contract? Many of these places sell excess energy back to the grid.

WOTR

Quote from: Mind Flayer Monk on July 10, 2014, 01:21:09 AM
Are you looking at the amount of energy actually used or the amount of energy they purchase under contract? Many of these places sell excess energy back to the grid.
Really?  You are going to make me do math?  Somebody had better double check my work for correctness.  The article was Bloomberg and I was happy to take their word for it (though the article was a couple of months old and I found out it is probably far worse than that now.)

Right now, the most common ASIC miner is Bitmains "antminer S1."  Estimates say that they have roughly 1/3 of the market.  They are very inefficient and they just released an updated miner (smaller chip) a few days ago.  Anyhow, I am going to use the information found here because it is the most reliable that I have found and is updated constantly. https://tradeblock.com/mining/

Bitmains S1 miner uses 1.9 watts per gigahash.  I am going to be very generous and say that the average machine out there will use 1 watt / gigahash (it also simplifies my math... Isn't that handy?  ;) )  The network right now is actually running at 123 PH... So, 123 quadrillion hashes per second.  One gigahash is equal to 1 billion hashes and uses 1 Watt.

Somebody really needs to write me up an equation for this...

Anyhow, 123 quadrillion divided by 1 billion = 123 000 000 (Watts.)  To get to Kilowatt hours I have to divide that by 1000... So, 123 000 Kilowatt hours.  Multiply that by 24 hours a day and we have 2 952 000 Kilowatt hours of electricity consumed a day.  Divide that by 1000 to get Megawatt hours and it should equal 2952 Megawatt hours of electricity consumed each day in mining operations if you do not factor in air conditioning, fans and other assorted costs.

The interesting thing is that I just realized that my number is almost 3X higher than Bloomberg.  However, Bloomberg wrote the article in early April (and the hash rate of the network at that point would have been around 40PH- it is now over 120PH.)  I would have to say that I am correct in my new numbers.  If it did not almost match Forbes and Bloomberg perfectly I would have said that I was wrong... there is no way that mining is consuming that much energy...  It really does show how fast things change and how quickly added computing power is coming online.

Thanks for making me do the math- it was a good exercise.  I now have to say that mining is taking up 1.5 times more power than the Hadron collider. It also means that at $.15 / Kwh people are collectively spending just under half a million dollars per day in power alone to mine bitcoin... As I had said earlier- somebody thinks it has some sort of value.

To answer the question... That is the amount of energy that actually has to be used to attain the network rate.  There is probably more that is purchased under contract...

My poor brain is now shot and ready to shut down.  Mind Flayer is a fitting name when making such inquiries this late at night.

Quote from: wotr1 on July 10, 2014, 02:49:31 AM
Really?  You are going to make me do math?  Somebody had better double check my work for correctness.  The article was Bloomberg and I was happy to take their word for it (though the article was a couple of months old and I found out it is probably far worse than that now.)

To answer the question... That is the amount of energy that actually has to be used to attain the network rate.  There is probably more that is purchased under contract...

I was just wondering if whatever you read said which one it was, but very interesting estimates you posted here!

I know lots of these places will set up right next to the power generation source and use only DC power.  Here is a place in Iceland http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/inside-look-cloudhashing-coms-bitcoin-mining-datacentre-iceland/2014/05/23




off topic...

Quote from: b_dubb on July 09, 2014, 03:13:17 PM

"Shahna ... I have present for you" - Captain Kirk
This.

Shatner's ego in the flesh/stone. Eerily foreshadowing GWAR's front man, recently deceased:

[attachimg=1]

The giant android you see in back ground of the b_dubb/Kirk picture is Ted Cassidy, better known as "Lurch" in the Addams family.  In the beginning, he worked as a disc jockey in my neck of the woods, WFAA-AM Dallas. And he was one of the first newsmen of WFAA-TV to interview W.E. Newman, Jr. and Gayle Newman on the day of the Kennedy assassination.

On Star Trek he voiced both the Gorn commander as well as the aggressive voice of Baylok. Easily two of my favorite fun episodes.

He also played Bigfoot on the Six Million Dollar Man. (the later Bigfoot episodes... the first two-parter being played by Andre the Giant.)

Just scanning the wik, I was stunned by all the things to which he was connected.

Even his cremated remains leave on a high note (shades of Crowley and Castaneda) and play a mysterious role...  "buried in the backyard of his Woodland Hills home. The exact location of his remains is unknown."

One hell of an interesting person whose acting career began in Dallas, with AM radio being a seed to his great success.

Six Foot.

Nine Inches.

He died the same year Phantasm came out. 

One Tall Man leaves, another enters...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cassidy

[attachimg=2]

Here's a coincidence to hurt your head: I'm thinking of Cassidy and wondering, in the back of my mind, if he somehow influenced Coscarelli's Phantasm in some subtle way.

So I googled "Don Coscarelli" and "Ted Cassidy" and found gold.

Flash forward to 2005 when Cosacrelli directed a Masters of Horror episode called Incident On and Off a Mountain Road.

In that flick, the serial killer, "Moonface" is played by John DeSantis. (Tall Man Agnust Scrimm also appears in this MOH episode.)

John DeSantis played LURCH in The New Addams Family series 1998-1999.

How TALL is John DeSantis?

YES.

Six Foot.

Nine Inches.

BAM!

Proof Coscarelli's Tall Man was influenced by Cassidy?  Hardly.

Just fucking weird, man.

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