Learned something new. Bitcoin

[Burnt Fingers]

If you mean HB3979, it did not pass. It was taken down today on a point of order, it is dead.

It was saved. Headed to the Governor.

[ryanmattes]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnb...arm-raid-.html

And today I stumbled onto this. Just a interesting little article about the energy consumption of crypto currency.

Wow.

"Bitcoin has a carbon footprint comparable with that of New Zealand..."

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[perotter]

I looked at it years ago, back when I was buying silver at 14$ and change per oz.

That 4 exists only as long as there is power. If the power ever went out over a wide area like an EMP attack or a big solar flare.
It becomes unrecoverable. That killed it for me right there.

Stuff happens. If it is not in my hands it does not exist for all practical purposes.

Shortly after Bitcoins were create when I seen the headlines were Chuck Schumer said that Bitcoins had to be made illegal because the government couldn't control what people bought or sold, I bought Bitcoins for $0.13 each.

One had to figure that the black market was going to love Bitcoins and use them. I've never understood why more people didn't see that right away that Bitcoins would have value because of it being desired by the black marketeers.

After buying a book with over half of them, I kept the rest for several years and still have a few. Decided to sell most of what I had a few years back when they first went $10,000 each. I got over $14,000 for each $0.13 I put into Bitcoins. But hung on to a few just in case they went real high, had to go on the lam or something.

By the why, a few weeks ago when they were around $60,000 I was joking with people that "In today's Bitcoins I paid over $23,000,000 for one of my books".

[bakerjw]

It was saved. Headed to the Governor.

Not to derail the thread, but our Governor Lee signed legislation like this last week.

[perotter]

Almost nobody mines Bitcoins any more, because there are hardly any left to be found. Just like nobody is packing up and heading to California to pan for gold.

But what people are mining now is Ethereum. I know a guy is netting(after electric expense) anywhere from $12.00 to $49.00 a day doing that with just three video cards.

He monitors how much electricity is used and it is less than $2.00. So I don't believe what the media says about how much power is used. Just another something to scare people or divert peoples attention from important things that are happening. Those news items never have any detailed facts in them, which is always a tip off that it's just intended to be propaganda.

How much he makes depends on the price of Ethereum on that day. Also make money 24/7 without working. Well there was getting set up and on going moving of money.

[starbits]

I have several question about these so called COINS, what ever they choose to call them. # 1, who guarantees their value? #2 can you change it into currency, either part or all. #3, Who dreamed up these coins. #4, Is our government in any way involved? # 4, And last, are they just another scam.

#1 No one, except the guy who buys your coins from you.

#2 Yes, No, Maybe. If you buy crypto from a place like Robinhood you are buying a derivative instead of the actual coins and can't remove the coins from the exchange. You are then at the mercy of the exchange. For instance Robinhood shut down all Gamestop trading for a period and could do the same for crypto if it felt the need. For security you need to be able remove any coins from the exchange to a cold storage wallet. That way if you decide to sell or redeem to currency you can go to what ever exchange is open and functioning normally.

#3 Some really smart computer nerds. Something I bear no resemblance too.

#4 Only in the sense that they have their hand out. The USA treats crypto as if it were a stock and every time you sell or trade crypto it wants its unfair share in long or short term capital gains. The 1040 tax form now includes questions about whether you own or trade crypto currency and lying about it is a felony.

#4 I thought so when bitcoin was $200 and you couldn't buy anything with it. I didn't buy any. Today crypto is more than a currency. The block chain it is built on has real world applications in security, data storage, communications, etc. So scam or not it is not going away any time soon.

[JimB..]

It was saved. Headed to the Governor.

See post #35. I’ve been traveling all day so have no new info, but I understand that at least some lawyers believe that once it gets off the floor the constitutional argument about how it got passed becomes moot. Not sure what’s going to happen, heck I can even imagine Abbott vetoing it because that’ll hurt Patrick’s reelection while helping his own.

[Handloader109]

The intrinsic value of Bitcoin is its transparency. The fed reserve can tell you what your dollar is worth based on whatever metrics they choose to value it. Bitcoins value is what you are willing to pay for it and EVERY transaction it recorded and verified. If Congress wants to print $2.3t dollars to pay for stimulus payments, can YOU see and verify where every dollar went? Can YOU determine how much inflation will occur to your current dollars as a result of what the feds do?

It's worth what you are willing to pay for it which is zero for me, so it is worth zero.....

[Burnt Fingers]

Almost nobody mines Bitcoins any more, because there are hardly any left to be found. Just like nobody is packing up and heading to California to pan for gold.

There was an article in the Dallas Morning News recently about a company that makes portable BitCoin mining trailers. You haul them to a wellhead and use the flare gas to power them.

So there are still people mining them.

[kerplode]

Almost nobody mines Bitcoins any more, because there are hardly any left to be found.

There are absolutely people still mining Bitcoin. Mining is how new blocks are validated and added to the blockchain. It's essential to the process.

The rate at which new coins are minted to reward mining is much less now than it was at the beginning, but each transaction pays a per-bit mining fee. So yeah, it's still very profitable. It's just not practical for a guy with an old video card to compete with the huge clusters of dedicated mining equipment anymore. For BTC anyway. Ethereum uses different algorithms.

It's worth what you are willing to pay for it which is zero for me, so it is worth zero.....

So don't buy any...

[kerplode]

If you do get into crypto remember these three things:

1) ALWAYS control your own private key. ALWAYS. Move your coins off the exchange and into a wallet you own as soon as their available for transfer.
2) Keep your seed and any passphrases closely guarded secrets. Store them separately and never expose them to the internet in any fashion. Letter stamp them on stainless steel and bury it in your back yard or something.
3) Generate a new receive address EVERY TIME you move money into your wallet. DO NOT use receive addresses more than once, and if you need to move a large quantity of coin, move it in smaller chunks, each to a different receive address generated by your wallet.

If you don't control the keys, you don't own the coins. It's as simple as that.

[popper]

ledger that cannot be cheated Not really. Blockchain is a distributed encrypted methodology where each and every transaction re-encrypts the ENTIRE chain. Mining is a math process equal to calculating PI to the 27th decimal. Both take enormous amounts of electricity. Personally IMHO HE decided to NOT take bitcoin as $ for Teslas as the value changes and HE doesn't want to lose any. When Gov. gets involved there are TAXES. If a Co. gets involved with Gov. there are lawyer fees.

[AlHunt]

The problem I have with Bitcoin in actual use is that the fees are unpredictable, hard to determine and, in my experiences, usually very high for every day types of transactions.

[dverna]

I am not smart enough to understand it....it is the same problem I have understanding God. But at least I can see what God has created.

I like things like silver, food, land, tools, guns, ammunition and components. I cannot get rich from what I have, but I should be able to survive the last couple of decades I have left.

I plan on buying $5-8k of primers/powder when things get back to normal and replenishing the inventory I sold in the last few months. Figure I can triple my investment in less than four years, but if not, the stuff will not lose any value. If I was smarter and more sophisticated, I would not have to be a hoarder/scalper. Funny how someone buying crypto currency and making a huge profit is admired, but I get labeled a scalper.

Wish I had the smarts...but just a Michigan hillbilly.

[kerplode]

I am not smart enough to understand it....it is the same problem I have understanding God. But at least I can see what God has created.

I like things like silver, food, land, tools, guns, ammunition and components. I cannot get rich from what I have, but I should be able to survive the last couple of decades I have left.

I plan on buying $5-8k of primers/powder when things get back to normal and replenishing the inventory I sold in the last few months. Figure I can triple my investment in less than four years, but if not, the stuff will not lose any value. If I was smarter and more sophisticated, I would not have to be a hoarder/scalper. Funny how someone buying crypto currency and making a huge profit is admired, but I get labeled a scalper.

Wish I had the smarts...but just a Michigan hillbilly.

It's all good, man. Crypto is a weird new world. I'm still learning a bunch about it myself. For better or worse, I do think blockchain tech will be the future of many things, including US and world currency. Plus, there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin so eventually, I can see the price being astronomical. At this point, I look at Bitcoin more like digital gold and less like a functional currency for every day things. An every day crypto will need to have a faster/cheaper transfer verification process (i.e. mining) and more stable value. It'll come, though. But for now, it's interesting to toss a few extra dollars at Bitcoin here and there just to see what happens. Some people bet a few bucks on the lottery, I toss those couple bucks into BTC. Nothing big, so if I lose it all, NBD. If it's $10M/BTC in 20 years, then that's a bonus.

Anyway...

As to "scalping", I fully support you getting as much as you can for anything you sell. Really.

Something is worth what people are willing to pay. It's as simple as that. $200/1000 of primers is no different than $65000/BTC. If you have it and can do without, and someone who wants it is willing to pay "market" price, then sell it and use the funds as you see fit.

You're not the Primer Welfare Department...Ignore those fools that cry scalping and live your life. How many times have we done this shortage thing now? They will still fail to prepare for the next shortage and still expect someone to bail them out with a brick at 1/10 market price cause "that's what they used to cost".

[popper]

Bitcoin is like all currency, the Gov. will manipulate it. EU tried same thing with the Euro. At this time it is like the stock market, with the 'big boys' computer trades making $ off each swing.

[perotter]

Bitcoin is like all currency, the Gov. will manipulate it. EU tried same thing with the Euro. At this time it is like the stock market, with the 'big boys' computer trades making $ off each swing.

Yup. When there always somebody who will make money on the swings and that is the real money to be made with it.

IMO, that is way there are such huge swings in it now. They are to big to be coming from just the people who are using it as currency for to go down in 1/2 in a couple of days and then right away to up.

[perotter]

I am not smart enough to understand it....it is the same problem I have understanding God. But at least I can see what God has created.

I like things like silver, food, land, tools, guns, ammunition and components. I cannot get rich from what I have, but I should be able to survive the last couple of decades I have left.

I plan on buying $5-8k of primers/powder when things get back to normal and replenishing the inventory I sold in the last few months. Figure I can triple my investment in less than four years, but if not, the stuff will not lose any value. If I was smarter and more sophisticated, I would not have to be a hoarder/scalper. Funny how someone buying crypto currency and making a huge profit is admired, but I get labeled a scalper.

Wish I had the smarts...but just a Michigan hillbilly.

I don't claim to fully understand it, just the basics. I too prefer what you do, but every once in a while opportunity knocks. Not everyone thinks you are a scalper. I sure don't. Unless you were charging your brother who was ammoless big money.

Better to have a few calling one a scalper than having others call one a fool for selling something to cheap.

[perotter]

Assuming that all the crypto market dropped a lot during the last few weeks, now it's the perfect time to buy, during the deeps.

Maybe. I had a good friend last who figured that shorting the market because of covid make him rich. Now his a 75 year old who went from having several million dollars to living on social security.

I really don't know why somebody his age had that much desire to have a 100's of millions of dollars. But some of the best advice my old man gave me was 'Most people go broke from being greedy. When you can take a profit do it.'.

[perotter]

There are absolutely people still mining Bitcoin. Mining is how new blocks are validated and added to the blockchain. It's essential to the process.

The rate at which new coins are minted to reward mining is much less now than it was at the beginning, but each transaction pays a per-bit mining fee. So yeah, it's still very profitable. It's just not practical for a guy with an old video card to compete with the huge clusters of dedicated mining equipment anymore. For BTC anyway. Ethereum uses different algorithms.



So don't buy any...

It's not essential at all to keep mining. Bitcoin would continue on just fine without more being mined. Otherwise it would all be worthless the same day the last Bitcoin was mined.

That is why they are mining Ethereum. There haven't been many Bitcoin left to be mined for the last few years. And they aren't using old video cards to mine Ethereum either. A couple of weeks ago the good video cards that the retail price is about $600 were going for $3000 to $4000 each. Guys are buy brand new gaming PC's just to pull out the video card to use for mining.