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First Here To Use The Word "Bitcoin".

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Queso (netAirspace ATC Tower Chief & Founding Member) 25 Feb 14, 01:48Post
After doing a search and finding the word "bitcoin" is not contained in any post, it seems I will be the first to start a discussion about it.

I have been watching the exchange rate between Bitcoin and the dollar and have decided this might actually turn into something so I think I am going to throw some real money into Bitcoins for speculative investment purposes. It's extremely volatile right now, a week ago the value was about $100 per BTC, but a couple of weeks before that it got up to $1,040 per BTC. Today I've seen it between $520 and $550.

Bitcoin value is beginning to increase logarithmically, so that's why I think for speculation this is a good time to jump in. I also think long-term it will prove to be of good value because with a limit of 21,000,000 Bitcoin in circulation, it will not be subject to inflation. There are several other things about Bitcoin that look interesting to me, such as lack of government control and/or value manipulation, and the fact that this is ground-floor and discussion about it is beginning to take place in WSJ and Forbes.

Anyone else ever done anything with Bitcoin, or making plans to jump into it?

Ever heard of it? :))
Slider... <sniff, sniff>... you stink.
Mark 25 Feb 14, 02:21Post
I know that bitcoin is big in the drug trade.

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/travel ... h-bitcoins

I know the leader of the bitcoin thing was arrested for money laundering.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/27/technol ... in-arrest/

I also know that someone or group electronically raided a bitcoin vault a couple of weeks ago.

http://www.ibtimes.com/silk-road-2-hack ... en-1555433

But then, I have 625,000 Iraqi new dinars in my desk drawer...which currently is valued at 1.02 bitcoin. C'est la vie.
Commercial aircraft flown in: B712 B722 B732 B734 B737 B738 B741 B742 B744 B752 B753 B762 B772 A310 A318 A319 A320 A321 DC91 DC93 DC94 DC1030 DC1040 F100 MD82 MD83 A223 CR2 CR7 E175
Boris (Founding Member) 25 Feb 14, 12:18Post
Bitcoin's in the news, but not in a promising way...

TOKYO — The website of major bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox is offline Tuesday amid reports it suffered a debilitating theft, a new setback for efforts to gain legitimacy for the virtual currency.

The URL of Tokyo-based Mt. Gox was returning a blank page. The disappearance of the site follows the resignation Sunday of Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, a group seeking legitimacy for the currency.

*****

The cloud hanging over Mt. Gox is a possibly fatal blow to Bitcoin, which was started in 2009 as a currency free from government controls. Supporters have said Bitcoin’s cryptography makes it immune to theft or counterfeiting.

On bitcoin exchanges, the currency’s value has fallen to about $470 from $550 in the past few hours.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ ... ml?hpid=z4
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers...
ORFflyer (Founding Member) 25 Feb 14, 13:23Post
Mark wrote:But then, I have 625,000 Iraqi new dinars in my desk drawer...which currently is valued at 1.02 bitcoin. C'est la vie.

It is also $537USD at today's rate. It would not be sitting in my desk drawer....

As far as Bitcoin - I know very little about it. Our security folks here at the office just sent us FSOs a slide-deck outlining how one of our former employee's was using company assets to mine his Bitcoin up in the corporate date-center. He was of course fired, as this was far more than little bit of time being wasted. He had rigged up a lot of old company assets in his little corner to help him mine - he had also joined the Litecoin Mining Pool run out of the Ukraine. And now he is asking for his profits - to the tune $160,000.00. {crazy} {facepalm}

Bitcoin is no joke.
Rack-em'. I'm getting a beer.
Queso (netAirspace ATC Tower Chief & Founding Member) 25 Feb 14, 13:40Post
ORFflyer wrote:Bitcoin is no joke.

Yeah, and that's why I am thinking about putting some real-world money into it. I know there have been some negatives but there were also lots of negative things happening with paper money during the 20's and 30's. And today, with the government simply printing more of it whenever they want.

I don't think it's going to go away. To ignore it would be like ignoring eBay, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, etc. in their early days.

Mark, your powers of the Google are amazing. {sarcastic}
Slider... <sniff, sniff>... you stink.
miamiair (netAirspace FAA) 25 Feb 14, 13:51Post
Problem with the Bitcoin is that world governments want to handcuff it. If they can't control it, they outlaw it. It is happening here in the states; DOJ is looking into it. China has busted some of its people for using it...
And let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist in love with flight. — E. B. Jeppesen
ORFflyer (Founding Member) 25 Feb 14, 14:02Post
Queso wrote:Yeah, and that's why I am thinking about putting some real-world money into it.


I'm in an office full of bit-weenies. Several are very active in bitcoin mining, and make no efforts to hide it. These technicians talk about it all the time, and done properly, it is legal - for now anyway. (see Vic's post)
Rack-em'. I'm getting a beer.
Boris (Founding Member) 25 Feb 14, 14:10Post
ORFflyer wrote:
Queso wrote:Yeah, and that's why I am thinking about putting some real-world money into it.


I'm in an office full of bit-weenies. Several are very active in bitcoin mining, and make no efforts to hide it. These technicians talk about it all the time, and done properly, it is legal - for now anyway. (see Vic's post)

I checked out the mining of it. There's a site that analyzes your computer(s) that will be used and it told me I'd use about five dollars worth of electricity to mine ten cents worth of Bitcoins.

As you mentioned, you really have to be part of a mining pool to have any success, because I read that they only issue them in 50 coin blocks.

Since the "money" only exists digitally, you better have good backups. I read about some guy that lost over a million bucks worth of them because his hard drive crashed...
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers...
Queso (netAirspace ATC Tower Chief & Founding Member) 25 Feb 14, 14:14Post
Boris wrote:As you mentioned, you really have to be part of a mining pool to have any success, because I read that they only issue them in 50 coin blocks.

Not necessarily, I think riding the volatility of it right now is where some gains can be realized. As I see it, the days of getting rich off mining are likely a little over a year behind us.
Slider... <sniff, sniff>... you stink.
Queso (netAirspace ATC Tower Chief & Founding Member) 25 Feb 14, 14:16Post
Oh, and you can buy fractional shares of a coin.
Slider... <sniff, sniff>... you stink.
Boris (Founding Member) 25 Feb 14, 14:45Post
Queso wrote:
Boris wrote:As you mentioned, you really have to be part of a mining pool to have any success, because I read that they only issue them in 50 coin blocks.

Not necessarily, I think riding the volatility of it right now is where some gains can be realized. As I see it, the days of getting rich off mining are likely a little over a year behind us.

I agree that smart/lucky investing of cash into Bitcoins could be lucrative. With the value jumping and crashing like it has been, it will probably take more luck than smarts though.

My comment about the pools was aimed at mining. As you said, getting rich off mining these days is a stretch. I just wish I'd put a few of my computers to work on it about five years ago...
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers...
mhodgson (ATC & Photo Quality Screener & Founding Member) 25 Feb 14, 15:54Post
I'm watching this debate on another forum - one person has gone for it but most see it is risky - there are simply too many grey areas and it is too shaky at the moment to be a serious currency.

One of the reasons it is so shaky is a lack of faith in users and the sites that enable access which can spring up and go down rapidly.

Personally I find it slightly concerning that someone can simply set up a 'rival' currency, seemingly from nothing - this data mining is all well and good, but its hardly the Gold Standard.
There's the right way, the wrong way and the railway.
ShyFlyer (Founding Member) 25 Feb 14, 16:04Post
It's a fad that will run it's course, only to be replaced by something else of questionable value.
Make Orwell fiction again.
AndesSMF (Founding Member) 25 Feb 14, 16:08Post
Future of it cloudy till this whole Mt. Cox thing gets fixed up.
Einstein said two things were infinite; the universe, and stupidity. He wasn't sure about the first, but he was certain about the second.
mhodgson (ATC & Photo Quality Screener & Founding Member) 25 Feb 14, 16:09Post
And amusingly, one of the main exchange sites I alluded to has gone offline - the founder has seemingly done a runner, possibly with all the bitcoin contained as part of it - the value of the bitcoin has crashed today. One person showed a screenshot where it lost $200 in 30 minutes.
There's the right way, the wrong way and the railway.
JLAmber (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 25 Feb 14, 16:15Post
mhodgson wrote:And amusingly, one of the main exchange sites I alluded to has gone offline - the founder has seemingly done a runner, possibly with all the bitcoin contained as part of it - the value of the bitcoin has crashed today. One person showed a screenshot where it lost $200 in 30 minutes.


I saw that earlier, the exchange rate is all over the place at the moment and far too volatile to warrant serious investment. In the time it's taken me to type this the value has dropped from 337 GBP to 326.66 GBP {crazy}
A million great ideas...
AndesSMF (Founding Member) 28 Feb 14, 16:09Post
Mt. Gox is gone, gone, gone.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireSt ... d-22713601
Einstein said two things were infinite; the universe, and stupidity. He wasn't sure about the first, but he was certain about the second.
mhodgson (ATC & Photo Quality Screener & Founding Member) 28 Feb 14, 16:17Post
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There's the right way, the wrong way and the railway.
Queso (netAirspace ATC Tower Chief & Founding Member) 28 Feb 14, 19:19Post
JLAmber wrote:
mhodgson wrote:And amusingly, one of the main exchange sites I alluded to has gone offline - the founder has seemingly done a runner, possibly with all the bitcoin contained as part of it - the value of the bitcoin has crashed today. One person showed a screenshot where it lost $200 in 30 minutes.


I saw that earlier, the exchange rate is all over the place at the moment and far too volatile to warrant serious investment. In the time it's taken me to type this the value has dropped from 337 GBP to 326.66 GBP {crazy}

It works the other way, too. ;)

Just gotta be patient. Those downs are as good as the ups.
Slider... <sniff, sniff>... you stink.
IFEMaster (Project Dark Overlord & Founding Member) 28 Feb 14, 19:28Post
Dogecoin is where it's at:

http://dogecoin.com/
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein
Zak (netAirspace FAA) 28 Feb 14, 20:57Post
I prefer losing my money at poker. More fun. ;)
Ideology: The mistaken belief that your beliefs are neither beliefs nor mistaken.
Tornado82 28 Feb 14, 22:58Post
Zak wrote:I prefer losing my money at poker. More fun. ;)

Bingo.

Just another bubble fad running its course here. Except this bubble is literally bits. Nothing of substance. At least the gold bubble you could still have real gold. Or real land in the real estate bubble. This is electrons that can be "stolen" with nothing more than malicious code.
I'm baaaaaaack.
captoveur 28 Feb 14, 23:53Post
Zak wrote:I prefer losing my money at poker. More fun. ;)


I prefer strip clubs.. I have the same odds of coming out richer.
I like my coffee how I like my women: Black, bitter, and preferably fair trade.
Tornado82 01 Mar 14, 00:06Post
captoveur wrote:
Zak wrote:I prefer losing my money at poker. More fun. ;)


I prefer strip clubs.. I have the same odds of coming out richer.

If I want TAP I can only look at but not touch the internet has plenty of porn for free.
I'm baaaaaaack.
ShanwickOceanic (netAirspace FAA) 04 Mar 14, 16:21Post
And another one bites the dust:

http://flexcoin.com/

If you put your money somewhere with this in the ToS, serves you right.

Flexcoin Inc is not responsible for insuring any bitcoins stored in the Flexcoin system. You are entering into this agreement with Flexcoin Inc. You agree to not hold Flexcoin Inc, or Flexcoin Inc's stakeholders, or Flexcoin Inc's shareholders liable for any lost bitcoins.

They at least seem to have taken the precaution of offering "cold" storage, but seems plenty of people didn't want to be bothered with the hassle and are now paying the price.
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