Yes I did.

I invested BLABLA back in 2012 and its now worth BLABLA

Edit : I dont want to disclose it

Until the moment you sell, it's called an unrealized gain. With no underlying value creation, the price of a speculative investment like bitcoin could change very quickly. Just sayin'. It's an unhatched chicken.

 

@wayneh Your absolutley right and I invested a small amount early on so if I decided to cash it now I would not be unhappy. But because I only invested a little I am happy to leave it; if its value shoots up I win, if it goes to nothing then I lost only a small amount! Still though, I have confidence in bitcoin thanks to governments screwing with currencies and trying to remove privacy.

 

I have low confidence in Bitcoin as a currency because your comment about cashing it in for currency means just the opposite of a stable currency used in daily life. Bitcoin is a speculative store of wealth that currently is almost useless as a method to actually buy things. The Chinese completely control the blockchain with 80% of the computer power to generate new coins and validate transactions. It's a system ripe for corruption and hacking once the reward for generating new coins decreases to the point there is more value in cheating.

IMO the concentration of computing power is a critical misfeature of Bitcoin and it's blockchain in general.
https://hacken.io/wp-content/uploads/The-Rush-for-Hashpower.pdf

 

It's the Holland Tulip craze. I predict the crash is not far off. The concept filled a market need apparently, but better options will replace it.

 

Let's not start it up again, gentlemen. Please.

And please address any moderation issues in PM with a staff member, not on the boards.

EDIT: Refers to deleted posts. Admonitions are still valid.

 

https://www.coindesk.com/ponzis-death-stranger-ways-lose-crypto/

Bitcoin Ponzi scams are raking in millions - all without much effort.

That may be self-explanatory to those who traffic the social media forums where the subject is discussed, but to researchers, it's also a fertile ground for new findings. For them, someone asking for money and promising 100x returns isn't simply a nuisance, they're an opportunity for study.

 

Can I trade my Iraqi dinars for bitcoins?

 

Can I trade my Iraqi dinars for bitcoins?

Sure. 1 Bitcoin equals 10,994,731.87 Iraqi Dinar. How many Bitcoins do you want?

See:
https://coinmill.com/BTC_IQD.html#BTC=1

 

http://markets.businessinsider.com/...k-cryptocurrency-mining-ban-2018-3-1018865406

Plattsburgh residents have seen skyrocketing electrical bills — as much as $100 to $200 increases — as a result of commercial cryptomining operations that mine for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, according to Plattsburgh Mayor Colin Read, who spoke with Motherboard. The city is taking action to protect its citizens from those rising electrical bills that the city of Plattsburgh says is caused by cryptomining operations.
...
When its electrical budget was exceeded in January, the city had to buy electricity from the open market at a higher cost, which was distributed among its residents.

Be it enacted by the Common Council of the City of Plattsburgh as follows:

§270-28-J Moratorium on Commercial Cryptocurrency Mining Operations

Section 1. Enactment and Title.

The Common Council of the City of Plattsburgh does hereby ordain and enact the City of Plattsburgh moratorium on commercial cryptocurrency mining operations in the City of Plattsburgh. This local law shall impose a moratorium on applications or proceedings, or the issuance of approvals or permits for commercial cryptocurrency mining operations in the City of Plattsburgh.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8xk4e4/bitcoin-ban-plattsburgh-coinmint-mining

When I pulled up to Skyway, shoppers milled in and out of Aubuchon Hardware, Gioiosia’s Wine & Spirits, and Yando’s Big M Supermarket. But the large anchor building, which once housed Diamond Comic Distributors, looked largely abandoned, save for a Family Dollar store. Peering into the windows at the front of the building, I saw some loose pink wall insulation and a few cables on the concrete floor. But behind the white drywall on the opposite side of the window, the building isn't empty. From the parking lot, the telltale buzzing of ASICs could be easily heard coming from the back of the building.

 

http://markets.businessinsider.com/...k-cryptocurrency-mining-ban-2018-3-1018865406

So, why is the city in the electricity business in the first place? It always scares me when a politician or government bureaucrat wants to be a business person with my money.

There are cities around where I live that want to get in the Internet utility business -- on the taxpayers dime, of course -- to save money. Yeah, right.


I will get off my soapbox now before I get this thread closed.

 

So, why is the city in the electricity business in the first place? It always scares me when a politician or government bureaucrat wants to be a business person with my money.

There are cities around where I live that want to get in the Internet utility business -- on the taxpayers dime, of course -- to save money. Yeah, right.


I will get off my soapbox now before I get this thread closed.

Many of the cities with hydro power as the main source are government run because historically the hydro plants were government designed, build and run as a monopoly power supplier for smaller cities. Most cities also run the water, sewer and other Public infrastructure operations.

 

Many of the cities with hydro power as the main source are government run because historically the hydro plants were government designed, build and run as a monopoly power supplier for smaller cities. Most cities also run the water, sewer and other Public infrastructure operations.

OK. That now makes some sense. Originally, the power available from the hydro exceeded the city's needs so the excess could be sold for a "profit". Now, with the increase in power usage it is just the opposite. The city needs more power than the hydro can supply so they have to buy more expensive, supplementary, power elsewhere.

Probably the consequences of a decision made a hundred years ago...

 

Probably the consequences of a decision made a hundred years ago...

Exactly, In Oregon public power utilities have first right, or "preference," to the power generated by the Bonneville Power Administration but their low cost usage is strictly limited by allotment agreements.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/i...osts-to-mine-bitcoin-in-your-state-2017-12-15

The Bitcoin power usage is totally outrageous for what little benefit it brings to a locality in jobs, taxes, etc ...

bitcoin requires 804 kilowatt-hours of energy for each transaction.
https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption

 

Exactly, In Oregon public power utilities have first right, or "preference," to the power generated by the Bonneville Power Administration but their low cost usage is strictly limited by allotment agreements.

Ah, yes, we have similar agreements for water usage here in arid Colorado. One of the weirdest ones is that I can't keep the water that runs off my roof. I'm not sure who owns "my" water.

I live right in the middle of Denver but I don't think the city owns my water rights. Denver owns and collects water from all over the Colorado Rocky Mountains and pipes it to Denver. They started installing reservoirs and tunnels for the water over a hundred years ago when the city was only a few decades old. Amazing forethought.

 

Bitcoin using cheap power in Oregon. The local public electric utility should take note that the cheap rates for regular customers might not last for long.
https://www.nwascopud.org/

The Bitcoin boom poses a challenge to small towns like The Dalles. Electricity here may be cheap, but it isn't endless. Dams kill endangered salmon. And the more hydropower is used by Bitcoin miners, the more the rest of the state must rely on electricity generated by fossil fuels, including coal.

"I wouldn't blame a [utility] for being skeptical," Thurber says. "Cryptocurrency would gobble up as much power as it could, if we didn't have a bunch of measures in place that are holding us back."
...
The man in The Dalles who gets to decide if he'll dole out power to miners is Paul Titus, lead engineer at the Northern Wasco County People's Utility District.

The PUD is a nonprofit electric company that gets 85 percent of its power from hydroelectricity generated by dams on the Columbia River.

On a recent Wednesday, Titus sat at a round table in his office, in a blue button-down shirt, jeans and New Balance sneakers, thumbing through a set of forms that he created specifically for people hoping to open up data centers in The Dalles.

http://www.wweek.com/news/business/...heap-electricity-should-we-give-them-a-boost/

Thurber says he moved to The Dalles for one reason only: cheap hydroelectric power. It costs 3 to 4 cents per kilowatt-hour, less than half the U.S. average.

Thurber's mine constantly draws three megawatts of power per hour. That's enough electricity to power a town the size of Sisters.

And Thurber says his 15-employee company, called OregonMines, is now the third-largest consumer of electricity in The Dalles. His monthly power bill is $75,000.

Power generation Owner:
http://www.nwp.usace.army.mil/The-Dalles/
A large amount of the power heads to SoCal via the Pacific Intertie.
http://new.abb.com/systems/hvdc/references/pacific-intertie

 

Bitcoin using cheap power in Oregon. The local public electric utility should take note that the cheap rates for regular customers might not last for long.
https://www.nwascopud.org/



http://www.wweek.com/news/business/...heap-electricity-should-we-give-them-a-boost/


Power generation Owner:
http://www.nwp.usace.army.mil/The-Dalles/
A large amount of the power heads to SoCal via the Pacific Intertie.
http://new.abb.com/systems/hvdc/references/pacific-intertie

Wind and solar will fix it!

 

Wind and solar will fix it!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Oregon
We got plenty of wind power already, in fact too much at times like during spring melt. For a town like the Dalles about 85% of power comes from hydro with the rest mainly from wind.

We are near the the point where the actual cost of generation of a Bitcoin is more than the market price of a Bitcoin as bitcoin's price keeps falling and mining costs keep climbing.

The problem with Bitcoin power usage is positive feedback on power usage similar to a MAD missile/counter-missile race. As more people start to mine the coins the cryptographic difficulty automatically increases to keep coin generation at one per 10 min adjusted monthly. The solution is to go as big as possible as soon as possible for the pool of coins.

So all that highly subsidized renewable energy for saving the climate and the new self-driving electric cars of the future will be wasted in a Bitcoin bunker in Eastern Oregon as heat in a scam filled Get Rich Scheme.

 

It appears that you can't make a profit Bitcoin mining just any old place.
http://fortune.com/2018/03/16/bitcoin-mining-cost-profitability/

 

A friend has been wanting a new graphics card for his computer. He says the cards are overpriced and are not coming down in price as expected. He blames demand caused by Bitcoin mining for the high prices.

He also mentioned that the transaction fee has gotten too high for small purchases. It is about $1.50 right now but peaked at about $55 just before Christmas.

https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-transactionfees.html

 

It appears that you can't make a profit Bitcoin mining just any old place.
http://fortune.com/2018/03/16/bitcoin-mining-cost-profitability/