To all the haters out there

[sil3nt]

Let's just say I got a good return on my investment, since I invested $0 to begin with. Now, to sell high, wait for the markets to crash and burn, then buy up large, wait a year or 2, sell high, and repeat. It's almost the perfect legal money making scheme. Just don't expect an immediate return on your investment, as it's more of a mid term investment.

You don't get bitcoins for nothing.

[SMOKEU]

You don't get bitcoins for nothing.

I certainly did. I mined them, and the heat generated by the computer was used to heat the room in winter. That electricity would otherwise have been "wasted" by a heater, and since the COP is 1 of both a standard electric resitance heater and a computer, it really didn't cost me anything since the hardware was already there (I bought my hardware before I even knew about BTC).

[bogan]

It's almost the perfect legal money making scheme.

Almost, apart from being a borderline pyramid scheme which largely facilitates illegal transactions; all while placing a large load on network infrastructure.

[SMOKEU]

Almost, apart from being a borderline pyramid scheme which largely facilitates illegal transactions; all while placing a large load on network infrastructure.

I fail to see how Bitcoin in any way resembles a pyramid scheme. And cash doesn't faciliate illegal transactions? What have drug dealers and hitmen been using all these years as payment? Wasting time on Facebook and Jewtube also places a very large load on networks, far more so than Bitcoin. It's good that we have an unregulated currency that has almost no transaction fees, and is largely free from government intervention and potential seizure from the courts, provided your wallet.dat is well encrypted.

[bogan]

I fail to see how Bitcoin in any way resembles a pyramid scheme. And cash doesn't faciliate illegal transactions? What have drug dealers and hitmen been using all these years as payment? Wasting time on Facebook and Jewtube also places a very large load on networks, far more so than Bitcoin. It's good that we have an unregulated currency that has almost no transaction fees, and is largely free from government intervention and potential seizure from the courts, provided your wallet.dat is well encrypted.

The diminishing returns on the mining side is very pyramid-ish, early adopters get much more returns not through risk, but through the system's design. Not long distance ones. Just cos there are other things worse in respective areas, doesn't mean bitcoin's downside are irrelevant.

How much pinga are we talking here anyway, new to you bike money? new bike money? new hyperbike money?

[SMOKEU]

The diminishing returns on the mining side is very pyramid-ish, early adopters get much more returns not through risk, but through the system's design. Not long distance ones. Just cos there are other things worse in respective areas, doesn't mean bitcoin's downside are irrelevant.

How much pinga are we talking here anyway, new to you bike money? new bike money? new hyperbike money?

The block chain is well documented, as are the facts about the increasing difficulty level. All this information is openly available to anyone, and it's up to the miner/user to inform themselves of this BEFORE getting into Bitcoin. There's no "hidden agenda" to catch anyone out, except for those who don't do sufficient research beforehand. Any investment carries a certain amount of risk, and Bitcoin is a much riskier investment than most, but the returns can be astromomical as can be seen here in the 30 day range.. Not many other investments will have an exponential increase in value in the period of a month.

I haven't got enough BTC to become rich (yet), but I could get myself a cheap microlight or a tidy 3 year old 1000cc Japanese sports bike. I won't blow all the cash though, as I'm going to give my SRAD a wee birthday (basically a GOOD service), and reinvest the money (wisely) so then hopefully I will be able to get the deposit for a cheap house after a few years.

[bogan]

The block chain is well documented, as are the facts about the increasing difficulty level. All this information is openly available to anyone, and it's up to the miner/user to inform themselves of this BEFORE getting into Bitcoin. There's no "hidden agenda" to catch anyone out, except for those who don't do sufficient research beforehand. Any investment carries a certain amount of risk, and Bitcoin is a much riskier investment than most, but the returns can be astromomical as can be seen here in the 30 day range.. Not many other investments will have an exponential increase in value in the period of a month.

I haven't got enough BTC to become rich (yet), but I could get myself a cheap microlight or a tidy 3 year old 1000cc Japanese sports bike. I won't blow all the cash though, as I'm going to give my SRAD a wee birthday (basically a GOOD service), and reinvest the money (wisely) so then hopefully I will be able to get the deposit for a cheap house after a few years.

...and after reading said info I decided it sounded very pyramid-scheme-ish.

You can't have it both ways, either it cost you something to mine the coins, or there is no risk. Risking nothing it not very risky after all.

Not bad at all, I'd recommend spreading the investment out, stock which can increase in astronomical rates has a habit of decreasing at similar rates too.

[Scuba_Steve]

Almost, apart from being a borderline pyramid scheme which largely facilitates illegal transactions; all while placing a large load on network infrastructure.

So it's just a stock exchange then; only one where people like Smokeu can actually participate

[SMOKEU]

...and after reading said info I decided it sounded very pyramid-scheme-ish.

You can't have it both ways, either it cost you something to mine the coins, or there is no risk. Risking nothing it not very risky after all.

Not bad at all, I'd recommend spreading the investment out, stock which can increase in astronomical rates has a habit of decreasing at similar rates too.

Early investors didn't necesserily make much money out of it, since Bitcoins were worth mere cents each, and most of the early miners sold their Bitcoins early on as they didn't envision the currency would ever be worth much. I was a rather late adopter, starting in June 2011. As I already said, it did cost electricity to mine, but that electricity would have been spent on heating anyway since I did my mining in the winter months and stopped in spring, which is coincidentally when the block difficulty increased beyond the profitable exchange rate. If I had run a heater for the same amount of time to keep the room at the same temperature, I would have nothing to show for it financially. Win!

So it's just a stock exchange then; only one where people like Smokeu can actually participate

lol at "people like me".

[Drew]

All you cunts trying to talk him out of this, knock it off! He's talking about sponsoring team 'prophet' racing!

[bogan]

Early investors didn't necesserily make much money out of it, since Bitcoins were worth mere cents each, and most of the early miners sold their Bitcoins early on as they didn't envision the currency would ever be worth much. I was a rather late adopter, starting in June 2011. As I already said, it did cost electricity to mine, but that electricity would have been spent on heating anyway since I did my mining in the winter months and stopped in spring, which is coincidentally when the block difficulty increased beyond the profitable exchange rate. If I had run a heater for the same amount of time to keep the room at the same temperature, I would have nothing to show for it financially. Win!

Rather irrelevant what early adopters did, the point is mining used to be profitable, now it is not so much; so the pyramid scheme has largely run its course, and now its just a fairly standard currency investment option which is unregulated by governments etc so is a high risk investment, that about sum it up?

All you cunts trying to talk him out of this, knock it off! He's talking about sponsoring team 'prophet' racing!

Talk him out of it? I'm just pointing out it has run its course of being profitable, so he should look into other investment options; sponsoring you cunts for instance...

[imdying]

If sponsors you, I'll put up some tshirts

[SMOKEU]

Rather irrelevant what early adopters did, the point is mining used to be profitable, now it is not so much; so the pyramid scheme has largely run its course, and now its just a fairly standard currency investment option which is unregulated by governments etc so is a high risk investment, that about sum it up?

Talk him out of it? I'm just pointing out it has run its course of being profitable, so he should look into other investment options; sponsoring you cunts for instance...

Mining can still be profitable with ASIC mining hardware, but since the block difficulty rate increases so quickly, the ROI can be painfully long, if it ever occurs. That's why at stage I'd recommend buying BTC instead of mining them. But the rest of what you said is pretty much true.

Low risk generally equals low return. If you're not happy with the risk of Bitcoin, then put your money in a bank. Just don't expect much of a return, especially when you factor inflation into the equation.

I've been involved with Bitcoin for long enough to make my own observations on the markets, and if there's any advice I can give, it's this: wait until the markets crash big time (it will happen soon), buy up large, then wait a year or 2, maybe even 3, and then cash out big time.

[imdying]

I see they're up to $780 now.

[SMOKEU]

I see they're up to $780 now.

And rapidly climbing! You know what they say; "the bigger the climb, the bigger the fall!"