Good article that details exactly why the bitcoin is a pyramid scheme

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I know someone we could send over who is desperate for attention...

Ooooh... I'm sure they would LOVE her.

FUCK THAT.

They need KITTY PARSONS.  Poetry is good for the soul. 

Oh lord. Lordy lord lord. Kitty could write them an ode or two.

[Junkenstein]

Bitcoin sale has been completed, no immediate details about sale prices/buyers/anything pertinent.

Should be amusing to watch the price over the next few days, as always "stable" is not going to be a word used to describe it.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.coindesk.com/price/

Possibly of use, probably worthless. Either way, seems like a relatively fair way of judging the apparent value of bitcoin.

Taking bets on the the price in say, a week. Currently "at" $650, I'm guessing it'll be pushing $800 with a lovely drop at around 850-900.

It'll be good to see what the auctioned coins were sold for, because if they are at anywhere near this level then someone's throwing some serious cash around. "Pump and Dump" anyone?

[trix]

Pyramid scheme or not I put $10 into Bitcoin awhile back, which is worth something like $45 right now, just in case it goes insane.  If Bitcoin fails, I lose $10.  If it goes super global mega whatever, I could make quite a nice chunk of change.

It's like the lottery, but I think the odds are a bit better, and I can change my mind and collect my current $35 winnings any time I want.

[LMNO]

That's very Black Swan of you.

[trix]

That's very Black Swan of you.

I've spent quite an enormous amount of time and effort trying to understand what you mean by this.  I suppose I'm not just smart enough.

Whipping out my best Google-Fu (or rather, duckduckgo-Fu) led me to both that recent movie, and the black swan context of logic (all swans are white, unless Australia counts for some reason).  I can't seem to find an apt context from that movie that would apply to your response, so I discounted that and am left with the only other reference I could locate, aside from all the sexual connotations at urbandictionary, which is the logic one.

So thinking on it further, all I can come up with is that you might either be saying that my post was a demonstration of the falsification of some sort of tautology, or I'm just too stupid, tired, and distracted to figure out what you meant by that.

Anyway this entire process caused me, at the same time, to revisit my opinions on the whole Bitcoin thing and realize a bit more than I did previously that there is no logic or rationalization behind my support of bitcoin like I pretend, rather I want it to succeed and make it big because I had a better-than-most chance of Bitcoin making me a millionaire, and I blew it, and now I'm jealous and want my $10 worth to hurry up and become a billion friggin dollars already.  Pretty much regardless of anything else.

I don't think this was your intention, but your response made me re-evaluate a bar of my cell that I had been avoiding staring directly at, and by doing so I learned that I don't really "believe in bitcoin" as much as I like to pretend, I just want it to make me rich =/

So thank you, LMNO.

[LMNO]

You're welcome, even if it was unitentional.

What I was talking about was a Black Swan event, in regards to Nassim Nicholas Taleb's book of the same name, where he suggests an investment strategy of buying a few very risky shares, while leaving the majority of your investments in very stable stocks and bonds.  If the risky stock fails, you've lost very little, but if it becomes the next Apple computer, you're much, much richer.

[trix]

You're welcome, even if it was unitentional.

What I was talking about was a Black Swan event, in regards to Nassim Nicholas Taleb's book of the same name, where he suggests an investment strategy of buying a few very risky shares, while leaving the majority of your investments in very stable stocks and bonds.  If the risky stock fails, you've lost very little, but if it becomes the next Apple computer, you're much, much richer.

Ah, thanks for that!  Yeah that was kind of the idea I was going for.  That plus being broke $10 was all I had to play with =P.

Actually that's not true, I did originally put $50 into bitcoin, but then I discovered bitcoin backjack and my gf and I blew it all gleefully like a couple of gambling addicts.  I'm the kind of idiot that will walk into a casino with $150 earmarked for a full night of gambling, and be unable to resist putting the whole damn thing down on Black 19 because WHAT IF I WON?

[Junkenstein]

http://cthulhu.tk/

As the equinox approaches we begin the ritual; four weeks and five days long it builds until Cthulhu awakens and one worshipper is rewarded greatly!
The time draws near, the return of The Great Old One is upon us. Join us in our ritual.
During the first and second weeks of the ritual, sacrificial amounts are placed in special, once a day blocks. These blocks are a reward to the worshipper for sacrifice made. During the third and fourth weeks of the ritual the rewards build, small at first, then larger as the worship increases with fervor. During the last five days, the 'Tharanak shagg,' or "promise of dreamland," the ritual reaches final pitch and the daily special blocks are highly increased. Finally Cthulhu will return after the xxx665th offering has paid tribute to the Great Old One and he will bestow a bounty deserving of Him upon one lucky worshiper. The ritual can be repeated after six months time, following the great halving.

WILL THE RESPONSIBLE PARTY PLEASE MAKE THEMSELVES KNOWN. I HAVE MONEY FOR YOU.

[Junkenstein]

hxxps://qex.la/market/OFF_USD

Stunning. Taking bets on how long this lasts until it gets hacked.

[Junkenstein]

Remember, it's not just bitcoin that's a scam, pretty much everything related to it is also a scam:

http://uk.pcmag.com/personal-finance-products/35953/news/ftc-shuts-down-bitcoin-mining-firm-butterfly-labs

According to the FTC, however, Butterfly Labs failed to deliver bitcoin-mining computers to approximately 20,000 consumers as of September 2013. Those who did receive them, meanwhile, found them to be ineffective due to the changing nature of bitcoins.

"While more bitcoins are being mined each day, the total number of bitcoins available to mine is reduced in half each year," the FTC explained. "Combined with the fact that each new generation of computing technology used to mine bitcoins renders previous generations essentially obsolete, the delay in delivering computers to consumers meant that the bitcoin-mining computers could never generate the amount of Bitcoins that Butterfly Labs promised consumers."

[Faust]

The mining is actually kind of disgusting.

It's using the GPU of a machine in some intense bruteforce calculations. It increases energy consumption of the machine and generates heat.

Now imagine that distributed over a million plus devices, there have even been malware that do so on an unsuspecting targets machine as part of a botnet.

Bitcoin is not just a worthless joke, but it's bad for the environment too.

[Junkenstein]

Oh, without a doubt. When you see the various shoddy rigs idiots cobble together the main issue they have is heating/ventilation. Fans everywhere, the cost in electric alone to produce a bitcoin is probably pushing closer to the actual "value" of a bitcoin daily.

[The Johnny]

Such wasted processing power when it could be used for important things such as brute force hacking wifi passwords... alternately, i recall some playstation thingy that clouded processing power for some kindof research and modelling, anyone remember?

[Cain]

I don't know about that...but allegedly Hezbollah used Playstation 3 processors to act as guidance systems in their more sophisticated rockets.

That seems a sensible and efficient use of processing power.  And quite impressive, given how terrible the PS3 can be.