Bitcoins and other coins - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Agony
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2013, 01:06:49 pm
content: So there was a thread for bitcoins - but it was old... really old by now.Anyone here actually "mining" it? Afterall - if you are good at building your own custom minign hardware instead of buying the expensive stuff the ysell (scam people) - you could make soem profit.Noticed that it reached 1000$/1BTC.I personally own nothing - too expensive to buy (and the postage fees dont help -_-).All i do is some pretty small amount of "rented" hashing power - so i dont have to own any hardware and worry about it getting worthless piece of junk (look at the signature if you wanna give it a try/check it out).Even alternates - the most popular Litecoin - not sha256 based has boosted in price to nearly 40$ - may be worth mining - but thats GPU based. Unless u can figure out a better hardware to do the job.On the side note - a blog about the ASIC-s would be nice (the hardware side - how it works etc) - specially since bitcoins have become quite popular now - reaching news and such.

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2013, 03:10:00 pm
content: ... are for gambling only. There are much too volatile to be usable. And the limited amount is also a huge problem. A US$ 0.02 resistor would be 0.00002 BTC right now and maybe 0.000019 in one hour. Yeah, very usable!

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2013, 03:20:02 pm
content: Collapsing financial markets is also a Dutch invention:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2013, 04:27:17 pm
content: Watch mjlorton's video on it.Basically CPUs suck, expensive video cards are better. Custom asics are great until people buy them. Then the value drops because I guess they average it out.He bought an asic miner and if he had gotten it a few days earlier he could have paid it off in a few days. But since that device came out the value changed and now it isn't worth it.I never figured out where the value of a bit coin comes from.

author: Kjelt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2013, 04:50:39 pm
content: Quote from: mojo-chan on November 29, 2013, 02:52:40 pmAnd at that point they are worth serious money, don't forget you had them and cash them.This poor guy dumped his laptop this year containing $7500000 worth of bitcoins he mined several years earlier on a simple Dell laptop:http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/27/hard-drive-bitcoin-landfill-site

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2013, 04:58:49 pm
content: Quote from: Stonent on November 29, 2013, 04:27:17 pmFrom what people perceive they are worth in classic money.

author: ampdoctor
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2013, 08:23:48 pm
content: I can't be convinced that bitcoin is anything more than tulip mania 2.0, but if you want to hear a really good discussion on the topic check out this interview with Peter Schiff and Stefan Molyneux. Just a rock solid back and forth rational discussion of the pro's and con's. Kind of a media rarity these days.

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2013, 10:05:45 pm
content: Quote from: Bored@Work on November 29, 2013, 04:58:49 pmAlways an unfortunate choice of vehicle name I thought...

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2013, 10:09:25 pm
content: Quote from: mojo-chan on November 29, 2013, 02:52:40 pmHere's my thought on the miners, and any other "money-printing machine": if they could, on average, pay for themselves, the producers wouldn't sell them, they'd just freakingrunthem! They have to predict that they'll make more money selling it than using it, or otherwise why not just print some money yourself?

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2013, 10:16:04 pm
content: Quote from: c4757p on November 29, 2013, 10:09:25 pmYeah. They also slowly release the device over a period of time so that the market doesn't get suddenly flooded and the complexities increase.

author: Agony
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2013, 10:16:54 pm
content: scam, scheme, pyramid. .what ever ya call it... but it worked in making money for people - or at least moving it.I never did and will function as a currency itself - rather a virtual number to gamble and do stock trading with.In fact - all the "ASIC"-s get released later since the yactually mine with the tech themselves after the ydevelope it. When its not that profitable - lets say 3-6 months later, it gets released as NEW POWERFUL MINER for only 9999$!!! And make a 2nd roudn of profit.2 months later the new miner barely makes any profit... or even its value back.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2013, 01:45:44 am
content: Quote from: Agony on November 29, 2013, 10:16:54 pmIMHO the value comes from Bitcoin's untraceability and non-government interference. In some countries its hard to get your hands on real cash. Besides that real world money streams are closely monitored (even more closely than you'd imagine!). With the Swiss and Luxembourg banks handing out your information to your government's tax department there is a huge demand for a money stream which can't be monitored.

author: olsenn
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2013, 01:50:49 am
content: I still can't believe the price of 1 Bitcoin is now over $1000USD! I bought 10 of them at one point for something like $200. Had I have held on to them, they would be worth ten thousand dollars now.

author: MacAttak
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 30, 2013, 03:20:42 am
content: The only thing that surprises me about the recent explosion in BTC to fiat currency prices is that it didn't really being to spike untilafterthe take-down of Silk Road. I thought for sure the fall of Silk Road would herald the decline of BTC speculation. After all, most of the people who buy BTC (and thereby pump up the price) are those who were buying drugs from SR (and similar places) or who want BTC to buy some mining hardware so they can then mine BTC. Which reminds me of those people who made the most money during the California gold rush - the smart ones who were selling shovels to the idiots that were digging.I don't really understand where the BTC demand is coming from now.

author: Jope
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2013, 03:55:21 am
content: Quote from: Stonent on November 29, 2013, 04:27:17 pmFrom what people ascribe to it. Why do Dollar bills have any value? They are just cheap pieces of paper, after all.And the money I have on my bank are just some numbers on their servers.

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2013, 04:08:09 am
content: Quote from: Agony on November 29, 2013, 10:16:54 pmYes, and every week somewhere a few people win the lottery. And million lottery players don't. Playing works - for those few winners. It doesn't work for all the rest, and with extreme like hood it never will. Same with BC.

author: staxquad
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2013, 05:25:27 am
content: pump and dumpthose stuck with Bitcoins after the collapse can recycle the 1s and 0s back into their computers so as not to lose their intrinsic valueand what a pump! $12 to >$1200 in a yearBitcoin hits record $1,242 as it nears value of ounce of goldit will probably drop even faster than it rose

author: smashedProton
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2013, 06:55:24 am
content: Quote from: ampdoctor on November 29, 2013, 08:23:48 pmI really love listening to Stefan molyneuxI have read all of his books last year

author: Agony
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2013, 07:54:35 pm
content: and it did drop a few days - coordinated market attack. DDOS, dumping coins and causign panic.went down to 680 - now back up at 1000+

author: M. András
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2013, 08:07:14 pm
content: those who got in early or bought some while it went for pennies now can gain significant money from those few hundred coins

author: Galenbo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2013, 08:13:42 pm
content: I read:Bitcoins went from $12 to >$1200 in a yearAs100 Dollar went from B 8.33 to B 0.0833 in a year.Where everything gets taxed even more, gets checked more and more, gold can't even be bought without trace.People find other solutions. Some are (more) criminal (than the government), others not.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2013, 08:42:49 pm
content: Quote from: mojo-chan on November 29, 2013, 02:52:40 pmIt can be well worth it for those stuck with only electric resistance heating and no way to install a heat pump or other fuels. Think of it as "subsidized" heat. The few with a fixed electric bill (dorm or a few apartments) can also profit using "unprofitable" hardware.

author: Phaedrus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2013, 11:26:08 pm
content: Don't mine Bitcoins. Mine Litecoins or Namecoins. Much lower difficulty rate, more room for the value to grow. Probably won't hit the ludicrous kilobuck per coin like Bitcoin, but could easily reach tens of dollars per coin in the future. Or not. Sort of a gamble.

author: Agony
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2013, 08:08:14 am
content: srypt based coins need GPU-s to farm... and theres new goldfever. top of the line amd cards are sold out everywhere.7850, 7950, 7970, 7990, 280x, 290x....A friend who works at a pc store shad a guy who bought ALL 120 280x in stock.The few you find are also with several weeks wait time and extreme prices.Thats a good time for electronic engineers - design a new board/ system that can actuall ywork with scrypt and is energy efficient/ as low cost as possible.. and you get thousands of buyers.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2013, 09:24:05 am
content: Quote from: Kjelt on November 29, 2013, 04:50:39 pmI had a few dozen mined, years ago when a friend told me about it, that I deleted after thinking "this idea would never work"...But it turns out he did the same a little after me.

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2013, 03:08:54 pm
content: Bitcoin is an interesting concept; there are pros and cons to everything, and while many tout the pros, there are serious cons to it should it become popular. Its less to do with the technology or what determines the value of money but the potential for abuse; it was already demonstrated by the fate of previous e-currencies that were becoming successful.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egold#Criminal_abusehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_currency_exchanger#Regulatory_issues

author: senso
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2013, 03:10:37 pm
content: What I have read, is that actually, not even the ASIC miners will pay off, due to the increased difficulty and reduced "prize" after mining for so long, and we are talking about GHash/s with a couple of watts, there are photos of rigs that consist of dozens of usb hubs filled to the brim with asic miners.

author: Phaedrus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2013, 03:24:19 pm
content: Scrypt-based currencies are quite mineable with GPUs still, and while the top-end cards are sold out due to combined gaming+mining demand, there are some mid-range cards with very good Ghash/W:Four of these mining Litecoin, for instance:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202047

author: Agony
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2013, 12:30:35 am
content: oh gpu-s do pay off for altcoins (there is mroe then litecoin) - if you can find the most optimal one and do the tradign at right times.Litecoin in fact easily pays off rigth now - at 40+$ per LTC whilce being alot easier to mine.Lets say you have 3x 7970 - thats around 2100 kH/s.You pay 0.15$ kWh.3 cards use (id assume 250W each at full load) 750W and 50 extra for low end system. 800W.Considering difficulty wont change (and minign in pools can vary alot), mathematically:Expected Rewards Costs Net Profit24 hours 1.03202029 LTC 37.02 USD 2.88 USD 34.14 USD7 days 7.22414202 LTC 259.13 USD 20.16 USD 238.97 USD30 days 30.96060864 LTC 1110.56 USD 86.40 USD 1024.16 USDNot too bad.

author: codeboy2k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2013, 08:59:06 am
content: Worldcoins are good right now too..here's a good site to see the profitability comparison of all the altcoins compared to bitcoin, and the volumes on the exchanges.http://www.coinwarz.com/cryptocurrencybasically mine something easy and trade for bitcoins on the exchanges. Buy when the BTC is low (of course!)You can see that worldcoins have much more exchange volume than litecoins and also get you (normalized data) 1 bitcoin every 39 days and litecoin mining gets you one bitcoin every 65 days.

author: andtfoot
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 08, 2013, 09:27:39 am
content: Is it just me or does all this <insert-word-here>coin stuff feel like people just printing their own money, and the whole thing will just fall over at some point?Maybe I still don't 'get it'...

author: andtfoot
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 08, 2013, 10:34:13 am
content: Quote from: wilfred on December 08, 2013, 10:23:13 amThen it seems another variant of *coin starts, maybe the original is too hard or something. A really rough count from that CoinWarz site shows 59 variants already. When will it stop?Is there actually any point to solving these hash equations (receiving imaginary money aside)?I think I'll stick to offloading spare CPU power into BOINC (World Community Grid, etc)... at least there may be half a chance it helps something somewhere.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2013, 12:31:00 pm
content: Quote from: andtfoot on December 08, 2013, 09:27:39 amProbably. But look at it this way: why do people pay a lot of money for gold? Its just lumps of metal gold diggers pick from the ground.

author: codeboy2k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2013, 12:39:16 pm
content: ... or diamonds... which are truly artificially inflated by holding back the supply..The interesting thing about diamonds is that they have been proven time and again to have absolutely no resale value, and thus are not a good investment like gold (or crypto coin of the month) . Diamonds only make money for the cartel

author: andtfoot
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 08, 2013, 12:40:40 pm
content: Quote from: nctnico on December 08, 2013, 12:31:00 pmThe value of gold may vary but at least it has actual uses, whether it's plating on PCBs, for aesthetic purposes or whatever.Hence my question about the usefulness of solving hash equations. If it's actually working to achievesomething, then I can see the point. Otherwise to me, it feels like its only purpose is to self-perpetuate until it blows up.edit: apostrophe fail...

author: Kjelt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2013, 01:02:22 pm
content: Quote from: codeboy2k on December 08, 2013, 12:39:16 pmPlease differentiate between optical diamonds for jewelry at which you're absolutely right and industrial diamonds used for cutting tools and as a heatconducting isolator.I had a demo of the last application that totally blew me away, I had to hold with my bare hands a very thin but pretty long piece of diamond ($3000 worth) and then cut through ice which was effortless, my body heat was with this incredible heat conducting material enough to cut through the iceblock. Very impressive. These are used as heat conductors in industrial applications, wish I had some for mounting my FETs

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2013, 01:26:39 pm
content: So does paper money. I have a few hundred thousand dollar notes which have no value above that of the value of the paper as scrap paper.Diamonds as industrial applicatios are cheap, I bought one for $10 as a dresser, and it is very useful. As jewellery the same size is 100000 times more or higher depending on perceived colour and shape, but just because it is a black industrial unit is is worth a lot less.

author: codeboy2k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2013, 01:30:50 pm
content: yes of course, I was only referring to shiny diamonds as jewelery. I thought that would have been clear from the context.diamonds have other very practical industrial uses, but those other uses still do not make a diamond a good investment, so my original conclusion stands.

author: ampdoctor
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 09, 2013, 01:39:57 am
content: 59 variants? DAYUM! And it begins...Here's an excerpt from a comment I made about a week ago elsewhere wrt bitcoin; "The alternative is to allow thousands of different crypto currencies into the market that will wholly devalue both bitcoin and all the others as well as creating an accounting nightmare and prevent it's adoption as a legitimate currency. [...] Bitcoin and other forms of independent crypto currency are an interesting economic exercise and proof of concept, but I'm highly skeptical that it'll be anything more than a source for speculative investors"Want to be right all the time study Hayek, von Mises, Friedman, and the other Austrians. Down side is that the world will probably hate you.

author: ejeffrey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 09, 2013, 06:03:41 am
content: Quote from: SeanB on December 08, 2013, 01:26:39 pmThis isn't really true. Government issued currency has intrinsic value because the government that issued it accepts it in payment for services. That is only one part of the economy, but an important one. Additionally, in most countries some or all currency is legal tender: that is, private entities must accept it for payment of debts, at least if they want the governments help enforcing their contracts. Fiat currency gets its value not from the paper, but because you are guaranteed to be able to spend it.On the other hand, nobody is guaranteeing they will do anything for 1 BTC, which is certainly a part of why it is so volatile. This doesn't necessarily mean that bitcoins can't become a viable currency, but it is responsible in part for their volatility.

author: nitro2k01
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 09, 2013, 07:58:59 am
content: Quote from: andtfoot on December 08, 2013, 10:34:13 amYes. You're essentially getting paid for performing a banking service. Bitcoin transactions are secured against double spending, false coins etc by a consensus mechanism, and the consensus that a transaction has taken place is confirmed through these operations. Since Bitcoin (unlike a government) cannot use force to ensure the value of the currency, it has to use these distributed consensus mechanisms in order to secure against fraud.The value of Bitcoin is entirely speculative - it's worth what people are willing to pay for it. It issecuredby these hash searches, but notbackedby them. There is nowhere you can turn to exchange your BTC for the direct corresponding amount of hash operations. The hash operations fill much the same purpose as checking a security strip or hologram in a bank note.

author: Agony
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 09, 2013, 05:58:17 pm
content: Most of the altcoins started in the summer.. it has calmed down alot.There are a few coins that has some actual purpose - Primecoin for exampel uses cpu to find and calculate new prime numbers (but feels like its dominated by large botnets and VPN networks).Unreleased curecoin would be mix of folding/crypto (protein folding - cancer research and such). But no release date yet.I recall there was one that was used to fund some scientific research.. .but that felt more like an excuse for large premine.One i keep my eye on is infinitecoin (ugh these names) - simply due to the large amount of coins that reflects real money better (paying 100 ifc or 0.00023419 BTC for example).for example for IFC:QuoteWhich sounds liek a pretty important step for an actual physical store to accept the coins.Majority are someones get rich shemes - with premines and fast mining in the beginning to cash out few months later and let it die.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 09, 2013, 06:47:42 pm
content: Quote from: ejeffrey on December 09, 2013, 06:03:41 amBob only accepts US dollars or SA Rands as payment these days. The Zimdollar is worthless, or at least even more worthless than it was before. About the only use it has now is as a good toilet paper.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 09, 2013, 11:52:02 pm
content: Yep. In the old days the governments had gold to back their money. Nowadays that is no longer required. Nowadays all governments simply print extra money when needed.http://www.firstpost.com/economy/debt-ceiling-absurdity-how-the-us-fed-is-running-a-ponzi-scheme-1177519.html

author: ejeffrey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 10, 2013, 07:46:21 am
content: Quote from: SeanB on December 09, 2013, 06:47:42 pmYes, the value of a 'fiat currency' is backed (in part) by the strength of the government that issues it. If the government tries to pay for goods with currency but can't provide any services in return, then the currency will lose its value. The principle is the same as gift certificates, stamps, or beer tokens at a club -- they have value because they represent a service someone is willing to provide to you, but if you are afraid the restaurant in question is going to go out of business or their food turns terrible, the value of their gift certificates will go down. This is different than BTC, which currently doesn't have any backing at all. As I said, that doesn't necessarily preclude BTC becoming widely used, but it certainly part of the current volatility.

author: smashedProton
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 11, 2013, 09:10:02 pm
content: Reguardless, a pira te torrebt network serving magnetic links on the block chain woult be pretty slick

author: AntiProtonBoy
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2014, 06:27:40 am
content: *bump*So who's been playing around with DogeCoin? It has become an interesting curiosity and is gaining popularity quite rapidly. People are going mental with DogeCoing on reddit. It's quite fun. I have been mining it until I killed my graphics card.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2014, 10:17:26 pm
content: Yet another digital coin? I've been keeping an eye on Litecoin. The interesting thing is that people seem to adjust their mining speed depending on the difficulty level. Once the difficulty gets bumped up by the protocol everybody stops mining. Once the difficulty goes low people start mining again. It is interesting to see many independant people 'beat the system at it's own game' together.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2014, 10:33:53 pm
content: Last time i checked it, there was about 50 different types of it. Now it must be like hundreds of it. People still don't get, that it is just the new version of the Ponzy scheme with computers.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2014, 12:47:12 am
content: Yes and no. Where I live I can order food and pay with Bitcoins. In a ponzy scheme you end up with nothing.

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2014, 04:14:08 am
content: Quote from: nctnico on February 24, 2014, 12:47:12 amOnly those entering too late and not leaving in time end up with losses in a Ponzi scheme. The organizers of the scheme and, if the organizers need them, poster child winners can end up with a net gain.The fact that some people gain something is not an indication of the absence of fraud.

author: hamster_nz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2014, 05:20:54 am
content: Quote from: wilfred on February 24, 2014, 04:32:29 amBitcoin's basis of value is pretty much the same as money - the holder of either expects that sometime in the future they can convert it to goods or services they desire.When this expectation is no longer reliable (i.e. when the currency collapses) they will have no more value than a 1,000,000,000,000 in old German Marks in late 1923 - (less that US$0.25).

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2014, 07:26:07 am
content: Quote from: wilfred on February 24, 2014, 04:32:29 amThat is why I said new version. Whoever decided to make bitcoin first, could have made hundreds of thousands of it, before going public.It might be even hardcoded in the system. We will never know it.Whoever started minig 2nd and 3rd, they could mine a lot more with less investment, compared to todays supercomputer.

author: Kjelt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2014, 07:48:57 am
content: Yeah but isn't the same true about "real" currency like $'s and €'s, they have no underlying value anymore and the government (and banks) can press a button and more $'s and €'s are out there. If you press that button too much the value in respect of another currency is rapidly decreasing.The example of Brasil or Germany pre WW2 with the reichsmark are indeed good examples.At least with bitcoins there is some form of underlying value namely the computerpower and indeed over the years their value could go up in smoke.

author: justanothercanuck
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2014, 08:17:37 am
content: Can I pay my rent with it? Nope? Okay then.

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2014, 08:36:12 am
content: I can't pay my rent in CA$. If only there were a way to convert between local currencies and other items that are perceived to have value...

author: justanothercanuck
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2014, 09:28:41 am
content: Quote from: AndyC_772 on February 24, 2014, 08:36:12 amWell, of course not... you're (supposedly) from the UK. I wouldn't expect my landlord to accept GBP or EUR either. That's kindof a dumb argument to make.

author: Kjelt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2014, 09:42:59 am
content: Most landlords don't accept cash anyway, neither do a lot of stores anymore.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2014, 09:45:39 am
content: Quote from: justanothercanuck on February 24, 2014, 09:28:41 amNever heard of a money exchange? There are several exchanges where you can buy and sell digital coins and convert them into currency your landlord will happily accept.

author: justanothercanuck
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2014, 10:04:40 am
content: Quote from: nctnico on February 24, 2014, 09:45:39 amProblem is, *coins are not a legal tender, and those exchanges are disappearing over concerns of money laundering.

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 25, 2014, 04:04:21 pm
content: MtGox has "disappeared".http://news.yahoo.com/mtgox-website-disappears-amid-huge-bitcoin-theft-claim-084247764.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mtgox

author: Phaedrus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 25, 2014, 06:41:46 pm
content: Mt.Gox has allegedly been declining for the last 8 months or so. They were coasting on their size and reputation, while slowly going to shit. Most of the bitcoiners I know are glad that they collapsed, and agree that the price drop is short term and will likely recover inside a month.

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 01:29:11 pm
content: Flexcoin shuts down. All BTC stolen.http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/04/us-bitcoin-flexcoin-idUSBREA2329B20140304Warren Buffett on BTC:http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/MON-warren-buffet-dislikes-bitocin-says-it-does-not-meet-the-test-of-a-currency-4540924-NOR.html

author: FrankBuss
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 02:14:12 pm
content: I usehttps://www.bitcoin.de/enfor trading bitcoins. It uses bank transfer, very common in Europe unlike in USA. Worked very well for me, for buying and selling. Of course, I never deposit bitcoins in my bitcoin.de account longer than I need it for a trade, most of the time my bitcoins are stored in a password protected and backuped offline wallet. So I don't care if any bitcoin marketplace gets hacked. Very unlikely that it gets hacked in the seconds while my bitcoins are in the online wallet.

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 09:14:36 pm
content: Publicly announced today but she died last week, 2 days after Mt Gox collapse:http://www.cnbc.com/id/101468694Incidental to this, 9 other mid to top level financiers have been found dead in the past 6 weeks, all assumed to be suicides.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2573863/Bitcoin-exchange-CEO-dead-home-suspected-suicide-age-28.htmlVery strange events indeed.

author: saturation
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 09:32:26 pm
content: Breaking news, 3rd Bitcoin exchange confirms they were hacked:http://www.coindesk.com/poloniex-loses-12-3-bitcoins-latest-bitcoin-exchange-hack/

author: Frost
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2014, 09:43:56 pm
content: Quote from: saturation on March 05, 2014, 09:32:26 pmLOL, that's great"Due to its current bitcoin shortage, Poloniex indicated that all customer balanceswould temporarily be reduced by 12.3% “out of absolute necessity”."

author: M. András
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2014, 07:03:47 pm
content: hehe raising every fee up to cover their losses from the costumers money? god i love capitalism

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2014, 09:06:39 pm
content: Some nice person added the signature of an old virus as comment to the blockchain. Several antivirus tools report the blockchain as malware and (try to) delete it

author: ejeffrey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2014, 09:11:24 pm
content: Quote from: Kjelt on February 24, 2014, 09:42:59 amYour landlord may say that, and they may not want to be paid in cash, but it turns out that they legally can't refuse. That is what legal tender means. Shops can refuse to sell to you if you insist on paying cash, but when there is a pre-existing obligation / debt, you cannot refuse legal tender. This is an important consumer protection law: it means your landlord can't refuse to accept payment unless you pay in japanese 1 yen coins rolled in tubes of 143 coins, and then charge you penalties and interest because you didn't pay on time. The specifics vary by juristiction (often small denominations are not legal tender for large debts), but most everywhere with a functioning government and banking system has some legal tender laws.