BitCoin / LiteCoin

[NathanJones]

First read about them last month, have been watching with interest since, wish I had known earlier about them

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/29/...

[Simpo Two]

ringram said:

That's worth spending a year in the dump.

Indeed, £4M would pay for a JCB and change to spare. However the local Council has banned treasure hunters from visiting (though expect them to have a quiet dig when nobody's looking to try to raise some loot). I suppose when something it thrown away it becomes the Council's property? Or would it be Treasure Trove?

[Hoofy]

NathanJones said:

First read about them last month, have been watching with interest since, wish I had known earlier about them

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/29/...

Shoulda used PH more: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[hornet]

rufusgti said:

Edit to say, It also takes about 10 days to get verified to trade on these exchanges. You need to send ID and statements to prove who you are.

Does rather remove at least one of the selling points, that being the anonymity, and I still have serious trust issues with the whole setup. As much as being decentralised is part of the appeal, it's also completely unregulated as far as I'm aware? Feels far too Wild West for me to get involved, even though I'm interested in the subject. Fair play to anyone sitting on a big paper profit, but until you can easily cash out or convert to (legal) hard assets, I'd be wary. Some of the exchanges seem very here today, gone tomorrow. I'd heard talk of a BTC ETF at one point, which could be interesting, although Christ alone knows how it would trade, given the volatility.

ETA - you do appear able to buy physical gold and silver with BTC Here, so Bitcoin > gold > cash would seem a reasonably simply means of cashing out a large holding. True, you'd doubtless pay big premiums at each step of the process, but if you've seen thousand % increases in your holding, I imagine that's tolerable.

Edited by hornet on Thursday 28th November 22:11

[ringram]

knock yourselves out.
Crypto coins pretty much grow on tree's

[ringram]

Ill mint one called turd coin.

Send me your £1000 and Ill roll you a stool

[jon-]

So, we're all just buying one of everything yeah?

[Hoofy]

What's the conversion rate for cookies? I've got 90 quadrillion of them.

[Wacky Racer]

KTF said:

That made it to BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wale...

http://www.itv.com/news/2013-11-28/mans-4m-bitcoin...

[Simpo Two]

Sooo, stepping back a bit... if these cryptocoins can be exchanged for real money, where did the value come from in the first place? Who was dishing them out? Or did some company say - 'crunch some data and we'll give you some play money' - and then somehow it assumed real value?

Perhaps I can pay my gas bill with homemade play money and tell BG that it will be worth a lot one day?

[briang9]

Just nipping out to trade mark "BitCoinLand" in the morning

[Mr E]

Simpo Two said:

Sooo, stepping back a bit... if these cryptocoins can be exchanged for real money, where did the value come from in the first place?

Same place the value of gold or the pounds in your bank comes from. People agree it's worth something.

[zuby84]

You can't short bitcoins can you? Might be worth a punt.

[Cyder]

So I'm a bit of a simpleton. But is it really just as easy as me downloading some software and getting my computer to run an algorithm to try and 'mine' for these coins?

[Mr E]

zuby84 said:

You can't short bitcoins can you? Might be worth a punt.

I can't see why not.

[...Mole...]

Cyder said:

So I'm a bit of a simpleton. But is it really just as easy as me downloading some software and getting my computer to run an algorithm to try and 'mine' for these coins?

It's getting increasingly harder to "mine" them to the point where the hardware race is getting quite rediculous
http://kotaku.com/bitcoin-mining-is-getting-out-of...

[Mr E]

Cyder said:

So I'm a bit of a simpleton. But is it really just as easy as me downloading some software and getting my computer to run an algorithm to try and 'mine' for these coins?

Basically, yes.
I suspect you'll burn more money in power than anything you mine.

[walm]

zuby84 said:

You can't short bitcoins can you? Might be worth a punt.

I can't even fricking buy them let alone find someone willing to lend them out!!

Unborrowable, I would imagine.

[...Mole...]

walm said:

I can't even fricking buy them let alone find someone willing to lend them out!!

Unborrowable, I would imagine.

best chance in the UK if you want them same day is to buy from someone on localbitcoins you will pay a bit of a premium though!

[Newc]

z4chris99 said:

I have 100 of them

z4chris99 said:

how the fk do you sell these things.????? I want out

walm said:

I can't even fricking buy them let alone find someone willing to lend them out!!

Gentlemen.

My usual sales trader comm is 25bps per side but I'm willing to go mates' rates on this one.