Bitcoins

Satoshi

citricsquid wrote: »

John has explained why you're wrong about the "end of the system", but you're also wrong about the mining. The system automatically compensates for the networks hash rate, this means that if the hash rate increases so does the difficulty (see "Bitcoin Difficulty" and "Bitcoin Hash rate") to "aim" the network at the target of 2140. Although it's possible for mining to finish before 2140 (which doesn't matter) it's impossible for it to finish soon...

The most powerful computer in the world has a theoretical maximum output of 27 Petaflops, that's the most powerful computer in the world. The current Bitcoin network power is 108,800 Petaflops.

The Bitcoin network power is almost 4,000 times more than that of the most powerful computer in the world and that is just what is required to mine until 2140. If an entity (independent, government) wanted to mine all of the available bitcoin they would need to increase the network hash rate to the point where it could mine 10,000,000 coins in a period of 2 weeks, and currently it takes 2 weeks to mine roughly 2000.

2,000 bitcoins mined in 2 weeks requires 108,800 Petaflops at the current network hash rate. That's one hundred thousand Petaflops, got it?

To mine the remaining bitcoins (10,000,000) and "destroy" the network would require 544,000,000 Petaflops of computing power, computing power that would have to be introduced the moment the network adjusts the hash rate and run constantly for 2 weeks, that would be the only way to "beat" the Bitcoin network.

544,000,000 Petaflops = 20,923,076 Titan super computers. The Titan cost $100,000,000 to build. It would cost $2,092,307,600,000,000 to destroy the Bitcoin network.

2 QUADRILLION DOLLARS. The GDP of the world is $84.97 Trillion, it would cost 2,000 times more than the worlds GDP right now to destroy the Bitcoin network... and that would only work if whomever had this computing power managed to do it in the time before the network adjusted the difficulty.

I was with you right up to "John has explained why you're wrong "

I did not understand any of that its way above my head.

But are you saying that Satoshi was smarter than MI5/CIA/KGB(or whatever its called)?

If you are saying that computers are not going to be powerful enough to mine the last few bitcoins until 2140 then there is a bridge I would like to sell you :rotfl::rotfl:

Computing power doubles every 18mnths or so, and governments have far more powerful computers that you or I could understand.

[Deleted User]

Satoshi wrote: »

But are you saying that Satoshi was smarter than MI5/CIA/KGB(or whatever its called)?

The way the Bitcoin network works is not a mystery that nobody can understand, what Satoshi did is take existing technology and some brain smarts and work out a way to effectively distribute the ledger in a secure way. What Satoshi did (that nobody had done before) was develop a distributed proof of work system, in hindsight it's one of those "how did nobody think of this before?" type things.

Satoshi isn't smarter than everyone else (although he is obviously very very smart), he didn't build the Bitcoin protocol out of thin air, he iterated on the work of so many people before him. The Bitcoin protocol is combination of hundreds of different things, from the minds of many smart people, Satoshi put all the pieces created by others together and added his own pieces.

As Dryhat says, there's much easier ways to kill Bitcoin than trying to mine all the coins by beating the network. Suggesting "they" would try and beat the network is like suggesting that the FBI is going to try and smoke all the drugs to stop anyone buying them.

Satoshi wrote: »

If you are saying that computers are not going to be powerful enough to mine the last few bitcoins until 2140 then there is a bridge I would like to sell you :rotfl::rotfl:

You're completely misunderstanding, the speed of computers increasing does not matter because the network accounts for that. Every ~2 weeks (2016 blocks) the Bitcoin network automatically adjusts how much computing power is needed to mine a block based on the average of the computing power available during the previous 2 weeks, this means that the only way for someone to mine the blocks long before the target (2140) they would need to "beat" this self adjusting algorithm by mining everything before the network has a chance to adjust which is where my proposed figure comes from. If the speed of computers increases, so does the difficulty.

Think of it like a foot race: if I know that you run at 5 miles per hour and I start a 5 mile race, I know you're going to finish in one hour. If you get better at running and now you run at 6 miles per hour and I still want you to finish in one hour, I would adjust the race length to 6 miles. If you got faster and faster, I would keep making the race longer and longer to maintain that race time. You would need to run so fast that I didn't have time to change the race length before you crossed the finish line, which would require you to run at thousands of miles per hour.

The Bitcoin network knows how fast blocks are generated at a specific hash rate and it knows to adjust the difficulty. You can read all about it on the Bitcoin wiki:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Difficulty

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block

Satoshi

This is the guy who created litecoin, also Japanese, but at least he is not a spotty teenager who is always in front of his his pc who makes a crypto better than bitcoin in 3 days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFZYLA6GS4M

cepheus

.........Meanwhile sceptics, of which I am proudly one, have argued that its appeal is limited to impractical economic theorists, nerdy techno-obsessives and international criminals, who use this regulation-free currency for their trade in drugs and guns.

For much of 2013 Bitcoin soared in value from $20 (£12) each to well over $1,200 earlier this month.

Those who bought in early made virtual fortunes, but it has halved in value in a few days because it has fallen foul of national governments concerned about its potential criminal uses and the dangers to investors of Bitcoin buying.

Australia, Denmark, Norway, New Zealand and the European Banking Authority have all recently either announced plans to restrict and regulate virtual currencies or have at least issued warnings about the dangers.

China has taken the fiercest steps and in effect has stopped any mainstream Chinese bank or financial institution having anything to do with Bitcoin. Once it becomes impossible to turn Bitcoin into traditional money its value evaporates.

Bitcoin is not a real currency unless people spend it and accept it as tender and this depends on whether governments let you.

Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2527617/SIMON-WATKINS-Bitcoin-bubble-sounds-crazy-It-is.html#ixzz2oC82jeYD

JohnRo

blah, blah, blah.

MSM pundits have been pushing this sort of hysterical nonsense for a few years just as they do anything else that doesn't involve oversight by the almighty shepherds. It seems to play well to the flock who like being told what to think and do.

It hasn't changed anything though, except that governments are now having debates about bitcoin and what to do about its potential threat to their collapsing money pyramids while grass roots adoption marches on, which, let's face it, is the one thing above all that really gets under the skin of the authoritarians.

The fixation on the dollar exchange rate is a distraction in many ways, I suspect many people look at that as a measure of how well the btc project itself is going and that's clearly an entirely false analysis.

Satoshi

I wonder when the big websites like amazon and ebay will accept bitcoins.

mmedia

Satoshi wrote: »

I wonder when the big websites like amazon and ebay will accept bitcoins.

https://www.overstock.com in America have confirmed that they should be accepting BTC from mid 2014.

Revenue in 1999: $1,835,000
Revenue in 2012: $1,099,289,000
Number of Products on Site: 984,000
Number of Employees: 1,280



2014 will hopefully be the year, big websites like Amazon and eBay take notice.

Satoshi

mmedia wrote: »

https://www.overstock.com in America have confirmed that they should be accepting BTC from mid 2014.

Revenue in 1999: $1,835,000
Revenue in 2012: $1,099,289,000
Number of Products on Site: 984,000
Number of Employees: 1,280



2014 will hopefully be the year, big websites like Amazon and eBay take notice.

will we see the day when tesco,asda, sainsburys accept crypto, then if you could earn bitcoins as your wages...............

mmedia

Satoshi wrote: »

will we see the day when tesco,asda, sainsburys accept crypto, then if you could earn bitcoins as your wages...............

Not sure about wages, but i can see quite a few stores accepting in the near future.

I also noticed this announcement today... http://www.soleilmotors.com/1/post/2013/12/bitcoins-accepted-as-payment-btc.html

Satoshi

Are you breaking any laws if you provide a service or sell something and say you will only accept bitcoin?

could you rent a flat out to someone but only accept bitcoins?