Bitcoin BTC

[Modee]

I use a certain wallet, online one, that has worked well for me and no problems.

Mining isn't what it used to be although I suppose with prices over or around $1000. again it might be picking up.

Without your own dedicated hardware, unless you are paying for cloud mining (where you essentially rent the hardware), you won't get anywhere with mining. It's not enough to just download the software and run it in the background on your computer or laptop that you use for other tasks. To be both cost effective and make anything worth mentioning you need some hardware dedicated to mining with corresponding CPU power, but at the same time, you will need to weigh the hard cost of the hardware along with the soft costs of electricity to figure if you're making anything in the end. (By the way - bandwidth isn't much of an issue, but processing speed/power IS.)

Bitcoin and Litecoin mining with Asteroid for Mac

Most of the big companies that used to sell BTC mining hardware have disappeared or gone to renting out cloud based hardware. A client of mine was looking into starting one of those BTC mining hardware companies, with a corresponding investment of millions, but the bottom more or less fell out of mining, in 2014 (as BTC prices dropped), just as he was thinking of making the plunge.

If you really want to do BTC mining, I have completed all of the research, both a few years ago and again recently, to determine where to get the best, fastest and most cost effective equipment, physical or cloud based, so consider hiring me to consult on it before you spend the requisite big bucks to do it right. As BTC prices get high again, the scammers who were out there bilking people of money for BTC hardware are returning.

[American Psycho]

Have you tried mining Bitcoins? I found a program called Asteroid you can download and start mining, is it that simple?

Also, do you have a Bitcoin wallet on your Mac?

[Modee]

• Coinbase: Buy bitcoins in the United States, Europe, Canada, or Singapore.
• LocalBitcoins: Buy bitcoin anywhere with available sellers for cash.
• Kraken: Buy bitcoins with SEPA transfer in Europe.
• Can also just meet people in person, hand over cash, and receive the equivalent in BTC with no transaction costs. LocalBitcoins facilitates this sort of thing as well.

[American Psycho]

What's the method with the least commission associated with buying BTC?

[Modee]

BTC back over $1000. again. Been holding and accumulating for about four years now, all good so far.

[Modee]

BTC hit $700. Then the price sold off some. The halving date passed! and that should have jumped the price again, but we had some bad BTC news about another hacked site.

Bitcoin Price Regains Ground as Traders Brace for Bitfinex News

Is rebounding again now.

[American Psycho]

Is it a good time to buy bitcoin now?

Is the only way to buy Bitcoin by bank transfer or can you use card?

[Modee]

Over $500. now.
Bitcoin price jumps 21 percent over 4 days, reaching a 21-month high | TechCrunch

[Modee]

Bitcoin back up over $400. lately. Looking solid.

[American Psycho]

Well I won't drag this out but there are still hints of Liberty Reserve risks hanging around, but anyway...

If anyone is unclear, are you absolutely positive that Bitcoin is not at risk of being shut down by the authorities?

[Modee]

If the recipient of bitcoin needs to convert it to hard currency, there is no way to do this without being completely traced all the way back to the origin of the coins. You're thinking too hard, and not hard enough at the same time.

[American Psycho]

Well yes there is a route to tracing Bitcoin owners in the way you describe, but for the majority of people who would be tempted to use Bitcoin for an illegal purpose it would not lead back to them.

If someone buys something illegal on the dark net there is no way to trace their connection if they had Tor configured correctly, and then if they use Bitcoin just as a payment method and not to withdraw funds in the way you describe then there's no route to trace them down there either. Perhaps the sellers might be at risk of exposure if they don't cover their tracks properly but if they're sophisticated enough to be running any significant operation then they're likely to have some more sophisticated methods for liquidation too.

This is the issue I'm talking about the law enforcement will not like - the potential for misuse for illegal purposes. And we know what happens when the government takes a dislike to something like Liberty Reserve.

This is my real fear for the future of Bitcoin.

[Modee]

Incidentally bitcoin has about doubled since July 2015 when I posted about it being around 200.

[Modee]

Actually bitcoin is eminently traceable, every transaction is recorded. Not sure why people think it is so anonymous. Now, if you use a proxy every time you login to your wallet, as I do, and never cash in the coins, I suppose it can remain anonymous, but convert to cash and there remains a trail all the way to you and back to whoever sent, proxy or no proxy.

[American Psycho]

Something that really concerns me about Bitcoin is the fact that these kind of payment systems will always be the obvious choice for illegal activity payments due to the inherent anonymity. Just look at Liberty Reserve for one of the many examples of what the government can do when they decide to act on things like this. Egold is another example.

I like the idea of Bitcoins and I'd like to move more into it but this fact really worries me. Do you think this is a legitimate concern?