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Bitcoin FAQs

Back in 2014 I started hearing about Bitcoin and being inquisitive I researched it and found out how to buy some, which I did. I then promptly ignored them and carried on with my fumbling attempts to make money out of other things.

In fact, I couldn’t remember what my details were and how to access them.

Whilst clearing out some old paper work recently I stumbled across where I had written down my account details, so I logged into Blockchain and my bitcoins where still there and what was more pleasing I was sat on a 10 bagger.

Now at this point you are probably thinking “Smug Bastard” but no I was kicking myself.

At the time, I purchased I had thought “What am I going to do with them and they will probably go belly up as a scam and I only bought 0.1 bitcoins. Yes, I risked a massive £21 which is now worth £210 as I type.

So, I am now sitting thinking why didn’t you buy 1 or 5 or 10 for God’s sake it would not have broken you at the time.

So Doh! This making money game is easy when looking through a rear-view mirror.

I will hang on to my small stake and maybe it will 10 bagger again and I still don’t know what to do with them, but things are changing.
M

Buy suitcases full of white powder?

Yep just did a bit of research and am now a bit suspicious of why Martini had some in the first place. Understood the bit about the Silk Road currency but lost the plot after that.

Do these qualify?

New sets of transactions (blocks) are added to Bitcoin’s blockchain roughly every 10 minutes by so-called 'miners'.

While working on the blockchain these miners aren’t required to trust each other. The only thing miners have to trust is the code that runs Bitcoin.

The code includes several rules to validate new transactions.

For example, a transaction can only be valid if the sender actually owns the sent amount. Every miner individually confirms whether transactions adhere to these rules, eliminating the need to trust other miners.

There's a lot more about this stuff at:

https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption

The main thing of 'household interest to me' is, that it takes tons and tons and TONS of energy consumption to run the Bitcoin system (which, apart from energy usage levels, is a little bit similar to the VISA payment system).

The thing is though, each Bitcoin transaction uses about 270 KWhrs of electricity - meaning, that just 1 Bitcoin transaction could power the equivalent of around 9 households for 1 day. The annual current estimated electricity consumption for Bitcoin is around 30 TWh

The country currently closest to Bitcoin in energy consumption terms is apparently Morocco.

As well as power consumption, it might be an idea to know something about the anatomy of a 'Bubble'.



Click on the chart to go to the Mirror's "When will Bitcoin crash?" article.

Just a thing like me doing these last two posts, reminds me of sorta kinda, 'Even the Milkman is talking about Bitcoin'. This means it's time to SELL Bitcoin and not buy.

Thanks Hilary, I'm off to the bank to pay in my old £1, if they will still take it, if not then no 0.000125BTC for me!😃

OK, so I've found out that elastrickery costs 0.15 € a kwh thingie, so I reckon that I could make a Bitcoin for 40 €. And yet they're selling for £7k, and the miners or minters or whatever they're called seem to make them for free/love.

How does that work exactly? Why isn't the world and his wife making these things and selling them for shedloads?? If they were mining for gold or diamonds or any other commodity, that's how it would work.

Seriously, I'm missing something (that's clearly obvious to window cleaners!) here.

As i seem to be the only one who has any bitcoins here I assume your final comment is directed at me.

As I said in my opening post i made my initial purchase of £21 out of curiosity rather than a deep understanding of how it all works or what the future would hold.

Whilst I have chronicled the extraordinary rises I have not made case for anyone else to buy.

If it all goes belly up I will not be in crying into my Horlicks.

So you have no need to warn me of the error of my ways and if it smells like a scam or another example of irrational exuberance to you ignore it

No, Martini, not directed at you in the slightest, and good luck to you with your investment. Fwiw, I think they'll go higher because they're only just starting to attract media interest, and the real frenzy hasn't started yet.

However, I genuinely do not understand where the money goes when these things are minted. I understand what happens on the Coinfloor exchange, and I understand the eCommerce apps like Coinbase, but I don't get the start process and how it's monetised. I'm not stupid, and I can speak 4 languages, but Doc Proc's post #55 may as well have been written in Swahili.

I thought the code for Bitcoin was so complex that even your talented, spotty, teenager hacker was unable to crack it and that was the fundamental reason that no one else has been able to replicate it.
Also, hilary, there are plenty of things in life which we all use but are unable to fully understand how they work. Maybe something which doesn't even have a physical presence and yet is tradeable is one of them?

Ok Hilary misunderstood in this most imperfect medium for holding a conversation.

Harry

Yes and FIAT currencies which we all use and need to make the world work are going the same way. Most transactions are now cashless and the Central Bankers can just magic money out of nothing. Granted you can get hold of it physically but how much do we ever see in our every day lives?

Hang on in there M , Alpesh Patel was talking about them on BBC business this morning and the hype surrounding them but finished by suggesting they would probably double again over the coming year.

where did you buy them from in the first place M ?

Dil

https://www.blockchain.com/

M

Seems you will be able to trade Bitcoin futures soon. Another opportunity to crash and burn!

Harry,

I understand many of the complex aspects of Bitcoin, like the encryption level required to protect the coins against forgery. I also understand the concept of the decreasing supply rate, why just under 21 million will be minted in total, and I can see why that has fuelled the 2017 price hike.

What I don't understand, however, is the most basic of basic aspects of how Bitcoin works, such as how newly minted coins are put into the market, and who profits at that stage. If a £7k coin can be minted for under 40 quid then, quite frankly, I think I'd like to learn how I can mint a few myself.

Is that so unreasonable?

Hilary

This should answer your question and others. I will have to read it myself :)

https://bitcoin.org/en/faq

"but Doc Proc's post #55 may as well have been written in Swahili".

I thought it was.....

Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin - 7 Questions You Were Too Embarassed to Ask

Hmmm? So in just half a dozen or so posts, we can all now become 'Bitcoin Experts'.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Bitsywitsy, coinsy-woinsy. Tiddly widdly. Oh boedly, oh boe.

Tee hee hee.

:-)

Cardiff fans for years have sung a song ' with my little pick and shovel I'll be there' ... so just say the word M and I'm up for a bit of mining :-)

I'll be there