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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

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

Word

Not bumcoin, but real money news..


https://www.rt.com/business/411763-russia-china-set-gold-price/

Thanks for that link, Martini.

I had seen it before, but it made a lot more sense reading it a second time.

So, if I've got it right, the new Bitcoins are issued as a reward to those who do the mining??? I'd also read in another article somewhere that there was no real profit in mining, and that people did it for 'love' and because they could. I'm now starting to wonder how old that particular article may have been, and whether it were written some years ago at a time long before BTC was trading at £7k or £8k?

Treasury crackdown on Bitcoin over concerns it is used to launder money and dodge tax



By Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter and
Gordon Rayner, Political Editor

3 December 2017 • 9:30pm




Ministers are launching a crackdown on the virtual currency Bitcoin amid growing concern it is being used to launder money and dodge tax.

The Treasury has disclosed plans to regulate the Bitcoin that will force traders in so-called crypto-currencies to disclose their identities and report suspicious activity.

Until now, anybody buying and selling bitcoins and other digital currencies have been able to do so anonymously, making it attractive to criminals and tax avoiders.

But the Treasury has now said it intends to begin regulating the virtual currency, which has a total value of £145 billion, to bring it in line with rules on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financial legislation.

The new rules, which will be applied across the European Union, are expected to come into force by the end of the year or early in 2018, the minister in charge has said.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/03/bitcoin-crackdown-amid-fears-money-laundering-tax-dodging/

The unlucky man who accidentally threw away bitcoin worth $100 million

I posted some comments on Cryptocurrency on ONLINE comments.(qv)...
- Is this an illusion? I do wonder..... sure there are stories of being unlucky - we have all(?) Sold a stock, only for it to rise beyond belief... but the fundamentals remain that no-one can hold it physically. At least for now there are "Share Certificates" which can be held in the Bank.... but our money will soon become an illusion ( mobile phones and Similar tech)..... giving plenty of opportunity to clever crooks - or Foreign Gov, short of money.
Present valuation is quite mad, but it may continue... don't forget ( history) the Dutch Bulbs.... Oooer!
Can one bet when it will begin to fall, say first 10%?