There are those of us who take Bitcoins for services, and are happy to spend them on items to allow us to sell more services.

I wonder how many other people are actually taking bitcoin as payment, then using it as money and not a simple transfer system?

C

Interesting. Wonder how/if this will affect mining speed and difficulty; we're on an unusual knife edge right now with the 65nm equipment being in shutdown state < $600 a bitcoin.

C

Well, it is flat-lining the mining difficulty. So I think we have hit the equilibrium where bitcoin price=power to mine.

What it means is if the price continues to drop it will be illogical to mine bitcoins with current equipment. The first to drop out will be the most inefficient, then the more efficient stuff.

However this will cause the difficulty to drop which will encourage mining again, etc.

What this means in practicality is one could look to the opinions of the miners as another data point on price. If difficulty goes up, it indicates miners are bullish (or insane). If it drops, it is bearish (or likewise insane). If mining goes way off the line with respect to price, it means either something really interesting is up, or miners have lost their fucking minds.

C

No, that effect would be self correcting: If the price goes up then difficulty should go up as miners bring equipment online to close the gap. Ibid down.

The question is could the miners be a predictive datapoint because:

1) They are more invested than the average bear and follow the bitcoin market closely.

or

2) They are dumber than rocks because they bought miners.

Time will tell. I'm going to grab a box of popcorn and look into this. Good luck!

How strange, my "If you don't have the keys to your bitcoins you don't have bitcoins" muscle is twitching as I think about coinapult. I haven't felt this since Mt. Gox....

Go figure :-)

C

Out of curiosity, is anyone going to be at Defcon/Blackhat/Vegas this week? Want to spend some bitcoins on root beer?

I'll pack a pair of bitcoins and see what I can do.

C

It does seem to be a bit of a random walk. Speaking of random, been in Vegas this week, lost a total of $400 at the craps tables playing dont come/don't pass. Technically that should be the best odds in Vegas (very close to 50%), so I keep wondering why I tend to lose on trips (no the game can't be rigged as craps is self-biased).

I keep telling myself it is nothing but pure odds, then the girl on the other end of the table rolls a string of 4/10 points and blows my odds into the water. It is nothing but pure odds.....

C

I'm reminded of "Prosperity is just around the Corner"
"Which corner"?

:-)
C

Don't leave yet. Wait till people are wailing in despair, gnashing their teeth, weeping in chains.

Then wait a day then buy.

I ignore it.

Bitcoins are on sale this week. Cool!

C

NO! In Libertopia you can enslave them. In fact Libertopia only works with unlimited slavery.

Which is kind of cool: Freedom is slavery.

C

Where is the big HODL sign?

C

The Russians have another problem: Most of their tech shit doesn't work very well. A big chunk of Kursk is still sitting on the bottom of the ocean to point this out.

I don't really fear them, but I fear the hysteria of the average American being whipped into the usual Cold War II: Electric Boogaloo thing.

C

Fakest boobs ever. Seriously, are those bolt on?

And in bitcoin news, it's amazing that people keep on mining. *shakes head*

Can we go below zero? Will miners be forced to throw their equipment out the windows? Stay tuned for "As the stomach turns!"

Dutch I see the AntiChrist in your image there. Hm....

And in other news, mining difficulty is set to go up another *20* percent.

Either the miners know something or they are dumb as hell. Anything pulling more than 2.3w/gh is now unprofitable.

To quote Bill Murray:

I think it sucks :-)

Got about 2 gallons of beer ready to go. I love brewing.

What, you're not giving your kids and relatives bitcoins as presents?

That's right little Johnny! That paper entitles you to bitcoins! NO WAIT DON'T POST A PICTURE OF YOUR PRESENT ON FACEBOOK!!!!!!!! AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Ahem.

Um. I remember good old FTP software well, boy that was a fun ride.... :-)

To an extent. Remember though that there are a fair number of irrational people out there, and the issue of the "dollar auction" is one to contend with.

IE: If you go below Capital investment+electricity/rent/staff costs then you are losing money on your farm, but you're losing less than if you just turned it all off and tossed it in the trash. Negative return but still logical. If you go below elec/rent/staff and still mine then you are insane and need mental help. :-)

CEX is interesting. I wonder how many people "thought" that they would be upgrading their equipment on these "5 year" contracts.

That is a very interesting thought...

I doubt it will be a problem. The retarget might be steep, but to be honest miners are an exceptionally irrational bunch. Moreso than catcoin.

Besides, it's winter in the northern hemisphere and Bitcoin would have to go a lot lower before the value of the heat generated by a miner loses it's edge over natural gas.

Can we translate that into Latin? I'd like to have it chisled in marble atop the first Bitcoin bank....

Edit: Done:

Et tunc sequitur ingens tuber

Clowns will eat you....

Try falling asleep to "Let it go" or something.

Maybe someone should modify chartbuddy into "dumpbuddy". With a nice little "PUMP" icon and a "DUMP" icon when it's time to pump and dump....

Eh true. Sorry bout that.

Drat. I really liked him a lot.

I like watching things go up and down. Like bitcoin, it goes up and down nicely...

Of course I verified that's her wallet :-) Looks like a lot of the transactions are in the $1-2 range. Still she's doing well, I'll slip her something tomorrow for promoting bitcoin so nicely.

Person: Get out of bed tomorrow and keep riding that bike.

Panic! :-)



As for the hack, it has been pointed out time and time again: If you do not have control of the keys, you do not have bitcoins.

Riots should be reason for a price rise. Interesting.

So at what point does the (insert govt name here) Govt come to the exchanges and demand all of these "dirty" coins. After all they were part of unlawful activity, therefore they all go to the Govt. Kind of like cash forfeitures.

This is an interesting little slope here......

Indeed. *dusts off Fortran compiler*

The problem of course is what is a "crime". Not paying taxes is a crime. Farting in a Mormon tabernacle is a crime. Supporting F.G. in china is a crime. Gambling is a crime in many places...

How about things that are deemed "unpopular"? Intentions are always good, executions not always so.

Back to watching bitcoin bounce around.

Standard exit fraud. Cue violins.

One of the funny things about combination game theory is that in a 2 person prisoner dilemma playing a single game the dominant strategy is to fuck each other over. This is why people form communities, to keep from getting fucked over.

Now, when you play multiple games with the same players, the best option is tit for tat, highly cooperative. But if there is an end limit to the games then defecting on the last round is the dominant strategy. And if you defect on the last round, why not the next to last? And so forth...

Which brings you back to the classic equilibrium of "fuck everyone" as the dominant strategy. FC and Asicminer (and just about every other mining company, cloud mining company and "investment bullshit" system) are just following a strategy.

Which sucks donkey cocks. This is a problem IMO.

Torture. It's much easier and quite legal these days.

Solution: Use torture-resistant encryption.

Now for the big question: Is it possible to put that sort of community *into* your money/coin?

Does anyone else think that arrow image looks like a giant cock?

Nothing like a coin being up-front, I find that refreshing.

Arrested? Hah!

Executed.

Lot of spam transactions, clog up the fucking bitcoind getwork. Thus transactions have to have a min tx fee. Also there is a fake belief that not putting the transactions into the found block will allow your crap-pool to mine a tiny advantage on the next block.

You should post the transaction ID and follow that happy little bitcoin through the economy. See how many other people it brings joy to....

All aboard the failboat at that hospital. Their entire IT department should be fired for not having backups, having users with admin accounts on desktops and for being complete flunkies. Then the management should be fired for not funding security.

Flunkies.

Man I miss chartbuddy. Without it this thread is less than useless.

Nope. Predictit has a 10% chance. When people risk real money the results tend to be better.

Edit: The next 10 to 15 hours are CRITICAL!

Ok who was the bozo who crashed the halvening site?

And now this one takes hours to drop......

Awww. there we go. Cute graphic, welcome to the next phase....

900?

I keep thinking about transferring a chunk of my retirement funds into Bitcoin. Would be a good investment, especially with the recent currency manipulation being done by govts.

That is the big problem: For a retirement account to accumulate tax free it typically has to be specific funds at a brokerage. And the magic, GOD STRAIGHT truth applies in that case:

If you don't own the keys to your bitcoins
YOU DO NOT OWN BITCOINS!

Likewise there's nothing preventing a future govt from screwing you if they own the keys (this not happen? Hell, in the Phillipines you now have authorized death squads. Things can get weird). Likewise moving the money out of the current 401k/IRA's would hit me with a 30%-40% penalty.

Things can get really weird when weird people get into power and the people want weirdmageddon.

C

Depends. Stocks to a large extent; I bought a fair bit in 2008 and tripled my winnings on the economic recovery. Now that the orange dingbat is in power I'm moving about 40% into cash reserves, then deciding what to do with that. The other 60% can stay in a mix of global technology (hell, the rest of the world can do all the tech stuff we will sink to mine coal or something) and basic dividend growth stocks (think toilet paper/stuff you need no matter what).

Bitcoin and gold are a nice counterbalance. I've been earning it for awhile now (and paying taxes in fiat on every satoshi). To date I don't think I have ever bought a bitcoin; not sure how actually. :-)

C

The next 24 minutes are critical (thinking short term here). Nice to see things purring along today.

Just crack 1k already so I can go back to watching porn.

Watching porn on one screen and BTCWisdom on the other is a bit... disconcerting. :-)

Just report it to the mod, hell I mention litecoin and my posts get pulled.

Meantime I'm back to other things instead of waiting for it to hit 1000. Doesn't really matter, by the time I think of selling for fiat, fiat will be something you use to light fires and will be priced appropriately.

Putting down the porn. Hm. Look at that....

Will the watched pot boil?

Very cool. I can now relax and enjoy the rest of the day. 1k is pretty ok with me.

And we make CNN Money front page.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/02/investing/bitcoin-1000-2017/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom



Cool.

Hey, I don't mind media attention as long as the whole drug laden hippies thing is not reinforced too much.

They should include comments from this forum in these articles. Like:

"I've been touching myself all morning with GLEE!!!"

Looks like the FT article is behind a paywall and they don't seem to take bitcoin.

*yawn*

I have a problem with this price rise:

As many people know, I fix people's bitcoin miners for bitcoin payments. Thus I have to account for my time, skills, experience, and material costs (damn FPGAs are expensive when they blow up). I price my work in bitcoin because I want this currency to have a reason to exist other than as a speculation thingie.

Problem is the fluctuations: If I charge .3btc for a service and bitcoin drops from 600 to 300 I don't want to raise my bitcoin prices so I kept them constant. Likewise if it goes from 600-1200 I don't want to change my prices for the same basic reason (I'm doing work for a certain amount of bitcoin). But if it keeps going haywire, what do I do? What's fair? And at what point am I simply doing work for dollars instead of Bitcoin?

It's complex.

Well, this is true to an extent: Technically the skills needed to fix these things are limited and as the value of bitcoin rises the value of repairing a miner rises as well. That was the logic I used to not raise prices when it was at $300; the miners were worth "less" therefore I should not charge the same amount in dollars since I'm trying to work the concept of value into bitcoin.

That said when it hit 900 I started decreasing my prices to compensate for the "new normal" instead of $600. I could re-price again at $1200, but at some point the constant re-framing of prices becomes a bit of a pain.

Thus it would be nice for bitcoin to stick at a price for awhile. :-)

C

Wow.

You haven't quit your job yet?

(Assuming you're being paid in fiat. If bitcoin then you should be touching yourself with glee!)

*THAT* is a good idea, and honors the fact that this is a bitcoin to bitcoin transaction, not some fiat fiat using bitcoin like Amex or Western Union or greasy bits of paper.

I'll see how I can approach this.

Just got back from lunch where it was at 1050 or so. Loaded up bitcoinwisdom:

Your compass should be pointing towards the moon.

Still, I have to say I was disappointed to log in this evening and only see 1120 on Finex. I really need to have my reality adjusted a bit here.

“...It's the policy of the Chinese government to gradually get rid of currency controls and to liberalize the economy so that more things are done by the market. One way they do this is to wink at people and tell them that if they do illegal thing X, they won't end up in jail, and see what happens. If the world doesn't blow up they make it legal.”

Greatest quote in a while....

*yawn*

This is the reason I am hesitant to change my prices for miner repairs: I'd rather try to be a stabilizing element by pricing service in bitcoin instead of dollars.

But it does mean all repairs are on "sale"....

The question is can people pump and dump without 100x leverage?

I know. I have a vested interest in a more stable bitcoin price as I work for and get paid in bitcoin. I want other people to do this without fear they have to be bot traders as well.

We shall see.

Everyone is getting rid of dollars as fast as possible. But what are you going to invest in? Euros? Rubles?

Nope, Bitcoin!

It figures. Just spent 1.66btc for a $1500 pocket watch chain (what can I say, I like gold shiny things) so of course the price will now go up. At $1500 I'll grab a Patek Phillippe quarter repeater, then the price will go to the moon.

So bid it up to $1500 so I can dump more coin and everyone else can profit.

Likewise if they are torturing you for information and you don't have it but they think you do then you will be in for what one could call a "really long night". Better to use steg and a variation of rubber hose to double encrypt keys to two wallets, one with some money to satisfy the torturers, the other with the real money.

Of course torturers could torture everyone further to look for a "second key" but at some point they have to go home for dinner and a good game of Splatoon, so that's kind of self-limiting.

C
(BTDT)

It seems to be going up more slowly and evenly. Hm. Maybe pump and dumpers weren't too good of an idea....

Looks like it just plowed through the 1100 snowbank....

This is just another push to 1300. But in the meantime you all realize that one bitcoin can buy an ounce of gold...

CURSE ME FOR SPENDING 2 BTC for an OUNCE OF GOLD! AARRGGHH!

C

Hell, I was just amazed a coin shop would take bitcoins. Which was ok, I needed to level up a bit on my gold holdings so it was the proper decision at the time.

Kind of in a wait and accumulate mode. Problem is I have to keep lowering my repair prices in BTC because it is so stupid high.

C

I did detailed TA on the entrails of a chicken before lunch. TO THE MOOOOON!

Back on topic, can someone update that stupid Wiley Coyote gif to go from 300 to 1300?

Because this is important.


C

Dropped $200. Foom.

What is happening? The beginning is happening....

The next few blocks will have the largest tx fees in history :-)

Better than eating gold. Still, WGAF.

Points out the SEC will only list things they can control. They can't control bitcoin. That's the whole fucking point. :-)

Dump the wife if she leaves over $100 a bitcoin. :-)

C

No, the bitcoins are worthless. Split the house, keep the coins.

Yawn. Big deal.

Exactly! And this is why people complaining that the miners are late don't seem to get a simple point: If the miners had been shipped 3 months earlier then the EXACT SAME THING would have happened to difficulty/profitability 3 months earlier.

What people are really saying is "I should have invested/gotten my miner early AND NO ONE ELSE GOT IN/ONE!". Which is a bit weird.

C

Moving all that litecoin I accumulated into Bitcoin. Nice rate.

[/quote]
KNC blew it in a few ways: They stopped making the Titan, which was probably the longest-lasting profitable miner (2+ years) ever, and they didn't realize the price of bitcoin would just double to account for the halving.

Ah well.

I actually accept payment for miner repairs in both bitcoin and litecoin. I would like to see the local bitcoin ATM also do Litecoin, it would be handy to turn it into money for parts like I can do with bitcoin, the fees are lower, and the transactions confirm much quicker. Thus for smaller value transactions (under a K or so) it would be quite useful.

C

LTC is at $12, Bitcoin at $1170, and I have more work requests coming in for fixing miners.

Wheee!

The question is which moon? I'm thinking Titan right about now....

Blah. I just had to send in my taxes for all my bitcoin work. That's a *lot* of recordkeeping to do to keep track of the work, payments, cost of parts, and time. And now I have to deal with the fact that most of those coins have doubled or quadrupled in value which totally screws up my basis points for when I sell them for LTCG.

Oi.

Who would ever want to trade Bitcoins for dollars?

This was a lousy weekend to sell 1k USD in bitcoin. *Sigh*.

C

$1500. I just have to touch myself here for a bit....

So how do you get over the feeling that you were a fool to mine some coins at $100, then sell them at $600 for gold last year and now they would be worth $1500? Fortunately it was only a few, but still it blows my mind.

Likewise I keep having the urge to lower my prices for mining repair. Which I shouldn't because a bitcoin is still a bitcoin but.....

Ug.

Are people concerned about a 1500 price? Good fucking lord, we are weird.

Personally I'm waiting for 1800 so I can kick myself for buying gold a year or two ago at 600 a coin. Sooooooo stooooopid.

C

I love it. Only problem is bitcoin mining fees are too high compared to litecoin at that level. Which would be solved by segwit stuff but that won't happen due to reasons...

Litecoin.

Honest answer, it depends. Try doubling the reward, see if it goes through. I know there are sites where you can ask miners to specifically include transactions, but they are probably clogged.

Miners do need fees because of spam transactions. When fees were zero too many twinks were sending out spam transactions on the net that blew out mempool and hogged all the space. Thus miners don't take zero fee transactions these days and the transactions there rot on the chain. There should be a garbage collector running on those but there isn't.

So when a dirt-ton of people want to do transactions, the highest fee wins. As for too many miners I agree but that will drop as the rewards get cut unless the price continues to be batty.

That was helpful, now can someone update the wile e coyote gif going through 300,400,500,600,700...through 1700?

This is getting quite unbelievable.

Edit: Past 1700. 1800 is where it's triple the value I got a fair number at, at which point I start giggling...

30 years ago my father came home from work and told me he was pulling out of stocks for a bit. The reason was that he overheard his secretary talking to some people in the typing pool about how they were all trading stocks and comparing specific stocks and positions. He said that if the typing pool people were investing in stocks (they being dumb as proverbial rocks) then it was somewhat overheated and time to get out.

After the October 87 crash he mentioned that he was getting into stocks again as the typing pool people were no longer talking about their portfolios but how they were running screaming for the exits.

I try to keep that in the back of my mind. While it is impossible to time the market, when you hear complete yabos going on about their portfolio it's a good time to either sell a bit or HODL.

Edit: The person in that above video does sound like a cylon base-star. Just an endless stream of words....

C

Ah, we call them tools. That's ok, in every revolution you need people who think they are in the smoke filled rooms making policy when in reality they are slaves tilling the soil...

I highly recommend the book "Trust me, I'm lying" written by Ryan Holiday who was the marketing guy at Amer Apparel. When it comes to social manipulation he is unto a God.

Likewise, The Big Con from the 30's, an excellent work on how con games go. I wonder how many people have opened up their big bitcoin store....

I thought you sold all your LTC when you got it? :-)

It is, however insane. Fun insane.

Wake up, look at wisdom, go wow. 1850ish.

Wow.

C

It dipped to 1813 this morning? God that will shatter my hopes and dreams. How terrible!

:-)

1900? HOLY FUCKING CRAP!

Ah yes, this is a nice feeling. When and where is the party?

Porsche of course. Ferrari's are a real pain to work on.

But the bigger question is just how many can you fit in your driveway before you have to ask friends to park them in theirs....

Shit happens. Hell, I remember picking up class C swamp blocks and some domain names and letting them go because other people needed them to make the internet go and why should I hog them?

Eh, live and learn.

That said, I'm going to splurge a tiny bit. Top line tickets to the Belmont Stakes. Half a bitcoin can go places. Wonder if they take it at the track.

They should.....

Eh. People did the best they could with the information they had. I've run a rule saying I would not buy bitcoin, only earn it. It's served me well with limited downside and no screwed up nights wondering if it would implode. As for cashing out, I have some gold I got at $600 a coin, worse things have happened.

However I am working a bit harder lately and it's starting to chew into surplus free time. So there is that to think about.

That's a good point. Their infinite BS Bots were screwing up the prices. Anyone got an address for the Commie party?

Needs to go up more. There's a new 2m personal jet that looks quite interesting. Hm....

(Yeah, right)

Just took a look: Transaction volume is through the roof right now. So how are people driving the price up and down so quickly?

C

Front page news on cnn.com.

Hm.

We are so jaded....

Twenty five hundred fucking dollars for a bitcoin. Good God!

I know! Litecoin is down to a miserable, paltry $31. The horror (weeps)

Excuse me I need to go touch myself.

I know, I got my quagmire post deleted. But that said, I think I did it at 1200 a bitcoin, which of course was a really terribly low level but a few months ago. 2200 is much more like it for my tastes (buying better wine)

Back to slaving over a hot (reflow) oven.

C

Bitcoin is at 2640. I am really glad I didn't pay for hookers when Bitcoin hit $500 a few years back. I would be feeling less pleasurable now.

2640. That's not bad.

Well there goes my week. Thank God they don't take bitcoins at the Belmont Stakes.

Oh I don't know. That's a pair of luducrous mode Teslas, so you and your partner can race each other on the streets (since there is really nothing else you CAN race with one of those things.)

2680 and we're flipping out about doom?

Man our lives are good.

Just as a little reality check here: I was looking at a top of the line Wilesco steam engine to run my lathe here at the house. 2200 Euros. Fair bit of money, but when I did a calculation I found that was only .82 bitcoins.

I thought I screwed up the calculations somehow then remembered that money is worthless compared to bitcoins.

Hm. For less than a single bitcoin I can get this....



Wow.

Totally true story: I was at the Belmont Stakes yesterday waiting in a line for some food. Struck up a discussion with the guy in front of me about paramutual betting, mentioned I was glad they didn't take bitcoins at the track and he said he recently tried buying some bitcoins at 2k each. Almost sold him the contents of my walking wallet but he seemed interested and had a few.

When you have a discussion with a totally random person at the track about this stuff, that is interesting.....

It's a weird world. Never dull, wonder who pulled this latest trick.

Then again everyone is down in the last 24 hours except for CryptoCarbon (what the hell is that shitcoin?) so this might just be an orgy of profit taking. It will pass.

Yeah, we want those greedy investors to buy our bitcoins!

So what's the expected timeframe for the next major Ethereum hack?

Bitmain cheats a bit with their miner microcode. That cheat would not work with Segwit, thus their systems would be somewhat slower. Which would make them sad.

Hm. If he practices combinational game theory then in this case we're not in a multiplayer game where tit for tat works, but a Nash equilibrium game where min/max theory applies. In which case, since Ant is pretty much the only supplier they would pursue a strategy that exploits the saddle, or in other words only do things which are in their best interest (ie: defect).

Hm. Kind of sucks that other companies making miners went out of business, but oh well.

C

Excellent point: Why are bacteria not being used to mine bitcoins?

I don't know if Antminer has the firepower to pull this off. Their pools are big, how many other pools can pick up the slack if people decide they want to ditch antpool?

Likewise do they have a new chip in development?

They pulled a similar stunt on litecoin a few months back to try and ditch segwit (the new L3+ miners couldn't be shipped due to a software update, Bitmain offered to mine for clients and send them all earnings, meanwhile something was suddenly mining on the non-segwit pools. Weird coincidence of course) but that seemed to flame out.

Do they have a similar new tech for SHA? If so I could see a sale of the new chip as a "we will keep it in our data center and send you all the bitcoins minted, of course we will use them for our purposes (which could be mining a new shitcoin or competing with bitcoin). Totally valid as long as they pay out the mining revenue (which could come from reserves).

Owning a miner is a lot more than owning the bitcoin coming out of it.

This can happen in every tech revolution. I was kicked out of college in the 80's for blowing up all of the vaxes by mistake (oops) and went into this project called Athena. Made far more money at that and had a far more fun time than if I had graduated with Cobol and been stuck as a programmer for 20 years.

Always keep an eye out for the odd stuff and give it a try. Flooze was odd but stupid. Bitcoin was odd but technically sound. Thus bitcoin is a good place to check out.

I guess I can come off as a smarmy shithead, however living in gutters and sleeping on RP06 drives for a few years was shall we say educational.

We'll see where he goes, but higher education is not always what it is cracked up to be. Sometimes it's just another way to become a debt slave for 20+ years.

YMMV.

Toot toot! The Bitcoin train has left the station!!!!



Anyone remember this image?



Ah those were the days...

I recently asked the IRS if I could pay taxes in Bitcoin. They said unfortunately no, taxes need to be paid in US currency as that is the reason for US currency to exist.

Man I woke up, saw this thread and thought it crashed to 1700 or so. Then checked and it's at 2300 or so.

*yawn* Going back to bed. Worse things happen in a rain storm.

Man three pages of comments and not one image of a spaceman mowing the lawn. What has this thread come to.

Meantime I do need to sell a single bitcoin, need some spare change for these parts I have been buying. Sucks, but got to be done....

Well I just sold a bitcoin for some pocket cash. $1980 a coin net, BLAH. However the machine only offered me $580. Bearish....

Then 10 minutes later I got a text from the owner. "Would you like more money?" "Sure, another $1400 would do.". "Oh we have that in the machine we'll free it up for you..."

Guy got seriously cheap coinz.

BULLISH!

As for the rest...

So I sell 2k worth of bitcoin at 1980 and now the price is up to 2130 and rising. As always you're welcome everyone for my fixing the price slide.

(This happens a lot to me. Last time I gave up on p2pool they found 3 blocks in 24 hours. Ah well...)

I think of it this way: It's a luck sink: I lose out on small things like this instead of big things like health, friends, big chunks of cash, that sort of thing. Because it all balances out on the great cosmic blockchain....

Thus my bad luck is your good luck. Use wisely. :-)

Close. I run a business here fixing miners and as such I need to make sure I have USD to pay taxes. Thus every quarter I need to convert BTC to cash in order to ensure I have the taxes paid.

This comes from the 1999-2000 Dot.com crash when many of my friends got huge stock options (that needed to have taxes paid upon granting at the strike value received) but then did NOT sell a portion of those stocks for the cash, then had stocks go to zero and found out April 10th that they um... owed a million in taxes, payable in 5 days. Oh and they had no jobs either.

Maximum fuckage. So as a matter of principle I do this religiously even though the amounts are much smaller. :-)

C

Straight Segwit would have required 95%, which means one dick pool owner could screw it and took weeks to lock in. Too slow, too long, too much opportunity for fuckage and endless manipulation.

Let's see what happens.

No, people are dropping it just below, then buying the dip, traditional market manipulation. Expect this to go on till the last minute.

Hey, there are benefits to running a no fee pool. This is one of them.

Use p2pool for fuck's sake :-)

They do that.

So I see BIP passed. Interesting, miners kept screwing with it till the wire.

Looks like some miners like to play the game of chicken. Fair enough, but chicken loses out to tit for tat every time.

Interesting.

PS: Thank you for the rocket pic. Now moon time!

Wait, it did not lock in yet, did it. Still time for masses of miners to stop signaling in a big dump fuck.

Hm.

Indeed. Not rich yet, going back to work work....

I would guess 9 hours+1.8 hours from now (54 blocks remaining to lock in, 80% needed, block every 10m). Yes, we will lock in iff support stays the same. However if a pool plays short and then withholds support at the last minute it could fail.

C

More importantly is the support it would have to drop by in order to still pass. At this point I think my math is 40/56 blocks=.71428. So if 72% of the remaining blocks mine true it will pass (luck willing of course, smuckpool could somehow mine all the remaining blocks no)

Aaand it's going the wrong way. Come on, hit 4k

It's Sunday, normal. However what is the latest game of chicken people are playing with Bitcoin?

Hopefully they made money from the people who jumped in on the pre-buy....

Trust me I know your pain: Last summer I was buying gold at 1oz=2btc. This year I'm buying sports cars at 1 car=2btc.

I'll probably feel as stupid next year about this year's buy as I do about last year's buys. :-)

C

So what major assets does bitcoin.com control? Other than a $40 domain name?

Oi.

Eh, probably paid too much for it. Besides I prefer Porsches.

But but bitcoin.com will only support it. Subsidize that dude's crappy plastic ride. :-)

More to the point, more opportunities to buy. Hopefully the ltc-btc will spread a bit, I've got some litecoin on my phone here.

Holy shit i am drunk in vegas. How is everything going?

Question: If BCC forks tomorrow then it will have the same difficulty height as the rest of bitcon, correct?

If so then why would it not be a vapor lock? If it's only worth 200 a coin, few miners would mine it (doing so means losing out on the reward from bitcoin chain) thus if 1/16th of the miners mined BCC it would take um... 32 weeks for the difficulty to reset along with transaction confirm times of 8 hours per block found. At best.

This sounds like a complete fail out of the box. What am I missing?

Ah ok, so this is not a fork of Bitcoin with a single tweak, this is a completely new coin a-la catcoin.

*munches on popcorn* Thank you.

C

So what are the betting odds for Bitcoin Trash to fail?

Wow, looks like a good evening. Do I want to go to work Monday?

C

Got to say it's nice to see Bitcoin above 3100. Now I can start thinking about what 5k bitcoin will look like.

C

Note to self: Do not pay hookers in bitcoin cash. The slow transaction time will mean you could be in for hours of chit chat.

Use litecoin.

I guess I should bitch about it being stuck at 3,250 but I really am not sure how I should do this....

Whee?

Just got back from Vegas. Somewhat crowded, hookers are busy, and the bitcoin ATM is no longer on the darn strip. Annoying.

Personally I play craps, specifically dont pass/don't come bets with odds. It's pretty much the closest you can get to true even odds on the strip, it's impossible for the house to cheat, and you can watch people place stupid bets with the stick man. Great way to people watch for a few hours. But I will have to consider Thailand for my next vacation.

I know. I just woke up and was thinking about you as I looked at today's price. Are you also wiggling in glee like a happy little glowworm right now?

Indeed. I used to wonder if BTC would pass silver. Then be on parity with gold. Now I'm waiting for parity with BRKA....

Give it time.

Coming up on 4k. We call this the beginning.

C

I'd have to agree. If you want a good Porsche I'd recommend the 928S myself, nice solid cars that have 300+HP under 10k. 911's are nice (I had an E for a number of years) but their prices are kind of silly at this point. Or a Boxter, they go pretty cheap and aren't bad....

One year ago 2 bitcoins would buy one ounce of Gold.

One month ago, 2 bitcoins would buy a fun little sports car.

One year from now......

Hodl.

Just remember what happened to the boy who got everything he wanted.

"He lived happily ever after"

Very cool. I did some gold buys with a coin store and I found I spent a lot more when I was using Bitcoin (at $600-$800 a coin I sometimes kick myself but that's life). Let us know how it works out, more merchants should do this.

LF: Merchant who accepts bitcoins.

Hm. I wonder if this can help the issue of providing a stable blockchain for the Martian colonies. I want to be sure I can withdraw Bitcoin at any Mars ATMs.

50btc is about double the price (100k). For that amount they should include a hooker and a mint.

Not as such. If you receive it as payment (as I do) you have to pay the normal income taxes on it at the rate of the bitcoin at the time. Then if you sell it later you need to take into account capital gains or losses and pay taxes on only that differential amount.

It's one reason I use LIFO accounting: I can fix things for people, take bitcoins, then convert some into cash to set aside for taxes and for buying equipment/parts/shipping. Normally the fluctuation is minimal short term so no STCG taxes and no screwing with the old stuff (which has appreciated but I'm using LIFO). Bit screwy this year with the bouncing, but still not bad.

(One of the 500 or so people who actually paid all taxes on bitcoins earned last year. It was kind of a silly return but accurate)

Fuck, I meant LIFO. My error.

The chips are hardly anything interesting, looks like Bitmain managed to put the dc-dc converters on-chip which is really smart, but nothing unusual. Their cooling system is basic but it works and they have settled on a frame/interface design that works well enough. Kind of like KNC, except they took the extra plunge to put power on the chips.

The problem is getting the foundry time and selling the product. Too many failures in that regard.

These days, I would not trust John to park my car, so this is not a great endorsement....

Hey can someone repost the Wil-e-y Coyote $480-$380-$280 gifs? Those really crack me up now.

Hopefully we will break 5k before the end of the month due to reasons...

C

I don't know, but even my dumb-ass litecoin is mooning. This is really one of those kinds of days I feel sad for buying towels a few years back for .25btc or so...

Tricky. I bought a Porsche 928S4 with a few coins at the 2500/coin mark, and while it is a perfectly fine little car I do look at it sometimes and wonder why the value hasn't doubled in the past few months. But it brings me mental stimulation and joy, which is good.

Key life lesson ahead:

Remember that the one thing in life you can never get more of is time. It's even rarer than bitcoins, and can't be created by any force in the universe faster than it unfolds (like um... bitcoin). So if you really want a 911 convertible, and it's something that will return you a serious investment in joy, buy it now and not later. Because next year you will have one less year in your life to enjoy it; a year you will never be able to get back.

I would recommend a pre 1969 Targa of course, but I like the short wheelbase models. Then again they can and will kill you, so you might be better off with the 69-72 models which have the delightful MFI system or (if you're cheap and buying a 69-71 T) carbs. The 72 911T might be the best; I think it's the one with MFI and that funny oil port that everyone mistook for a gas tank port with hilarious results....

C

Life is short, eat dessert first....


*nod* The early 70's air cooleds are going for silly amounts of money, I'd leave them alone. Plus they had rust as a factory installed option; they would spray the floorboards with salt water just to do it....

I don't really go for the 90-2000's Porsches. I prefer the 70's and 80's, the water cooled models like the 944S/944Turbo and the 85-87 928's are actually pretty good deals for the money. You could also pick up a 914 cheap, they're oddly fun little cars.

Always keep in mind that during the age of the city-state, people were known as "serfs" and bound to the land. Not so much fun....

Anyway, Bitcoin continues to bounce around, never dull but not complaining...

Had to sell a bit to cover Q3 taxes and equipment. I hate selling on a dip, drat....

Chase Paymentech, or more formally JP Morgan Chase Paymentech has a vested interest in the status quo. You know, the easily hackable Equicracks status quo.

Incorrect. I run a business here, one that needs to pay for itself first. If I were to pay for things using pocket money then I would be essentially investing that in bitcoin, which is not my intent. Therefore when I have to buy supplies I batch withdraw some bitcoin and note it in the ledger. Same with taxes and such.

Besides this little dip is in the middle of the most amazing run ever. I don't try to time the market, I let the chips fall where they may.

Eh, whatever works. I've sold bits at insanely high prices, sold at low prices (remember when it was $600 or so). Probably averages out, and since I do FIFO accounting the CG taxes or losses are minimal.

Besides, when coin values go up lots of people send me stuff to fix. When they go down not so much. Which is odd since I am charging in coin not money per se, so it should be relative.....

Eh, big deal. Wake me when it drops below $600.

C

Haven't looked at Ethereum, but man Litecoin is getting creamed. Down over 50%.

Ah well. Glad I cashed out enough to cover supplies and taxes. For the rest I'll just sit back and watch.

Naah....

Back up to 3650 or so. See, things are not all bad.

Why? You probably got your stash at 40. Fine, you won't be buying his and hers Ferraris, you'll have to settle for Teslas.

People envy you. Women wish to mate with you. You have Bitcoin...

Boobs. But kind of stupid.

John lost his marbles a long time ago. At this point I would not trust him to park my car.

He's kind of like Pournelle was in the 80's. I'd recommend not trying to live in his world.

Nice way to wake up.

I am actually, seriously considering buying my first bitcoin......

Hm....

Yep. To date I have had a policy: I would never buy a bitcoin with dollars, only as payment for the results of my work.

Yes, kind of Rand-ish and stupid but there it is. Odd.

Sure, same here (well not a ton, more like a tuna) fixing bitcoin and litecoin miners. Gotten pretty good at it too. I do convert bitcoin to cash to pay my taxes and expenses, but never the other way....

60 is kind of nice, but for awhile I was working at a rate of $90 per LTC. So it's got a ways to go....

Bitcoin.... Excuse me I have to go pleasure myself.

It's weird when you come home and 5600 a bitcoin is mildly depressing.....

Bored bored bored.....

Correct. This is also why I ran my business as a LIFO based accounting system: When I need money for parts or power or taxes I sell bitcoins at a rate that is close to what I received, thus minimal short term CG taxes. Since I receive payments in bitcoin I make sure to pay income taxes on the money received at the value of bitcoin at the time the work was agreed to (because the price might change by the time the work is completed and I receive payment, but I consider that to be float, not increased revenue. Need to check with a CPA or the IRS on that, but I do the best I can do).

Thus the stuff I made over the years is free and clear of anything but capital gains taxes, which would be paid if I sold deep enough into my account.

And since I have never purchased a bitpenny, if bitcoin went tits up I would really not lose anything in the real world other than the value of my labor.

A really interesting side-effect happens when I buy other services for bitcoin, tax analysis on that is a bitch on wheels. Have to convert to cash virtually on the ledger, then convert back to goods and services. Sucks.

Well, not quite lambos yet, but still 6k is a really impressive number.

Whee!

The train just keeps on a-rolling...

Stopped by a gold and coin shop up here in Boston where I picked up a beautiful 14k watch chain a year ago with Bitcoin. The owner was exceptionally happy to see me again and was showing off some very fine E Howard 18k watches from 1861.

Guess he wants moar bitcoins.....

It always works: I sell a bit-dime and the price skyrockets as a result.

Maybe I should start a donation wallet: Donate bitpennies to me, I'll sell it, and the price will skyrocket as a result.

Thoughts?

Ok. One of these days I will actually buy (as opposed to earn) a bitcoin. Just to do it.

Problem is I just can't see worthless fiat turning into something like bitcoin. And if I do Bitcoin will instantly tank. Hm. Really need to think on this.

Meantime, Lambo? Naah, LP500S is the only one I'd want and I already have enough serious car stuff.  I'd have to buy a house with a garage to park it....

What will save you Searing is what has saved many of us: We're just too damn lame to sell.

Remember, once you start selling it's like a druuuuuug. Instead hire people for services and pay in bitcoin :-)

C

Jesus fucking christ, I just realized how much hashpower is needed to make a bitcoin in a month.

Never. Selling. Again.

And I seem to have a knack for fixing these little space-shovels.

Weird feeling all of a sudden.

Boring....

$6200 Bitcoin.

Boring.

Ok.

6370+. I was thinking: When it was 1k or so a year ago I couldn't have imagined it would go up by a factor of five.

Now I wonder if it will go up by another factor of 5 to 30k. Not unbelievable.

C

Yeah, this is getting nutty. Waking up to almost 6600 bitcoin is a bit odd.

As for spending vs. saving.... Maybe buy a few little dreams to enjoy in the now (remember life is short, and dreams deferred till next year are dreams that you can only enjoy for one less year in your life) and space those out while the back end money continues to grow.

But yeah, I think most people have a sell point ($300, $650, $1,000, $5,000) where they dump. Sometimes it goes up, sometimes it crashes. Then other people buy in at that level and ride the next elevator either to the sky or to the bottom of the sea.

Bitcoin... seems weird. Odd that Litecoin is just sitting there...

C

Here we are, 6666.6

Yaay!

Sell some coin and buy:

1) Something to help you sleep
2) A high quality hooker to blow you every night to sleep.

Seriously, it helps.

This is fascinating to watch: People are getting seriously rich-ish on this forum (everyone has their own definition of that, but it is what it is) and it's fun to read about how people handle it. From my dot.com days I remember these bits:

1) NEVER CONFUSE LUCK WITH SKILL
2) Some people will cash out for hookers and blow
3) Some people will not cash out for hookers and blow.

Fun to watch.(1) is critical, I can't tell you how many dot.com millionaires thought it was because of their super l33t skillz and founded companies that ate all their money and then some. Never confuse luck with skill.

Oh people said that during the bubble too. They called it the new economy. If we ever get together I'll tell you funny stories.

That said I remember afterwards when we measured AAPL stock in BTUs. In other words, how many BTUs of heat it would generate if you burned it.

AAPL is worth a tad bit more now. Thus it is with bitcoin IMO.

Tell that to Voyager.

Resist! Eat your cellphone, that will keep you from selling for at least 8 hours.

10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
.....

That could be a good poll question: What kind of car are you going to get:

Schwinn
Trabant
Yugo
Toyota Prius
Leaf
Lexus
Classic Porsche
Tesla
New Porsche
Ferrari
Lambo
McLarin
Yugo

Myself I'm debating a Maybach. Had a friend who invested some of his dot.com winnings in a Maybach. Later when he was homeless he lived in the thing and STILL lived better than I.

He'll be back. Meantime 6800 seems just so low and boring right now....

So you're saying you want me to sell a bit of my stash for another rally :-)?

Just woke up *yawn*.  Wow, looks like a good night, 7300 is just amazing. I think this was the best quote for the night:

 Lambo's should be a small part of every diversified portfolio.

Indeed....

Aaaand we're back at 7k. Ok, things to do, things to do.....

So I was thinking this morning. And I realized one way to boost the price of bitcoin is to increase overall demand in the general populace. Then it hit me:

How about offering a service where when a loved one dies you can buy a bitcoin for the ferryman across the river Styx? The bitcoin is purchased, then on the day of the funeral the key for the bitcoin is burned, thus sending it to the afterlife.

Hey, it's like being buried with your grave goods and it increases the value of remaining bitcoins.

Hm. Lambos are way cheaper than I thought. Wonder if I can fit in one.

Hm.

7250+ and 600 for Bitcrap cash and 55 for litecoin. Not a bad way to go to sleep.

And glad I bought the Bitcoin Porsche earlier, it's keeping me from Lambos.

This is an interesting problem. Not quite sure what you should do other than buy a 70 foot tall grain silo, fill it with gold, and go swimming like scrooge McDuck.

In retrospect. Could have also dropped to $300 for years, forcing him to eat his shoes.

As long as you don't think this means you have a magic gift for picking winners you will be ok.

Meantime 7300 this morning. Time to get going to work...

C

So as Bitcoin rolls past 7350 with a ho hum, I think it's time to define some standards.

For example: What is the standard Lamborghini that people put in their portfolios? The LP500S is a great car, but kind of rare-ish and wonky. Would the Diablo be a standard unit of measurement, or something else?

C

Ok, that seems to be a reasonable default. I like the style, could never fit in the thing.

However since classic cars are variable, maybe a new Hurican could be a better solid benchmark. And then we can all show up at a dealership at the same time and buy every one in the state.

Because we CAN!

Still, I'm more of a Porsche man myself, but if I ever get to the point of having a driver I'd probably go for a Maybach. Had a friend who was homeless for awhile and had to live in his Maybach, still nicer than my house....

Indeed. People are sending me A6's for repair. Actually pretty nice little miners, quiet and respectable.

$7500 a bitcoin is just.... wow.

C

Ebay used to have a bunch being sold for pennies on the dollar, but to be honest just stick a few in the sides of your laptop and use them to warm your hands.

I wonder though what the minimum efficiency is for a profitable miner. S9's used to be it, but others may be coming back into vogue. (Where is that Block Erupter.....)

That is like watching gasoline being dumped on a bonfire....

Ok, today is the day I chose not to dump everything because I am nuts. Let the games begin.

Yep. Another morning, another ATH. Still have to get up and torque bolts. :-)

Oh Bitcoin may fall. As it's zinging through space long past the moon it might eventually hit some star somewhere and "fall"....

I'd put the odds at 50% of this happening before the heat death of the universe. We'll have to wait and see....

The way I deal with this is to understand simply that I made the best decisions at the time with the information I had at the time. No regrets dude, otherwise I would still be kicking myself for dumping all my apple stock in the early 90's when they were totally fuking stupid.

Meantime I called my dad and asked him to check with his Porsche buddies on which Lambos would be good to have in the driveway. He seemed kind of grumpy, maybe because I told him to buy damn bitcoins 3 years ago.

Ah well.

I like that, I'm a classic kind of guy and can handle the syncing of six carburetors, going to a dozen shouldn't be that much more difficult.....

It's down .2%???

Fuck, time to look at Trabants.

Ok, looks like the Diablo might be a better fit for me than the Countach. When bitcoin hits the right level someday I'll buy one.

That sounds like a pretty tough place. Technically I need a Lambo like I need a hole in my head: I have a 10 mile commute to work and either the Porsche or the Prius can do it quite easily. It's just that I have more of a smile on my face with the Porsche.

If my commute was an hour to drive 20 miles with bumper to bumper I'd drive the crap box all the time. Or have a driver and said Maybach.

I now have this image in my head of a desert night, sky all black and starry and a big bonfire surrounded by a ring of Lambos. It's the meeting of the Bitcoin tribe, they have come to pay homage to the Bitcoin God....

Ok, time for bed.

I'm going straight to hell.

Just need to make sure I'm buried in swim trunks.

Go to any bar, you will see what stupid things people do for pretty girls.

Trick is these guys are not aiming those ads at you, they are aiming them at people far dumber than you.

Meantime bitcoin seems stuck at 7200-ish, but Litecoin may finally be doing something. Quiet day....

Back to 7350 or so. Yawn.

6850 is end of the world?

Looks like the 2mb blockers are having a hissy fit and selling BTC for the cash crud. I still haven't split my wallets, so I really don't care too much about the whole thing other than it seems to be shifting a lot of hashing power off BTC. Which is making both profitable to mine which means that people will start bringing Monarchs back online which is kind of funny....

So what's happening today. Anything interesting?

Well after a day of whacking off here on the computer (wait, whacking away) I finally have all my crapcoin-classic coins moved from old wallets. What a trip down "get this old POS to work again" memory lane.

Now funny that but the transactions on Cash chain are running slow as shit. Gee I thought this was so the coin of the future with big big blocks or somesuch crap. Can't even spend it...

Reminds me of catcoin.

It's called a shitcoin. Fortunately I was able to move a lot of it over to Bitcoin (where the transaction still was fine, maybe a few minutes slower) before the fuckening.

Right now it's looking to be like watching a slow-motion abortion. I'm going to grab a beer, everyone just move into litecoin :-)

Well, that silliness is done. Time for Bitcoin to get going again, CCMF dude...

Yep, toot toot!

Looks like last weekend was a cheap coins opportunity....

This brings up an interesting tax thought:

If you sell your bitcoin cash for cash then you have to pay the difference between either 0 or the strike price as a profit. This is not unusual and makes sense.

However if you take your bitcoin cash and switch it into bitcoin again what happens? Technically when it split off it reduced the value of bitcoin by its value. Ok, fair enough. But if it had remained bitcoin and bitcoin went up more than bitcoin cash has isn't it technically a capital loss? Or if a gain only the differential between the bitcoin value at the time and now applied to any bitcoins sold after that time that may have been some of the bitcoin cash coins (assuming one is using LIFO, most people want to use FIFO for capital gains thus they would be screwed)?

These are the things I think about while the dryer is running with my pants in it.

FUCK I KEEP SCREWING THOSE UP!

CG taxes are based on how long you have owned the asset. Normally you want to sell the oldest bitcoins first since the CG rate will be lower. I run a business fixing miners so I earn coins, then spend a portion immediately for inventory, parts, shipping, etc. I like this because it leaves me with the least fluctuation on which I have to pay capital gains but they are at the short term rate, not long term. If I sold my whole stash I would pay a fair bit at the ST rate until I hit coins that were over a year old at which point I would hit the LT rate.

But the upshot is that coins I sell now are not the ones that had the BTC stripped off them.

That's going to be a taxable fustercluck. Interesting to see what happens with it.

C

Meantime ye olde bitcoin is back at 7250 and perking along.

C

Indeed. It captures my sentiments on Bitcoin perfectly.

I don't know. But it is perfectly righteous.

Much like Bitcoin.....

Im sitting in a business meeting and trying hard not to touch myself......

OH CRAP, BCH IS TANKING! THERE GOES THAT!

Wait, I moved 75% of it into bitcoin at 1300. Gee thanks Bitmain for getting me off my ass to split my wallets. The other 25% can just be around to laugh at.

Well, one interesting question is how is the hash rate at BTC doing. Miners all quitting it?

C

I know. It's so nice for Bitmain to give back all those bitcoins they have been mining.

Eh, things happen. 1k was enough for me to finally download a crap-ton of wallet tools to get the seeds and get things moved. Worked out, just took a day of work.

Damn, just woke up, saw this, thought BCC was at 3k, disappointed because I would have sold the rest of stash for btc.

Weird dream too, went on plane to France and told them I wanted to go to France because I was near an airport and wanted to go. Made it on plane, then checked to see how much bitcoin I had on the phone. Enough to enjoy the trip.

Weird.

Yeah, saw the little roadster thing this morning. Don't discount the truck, I could see picking up a truck that would blow the doors off most Porsches :-)

Meantime looks like it's time to dump more BCH. Dump de dump de dump....

Ah that's it: We can use the Tesla truck to tow our car-carrier full of Lambos!

As for selling, bit at a time for bitcoin-cost averaging....

M5: Don't buy a BMW, buy a good Porsche. I'd recommend the 928S4 for the best bang for the buck these days, fast as hell.

If you're referring to the cowboy era, you do realize that most towns had ordinances which required turning in guns to the sheriff.


Hm. :-)

Meantime I figured out what kills Avalon boards. Overheating is causing solder bridges. I so rule.....

And BCH fails to pump to the sky.....

You know if this keeps up I might write or commission an extension to this forum code that will ignore not only a person's postings, but anyone who quotes, cites, or even mentions that persons postings in a 5 day window.

That could make the forum much more readable.

Meantime how is Bitcoin doing today..... Not too bad, down a little bit but not too much. Now how do we get to 9k by end of month?

Agreed. Ignoring keeps me from reading it, but I still have to read about it.

Meantime, $8000 wall breached again. Time for 9k.

Tok, if that happened I would expect people to be selling blood plasma for cash to buy that dip.....

It is, when you consider it, an amazing word.

C

Probably the greatest use of profanity was in the Spongebob Squarepants episode "Sailor Mouth".

"Hiya Squiward, how the F**k are you?"

Yeah, at 8220 it is fucked up all right....

Oh God, am I going to have to split wallets *again*.....

Well if someone wants to send me one for an eval I'd be happy to review it and take it apart. if it's just a S7/S9 that would be easy to spot. Likewise if it's legit.

C

It is a bit tricky: I think I have a pretty ok reputation but I'd have to take the thing apart as well as run it to see if it's a ringer/beta/rigged unit before I could make an honest opinion. With pictures and all that.

We'll see what comes out of it, would be nice to see some competition vs. Ant-land.

Morning!

Any day above 8100 is a pretty good day, looks like my latest sell transaction of bitcoin trash is stuck at shapeshift, and bitcointalk is running very slowly. So probably another pump and dump is underway.....

I'm sure the next 24 hours are critical!

Ah bitcrap. Need to transfer out the last of my bitcrap for bitcoin, any other systems besides shapeshift (who has two of my bitcoin cash things stuck there).

Meantime so..... much...... turkey...................

Burp.

Mom, of course.....

Yep, more ignores. That said Bitcoin's holding its own, and those 2 BitcoinTrash coins apparently were redeemed by Shapeshift. Will see if I ever see them, but a minor blip on the radar.

And Litecoin's purring along. Things looks good to fall asleep to.

C

Wake up super early for some reason, 8600/81 for BTC/LTC.

Hm. Bit too sleepy of a video for early morning. Here is what I am waking up to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cirhQ8iLdbw

Japanese teeny-bop girl death metal band. Oddly enough works.

Doki, Doki morning everyone!

Possibly. When I quote repairs down to fractions of a litecoin things are odd...

Congratulations! If we ever go to a Bitcoin gathering let's grab a 172 and go out for a flight....

I know, I can't believe it. I really should be stoned right now...

Not to mention litecoin is cranking along. And the good folks at shapeshift found my two little lost bitcoin trash coints and are refunding the, . Shapeshift=good people, I am impressed they figured it out on a T day weekend.

Off to bed to dream of large women.

And we get to deal with pirates. This should be fun.

Meantime 9,000? It's over 9,000?

Wow.

Those are simple, tiny little governing problems. Wait till the real fun hits the micro-world, items that will pit brother against brother, mother against daughter, and tear the fabric of the community apart....

I am of course talking about PTA meetings. You thing geopolitics is complicated, wait till the first PTA meeting.... :-)

C

PS: Nine fucking thousand.

$9300. Now I'm looking around and thinking "I could tear my house down and build another one exactly like it, but with that window 3 feet to the left".....

Amazing. What happens once it blows past 10,000? Does it just start going up in 10k increments?

I'm still not buying bitcoins with fiat, continuing to work for them. I just feel so Ragnar Danneskjöld about the whole thing. But it is to note that my damn work keeps getting me less and less bitcoin (although these days I quote in litecoin due to the lower fees)

Had to sell a few litecoins a few days ago at 70 or so to pay off some test mining gear. Not a biggie, need the stuff to be able to continue to fix things....

Stuck at 9300-9400. Come on do something......

I remember the wiley images and I think of this....

It's a giant fucking rocket. And it's ours!

Yaay. Time to go to bed.

I guarantee you, you do not want to take your boss' seat. There was an exceptional Flintstones episode about this with Gazoo and Fred becoming Mr. Slate. Excellent analysis.

But at the same time don't walk, it can be fun to have some pocket change to spend.

Meantime 9600 this morning. Was there a nightmarish crash last night?

Oh ok a 100 drop. That must have crushed people's portfolios.

Should I sell $20 worth so it will go over 10k?

Ok. Going back to sleep, will go to work in a few hours for lulz.

Wouldn't it be weird to work just to pay the taxes on all your bitcoin profits?

That's what I'm thinking. Technically I don't have to pay CG taxes in advance since I didn't owe and got refund last year. This year may be a bit different, but what I need to do now is have my last 4 paychecks go 100% into my 401k to try and cut back on the AGI. And fund up my SEP-IRA from the business profits.

Going to be a long 4 months to figure out taxes.

I was thinking that: In a few years maybe I'll commission the building of a museum of the Hollow Earth in DC next to the Museum of the Bible.

1492: Columbus proved the Earth is round
2020: Lightfoot proved the Earth is HOLLOW!

Impossible and a scam: They are giving it away for free. :-)

She looks really hungry. I want to feed her something.

Getting old I guess.....

Wake up, still not at 10k, go back to sleep. Z.......

Well too much to do here to watch Bitcoin all day. Guess it's not call in rich to work day so....

Sounds like we're all grumpy about 10k not being breached. It will happen, eventually.

Meantime here is something for the butt people: Note how she is walking away from a bitcoin cash wallet:

999fucking6.....

Edit 999fuckingseven
C

Back down to 9994 on bitcoinity.org. Well at least the money is going into Litecoin.

Over 10k on bitcoinly and on bitcoinwisdom. Cherry popped.

C

This is truly a magical moment. 10k a coin.

And yes, I am doing this right now:



Congrats everyone, it's been a fantastic ride.

Same here Cista. Recent high of 10800? 10561 now?

Good lord. Must go back. to. sleep......

Here is how insane things are: I open my messages and people are asking me about fixing X3's and Monarchs....

Airplanes. Thinking about a nice little Beech Sierra.

Oh what will happen to us when it falls down to 10k? How will we EAT?

Ahem. Still giggling today.

9,902. Oh well, come home to worse things. Sadder is the $88 a LTC down from $100. Waah!

Time to get out the I'm poor meme again....

Thank you for doing so and thus bringing it back up.

10,300 again, back to normal.

That the one with the little parachute? Cute idea but I'd rather land unpowered.

Hardly. Just pay taxes.

Yeah it's like nothing happened. Boring bitcoin.

Regarding taxes: If it's a taxable event every time a bitcoin moves from one wallet address to another then we're all screwed. I doubt it as that would be similar to saying moving a gold coin from my vault to the bank vault is a taxable event. I run under the following guidelines:

1) If I mine a bitcoin I owe taxes (income) on the value of that bitcoin at the moment it is mined/transferred to my wallet. That is income, gets reported, and that value is the base value of the coin for C&G profit and loss.

2) If I receive a coin as payment, I owe taxes (income) on the value of that transaction at the moment it is done. There is a little wiggle room if I quote a bitcoin price and it changes slightly between quote and payment but I use that as the base value.

3) If I use shapeshift to move between bitcoin and litecoin (I use Litecoin for AR and Bitcoin for AP) I do not mark it as a taxable event however I do have to recompute the basis value of the resulting bitcoin based on the profit or loss of the litecoin to the bitcoin (for example if I get litecoin at 50 and transfer it to bitcoin at 100% then that bitcoin has to include the imputed profit I made from the litecoin when I go to sell that bitcoin. That amps up the CG taxes quite a bit as it's STCG).

Note: If I used an exchange that transferred the coin to money first then that would be a taxable event IMO. With SS there is never fiat being created or destroyed.

4) If I sell bitcoin for cash or trade for (miners, parts, overstock towels, etc) I have to pay the capital gain or loss at the time I make the sale based on the LIFO accounting/accrual method. Even if it goes into buying stuff for the company, I need to keep an eye on that accrual. This is why I sell the newest coins first, to keep this paperwork to a sane level.

It's probably not perfect but it is the best faith solution I can come up with. So far the IRS response has been "Man, you're paying taxes on this stuff? Good for you!"

Do the best you can with what you have.

Note: I'm still thinking about the stupid BCH airdrop. Is that a taxable event when you claim it, or can you add the value to the basis value of the bitcoin you convert it into then pay the taxes when you cash the bitcoin for fiat or other valuable prizes?

Impossible. The simplest review will show your account had coins in it before the split, and a simple check of the BCH chain will show where those coins went. If you're in control of those coins, well where did they go?

Remember, it's not waterboarding if you use diesel.

Maybe but it's still a really good site. Maybe we can throw money at them to fix it up.

Fair enough. Remember my whole goal here was to start a business that provided a service, took only bitcoins in payment (ok, I do LTC too) and actually ran as a legit business that would pay all taxes and enjoy the fruits of my labors without ever having to buy a bitcoin.

So yeah, I'm trying to figure all of this out best I can. Give it a few years and I may move to a different country, in which case I will have to pay my hostage fee to the US Govt to leave, much like anyone else would.

We'll see how it works out.

No, you make sure you pay all of your realized gains on the way out. That's not a big deal, Just write them a check on the day you leave with the final balance at whatever the LTCG is.

Then off you go.

Congrats. I just passed up a promotion because I really don't give a fuck right now. :-)

To quote Krusty the Clown:

"What the hell was that?"

Yeah it's pretty quiet. Yawn.....

Psychoactive drugs is my guess. John was always a bit weird.

As for treats, nothing much, it's end of year and I'd like to minimize the tax disasters. That said I'd probably just spend it on something stupid.

Ah wake up, ATHs on Bitcoin and possibly Litecoin. It's a good morning.

Wonder what will happen today.

I wonder about that: What kinds of jobs in blockchain are there these days? Other than launching one's own coin....

Hm. If the Capital gains tax rate is 20% then no matter what the profit the tax will still only be 20% of it.

C

Current law would cover cyber currencies anyway, this is just a grandstand from some dopey senator looking to make a splash. Which is sad, senators weren't always dopes (that was the House) but now.... (ahem)

C

Depends. They pick up my garbage, maintain the roads I drive on to and from the Postal Orifice, jail people I consider criminals, and some other stuff. So there is that. And certain governments seem to be in a tax cutting give money to the rich mood so this may change.....

Or start donating money to senators and legislators. They seem to like money. And booze.

I've thought about that: Quit job and be a consultant again. First class airfare, full expenses, and whatnot were kind of fun in the days. But I would rather not be chained to some company that is just taking a percentage. Thoughts on breaking into that line of business?

(The answer is make money the old fashioned way friend: MINE IT!)

Um. No. :-)

As is a hooker in a brothel. Not quite what I am looking for.

Edit: I have met a number of hookers in McCarrin airport in Vegas on Sunday. All have first class tickets, TSA/Pre, and amazing Freq Flier plans. All were also very happy with their work and situation and all would wear the frumpiest clothing for comfortable travel with their little bags. So I should take more care to denigrate that profession.

a) I sell to meet expenses and taxes. All part of running a business.
b) The utility value of happiness.

For b: Happiness is a utility factor in my view, and being happy is one of the goals in life overall. Deferring pleasure for a later reward is hard-wired into brains (some better than others) which is fine, but deferring too long means that you miss out on a certain amount of happiness in the years between the gratification points.

Thus you need to ask yourself: Is the deferred pleasure of a Lamborghini next year so much more than buying a nice used Porsche this year to replace your POS car? If so, save. But the utility fun factor of a car has limits, a Lambo is nicer than a Porsche but how *much* nicer? Nicer enough to wait a year for? Maybe.

Likewise with financial security: Once you're driving the Porsche opportunities start to open up in your mind on the way to your wage slave job. Maybe you start refusing that stupid promotion because you have tangible wealth and start thinking about being a high value consultant traveling the world on your own terms. Is it worth the added value of happiness to defer that for a year? Maybe, maybe not.

I wouldn't dump everything, but I would say that time is living's prize and it is the one thing that is dripping away from all of us, one second per second. So if you can increase short term happiness without sacrificing long term I would say sell a bit and enjoy. Besides, maybe it will open up other vistas to explore now in your life as opposed to later.

C

Indeed. Fell to 11400, oh the humanity.

Aaaand bounce.

Looks to be right on target and explains what happend to Friedcat as well. Cool!

Meantime that thousand dollar crash is so a few hours ago......

Cause I live....

Downtown: Where you're life's a joke
You live Downtown, where there is no hope
You live Downtown, where depression is status quo....
Down on skid row.....

(Little Shop of Horrors)

So I have a question about the futures trading: Will these idiots actually have to buy and hold bitcoins in order to buy or sell, or are they just betting on the price like a numbers racket?

So by settled it means they have to either buy or sell real bitcoin. Otherwise it's just a way for people to just drive prices based on complete fantasy (as opposed to actually having to buy bitcoin for example)

Hm.

Great. This pool is too shallow not to be seriously manipulated by those with no skin in the game. Hm. We finally got rid of the Chinese with their massive margins and now this...

$11,666. Not the best number to wake up to, but still pretty good. What's on tap for today?

Indeed. Item #1 on my list of "If I am a bitcoin billionaire" will be to build a rocket to bring back Musk's Tesla to Earth from Mars. Just so I can drive it by his office and go BEEP BEEP.

Pirates in space.

meantime 11,800. Crack 12k already, we need to get to 20k before Christmas.

Still no 12k. Darn

Nope, that looks and smells like a Ponzi scheme.

Meantime, 12140? Bit better for the day, bit better.....

Soon Central Banks will be banging on our doors, begging us to sell them cheap coinz to stave off the apocalypse.

Or something. Meantime $13,000 a coin. Um.... Moon?

$12,800?

Man we need to release a new coin: LamboCoin! It's minted based on the price of Bitcoin, and each LamboCoin can be redeemed at any Lamborghini dealership for one new Lambo, right off the lot.

This way we can put our bitcoin into Lambos without clogging up our driveways and hedge against the eventual shortage of cars that's going to plague the Lamborghini company.

Because at the rate things are going, in a few months a Lambo will not be buy-able with any amount of fiat, only LamboCoins!

Fuck tether: It's tied to cash. LamboCoin is tied to cars!

Sucks to hear about Steam, my kid bought a number of hats years ago on Steam and now laments that he could buy a small car with that amount of bitcoin. Life's like that.

That said, $13,300? This is beyond crazy but an amazing thing. My attention to work is just like um.... dropping.

I've heard that as the amount of wealth goes up the incentive to pick up a penny, quarter, dollar, twenty on the street drops. At this point when you're lazy enough that picking up a K is kind of eeh, something is going on with one's values system.

This is interesting.

And in the time it took me to play a simpsons clip, Bitcoin jumped $300 to 13,600. This is so fucked up.

And 14k.

It hit 15k last night?

At what point would a whale not sell simply because there is not enough room to stick all the fiat somewhere? I joke about the Lambo thing, and how many you can fit in a driveway, but really doesn't the utility value of money just go out the window at some point?

Likewise if institutions are buying real bitcoin, what is to keep them from shorting the fuck out of it once options start trading?

Hm.

I'll join you in a toast, I think I have a merlot in the fridge, will down a glass before work.

Work.... Sure I'll drink before work. Why not.

This is so far beyond insane. I don't even know what to charge for miner repairs anymore....

I will say turning on the radio last night in my bitcoin car and hearing the Bloomberg guy say "Hey buddy, wanna buy some bitcoin...." at the top of the hour almost made me drive off the road laughing....

But this is silly: CNN: Bitcoin boom may be a disaster for the environment. What will happen is more efficient miners will be built, or the halvening will slow down the mining rate. Difficulty will adjust down as needed and that will be that. A bigger problem though is transaction clearing time, I just moved a bit to buy some equipment before end of year (tax deductible and I need this stuff) and it still hasn't confirmed.

If this keeps up I may have to use Litecoin.

Glad that my repairs hold up pretty well, I remember that (one cube wasn't working right and I refunded you a percentage)

As for the inflation, I know.... When I look at how much I spent in bitcoin on consumables in January?Feb (cashing out some bitcoin to pay for the business and taxes as is my way) I realize those chips, solder, wick, flux, repair parts, and postage could probably buy a small used car now.

That's nuts....

Ah well. I've tried to peg repairs to a percentage of the Ebay sale price for the particular device (if it's broken and worth 0, I fix it to be worth Ebay price, then the repair cost is a percentage of that. Everyone profits) but it's getting tough to re-compute all the time...

It's not bad.... Just nuts-o-weird...

And I saw 17k this afternoon in a meeting and thought "I could just start touching myself here..." Then it went down to 16k and doom filled my heart....

I'm looking at the unconfirmed transactions, 208,000 right now.

So what will happen next week? Moon or ocean?

So short Bank of America and ML? Got it....

They're starting this Sunday? Oh boy.....

Why do people keep trying to pump bitcoin trash? (BCH)

Main problem is maintenance. You can buy the Ferrari, but can you afford the time/parts/etc to maintain it? They can be finicky.

Thus you need to make enough to support it. Other cars may have a lower maintenance cost and have benefits like being able to live in them when times are bad (see my posts on my homeless friend who lived in his Maybach).

C

Depends. I really like good quality Porsches and such: Quality costs money and if you buy quality over hype then you can really enjoy your purchase. Yes, Lambos are mostly hype, I haven't driven many Ferraris but then V12 engines sound goooooooooood. When they run.

But yeah there is a big difference between my Prius and any of the Porsches.

Way back when I was a tot, a number of friends founded a major ISP. With that one of the founders (a true hacker type) didn't get stock, but did get a brand new Maybach for his time. Year or so later his apt lease ended and he didn't have a place to live.

So he just moved into the Maybach. Would park it in million dollar home neighborhoods in the evening, curl up in the back, sleep, eat, live. The champagne chiller and built in fridges were nice, as were the automatic curtains and such. Took his showers at the office, and lived a homeless man's life. Likewise his sound system was amazing....

No one ever hassled him for the 6 months he did this. And the fact that his car was worth more than my house (and was nicer to boot) made class comparisons pretty... meaningless.

Meantime Bitcoin seems stuck at 15k and litecoin's jumped to 125. Switching to LTC for small stuff, how is the dumping of bitcoin trash going?

That rinmac looks a lot like how I used to drive my 67 911S. Rear wheel steering....

Just to put this in perspective:

S7's are profitable
KNC Neptunes are profitable
Fucking JUPITERS are profitable.
I'd be willing to bet Monarchs are profitable.

It's that weird....

It's like the undead, rising up from the graves to challenge the blockchain just one more time.....

It's a pretty weird little pump but nice. LTC does well as a way to pay people reasonable amounts in a reasonable time. And it's not Bitcoin-C/Trash

15,000ish is a reasonable number to wake up to otherwise. I'm HODLing and seeing where things go....

Indeed guess ill sell some ltc this month to pay bills. Drat.

This is how crazy mining is: People are asking for advice and sending in parts to get Neptunes working. Yes, KNC Neptunes.....

C

Meantime, looks like things are back to normal, where normal seems to mean 15k. That's ok but it would be nice if bitcoin did something.... :-)

Hardly: The banks are providing a service: Safeguarding your money.

(I know, hahahahaha!!!!!)

Struggling back to 1500 here. Oh I mean 15,000.

C

So it looks like the drop to triple digits isn't going to happen tonight, go figure.

Gotta fix more miners! Finally figuring out the Antminer series, those things are basic as a box of rocks. I always though Bitmain had some super cool tech, naah same basic issues as the rest of them.

C

Who here hasn't played with mercury as a child?

You can thank me for that: I sold 10LTC this morning for $170 or ao.

Enjoy!

Main advantage of litecoin: You can go to the bitcoin ATM, put in your LTC, and in about 2 minutes tops the money pops out. With bitcoin that can take 20-30 minutes.

So for hooker speed transactions it's the way to go.

Ok, that was perfect.

1) What show is that?
2) They should have DOGE and the doggie symbol up there MUCH COINZ!!!!

As I said earlier, sold a couple of them yesterday at $160 or so each, part of my have to take money out thing for quarterly expenses and such. Every time I do this, the price of that coin goes bonkers that afternoon.

(Yes, sometimes I feel like a narcissist, sometimes I feel like the universe personally exists to toy with me like a cat with a ball of yarn).

Anyway, never dull. I'll have to remember to sell a few bitpennies next time or something... :-)

Hm. Interesting theory. However shouldn't people be trading this now worth a lot more LTC for BTC?

Or in my retarded calculations yesterday, cash? (That worthless green stuff people put in garbage bags?)

The next 24 hours are critical, right?

Jesus fucking Christ I lost a lot of money yesterday by beating that traffic light.

Note: The above is a very, very bad way to think. Are there meditation techniques to fix this?

Perhaps. However I'd expect more movement from Bitcoin. Then again bitcoin big, litecoin small.

Hm.

Myself, I'm trying to debate whether the next big stock pump will be in the Hefty Trash Bag company or the Glad bag company.....

Ok, Litecoin has just surpassed bitcoin for the 24 hour total dollar volume on worldcoinindex.com

We are officially fucking nuts.

That's pretty much why I take LTC for payment. Still weird to see it happening.

Had a very interesting discussion with a friend who is a financial advisor. I ordered him to buy some bitcoin end of last year and he did and he took me out to dinner as a very small thanks.

Very interesting discussion on the concept of money, digital immigrants, the concept of nation states, and such. Fascinating. But the basic thought that a global currency that can't be manipulated by banks or nations is one that when certain people in the club wake up and think about it are not going to like it much.

Then again it could be like the euro. I'm still thinking about this one, will be for the next few weeks.

Hm.

Morning! $16,800 bitcoin and 300 litecoin is a more-than-nice thing to wake up to. Not bad, let's see where it goes from here....

Still thinking. If banks are a club that doesn't like new members, is Bitcoin just another club? Do we drive Lambos on the golf course instead of little battery golf carts?

Using litecoin at an ATM I get withdrawls and money within like 3 minutes.

Bitcoin takes closer to half an hour. So who has set up Vegas hookers with a litecoin based payment app?

Seriously: You could pay an address, add a tip, and the coins would be split between the hooker, pimp, and driver based upon mutually agreed upon rates signed by private keys held by all parties. That way you the john would know the appropriate money is going to all parties based upon agreed-on ratios.

Hm.................

Not trying to shill LTC per se, more of an observation on the overall insanity in the market. Like a cannon ball rolling around on the deck of a pirate ship; the money is just sloshing around.

But Point noted and taken.

Meantime why isn't Bitcoin DOING ANYTHING? This is the most bored I have been all day....

C

Nice! I just picked up a pair of X1 Carbons myself for work. Damn near indestructible and I love the little nipple/trackpoint.

C

That's a lot better than "be ready for us to steal all your money"....

They should love that. Initial value=0 means everything is taxable as a gain....

Use caution Torque. A lot of this is pure chance and us being in the right place at the right time and taking a chance. I've seen a number of people think that because they were in the right place at the right time it was due to their sooper skillz and not chance. Then they think they are super smart and lose everything an investment or two down the road because they know how to pick (stocks, companies, cars, collectibles, etc).

It's easy and fun to look at things in hindsight, but know that you don't bet the farm on every opportunity because most do not pan out. This one did....

Naah. We built the Internet over AT&T Connect (which is what the corps were pushing) and when Internet turns into AOL again, or Cable TV we will simply build a new one and hook that into the rest of the world.

I still have my UUCICO system ready to go. No biggie. In the meantime you Europeans, Asians, and whatever else (Kiwi's?) will continue to innovate and rule. Maybe we can buy a state full of slaves to hand-calculate bitcoin hashes because we can.....

C

I see 18300 here. Finally broke that 18k cherry.

So some pics...

What's happening?

And 18,400. Ah yes, a good way to wake up for the day.....

And here I thought we were stuck at 184. In the time it took me to eat breakfast it's up to 18650.

Is this how rich people think? "In the time I ate breakfast I made more money than the average person in a year..."?

Explains a few things.