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  #171  
Old 5th August 2017, 06:39 AM
ainarssems ainarssems is offline
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I am just lucky I secured L3+ from Bitmain when I did in large part thanks to Mark; and I am like a little kid now waiting for a much anticipated birthday or Christmas present now. It seems to drag on forever Also 2 of RX580 that I pre-ordered and that were supposed to ship 31/07/2017 have not arrived at supplier yet and no date given when they will be available. I have another 8 ordered that were cheaper but without date given when will be available, possibly end of August/early September.
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  #172  
Old 5th August 2017, 07:41 AM
ainarssems ainarssems is offline
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Just another though, if doing it large scale it might be beneficial to get rid of fans and use submersed liquid cooling in something like transformer oil and then liquid to liquid heat exchanger for heating or hot water.
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  #173  
Old 5th August 2017, 07:51 AM
MikkiJayne MikkiJayne is offline
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Haha I was wondering the exact same thing last night while looking at my heating oil tank
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  #174  
Old 5th August 2017, 10:18 AM
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moltuae moltuae is offline
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Originally Posted by ainarssems View Post
This does raise a question if dash is easily scaled up and if returns would drop dramatically. https://shop.bitmain.com/productDeta...38V537cuy7067F

I think one of the biggest risks investing in altcoin-specific ASIC miners, aside from the volatility and immaturity of the currencies, is the unpredictable mining difficulty. The combined mining power running the Bitcoin network is enormous and already includes hundreds of thousands of ASIC miners. The momentum of all that mining power means that changes in mining difficulty are incremental and gradual. When a few thousand new ASIC miners come online, the effects on difficulty are barely noticeable and it continues to increase gradually and predictably. When you have an altcoin network like Dash, with a fraction of the overall mining power of the Bitcoin network, the sudden addition of thousands of much more powerful ASIC miners is likely to have a substantial effect on mining difficulty. I think overall it's a much more risky investment, though of course it could pay off big-time if you're able to get in early and willing take the risk.



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Originally Posted by HPsauce View Post
I've forgotten (having long left the corporate IT world) all the RAID variations, but we used to run systems that would automatically fail over (and keep running) in the case of a single drive failure and rebuild a resilient array automatically onto a "hot spare" sitting there already powered up and spinning.

Plus all drives would be "hot swap" so you just pulled the faulty one out and stuffed a new one in.

But that was at least 15 years ago so maybe things have improved a bit since then?

Though the mainframes I worked on decades before that were much cleverer, with resilient load-balanced controllers, dual access paths to all peripherals, multiple processors and memory banks as well; they basically had almost no single point of failure in the whole system.
In that respect not that much has changed really. The main difference has been the introduction of SSDs and virtualisation. On the larger systems I install and maintain, consisting of multiple powerful rack-mount servers, everything is virtualised, including the domain controllers. The virtual servers can be replicated and migrated between physical server hosts such that, during any planned or unplanned server outage, virtual servers can be moved to a different physical server. It's even possible to live-migrate running VMs between servers with zero effect on business continuity. Each physical server has multiple RAID10 arrays of SSDs that can be hot-swapped in the event of failure. Single points of failure are minimised further with multiple network switches/routes and everything is configured and controlled remotely. If anything goes down I receive email notifications and I can often fix the issue remotely, without leaving the office or without the users being aware that there was a problem. I can even reload a physical server's operating system remotely using Out-Of-Band/Lights-Out Management (or iLO, as HP refer to it). Each physical 'host' server typically has 2 x 8 core CPUs (16 physical cores, or 32 'logical processors'), around 128GB to 256GB of RAM and usually several TB of local SSD storage (with additional NAS/SAN units for greater volumes of data storage and backups).
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Cars Owned:
The Tesla Era: 2020 Model S Performance Ludicrous+ (present)
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The Audi Era: '97 A8 4.2 (Ming Blue) --> '96 A8 4.2 QS (Dark Green) --> '02 FE S8 (present)
The Citroen Era: '84 BX 1.6 RS --> '89 BX 1.9 DTR Turbo --> '94 XM 2.0L Turbo --> '96 XM 2.0L Turbo Exclusive --> '00 Xantia Activa 2.0L Turbo
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Last edited by moltuae; 5th August 2017 at 10:23 AM.
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  #175  
Old 7th August 2017, 11:45 PM
Regulus Regulus is offline
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Have you read about the spoofer in bitcoin?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-0...-bitcoin-price

I have not taken the plunge into crypto currency yet.
As this thread shows, it's so complicated on many levels. And to add to that, I am worried that the government will place stops in the system to make sure they can tax me. Or even make it illegal.
I have no plans to start mining. But I would like to buy bitcoin. But through buying or selling bitcoin with fiat currency, my transactions will not be anonymous, right?

Besides. I am not wholly convinced this is not a ploy to get us all to fully accept digital currencies, and drop cash altogether
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  #176  
Old 8th August 2017, 12:43 PM
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moltuae moltuae is offline
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Originally Posted by Regulus View Post
Have you read about the spoofer in bitcoin?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-0...-bitcoin-price

I have not taken the plunge into crypto currency yet.
As this thread shows, it's so complicated on many levels. And to add to that, I am worried that the government will place stops in the system to make sure they can tax me. Or even make it illegal.
I have no plans to start mining. But I would like to buy bitcoin. But through buying or selling bitcoin with fiat currency, my transactions will not be anonymous, right?
The ZeroHedge article, while recently published, is largely focusing on the events of 3 or 4 years ago, in particular events immediately before and after the collapse of Mt. Gox, at a time when the BTC daily trading volume was just a few million Dollars. While some amount of price manipulation undoubtedly still occurs, with the daily BTC trading volume now approaching 2 billion Dollars, you'd need to have very deep pockets indeed to make a significant impact on the price.

Bitcoin's price still gets pushed around a lot though by both negative and positive news, misinformation and FUD, which all contribute to price volatility. Such volatility should reduce over time however as greater adoption adds more inertia. Scarcity, exponential growth and adoption are what will ultimately dictate the price. About 16.5 million Bitcoins have been mined so far. By the time we reach the 21 million limit (in a little over 120 years time), I would guess that the amount of Bitcoin actually in circulation would be less than half that value, mainly due to 'lost' coins. If adoption continues on its exponential curve, that's not a lot of coins to share between several billion people. If you do the maths, you can see why there are a lot of bullish predictions, suggesting that widespread adoption as a worldwide currency could see a single Bitcoin worth hundreds of thousands (or possibly even millions) of Dollars within the next 5-10 years, especially when you consider the irreparable state of the global 'fiat' economy.

Trading fiat currency for cryptocurrency is not anonymous because the banks, exchanges and any financial institutions that deal in fiat currencies have to adhere to KYC and AML laws. Bitcoin itself is pseudo-anonymous: All transactions on the blockchain are publically viewable/verifiable but it's not possible to know who those transactions belong to without a lot of detective work and some initial 'clue' or path to follow, such as obtaining private fiat trading information from an exchange. Bitcoin is that way by design. Some cryptocurrencies are designed to provide complete anonymity.


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Originally Posted by Regulus View Post
Besides. I am not wholly convinced this is not a ploy to get us all to fully accept digital currencies, and drop cash altogether
A ploy by who? Bitcoin is built on open source software (that can be examined by anyone) and is a distributed, decentralised network that requires a high degree of consensus for any changes to be made. Unlike fiat currency, nobody is running the show.

If anything, Bitcoin is the people's own replacement for cash. It allows person-to-person trading just like cash, to or from anyone in the world, even if those people are some of the unfortunate unbanked billions. Recent events such as the Indian banknote demonetisation, an attempt by the Indian government to forcibly remove some of the country's cash from circulation, caused a lot of the Indian population to flock to Bitcoin. Then there's countries like Venezuela, where people are using Bitcoin as a cash replacement to escape the economic crisis of their own currency.

As for making Bitcoin illegal: You can outlaw it but you can't stop it (short of turning off the national/global internet). The knee-jerk reaction of some governments was to ban it, but most have reversed their decisions or attempted to regulate it instead. What I think most governments eventually come to realise is that banning cryptocurrencies does nothing to help 'fiat flight' but instead excludes the country from a growing global economy. In some countries, like Japan, the government have decided to embrace it and recognise it as a legal currency to put them ahead of the game.
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Cars Owned:
The Tesla Era: 2020 Model S Performance Ludicrous+ (present)
(Black, with all black premium interior and carbon fibre décor, 21" sonic carbon twin turbine wheels and FSD capability)

The Audi Era: '97 A8 4.2 (Ming Blue) --> '96 A8 4.2 QS (Dark Green) --> '02 FE S8 (present)
The Citroen Era: '84 BX 1.6 RS --> '89 BX 1.9 DTR Turbo --> '94 XM 2.0L Turbo --> '96 XM 2.0L Turbo Exclusive --> '00 Xantia Activa 2.0L Turbo
The Banger Era: '76 1.2L Lada VAZ-2101 (Ruski Fiat 124) --> '80 1.7L Morris Ital HL, finished in Ermine White and Rust

Last edited by moltuae; 8th August 2017 at 12:49 PM.
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  #177  
Old 8th August 2017, 05:18 PM
MikkiJayne MikkiJayne is offline
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Just found this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4EzEZdwAzg
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  #178  
Old 8th August 2017, 06:06 PM
Regulus Regulus is offline
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Originally Posted by moltuae View Post
About 16.5 million Bitcoins have been mined so far. By the time we reach the 21 million limit (in a little over 120 years time), I would guess that the amount of Bitcoin actually in circulation would be less than half that value, mainly due to 'lost' coins.
I didn't know 16.5 m BTC was already mined. Cool

Quote:
A ploy by who? Bitcoin is built on open source software (that can be examined by anyone) and is a distributed, decentralised network that requires a high degree of consensus for any changes to be made. Unlike fiat currency, nobody is running the show.
I know it's open software, but it was created by some individual or group of individuals, right? who use a Japanese sounding name. Anyhow, nobody knows who it was as far as I understand. For all I know - it could have been IMF or/and the UN. Even if that is farfetched.



Hilarious video MikkyJane
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  #179  
Old 8th August 2017, 06:41 PM
Regulus Regulus is offline
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Originally Posted by moltuae View Post
Scarcity, exponential growth and adoption are what will ultimately dictate the price. About 16.5 million Bitcoins have been mined so far. By the time we reach the 21 million limit (in a little over 120 years time), I would guess that the amount of Bitcoin actually in circulation would be less than half that value, mainly due to 'lost' coins. If adoption continues on its exponential curve, that's not a lot of coins to share between several billion people. If you do the maths, you can see why there are a lot of bullish predictions, suggesting that widespread adoption as a worldwide currency could see a single Bitcoin worth hundreds of thousands (or possibly even millions) of Dollars within the next 5-10 years, especially when you consider the irreparable state of the global 'fiat' economy.
It strikes me as very strange when I consider the implications.

Seeing this is so extremely limited. I mean, if the BTC really is supposed to reach such valuations. How does it make sense to have it? It can't be for regular shopping food or clothing etc. Even buying a car would be valued at minute fractions of one BTC.
AND there are billions of people alive, even millions in any given country. So what is it? Is it supposed to replace gold, as a storage of wealth? Thus not destined to be a currency as such?

I apologize if I ask questions that can't be answered, or if I look at this from a faulty perspective.
edit *Like believing it might be a test run for crypto currencies
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Last edited by Regulus; 8th August 2017 at 06:45 PM.
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  #180  
Old 8th August 2017, 08:11 PM
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moltuae moltuae is offline
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Originally Posted by MikkiJayne View Post
Good one!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Regulus View Post
I know it's open software, but it was created by some individual or group of individuals, right? who use a Japanese sounding name. Anyhow, nobody knows who it was as far as I understand.
No. It's developed, maintained and tested by a large number programmers and developers from all around the world. The code is available for anyone to examine and all changes to the code have to achieve a certain level of consensus (through user and miner participation/agreement) before they are accepted and deployed on the network. Everything about it is completely transparent (unlike fiat/government-controlled money).

What the unknown individual or group known as Satoshi Nakamoto did was release this whitepaper, describing (along with code and mathematical examples) how a distributed, decentralised cryptocurrency could work. The identity of this individual or group is no longer relevant though, no more so than an Archimedes' screw requires Archimedes' help for it to work. The whitepaper simply revealed a verifiable solution to a problem.

If you're familiar with the age-old Byzantine Generals' Problem, you'll know why the release of this whitepaper was such a big deal. In essence, the Byzantine Generals' Problem was a well-known computing analogy (believed for many years to be unsolvable), describing the problem of validating data in a multi-master or distributed/decentralised network in which there is no central or controlling authority. The fact that this whitepaper now proved that there was indeed a solution was huge and it led to the development of Bitcoin and countless more cryptocurrencies and distributed networks such as Ethereum, designed for running Smart Contracts and Distributed Applications (which is another fascinating and world-changing aspect of the technology .... currency is really just the first application).



Quote:
Originally Posted by Regulus View Post
It strikes me as very strange when I consider the implications.

Seeing this is so extremely limited. I mean, if the BTC really is supposed to reach such valuations. How does it make sense to have it? It can't be for regular shopping food or clothing etc. Even buying a car would be valued at minute fractions of one BTC.
AND there are billions of people alive, even millions in any given country. So what is it? Is it supposed to replace gold, as a storage of wealth? Thus not destined to be a currency as such?

I apologize if I ask questions that can't be answered, or if I look at this from a faulty perspective.
edit *Like believing it might be a test run for crypto currencies
The smallest unit of a Bitcoin is known a Satoshi (in honour of the author of the whitepaper). It is 1 x one hundred millionth of a Bitcoin (0.00000001 BTC) and, as I understand it, there's no reason smaller divisions couldn't be created in future if it was deemed necessary (assuming the relevant changes to the code achieved the required level of network consensus). Think of a Bitcoin as a large denomination bank note that can be substituted with lower denomination notes and coins. Most smaller purchase with Bitcoin are done in milli-Bitcoins (mBTC). As the value of Bitcoin increases, we're likely to see prices quoted in micro-Bitcoins instead (uBTC). There's plenty of Bitcoin to go around though and, if prices continue to rise, most people will probably never own a full Bitcoin, just like most people never get to own a million Dollar note.

You need to play with cryptocurrencies a little to really understand why they're such a big deal. It's a fascinating, revolutionary and highly disruptive technology that cannot be ignored. I'd recommend installing a Bitcoin Wallet, such as Electrum and having a play with it. Post one of your Bitcoin receiving addresses and I'll send you a small amount to play with. If you want to understand more, I'd highly recommend watching some of Andreas Antonopoulos' talks and interviews on YouTube.
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2002 FE S8 Ebony Black Pearl
------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Cars Owned:
The Tesla Era: 2020 Model S Performance Ludicrous+ (present)
(Black, with all black premium interior and carbon fibre décor, 21" sonic carbon twin turbine wheels and FSD capability)

The Audi Era: '97 A8 4.2 (Ming Blue) --> '96 A8 4.2 QS (Dark Green) --> '02 FE S8 (present)
The Citroen Era: '84 BX 1.6 RS --> '89 BX 1.9 DTR Turbo --> '94 XM 2.0L Turbo --> '96 XM 2.0L Turbo Exclusive --> '00 Xantia Activa 2.0L Turbo
The Banger Era: '76 1.2L Lada VAZ-2101 (Ruski Fiat 124) --> '80 1.7L Morris Ital HL, finished in Ermine White and Rust

Last edited by moltuae; 8th August 2017 at 08:33 PM.
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