All Questions
29,871
questions
5
votes
4
answers
221
views
What are some of the things that would make bitcoin better and more accepted?
More trade... more trust... more btc 'banks'...? It is such a great system. It just needs to go main stream.
Any thoughts?
- 59
6
votes
2
answers
164
views
Can Bitcoin help charitable organisations ensure payments go to the right people?
One common problem when organisations, such as charities or governments, donate money to good causes is that it becomes very hard to track where the money went.
For example, there are accusations of ...
- 7,543
16
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Why have prices fallen so drastically around October 2011?
Any idea why bitcoin prices have fallen so in September and October of 2011? It seems like back in August, one bitcoin cost about US$17, whereas in late October, it's just somewhat over US$2.
- 1,213
11
votes
3
answers
668
views
What is the absolute minimum amount of information required to have access to a bitcoin balance and or a wallet file?
As far as I gather a wallet can remain offline indefinitely transactions are being sent to it. The network will keep track of the transaction so that the next time it is connected it will catch up.
...
- 1,605
8
votes
2
answers
774
views
Why isn't there a fast blockchain update inside a LAN behind a router between two Bitcoin clients?
This is the scenario:
2 computers on a LAN with private IPs (192.168.X.X)
router forwards port 8333 only to one of them (the 2nd one).
one computer has the full blockchain updated in its Bitcoin ...
- 319
9
votes
1
answer
187
views
Is there a way to publicly raise Bitcoin funds?
What services are available to publicly raise Bitcoin funds?
I'm considering setting up a Bitcoin fund that would accept BTC donations. If the fund doesn't reach a certain value after a time, I'd ...
- 427
9
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Pool Hopping Math
It's been discussed and argued at great length whether pool hopping is ethical, but there is no debate about whether it works - I even have some first hand experience that says it increases mining ...
- 14.3k
15
votes
3
answers
2k
views
What could be the consequences of many bitcoins being lost out of circulation if people lose their wallets?
If for some reason many people lose their wallet files then many bitcoins are effectively taken out of circulation.
Seen as it's not possible to tell as far as i know if bitcoins are actually ...
- 1,605
12
votes
4
answers
931
views
What software and skills do I need?
Never having owned bitcoins I don't know how bitcoin wallets work and I'm wondering: if I buy bitcoins, what will I need to know about the software involved, and where should I keep my bitcoin wallet? ...
- 1,213
5
votes
1
answer
106
views
Does the client broadcast it's version? Is it possible to determine which version of client are in use?
When the client communicates to other clients does it transmit its version? If so is it only on certain communications (i.e. originated transactions)?
Can this data be captured? I would be ...
- 8,747
45
votes
3
answers
16k
views
Why does Bitcoin send the "change" to a different address?
For example I have an address (A) with 20 BTC and send 9 BTC to address (B). Bitcoin will create a "change" portion of the transaction where the remaining 11 BTC goes to address (C).
Why not send ...
- 8,747
16
votes
6
answers
37k
views
Can gaming consoles be used as a Bitcoin mining platform?
I'm very new to the concept of Bitcoin (having only just read the wikipedia entry and visited bitcoin.org)
My question is this: why is the mining platform limited to PC/ traditional computing devices?...
- 263
19
votes
4
answers
4k
views
Is there a historical timeseries of market depth & transactions available?
Has anyone stored the historical market depth & tick data from MtGox? Is it available publically? Would be useful if you were making a bot.
- 427
6
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Is it possible to forward bitcoins without the private keys?
According to this question, there isn't an easy way to automatically send bitcoins from one address to another and I think that it might be useful.
So I thought about creating a website were people ...
- 11.5k
11
votes
6
answers
704
views
Could the price drop between July and September 2011 have been caused by a bot?
In July 2011, 1 BTC was trading at above $10 USD. By September, the price of 1 BTC had fallen over 50%, and at the time of writing (October 2011) 1 BTC is trading around $2.50 - $3.00 USD.
In a forum ...
- 503
19
votes
4
answers
169k
views
Can I damage my computer by mining bitcoin?
I have been mining Bitcoin for a while on a few systems, some CPU mining (which has proved to be basically useless) and some GPU mining. The GPU miners are workstations, which have midrange graphics ...
- 503
7
votes
4
answers
1k
views
World-wide price for generating 1BTC
Can we find an algorithm to compute the average price (as energy consumption) of 1 BTC being generated if we know: hash rate, difficulty, energy price?
- 79
47
votes
8
answers
108k
views
Where are the user's bitcoins actually stored?
On the person's computer?
On bitcoin.org? :)
Where does that information reside that tells others and me how much bitcoins I have?
I assume it can't be on my PC because I could easily hack the file ...
- 568
1
vote
1
answer
1k
views
OS X 10.7 - Where is Bitcoin data stored? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Is there wallet.dat for OSX?
Upgrading my HD; clean install and I want to copy the wallett etc from old hard drive. What do I need to copy? Thanks in advance.
- 19
8
votes
1
answer
792
views
What is op_eval?
I have been hearing a lot lately about "OP_EVAL", what is it?
Gavin has mentioned it here: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_name=201110130938.35014.luke%40dashjr.org&...
- 3,171
7
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Who controls Solidcoin's special millionaire accounts?
Solidcoin takes the following approach to preventing the 51% attack:
As with existing cryptocurrencies, SolidCoin 2.0 stores transactions in a "block chain" which is essentially what it ...
- 4,751
3
votes
2
answers
79
views
Where should one suggest new terminology?
What is the proper place to suggest Bitcoin-related terminology that one believes should be used by the community? For example, when one wants to standardise some terms people use to describe ...
- 42.9k
10
votes
4
answers
476
views
What is the collective name for Bitcoin, Namecoin, etc?
Is there some standard term to describe all Bitcoin-like internet currencies, like Solidcoin, Namecoin and so forth? Like "currency" is to dollar, euro, yen, etc?
- 42.9k
6
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Is an Xcode project for the Mac Bitcoin client available?
If someone wants to mod the Mac Bitcoin client for their own purposes (e.g. reskinning or development of a client with extra features), is there somewhere they could download the existing Xcode ...
- 714
9
votes
2
answers
51k
views
What options are there to combine mining over multiple computers?
Assuming you have multiple (30+) computers, what options are there available to do a distributed solo-mine? Can I have them all checking into one bitcoin application over the network, or do I need to ...
- 93
17
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Speed of operations in the Bitcoin network
Did anyone measure how fast transactions spread through the Bitcoin network? For example, how long does it take for a newly generated block to be propagated to most active clients?
Mainly asking this ...
- 42.9k
12
votes
4
answers
8k
views
Who controls the Bitcoin software?
Is there anything comparable to a "board of directors" for Bitcoin or is the software on complete cruise-control?
- 327
16
votes
3
answers
1k
views
What are the advantages/disadvantages of a continuously decreasing block reward compared to the current method?
The current method to control the bitcoin supply to a maximum of 21 million BTC is to reduce the block reward (currently 50 BTC/block) by 50% every 210000 blocks. In this forum post there is a ...
- 3,279
7
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Largest number of bitcoins at a single address at one time?
What is the largest number of bitcoins that were stored in a single address at any one time to date?
I know there were >474320 BTC at this address at 2011-07-18 (identified to be MtGox's from the 424 ...
- 3,279
5
votes
2
answers
10k
views
Bitcoin alternative designed for NVIDIA
Currently the best graphics cards to mine Bitcoins are all AMDs. What should be changed in the Bitcoin protocol to make the alternative version of Bitcoins better mined by NVIDIA graphics cards? Could ...
- 42.9k
1
vote
1
answer
248
views
What does the Bitcoin community need the most now? [closed]
The Bitcoin project has grown many-fold since its creation, but since we haven't taken over the world yet, there is still some room for growth;). Is there some consensus on what does the Bitcoin ...
- 42.9k
16
votes
5
answers
4k
views
What is the status on webminers?
Are there any ongoing projects trying to develop a widely accessible WebCL-powered mining software? I've heard of two in the past, but their websites don't seem to be working any more.
- 42.9k
8
votes
2
answers
462
views
Which Namecoin block was the first one to be generated by merged mining?
For a definitive record is it possible to determine if a namecoin block was generated via merged mining? Is so which was the first one.
Which is the first bitcoin block to have namecoin information ...
- 8,747
18
votes
6
answers
2k
views
Has anyone attempted to make a working voting system using a bitcoin based system?
It occurred to me the other day that the difficult problem of electronic voting could possibly be solved quite nicely using a bitcoin system. I believe it's transparent enough to be trusted. I found a ...
- 1,605
10
votes
2
answers
691
views
Can I hide my IP address by blocking incoming connections in the client?
I know that it is possible to find out the IP address of a transaction by connecting the client to every node in the network. Dan Kaminsky wrote:
When you are connected to every node, the first ...
- 11.5k
10
votes
2
answers
332
views
What are acausal blocks?
In this forum post the poster (2112) writes:
It is my understanding that at least Eligius pool isn't a "honest node" and intentionally produces acausal blocks (or at least as close to ...
- 3,279
21
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Gaming the "off-by-one" bug (difficulty re-target based on 2015 instead of 2016 block time span)?
In this forum post from Gavin Andresen he writes:
Second: I've written 'discourage blocks' infrastructure:
https://github.com/gavinandresen/bitcoin-git/tree/discourageblocks
(code reviews ...
- 3,279
7
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Can an SMPPS (Shared Maximum Pay Per Share) pool be hopped?
I've looked at the way SMPPS (Shared Maximum Pay Per Share) payout schemes work, and as far as I can tell, there is no significant way to hop such a pool to advantage. Yet I've seen several people ...
- 51.3k
43
votes
2
answers
80k
views
What is a share? Can I find it while mining solo, or only when pool mining?
In mining, what is "a share"?
When mining solo, do I "find shares"?
- 26.5k
19
votes
2
answers
7k
views
What happens if my transaction is not accepted because I did not pay fees?
I was reading this thread about a client fork that does not force transaction fees and I noticed the big red warning saying that some coins might get lost if I am not careful. What does this mean? ...
- 11.5k
5
votes
2
answers
5k
views
What does "PROOF OF WORK RESULT: false (booooo)" mean when mining?
I'm mining (Litecoin miner, shouldn't matter) with minerd, and got this in the output:
[2011-10-13 07:12:02] thread 1: 5524 hashes, 0.96 khash/sec
[2011-10-13 07:12:02] thread 0: 5415 hashes, 0.95 ...
- 26.5k
17
votes
4
answers
9k
views
Is there a way to automatically send bitcoins from one wallet to another?
Say I have 2 wallets, an older non-encrypted one and a fresh new encrypted wallet with all new addresses. If I have an address in the older wallet that may receive some bitcoins in the future is there ...
- 3,279
6
votes
1
answer
743
views
`bitcoind` must be different from `bitcoin -server` because one gives an error message the other doesnt
Although the API reference implies that running bitcoin -server is the same as running bitcoind, I get no error message when running bitcoin -server with no bitcoin.conf file but I get teh following ...
- 393
17
votes
5
answers
5k
views
Is there a way to initiate a payment request in bitcoin?
I'm writing a recurring billing system and I want to be able to contact a customer and request a certain amount of money. Is this possible via bitcoin?
If not, could a URL be provided the customer so ...
- 393
15
votes
2
answers
2k
views
What are Namecoins?
What are Namecoins exactly, how do they differ from Bitcoins, and how come one is able to merge mine them along with Bitcoins?
- 42.9k
16
votes
1
answer
5k
views
What is NTime rolling/nonce range? And what miners support it?
From Slush's pool's homepage:
Pool now supports Long polling and NTime rolling. Older miners have many problems with those new features, which can negatively affect your rewards. Please update your ...
- 1,740
25
votes
7
answers
22k
views
What Bitcoin Mixing/Laundry Services are availble today?
A Bitcoin Laundry or Mixing Service is a service that accepts BTC payments, and returns the same BTC amount, only from coins that are unassociated to the original BTC. It is a privacy service that ...
- 26.5k
12
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Can someone with 51% computing power earn more than he deserves?
See also What can an attacker with 51% of hash power do?
This may have been discussed elsewhere, but I'm not sure what the answer is - if someone owns 51% of the hash power, can't he just ignore the ...
- 26.5k
7
votes
4
answers
13k
views
Is there a graph of Namecoin value over time?
Where can I find a chart (or even raw data) of Namecoin prices over time?
NMC Watch doesn't seem to provide a link to historical data, just one day.
In BTC? In USD?
- 26.5k
13
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is "bitcoin" a countable noun?
Should "bitcoin" be used as a countable noun admitting a singular and a plural (so that one says "600 bitcoins are in this wallet") or as a mass noun, (like "water" or "money") (so that one says "How ...
- 1,213