Topic: Bitcoin prices falling! (Read 6852 times)

There is no need to wait.

Performing a non-Finney 0-confirm double spend attack is extremely difficult and merchant will detect it within minutes (seconds is more likely).  If it ever became a problem merchants could adopt better double spend detection methods and make it almost impossible.

Porn merchants current lose magnitudes more by using credit cards then they ever would with 0-confirm sales.

Get 'im.

Time to pull the plug or switch to something more profitable
FPGA could be a nice idea

solar or free source of electricity generator is also a good one
im starting a project on building my own DIY solar electricity plant
starting a blog here

tell me what you guys think

http://mycheapenergy.blogspot.com/2011/11/episode-2-gathering-source.html

My bad.

The reason for waiting on confirmations is protection against an attack known as a double spend.

A double spend works like this:
1) I spent some bitcoins
2) I then immediately somewhere else spend same bitcoins to another merchant.
3) Only one of those spends will be included in the next block.

If you are a victim of a double spend you have a 50% chance of getting coins.  Luck of the draw.  Once a transaction is in a block that is 1 confirmation.  The ony way that could be undone is a theoretical attack known as a "51% attack" which is very expensive.

After 6 confirms the likelihood that all 6 blocks could be undone by a longer chain in an extended 51% attack is very remote.

So 0 confirms = risk
1 confirms = much lower risk
6 confirms = essentially no risk

Now I just said 0 confirms is risky so how could a business take 0 confirm transactions?  Well if you are moving $20M in irrevocable bearer bonds you better not skip waiting for 6 (or maybe 20) confirms. 

However if it is access to a porn website (or a $3 burger) the risk of a double spend is very small and the potential loss to the business is very little.  There really is no need to wait for 1+ confirms.  No business need to avoid 100% of fraud just keep fraud at a low level.  CC, checks and cash are still used despite billions of dollars a year in fraud.

Many people think I must have 6 confirms or "ultra risky".  Just pointing out that risk is all relative.  0 confirms is lkely less risky (based on what we have observed so far) than accepting a credit card for small transactions.

Not sure what you mean by double spend... Would you care to enlighten me please? Or should I go do my own research? Hehe not sure how newbie friendly this community is... Don't want to start off asking stupid questions but...

There is no need for confirmations in low value transactions.  The risk of double spend is very low.  Is someone going to spend $80M to generate a 51% attack in order to get an hours worth of free porn?

I am sure current porn sites lose a significant amount to fees/fraud/chargeback.  Bitcoin doesn't need to be perfect, just better.  I mean say you are a porn site operator and someone does manage to double spend attack you.  At most you are going to find out in an hour or two and then you ban the account.  What is the actual loss?  Not that RIAA BS where you take 100% of full retail price * # of piracies but actual loss.  If someone is trying that hard to steal an hours worth of free porn then likely they weren't going to pay anyways.  So the site is out a couple pennies worth of bandwidth.  A lot better than a $35 charge back fee.

yeah past few days it seems to be creeping up again... i think most people that were gonna jump ship have done so already

mining and holding here also

btw i think the comment about only illegal stuff to buy is nonsense, there are some really good looking precious metals for sale among the masses of mining equipment you can buy with BTC

the one bad thing is now bitcoin prices have dropped low its frustratingly far away for me to be able to afford even a tiny bit of silver bar just from my mining lol
thats why this is a hobby and not an investment (although i admittedly turned away from nvidia cards thanks to btc)

Looks like its going back up! Buy Buy Buy! 

Last Price: 3.55312 High:3.82717 Low: 3.136

there just needs to be another story about something people want but can't easily get (eg SR), bc will go up, we all sell, bc will go down... its a vicious cycle my friends!

I feel that prices are going to just going to stay between $2 and $5 changing every couple of days. But prices seem to of gone up today and has made a nice change from the $2 area.

Don't people that pay for porn do it with monthly fees?

edit:of course i'm talking about porn sites, not about ordering DVDs and such

A great idea and it has been suggested before.  Of course, one problem is that porn users usually want their porn on demand.  Who wants to wait around for more than an hour for a Bitcoin transaction to be verified.  But this can be worked out and developers are working on this issue.  In the mean time, we need more creative suggestions like this.

don't treat bc as a investment, treat it as a hobby and you will find it enjoyable. ~fab

miscalculation happens

Lol? Great chart. Remind me of The Wall Street.

BTC price now push up ;-))) time to make money

nice

I did the same...
in the end i traded my bitcoins for more video cards.

The BTC price sucks now
I have been holding off selling mine at $17 and $15 hoping it would go back up to $30, now I feel so screwed