Topic: Gold collapsing. Bitcoin UP. - page 1549. (Read 2032281 times)

220 MWh / 6.5 MW, that's 34 hours/kg. The Bitcoin network is eating 0.7kg uranium every day.

That's off by three orders of magnitude, and the units are wrong.

http://www.google.com/search?q=(13000000000000+unit+%2F+second)+%2F+(2000000+unit+%2F+second+%2F+watt)+in+megawatt

6.5 Gigawatt would be the entire output of a large nuclear power plant.  Bitcoin uses nowhere near that much power.


This is also wrong by nearly an order of magnitude.  Though this is debatable since the disc in question is highly-enriched rather than reactor grade.

http://www.google.com/search?q=80+terajoule+%2F+kilogram+*+3+percent+*+33+percent+in+MWh+%2F+kg

Below the reaction vessel is a cooling system that freezes a plug in place.  If the power fails, the molten thorium will melt the plug and drain into containment vessels, where it will cool since it is now away from your neutron source.  All that remains is the neutron source, which is a very small amount of uranium.  Far from enough to cause a melt down.

I won't say it's perfect, or completely safe, but the fact that it has been proven to be safer than popular designs makes it hard to accept the fact that those same old designs are still being pushed while Thorium is being thrown under the bus.  Oh well, maybe when India gets a third of its power from Thorium by 2050 as they are projecting we might sit up and take notice.  Hopefully we don't have a catastrophe before then.

I'm not so sure.  Nuclear weapons have, by necessity of delivery, a relatively small amount of nuclear material.  Nuclear power plants have,  on the other hand, many many tons of the stuff.  In lots of cases, several loads of spent fuel sit outside of any hardened containment on the roof of the plants.  And these tend to be pretty close to industrial and populated areas since that is where the power is needed.

One thing that Fukushima opened my eyes to and which I did not know was that the GE Mark-I reactors, at least, are certain to melt down and explode if somehow they are without power for a certain number of hours.  So if a somewhat capable adversary can figure out how to sabotage a few diesel generators and can drop a few high-tension power lines, we can kiss bit parts of our Eastern US goodbye (or more likely, plan on high rates of poor health among the 99%ers who will remain in the area.)

Thorium reactors sound nice, but there is full court press to extend the life of our GE Mark-I's out an extra 20 years.  Another thing I learned thanks to Fukushima is that if a nuclear expert says that something is 'impossible', what that actually means that said thing is either inevitable or has already happened.  So, it will take some convincing to get me to believe in the miracle of thorium reactor safety.

Hey, at least we quit flying them around all the time.  Now most just sit underground.

personally, I wouldn't be that much concerned about power plants.
http://www.cdi.org/nuclear/database/nukestab.html

I hope we're done building uranium reactors.  Thorium otoh is much safer and only requires a tiny amount of uranium/plutonium as a neutron source.  They are fail safe and you can cut the power and walk away without releasing any radiation.

...i thought we finally be over the dirty nuclear energy, as culture..

You mean 6.5GW right? That would mean the bitcoin network can be powered for almost 24 hours by a 3kg disc of uranium.

not too long, I guess. According to wikipedia, 1kg u235 can be converted into up to 52MwH usable energy, which means we have about 150MWh here.
the btc network is currently at almost 13 TH/s, and given an average efficiency of 2 MH/watt, the bitcoin network is using about 6.5 GWh.

Wow, that's hot.
I wonder how many years this disc (3kg?) can power the Bitcoin network.

http://www.google.com/search?q=uranium&btnI=true

Pardon my ignorance, what's its number in the periodic table?

from the article:

"A sale would give banks, brokerages and investors the one thing they want to avoid: a real price on the bonds in the fund that could serve as a benchmark."

substitute CDO with sovereign bond. basically, its one and the same crap that the IB's have dumped onto the gov'ts balance sheet.

next up:  Spain

waveaddict and S3052:  basically your guys wave analysis techniques are merging with my cycle techniques to come to the same conclusion .

In all honesty, we probably have the 'exact' same view regarding equities, precious metals, bonds, currencies...and pretty much the same view on the longer term outlook for bitcoin  

Let's just say that you were 'lucky' to not have had any serious competition up until now since there are a plethora of other able and knowledgeable traders from other markets that just don't know about bitcoin yet. If bitcoin goes anywhere, you better be prepared to step up on your service because I am not going to be the only trader to encroach on your bitcoin charting business niche, and, when that happens, your whole gimmick about being the 1st bitcoin analysis will mean little since content and accuracy will mean everything.

By the way, you should probably take down the phrase: "We do an in-depth analysis of bitcoin prices that no one else offers in the bitcoin sphere" within your subscription page, because that is no longer true.

I wish you the best of luck with your business. Remember, competition is a good thing

-waveaddict

We have something in common. I started a big short yesterday, too. NDX and SPX

It's funny how most pundits see the VIX this low as a good thing for the stock market, and yet, every time the VIX has gotten this low for the past couple of years, another supposed crisis emerges. Let's just hope this pattern continues since I doubled down on my market short yesterday 

i knew something was bugging me about that 6/20/07 date.

if anyone here is into eerie historical parallels, check this out:

Bear Stearns Fund Collapse

can you believe the VIX spike down to 13.66 yesterday was last seen on 6/20/07?  the historical parallel i see is drawn to the Greek CDS trigger that occurred last Friday but hasn't yet affected the stock market.

could Greece be the new Bear Stearns that triggered the 2007-09 crisis?  i think so.

Yes, next week will be very exciting.

i.e. see the SKEW spike: http://chart.ly/6u9kllw

Now that I am home from work I can speak my mind

I tend to feel that Israel is mostly just our tool to get something going with Iran.  There are plenty of useful Likudnik idiots in that country who yearn for a 'Greater Israel' and all that jazz, and plenty here who can be used installed in government positions to help the military-industrial complex get more rich, but at the end of the day, they are just tools.  The handy thing about Israelies is that they seem to have no compunction about testing out our experimental weapons on civilians.

It would be highly risky for a country in Israel's geographical and political position to start a war and as the most recent Lebanon adventure shows they don't have the military they once did, but they owe us and if (or when) we say 'go', they'll be saying 'yes sir!'.  Then, of course, we'll have to 'come to the rescue'.  Seems like some of the more clever folks in Israel (namely a string of former Mossad chiefs) are starting to catch on, but it's probably to late though.