This is not true. I know this is bringing stuff up, but the whole concept makes little sense to meI disagree. Once people of a certain age... to put it bluntly... die. It will prosper and the idea behind bitcoins will be prosperous. (That might sound bad)
Agreed, what I do not understand is how one earns these. If you can just "mine" them, it doesn't make any sense to me because you are receiving something in return for doing nothing, and if the entire system is based on that then it would be entirely worthless. What is provided by the receiver of the bitcoin in exchange for the bitcoin?I'm confused about "mining". What do you have to do to mine a bitcoin?
Basically just solving a very complex math problem.I'm confused about "mining". What do you have to do to mine a bitcoin?
Yeah the days of mining with your home PC are over, mining now is all about super specialized, very expensive, hardware designed just for mining bitcoins.You can't really mine by yourself, I think the mining process is pretty much dried up from being done by most people.
I think if you want to get into it now, you have to do it via a currency exchange (dollars to bitcoin).
But here is a decent answer for your question on mining.
[video=youtube;GmOzih6I1zs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmOzih6I1zs[/video]
In order for people to send bitcoins they need someone to solve the equation of that particular transaction, which is what mining is. The miner uses their processing power to try to solve the equation, the first one to do it gets a reward of I think 25 bitcoins, I think it started at 50. So you're not doing nothing, but as far as being worth something, that's up to the people. If people are willing to accept bitcoins in exchange for goods and services then they're worth something.Agreed, what I do not understand is how one earns these. If you can just "mine" them, it doesn't make any sense to me because you are receiving something in return for doing nothing, and if the entire system is based on that then it would be entirely worthless. What is provided by the receiver of the bitcoin in exchange for the bitcoin?
No purpose outside of the world of bitcoins.What is the purpose of solving these math problems? Does solving these problems actually do something or is it just like, "Hey, figure out this 8 star sudoku and I'll give you some money for it."
What is the purpose of solving these math problems? Does solving these problems actually do something or is it just like, "Hey, figure out this 8 star sudoku and I'll give you some money for it."
No purpose outside of the world of bitcoins.
There's no value in the actual dollar bill you have in your pocket either, it has value because you can use it to get things or to repay debts. That's basically true for any currency.Admittedly I'm only vaguely familiar with bitcoins, but this tells me there really isn't any inherent value behind the system. Essentially the value is based on CPU processor cycles. Now, there have been projects in the past to harness unused processor time while idle to solve actual valuable problems, and then, maybe I could see it, but as it's stated here, seems like a ponzi scheme.
On the flip side, I'm sure that over in the cave, there's folks that will tell you the US dollar is based on nothing more, and there's some truth to that, depending on how far you take the logic exercise, but this one's a little far for me.
There's no value in the actual dollar bill you have in your pocket either, it has value because you can use it to get things or to repay debts. That's basically true for any currency.