https://tests.bitcoin.it/w/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=Sirius&feedformat=atomBitcoin Wiki - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T21:09:27ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=IRC_channels&diff=48624IRC channels2014-07-04T14:01:03Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div>Most of the following Bitcoin-related IRC channels are available on [http://www.freenode.net Freenode]:<br />
<br />
==Bitcoin Project==<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
! Channel !! Description<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin}} || General Bitcoin-related discussion ([[Bitcoin_IRC_Channel_Guidelines | guidelines]]).<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-court}} || [[Bitcoin Court]] Settles disputes between parties.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-dev}} || Bitcoin software development. ([http://bitcoinstats.com/irc/bitcoin-dev/logs/ history]. [[Bitcoin-dev | guidelines]])<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-gaming}} || Bitcoin gamers hangout.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-gentoo}} || Gentoo community.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-marketing}} || Marketing and promotion of bitcoin<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-news}} || RSS News related to Bitcoin.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-police}} || [[Bitcoin Police]] Investigates incidents related to Bitcoin.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-politics}} || Discuss politics with other Bitcoin users.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-pricetalk}} || ALL Discussion Remotely Related to Bitcoin Price goes here<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-tweets}} || Automated announce of bitcoin-related tweets.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-watch|text=[[Bitcoin-Watch|#bitcoin-watch]]}} || Streaming Bitcoin transactions, including market data.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-wiki}} || Bitcoin Wiki support<br />
|}<br />
<br />
===Local communities===<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-otc-eu}} || European OTC trading marketplace.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-otc-ru}} || Russian OTC trading marketplace.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-otc-uk}} ||United kingdom OTC Trading Marketplace.Founder Angus Bates.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-aus}} || Aussie bitcoin community.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-br}} || Brazilian bitcoin community.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-cad}} || Canadian bitcoin community.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-cn}} || Chinese bitcoin community.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-dk}} || Danish bitcoin community.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-de}} || German bitcoin community.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-eastcoastusa}} || East Coast USA bitcoin community.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-il}} || Israeli bitcoin community.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-nl}} || Dutch bitcoin community. <br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-pl}} || Polish bitcoin community.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-romania}} || Romanian bitcoin community.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-ve}} || Venezuelan bitcoin community.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|btc.chat}} || Russian bitcoin community.<br />
|-<br />
| #bitcoins.fi @ IRCNet || Finnish bitcoin community.<br />
<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Mining Related Communities==<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
! Channel !! Description<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|avalon}} || Discussion and support specific to [[Avalon]] mining machine<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-mining}} || Discussion and support related to mining.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-fpga}} || Discussion and support specific to FPGA mining.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|btcguild}} || [[BTCGuild]] mining pool community<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|butterflylabs}} || [[Butterfly Labs]] chat<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|cgminer}} || Discussion and support specific to [[CGMiner]].<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|eligius}} || [[Eligius]] mining pool community (also support for [[BFGMiner]] and [[Eloipool]])<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|give-me-coins}} || [[Give Me COINS]] mining pool community<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|mining.bitcoin.cz}} || Slush's mining pool community<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|ozcoin}} || [[Ozco.in]] mining pool community<br />
|-<br />
| <small>[irc://irc.foonetic.net/xkcd-bitcoin IRC] [http://irc.lc/foonetic/xkcd-bitcoin/Miner@@@ Web]</small> #xkcd-bitcoin || [https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/XKCD_Pool XKCD Pool]<br />
|-<br />
| <small>[irc://irc.quakenet.org/bitcoins.lc IRC] [http://irc.lc/quakenet/bitcoins.lc/Miner@@@ Web]</small> #bitcoins.lc @ Quakenet || [http://www.bitcoins.lc Bitcoins.lc Pool] <br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|p2pool}} || [[P2Pool]] decentralized mining pool<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitminter}} || [[BitMinter]] Mining Pool Community<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|kncminer}} || [[KNCMiner]] ASIC Mining Hardware Vendor Discussion<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|triplemining}} || [[TripleMining]] mining pool community<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Communities for Exchanges and Trading==<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
! Channel !! Description<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-assets}} || Discussion of securities and other asset investments. [http://bitcoin-assets.com bitcoin-assets.com].<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-assets-trades}} || Streaming assets market data (only), no chat.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-auction}} || Live auctions over IRC.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-market}} || Streaming market data (only), no chat.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-otc|text=[[bitcoin-otc|#bitcoin-otc]]}} || Over-the-counter trading marketplace and discussion. ([http://bitcoinstats.com/irc/bitcoin-otc/logs/ history])<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-escrow}} || Third party escrow agents.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-otc-ticker|bitcoin-otc-ticker}} || Streaming market data form the [[#bitcoin-otc]] order book.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-otc-ratings|bitcoin-otc-ratings}} || Updates to ratings on the [[#bitcoin-otc]] Web of Trust.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-pit}} || Only over-the-counter trading.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-wot|bitcoin-wot}} || Distributed Web of Trust (WoT) system for [[#bitcoin-otc]].<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|btc.chat.traders}} || Russian community discussion about trades/exchanges.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|coinbase}} || [[Coinbase]] chat<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|#mtgox-chat}} || [[#MtGox]] chat (Note the extra pound sign (#) is part of the channel name)<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|mtgox}} || [[MtGox]] support<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|mtgoxlive}} || [[MtGox Live]] real-time view of trading<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|mtgox-news}} || Mt. Gox topics from Twitter.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|mtgox-rt}} || Mt. Gox real-time tape (executed trades).<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-rt}} || Real-time tape (executed trades).<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|localbitcoins-chat}} || [[LocalBitcoins.com]] exchange support<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|Coinabul}} || [http://Coinabul.com Coinabul]'s customer support and news channel. Selling gold and silver for Bitcoin.<br />
|}<br />
<br />
==Related Communities==<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
! Channel !! Description<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|opentransactions}} || [[Open Transactions]] project.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|namecoin}} || [[Namecoin]] and the [[Dot-bit]] project.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|twister}} || [[Twister]], P2P microblogging discussion.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|darkwallet}} || [[DarkWallet]] and libbitcoin/Obelisk discussion & development channel.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|electrum}} || [[Electrum]], lightweight bitcoin client.<br />
|-<br />
| {{Freenode IRC|bitcoin-stackexchange}} || Discussion complementing [http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com Bitcoin StackExchange].<br />
<br />
|}<br />
<br />
[[fr:Canaux IRC]]<br />
[[pl:Kanały IRC]]<br />
[[ro:Canale]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Bitcoin_Firsts&diff=43748Bitcoin Firsts2014-01-15T14:10:50Z<p>Sirius: added reference for the first trade</p>
<hr />
<div>First examples of bitcoins being accepted for various goods and services and other notable first occurrences. See discussion for more regarding what is suitable here.<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
! &nbsp;Event&nbsp;Date&nbsp;<br />
! Event<br />
|- <br />
| 2009-01-12<br />
| First bitcoin transaction<ref>[http://blockexplorer.com/b/170 Block 170 with the first transaction ever]</ref> on the network. From Satoshi to Hal Finney<ref>[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=91806.msg1012234#msg1012234 Earliest Block With A Spend]</ref>.<br />
|- <br />
| 2009-10-12<br />
| First trade of bitcoin for fiat currency <ref>[https://blockchain.info/tx/7dff938918f07619abd38e4510890396b1cef4fbeca154fb7aafba8843295ea2 Transfer from Sirius to NewLibertyStandard]</ref>. [[Sirius]] sold 5,050 BTC to NewLibertyStandard for $5.02 on PayPal <ref>[https://twitter.com/marttimalmi/status/423455561703624704 Sirius' tweet about the first trade of bitcoin for USD]</ref>.<br />
|- <br />
| 2010-05-17<br />
| First recorded purchase of a good (pizza). Cost 10,000 BTC.<ref>[http://www.bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137.0 Pizza]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2011-03-21<br />
| First travel using only Bitcoin to survive<ref>[http://www.bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4752.0 Plato's road trip]</ref><br />
|-<br />
| 2011-01-06<br />
| Guy pays random guy for work performed (holding a sign on a busy intersection)<ref>[http://www.bitcoinblogger.com/2011/01/power-of-bitcoins.html Mobile marketing gig]</ref><br />
|-<br />
| 2011-05-09<br />
| First physical bitcoins<ref>[[Bitbills]]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2011-05-12<br />
|First room for rent for Bitcoin<ref>[http://www.bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=8174.msg119235#msg119235 Room for rent]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2011-05-17<br />
|First stripper being tipped bitcoin<ref>[http://therealplato.com/post/5568777157 Tipped a stripper Bitcoins] </ref><br />
|-<br />
|2011-05-27<br />
|Buying aircraft for BTC<ref>[http://www.bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=10210.0 Buying aircraft for BTC]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2011-06-01<br />
|SF Chiropractor accepts BTC for office visits<ref>[http://www.bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=11178.0 SF Chiropractor accepts BTC for office visits]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2011-06-04<br />
|First real estate offered for Bitcoin. A beach condo<ref>[http://www.bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=12185.0 Beach Condo]</ref> and a house<ref>[http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=12466.0 House]</ref> were offered within hours of each other.<br />
|-<br />
|2011-10-30<br />
|First Bitcoin mining on an in-flight airplane using wifi. Unknown if any Bitcoins were actually created in flight<ref>[http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50379.0 Mining at 18,000 feet]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2011-12-19<br />
|First TV story based on Bitcoin<ref>[http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/releases/view?id=30177 CBS' "THE GOOD WIFE" episode]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2012-02-16<br />
|Auto title loan for bitcoins requested<ref>[http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=64199 Auto title loan for bitcoins requested]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2012-03-07<br />
|First [http://blockchain.info/tx/9c08a4d78931342b37fd5f72900fb9983087e6f46c4a097d8a1f52c74e28eaf6 transaction] including a [[P2SH]]-compatible address.<br />
|-<br />
|2012-03-24<br />
|First property management accepts bitcons for rent<ref>[http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=73712.0 Property management accept bitcons for rent]</ref>. Over 100 commercial and residential properties<br />
|-<br />
|2012-03-27<br />
|First printed Bitcoin magazine is announced and then followed by photos<ref>[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74346.0 first photos of Coineer]</ref><ref>[https://coineer.com Coineer - The Bitcoin Magazine available in print]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2012-03-28<br />
|Amateur Adult Entertainers use Bitcoin for tips<ref>[http://reddit.com/r/GirlsGoneBitcoin Amateur Adult Entertainers use Bitcoin for tips]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2012-03-29<br />
|Bitcoin-only Credit Default Swap (CDS)<ref>[http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74552.0 Bitcoin-only Credit Default Swap (CDS)] </ref><br />
|-<br />
|2012-04-19<br />
|US Based exchange gets Federally licensed as a MSB<ref>[http://payglo.be/2012/04/19/bitinstant-federally-licensed-bitcoin-exchange/ US Based exchange gets Federally licensed as a MSB]</ref><ref>[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=77194.msg857699#msg857699 US Based exchange gets Federally licensed as a MSB 2]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2012-04-20<br />
|Bitcoinica.com gets licensed as a MSB<ref>[http://bitcoinmedia.com/first-licensed-advanced-trading-platform-for-bitcoin/ Bitcoinica.com gets licensed as a MSB]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2012-04-25<br />
|First Music album sold for bitcoins exclusively – Before being sold on iTunes<ref>[https://www.coindl.com/page/item/127 Music album sold for bitcoins exclusively]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2012-04-26<br />
|First WebCam site to accept Bitcoins<ref>[http://ptvheaven.com WebCam site to accept Bitcoins]</ref>. Bitcoins accepted as an alternative payment. Entertainer payouts are not in Bitcoin.<br />
|-<br />
|2012-04-29<br />
|First Bitcoin only live webcam site<ref>[http://www.cam4btc.co.cc/ Bitcoin only live webcam site]</ref>. Bitcoin tips go directly to entertainers. Site operates on tips.<br />
|-<br />
|2012-05-01<br />
|Bitcoin Magazine<ref>[[Bitcoin Magazine]]</ref><ref>[http://bitcoinmagazine.net/bitcoin-magazine-press-release/ Press release] as first issue goes to print</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2012-05-01<br />
|Race horse named after Satoshi<ref>[http://www.satoshisdaemon.com/ Race horse named after Satoshi]</ref><ref>http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2012/04/bitcoin-horse-to-run-first-race-on-may.html</ref><br />
|-<br />
| 2012-05-09<br />
| First formal risk assessment by a government agency<ref>[http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=80173.0 Discussion of Leaked FBI Report on Bitcoin- April 2012]</ref><br />
|-<br />
| 2012-05-09<br />
|Sold San Francisco Bridge<ref>[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=80485.msg890710#msg890710 Sold San Francisco Bridge]</ref>. Another traditional first for a new currency. (likely not authentic)<br />
|-<br />
| 2012-05-18<br />
|First Bitcoin class in a public school<ref>[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=82046.msg908451#msg908451 Bitcoin taught in a public school]</ref>. It was a 4th grade class<br />
|-<br />
| 2012-06-06<br />
|First Bitcoin donations to contribute to a successful anti-corrupt local government political campaign<ref>[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74219.msg945392#msg945392 Bitcoin donations contribute to successful anti-corrupt local government political campaign]</ref>. Travis Kiger, running against a Fullerton City counsel that turned a blind eye to the death of Kelly Thomas at the hands of their local police department, promoted the use of Bitcoin to fund his campaign and won the councel seat for his district.<br />
|-<br />
| 2012-07-23<br />
| First car producers offer their vehicle for Bitcoin<ref>[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=94820.msg1048706#msg1048706 Automaker offers their vehicle for Bitcoin]</ref>. WikiSpeed is a Seattle based corporation that manufactures open source modular cars that get 100 MPG and accept Bitcoin as payment<br />
|-<br />
| 2012-08-06<br />
| First Bitcoin lawsuit<ref>[https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_ECG6JRZs-7dTZ5QS0xcUkxQjQ/edit?pli=1# Bitcoin lawsuit]</ref>. Brian Cartmell filed a lawsuit against [[Bitcoinica]], a former Bitcoin margin trading platform that got hacked and hasen't returned customers' funds.<br />
|-<br />
| 2012-08-24<br />
| First private medical practice accepts Bitcoin<ref>[http://meidanklinikka.fi Private medical practice accepts Bitcoin]</ref>. It's a dentist in Finland.<br />
|-<br />
| 2012-09-14<br />
| First warrant to seize Bitcoins<ref>[http://www.americanbanker.com/bankthink/plot-thickens-in-bizarre-bitcoin-blackmail-caper-1054312-1.html First warrant to seize Bitcoin]</ref>. U.S. Secret Service seizing Michael M. Brown's bitcoins in the Romney Taxes For Ransom case.<br />
|-<br />
| 2012-09-26<br />
| First Taxi service accepts Bitcoin<ref>[http://www.taxizen.co.uk Taxi service accepts Bitcoin]</ref> (in Herefordshire, UK.)<br />
|-<br />
| 2012-11-15<br />
| First big<ref>[http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wordpress.com Wordpress.com at Alexa.com]</ref> website<ref>[http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/pay-another-way-bitcoin/ Wordpress accepts Bitcoin]</ref> accepts Bitcoin. It's [http://www.wordpress.com wordpress.com]<br />
|-<br />
| 2012-11-28<br />
| Bitcoin celebrates first halving day - every roughly 4 years, the reward for mining a new block, initially 50 BTC will be halved.<ref>[http://www.prlog.org/12032578-bitcoin-community-celebrates-halving-day.html Bitcoin Community Celebrates "Halving Day"]</ref><br />
|-<br />
| 2013-02-15<br />
| Reddit begins accepting bitcoins for [http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/14/reddit-starts-accepting-bitcoin-for-reddit-gold-purchases-thanks-to-partnership-with-coinbase purchases of Reddit Gold].<br />
|-<br />
| 2013-02-18<br />
| Kim DotCom's successor to MegaUpload, Mega to [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21496977 accept bitcoins for payment].<br />
|-<br />
| 2013-02-19<br />
| Silver parity reached. Bitcoin exchange rate at $29.65 is higher than an ounce of silver.<br />
|-<br />
| 2013-03-18<br />
| The United States federal agency charged with enforcing laws against money laundering (FinCEN) declares that Bitcoin users are not subjects to its regulations. Miners who sell bitcoins for fiat currency must register as Money Service Business.<ref>[http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/us-regulator-bitcoin-exchanges-must-comply-with-money-laundering-laws/ US regulator: Bitcoin exchanges must comply with money-laundering laws]</ref><br />
|-<br />
| 2013-04-01<br />
| Bitcoin surpasses 100 USD.<ref>[http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/01/bitcoin-value-above-100-bubble/ Bitcoin value surpasses $100 — is this another bubble?]</ref><br />
|-<br />
| 2013-04-09<br />
| Bitcoin surpasses 200 USD.<ref>http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/04/09/176708504/bitcoin-surpasses-200-mark-continuing-epic-rise</ref><br />
|-<br />
| 2013-04-09<br />
| First instance of assets of a Bitcoin-related entity (Mt. Gox) being [https://www.facebook.com/MtGox/posts/468895216528224 seized by the U.S. Government] (U.S. DHS).<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[History]]<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references /><br />
<br />
[[Category:Introduction]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Bitcoin_Firsts&diff=43747Bitcoin Firsts2014-01-15T13:53:23Z<p>Sirius: First bitcoin to fiat transaction</p>
<hr />
<div>First examples of bitcoins being accepted for various goods and services and other notable first occurrences. See discussion for more regarding what is suitable here.<br />
<br />
{| class="wikitable"<br />
! &nbsp;Event&nbsp;Date&nbsp;<br />
! Event<br />
|- <br />
| 2009-01-12<br />
| First bitcoin transaction<ref>[http://blockexplorer.com/b/170 Block 170 with the first transaction ever]</ref> on the network. From Satoshi to Hal Finney<ref>[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=91806.msg1012234#msg1012234 Earliest Block With A Spend]</ref>.<br />
|- <br />
| 2009-10-12<br />
| First trade of bitcoin for fiat currency <ref>[https://blockchain.info/tx/7dff938918f07619abd38e4510890396b1cef4fbeca154fb7aafba8843295ea2 Transfer from Sirius to NewLibertyStandard]</ref>. [[Sirius]] sold 5,050 BTC to NewLibertyStandard for $5.02 on PayPal.<br />
|- <br />
| 2010-05-17<br />
| First recorded purchase of a good (pizza). Cost 10,000 BTC.<ref>[http://www.bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137.0 Pizza]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2011-03-21<br />
| First travel using only Bitcoin to survive<ref>[http://www.bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4752.0 Plato's road trip]</ref><br />
|-<br />
| 2011-01-06<br />
| Guy pays random guy for work performed (holding a sign on a busy intersection)<ref>[http://www.bitcoinblogger.com/2011/01/power-of-bitcoins.html Mobile marketing gig]</ref><br />
|-<br />
| 2011-05-09<br />
| First physical bitcoins<ref>[[Bitbills]]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2011-05-12<br />
|First room for rent for Bitcoin<ref>[http://www.bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=8174.msg119235#msg119235 Room for rent]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2011-05-17<br />
|First stripper being tipped bitcoin<ref>[http://therealplato.com/post/5568777157 Tipped a stripper Bitcoins] </ref><br />
|-<br />
|2011-05-27<br />
|Buying aircraft for BTC<ref>[http://www.bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=10210.0 Buying aircraft for BTC]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2011-06-01<br />
|SF Chiropractor accepts BTC for office visits<ref>[http://www.bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=11178.0 SF Chiropractor accepts BTC for office visits]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2011-06-04<br />
|First real estate offered for Bitcoin. A beach condo<ref>[http://www.bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=12185.0 Beach Condo]</ref> and a house<ref>[http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=12466.0 House]</ref> were offered within hours of each other.<br />
|-<br />
|2011-10-30<br />
|First Bitcoin mining on an in-flight airplane using wifi. Unknown if any Bitcoins were actually created in flight<ref>[http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50379.0 Mining at 18,000 feet]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2011-12-19<br />
|First TV story based on Bitcoin<ref>[http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/releases/view?id=30177 CBS' "THE GOOD WIFE" episode]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2012-02-16<br />
|Auto title loan for bitcoins requested<ref>[http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=64199 Auto title loan for bitcoins requested]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2012-03-07<br />
|First [http://blockchain.info/tx/9c08a4d78931342b37fd5f72900fb9983087e6f46c4a097d8a1f52c74e28eaf6 transaction] including a [[P2SH]]-compatible address.<br />
|-<br />
|2012-03-24<br />
|First property management accepts bitcons for rent<ref>[http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=73712.0 Property management accept bitcons for rent]</ref>. Over 100 commercial and residential properties<br />
|-<br />
|2012-03-27<br />
|First printed Bitcoin magazine is announced and then followed by photos<ref>[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74346.0 first photos of Coineer]</ref><ref>[https://coineer.com Coineer - The Bitcoin Magazine available in print]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2012-03-28<br />
|Amateur Adult Entertainers use Bitcoin for tips<ref>[http://reddit.com/r/GirlsGoneBitcoin Amateur Adult Entertainers use Bitcoin for tips]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2012-03-29<br />
|Bitcoin-only Credit Default Swap (CDS)<ref>[http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74552.0 Bitcoin-only Credit Default Swap (CDS)] </ref><br />
|-<br />
|2012-04-19<br />
|US Based exchange gets Federally licensed as a MSB<ref>[http://payglo.be/2012/04/19/bitinstant-federally-licensed-bitcoin-exchange/ US Based exchange gets Federally licensed as a MSB]</ref><ref>[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=77194.msg857699#msg857699 US Based exchange gets Federally licensed as a MSB 2]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2012-04-20<br />
|Bitcoinica.com gets licensed as a MSB<ref>[http://bitcoinmedia.com/first-licensed-advanced-trading-platform-for-bitcoin/ Bitcoinica.com gets licensed as a MSB]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2012-04-25<br />
|First Music album sold for bitcoins exclusively – Before being sold on iTunes<ref>[https://www.coindl.com/page/item/127 Music album sold for bitcoins exclusively]</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2012-04-26<br />
|First WebCam site to accept Bitcoins<ref>[http://ptvheaven.com WebCam site to accept Bitcoins]</ref>. Bitcoins accepted as an alternative payment. Entertainer payouts are not in Bitcoin.<br />
|-<br />
|2012-04-29<br />
|First Bitcoin only live webcam site<ref>[http://www.cam4btc.co.cc/ Bitcoin only live webcam site]</ref>. Bitcoin tips go directly to entertainers. Site operates on tips.<br />
|-<br />
|2012-05-01<br />
|Bitcoin Magazine<ref>[[Bitcoin Magazine]]</ref><ref>[http://bitcoinmagazine.net/bitcoin-magazine-press-release/ Press release] as first issue goes to print</ref><br />
|-<br />
|2012-05-01<br />
|Race horse named after Satoshi<ref>[http://www.satoshisdaemon.com/ Race horse named after Satoshi]</ref><ref>http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2012/04/bitcoin-horse-to-run-first-race-on-may.html</ref><br />
|-<br />
| 2012-05-09<br />
| First formal risk assessment by a government agency<ref>[http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=80173.0 Discussion of Leaked FBI Report on Bitcoin- April 2012]</ref><br />
|-<br />
| 2012-05-09<br />
|Sold San Francisco Bridge<ref>[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=80485.msg890710#msg890710 Sold San Francisco Bridge]</ref>. Another traditional first for a new currency. (likely not authentic)<br />
|-<br />
| 2012-05-18<br />
|First Bitcoin class in a public school<ref>[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=82046.msg908451#msg908451 Bitcoin taught in a public school]</ref>. It was a 4th grade class<br />
|-<br />
| 2012-06-06<br />
|First Bitcoin donations to contribute to a successful anti-corrupt local government political campaign<ref>[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74219.msg945392#msg945392 Bitcoin donations contribute to successful anti-corrupt local government political campaign]</ref>. Travis Kiger, running against a Fullerton City counsel that turned a blind eye to the death of Kelly Thomas at the hands of their local police department, promoted the use of Bitcoin to fund his campaign and won the councel seat for his district.<br />
|-<br />
| 2012-07-23<br />
| First car producers offer their vehicle for Bitcoin<ref>[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=94820.msg1048706#msg1048706 Automaker offers their vehicle for Bitcoin]</ref>. WikiSpeed is a Seattle based corporation that manufactures open source modular cars that get 100 MPG and accept Bitcoin as payment<br />
|-<br />
| 2012-08-06<br />
| First Bitcoin lawsuit<ref>[https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_ECG6JRZs-7dTZ5QS0xcUkxQjQ/edit?pli=1# Bitcoin lawsuit]</ref>. Brian Cartmell filed a lawsuit against [[Bitcoinica]], a former Bitcoin margin trading platform that got hacked and hasen't returned customers' funds.<br />
|-<br />
| 2012-08-24<br />
| First private medical practice accepts Bitcoin<ref>[http://meidanklinikka.fi Private medical practice accepts Bitcoin]</ref>. It's a dentist in Finland.<br />
|-<br />
| 2012-09-14<br />
| First warrant to seize Bitcoins<ref>[http://www.americanbanker.com/bankthink/plot-thickens-in-bizarre-bitcoin-blackmail-caper-1054312-1.html First warrant to seize Bitcoin]</ref>. U.S. Secret Service seizing Michael M. Brown's bitcoins in the Romney Taxes For Ransom case.<br />
|-<br />
| 2012-09-26<br />
| First Taxi service accepts Bitcoin<ref>[http://www.taxizen.co.uk Taxi service accepts Bitcoin]</ref> (in Herefordshire, UK.)<br />
|-<br />
| 2012-11-15<br />
| First big<ref>[http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wordpress.com Wordpress.com at Alexa.com]</ref> website<ref>[http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/pay-another-way-bitcoin/ Wordpress accepts Bitcoin]</ref> accepts Bitcoin. It's [http://www.wordpress.com wordpress.com]<br />
|-<br />
| 2012-11-28<br />
| Bitcoin celebrates first halving day - every roughly 4 years, the reward for mining a new block, initially 50 BTC will be halved.<ref>[http://www.prlog.org/12032578-bitcoin-community-celebrates-halving-day.html Bitcoin Community Celebrates "Halving Day"]</ref><br />
|-<br />
| 2013-02-15<br />
| Reddit begins accepting bitcoins for [http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/14/reddit-starts-accepting-bitcoin-for-reddit-gold-purchases-thanks-to-partnership-with-coinbase purchases of Reddit Gold].<br />
|-<br />
| 2013-02-18<br />
| Kim DotCom's successor to MegaUpload, Mega to [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21496977 accept bitcoins for payment].<br />
|-<br />
| 2013-02-19<br />
| Silver parity reached. Bitcoin exchange rate at $29.65 is higher than an ounce of silver.<br />
|-<br />
| 2013-03-18<br />
| The United States federal agency charged with enforcing laws against money laundering (FinCEN) declares that Bitcoin users are not subjects to its regulations. Miners who sell bitcoins for fiat currency must register as Money Service Business.<ref>[http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/03/us-regulator-bitcoin-exchanges-must-comply-with-money-laundering-laws/ US regulator: Bitcoin exchanges must comply with money-laundering laws]</ref><br />
|-<br />
| 2013-04-01<br />
| Bitcoin surpasses 100 USD.<ref>[http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/01/bitcoin-value-above-100-bubble/ Bitcoin value surpasses $100 — is this another bubble?]</ref><br />
|-<br />
| 2013-04-09<br />
| Bitcoin surpasses 200 USD.<ref>http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/04/09/176708504/bitcoin-surpasses-200-mark-continuing-epic-rise</ref><br />
|-<br />
| 2013-04-09<br />
| First instance of assets of a Bitcoin-related entity (Mt. Gox) being [https://www.facebook.com/MtGox/posts/468895216528224 seized by the U.S. Government] (U.S. DHS).<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[History]]<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references /><br />
<br />
[[Category:Introduction]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Sirius&diff=43247Sirius2013-12-17T19:44:12Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div>Sirius, a.k.a. Martti Malmi, was the second Bitcoin developer after [[Satoshi Nakamoto|Satoshi]] and the founder of the [[Bitcoin Forum]]. He's not an active developer anymore, but continues to manage the domain names bitcointalk.org and bitcoin.org.<br />
<br />
His current employer SC5, a Finnish HTML5 development agency, pays salaries and accepts payments in bitcoins. <ref>[http://sc5.io/blog/2013/03/sc5-pays-salaries-in-bitcoin/ SC5 pays salaries in Bitcoin], SC5 Blog, 15 March 2013</ref><ref>[http://thenextweb.com/eu/2013/03/15/finnish-software-company-offers-employees-to-pay-part-of-their-salary-in-bitcoin/ Finnish software firm offers to pay part of staff’s salary in virtual Bitcoin currency], The Next Web, 15 March 2013</ref><br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references/><br />
<br />
*[http://sc5.io/blog/2013/02/sc5er-intro-the-bitcoin-guy/ SC5’er Intro: The Bitcoin Guy]<br />
*[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=4 Bitcointalk profile]<br />
*[http://www.iltasanomat.fi/digi/art-1288496063056.html Onko hän tulevaisuuden Linus Torvalds? (News article in Finnish)]<br />
*[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=16.0 Bitcoin 0.2 release note]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=People&diff=38140People2013-05-30T11:48:37Z<p>Sirius: Martti Malmi (sirius)</p>
<hr />
<div>A list of active contributors to Bitcoin, ordered by first name.<br />
<br />
[[Andreas Schildbach]] ([https://profiles.google.com/andreas.schildbach Profile]) - original developer of [https://market.android.com/details?id=de.schildbach.wallet Bitcoin Wallet for Android] ([http://code.google.com/p/bitcoin-wallet/ Google Code Project]).<br />
<br />
[[Amir Taaki]] aka genjix- creator of the [[Britcoin]] and [[Intersango]] exchanges, [[libbitcoin]] library for Bitcoin, [[Spesmilo]], [[Bitcoin Consultancy]], [[Vibanko]], [[GLBSE]] client, Bitcoin poker client, [https://gitorious.org/freecoin/freecoin Python bindings] for Bitcoin, [[Pastecoin]] and others.<br />
<br />
[[ArtForz|Art Forz]]- developed the first GUI miner and at one time his GPU mining farm (the ArtFarm) was mining over a third of all blocks.<br />
<br />
[[Gary Rowe]] [https://plus.google.com/u/0/115295932487523951663/about (Profile)] - Contributor to the [[MultiBit]] (http://multibit.org) and [[BitCoinJ]] (http://code.google.com/p/bitcoinj/) projects. Working on various Bitcoin based businesses.<br />
<br />
[[Gavin Andresen]]- [https://profiles.google.com/u/0/gavinandresen/about (Profile)] [[Satoshi client]] maintainer. He previously worked at Silicon Graphics and now runs his own company.<br />
<br />
[[Hal Finney]]- one of the creators of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy PGP] and one of the earliest contributors to the Bitcoin project. First to identify a type of double-spending attack that now bears his name -- the [[Double-spending#Finney_attack|Finney attack]].<br />
<br />
James McCarthy aka Nefario- creator of the first bitcoin stock exchange [[GLBSE]]<br />
<br />
[[Jed McCaleb]], original developer of MtGox. Previously created eDonkey2000.<br />
<br />
[[Jeff Garzik]]- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Garzik (Wikipedia Entry)] [[Satoshi client]] core developer, GPU poold software and the founder of [[Bitcoin Watch]]. Works as a Linux kernel developer at Red Hat,<br />
<br />
[[Luke Dashjr]] aka Luke-Jr- [[Eligius]] owner/admin, maintains [[BFGMiner]] and maintainer of [[bitcoind]]/[[Bitcoin-Qt]] stable branches.<br />
<br />
[[Mark Karpeles]] aka MagicalTux- Owner of the largest Bitcoin exchange, [[MtGox]], this Bitcoin Wiki, and [https://www.kalyhost.com/ Kalyhost]<br />
<br />
[[Sirius|Martti Malmi]] aka Sirius- Former Bitcoin developer. Operates the domain names bitcoin.org and bitcointalk.org.<br />
<br />
[[Matt Corallo]] aka BlueMatt- [[Satoshi client]] developer.<br />
<br />
[[Michael Hendrix]] aka mndrix- creator of the now defunct CoinPal and CoinCard services<br />
<br />
[[Michael Marquardt]] aka theymos- creator of the widely used blockexplorer.com site, and BitcoinTalk Forum<br />
<br />
[[Mike Hearn]] [https://profiles.google.com/mh.in.england/about (Profile)]- Google engineer who works on Gmail and developed [[BitCoinJ]] (http://code.google.com/p/bitcoinj/)<br />
<br />
[[User:Tcatm|Nils Schneider]] aka tcatm - Bitcoin developer, owner of BitcoinWatch, creator and owner of BitcoinCharts, GPU mining software and JS web interface.<br />
<br />
[[Patrick McFarland]] aka Diablo-D3 - DiabloMiner author, and BitcoinTalk forum moderator.<br />
<br />
[[Patrick Strateman]] aka phantomcircuit - Bitcoin developer, creator of [[Intersango]], member of [[Bitcoin Consultancy]] and creator of Python Bitcoin implementation.<br />
<br />
[[Pieter Wuille]] aka sipa- [[Satoshi client]] developer and maintainer of the network graphs http://bitcoin.sipa.be<br />
<br />
[[Stefan Thomas]] aka justmoon- creator of the WeUseCoins.com site/video and WebCoin.<br />
<br />
[[Tamas Blummer]] aka grau - author of Bits of Proof, the enterprise-ready implementation of the Bitcoin protocol. http://bitsofproof.com<br />
<br />
[[Vladimir Marchenko]]- [https://profiles.google.com/u/0/vmartchenko/about?hl=en Profile], runs [[Marchenko Ltd]] which sells mining contracts, previously developed the figator.org search engine.<br />
<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[Original client developers]]<br />
* [[Developers]]<br />
* Wiki list of [[:Special:ListUsers|users]]<br />
* [[Bitcoin:Community_portal|Community portal]]<br />
* [[:Category:People]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=User:Sirius&diff=37950User:Sirius2013-05-23T09:36:20Z<p>Sirius: Created page with "See Sirius."</p>
<hr />
<div>See [[Sirius]].</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Sirius&diff=37949Sirius2013-05-23T09:28:18Z<p>Sirius: SC5 bitcoin story</p>
<hr />
<div>Sirius (Martti Malmi) was the second Bitcoin developer after [[Satoshi Nakamoto|Satoshi]] and the founder of the [[Bitcoin Forum]]. He's not an active developer anymore, but continues to manage the domain names bitcointalk.org and bitcoin.org.<br />
<br />
His current employer SC5, a Finnish HTML5 development agency, pays salaries and accepts payments in bitcoins. <ref>[http://sc5.io/blog/2013/03/sc5-pays-salaries-in-bitcoin/ SC5 pays salaries in Bitcoin], SC5 Blog, 15 March 2013</ref><ref>[http://thenextweb.com/eu/2013/03/15/finnish-software-company-offers-employees-to-pay-part-of-their-salary-in-bitcoin/ Finnish software firm offers to pay part of staff’s salary in virtual Bitcoin currency], The Next Web, 15 March 2013</ref><br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references/><br />
<br />
*[http://sc5.io/blog/2013/02/sc5er-intro-the-bitcoin-guy/ SC5’er Intro: The Bitcoin Guy]<br />
*[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=4 Bitcointalk profile]<br />
*[http://www.iltasanomat.fi/digi/art-1288496063056.html Onko hän tulevaisuuden Linus Torvalds? (News article in Finnish)]<br />
*[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=16.0 Bitcoin 0.2 release note]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=BitcoinTalk&diff=37946BitcoinTalk2013-05-23T08:30:26Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div>The '''Bitcoin Forum''' is a message board where people interested in the technical details and the development of Bitcoin software can talk to each other. The forum also has places for people who are interested in bitcoin [[:Category:Mining|mining]], in trading with bitcoin, and in the economics of Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
The domain name is owned by [[Sirius]]. The forum is administrated by [[:User:Theymos|theymos]].<br />
<br />
==History==<br />
<br />
Before the creation of the current Bitcoin Forum, Satoshi used a SourceForge forum. When Sirius provided hosting, the forum was moved to bitcoin.org/smf. Satoshi made several custom modifications to the forum software and theme.<br />
<br />
Satoshi's first non-test post on the forum was:<br />
<br />
<blockquote><p>I left the admin account set to the original SMF theme so if I somehow completely wedge the custom theme I can still get in to fix it.</p><br />
<br />
<p>I've got a neat little 12x12 coin image to replace those pip stars with. Should look nice. Also some nice button images to try.</p><br />
<br />
<p>The registration page has "hide your e-mail address" unchecked by default. I must fix that in php before we can open up.</p><br />
<br />
<p>The Announcements forum is currently moderator access only.</p></blockquote><br />
<br />
The forum was at some point moved to forum.bitcoin.org. The bitcoin.org domain name was also transferred from Satoshi to Sirius.<br />
<br />
In July, 2011 the forum was moved to bitcointalk.org in order to make it explicitly unofficial. The "forum" link on the bitcoin.org homepage was made to simply return the Google search results for the search terms "bitcoin forums". This was followed by Bitcoin Community members, very much in bitcoin's spirit of decentralisation, creating a number of alternative forums offering different moderatorial policies and using different software platforms. None of these alternative forums have yet reached the size of Bitcoin Talk.<br />
<br />
Later, the "forum" link was simply removed, further distancing Bitcoin Talk from the official bitcoin.org. As of April 21, 2012, Bitcoin Talk remains the first search result on Google thanks to its high page rank.<br />
<br />
On July 22, 2012, Bitcoin Talk reached its one millionth post.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[Bitcoin:Community portal]]<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
<br />
* [http://bitcointalk.org/ Bitcoin Talk]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Forums]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=BitcoinTalk&diff=37945BitcoinTalk2013-05-23T08:30:05Z<p>Sirius: Forum management</p>
<hr />
<div>The '''Bitcoin Forum''' is a message board where people interested in the technical details and the development of Bitcoin software can talk to each other. The forum also has places for people who are interested in bitcoin [[:Category:Mining|mining]], in trading with bitcoin, and in the economics of Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
The domain name is owned by [[Sirius]]. It is administrated by [[:User:Theymos|theymos]].<br />
<br />
==History==<br />
<br />
Before the creation of the current Bitcoin Forum, Satoshi used a SourceForge forum. When Sirius provided hosting, the forum was moved to bitcoin.org/smf. Satoshi made several custom modifications to the forum software and theme.<br />
<br />
Satoshi's first non-test post on the forum was:<br />
<br />
<blockquote><p>I left the admin account set to the original SMF theme so if I somehow completely wedge the custom theme I can still get in to fix it.</p><br />
<br />
<p>I've got a neat little 12x12 coin image to replace those pip stars with. Should look nice. Also some nice button images to try.</p><br />
<br />
<p>The registration page has "hide your e-mail address" unchecked by default. I must fix that in php before we can open up.</p><br />
<br />
<p>The Announcements forum is currently moderator access only.</p></blockquote><br />
<br />
The forum was at some point moved to forum.bitcoin.org. The bitcoin.org domain name was also transferred from Satoshi to Sirius.<br />
<br />
In July, 2011 the forum was moved to bitcointalk.org in order to make it explicitly unofficial. The "forum" link on the bitcoin.org homepage was made to simply return the Google search results for the search terms "bitcoin forums". This was followed by Bitcoin Community members, very much in bitcoin's spirit of decentralisation, creating a number of alternative forums offering different moderatorial policies and using different software platforms. None of these alternative forums have yet reached the size of Bitcoin Talk.<br />
<br />
Later, the "forum" link was simply removed, further distancing Bitcoin Talk from the official bitcoin.org. As of April 21, 2012, Bitcoin Talk remains the first search result on Google thanks to its high page rank.<br />
<br />
On July 22, 2012, Bitcoin Talk reached its one millionth post.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[Bitcoin:Community portal]]<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
<br />
* [http://bitcointalk.org/ Bitcoin Talk]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Forums]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Sirius&diff=37944Sirius2013-05-23T08:18:41Z<p>Sirius: add link to bitcoin 0.2 release note</p>
<hr />
<div>Sirius (Martti Malmi) was the second Bitcoin developer after [[Satoshi Nakamoto|Satoshi]] and the founder of the [[Bitcoin Forum]]. He's not an active developer anymore, but continues to manage the domain names bitcointalk.org and bitcoin.org.<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references/><br />
*[http://sc5.io/blog/2013/02/sc5er-intro-the-bitcoin-guy/ SC5’er Intro: The Bitcoin Guy]<br />
*[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=4 Bitcointalk profile]<br />
*[http://www.iltasanomat.fi/digi/art-1288496063056.html Onko hän tulevaisuuden Linus Torvalds? (News article in Finnish)]<br />
*[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=16.0 Bitcoin 0.2 release note]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Sirius&diff=37942Sirius2013-05-23T07:51:25Z<p>Sirius: /* References */ fix</p>
<hr />
<div>Sirius (Martti Malmi) was the second Bitcoin developer after [[Satoshi Nakamoto|Satoshi]] and the founder of the [[Bitcoin Forum]]. He's not an active developer anymore, but continues to manage the domain names bitcointalk.org and bitcoin.org.<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references/><br />
*[http://sc5.io/blog/2013/02/sc5er-intro-the-bitcoin-guy/ SC5’er Intro: The Bitcoin Guy]<br />
*[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=4 Bitcointalk.org profile]<br />
*[http://www.iltasanomat.fi/digi/art-1288496063056.html Onko hän tulevaisuuden Linus Torvalds? (News article in Finnish)]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Sirius&diff=37940Sirius2013-05-23T07:51:04Z<p>Sirius: Shameless self-promotion</p>
<hr />
<div>Sirius (Martti Malmi) was the second Bitcoin developer after [[Satoshi Nakamoto|Satoshi]] and the founder of the [[Bitcoin Forum]]. He's not an active developer anymore, but continues to manage the domain names bitcointalk.org and bitcoin.org.<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
<references/><br />
*[http://sc5.io/blog/2013/02/sc5er-intro-the-bitcoin-guy/ SC5’er Intro: The Bitcoin Guy]<br />
*[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=4 SC5’er Intro: Bitcointalk.org profile]<br />
*[http://www.iltasanomat.fi/digi/art-1288496063056.html Onko hän tulevaisuuden Linus Torvalds? (News article in Finnish)]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&diff=10967Help:FAQ2011-06-16T12:40:49Z<p>Sirius: /* Economy */</p>
<hr />
<div>Here you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions.<br />
<br />
== General ==<br />
=== What are bitcoins? ===<br />
Bitcoins are the unit of currency of the Bitcoin system. A commonly used shorthand for this is “BTC” to refer to a price or amount (eg: “100 BTC”).<br />
A Bitcoin isn't tangible. It is just a number associated with a [[Address|Bitcoin Address]]. See also an [[Introduction|easy intro]] to bitcoin.<br />
<br />
=== How can I get Bitcoins? ===<br />
<br />
There are five ways to get Bitcoins:<br />
<br />
* Buy them on an exchange such as [https://www.mtgox.com/ Mt. Gox] or [http://www.bitcoin-otc.com/ #bitcoin-otc] on FreeNode.<br />
* Accept Bitcoins as payment for goods or services.<br />
* Find a local trader on [http://tradebitcoin.com tradebitcoin] (or somewhere else) and trade with him in cash.<br />
* Create a new [[block]] (currently yields 50 Bitcoins).<br />
* Participate in a [[Pooled mining|mining pool]].<br />
<br />
=== Can I buy Bitcoins with Paypal? ===<br />
<br />
While it's possible to find an individual who wishes to sell Bitcoin to you via Paypal, (perhaps via [http://www.bitcoin-otc.com/ #bitcoin-otc] ) most major exchanges do not allow funding through Paypal. This is due to repeated cases where someone pays for Bitcoins with Paypal, receives their Bitcoins, and then fraudulently complains to Paypal that they never received their goods. Paypal too often sides with the fraudulent buyer in this case, and so exchangers no longer allow this method of funding.<br />
<br />
Buying Bitcoins from individuals with this method is still possible, but requires mutual trust. In this case, Bitcoin seller beware.<br />
<br />
=== How are new Bitcoins created? ===<br />
<br />
[[File:total_bitcoins_over_time_graph.png|thumb|Number of bitcoins over time, assuming a perfect 10-minute interval.]]<br />
New coins are generated by a network node each time it finds the solution to a certain mathematical problem (i.e. creates a new [[block]]), which is difficult to perform and can demonstrate a [[proof of work]]. The reward for solving a block is [[controlled inflation|automatically adjusted]] so that in the first 4 years of the Bitcoin network, 10,500,000 BTC will be created. The amount is halved each 4 years, so it will be 5,250,000 over years 4-8, 2,625,000 over years 8-12 and so on. Thus the total number of coins will approach 21,000,000 BTC over time.<br />
<br />
In addition, built into the network is a system that attempts to allocate new coins in blocks about every 10 minutes, on average, somewhere on the network. As the number of people who attempt to generate these new coins changes, the difficulty of creating new coins changes. This happens in a manner that is agreed upon by the network as a whole, based upon the time taken to generate the previous 2016 blocks. The difficulty is therefore related to the average computing resources devoted to generate these new coins over the time it took to create these previous blocks. The likelihood of somebody "discovering" one of these blocks is based on the computer they are using compared to all of the computers also generating blocks on the network.<br />
<br />
=== What's the current total number of Bitcoins in existence? ===<br />
<br />
[http://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc Current count]<br />
<br />
The number of blocks times the coin value of a block is the number of coins in existence. The coin value of a block is 50 BTC for each of the first 210,000 blocks, 25 BTC for the next 210,000 blocks, then 12.5 BTC, 6.25 BTC and so on.<br />
<br />
=== How divisible are Bitcoins? ===<br />
<br />
Technically, a Bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimals using existing data structures, so 0.00000001 BTC is the smallest amount currently possible. Discussions about and ideas for ways to provide for even smaller quantities of Bitcoins may be created in the future if the need for them ever arises.<br />
<br />
=== What do I call the various denominations of Bitcoins? ===<br />
<br />
There is a lot of discussion about the naming of these fractions of Bitcoins. The leading candidates are:<br />
<br />
* 1 BTC = 1 Bitcoin<br />
* 0.01 BTC = 1 cBTC = 1 Centi-Bitcoin (also referred to as Bitcent)<br />
* 0.001 BTC = 1 mBTC = 1 Milli-Bitcoin (also referred to as mbit (pronounced em-bit) or millibit)<br />
* 0.000 001 BTC = 1 μBTC = 1 Micro-Bitcoin (also referred to as ubit (pronounced yu-bit) or microbit)<br />
<br />
The above follows the accepted international SI units for thousandths, millionths and billionths. There are many arguments against the special case of 0.01 BTC since it is unlikely to represent anything meaningful as the Bitcoin economy grows (it certainly won't be the equivalent of 0.01 USD, GBP or EUR). Equally, the inclusion of existing national currency denominations such as "cent", "nickel", "dime", "pence", "pound", "kopek" and so on are to be discouraged. This is a worldwide currency.<br />
<br />
One exception is the "satoshi" which is smallest denomination currently possible <br />
<br />
* 0.000 000 01 BTC = 1 Satoshi (pronounced sa-toh-shee)<br />
<br />
which is so named in honour of Satoshi Nakamoto the pseudonym of the inventor of Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
For an overview of all defined units of Bitcoin (including less common and niche units), see [[Units]].<br />
<br />
Further discussion on this topic can be found on the forums here:<br />
<br />
* [http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=14438.msg195287#msg195287 We need names]<br />
* [http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=8282.0 What to call 0.001 BTC]<br />
<br />
=== How does the halving work when the number gets really small? ===<br />
<br />
The reward will go from 0.00000001 BTC to 0. Then no more coins will likely be created. <br />
<br />
The calculation is done as a right bitwise shift of a 64-bit signed integer, which means it is divided by 2 and rounded down. The integer is equal to the value in BTC * 100,000,000. This is how all Bitcoin balances/values are stored internally.<br />
<br />
Keep in mind that using current rules this will take nearly 100 years before it becomes an issue and Bitcoins may change considerably before that happens.<br />
<br />
=== How long will it take to generate all the coins? ===<br />
<br />
The last block that will generate coins will be block #6,929,999. This should be generated around year 2140. Then the total number of coins in circulation will remain static at 20,999,999.9769 BTC.<br />
<br />
Even if the allowed precision is expanded from the current 8 decimals, the total BTC in circulation will always be slightly below 21 million (assuming everything else stays the same). For example, with 16 decimals of precision, the end total would be 20999999.999999999496 BTC.<br />
<br />
=== If no more coins are going to be generated, will more blocks be created? ===<br />
<br />
Absolutely! Even before the creation of coins ends, the use of [[transaction fee|transaction fees]] will likely make creating new blocks more valuable from the fees than the new coins being created. When coin generation ends, what will sustain the ability to use bitcoins will be these fees entirely. There will be blocks generated after block #6,929,999, assuming that people are still using Bitcoins at that time.<br />
<br />
=== But if no more coins are generated, what happens when Bitcoins are lost? Won't that be a problem? ===<br />
<br />
Not at all. Because of the law of supply and demand, when fewer Bitcoins are available the ones that are left will be in higher demand, and therefore will have a higher value. So when Bitcoins are lost, the remaining Bitcoins will increase in value to compensate. As the value of Bitcoins increase, the number of Bitcoins required to purchase an item '''de'''creases. This is known as a [[Deflationary spiral|deflationary economic model]]. Eventually, if and when it gets to the point where the largest transaction is less than 1BTC, then it's a simple matter of shifting the decimal place to the right a few places, and the system continues.<br />
<br />
=== If every transaction is broadcast via the network, does BitCoin scale? ===<br />
The Bitcoin protocol allows lightweight clients that can use Bitcoin without downloading the entire transaction history. As traffic grows and this becomes more critical, implementations of the concept will be developed. Full network nodes will at some point become a more specialized service.<br />
<br />
With some modifications to the software, full BitCoin nodes could easily keep up with both VISA and MasterCard combined, using only fairly modest hardware (a couple of racks of machines using todays hardware). It's worth noting that the MasterCard network is structured somewhat like BitCoin itself - as a peer to peer broadcast network.<br />
<br />
Learn more about [[Scalability]].<br />
<br />
=== Why do I have to wait 10 minutes before I can spend money I received? ===<br />
<br />
10 minutes is the average time taken to find a block. It can be significantly more or less time than that depending on luck; 10 minutes is simply the average case. <br />
<br />
Blocks (shown as "confirmations" in the GUI) are how the BitCoin achieves consensus on who owns what. Once a block is found everyone agrees that you now own those coins, so you can spend them again. Until then it's possible that some network nodes believe otherwise, if somebody is attempting to defraud the system by reversing a transaction. The more confirmations a transaction has, the less risk there is of a reversal. Only 6 blocks or 1 hour is enough to make reversal computationally impractical. This is dramatically better than credit cards which can see chargebacks occur up to three months after the original transaction!<br />
<br />
Why ten minutes specifically? It is a tradeoff chosen by Satoshi between propagation time of new blocks in large networks and the amount of work wasted due to chain splits. If that made no sense to you, don't worry. Reading [http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf the technical paper] should make things clearer.<br />
<br />
=== Do you have to wait 10 minutes in order to buy or sell things with BitCoin? ===<br />
<br />
No, it's reasonable to sell things without waiting for a confirmation as long as the transaction is not of high value.<br />
<br />
When people ask this question they are usually thinking about applications like supermarkets or snack machines, as discussed in [http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=423.msg3819#msg3819 this thread from July 2010]. Zero confirmation transactions still show up in the GUI, but you cannot spend them. You can however reason about the risk involved in assuming you ''will'' be able to spend them in future. In general, selling things that are fairly cheap (like snacks, digital downloads etc) for zero confirmations will not pose a problem if you are running a well connected node.<br />
<br />
=== Why does my Bitcoin address keep changing? ===<br />
<br />
Whenever the address listed in "Your address" receives a transaction, Bitcoin replaces it with a new address. This is meant to encourage you to use a new address for every transaction, which enhances [[anonymity]]. All of your old addresses are still usable: you can see them in ''Settings -> Your Receiving Addresses''.<br />
<br />
==Economy==<br />
=== Where does the value of Bitcoin stem from? What backs up Bitcoin? ===<br />
Bitcoins have value because they are accepted as payment by many. See the [[Trade|list of Bitcoin-accepting sites]].<br />
<br />
When we say that a currency is backed up by gold, we mean that there's a promise in place that you can exchange the currency for gold. In a sense, you could say that Bitcoin is "backed up" by the price tags of merchants – a price tag is a promise to exchange goods for a specified amount of currency.<br />
<br />
It's a common misconception that Bitcoins gain their value from the cost of electricity required to generate them. Cost doesn't equal value – hiring 1,000 men to shovel a big hole in the ground may be costly, but not valuable. Also, even though scarcity is a critical requirement for a useful currency, it alone doesn't make anything valuable. For example, your fingerprints are scarce, but that doesn't mean they have any exchange value.<br />
<br />
=== What if someone bought up all the existing Bitcoins? ===<br />
What if somebody bought up all the gold in the world? Well, by attempting to buy it all, the buyer would just drive the prices up until he runs out of money.<br />
<br />
Not all Bitcoins are for sale. Just as with gold, no one can buy a Bitcoin that isn't available for sale.<br />
<br />
=== Bitcoin's monetary policy causes a deflationary spiral ===<br />
See the article [[Deflationary spiral]].<br />
<br />
=== Doesn't Bitcoin unfairly benefit early adopters? ===<br />
Early adopters have a large number of bitcoins now because they took a risk and invested resources in an unproven technology. By so doing, they have helped Bitcoin become what it is now and what it will be in the future (hopefully, a ubiquitous decentralized digital currency). It is only fair they will reap the benefits of their successful investment.<br />
<br />
In any case, any bitcoin generated will probably change hands dozens of time as a medium of exchange, so the profit made from the initial distribution will be insignificant compared to the total commerce enabled by Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
=== Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme? ===<br />
In a Ponzi Scheme, the founders persuade investors that they’ll profit. Bitcoin does not make such a guarantee. There is no central entity, just individuals building an economy.<br />
<br />
A ponzi scheme is a zero sum game. Early adopters can only profit at the expense of late adopters. Bitcoin has possible win-win outcomes. Early adopters profit from the rise in value. Late adopters profit from the usefulness of a stable and widely accepted p2p currency.<br />
<br />
The fact that early adopters benefit more doesn't alone make anything a ponzi scheme. Apple stocks aren't ponzi even though the early investors got rich.<br />
<br />
=== Is Bitcoin a bubble? ===<br />
Yes, in the same way as the euro and dollar are. They only have value in exchange and no value in use. If everyone suddenly stopped accepting your dollars, euros or bitcoins, the "bubble" would burst and their value would drop to zero. But that is unlikely to happen: even in Somalia, where the government collapsed 20 years ago, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_shilling Somali shillings] are still accepted as payment.<br />
<br />
==Networking==<br />
=== Do I need to configure my firewall to run bitcoin? ===<br />
<br />
Bitcoin will connect to other nodes, usually on tcp port 8333. You will need to allow outgoing TCP connections to port 8333 if you want to allow your bitcoin client to connect to many nodes. Bitcoin will also try to connect to IRC (tcp port 6667) to meet other nodes to connect to.<br />
<br />
If you want to restrict your firewall rules to a few ips and/or don't want to allow IRC connection, you can find stable nodes in the [[Fallback Nodes|fallback nodes list]]. If your provider blocks the common IRC ports, note that lfnet also listens on port 7777. Connecting to this alternate port currently requires either recompiling Bitcoin, or changing routing rules. For example, on Linux you can evade a port 6667 block by doing something like this:<br />
<br />
echo 173.246.103.92 irc.lfnet.org >> /etc/hosts<br />
iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dest 173.246.103.92 --dport 6667 -j DNAT --to-destination :7777 -m comment --comment "bitcoind irc connection"<br />
<br />
<br />
=== How does the peer finding mechanism work? ===<br />
Bitcoin finds peers primarily by connecting to an IRC server (channel #bitcoin on irc.lfnet.org). If a connection to the IRC server cannot be established (like when connecting through TOR), an in-built node list will be used and the nodes will be queried for more node addresses.<br />
<br />
==Mining==<br />
===What is mining?===<br />
Mining is the process of spending computation power to find valid blocks and thus create new Bitcoins.<br />
<br />
Technically speaking, mining is the calculation of a [[hash]] of the previous block and a [[nonce]]. If the hash value is found to be less than the current [[difficulty]], a new block is formed and the miner gets 50 newly generated Bitcoins. If the hash is not less than the current difficulty, a new nonce is used, and a new hash is calculated. This is done thousands or millions of times per second by each miner.<br />
<br />
===I've been mining for a long time and haven't created any new Bitcoins. What's wrong?===<br />
<br />
In the early days of Bitcoin, it was easy for anyone to find new blocks using standard CPUs. As more and more people started mining, the [[difficulty]] of finding new blocks has greatly increased to the point where the average time for a CPU to find a single block can be many years. The only cost- or time-effective method of mining is using a high-end graphics card with special software (see also [[Why a GPU mines faster than a CPU]]). Since CPU mining is essentially useless, it may be removed from future versions of the Bitcoin software.<br />
<br />
===Is mining used for some useful computation?===<br />
The computations done when mining are internal to Bitcoin and not related to any other distributed computing projects. They serve the purpose of securing the Bitcoin network, which is useful.<br />
<br />
To give a general idea of the mining process, imagine this setup:<br />
<br />
payload = <some data related to things happening on the Bitcoin network><br />
nonce = 1<br />
hash = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( payload + nonce ) )<br />
<br />
The work performed by a miner consists of repeatedly increasing "nonce" until<br />
the hash function yields a value, that has the rare property of being below a certain<br />
target threshold. (In other words: The hash "starts with a certain number of zeroes",<br />
if you display it in the fixed-length representation, that is typically used.)<br />
<br />
As can be seen, the mining process doesn't compute anything special. It merely<br />
tries to find a number (also referred to as nonce) which - in combination with the payload -<br />
results in a hash with special properties.<br />
<br />
The advantage of using such a mechanism consists of the fact, that it is very easy to check a result: Given<br />
the payload and a specific nonce, only a single call of the hashing function<br />
is needed to verify that the hash has the required properties. Since there is no<br />
known way to find these hashes other than brute force, this can be used as a "proof of work"<br />
that someone invested a lot of computing power to find the correct nonce for this payload.<br />
<br />
This feature is then used in the Bitcoin network to secure various aspects. An attacker<br />
that wants to introduce malicious payload data into the network, will need to do the<br />
required proof of work before it will be accepted. And as long as honest miners have more<br />
computing power, they can always outpace an attacker.<br />
<br />
Also see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-work_system Proof-of-work system] on Wikipedia.<br />
<br />
===Is it not a waste of energy?===<br />
Spending energy on creating a free monetary system is hardly a waste. Also, services necessary for the operation of currently widespread monetary systems, such as banks and credit card companies, also spend energy, arguably more than Bitcoin would.<br />
<br />
===Why don't we use calculations that are also useful for some other purpose?===<br />
To provide security for the Bitcoin network, the calculations involved need to have some very specific features. These features are incompatible with leveraging the computation for other purposes.<br />
<br />
==Help==<br />
===I'd like to learn more. Where can I get help?===<br />
<br />
* Read the [[Introduction|introduction to bitcoin]] <br />
* See the videos, podcasts, and blog posts from the [[Press]]<br />
* Read and post on the [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums|forums]]<br />
* Chat on one of the [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Bitcoin IRC]] channels<br />
* Listen to [http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital-decentralized-currency/ this podcast], which goes into the details of how bitcoin works<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[Man page]]<br />
* [[Introduction]]<br />
<br />
[[de:FAQ]]<br />
[[zh-cn:FAQ]]<br />
[[fr:FAQ]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Technical]]<br />
[[Category:Vocabulary]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Deflationary_spiral&diff=9695Deflationary spiral2011-06-04T13:13:56Z<p>Sirius: /* Bitcoin */ added refered article name</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Deflationary spiral''' is an economic argument that proposes that runaway deflation can eventually lead to the collapse of the currency given certain conditions and constraints. It is a common criticism made against the viability of [[Bitcoin]].<br />
The ‘deflationary spiral’ is a real condition that affects the fiat fractional reserve backing system. Bitcoin is not affected by this because it is fundamentally different from fiat currency.<br /> See below for a dissenting argument on this topic. <br />
<br />
Deflation is a decline in the general price level. Deflation occurs when the price of goods and services, relative to a specific measure, decline. It is not necessarily that the value of the goods and services themselves declined, but can be because the value of the currency itself increased. <br />
<br />
For example, let us consider an economy comprised entirely of beef and oranges where the medium of exchange is gold. Both beef and oranges can decay and are not consistent, and therefore cannot be used as a currency. In order to trade, people exchange gold for either beef or oranges. They see gold as a store of value that they can use to purchase beef or oranges in the future. What happens when the economy grows and we can produce more beef and more oranges? The price of both beef and oranges will decline. To the extent our productive capacity for both beef and oranges increased at the same pace, the exchange value between the two (the amount of beef for a given number of oranges) will likely stay the same; however, those who held gold as a store of value would now be able to purchase more beef and more oranges for a given amount of gold. <br />
<br />
A deflationary spiral occurs when the value of a currency, relative to the goods in an economy, increases continually as a result of hoarding. As the value of the currency relative to the goods in the economy increase, people have the incentive to hoard the currency, because by merely holding it, they hope to be able to purchase more goods for less money in the future. A lack of currency available in the market causes the price of goods to further decrease, resulting in more hoarding. <br />
<br />
In our economy of beef and oranges it is easy to see how this could occur. First, people see a significant gain in productivity on the horizon; we will be able to produce more beef and oranges for the same effort in the future. The supply of gold, however, is fixed. As a result, people desire to hold gold, because they will be able to purchase more beef and oranges with their gold in the future than they can now. This will lead to a decline in the price of beef and oranges as measured by gold (an increase in the value of gold). Limiting the amount of currency in the market available for exchange can also make transactions more difficult. In a complex system where we do not only have beef, oranges and gold, this can result in a deflationary spiral where no one wishes to spend their currency and the economy itself slows as a result of the limited number of transactions. Limited demand with fixed output results in a decline in prices, which further exacerbates the problem. <br />
<br />
Alternative explanation:<br />
A deflationary spiral occurs when the price of a traded article increases at some given rate, which causes people to hoard it. As people hoard the commodity, less and less of it is available thus causing the price to go up even more. In turn, even more people hoard the commodity. Thus a feedback loop or spiral of deflation occurs.<br /><br />
<br />
In practice, there is only a limited amount of 'value' that can be placed upon a good before it becomes too attractive to trade for other goods (thus ending the spiral). The only time that the 'Deflationary Spiral' can happen (to it's conclusion) is when people can foresee a time where they are forced to use that particular traded article. See below for a dissenting argument on this topic. <br />
<br />
==In The Fiat Fractional Reserve Banking System==<br />
The fiat money that we trade consists of the principal of the loans of other people. All this money must be someday 'repaid.' When people save (pay back their loans), the total monetary supply contracts. When people spend (take out loans), the total monetary supply is increasing.<br />
<br />
If you have people who are hoarding money, the principal still needs to be repaid. Hoarding will make it harder for other people in the economy to pay back their loans.<br />
<br />
Because people foresee a time where they need to pay back their loans (a future fixed expense), when the value of the money starts to increase (deflation), those with loans will endeavour to pay back the loans quicker. This causes the monetary supply to reduce, reducing the total amount of money available for repayment of loans, again making it harder for people to pay back what they owe.<br />
<br />
This Deflationary spiral diverts funds away from the legitimate economy, to the repayment of debt. Causing the economy to stagnates and stop.<br />
<br />
==Bitcoin==<br />
The key difference is that people don't foresee a fixed cost (unit amount) that they must pay with Bitcoin. If the value of the Bitcoins that they own increases, then any future cost will take a proportionally smaller amount of Bitcoins. There isn't any fixed incentive to holding Bitcoin other than speculation.<br />
<br />
If the economy that uses Bitcoin grows, the per-unit value of Bitcoin proportionally increases also.<br />
<br />
Everything is the opposite to the fiat fractional reserve banking system (because Bitcoin isn't a debt but an asset). Bitcoins '''only''' deflate in value when the Bitcoin Economy is '''growing'''.<br />
<br />
Because the Deflationary spiral is a real problem in the traditional monetary system, doesn't necessarily mean that it will also be a problem in the Bitcoin economy.<br />
<br />
<blockquote><br />
"Elaborate controls to make sure that currency is not produced in greater numbers is not something any other currency, like the dollar or the euro, has," says Russ Roberts, professor of economics at George Mason University. The consequence will likely be slow and steady deflation, as the growth in circulating bitcoins declines and their value rises.<br />
<br />
"That is considered very destructive in today's economies, mostly because when it occurs, it is unexpected," says Roberts. But he thinks that won't apply in an economy where deflation is expected. "In a Bitcoin world, everyone would anticipate that, and they know what they got paid would buy more then than it would now."<br />
</blockquote><br />
--MIT Technology Review: [http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/37619/page2/ What Bitcoin Is, and Why It Matters], May 25, 2011<br />
<br />
==Alternative Viewpoint==<br />
A deflationary spiral occurs when there is an incentive to hoard because of declining prices, which results in even less available currency on the market, further perpetuating declining prices. <br />
<br />
How could this occur in the Bitcoin market? First, we see massive deflation occurring in the market right now, as the value of a Bitcoin relative to other currencies, and as a result goods and services as well, increases. To the extent there is value in a Bitcoin because there will be a limited number of them in the future and they are one of the few untraceable mediums of exchange that cannot be subjected to expropriation (at the moment), it is easy to see why their value is currently increasing. Already, however, this is creating the incentive for hoarding. Given there is a known limit on the future amount of Bitcoins in existence, the market expects that the "price" of Bitcoins as measured in other currencies will increase.<br />
<br />
While this will not necessarily lead to a deflationary spiral, it will likely cause serious problems for Bitcoin which could ultimately trigger Bitcoin's demise, as outlined below. <br />
<br />
1. Currently, with knowledge that there will be a limited number of Bitcoins in the future, the price of Bitcoins is increasingly rapidly. The result is limited price stability. Limited price stability has a negative impact on the acceptance of a currency. Vendors do not wish to speculate on the price of currency when selling goods or services.<br />
<br />
2. Once prices do stabilize in the future, there will always be the knowledge that the number of Bitcoins in the market is limited. As a result, to the extent the GDP of the Bitcoin economy increases (the total value of all Bitcoin transactions completed increases in "real" terms), there will continue to be price deflation. Price deflation rewards the holders of the existing currency and provides an incentive to hoard the currency. The value held by the existing holders of the currency, and the resulting reward that they receive for future deflation, can be eliminated by a competing system. As a result, to the extent there is an expectation for inflation because demand for the currency itself is greater than the supply of Bitcoins, a competing system will emerge. <br />
<br />
Fundamentally, the growth of Bitcoin will be limited because of the knowledge that there is a limited supply of coins. The fact that there is a limited supply of coins means that there is an expectation of deflation if the economy grows. The "cost" of that deflation, borne by new users, can be avoided if an alternative system is used. <br />
<br />
While this is not a traditional deflationary spiral, the constraint on the actual money supply can produce the same result, which is a limit on the value of goods and services transacted using Bitcoins.<br />
<br />
What can be done to deal with this issue?<br />
<br />
There is a simple solution to this problem. For Bitcoins to avoid being supplanted by an alternative electronic currency in the future, the supply of Bitcoins must grow in proportion to the total value of transactions undertaken using the system. This will lead to price stability and will eliminate the benefit that accrues to existing holders of the currency. This is fundamentally necessary to protect the existing value of Bitcoins. If this does not occur then an alternative system that does recognize the risk of deflation and price instability will present itself which will achieve a greater level of acceptance, destroying Bitcoin in the process. <br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[Controlled inflation]]<br />
* [[Bitcoin Days Destroyed]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Economics]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Deflationary_spiral&diff=9250Deflationary spiral2011-05-30T06:55:15Z<p>Sirius: /* Bitcoin */</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Deflationary spiral''' is an economic argument that proposes that runaway deflation can eventually lead to the collapse of the currency given certain conditions and constraints. It is a common criticism made against the viability of [[Bitcoin]].<br />
The ‘deflationary spiral’ is a real condition that affects the fiat fractional reserve backing system. Bitcoin is not affected by this because it is fundamentally different from fiat currency.<br /> See below for a dissenting argument on this topic. <br />
<br />
Deflation is a decline in the general price level. Deflation occurs when the price of goods and services, relative to a specific measure, decline. It is not necessarily that the value of the goods and services themselves declined, but can be because the value of the currency itself increased. <br />
<br />
For example, let us consider an economy comprised entirely of beef and oranges where the medium of exchange is gold. Both beef and oranges can decay and are not consistent, and therefore cannot be used as a currency. In order to trade, people exchange gold for either beef or oranges. They see gold as a store of value that they can use to purchase beef or oranges in the future. What happens when the economy grows and we can produce more beef and more oranges? The price of both beef and oranges will decline. To the extent our productive capacity for both beef and oranges increased at the same pace, the exchange value between the two (the amount of beef for a given number of oranges) will likely stay the same; however, those who held gold as a store of value would now be able to purchase more beef and more oranges for a given amount of gold. <br />
<br />
A deflationary spiral occurs when the value of a currency, relative to the goods in an economy, increases continually as a result of hoarding. As the value of the currency relative to the goods in the economy increase, people have the incentive to hoard the currency, because by merely holding it, they hope to be able to purchase more goods for less money in the future. A lack of currency available in the market causes the price of goods to further decrease, resulting in more hoarding. <br />
<br />
In our economy of beef and oranges it is easy to see how this could occur. First, people see a significant gain in productivity on the horizon; we will be able to produce more beef and oranges for the same effort in the future. The supply of gold, however, is fixed. As a result, people desire to hold gold, because they will be able to purchase more beef and oranges with their gold in the future than they can now. This will lead to a decline in the price of beef and oranges as measured by gold (an increase in the value of gold). Limiting the amount of currency in the market available for exchange can also make transactions more difficult. In a complex system where we do not only have beef, oranges and gold, this can result in a deflationary spiral where no one wishes to spend their currency and the economy itself slows as a result of the limited number of transactions. Limited demand with fixed output results in a decline in prices, which further exacerbates the problem. <br />
<br />
Alternative explanation:<br />
A deflationary spiral occurs when the price of a traded article increases at some given rate, which causes people to hoard it. As people hoard the commodity, less and less of it is available thus causing the price to go up even more. In turn, even more people hoard the commodity. Thus a feedback loop or spiral of deflation occurs.<br /><br />
<br />
In practice, there is only a limited amount of 'value' that can be placed upon a good before it becomes too attractive to trade for other goods (thus ending the spiral). The only time that the 'Deflationary Spiral' can happen (to it's conclusion) is when people can foresee a time where they are forced to use that particular traded article. See below for a dissenting argument on this topic. <br />
<br />
==In The Fiat Fractional Reserve Banking System==<br />
The fiat money that we trade consists of the principal of the loans of other people. All this money must be someday 'repaid.' When people save (pay back their loans), the total monetary supply contracts. When people spend (take out loans), the total monetary supply is increasing.<br />
<br />
If you have people who are hoarding money, the principal still needs to be repaid. Hoarding will make it harder for other people in the economy to pay back their loans.<br />
<br />
Because people foresee a time where they need to pay back their loans (a future fixed expense), when the value of the money starts to increase (deflation), those with loans will endeavour to pay back the loans quicker. This causes the monetary supply to reduce, reducing the total amount of money available for repayment of loans, again making it harder for people to pay back what they owe.<br />
<br />
This Deflationary spiral diverts funds away from the legitimate economy, to the repayment of debt. Causing the economy to stagnates and stop.<br />
<br />
==Bitcoin==<br />
The key difference is that people don't foresee a fixed cost (unit amount) that they must pay with Bitcoin. If the value of the Bitcoins that they own increases, then any future cost will take a proportionally smaller amount of Bitcoins. There isn't any fixed incentive to holding Bitcoin other than speculation.<br />
<br />
If the economy that uses Bitcoin grows, the per-unit value of Bitcoin proportionally increases also.<br />
<br />
Everything is the opposite to the fiat fractional reserve banking system (because Bitcoin isn't a debt but an asset). Bitcoins '''only''' deflate in value when the Bitcoin Economy is '''growing'''.<br />
<br />
Because the Deflationary spiral is a real problem in the traditional monetary system, doesn't necessarily mean that it will also be a problem in the Bitcoin economy.<br />
<br />
<blockquote><br />
"Elaborate controls to make sure that currency is not produced in greater numbers is not something any other currency, like the dollar or the euro, has," says Russ Roberts, professor of economics at George Mason University. The consequence will likely be slow and steady deflation, as the growth in circulating bitcoins declines and their value rises.<br />
<br />
"That is considered very destructive in today's economies, mostly because when it occurs, it is unexpected," says Roberts. But he thinks that won't apply in an economy where deflation is expected. "In a Bitcoin world, everyone would anticipate that, and they know what they got paid would buy more then than it would now."<br />
</blockquote><br />
--MIT Technology Review [http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/37619/page2/ article]<br />
<br />
==Alternative Viewpoint==<br />
A deflationary spiral occurs when there is an incentive to hoard because of declining prices, which results in even less available currency on the market, further perpetuating declining prices. <br />
<br />
How could this occur in the Bitcoin market? First, we see massive deflation occurring in the market right now, as the value of a Bitcoin relative to other currencies, and as a result goods and services as well, increases. To the extent there is value in a Bitcoin because there will be a limited number of them in the future and they are one of the few untraceable mediums of exchange that cannot be subjected to expropriation (at the moment), it is easy to see why their value is currently increasing. Already, however, this is creating the incentive for hoarding. Given there is a known limit on the future amount of Bitcoins in existence, the market expects that the "price" of Bitcoins as measured in other currencies will increase.<br />
<br />
While this will not necessarily lead to a deflationary spiral, it will likely cause serious problems for Bitcoin which could ultimately trigger Bitcoin's demise, as outlined below. <br />
<br />
1. Currently, with knowledge that there will be a limited number of Bitcoins in the future, the price of Bitcoins is increasingly rapidly. The result is limited price stability. Limited price stability has a negative impact on the acceptance of a currency. Vendors do not wish to speculate on the price of currency when selling goods or services.<br />
<br />
2. Once prices do stabilize in the future, there will always be the knowledge that the number of Bitcoins in the market is limited. As a result, to the extent the GDP of the Bitcoin economy increases (the total value of all Bitcoin transactions completed increases in "real" terms), there will continue to be price deflation. Price deflation rewards the holders of the existing currency and provides an incentive to hoard the currency. The value held by the existing holders of the currency, and the resulting reward that they receive for future deflation, can be eliminated by a competing system. As a result, to the extent there is an expectation for inflation because demand for the currency itself is greater than the supply of Bitcoins, a competing system will emerge. <br />
<br />
Fundamentally, the growth of Bitcoin will be limited because of the knowledge that there is a limited supply of coins. The fact that there is a limited supply of coins means that there is an expectation of deflation if the economy grows. The "cost" of that deflation, borne by new users, can be avoided if an alternative system is used. <br />
<br />
While this is not a traditional deflationary spiral, the constraint on the actual money supply can produce the same result, which is a limit on the value of goods and services transacted using Bitcoins.<br />
<br />
What can be done to deal with this issue?<br />
<br />
There is a simple solution to this problem. For Bitcoins to avoid being supplanted by an alternative electronic currency in the future, the supply of Bitcoins must grow in proportion to the total value of transactions undertaken using the system. This will lead to price stability and will eliminate the benefit that accrues to existing holders of the currency. This is fundamentally necessary to protect the existing value of Bitcoins. If this does not occur then an alternative system that does recognize the risk of deflation and price instability will present itself which will achieve a greater level of acceptance, destroying Bitcoin in the process. <br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[Controlled inflation]]<br />
* [[Bitcoin Days Destroyed]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Economics]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Deflationary_spiral&diff=9249Deflationary spiral2011-05-30T06:48:01Z<p>Sirius: /* Bitcoin */ add russ roberts quote</p>
<hr />
<div>'''Deflationary spiral''' is an economic argument that proposes that runaway deflation can eventually lead to the collapse of the currency given certain conditions and constraints. It is a common criticism made against the viability of [[Bitcoin]].<br />
The ‘deflationary spiral’ is a real condition that affects the fiat fractional reserve backing system. Bitcoin is not affected by this because it is fundamentally different from fiat currency.<br /> See below for a dissenting argument on this topic. <br />
<br />
Deflation is a decline in the general price level. Deflation occurs when the price of goods and services, relative to a specific measure, decline. It is not necessarily that the value of the goods and services themselves declined, but can be because the value of the currency itself increased. <br />
<br />
For example, let us consider an economy comprised entirely of beef and oranges where the medium of exchange is gold. Both beef and oranges can decay and are not consistent, and therefore cannot be used as a currency. In order to trade, people exchange gold for either beef or oranges. They see gold as a store of value that they can use to purchase beef or oranges in the future. What happens when the economy grows and we can produce more beef and more oranges? The price of both beef and oranges will decline. To the extent our productive capacity for both beef and oranges increased at the same pace, the exchange value between the two (the amount of beef for a given number of oranges) will likely stay the same; however, those who held gold as a store of value would now be able to purchase more beef and more oranges for a given amount of gold. <br />
<br />
A deflationary spiral occurs when the value of a currency, relative to the goods in an economy, increases continually as a result of hoarding. As the value of the currency relative to the goods in the economy increase, people have the incentive to hoard the currency, because by merely holding it, they hope to be able to purchase more goods for less money in the future. A lack of currency available in the market causes the price of goods to further decrease, resulting in more hoarding. <br />
<br />
In our economy of beef and oranges it is easy to see how this could occur. First, people see a significant gain in productivity on the horizon; we will be able to produce more beef and oranges for the same effort in the future. The supply of gold, however, is fixed. As a result, people desire to hold gold, because they will be able to purchase more beef and oranges with their gold in the future than they can now. This will lead to a decline in the price of beef and oranges as measured by gold (an increase in the value of gold). Limiting the amount of currency in the market available for exchange can also make transactions more difficult. In a complex system where we do not only have beef, oranges and gold, this can result in a deflationary spiral where no one wishes to spend their currency and the economy itself slows as a result of the limited number of transactions. Limited demand with fixed output results in a decline in prices, which further exacerbates the problem. <br />
<br />
Alternative explanation:<br />
A deflationary spiral occurs when the price of a traded article increases at some given rate, which causes people to hoard it. As people hoard the commodity, less and less of it is available thus causing the price to go up even more. In turn, even more people hoard the commodity. Thus a feedback loop or spiral of deflation occurs.<br /><br />
<br />
In practice, there is only a limited amount of 'value' that can be placed upon a good before it becomes too attractive to trade for other goods (thus ending the spiral). The only time that the 'Deflationary Spiral' can happen (to it's conclusion) is when people can foresee a time where they are forced to use that particular traded article. See below for a dissenting argument on this topic. <br />
<br />
==In The Fiat Fractional Reserve Banking System==<br />
The fiat money that we trade consists of the principal of the loans of other people. All this money must be someday 'repaid.' When people save (pay back their loans), the total monetary supply contracts. When people spend (take out loans), the total monetary supply is increasing.<br />
<br />
If you have people who are hoarding money, the principal still needs to be repaid. Hoarding will make it harder for other people in the economy to pay back their loans.<br />
<br />
Because people foresee a time where they need to pay back their loans (a future fixed expense), when the value of the money starts to increase (deflation), those with loans will endeavour to pay back the loans quicker. This causes the monetary supply to reduce, reducing the total amount of money available for repayment of loans, again making it harder for people to pay back what they owe.<br />
<br />
This Deflationary spiral diverts funds away from the legitimate economy, to the repayment of debt. Causing the economy to stagnates and stop.<br />
<br />
==Bitcoin==<br />
The key difference is that people don't foresee a fixed cost (unit amount) that they must pay with Bitcoin. If the value of the Bitcoins that they own increases, then any future cost will take a proportionally smaller amount of Bitcoins. There isn't any fixed incentive to holding Bitcoin other than speculation.<br />
<br />
If the economy that uses Bitcoin grows, the per-unit value of Bitcoin proportionally increases also.<br />
<br />
Everything is the opposite to the fiat fractional reserve banking system (because Bitcoin isn't a debt but an asset). Bitcoins '''only''' deflate in value when the Bitcoin Economy is '''growing'''.<br />
<br />
Because the Deflationary spiral is a real problem in the traditional monetary system, doesn't necessarily mean that it will also be a problem in the Bitcoin economy.<br />
<br />
<blockquote><br />
"Elaborate controls to make sure that currency is not produced in greater numbers is not something any other currency, like the dollar or the euro, has," says Russ Roberts, professor of economics at George Mason University. The consequence will likely be slow and steady deflation, as the growth in circulating bitcoins declines and their value rises.<br />
<br />
"That is considered very destructive in today's economies, mostly because when it occurs, it is unexpected," says Roberts. But he thinks that won't apply in an economy where deflation is expected. "In a Bitcoin world, everyone would anticipate that, and they know what they got paid would buy more then than it would now."<br />
</blockquote><br />
<br />
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/37619/page2/<br />
<br />
==Alternative Viewpoint==<br />
A deflationary spiral occurs when there is an incentive to hoard because of declining prices, which results in even less available currency on the market, further perpetuating declining prices. <br />
<br />
How could this occur in the Bitcoin market? First, we see massive deflation occurring in the market right now, as the value of a Bitcoin relative to other currencies, and as a result goods and services as well, increases. To the extent there is value in a Bitcoin because there will be a limited number of them in the future and they are one of the few untraceable mediums of exchange that cannot be subjected to expropriation (at the moment), it is easy to see why their value is currently increasing. Already, however, this is creating the incentive for hoarding. Given there is a known limit on the future amount of Bitcoins in existence, the market expects that the "price" of Bitcoins as measured in other currencies will increase.<br />
<br />
While this will not necessarily lead to a deflationary spiral, it will likely cause serious problems for Bitcoin which could ultimately trigger Bitcoin's demise, as outlined below. <br />
<br />
1. Currently, with knowledge that there will be a limited number of Bitcoins in the future, the price of Bitcoins is increasingly rapidly. The result is limited price stability. Limited price stability has a negative impact on the acceptance of a currency. Vendors do not wish to speculate on the price of currency when selling goods or services.<br />
<br />
2. Once prices do stabilize in the future, there will always be the knowledge that the number of Bitcoins in the market is limited. As a result, to the extent the GDP of the Bitcoin economy increases (the total value of all Bitcoin transactions completed increases in "real" terms), there will continue to be price deflation. Price deflation rewards the holders of the existing currency and provides an incentive to hoard the currency. The value held by the existing holders of the currency, and the resulting reward that they receive for future deflation, can be eliminated by a competing system. As a result, to the extent there is an expectation for inflation because demand for the currency itself is greater than the supply of Bitcoins, a competing system will emerge. <br />
<br />
Fundamentally, the growth of Bitcoin will be limited because of the knowledge that there is a limited supply of coins. The fact that there is a limited supply of coins means that there is an expectation of deflation if the economy grows. The "cost" of that deflation, borne by new users, can be avoided if an alternative system is used. <br />
<br />
While this is not a traditional deflationary spiral, the constraint on the actual money supply can produce the same result, which is a limit on the value of goods and services transacted using Bitcoins.<br />
<br />
What can be done to deal with this issue?<br />
<br />
There is a simple solution to this problem. For Bitcoins to avoid being supplanted by an alternative electronic currency in the future, the supply of Bitcoins must grow in proportion to the total value of transactions undertaken using the system. This will lead to price stability and will eliminate the benefit that accrues to existing holders of the currency. This is fundamentally necessary to protect the existing value of Bitcoins. If this does not occur then an alternative system that does recognize the risk of deflation and price instability will present itself which will achieve a greater level of acceptance, destroying Bitcoin in the process. <br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[Controlled inflation]]<br />
* [[Bitcoin Days Destroyed]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Economics]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&diff=9225Help:FAQ2011-05-29T18:29:21Z<p>Sirius: /* Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme? */</p>
<hr />
<div>Here you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions.<br />
<br />
== General ==<br />
=== What are bitcoins? ===<br />
Bitcoins are the unit of currency of the Bitcoin system. A commonly used shorthand for this is “BTC” to refer to a price or amount (eg: “100 BTC”)<br />
A Bitcoin isn't actually a 'thing' you can point at. It is just a number associated with a [[Address|Bitcoin Address]]. See also an [[Introduction|easy intro]] to bitcoin.<br />
<br />
=== How can I get Bitcoins? ===<br />
<br />
There are four ways to get Bitcoins:<br />
<br />
* Buy them on an exchange such as [https://www.mtgox.com/ Mt. Gox] or [http://www.bitcoin-otc.com/ #bitcoin-otc] on FreeNode.<br />
* Accept Bitcoins as payment for goods or services.<br />
* Find a local trader on [http://tradebitcoin.com tradebitcoin] (or somewhere else) and trade with him in cash<br />
* Create a new [[block]] (currently yields 50 Bitcoins).<br />
* Participate in a [[Pooled mining|mining pool]].<br />
<br />
=== Can I buy Bitcoins with Paypal? ===<br />
<br />
While it's possible to find an individual who wishes to sell Bitcoin to you via Paypal, (perhaps via [http://www.bitcoin-otc.com/ #bitcoin-otc] ) most major exchanges do not allow funding through Paypal. This is due to repeated cases where someone pays for Bitcoins with Paypal, receives their Bitcoins, and then fraudulently complains to Paypal that they never received their goods. Paypal too often sides with the fraudulent buyer in this case, and so exchangers no longer allow this method of funding.<br />
<br />
Buying Bitcoins from individuals with this method is still possible, but requires mutual trust. In this case, Bitcoin seller beware.<br />
<br />
=== How are new Bitcoins created? ===<br />
<br />
[[File:total_bitcoins_over_time_graph.png|thumb|Number of bitcoins over time, assuming a perfect 10-minute interval.]]<br />
New coins are generated by a network node each time it finds the solution to a certain mathematical problem (i.e. creates a new [[block]]), which is difficult to perform and can demonstrate a [[proof of work]]. The reward for solving a block is [[controlled inflation|automatically adjusted]] so that in the first 4 years of the Bitcoin network, 10,500,000 BTC will be created. The amount is halved each 4 years, so it will be 5,250,000 over years 4-8, 2,625,000 over years 8-12 and so on. Thus the total number of coins will approach 21,000,000 BTC over time.<br />
<br />
In addition, built into the network is a system that attempts to allocate new coins in blocks about every 10 minutes, on average, somewhere on the network. As the number of people who attempt to generate these new coins changes, the difficulty of creating new coins changes. This happens in a manner that is agreed upon by the network as a whole, based upon the time taken to generate the previous 2016 blocks. The difficulty is therefore related to the average computing resources devoted to generate these new coins over the time it took to create these previous blocks. The likelihood of somebody "discovering" one of these blocks is based on the computer they are using compared to all of the computers also generating blocks on the network.<br />
<br />
=== What's the current total number of Bitcoins in existence? ===<br />
<br />
[http://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc Current count]<br />
<br />
The number of blocks times the coin value of a block is the number of coins in existence. The coin value of a block is 50 BTC for each of the first 210,000 blocks, 25 BTC for the next 210,000 blocks, then 12.5 BTC, 6.25 BTC and so on.<br />
<br />
=== How divisible are Bitcoins? ===<br />
<br />
Technically, a Bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimals using existing data structures, so 0.00000001 BTC is the smallest amount currently possible. Discussions about and ideas for ways to provide for even smaller quantities of Bitcoins may be created in the future if the need for them ever arises.<br />
<br />
=== How does the halving work when the number gets really small? ===<br />
<br />
The reward will go from 0.00000001 BTC to 0. Then no more coins will likely be created. <br />
<br />
The calculation is done as a right bitwise shift of a 64-bit signed integer, which means it is divided by 2 and rounded down. The integer is equal to the value in BTC * 100,000,000. This is how all Bitcoin balances/values are stored internally.<br />
<br />
Keep in mind that using current rules this will take nearly 100 years before it becomes an issue and Bitcoins may change considerably before that happens.<br />
<br />
=== How long will it take to generate all the coins? ===<br />
<br />
The last block that will generate coins will be block #6,929,999. This should be generated around year 2140. Then the total number of coins in circulation will remain static at 20,999,999.9769 BTC.<br />
<br />
Even if the allowed precision is expanded from the current 8 decimals, the total BTC in circulation will always be slightly below 21 million (assuming everything else stays the same). For example, with 16 decimals of precision, the end total would be 20999999.999999999496 BTC.<br />
<br />
=== If no more coins are going to be generated, will more blocks be created? ===<br />
<br />
Absolutely! Even before the creation of coins ends, the use of [[transaction fee|transaction fees]] will likely make creating new blocks more valuable from the fees than the new coins being created. When coin generation ends, what will sustain the ability to use bitcoins will be these fees entirely. There will be blocks generated after block #6,929,999, assuming that people are still using Bitcoins at that time.<br />
<br />
=== But if no more coins are generated, what happens when Bitcoins are lost? Won't that be a problem? ===<br />
<br />
Not at all. Because of the law of supply and demand, when fewer Bitcoins are available the ones that are left will be in higher demand, and therefore will have a higher value. So when Bitcoins are lost, the remaining Bitcoins will increase in value to compensate. As the value of Bitcoins increase, the number of Bitcoins required to purchase an item '''de'''creases. This is known as a [[Deflationary spiral|deflationary economic model]]. Eventually, if and when it gets to the point where the largest transaction is less that 1BTC, then it's a simple matter of shifting the decimal place to the right a few places, and the system continues.<br />
<br />
=== If every transaction is broadcast via the network, does BitCoin scale? ===<br />
The Bitcoin protocol allows lightweight clients that can use Bitcoin without downloading the entire transaction history. As traffic grows and this becomes more critical, implementations of the concept will be developed. Full network nodes will at some point become a more specialized service.<br />
<br />
With some modifications to the software, full BitCoin nodes could easily keep up with both VISA and MasterCard combined, using only fairly modest hardware (a couple of racks of machines using todays hardware). It's worth noting that the MasterCard network is structured somewhat like BitCoin itself - as a peer to peer broadcast network.<br />
<br />
Learn more about [[Scalability]].<br />
<br />
=== How does the BitCoin network handle [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAP_theorem the CAP theorem]? ===<br />
<br />
=== Why do I have to wait 10 minutes before I can spend money I received? ===<br />
<br />
The reason you have to wait 10 minutes is that's the average time taken to find a block. It can be significantly more or less time than that depending on luck, 10 minutes is simply the average case. <br />
<br />
Blocks (shown as "confirmations" in the GUI) are how the BitCoin achieves consensus on who owns what. Once a block is found everyone agrees that you now own those coins, so you can spend them again. Until then it's possible that some network nodes believe otherwise, if somebody is attempting to defraud the system by reversing a transaction. The more confirmations a transaction has, the less risk there is of a reversal. Only 6 blocks or 1 hour is enough to make reversal computationally impractical. This is dramatically better than credit cards which can see chargebacks occur up to three months after the original transaction!<br />
<br />
Why ten minutes specifically? It is a tradeoff chosen by Satoshi between propagation time of new blocks in large networks and the amount of work wasted due to chain splits. If that made no sense to you, don't worry. Reading [http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf the technical paper] should make things clearer.<br />
<br />
=== Do you have to wait 10 minutes in order to buy or sell things with BitCoin? ===<br />
<br />
No, it's reasonable to sell things without waiting for a confirmation as long as the transaction is not of high value.<br />
<br />
When people ask this question they are usually thinking about applications like supermarkets or snack machines, as discussed in [http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=423.msg3819#msg3819 this thread from July 2010]. Zero confirmation transactions still show up in the GUI, but you cannot spend them. You can however reason about the risk involved in assuming you ''will'' be able to spend them in future. In general, selling things that are fairly cheap (like snacks, digital downloads etc) for zero confirmations will not pose a problem if you are running a well connected node.<br />
<br />
=== Why does my Bitcoin address keep changing? ===<br />
<br />
Whenever the address listed in "Your address" receives a transaction, Bitcoin replaces it with a new address. This is meant to encourage you to use a new address for every transaction, which enhances [[anonymity]]. All of your old addresses are still usable: you can see them in ''Settings -> Your Receiving Addresses''.<br />
<br />
==Economy==<br />
=== Where does the value of Bitcoin stem from? What backs up Bitcoin? ===<br />
Bitcoins have value because they are accepted as payment by many. See the [[Trade|list of Bitcoin-accepting sites]].<br />
<br />
When we say that a currency is backed up by gold, we mean that there's a promise in place that you can exchange the currency for gold. In a sense, you could say that Bitcoin is "backed up" by the price tags of merchants – a price tag is a promise to exchange goods for a specified amount of currency.<br />
<br />
It's a common misconception that Bitcoins gain their value from the cost of electricity required to generate them. Cost doesn't equal value – hiring 1,000 men to shovel a big hole in the ground may be costly, but not valuable. Also, even though scarcity is a critical requirement for a useful currency, it alone doesn't make anything valuable. For example, your fingerprints are scarce, but that doesn't mean they have any exchange value.<br />
<br />
=== What if someone bought up all the existing Bitcoins? ===<br />
What if somebody bought up all the gold in the world? Well, by attempting to buy it all, the buyer would just drive the prices up until he runs out of money.<br />
<br />
Not all Bitcoins are for sale. Just as with gold, no one can buy a Bitcoin that isn't available for sale.<br />
<br />
=== Bitcoin's monetary policy causes a deflationary spiral ===<br />
See the article [[Deflationary spiral]].<br />
<br />
=== Doesn't Bitcoin unfairly benefit early adopters? ===<br />
Early adopters have a large number of bitcoins now because they took a risk and invested resources in an unproven technology. By so doing, they have helped Bitcoin become what it is now and what it will be in the future (hopefully, a ubiquitous decentralized digital currency). It is only fair they will reap the benefits of their successful investment.<br />
<br />
In any case, any bitcoin generated will probably change hands dozens of time as a medium of exchange, so the profit made from the initial distribution will be insignificant compared to the total commerce enabled by Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
=== Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme? ===<br />
In a Ponzi Scheme, the founders persuade investors that they’ll profit. Bitcoin does not make such a guarantee. There is no central entity, just individuals building an economy.<br />
<br />
A ponzi scheme is a zero sum game. Early adopters can only profit at the expense of late adopters. Bitcoin has possible win-win outcomes. Early adopters profit from the rise in value. Late adopters profit from the usefulness of a stable and widely accepted p2p currency.<br />
<br />
The fact that early adopters benefit more doesn't alone make anything a ponzi scheme. Apple stocks aren't ponzi even though the early investors got rich.<br />
<br />
==Networking==<br />
=== Do I need to configure my firewall to run bitcoin? ===<br />
<br />
Bitcoin will connect to other nodes, usually on tcp port 8333. You will need to allow outgoing TCP connections to port 8333 if you want to allow your bitcoin client to connect to many nodes. Bitcoin will also try to connect to IRC (tcp port 6667) to meet other nodes to connect to.<br />
<br />
If you want to restrict your firewall rules to a few ips and/or don't want to allow IRC connection, you can find stable nodes in the [[Fallback Nodes|fallback nodes list]]. If your provider blocks the common IRC ports, note that lfnet also listens on port 7777. Connecting to this alternate port currently requires either recompiling Bitcoin, or changing routing rules. For example, on Linux you can evade a port 6667 block by doing something like this:<br />
<br />
echo 173.246.103.92 irc.lfnet.org >> /etc/hosts<br />
iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dest 173.246.103.92 --dport 6667 -j DNAT --to-destination :7777 -m comment --comment "bitcoind irc connection"<br />
<br />
<br />
=== How does the peer finding mechanism work? ===<br />
Bitcoin finds peers primarily by connecting to an IRC server (channel #bitcoin on irc.lfnet.org). If a connection to the IRC server cannot be established (like when connecting through TOR), an in-built node list will be used and the nodes will be queried for more node addresses.<br />
<br />
==Mining==<br />
===What is mining?===<br />
Mining is the process of spending computation power to find valid blocks and thus create new Bitcoins.<br />
<br />
Technically speaking, mining is the calculation of a [[hash]] of the previous block and a [[nonce]]. If the hash value is found to be less than the current [[difficulty]], a new block is formed and the miner gets 50 newly generated Bitcoins. If the hash is not less than the current difficulty, a new nonce is used, and a new hash is calculated. This is done thousands or millions of times per second by each miner.<br />
<br />
===I've been mining for a long time and haven't created any new Bitcoins. What's wrong?===<br />
<br />
In the early days of Bitcoin, it was easy for anyone to find new blocks using standard CPUs. As more and more people started mining, the [[difficulty]] of finding new blocks has greatly increased to the point where the average time for a CPU to find a single block can be many years. The only cost- or time-effective method of mining is using a high-end graphics card with special software (see also [[Why a GPU mines faster than a CPU]]). Since CPU mining is essentially useless, it may be removed from future versions of the Bitcoin software.<br />
<br />
===Is mining used for some useful computation?===<br />
The computations done when mining are internal to Bitcoin and not related to any other distributed computing projects. They serve the purpose of securing the Bitcoin network, which is useful.<br />
<br />
===Is it not a waste of energy?===<br />
Spending energy on creating a free monetary system is hardly a waste. Also, services necessary for the operation of currently widespread monetary systems, such as banks and credit card companies, also spend energy, arguably more than Bitcoin would.<br />
<br />
===Why don't we use calculations that are also useful for some other purpose?===<br />
To provide security for the Bitcoin network, the calculations involved need to have some very specific features. These features are incompatible with leveraging the computation for other purposes.<br />
<br />
==Help==<br />
===I'd like to learn more. Where can I get help?===<br />
<br />
* Read the [[Introduction|introduction to bitcoin]] <br />
* See the videos, podcasts, and blog posts from the [[Press]]<br />
* Read and post on the [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums|forums]]<br />
* Chat on one of the [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Bitcoin IRC]] channels<br />
* Listen to [http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital-decentralized-currency/ this podcast], which goes into the details of how bitcoin works<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[Man page]]<br />
* [[Introduction]]<br />
<br />
[[zh-cn:FAQ]]<br />
[[fr:FAQ]]<br />
{{fromold|bitcoins}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Technical]]<br />
[[Category:Vocabulary]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&diff=9224Help:FAQ2011-05-29T18:28:13Z<p>Sirius: + Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme?</p>
<hr />
<div>Here you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions.<br />
<br />
== General ==<br />
=== What are bitcoins? ===<br />
Bitcoins are the unit of currency of the Bitcoin system. A commonly used shorthand for this is “BTC” to refer to a price or amount (eg: “100 BTC”)<br />
A Bitcoin isn't actually a 'thing' you can point at. It is just a number associated with a [[Address|Bitcoin Address]]. See also an [[Introduction|easy intro]] to bitcoin.<br />
<br />
=== How can I get Bitcoins? ===<br />
<br />
There are four ways to get Bitcoins:<br />
<br />
* Buy them on an exchange such as [https://www.mtgox.com/ Mt. Gox] or [http://www.bitcoin-otc.com/ #bitcoin-otc] on FreeNode.<br />
* Accept Bitcoins as payment for goods or services.<br />
* Find a local trader on [http://tradebitcoin.com tradebitcoin] (or somewhere else) and trade with him in cash<br />
* Create a new [[block]] (currently yields 50 Bitcoins).<br />
* Participate in a [[Pooled mining|mining pool]].<br />
<br />
=== Can I buy Bitcoins with Paypal? ===<br />
<br />
While it's possible to find an individual who wishes to sell Bitcoin to you via Paypal, (perhaps via [http://www.bitcoin-otc.com/ #bitcoin-otc] ) most major exchanges do not allow funding through Paypal. This is due to repeated cases where someone pays for Bitcoins with Paypal, receives their Bitcoins, and then fraudulently complains to Paypal that they never received their goods. Paypal too often sides with the fraudulent buyer in this case, and so exchangers no longer allow this method of funding.<br />
<br />
Buying Bitcoins from individuals with this method is still possible, but requires mutual trust. In this case, Bitcoin seller beware.<br />
<br />
=== How are new Bitcoins created? ===<br />
<br />
[[File:total_bitcoins_over_time_graph.png|thumb|Number of bitcoins over time, assuming a perfect 10-minute interval.]]<br />
New coins are generated by a network node each time it finds the solution to a certain mathematical problem (i.e. creates a new [[block]]), which is difficult to perform and can demonstrate a [[proof of work]]. The reward for solving a block is [[controlled inflation|automatically adjusted]] so that in the first 4 years of the Bitcoin network, 10,500,000 BTC will be created. The amount is halved each 4 years, so it will be 5,250,000 over years 4-8, 2,625,000 over years 8-12 and so on. Thus the total number of coins will approach 21,000,000 BTC over time.<br />
<br />
In addition, built into the network is a system that attempts to allocate new coins in blocks about every 10 minutes, on average, somewhere on the network. As the number of people who attempt to generate these new coins changes, the difficulty of creating new coins changes. This happens in a manner that is agreed upon by the network as a whole, based upon the time taken to generate the previous 2016 blocks. The difficulty is therefore related to the average computing resources devoted to generate these new coins over the time it took to create these previous blocks. The likelihood of somebody "discovering" one of these blocks is based on the computer they are using compared to all of the computers also generating blocks on the network.<br />
<br />
=== What's the current total number of Bitcoins in existence? ===<br />
<br />
[http://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc Current count]<br />
<br />
The number of blocks times the coin value of a block is the number of coins in existence. The coin value of a block is 50 BTC for each of the first 210,000 blocks, 25 BTC for the next 210,000 blocks, then 12.5 BTC, 6.25 BTC and so on.<br />
<br />
=== How divisible are Bitcoins? ===<br />
<br />
Technically, a Bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimals using existing data structures, so 0.00000001 BTC is the smallest amount currently possible. Discussions about and ideas for ways to provide for even smaller quantities of Bitcoins may be created in the future if the need for them ever arises.<br />
<br />
=== How does the halving work when the number gets really small? ===<br />
<br />
The reward will go from 0.00000001 BTC to 0. Then no more coins will likely be created. <br />
<br />
The calculation is done as a right bitwise shift of a 64-bit signed integer, which means it is divided by 2 and rounded down. The integer is equal to the value in BTC * 100,000,000. This is how all Bitcoin balances/values are stored internally.<br />
<br />
Keep in mind that using current rules this will take nearly 100 years before it becomes an issue and Bitcoins may change considerably before that happens.<br />
<br />
=== How long will it take to generate all the coins? ===<br />
<br />
The last block that will generate coins will be block #6,929,999. This should be generated around year 2140. Then the total number of coins in circulation will remain static at 20,999,999.9769 BTC.<br />
<br />
Even if the allowed precision is expanded from the current 8 decimals, the total BTC in circulation will always be slightly below 21 million (assuming everything else stays the same). For example, with 16 decimals of precision, the end total would be 20999999.999999999496 BTC.<br />
<br />
=== If no more coins are going to be generated, will more blocks be created? ===<br />
<br />
Absolutely! Even before the creation of coins ends, the use of [[transaction fee|transaction fees]] will likely make creating new blocks more valuable from the fees than the new coins being created. When coin generation ends, what will sustain the ability to use bitcoins will be these fees entirely. There will be blocks generated after block #6,929,999, assuming that people are still using Bitcoins at that time.<br />
<br />
=== But if no more coins are generated, what happens when Bitcoins are lost? Won't that be a problem? ===<br />
<br />
Not at all. Because of the law of supply and demand, when fewer Bitcoins are available the ones that are left will be in higher demand, and therefore will have a higher value. So when Bitcoins are lost, the remaining Bitcoins will increase in value to compensate. As the value of Bitcoins increase, the number of Bitcoins required to purchase an item '''de'''creases. This is known as a [[Deflationary spiral|deflationary economic model]]. Eventually, if and when it gets to the point where the largest transaction is less that 1BTC, then it's a simple matter of shifting the decimal place to the right a few places, and the system continues.<br />
<br />
=== If every transaction is broadcast via the network, does BitCoin scale? ===<br />
The Bitcoin protocol allows lightweight clients that can use Bitcoin without downloading the entire transaction history. As traffic grows and this becomes more critical, implementations of the concept will be developed. Full network nodes will at some point become a more specialized service.<br />
<br />
With some modifications to the software, full BitCoin nodes could easily keep up with both VISA and MasterCard combined, using only fairly modest hardware (a couple of racks of machines using todays hardware). It's worth noting that the MasterCard network is structured somewhat like BitCoin itself - as a peer to peer broadcast network.<br />
<br />
Learn more about [[Scalability]].<br />
<br />
=== How does the BitCoin network handle [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAP_theorem the CAP theorem]? ===<br />
<br />
=== Why do I have to wait 10 minutes before I can spend money I received? ===<br />
<br />
The reason you have to wait 10 minutes is that's the average time taken to find a block. It can be significantly more or less time than that depending on luck, 10 minutes is simply the average case. <br />
<br />
Blocks (shown as "confirmations" in the GUI) are how the BitCoin achieves consensus on who owns what. Once a block is found everyone agrees that you now own those coins, so you can spend them again. Until then it's possible that some network nodes believe otherwise, if somebody is attempting to defraud the system by reversing a transaction. The more confirmations a transaction has, the less risk there is of a reversal. Only 6 blocks or 1 hour is enough to make reversal computationally impractical. This is dramatically better than credit cards which can see chargebacks occur up to three months after the original transaction!<br />
<br />
Why ten minutes specifically? It is a tradeoff chosen by Satoshi between propagation time of new blocks in large networks and the amount of work wasted due to chain splits. If that made no sense to you, don't worry. Reading [http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf the technical paper] should make things clearer.<br />
<br />
=== Do you have to wait 10 minutes in order to buy or sell things with BitCoin? ===<br />
<br />
No, it's reasonable to sell things without waiting for a confirmation as long as the transaction is not of high value.<br />
<br />
When people ask this question they are usually thinking about applications like supermarkets or snack machines, as discussed in [http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=423.msg3819#msg3819 this thread from July 2010]. Zero confirmation transactions still show up in the GUI, but you cannot spend them. You can however reason about the risk involved in assuming you ''will'' be able to spend them in future. In general, selling things that are fairly cheap (like snacks, digital downloads etc) for zero confirmations will not pose a problem if you are running a well connected node.<br />
<br />
=== Why does my Bitcoin address keep changing? ===<br />
<br />
Whenever the address listed in "Your address" receives a transaction, Bitcoin replaces it with a new address. This is meant to encourage you to use a new address for every transaction, which enhances [[anonymity]]. All of your old addresses are still usable: you can see them in ''Settings -> Your Receiving Addresses''.<br />
<br />
==Economy==<br />
=== Where does the value of Bitcoin stem from? What backs up Bitcoin? ===<br />
Bitcoins have value because they are accepted as payment by many. See the [[Trade|list of Bitcoin-accepting sites]].<br />
<br />
When we say that a currency is backed up by gold, we mean that there's a promise in place that you can exchange the currency for gold. In a sense, you could say that Bitcoin is "backed up" by the price tags of merchants – a price tag is a promise to exchange goods for a specified amount of currency.<br />
<br />
It's a common misconception that Bitcoins gain their value from the cost of electricity required to generate them. Cost doesn't equal value – hiring 1,000 men to shovel a big hole in the ground may be costly, but not valuable. Also, even though scarcity is a critical requirement for a useful currency, it alone doesn't make anything valuable. For example, your fingerprints are scarce, but that doesn't mean they have any exchange value.<br />
<br />
=== What if someone bought up all the existing Bitcoins? ===<br />
What if somebody bought up all the gold in the world? Well, by attempting to buy it all, the buyer would just drive the prices up until he runs out of money.<br />
<br />
Not all Bitcoins are for sale. Just as with gold, no one can buy a Bitcoin that isn't available for sale.<br />
<br />
=== Bitcoin's monetary policy causes a deflationary spiral ===<br />
See the article [[Deflationary spiral]].<br />
<br />
=== Doesn't Bitcoin unfairly benefit early adopters? ===<br />
Early adopters have a large number of bitcoins now because they took a risk and invested resources in an unproven technology. By so doing, they have helped Bitcoin become what it is now and what it will be in the future (hopefully, a ubiquitous decentralized digital currency). It is only fair they will reap the benefits of their successful investment.<br />
<br />
In any case, any bitcoin generated will probably change hands dozens of time as a medium of exchange, so the profit made from the initial distribution will be insignificant compared to the total commerce enabled by Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
=== Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme? ===<br />
In a Ponzi Scheme, the founders persuade investors that they’ll profit. Bitcoin does not make such a guarantee. There is no central entity, just individuals building an economy.<br />
<br />
A ponzi scheme is a zero sum game. Early adopters can only profit at the expense of late adopters. Bitcoin has possible win-win outcomes. Early adopters profit from the rise in value. Late adopters profit from the usefulness of a stable and widely accepted p2p currency.<br />
<br />
The fact that early adopters benefit more doesn't alone make anything a ponzi scheme. Apple stocks aren't ponzi although the early investors got rich.<br />
<br />
==Networking==<br />
=== Do I need to configure my firewall to run bitcoin? ===<br />
<br />
Bitcoin will connect to other nodes, usually on tcp port 8333. You will need to allow outgoing TCP connections to port 8333 if you want to allow your bitcoin client to connect to many nodes. Bitcoin will also try to connect to IRC (tcp port 6667) to meet other nodes to connect to.<br />
<br />
If you want to restrict your firewall rules to a few ips and/or don't want to allow IRC connection, you can find stable nodes in the [[Fallback Nodes|fallback nodes list]]. If your provider blocks the common IRC ports, note that lfnet also listens on port 7777. Connecting to this alternate port currently requires either recompiling Bitcoin, or changing routing rules. For example, on Linux you can evade a port 6667 block by doing something like this:<br />
<br />
echo 173.246.103.92 irc.lfnet.org >> /etc/hosts<br />
iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dest 173.246.103.92 --dport 6667 -j DNAT --to-destination :7777 -m comment --comment "bitcoind irc connection"<br />
<br />
<br />
=== How does the peer finding mechanism work? ===<br />
Bitcoin finds peers primarily by connecting to an IRC server (channel #bitcoin on irc.lfnet.org). If a connection to the IRC server cannot be established (like when connecting through TOR), an in-built node list will be used and the nodes will be queried for more node addresses.<br />
<br />
==Mining==<br />
===What is mining?===<br />
Mining is the process of spending computation power to find valid blocks and thus create new Bitcoins.<br />
<br />
Technically speaking, mining is the calculation of a [[hash]] of the previous block and a [[nonce]]. If the hash value is found to be less than the current [[difficulty]], a new block is formed and the miner gets 50 newly generated Bitcoins. If the hash is not less than the current difficulty, a new nonce is used, and a new hash is calculated. This is done thousands or millions of times per second by each miner.<br />
<br />
===I've been mining for a long time and haven't created any new Bitcoins. What's wrong?===<br />
<br />
In the early days of Bitcoin, it was easy for anyone to find new blocks using standard CPUs. As more and more people started mining, the [[difficulty]] of finding new blocks has greatly increased to the point where the average time for a CPU to find a single block can be many years. The only cost- or time-effective method of mining is using a high-end graphics card with special software (see also [[Why a GPU mines faster than a CPU]]). Since CPU mining is essentially useless, it may be removed from future versions of the Bitcoin software.<br />
<br />
===Is mining used for some useful computation?===<br />
The computations done when mining are internal to Bitcoin and not related to any other distributed computing projects. They serve the purpose of securing the Bitcoin network, which is useful.<br />
<br />
===Is it not a waste of energy?===<br />
Spending energy on creating a free monetary system is hardly a waste. Also, services necessary for the operation of currently widespread monetary systems, such as banks and credit card companies, also spend energy, arguably more than Bitcoin would.<br />
<br />
===Why don't we use calculations that are also useful for some other purpose?===<br />
To provide security for the Bitcoin network, the calculations involved need to have some very specific features. These features are incompatible with leveraging the computation for other purposes.<br />
<br />
==Help==<br />
===I'd like to learn more. Where can I get help?===<br />
<br />
* Read the [[Introduction|introduction to bitcoin]] <br />
* See the videos, podcasts, and blog posts from the [[Press]]<br />
* Read and post on the [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums|forums]]<br />
* Chat on one of the [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Bitcoin IRC]] channels<br />
* Listen to [http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital-decentralized-currency/ this podcast], which goes into the details of how bitcoin works<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[Man page]]<br />
* [[Introduction]]<br />
<br />
[[zh-cn:FAQ]]<br />
[[fr:FAQ]]<br />
{{fromold|bitcoins}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Technical]]<br />
[[Category:Vocabulary]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Promotional_graphics&diff=8462Promotional graphics2011-05-17T13:24:40Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div>Bitcoin-related graphics used for promoting bitcoin either for online use, retail display or other promotional purpose.<br />
<br />
==Bitcoin Accepted Here==<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:BC_Rnd_64px.png]]<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:BC 64px.png]]<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:BC nBG 64px.png]]<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:BC RnBG 64px.png]]<br />
<br />
==Logos==<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:BC Logo .png]]<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:BC Logotype.png]]<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:BC Logotype Reverse.png]]<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:Bitcoin euro.png]]<br />
<br />
==Love Bitcoin Graphics==<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:Lv BCorg 128px.png]]<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:WeLv BC 48px.png]]<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:WeLv BC 128px.png]]<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:WeLv BC Badge 128px.png]]<br />
<br />
<br />
==External Links==<br />
<br />
* [http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=4331.0 Bigger "B" versions of Bitcoin logotypes]<br />
* [http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=1631.0 More Bitcoin logos, buttons, and also some other graphics]<br />
* [http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=45.msg479#msg479 Make your "we accept Bitcoin" logo]<br />
* [http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/7210/onwhitem.jpg Bitcoin Decentralized P2P Currency logo]<br />
* [http://agora.io/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/BitcoinFreeMoney250x100.png Liberty starts with free money logo]<br />
* [http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=6412.0 Made a Bitcoin icon, PDF included]<br />
* [http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=6455.0 In cryptography we trust (yet another Bitcoin icon)]<br />
* [http://bitbash.blogspot.com/2011/04/bitcoin-icons.html Bitcoin icons] from Bitbash<br />
<br />
[[Category:Marketing]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=File:Bitcoin_euro.png&diff=8461File:Bitcoin euro.png2011-05-17T13:22:50Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Promotional_graphics&diff=7565Promotional graphics2011-04-23T00:39:29Z<p>Sirius: Added bitboy's public domain logos and buttons</p>
<hr />
<div>Bitcoin-related graphics used for promoting bitcoin either for online use, retail display or other promotional purpose.<br />
<br />
==Bitcoin Accepted Here==<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:BC_Rnd_64px.png]]<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:BC 64px.png]]<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:BC nBG 64px.png]]<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:BC RnBG 64px.png]]<br />
<br />
==Logos==<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:BC Logo .png]]<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:BC Logotype.png]]<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:BC Logotype Reverse.png]]<br />
<br />
==Love Bitcoin Graphics==<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:Lv BCorg 128px.png]]<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:WeLv BC 48px.png]]<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:WeLv BC 128px.png]]<br />
[[{{ns:file}}:WeLv BC Badge 128px.png]]<br />
<br />
<br />
==External Links==<br />
<br />
* [http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=4331.0 Bigger "B" versions of Bitcoin logotypes]<br />
* [http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=1631.0 More Bitcoin logos, buttons, and also some other graphics]<br />
* [http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=45.msg479#msg479 Make your "we accept Bitcoin" logo]<br />
* [http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/7210/onwhitem.jpg Bitcoin Decentralized P2P Currency logo]<br />
* [http://agora.io/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/BitcoinFreeMoney250x100.png Liberty starts with free money logo]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Marketing]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=File:WeLv_BC_Badge_128px.png&diff=7564File:WeLv BC Badge 128px.png2011-04-23T00:36:38Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=File:WeLv_BC_128px.png&diff=7563File:WeLv BC 128px.png2011-04-23T00:36:32Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=File:WeLv_BC_48px.png&diff=7562File:WeLv BC 48px.png2011-04-23T00:36:26Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=File:Lv_BCorg_128px.png&diff=7561File:Lv BCorg 128px.png2011-04-23T00:36:19Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=File:BC_Logotype_Reverse.png&diff=7560File:BC Logotype Reverse.png2011-04-23T00:33:25Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=File:BC_Logotype.png&diff=7559File:BC Logotype.png2011-04-23T00:33:20Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=File:BC_Logo_.png&diff=7558File:BC Logo .png2011-04-23T00:33:05Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=File:BC_RnBG_64px.png&diff=7557File:BC RnBG 64px.png2011-04-23T00:29:14Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=File:BC_nBG_64px.png&diff=7556File:BC nBG 64px.png2011-04-23T00:29:00Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=File:BC_64px.png&diff=7555File:BC 64px.png2011-04-23T00:28:20Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=File:BC_Rnd_64px.png&diff=7554File:BC Rnd 64px.png2011-04-23T00:28:06Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div></div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Merchant_Howto&diff=7552Merchant Howto2011-04-22T23:33:05Z<p>Sirius: /* Automated */</p>
<hr />
<div>This page is intended as a guide to assist merchants learn how to accept bitcoins for payment.<br />
<br />
==Manual==<br />
# Download a bitcoin client<br />
# When a customer wants to buy something issue them with a bitcoin address<br />
#* You can do this by clicking "New.." next to your address in the bitcoin client and sending that address to the customer<br />
# When payment comes in from that address send the goods to your customer. Depending on your risk tolerance and the value of the purchase, you may wish to wait until the payment shows enough confirmations to protect against [[How_bitcoin_works#Double_spending|double spending]].<br />
# To issue a refund, obtain from the customer the [[Address|bitcoin address]] where the refund payment should be sent. The refund address will likely be different from the address used when the customer sent payment, especially if an [[EWallet]] was used by the customer.<br />
<br />
==Automated==<br />
You can use an existing [[:Category:Shopping Cart Interfaces|shopping cart interface]] or utilize the Bitcoin client's [[API tutorial (JSON-RPC)|JSON-RPC API]] to automatically accept payments.<br />
<br />
Setup a system that:<br />
# When a customers orders something on your website it records<br />
#* Bitcoin address that payment should be sent to<br />
#* Order details (delivery address etc.)<br />
#* Payment amount<br />
# When payment arrives, checks that they have paid the correct amount (and refunds the from address otherwise) and informs you<br />
#* You dispach the goods to the customer and mark the order as fulfilled<br />
#* If you cannot dispach the goods you mark the order as denied and the system sends the customer a refund<br />
# Pays money made to your bitcoin address<br />
<br />
==Common Errors==<br />
<br />
It has been observed several times that businesses try to funnel all orders through the same bitcoin address, and ask people to send some BTC, then send email describing the timing and the amount of the transaction to 'claim' it. This is '''not''' secure, since anyone can see the transaction details using a tool such as [[Block Explorer]], or by inspecting the block chain database directly, and then try to claim someone else's transaction as theirs. Do not do this - give each customer a unique bitcoin address, as suggested in the [[#Manual|manual]] section of this page.<br />
<br />
==Listing your business on the Bitcoin Trade page==<br />
<br />
Anyone can add and update a listing on the [[Trade|trade]] page. Just register if you haven't and add to the appropriate category. If you'ld like assistance, perhaps someone in the [http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#bitcoin-marketing #bitcoin-marketing] IRC channel would be willing to assist.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[In-store Transactions]]<br />
* [[:Category:Shopping Cart Interfaces|Shopping Cart Interfaces]]<br />
* [[Converter|Bitcoin Javascript Converter]] displays a price in BTCs after converting from USDs.<br />
* [[How to accept Bitcoin, for small businesses]]<br />
* [[Promotional graphics]], buttons and logos<br />
<br />
[[Category:ECommerce]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Merchant_Howto&diff=7551Merchant Howto2011-04-22T23:03:16Z<p>Sirius: /* See Also */</p>
<hr />
<div>This page is intended as a guide to assist merchants learn how to accept bitcoins for payment.<br />
<br />
==Manual==<br />
# Download a bitcoin client<br />
# When a customer wants to buy something issue them with a bitcoin address<br />
#* You can do this by clicking "New.." next to your address in the bitcoin client and sending that address to the customer<br />
# When payment comes in from that address send the goods to your customer. Depending on your risk tolerance and the value of the purchase, you may wish to wait until the payment shows enough confirmations to protect against [[How_bitcoin_works#Double_spending|double spending]].<br />
# To issue a refund, obtain from the customer the [[Address|bitcoin address]] where the refund payment should be sent. The refund address will likely be different from the address used when the customer sent payment, especially if an [[EWallet]] was used by the customer.<br />
<br />
==Automated==<br />
Setup a system (pointers to easy-to-use packaged systems should be added) that:<br />
# When a customers orders something on your website it records<br />
#* Bitcoin address that payment should be sent to<br />
#* Order details (delivery address etc.)<br />
#* Payment amount<br />
# When payment arrives, checks that they have paid the correct amount (and refunds the from address otherwise) and informs you<br />
#* You dispach the goods to the customer and mark the order as fulfilled<br />
#* If you cannot dispach the goods you mark the order as denied and the system sends the customer a refund<br />
# Pays money made to your bitcoin address<br />
<br />
==Common Errors==<br />
<br />
It has been observed several times that businesses try to funnel all orders through the same bitcoin address, and ask people to send some BTC, then send email describing the timing and the amount of the transaction to 'claim' it. This is '''not''' secure, since anyone can see the transaction details using a tool such as [[Block Explorer]], or by inspecting the block chain database directly, and then try to claim someone else's transaction as theirs. Do not do this - give each customer a unique bitcoin address, as suggested in the [[#Manual|manual]] section of this page.<br />
<br />
==Listing your business on the Bitcoin Trade page==<br />
<br />
Anyone can add and update a listing on the [[Trade|trade]] page. Just register if you haven't and add to the appropriate category. If you'ld like assistance, perhaps someone in the [http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#bitcoin-marketing #bitcoin-marketing] IRC channel would be willing to assist.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[In-store Transactions]]<br />
* [[:Category:Shopping Cart Interfaces|Shopping Cart Interfaces]]<br />
* [[Converter|Bitcoin Javascript Converter]] displays a price in BTCs after converting from USDs.<br />
* [[How to accept Bitcoin, for small businesses]]<br />
* [[Promotional graphics]], buttons and logos<br />
<br />
[[Category:ECommerce]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&diff=6846Help:FAQ2011-04-06T17:03:00Z<p>Sirius: /* Where does the value of Bitcoin stem from? What backs up Bitcoin? */ fix link</p>
<hr />
<div>Here you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions.<br />
<br />
== General ==<br />
=== What are bitcoins? ===<br />
Bitcoins are the unit of currency of the Bitcoin system. A commonly used shorthand for this is “BTC” to refer to a price or amount (eg: “100 BTC”)<br />
A Bitcoin isn't actually a 'thing' you can point at. It is just a number associated with a [[Address|Bitcoin Address]]. See also an [[Introduction|easy intro]] to bitcoin.<br />
<br />
=== How are new Bitcoins created? ===<br />
<br />
[[File:total_bitcoins_over_time_graph.png|thumb|Number of bitcoins over time, assuming a perfect 10-minute interval.]]<br />
New coins are generated by a network node each time it finds the solution to a certain mathematical problem (i.e. creates a new [[block]]), which is difficult to perform and can demonstrate a [[proof of work]]. The reward for solving a block is [[controlled inflation|automatically adjusted]] so that in the first 4 years of the Bitcoin network, 10,500,000 BTC will be created. The amount is halved each 4 years, so it will be 5,250,000 over years 4-8, 2,625,000 over years 8-12 and so on. Thus the total number of coins will approach 21,000,000 BTC over time.<br />
<br />
In addition, built into the network is a system that attempts to allocate new coins in blocks about every 10 minutes, on average, somewhere on the network. As the number of people who attempt to generate these new coins changes, the difficulty of creating new coins changes. This happens in a manner that is agreed upon by the network as a whole, based upon the time taken to generate the previous 2016 blocks. The difficulty is therefore related to the average computing resources devoted to generate these new coins over the time it took to create these previous blocks. The likelihood of somebody "discovering" one of these blocks is based on the computer they are using compared to all of the computers also generating blocks on the network.<br />
<br />
=== What's the current total amount of Bitcoins in existence? ===<br />
<br />
[http://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc Current count]<br />
<br />
The number of blocks times the coin value of a block is the number of coins in existence. The coin value of a block is 50 BTC for each of the first 210,000 blocks, 25 BTC for the next 210,000 blocks, then 12.5 BTC, 6.25 BTC and so on.<br />
<br />
=== How divisible are Bitcoins? ===<br />
<br />
Technically, a Bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimals using existing data structures, so 0.00000001 BTC is the smallest amount currently possible. Discussions about and ideas for ways to provide for even smaller quantities of Bitcoins may be created in the future if the need for them ever arises. For convenience, the program currently accepts only 2 decimal places as quantities smaller than 0.01 BTC are considered of trivial value and are usually used only to attack the network.<br />
<br />
=== How does the halving work when the number gets really small? ===<br />
<br />
The reward will go from 0.00000001 BTC to 0. Then no more coins will likely be created. <br />
<br />
The calculation is done as a right bitwise shift of a 64-bit signed integer. The integer is equal to the value in BTC * 100,000,000. This is how all Bitcoin balances/values are stored internally.<br />
<br />
Keep in mind that using current rules this will take nearly 100 years before it becomes an issue and Bitcoins may change considerably before that happens.<br />
<br />
=== How long will it take to generate all the coins? ===<br />
<br />
The last block that will generate coins will be block #6,929,999. This should be generated around year 2140. Then the total number of coins in circulation will remain static at 20,999,999.9769 BTC.<br />
<br />
Even if the allowed precision is expanded from the current 8 decimals, the total BTC in circulation will always be slightly below 21 million (assuming everything else stays the same). For example, with 16 decimals of precision, the end total would be 20999999.999999999496 BTC.<br />
<br />
=== If no more coins are going to be generated, will more blocks be created? ===<br />
<br />
Absolutely! Even before the creation of coins ends, the use of [[transaction fee|transaction fees]] will likely make creating new blocks more valuable from the fees than the new coins being created. When coin generation ends, what will sustain the ability to use bitcoins will be these fees entirely. There will be blocks generated after block #6,929,999, assuming that people are still using Bitcoins at that time.<br />
<br />
==Economy==<br />
=== Where does the value of Bitcoin stem from? What backs up Bitcoin? ===<br />
Bitcoins have value because they are accepted as payment by many. See the [[Trade|list of Bitcoin-accepting sites]].<br />
<br />
When we say that a currency is backed up by gold, we mean that there's a promise in place that you can exchange the currency for gold. In a sense, you could say that Bitcoin is "backed up" by the price tags of merchants – a price tag is a promise to exchange goods for a specified amount of currency.<br />
<br />
It's a common misconception that Bitcoins gain their value from the cost of electricity required to generate them. Cost doesn't equal value – hiring 1,000 men to shovel a big hole in the ground may be costly, but not valuable. Also, even though scarcity is a critical requirement for a useful currency, it alone doesn't make anything valuable. For example, your fingerprints are scarce, but that doesn't mean they have any exchange value.<br />
<br />
=== What if someone bought up all the existing Bitcoins? ===<br />
What if somebody bought up all the gold in the world? Well, by attempting to buy it all, the buyer would just drive the prices up until he runs out of money.<br />
<br />
=== Bitcoin's monetary policy causes a deflationary spiral ===<br />
See the article [[Deflationary spiral]].<br />
<br />
==Networking==<br />
=== Do I need to configure my firewall to run bitcoin? ===<br />
<br />
Bitcoin will connect to other nodes, usually on tcp port 8333. You will need to allow outgoing TCP connections to port 8333 if you want to allow your bitcoin client to connect to many nodes. Bitcoin will also try to connect to IRC (tcp port 6667) to meet other nodes to connect to.<br />
<br />
If you want to restrict your firewall rules to a few ips and/or don't want to allow IRC connection, you can find stable nodes in the [[Fallback Nodes|fallback nodes list]]. If your provider blocks the common IRC ports, note that lfnet also listens on port 7777. Connecting to this alternate port currently requires either recompiling Bitcoin, or changing routing rules. For example, on Linux you can evade a port 6667 block by doing something like this:<br />
<br />
echo 173.246.103.92 irc.lfnet.org >> /etc/hosts<br />
iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dest 173.246.103.92 --dport 6667 -j DNAT --to-destination :7777 -m comment --comment "bitcoind irc connection"<br />
<br />
<br />
=== How does the peer finding mechanism work? ===<br />
Bitcoin finds peers primarily by connecting to an IRC server (channel #bitcoin on irc.lfnet.org). If a connection to the IRC server cannot be established (like when connecting through TOR), an in-built node list will be used and the nodes will be queried for more node addresses.<br />
<br />
==Help==<br />
===I'd like to learn more. Where can I get help?===<br />
<br />
* Read the [[Introduction|introduction to bitcoin]] <br />
* See the videos, podcasts, and blog posts from the [[Press]]<br />
* Read and post on the [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums|forums]]<br />
* Chat on one of the [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Bitcoin IRC]] channels<br />
* Listen to [http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital-decentralized-currency/ this podcast], which goes into the details of how bitcoin works<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[Man page]]<br />
<br />
[[zh-cn:FAQ]]<br />
[[fr:FAQ]]<br />
{{fromold|bitcoins}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Technical]]<br />
[[Category:Vocabulary]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&diff=6845Help:FAQ2011-04-06T17:01:42Z<p>Sirius: /* Networking */ "How does the peer finding mechanism work?"</p>
<hr />
<div>Here you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions.<br />
<br />
== General ==<br />
=== What are bitcoins? ===<br />
Bitcoins are the unit of currency of the Bitcoin system. A commonly used shorthand for this is “BTC” to refer to a price or amount (eg: “100 BTC”)<br />
A Bitcoin isn't actually a 'thing' you can point at. It is just a number associated with a [[Address|Bitcoin Address]]. See also an [[Introduction|easy intro]] to bitcoin.<br />
<br />
=== How are new Bitcoins created? ===<br />
<br />
[[File:total_bitcoins_over_time_graph.png|thumb|Number of bitcoins over time, assuming a perfect 10-minute interval.]]<br />
New coins are generated by a network node each time it finds the solution to a certain mathematical problem (i.e. creates a new [[block]]), which is difficult to perform and can demonstrate a [[proof of work]]. The reward for solving a block is [[controlled inflation|automatically adjusted]] so that in the first 4 years of the Bitcoin network, 10,500,000 BTC will be created. The amount is halved each 4 years, so it will be 5,250,000 over years 4-8, 2,625,000 over years 8-12 and so on. Thus the total number of coins will approach 21,000,000 BTC over time.<br />
<br />
In addition, built into the network is a system that attempts to allocate new coins in blocks about every 10 minutes, on average, somewhere on the network. As the number of people who attempt to generate these new coins changes, the difficulty of creating new coins changes. This happens in a manner that is agreed upon by the network as a whole, based upon the time taken to generate the previous 2016 blocks. The difficulty is therefore related to the average computing resources devoted to generate these new coins over the time it took to create these previous blocks. The likelihood of somebody "discovering" one of these blocks is based on the computer they are using compared to all of the computers also generating blocks on the network.<br />
<br />
=== What's the current total amount of Bitcoins in existence? ===<br />
<br />
[http://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc Current count]<br />
<br />
The number of blocks times the coin value of a block is the number of coins in existence. The coin value of a block is 50 BTC for each of the first 210,000 blocks, 25 BTC for the next 210,000 blocks, then 12.5 BTC, 6.25 BTC and so on.<br />
<br />
=== How divisible are Bitcoins? ===<br />
<br />
Technically, a Bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimals using existing data structures, so 0.00000001 BTC is the smallest amount currently possible. Discussions about and ideas for ways to provide for even smaller quantities of Bitcoins may be created in the future if the need for them ever arises. For convenience, the program currently accepts only 2 decimal places as quantities smaller than 0.01 BTC are considered of trivial value and are usually used only to attack the network.<br />
<br />
=== How does the halving work when the number gets really small? ===<br />
<br />
The reward will go from 0.00000001 BTC to 0. Then no more coins will likely be created. <br />
<br />
The calculation is done as a right bitwise shift of a 64-bit signed integer. The integer is equal to the value in BTC * 100,000,000. This is how all Bitcoin balances/values are stored internally.<br />
<br />
Keep in mind that using current rules this will take nearly 100 years before it becomes an issue and Bitcoins may change considerably before that happens.<br />
<br />
=== How long will it take to generate all the coins? ===<br />
<br />
The last block that will generate coins will be block #6,929,999. This should be generated around year 2140. Then the total number of coins in circulation will remain static at 20,999,999.9769 BTC.<br />
<br />
Even if the allowed precision is expanded from the current 8 decimals, the total BTC in circulation will always be slightly below 21 million (assuming everything else stays the same). For example, with 16 decimals of precision, the end total would be 20999999.999999999496 BTC.<br />
<br />
=== If no more coins are going to be generated, will more blocks be created? ===<br />
<br />
Absolutely! Even before the creation of coins ends, the use of [[transaction fee|transaction fees]] will likely make creating new blocks more valuable from the fees than the new coins being created. When coin generation ends, what will sustain the ability to use bitcoins will be these fees entirely. There will be blocks generated after block #6,929,999, assuming that people are still using Bitcoins at that time.<br />
<br />
==Economy==<br />
=== Where does the value of Bitcoin stem from? What backs up Bitcoin? ===<br />
Bitcoins have value because they are accepted as payment by many. See the [[list of Bitcoin-accepting sites|Trade]].<br />
<br />
When we say that a currency is backed up by gold, we mean that there's a promise in place that you can exchange the currency for gold. In a sense, you could say that Bitcoin is "backed up" by the price tags of merchants – a price tag is a promise to exchange goods for a specified amount of currency.<br />
<br />
It's a common misconception that Bitcoins gain their value from the cost of electricity required to generate them. Cost doesn't equal value – hiring 1,000 men to shovel a big hole in the ground may be costly, but not valuable. Also, even though scarcity is a critical requirement for a useful currency, it alone doesn't make anything valuable. For example, your fingerprints are scarce, but that doesn't mean they have any exchange value.<br />
<br />
=== What if someone bought up all the existing Bitcoins? ===<br />
What if somebody bought up all the gold in the world? Well, by attempting to buy it all, the buyer would just drive the prices up until he runs out of money.<br />
<br />
=== Bitcoin's monetary policy causes a deflationary spiral ===<br />
See the article [[Deflationary spiral]].<br />
<br />
==Networking==<br />
=== Do I need to configure my firewall to run bitcoin? ===<br />
<br />
Bitcoin will connect to other nodes, usually on tcp port 8333. You will need to allow outgoing TCP connections to port 8333 if you want to allow your bitcoin client to connect to many nodes. Bitcoin will also try to connect to IRC (tcp port 6667) to meet other nodes to connect to.<br />
<br />
If you want to restrict your firewall rules to a few ips and/or don't want to allow IRC connection, you can find stable nodes in the [[Fallback Nodes|fallback nodes list]]. If your provider blocks the common IRC ports, note that lfnet also listens on port 7777. Connecting to this alternate port currently requires either recompiling Bitcoin, or changing routing rules. For example, on Linux you can evade a port 6667 block by doing something like this:<br />
<br />
echo 173.246.103.92 irc.lfnet.org >> /etc/hosts<br />
iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dest 173.246.103.92 --dport 6667 -j DNAT --to-destination :7777 -m comment --comment "bitcoind irc connection"<br />
<br />
<br />
=== How does the peer finding mechanism work? ===<br />
Bitcoin finds peers primarily by connecting to an IRC server (channel #bitcoin on irc.lfnet.org). If a connection to the IRC server cannot be established (like when connecting through TOR), an in-built node list will be used and the nodes will be queried for more node addresses.<br />
<br />
==Help==<br />
===I'd like to learn more. Where can I get help?===<br />
<br />
* Read the [[Introduction|introduction to bitcoin]] <br />
* See the videos, podcasts, and blog posts from the [[Press]]<br />
* Read and post on the [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums|forums]]<br />
* Chat on one of the [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Bitcoin IRC]] channels<br />
* Listen to [http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital-decentralized-currency/ this podcast], which goes into the details of how bitcoin works<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[Man page]]<br />
<br />
[[zh-cn:FAQ]]<br />
[[fr:FAQ]]<br />
{{fromold|bitcoins}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Technical]]<br />
[[Category:Vocabulary]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&diff=6843Help:FAQ2011-04-06T16:37:27Z<p>Sirius: added economy section and some questions</p>
<hr />
<div>Here you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions.<br />
<br />
== General ==<br />
=== What are bitcoins? ===<br />
Bitcoins are the unit of currency of the Bitcoin system. A commonly used shorthand for this is “BTC” to refer to a price or amount (eg: “100 BTC”)<br />
A Bitcoin isn't actually a 'thing' you can point at. It is just a number associated with a [[Address|Bitcoin Address]]. See also an [[Introduction|easy intro]] to bitcoin.<br />
<br />
=== How are new Bitcoins created? ===<br />
<br />
[[File:total_bitcoins_over_time_graph.png|thumb|Number of bitcoins over time, assuming a perfect 10-minute interval.]]<br />
New coins are generated by a network node each time it finds the solution to a certain mathematical problem (i.e. creates a new [[block]]), which is difficult to perform and can demonstrate a [[proof of work]]. The reward for solving a block is [[controlled inflation|automatically adjusted]] so that in the first 4 years of the Bitcoin network, 10,500,000 BTC will be created. The amount is halved each 4 years, so it will be 5,250,000 over years 4-8, 2,625,000 over years 8-12 and so on. Thus the total number of coins will approach 21,000,000 BTC over time.<br />
<br />
In addition, built into the network is a system that attempts to allocate new coins in blocks about every 10 minutes, on average, somewhere on the network. As the number of people who attempt to generate these new coins changes, the difficulty of creating new coins changes. This happens in a manner that is agreed upon by the network as a whole, based upon the time taken to generate the previous 2016 blocks. The difficulty is therefore related to the average computing resources devoted to generate these new coins over the time it took to create these previous blocks. The likelihood of somebody "discovering" one of these blocks is based on the computer they are using compared to all of the computers also generating blocks on the network.<br />
<br />
=== What's the current total amount of Bitcoins in existence? ===<br />
<br />
[http://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc Current count]<br />
<br />
The number of blocks times the coin value of a block is the number of coins in existence. The coin value of a block is 50 BTC for each of the first 210,000 blocks, 25 BTC for the next 210,000 blocks, then 12.5 BTC, 6.25 BTC and so on.<br />
<br />
=== How divisible are Bitcoins? ===<br />
<br />
Technically, a Bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimals using existing data structures, so 0.00000001 BTC is the smallest amount currently possible. Discussions about and ideas for ways to provide for even smaller quantities of Bitcoins may be created in the future if the need for them ever arises. For convenience, the program currently accepts only 2 decimal places as quantities smaller than 0.01 BTC are considered of trivial value and are usually used only to attack the network.<br />
<br />
=== How does the halving work when the number gets really small? ===<br />
<br />
The reward will go from 0.00000001 BTC to 0. Then no more coins will likely be created. <br />
<br />
The calculation is done as a right bitwise shift of a 64-bit signed integer. The integer is equal to the value in BTC * 100,000,000. This is how all Bitcoin balances/values are stored internally.<br />
<br />
Keep in mind that using current rules this will take nearly 100 years before it becomes an issue and Bitcoins may change considerably before that happens.<br />
<br />
=== How long will it take to generate all the coins? ===<br />
<br />
The last block that will generate coins will be block #6,929,999. This should be generated around year 2140. Then the total number of coins in circulation will remain static at 20,999,999.9769 BTC.<br />
<br />
Even if the allowed precision is expanded from the current 8 decimals, the total BTC in circulation will always be slightly below 21 million (assuming everything else stays the same). For example, with 16 decimals of precision, the end total would be 20999999.999999999496 BTC.<br />
<br />
=== If no more coins are going to be generated, will more blocks be created? ===<br />
<br />
Absolutely! Even before the creation of coins ends, the use of [[transaction fee|transaction fees]] will likely make creating new blocks more valuable from the fees than the new coins being created. When coin generation ends, what will sustain the ability to use bitcoins will be these fees entirely. There will be blocks generated after block #6,929,999, assuming that people are still using Bitcoins at that time.<br />
<br />
==Economy==<br />
=== Where does the value of Bitcoin stem from? What backs up Bitcoin? ===<br />
Bitcoins have value because they are accepted as payment by many. See the [[list of Bitcoin-accepting sites|Trade]].<br />
<br />
When we say that a currency is backed up by gold, we mean that there's a promise in place that you can exchange the currency for gold. In a sense, you could say that Bitcoin is "backed up" by the price tags of merchants – a price tag is a promise to exchange goods for a specified amount of currency.<br />
<br />
It's a common misconception that Bitcoins gain their value from the cost of electricity required to generate them. Cost doesn't equal value – hiring 1,000 men to shovel a big hole in the ground may be costly, but not valuable. Also, even though scarcity is a critical requirement for a useful currency, it alone doesn't make anything valuable. For example, your fingerprints are scarce, but that doesn't mean they have any exchange value.<br />
<br />
=== What if someone bought up all the existing Bitcoins? ===<br />
What if somebody bought up all the gold in the world? Well, by attempting to buy it all, the buyer would just drive the prices up until he runs out of money.<br />
<br />
=== Bitcoin's monetary policy causes a deflationary spiral ===<br />
See the article [[Deflationary spiral]].<br />
<br />
==Networking==<br />
=== Do I need to configure my firewall to run bitcoin? ===<br />
<br />
Bitcoin will connect to other nodes, usually on tcp port 8333. You will need to allow outgoing TCP connections to port 8333 if you want to allow your bitcoin client to connect to many nodes. Bitcoin will also try to connect to IRC (tcp port 6667) to meet other nodes to connect to.<br />
<br />
If you want to restrict your firewall rules to a few ips and/or don't want to allow IRC connection, you can find stable nodes in the [[Fallback Nodes|fallback nodes list]]. If your provider blocks the common IRC ports, note that lfnet also listens on port 7777. Connecting to this alternate port currently requires either recompiling Bitcoin, or changing routing rules. For example, on Linux you can evade a port 6667 block by doing something like this:<br />
<br />
echo 173.246.103.92 irc.lfnet.org >> /etc/hosts<br />
iptables -t nat -A OUTPUT -p tcp --dest 173.246.103.92 --dport 6667 -j DNAT --to-destination :7777 -m comment --comment "bitcoind irc connection"<br />
<br />
==Help==<br />
===I'd like to learn more. Where can I get help?===<br />
<br />
* Read the [[Introduction|introduction to bitcoin]] <br />
* See the videos, podcasts, and blog posts from the [[Press]]<br />
* Read and post on the [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums|forums]]<br />
* Chat on one of the [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Bitcoin IRC]] channels<br />
* Listen to [http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital-decentralized-currency/ this podcast], which goes into the details of how bitcoin works<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[Man page]]<br />
<br />
[[zh-cn:FAQ]]<br />
[[fr:FAQ]]<br />
{{fromold|bitcoins}}<br />
<br />
[[Category:Technical]]<br />
[[Category:Vocabulary]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Talk:Trade&diff=4212Talk:Trade2011-02-23T07:09:36Z<p>Sirius: /* Proposed Listing Standards */</p>
<hr />
<div>==Proposed Listing Standards==<br />
I propose the following standards be required for listing on the [Trade]. The listed site must<br />
# Be currently functional (downtime of less than 48 hours is acceptable)<br />
# Be currently accepting bitcoins<br />
# Have clear instructions for paying with bitcoins from the link given<br />
# Prices must be sane within an order of magnitude (non-sane prices indicate that the website has not been updated to match bitcoin deflation)<br />
The standards will help keep the list manageable and easy to use.<br />
<br />
<br />
This is a talk page, so please sign your contributions. I mostly agree, but the "sane prices" criterion seems a bit subjective ; there is a risk that we exclude goodwilling merchants, who would otherwise be willing to update their prices when contacted. [[User:ThomasV|ThomasV]] 10:43, 12 February 2011 (GMT)<br />
<br />
:Here is an example [http://bitcoin2cash.com/]. When I say "sane", I mean reasonable within an order of magnitude. I moved your other comment to a separate section for clarity [[User:Ptd|Ptd]] 12:59, 13 February 2011 (GMT)<br />
<br />
Sounds reasonable. --[[User:Sirius|Sirius]] 07:09, 23 February 2011 (GMT)<br />
<br />
==Should we put addresses on the wiki?==<br />
We just had some bitcoin address spam. perhaps it would not have happened if we did not put bitcoin addresses on the wiki ? [[User:ThomasV|ThomasV]] 23:50, 12 February 2011 (GMT)<br />
: Page is now semi-protected. [[User:MagicalTux|MagicalTux]] 08:28, 16 February 2011 (GMT)<br />
<br />
==Hide Contents of Adult?==<br />
Should the contents of Adult be displayed by default, or might it be reasonable to expect that to be a hidden that requires an action for the contents of the category to be rendered? - [[User:sgornick]] 06:22, 23 February 2011 (GMT)<br />
<br />
Should be hidden or moved to another page. --[[User:Sirius|Sirius]] 07:05, 23 February 2011 (GMT)</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Talk:Trade&diff=4211Talk:Trade2011-02-23T07:05:25Z<p>Sirius: /* Hide Contents of Adult? */</p>
<hr />
<div>==Proposed Listing Standards==<br />
I propose the following standards be required for listing on the [Trade]. The listed site must<br />
# Be currently functional (downtime of less than 48 hours is acceptable)<br />
# Be currently accepting bitcoins<br />
# Have clear instructions for paying with bitcoins from the link given<br />
# Prices must be sane within an order of magnitude (non-sane prices indicate that the website has not been updated to match bitcoin deflation)<br />
The standards will help keep the list manageable and easy to use.<br />
<br />
<br />
This is a talk page, so please sign your contributions. I mostly agree, but the "sane prices" criterion seems a bit subjective ; there is a risk that we exclude goodwilling merchants, who would otherwise be willing to update their prices when contacted. [[User:ThomasV|ThomasV]] 10:43, 12 February 2011 (GMT)<br />
<br />
:Here is an example [http://bitcoin2cash.com/]. When I say "sane", I mean reasonable within an order of magnitude. I moved your other comment to a separate section for clarity [[User:Ptd|Ptd]] 12:59, 13 February 2011 (GMT)<br />
<br />
==Should we put addresses on the wiki?==<br />
We just had some bitcoin address spam. perhaps it would not have happened if we did not put bitcoin addresses on the wiki ? [[User:ThomasV|ThomasV]] 23:50, 12 February 2011 (GMT)<br />
: Page is now semi-protected. [[User:MagicalTux|MagicalTux]] 08:28, 16 February 2011 (GMT)<br />
<br />
==Hide Contents of Adult?==<br />
Should the contents of Adult be displayed by default, or might it be reasonable to expect that to be a hidden that requires an action for the contents of the category to be rendered? - [[User:sgornick]] 06:22, 23 February 2011 (GMT)<br />
<br />
Should be hidden or moved to another page. --[[User:Sirius|Sirius]] 07:05, 23 February 2011 (GMT)</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Talk:Bitcoin_press_hits&diff=3812Talk:Bitcoin press hits2011-02-16T22:08:34Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div>A few days earlier from when this article was created I created a [[Press]] article, with many of the same links.<br />
Should these two get merged?<br />
<br />
Yes! -Sirius</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Buying_bitcoins&diff=3689Buying bitcoins2011-02-14T11:59:50Z<p>Sirius: /* Small amounts */</p>
<hr />
<div>One issue currently facing a newcomer to bitcoin is, how do I get some? While there is the [[bitcoin faucet]] that can get you started with a small fraction of a coin, when getting larger amounts the user faces an abundance of choice. This page will cut through the clutter, and help direct you to the right exchanger for your needs.<br />
<br />
==Large amounts==<br />
<br />
For large amounts of bitcoin (USD 1000 or more), you probably would get the best rate if you deposit funds via bank wire, ACH, Euro bank transfer, or via [[Liberty Reserve]] into a major exchange. The following exchanges are currently available that take currency deposits:<br />
<br />
* [[MtGox]]<br />
* [[Bitcoin Central]]<br />
* [[Btcex]]<br />
* Other [[:Category:Exchanges|Exchanges]]<br />
<br />
==Small amounts==<br />
<br />
For smaller amounts, bank transfer fees or Liberty Reserve conversion fees are usually too expensive. Thus other methods are usually a better choice. The following exchanges will enable you to acquire smaller amounts of bitcoin at reasonable rates:<br />
<br />
* [[CoinPal]] accepts [[PayPal]] for purchases of small lots of bitcoin.<br />
* [[Bitcoin 4 Cash]] will sell you bitcoins in exchange for cash in the mail.<br />
* [[Bitcoin Morpheus]] will sell you bitcoins for PayPal, check, money order or cash in the mail.<br />
* [[bitcoin-otc]] IRC trading marketplace will usually have people willing to deal for small and larger amounts using various payment methods, including [[PayPal]], [[Dwolla]], [[Linden Dollars]], etc.<br />
<br />
==eWallet==<br />
<br />
Some [[:Category:Services|services]] hold your bitcoins in an [[eWallet]] and provide funding methods.<br />
<br />
* [[YouTipIt]] Add funds with PayPal.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[:Category:Digital_currencies|Digital Currencies]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Exchanges]]<br />
[[Category:Introduction]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Bitcoin_press_hits&diff=3398Bitcoin press hits2011-02-10T21:35:57Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div>A list of appearances on notable blogs, news sites and other media. See the [http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=1958.0 forum thread]. (If you have a better idea about formatting, please go ahead!)<br />
<br />
* [https://lwn.net/Articles/414452/ Bitcoin: Virtual money created by CPU cycles], Nathan Willis, LWN<br />
* [http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/1126/1224284180416.html Imagine your computer as a wallet full of Bitcoins], Danny O'Brien, Irish Times<br />
* [http://www.bitcoinblogger.com/2010/09/bitcoin-electronic-currency-future-of.html Bitcoin Electronic Currency: The Future of Money Bitcoin Electronic Currency: The Future of Money], Author: Elliott A. Prechter, www.elliottwave.com (Sept. 2010 issue)<br />
* [http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/07/11/1747245/Bitcoin-Releases-Version-03 Bitcoin Releases Version 0.3], Slashdot.org<br />
* [http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2010/07/links-12-july-2010.html LINKS: 12 JULY 2010], John Robb</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Bitcoin_press_hits&diff=3397Bitcoin press hits2011-02-10T21:35:47Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div>A list of appearances on notable blogs, news sites and other media. See the [https://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=1958.0 forum thread]. (If you have a better idea about formatting, please go ahead!)<br />
<br />
* [https://lwn.net/Articles/414452/ Bitcoin: Virtual money created by CPU cycles], Nathan Willis, LWN<br />
* [http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/1126/1224284180416.html Imagine your computer as a wallet full of Bitcoins], Danny O'Brien, Irish Times<br />
* [http://www.bitcoinblogger.com/2010/09/bitcoin-electronic-currency-future-of.html Bitcoin Electronic Currency: The Future of Money Bitcoin Electronic Currency: The Future of Money], Author: Elliott A. Prechter, www.elliottwave.com (Sept. 2010 issue)<br />
* [http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/07/11/1747245/Bitcoin-Releases-Version-03 Bitcoin Releases Version 0.3], Slashdot.org<br />
* [http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2010/07/links-12-july-2010.html LINKS: 12 JULY 2010], John Robb</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Bitcoin_press_hits&diff=3396Bitcoin press hits2011-02-10T21:35:21Z<p>Sirius: Created page with "A list of appearances on notable blogs, news sites and other media. (If you have a better idea about formatting, please go ahead!) * [https://lwn.net/Articles/414452/ Bitcoin: V..."</p>
<hr />
<div>A list of appearances on notable blogs, news sites and other media. (If you have a better idea about formatting, please go ahead!)<br />
<br />
* [https://lwn.net/Articles/414452/ Bitcoin: Virtual money created by CPU cycles], Nathan Willis, LWN<br />
* [http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/1126/1224284180416.html Imagine your computer as a wallet full of Bitcoins], Danny O'Brien, Irish Times<br />
* [http://www.bitcoinblogger.com/2010/09/bitcoin-electronic-currency-future-of.html Bitcoin Electronic Currency: The Future of Money Bitcoin Electronic Currency: The Future of Money], Author: Elliott A. Prechter, www.elliottwave.com (Sept. 2010 issue)<br />
* [http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/07/11/1747245/Bitcoin-Releases-Version-03 Bitcoin Releases Version 0.3], Slashdot.org<br />
* [http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2010/07/links-12-july-2010.html LINKS: 12 JULY 2010], John Robb</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:Installing_Bitcoin_Core&diff=3385Help:Installing Bitcoin Core2011-02-10T20:42:32Z<p>Sirius: temporarily removed picture featuring download from bitcoin.org</p>
<hr />
<div>An account can effortlessly be created using an [[eWallet]] service. eWallet services provide an online wallet to hold your bitcoins.<br />
<br />
This guide covers installing Bitcoin without needing a third party wallet service.<br />
<br />
== For Windows computers ==<br />
<br />
=== Installation ===<br />
[http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/ Download] and install Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
[[File:Install fin.png|frame|none|Complete installation wizard]]<br />
<br />
=== Initialization ===<br />
<br />
The first time you run Bitcoin, it needs to download all the blocks to setup. You already have your bitcoin address at this point, but you won't see any transactions before the initialisation is complete (it can take from half to a few hours).<br />
<br />
[[File:First time run fin.png|frame|none|Bitcoin is initialising by establishing a connection to other clients and downloading the blocks.]]<br />
<br />
[[File:Bitcoin all blocks fin.png|frame|none|Completed download of block-chain.]]<br />
<br />
Your address (you can have as many as you want) is at the top. Below is your balance which will be zero. The list below shows your transactions.<br />
<br />
== For Mac computers ==<br />
<br />
Download the [http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/bitcoin-0.3.19/bitcoin-0.3.19-macosx.zip/download OS X version] of Bitcoin and expand the archive.<br />
<br />
[[File:BcOSX.png|thumb|none|Contents of the Bitcoin archive after expansion]]<br />
<br />
Drag the Bitcoin icon to the desired install location, and double-click or Cmd-O (⌘O) to run the application. The Bitcoin window will open and connections will start up in minutes. The blocks will begin downloading. Your address and balance are at the top of the window. Click "Copy to Clipboard" to copy your address. Transactions are displayed in the main window.<br />
<br />
[[File:BcOSXrunning.png|thumb|none|Main window]]<br />
<br />
As Bitcoin currently does not support hiding with Cmd-H (⌘H), it is recommended that users tick the "Minimize on close" option in the Preferences menu to prevent accidental program exits.<br />
<br />
[[File:BcOSXPreferences.png|thumb|none|Preferences window on OS X]]<br />
<br />
== Getting my first coins ==<br />
<br />
The [[Bitcoin Faucet]] [https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/ website] currently hands out 0.05 BTC to new bitcoin users. Fill in the form with your bitcoin address. When you wish to add more, view [[Buying bitcoins]].<br />
<br />
[[File:Get some btc.png|frame|none|Getting free coins from the Faucet]]<br />
<br />
A new entry should appear in Bitcoin. The network hasn't yet confirmed it, but you know it's being processed. After about one hour it should get 6 confirmations. You are able to spend the coins when there is only one confirmation.<br />
<br />
The confirmation counter (like the block counter) will increase by one roughly every 10 minutes. Six confirmations are considered as 100% sure a transfer has been processed.<br />
<br />
[[File:First btc recv.png|frame|none]]<br />
<br />
[[File:Six confirms bitcoin client.png|frame|none]]<br />
<br />
== Points to remember ==<br />
<br />
* You don't need to be online to receive BTC.<br />
* You can create as many new addresses as you like. Using a different address each time helps keep you [[Anonymity|anonymous]].<br />
* You can be [[Anonymity|anonymous]] with adequate precautions.<br />
* You cannot send BTC to an invalid address. Typos are not a worry as the payment will refuse to send.<br />
* The wallet file holds the keys that allow spending and thus the computer should be [[Securing_your_wallet|protected]] from the risk of loss and theft.<br />
<br />
== Technical ==<br />
=== Block chain ===<br />
The [[block chain]] is a neverending story of every transaction throughout the network from day 1 (genesis). The first time you run Bitcoin, it is downloaded and verified on your computer. Every new transaction is added to the end of this chain and verified by the network to be valid.<br />
<br />
=== Addresses ===<br />
Whenever you send a coin, you are actually sending a cryptographically signed message, associating your coin with the recipient's address. This effectively transfers ownership to to the recipient. Once they own the coin, they are free to transfer it to another person.<br />
<br />
A wallet is a collection of addresses. You can create as many new addresses as you wish; having more addresses makes you more anonymous, because then people cannot see how much BTC you received. Your wallet contains the secret keys used for spending that money, and must be [[Securing your wallet|backed-up regularly]]. If you lose the wallet then you no longer possess the money.<br />
<br />
=== Generating ===<br />
New coins are minted through generating hashes. These generators are rewarded with a small fee for the computationally intensive task of incorporating your transactions into the block-chain. This fee halves each time 210000 blocks are added to the block chain, or approximately every 4 years. The fee will keep halving until it effectively reaches zero, at which point 21 million coins will be in circulation.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Introduction]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:Installing_Bitcoin_Core&diff=3384Help:Installing Bitcoin Core2011-02-10T20:41:34Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div>An account can effortlessly be created using an [[eWallet]] service. eWallet services provide an online wallet to hold your bitcoins.<br />
<br />
This guide covers installing Bitcoin without needing a third party wallet service.<br />
<br />
== For Windows computers ==<br />
<br />
=== Installation ===<br />
[http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/ Download] and install Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
[[File:Download it fin.png|frame|none|Download the "Windows (exe)" version]]<br />
<br />
[[File:Install fin.png|frame|none|Complete installation wizard]]<br />
<br />
=== Initialization ===<br />
<br />
The first time you run Bitcoin, it needs to download all the blocks to setup. You already have your bitcoin address at this point, but you won't see any transactions before the initialisation is complete (it can take from half to a few hours).<br />
<br />
[[File:First time run fin.png|frame|none|Bitcoin is initialising by establishing a connection to other clients and downloading the blocks.]]<br />
<br />
[[File:Bitcoin all blocks fin.png|frame|none|Completed download of block-chain.]]<br />
<br />
Your address (you can have as many as you want) is at the top. Below is your balance which will be zero. The list below shows your transactions.<br />
<br />
== For Mac computers ==<br />
<br />
Download the [http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/bitcoin-0.3.19/bitcoin-0.3.19-macosx.zip/download OS X version] of Bitcoin and expand the archive.<br />
<br />
[[File:BcOSX.png|thumb|none|Contents of the Bitcoin archive after expansion]]<br />
<br />
Drag the Bitcoin icon to the desired install location, and double-click or Cmd-O (⌘O) to run the application. The Bitcoin window will open and connections will start up in minutes. The blocks will begin downloading. Your address and balance are at the top of the window. Click "Copy to Clipboard" to copy your address. Transactions are displayed in the main window.<br />
<br />
[[File:BcOSXrunning.png|thumb|none|Main window]]<br />
<br />
As Bitcoin currently does not support hiding with Cmd-H (⌘H), it is recommended that users tick the "Minimize on close" option in the Preferences menu to prevent accidental program exits.<br />
<br />
[[File:BcOSXPreferences.png|thumb|none|Preferences window on OS X]]<br />
<br />
== Getting my first coins ==<br />
<br />
The [[Bitcoin Faucet]] [https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/ website] currently hands out 0.05 BTC to new bitcoin users. Fill in the form with your bitcoin address. When you wish to add more, view [[Buying bitcoins]].<br />
<br />
[[File:Get some btc.png|frame|none|Getting free coins from the Faucet]]<br />
<br />
A new entry should appear in Bitcoin. The network hasn't yet confirmed it, but you know it's being processed. After about one hour it should get 6 confirmations. You are able to spend the coins when there is only one confirmation.<br />
<br />
The confirmation counter (like the block counter) will increase by one roughly every 10 minutes. Six confirmations are considered as 100% sure a transfer has been processed.<br />
<br />
[[File:First btc recv.png|frame|none]]<br />
<br />
[[File:Six confirms bitcoin client.png|frame|none]]<br />
<br />
== Points to remember ==<br />
<br />
* You don't need to be online to receive BTC.<br />
* You can create as many new addresses as you like. Using a different address each time helps keep you [[Anonymity|anonymous]].<br />
* You can be [[Anonymity|anonymous]] with adequate precautions.<br />
* You cannot send BTC to an invalid address. Typos are not a worry as the payment will refuse to send.<br />
* The wallet file holds the keys that allow spending and thus the computer should be [[Securing_your_wallet|protected]] from the risk of loss and theft.<br />
<br />
== Technical ==<br />
=== Block chain ===<br />
The [[block chain]] is a neverending story of every transaction throughout the network from day 1 (genesis). The first time you run Bitcoin, it is downloaded and verified on your computer. Every new transaction is added to the end of this chain and verified by the network to be valid.<br />
<br />
=== Addresses ===<br />
Whenever you send a coin, you are actually sending a cryptographically signed message, associating your coin with the recipient's address. This effectively transfers ownership to to the recipient. Once they own the coin, they are free to transfer it to another person.<br />
<br />
A wallet is a collection of addresses. You can create as many new addresses as you wish; having more addresses makes you more anonymous, because then people cannot see how much BTC you received. Your wallet contains the secret keys used for spending that money, and must be [[Securing your wallet|backed-up regularly]]. If you lose the wallet then you no longer possess the money.<br />
<br />
=== Generating ===<br />
New coins are minted through generating hashes. These generators are rewarded with a small fee for the computationally intensive task of incorporating your transactions into the block-chain. This fee halves each time 210000 blocks are added to the block chain, or approximately every 4 years. The fee will keep halving until it effectively reaches zero, at which point 21 million coins will be in circulation.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Introduction]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Template:MainPage_Topics&diff=3379Template:MainPage Topics2011-02-10T19:59:55Z<p>Sirius: </p>
<hr />
<div><!--<br />
First table is for tutorials. Left column = pages written for end users. Right column = pages for developers.<br />
Second table is for categories.<br />
--><br />
<br />
{|cellpadding="2" style="background-color: inherit;"<br />
|-<br />
| scope="col" style="width: 200px;" |<br />
* [[Getting started]]<br />
* [[Securing your wallet]]<br />
* [http://www.bitcoinmap.com/ Map of exchangers]<br />
| scope="col" style="width: 200px;" |<br />
* [[:Category:Developer|Developer pages]]<br />
* [[API tutorial (JSON-RPC)]]<br />
* [[Protocol specification]]<br />
|}<br />
<br />
{|cellpadding="2" style="background-color: inherit;"<br />
|-<br />
! scope="col" style="width: 200px;" |<br />
! scope="col" style="width: 200px;" |<br />
|-<br />
|<br />
* [[:Category:Clients|Clients]]<br />
* [[:Category:Mining|Mining]]<br />
* [[:Category:Exchanges|Exchanges]]<br />
|<br />
* [[:Category:Economics|Economics]]<br />
* [[Trade|Bitcoin-accepting sites]]<br />
* [[Charities]]<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;" class="noprint"><span class="plainlinks">[{{fullurl:Template:MainPage_Topics|action=edit}} '''Edit''']</span> &ndash; '''[[Special:Categories|See More]]'''</div></div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:Installing_Bitcoin_Core&diff=2843Help:Installing Bitcoin Core2011-01-27T19:59:40Z<p>Sirius: /* Points to remember */</p>
<hr />
<div>An account can effortlessly be created using an [[eWallet]] service. eWallet services provide an online wallet to hold your bitcoins.<br />
<br />
This guide covers installing Bitcoin without needing a third party wallet service.<br />
<br />
== For Windows computers ==<br />
<br />
=== Installation ===<br />
[http://bitcoin.org Download] and install Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
[[File:Download it fin.png|frame|none|Download the "Windows (exe)" version]]<br />
<br />
[[File:Install fin.png|frame|none|Complete installation wizard]]<br />
<br />
=== Initialisation ===<br />
<br />
The first time you run Bitcoin, it needs to download all the blocks to setup. You already have your bitcoin address at this point, but you won't see any transactions before the initialisation is complete (it can take from half to a few hours).<br />
<br />
[[File:First time run fin.png|frame|none|Bitcoin is initialising by establishing a connection to other clients and downloading the blocks.]]<br />
<br />
[[File:Bitcoin all blocks fin.png|frame|none|Completed download of block-chain.]]<br />
<br />
Your address (you can have as many as you want) is at the top. Below is your balance which will be zero. The list below shows your transactions.<br />
<br />
== For Mac computers ==<br />
<br />
[http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/bitcoin-0.3.19/bitcoin-0.3.19-macosx.zip/download Download the OS X version of Bitcoin] and expand the archive.<br />
<br />
[[File:BcOSX.png|thumb|none|Contents of the Bitcoin archive after expansion]]<br />
<br />
Drag the Bitcoin icon to the desired install location and double-click or Cmd-O (⌘O) to run the application. The Bitcoin window will open and, providing that your router is configured to forward traffic on port 8333 to your computer, connections will start up in minutes and Bitcoin will begin downloading the blocks. Bitcoin address and balance are at the top of the window. Click "Copy to Clipboard" to copy your Bitcoin address. Transactions are displayed in the main window.<br />
<br />
[[File:BcOSXrunning.png|thumb|none|The Bitcoin window]]<br />
<br />
===Useful basic settings===<br />
<br />
As Bitcoin currently does not support hiding with Cmd-H (⌘H), it is recommended that users tick the "Minimize on close" option in the Preferences menu to prevent accidental program exits.<br />
<br />
[[File:BcOSXPreferences.png|thumb|none|The Bitcoin preferences window on OS X]]<br />
<br />
And don't forget to start generating your own coins by clicking "Generate Coins" under the Settings menubar item.<br />
<br />
== Getting my first coins ==<br />
<br />
The [[Bitcoin Faucet]] [https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/ website] currently hands out 0.05 BTC to new bitcoin users. Fill in the form with your bitcoin address. When you wish to add more, view [[Buying bitcoins]].<br />
<br />
[[File:Get some btc.png|frame|none|Getting free coins from the Faucet]]<br />
<br />
A new entry should appear in Bitcoin. The network hasn't yet confirmed it, but you know it's being processed. After about one hour it should get 6 confirmations. You are able to spend the coins when there is only one confirmation.<br />
<br />
The confirmation counter (like the block counter) will increase by one roughly every 10 minutes. Six confirmations are considered as 100% sure a transfer has been processed.<br />
<br />
[[File:First btc recv.png|frame|none]]<br />
<br />
[[File:Six confirms bitcoin client.png|frame|none]]<br />
<br />
== Points to remember ==<br />
<br />
* You don't need to be online to receive BTC.<br />
* You can create as many new addresses as you like. Using a different address each time helps keep you [[Anonymity|anonymous]].<br />
* You can be [[Anonymity|anonymous]] with adequate precautions.<br />
* You cannot send BTC to an invalid address. Typos are not a worry as the payment will refuse to send.<br />
* The wallet file holds the keys that allow spending and thus the computer should be [[Securing_your_wallet|protected]] from the risk of loss and theft.<br />
<br />
== Technical ==<br />
=== Block chain ===<br />
The [[block chain]] is a neverending story of every transaction throughout the network from day 1 (genesis). The first time you run Bitcoin, it is downloaded and verified on your computer. Every new transaction is added to the end of this chain and verified by the network to be valid.<br />
<br />
=== Addresses ===<br />
Whenever you send a coin, you are actually sending a cryptographically signed message, associating your coin with the recipient's address. This effectively transfers ownership to to the recipient. Once they own the coin, they are free to transfer it to another person.<br />
<br />
A wallet is a collection of addresses. You can create as many new addresses as you wish; having more addresses makes you more anonymous, because then people cannot see how much BTC you received. Your wallet contains the secret keys used for spending that money, and must be [[Securing your wallet|backed-up regularly]]. If you lose the wallet then you no longer possess the money.<br />
<br />
=== Generating ===<br />
New coins are minted through generating hashes. These generators are rewarded with a small fee for the computationally intensive task of incorporating your transactions into the block-chain. This fee halves each time 210000 blocks are added to the block chain, or approximately every 4 years. The fee will keep halving until it effectively reaches zero, at which point 21 million coins will be in circulation.<br />
<br />
[[Category:Introduction]]</div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Category:History&diff=2822Category:History2011-01-27T05:48:44Z<p>Sirius: The design paper was published in 2008</p>
<hr />
<div>* October 31, 2008<br />
** [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.encryption.general/12588/ Bitcoin design paper] published<br />
* November 09, 2008<br />
** Bitcoin project registered at SourceForge.net<br />
* January 3, 2009<br />
** Genesis block established at 18:15:05 GMT<br />
* January 11, 2009<br />
** Bitcoin v0.1 released and announced on the [http://www.mail-archive.com/cryptography@metzdowd.com/msg10152.html cryptography mailing list]<br />
* December 16, 2009<br />
** Bitcoin v0.2 released<br />
* December 30, 2009<br />
** First difficulty increase at 06:11:04 GMT<br />
* February 6, 2010<br />
** [[Bitcoin Market]] established<br />
* May 22, 2010<br />
** lazslo first to buy pizza with Bitcoins [http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=137.msg1195#msg1195 agreeing] upon paying 10,000btc for ~$25 worth of pizza courtesy of jercos<br />
* July 7, 2010<br />
** Bitcoin v0.3 released<br />
* July 11, 2010<br />
** Bitcoin v0.3 release [http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/07/11/1747245/Bitcoin-Releases-Version-03 mentioned on slashdot], bringing a large influx of new bitcoin users.<br />
* July 17, 2010<br />
** [[MtGox]] established<br />
* July 18, 2010<br />
** ArtForz generated his first block after establishing his personal OpenCL GPU hash farm<br />
* August 15, 2010<br />
** [[Incidents#Value_overflow|74638]]<br />
* September 14, 2010<br />
** jgarzik [http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=133.msg12921#msg12921 offered] 10,000btc (valued at ~$600-650) to puddinpop to open source their windows-based CUDA client<br />
* September 18, 2010<br />
** puddinpop [http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=133.msg13135#msg13135 released] source to their windows-based CUDA client under MIT license<br />
* September 29, 2010<br />
** kermit [http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=1306.0 discovered] a microtransactions exploit which precipitated the Bitcoin v0.3.13 release<br />
* October 01, 2010<br />
** First public OpenCL miner released<br />
* October 04, 2010<br />
** Original Bitcoin History wiki page (this page) established (ooh so meta) on Bitcoin.org's wiki.<br />
* October 28, 2010<br />
** First bitcoin short sale transaction initiated, with a loan of 100 BTC by nanotube to kiba, facilitated by the [[Bitcoin-otc|#bitcoin-otc]] market.<br />
* November 6, 2010<br />
** The [http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=1672 Bitcoin economy passed US $1 million]. The MtGox price touched USD $0.50.<br />
* December 7, 2010<br />
** Bitcoind was ported to the Nokia N900 phone by doublec. The following day, ribuck sent him 0.42 BTC in the first phone-to-phone Bitcoin transaction.<br />
* December 9, 2010<br />
** The generation difficulty passed 10,000.<br />
** First bitcoin call option contract sold, from nanotube to sgornick, via the [[Bitcoin-otc|#bitcoin-otc]] market.<br />
* December 16, 2010<br />
** [http://mining.bitcoin.cz/ Bitcoin Pooled Mining], operated by slush, found its first block<br />
* January 2, 2011<br />
** [[Tonal BitCoin]] units standardized.<br />
* January 8, 2011<br />
** [[History of Bitcoin]] page (this page) created after replicating from original Bitcoin History page on Bitcoin.org.<br />
** Bitcoin Pooled Mining reached a total of 10,000 Mhash/s<br />
* January 27, 2011<br />
** Largest numeric value ever traded for bitcoins thus far occurred on this date. Three currency bills from Zimbabwe, known as Zimdollars, were traded on [[Bitcoin-otc|#bitcoin-otc]] at the rate of 4 BTC for each of the one-hundred trillion dollar ($100,000,000,000,000) Zimbabwe notes<ref>Serial numbers for Zimdollars sold: AA1669317, AA1669318 and AA1669319</ref><br />
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{{fromold|bitcoin_history}}<br />
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==References==<br />
<references /></div>Siriushttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=BTCex&diff=2545BTCex2011-01-21T11:24:52Z<p>Sirius: added euros to the list</p>
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<div>{{stub}}<br />
<br />
'''btcex''' is a Russian [[bitcoin]] [[currency exchange]] site. They trade Russian Rubles, Yandex Money, Webmoney, Euros and Japanese Yen for bitcoin.<br />
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==External links==<br />
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*[https://btcex.com/ btcex]<br />
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[[Category:Exchanges]]</div>Sirius