Anyone Else Completely Confused about BitCoin?

"I mined Bitcoin for 33 straight hours with my MacBook Pro and earned this much.
I used BFGMiner which works through the Mac's terminal. The system was using both the central processor and the video card generating about 16 MHs/s. It's a 2014 MacBook Pro, very decent machine for video editing and the likes but it proved to be totally surpassed by the task. The pool I used was AntPool.

I did it just as an experiment, I'm not that stupid. I know even with an Antminer S9 you'll struggle to earn real amounts. Anyways, I thought I'd share this if anyone is curious. BTW I know there are calculators out there but I wanted to do a real life test.

And sooo after 33 hours of mining at full performance of a MacBook Pro I earned... 0.00000001 BTC.

Yes, that means that after 3 years running straight uninterrupted like this I would have USD$0.02 in BTC (at present value).

Conclusion, unless 1 BTC becomes equivalent to 1 billion dollars (which as a hodler, I hope it will), don't try to mine using your laptop. Lol. It was fun anyway. At least I can now say that I have actually mined BTC.

TL;DR Mining, you would have to run a MacBook Pro for 3 straight years at full performance in order to earn USD$0.02 (at present value)."
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There are huge bitcoin mining operations in Iceland. Using the geothermal energy to run the computers needed to mine.
The electricity used (wasted) to mine is astronomical.

 

You mean like they do with PMs, Cash, jewels, jewelry, coin etc etc etc.

Bitcoin isn't some anonymous illicit dark web thing that some of you seem to think it is

 

No, Bitcoin is not a Ponzi scheme.

The proper term is pump and dump. In the case of Bitcoin, it has been a repeated pump and dump.

 

No it isn't a pump and dump no matter how many times coin forums try and say that. It's not even remotely close to a pump and dump and seems many just really don't understand what one really is

 

I've got a nagging question that I don't recall ever seeing asked or answered.

With all of these crypto millionaires out there, how do they sell/redeem/convert all or a part of their crypto holdings to dollars or other fiat currency to make purchases? Let's say they want to buy or build a crypto mansion. How do they get their hands on an acceptable form of cash to close the deal?

 

This I don't understand at all either.

 

Same way as if there was a stock or anything else. They sell it for dollars sometimes.

There are a lot of places that will take it as payment though where you could just use that. So the answer really is depends on various factors which is vague but the reality.

 

Cheap energy to run massive amounts of computers to do the mining. Otherwise, you will be spending more on electricity than you will make mining.

 

I had a spicy satoshi cut roll the other day. Yum.

 

I was under the impression that purchases and sales of crypto had to go through an exchange. Again, I KNOW NOTHING about this. Who is this 'exchange'? Who sends you the money when you sell? It's not like Fidelity or T. Rowe Price, or Charles Schwab. Or is it? I know those brokerages are required to send you IRS Form 8949 when you sell. Where does the money come from and how is it reported? Like I said, I know none of this and I need to learn if I'm going to consider 'playing that market'.

 

There are cities that now allow people to be paid in it and Asia uses it a lot more. Even some of the Pm dealers now take it for that. It’s a varied process depending where which again is vague but just how it is. It’s not really anonymous anymore and people have been arrested for stealing it. I don’t really like the price point as I do feel I missed the boat on it for Bitcoin but theres more than enough major legitimate institutions at this point where if you wanted to you could do it.

 

I'm totally late to the Bitcoin game, but Ethereum could still be in play.

 

The lower tier ones are the more appealing to me as well.

 

Hence all my super trivial, basic questions.
I mean a small disposable gamble of $3-5k could buy a decent amount to possibly generate some return. If it went to zero I'd be no worse off than today.

 

Some interesting notes and things to share about Bitcoin and digital currencies in general:

1. There is a limit of approximately 21,000,000 Bitcoin in existence. This means its value cannot be easily diluted or subject to inflation like most currencies in the world. This limit, combined with high demand, is why its value has gone so high the past few years.

2. With point #1 in mind, it is said the inevitable outcome is for the amount of Bitcoin to be increased at some point not only due to demand but due to people losing their Bitcoin by forgetting their passwords or unwittingly throwing out their computer hard drives that contain it, etc.

3. The U.S. government now wants you to answer on your annual tax return if you've had dealings with Bitcoin or other "digital" currencies the previous year.

4. It has been said that in time, governments could move to ban Bitcoin and other such kinds of digital "cryptocurrencies" because they simply won't like the competition against their currencies or their being used by society as a safe haven from which to store their wealth.

There is historical precedent for this and it can be seen when the U.S. government banned the private ownership of gold starting in 1933. FDR sought to increase spending in the midst of The Great Depression and he had to contend with the fact that Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs) had to be backed by 40% in physical gold being owned by the government.

With it being made illegal to own gold (punishable by up to 10 years in prison), citizens were compelled to swiftly redeem their gold coins and bullion at banks for paper money. This allowed spending to be increased but resulted in people no longer being able to store their wealth in what had previously been considered a very reliable, safe haven asset.

5. This would no doubt depend on which governments were doing the banning but if #4 were to happen it is said the value of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general would likely plummet.

 

A similar way bank transfers work or selling a stock really. Sort of a combination of the two.
You're using a platform like coinbase, bitstamp, cashapp or kraken, and setting up a digital wallet.

Your digital wallet is used to transact in digital currencies.. bitcoin in this instance, with a fee and an exchange rate to any fiat currency even.

There's even a company called "Getcoins" that has ATMS for bitcoin transactions on the fly using your digital wallet on your cellphone and more popping up daily in cities in every state to do it.

Anyone that thinks bitcoin is a joke or is gonna fail hasn't been paying attention. It's more secure than any countries cash system, so secure in fact that if you lose your info on it the bitcoin is lost forever because there's no way to recover it.
If anything its usage and demand increases year after year, and more methods of accessing it and using it are developed to make it easier.

My opinion bitcoin is here to stay unless the world governments join up to ban it globally and at some point we won't be talking about a bitcoin because it's going to be out of reach of everyone and we will be talking about the satoshi (smallest bit coin unit) instead which will have a value of $1 or more each.

 

I understand it now, but when it was 1 USD for 1 Bitcoin I did not...

 

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency... And there are thousands of other cryptocurrencies, but none come close to bitcoin. One thing about bitcoin is that it has a cap - meaning that there are a certain amount of bitcoins in the blockchain and once they are all done being mined, there will be none left. Many other cryptocurrencies though, don't have a cap. An undefined amount will be produced, and there could be billions and billions of coins created per year.

As bitcoin rises in value, it gets harder to mine. Think of it like you earn $10.00 in a month of mining. Not you get 0.0002 bitcoins on month, and 0.0001 another. At the time you mined it, that amount would be worth the same as what you got the previous month - only difference is it might be more or less bitcoin.

Bitcoin is backed by the community of people who mine it and buy it and everything. Like the stock market except it is extremely volatile. One day you could have $10, and the next you could have $100. Or it might co down to $0.10. Bitcoin started out at $0.00, and when people mined it it started to become more valuable.

The blockchain can technically be hacked, but it would be extremely difficult. If you hacked it, then you could steal all transactions of bitcoin, but you couldn't take the millions of bitcoins that are being mined.

Nobody knows who created the bitcoin as they just went by a code name Satoshi Nakamoto. And that's where the get the term satoshi - a 100 millionth of a bitcoin. Eventually, bitcoin will probably be shut down, but that wouldn't be for a long time as nobody knows who created it, and nobody can control the blockchain. Not even the creator. But the government may say its illegal, which would cause it to go down in price. If many populated countries banned bitcoin, than it could potentially reach $0.00 as it has less people backing it.

 

I think most people didn’t understand it when it was 1:1 (or less) against the USD. Which is why neither of us bought any back in 2009/2010. It was actually less than $0.01/BTC in May of 2010. Imagine spending $50 to own 5000 BTC (Bitcoin) and holding it until today, currently priced around $62,500/BTC. You’d be a millionaire more than 300 times over!
Even if you lived in NY (with the highest income tax in the US) and sold it all in 1 tax year, you’d still keep about $150 million.
I know. It is fun to dream though...