# Do you have any Bitcoins? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 14, 2014, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-bitcoins/693088 "2014-07-14T17:52:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-bitcoins/693088/1 "2014-07-14T17:52:52Z")
I don’t, but as a professional computer nerd with an interest in cryptography I like to follow the news about the whole Bitcoin ecosystem. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-bitcoins/693088/2 "2014-07-14T18:04:36Z")
Don’t own any. And I don’t plan on ever doing so, except maybe for entertainment/novelty value. Their value fluctuates too much to be useful as a currency, and too randomly to be useful as an investment vehicle. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-bitcoins/693088/3 "2014-07-14T18:58:26Z")
I mined a few a couple years ago, but lost them when I reformatted my computer and forgot to backup my wallet! Oops! At their high point, they would have been worth about 800 dollars. I have like 1/10th of a bitcoin in a slush mining account that can be delivered to any wallet I want in the future. Maybe sometime in the future, 1/10th of a bit coin will be like a billion dollars, so I’ll just leave it in there. If it doesn’t, oh well. It was a silly fad that I quickly realized was stupid a few weeks after starting my mining. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mask\_behind\_the\_Mask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ebca7d/32.png) [@The\_Mask\_behind\_the\_Mask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mask_behind_the_Mask)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2014, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-bitcoins/693088/4 "2014-07-14T19:39:34Z")
As a bit of a crypto nerd myself, I find Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) interesting, but I don’t own any and don’t plan on it either. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-bitcoins/693088/5 "2014-07-15T03:19:43Z")
Not being a fool, or at least not a gullible fool, I have no plans ever to own any bitcoins. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-bitcoins/693088/6 "2014-07-15T03:35:01Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Not being a fool, or at least not a gullible fool, I have no plans ever to own any bitcoins. I’ve never had a problem using the currency of whatever country I’m in. So, not interested. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-bitcoins/693088/7 "2014-07-15T04:21:03Z")
I mined a couple over the course of a few days when I first heard about them. The difficulty was low, the price was far higher than the corresponding work to mine them so I left my computer on and mined a couple. Then the price dropped and difficulty spiked and it wasn’t worth the wasted energy. I sold them as soon as I got them, but left the money on Mt.Gox, as the forty bucks wasn’t worth giving shady idiots my banking info. Bought an Amazon gift card with them later, before Mt. Gox went belly up. Have been avidly following them ever since, but purely for the schadenfreude of watching Internet libertarians learn about regulation and banking the hard way. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-bitcoins/693088/8 "2014-07-15T08:26:22Z")
~98% firmly in the “no” category so far. This might be the most one-sided poll in Doper history. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-bitcoins/693088/9 "2014-07-15T13:16:46Z")
I signed up for a Bitcoin banking service that gave me $1 in BC to link it to my (fake) Facebook account. So I own 0.0064 bitcoins. As of the other day, it was actually worth $1.01 so I’m livin’ pretty large. ---
**Author:** ![Collaborator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Collaborator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Collaborator)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2014, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-bitcoins/693088/10 "2014-07-16T06:06:58Z")
I’ve been part of cryptocurrency since the start and was fortunate to have mined a rather large number of Bitcoins near inception and continue mining altcoins on a fairly wide scale. This is absolutely the future of money, i’m in it for the long haul. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2014, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-bitcoins/693088/11 "2014-07-16T06:36:15Z")
Where is the “Fuck No!” poll option? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2014, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-bitcoins/693088/12 "2014-07-16T09:29:41Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > ~98% firmly in the “no” category so far. This might be the most one-sided poll in Doper history. 🙂 Many years ago, back before there was a polling function, we had a thread asking who was a better character: Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse? Literally everyone picked Bugs Bunny. I posted at the time it was the only issue we had ever achieved unanimous agreement on. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2014, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-bitcoins/693088/13 "2014-07-16T21:07:19Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > ~98% firmly in the “no” category so far. This might be the most one-sided poll in Doper history. 🙂 The "yes’ answers all seem to assume the reason to have some is for investment. I have a little bit, but it’s not for investment. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2014, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-bitcoins/693088/14 "2014-07-16T21:09:38Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > I mined a couple over the course of a few days when I first heard about them. The difficulty was low, the price was far higher than the corresponding work to mine them so I left my computer on and mined a couple. Then the price dropped and difficulty spiked and it wasn’t worth the wasted energy. I sold them as soon as I got them, but left the money on Mt.Gox, as the forty bucks wasn’t worth giving shady idiots my banking info. Bought an Amazon gift card with them later, before Mt. Gox went belly up. > > Have been avidly following them ever since, but purely for the schadenfreude of watching Internet libertarians learn about regulation and banking the hard way. Could someone explain the “difficulty” thing with the mining. Is it difficult for the person or the computer? ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2014, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-bitcoins/693088/15 "2014-07-16T21:10:49Z")
The poll doesn’t distinguish between “no because what’s a bitcoin?” and “no because I’ve made an informed decision”. ---
**Author:** ![Collaborator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Collaborator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Collaborator)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-bitcoins/693088/16 "2014-07-17T20:33:49Z")
Difficulty makes the coin harder to mine by requiring more effort to accomplish the same mining result. Most coins increase difficulty over time, and also periodically increase it to discourage groups from cycling between coins just to mine and sell. ---
**Author:** ![Collaborator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Collaborator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Collaborator)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-any-bitcoins/693088/17 "2014-07-17T20:45:55Z")
Difficulty impacts the computer or miner you’ve set to mine. Once you set your device to mine, no input from the user is necessary.