Archive for 2013
Cryptocoin Information

Cryptocoin Information

November 21, 2013 Add Comment
When I entered the world of cryptocurrencies it was really difficult for me to find information about all the existing cryptocoins. All the data I found was incomplete or very disseminated around the Internet. I wish some place existed where I could clearly see all I needed to know about each new coin I found.

Today you can find some lists with some random information about some random number of cryptocoins, but it's still impossible to find a comprehensive list of the features of every cryptocurrency released.

At the beginning, it was also a headache to set up your computer for mining these coins. Not even the few tutorials you could find helped that much, since they became obsolete pretty fast: mining programs changed, mining difficulty changed, ASICs and other mining hardware appeared, new algorithms were created...

Today, it's easier than before, but still not trivial for somebody who doesn't know anything about cryptocurrencies to mine coins with their computer.

That's why a few days ago I decided to create that sort of place where all you need to know about each cryptocoin is included on a report, as well as a simple method to begin mining each coin as fast as possible. That place is:




I hope those of you who are new to this world find useful this new blog I've created. Bookmark it for future reference!

My First Investment: 1 mcxFEE!

November 20, 2013 1 Comment
I bought one mcxFEE from the exchange mcxNOW! I had never invested in anything before! I'm quite excited and I'm learning a lot about how markets function.



You can follow the performance of my mcxFEE share on this blog! Right now, with the ridiculous swings in the price of Bitcoin during last week, the share has lost half of its original value... But I'm in for the long run! Plus, it's really fun to see how your balance increases on all the cryptocoins you can trade at that exchange.

Have you bought shares from any Bitcoin-related business? Was it a good investment?

One Hundred Million Dollars!

April 01, 2013 Add Comment
Hello, dear Bitcoin users of the past! I, The Bitcoin Master, I'm talking to you from a not too distant future! You'll be happy to know that what you've achieved today, first of April 2013, is nothing compared to what awaits you! A value of $100 per Bitcoin will be remembered as a small step for Bitcoin, but a giant leap forward for human economy!



The future is beautiful!




You are witnessing the slow death of fiat money in real time! In the future, we no longer use those dirty papers most of you are still obliged to employ when you go shopping. In fact, you wouldn't even recognize the business landscape if you were here with me! Most banks have collapsed and no longer exist. Huge multinational corporations who tried to oppose the adoption of Bitcoins have disappeared, but some which use fiat money still remain (patents and copyright periods are too long!). We make all our exchanges through several competing cryptocurrencies leaded by Bitcoin. One satoshi is now worth $1. And Bitcoins can be divided up to 16 decimal places! The smallest Bitcoin unit available today (0.0000000000000001฿) is known as nakamoto.




We don't need to use computers or other devices to send Bitcoins to other people either; we only have to think about that action and it just happens. Many people still enjoy using hand-activated external body electronics for that purpose though! By the way, a couple of years ago the creator of Bitcoin (I won't tell you her real name!) was given the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. It included 0.01฿ as a reward!




However, the future of Bitcoin might not be very bright. Which is not a bad thing, mind you! We are approaching a level of automation in every single aspect of our lives that more and more products are reaching a price of literally 0฿, and some people are questioning the need of using money at all. Only very unnecessary things in life have a considerable price tag. For example, I've payed 5 satoshis for renting this DeLorean! I'm running out of fuel, so remember what I told you!




Farewell, and see you in the future! ;-)

Hey Guys, I'm Still Around!

Maret 14, 2013 Add Comment
Just a quick note: I might not write much during the next days (maybe even not the "Bitcoin News Of The Day"!). My goal was to write something about Bitcoin every day for as long as possible, but my life circumstances right now don't allow me to do so.

It is said most blogs die within a couple of months after creation, but this is not the case, OK!? I'll be back as soon as possible!



The Bitcoin Master



Oh, you hit the jump! Then let me add to this note that success has striken this humble blog pretty fast, and with success comes spam. That's why I'll moderate comments from now on. Don't worry if you don't see your comment appear right away in the future!

Bitcoin News Of The Day (II)

Maret 12, 2013 1 Comment

Get Satoshis For Chatting At CoinVisitor (1 update)

Maret 11, 2013 Add Comment
After CoinAd, there's now another site where you can earn bitcoins as you chat with other people! After being down for a couple of days, CoinVisitor (free bitcoins daily for visiting websites, free bitcoins once for liking/tweeting them) now adds this nice feature to their chat. I'll tell you the steps you must take to participate and earn here!:



http://coinvisitor.com/chat/



How To Proceed

  • Go to the CoinVisitor Chat page.
  • You'll be given by default a user name composed by six numbers (such as "273645"). Change your nickname with the command "/nick YOURNICKNAME":


I'll be "BTCM"!

  • Now register with the nickname you've chosen and a password with the command "/regist YOURPASSWORD":


This is not BTCM's password :-P

  • Now Logout and then Login with the user and password you chose:


Press this button...


And login with your user and password!

  • Now set up the bitcoin address where you'd like to receive the satoshis you get with the command "/setbitcoin YOURBITCOINADDRESS":


This IS one of BTCM's many bitcoin addresses.
Feel free to send some satoshis there! :-P

  • And that's it! Now chat with the rest of people. I'm not sure of the rules that the system follows to reward you, but it seems you've got a 33% chance to receive bitcoins for a message. You get 6 satoshis (0.06µ฿) every time this happens.


Prize get! It seems the ChatBot approves of what I said! :-)

  • If you want to know how many bitcoins you've accumulated after some chatting time, use the command "/balance":


$24 in the year 2050...

  • To withdraw your earnings, use the command "/withdraw":


Simple!

  • That's all you need to know! You'll receive your earnings in 24 hours, just as the ones you get from visiting sites at CoinVisitor.


Opportunity Review:

  • Expected profit: 1/5. Since I don't know the rules for getting a reward I'm not sure. But by sending three messages per minute you'll get approximately 3.60µ฿ per hour. Or about 100µ฿ per day. Very little...
  • Convenience: 5/5. Anybody can chat! The chat commands allow you to quickly manage your earnings too.
  • Payment speed: 2/5. You'll receive your satoshis in a day or less.
  • Risk: 1/5. Since getting the six satoshis seems like a random event, you may never get the prize if you are extremely unlucky!
  • Final Score: 6/10. It's nice to see new ways to earn free bitcoins appearing. This CoinVisitor Chat works pretty well but its reward is so low that it will take you a lot of time to get a significant amount of microbitcoins. Please raise the prize amount, Mr. CoinVisitor Admin! :-) Update 1, 07/04/2013: The reward has been risen! :-D

Bitcoin News Of The Day

Maret 10, 2013 Add Comment

ASICs are coming!

Maret 09, 2013 Add Comment
If you have ever mined bitcoins, it's very likely certain that you used either your CPU or your GPU. GPUs have a hashing power (mining speed) about a hundred times that of CPUs. "Serious" miners nowadays use their GPU to mine for this reason. "CPU mining is extremely slow and doesn't deserve your time", they'll tell you if you raise the possibility. But now a new kind of hardware is challenging the hashing speeds of the best graphic cards: Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) designed exclusively with one goal in mind: mining bitcoins as fast as possible!



An ASIC from Butterfly Labs



GPUs might have been a good choice to mine during the first years of Bitcoin, but none of them were optimized for this task. ASICs will. And now "serious" miners will say about GPUs the same they said about CPUs: that now that there are ASICs around with hashing speeds a hundred times that of GPUs, these are a joke. They are not efficient anymore.

I don't think however that previous GPU miners not willing to purchase ASICs will stop mining. Once you get into alternative currencies and learn about cryptocurrencies you usually get sucked in and it's not that difficult to forget about everything just because an event like this happens. I believe that now we are going to see more people mining other cryptocurrencies based on Bitcoin such as Litecoins or Terracoins.

I've become interested on these other cryptocurrencies lately. When I jumped into the world of Bitcoin and learned of their existence I thought they were unnecessary. The Bitcoin wiki says about Litecoins:

Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"),
there are other, much smaller units that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver"
while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.

That seemed about right for me. Furthermore, the only feature Litecoins had that made them different from Bitcoins was that the confirmations were faster. But now ASICs have added an important difference to the equation: Litecoins are far easier to mine. And they are increasing their value. For each 10 megahashes/second of power you have, you can get approximately a full Litecoin per day or 1 milliBitcoin in 24 hours. That's $0.18 versus $0.14 at current exchange rates.

The alternative cryptocurrencies didn't seem to have any future with Bitcoin being adopted by more and more businesses lately, but several events happening during the last days might change their fate. I'll keep an eye on them.

Site Review: CoinURL

Maret 08, 2013 Add Comment
In addition to the many websites that give you bitcoins for free or for doing very simple tasks, there are other ways to earn bitcoins without too much hassle. For example, by advertising other webs through CoinURL, which you can consider a mix between Google AdSense and AdF.ly for the bitcoin world. You won't even need your own website to earn bitcoins with CoinURL! Let's have a look at how all of this works:



https://coinurl.com



How It Works:

  • CoinURL lets you insert ads in your website or blog, like Google AdSense. When somebody clicks on these ads, you get paid a certain amount of bitcoins. However you do not get any kind of payment for impressions; the ad they put on your page could be viewed a million times, but if nobody clicks on it you won't get anything. This is a CoinURL 125x125 ad:


  • CoinURL also gives you the option to shorten links, like AdF.ly; when you share those links and somebody clicks on them, they'll see for several seconds an advertisement. You'll receive a few satoshis for every one of those clicks. You won't get any substantial amount if your marketing skills aren't quite good though, since what you make depends on the volume of people that clicks your links. This is a shortened link:
  • It's also possible to advertise yourself through CoinURL and the webs that show its ads, but I haven't tried this option personally.
  • You may withdraw your earnings at any moment, but if you withdraw more than 0.1฿ per month they'll take a 25% commission.


Don't worry about commissions; withdraw 0.09999999฿ at the end of the month!


Best Strategy:


Ad Slots

  • If you have a website, create some ad slots, get their code and insert it in your web. Let's see how this is done:


This is the overview of your account



Among the options on your left, click on "My ad slots"
under the "CONTENT" section



Click now on "Create slot". Give a name to your slot and select its dimensions.
Leave the rest as it is. Click on "Create"!



You can see the slots you've created at "My ad slots" - "Overview"



In order to get the code of a slot, click on the little gear and select "Show code"



Now you only need to select the code and insert it in your web!

  • Do not place the ads where they might be annoying for your visitors.
  • Don't try to mislead or encourage your visitors to click on the ads.
  • Do not click yourself on your ads either: you'll get caught and be banned!
  • Try that the ads are relevant to the content of the page where you place them.

Shorten URLs

  • No matter whether you have a website or not, you can use CoinURL's URL shortening method to earn some bitcoins. This is the way to do it:


Under the "TOOLS" section, click on "Shorten URL"



Write a URL on the text field and click on "Shorten"



Go to "CONTENT" - "My links" to check that the link was correctly
created and assigned to your account

  • Now select and copy the link (it will have the format "http://cur.lv/[FourCharactersOrNumbers]"). Share it on forums, social networks like Twitter and Facebook, YouTube comments, etc.
  • Do not spam.
  • Create interesting content to go along your links.
  • Contribute to a better web!
  • You'll receive your payment around two days after you order a withdrawal.


Or almost three days...


Site Review:

  • Expected profit: 3/5. This depends on how effective your marketing skills are and how good your web content is. Ads won't give you much, since they are almost ever clicked. Shortened URLs are far more effective.
  • Convenience: 2/5. You have to create the shortened links, the ad slots and the content to go with them.
  • Payment speed: 0/5. You'll receive your payment a couple of days after you order a withdrawal. They process payments manually.
  • Risk: 2/5. If nobody cares about your ads or links you'll have lost your time. It's up to you to make good and interesting content that leads people to your links and ad slots.
  • Final Score: 8/10. CoinURL is an advertising platform that pays you in bitcoins for showing ads. It's probably the most extended advertising system of the bitcoin world and works pretty well. However, what you earn depends a lot on your ability to create great web content; it's not going to give you bitcoins for free!

Websites That Do Not Give Free Bitcoins (III)

Maret 07, 2013 Add Comment
Yes, after issues one and two, it's time for another round of websites that do not give free bitcoins. Maybe they once gave but now don't. Or perhaps they were a scam from the beginning. Either way, here are my last findings. If you see these sites linked, don't lose your time: ignore them!



Don't let these sites fool you!



11. GOXKEYGEN:

As you may already know if you've been following this blog for some time, GOXKEYGEN gave you codes that you could redeem at Mt.Gox for a handful of microbitcoins. Now it redirects you to a different web through a referral link. An original idea died.



Let's move on...


12. CoinTube:

There are some sites that play a fundamental role in increasing the number of Bitcoin users. CoinTube was one of them. There you could get your first free bitcoins for watching videos. We will all remember the first time that, after tedious hours waiting for our freshly-installed Bitcoin client to synchronize with the network, we watched a video at this place and suddenly some microbitcoins made their way to our digital wallet. It felt almost like magic! This won't happen anymore, since CoinTube has decided to stop paying their users. They still make money through Virool if you visit them and watch the videos they show you, but they won't pay you back in Bitcoins part of their earnings. It's a pity.



Farewell! I'll miss the Weird CoinTube Woman...


13. Oscry:

This place used to give some free bitcoins every day, so it was like a bitcoin faucet you could use each 24 hours. Now it doesn't exist. Somebody took the domain oscry.com and at the moment it only shows ads. I managed to find a very low-quality image of what it looked like in the past:



Hm... All I can see is that it advertised BitVisitor!


14. TenDrawBTC:

Here you had some virtual scratchcards which gave you free bitcoins after, well, scratching them... Now they say they'll be back soon. One month ago TenDrawBTC said the same. I wonder what "soon" means to all these people who take down their site to redesign it!



I'll also return to your site to review it... Soon! Really, really soon!


15. BitStart:

This is a web where you can advertise yourself and earn bitcoins by playing some kind of game, but we don't care about that. We care about the faucet at the bottom of the page. A faucet that doesn't work. At all. And it looks like a clone of the NetLookup faucet... Designed to trick us into spreading the word about BitStart. Meh!



You may input anything, because it doesn't even check whether
it is a real bitcoin address what you write...

Hmmm... Poll Time! (1 update)

Maret 06, 2013 Add Comment
Three days ago I went to sleep and 1฿ = $34. When I woke up the next day it was $35.

Two days ago I went to sleep and 1฿ = $36. When I woke up the next day it was $40.

Yesterday I went to sleep with 1฿ = $40. This morning it was $46.

I guess we can expect 1฿ = $50 tomorrow, or during the next few hours... I'd like to hear your opinion about the future, oh beloved reader! How much will one bitcoin be worth at the end of this month?



Is this our future?



Update 1, 07/03/2013: Wow, that went down fast! :-D It was about to hit $50 when I went to sleep and during the night it went back to $42... No worries, though! That only means it will take a bit more to reach $1.000.000... ;-)

Blog Note: Check Older Posts For Updates

Maret 05, 2013 Add Comment
During the last days some of the sites that we've reviewed here have had problems or changed the way they work. We keep track of these events, so when you find that something is wrong or isn't working as it should on a web you found through us, feel free to visit this awesome blog again and check whether those reviews have been updated!



Continue reading to see some of the latest changes we've noticed!



Did You Know That...

  • Daily Bitcoins now gives you 10µ฿ per hour instead of 50µ฿ per hour?
  • CoinTube doesn't give you bitcoins for watching videos anymore?
  • NetLookup does give you a few free satoshis every day?
  • Bitcoin Faucet now delays your payments until you have accumulated 0.01฿?

Did you know all of the above? Uh? Did you? Did you?... Well, we knew it, and kept you updated on these changes! So again, come to us if you see something new on the webs we've reviewed (to confirm it) and leave a comment if we haven't realized yet of those changes!

Get Some Coins From Omnicoins

Maret 04, 2013 Add Comment
How about getting more coins for your wallet today just by Liking a business on Facebook and writing your bitcoin address on their wall? With Omnicoins, you can:



This is the https://www.omnicoins.com/ website. You won't
find the instructions to get free bitcoins here, though!



How To Proceed

  • You will need a Facebook account, so if you haven't joined the social network yet, do it!
  • Create a new bitcoin address to assure yourself that Omnicoins rewards you for liking their Facebook page. Or use a previous one you created to receive bitcoins once.
  • Log into Facebook. Go to Omnicoin's Facebook page and Like them. Post a message on their wall with your bitcoin address.


You'll see many people have already done this!

  • Now you only have to wait. You'll receive some coins on your wallet after a day or before.


1000µ฿ more. Lovely!


Opportunity Review:

  • Expected profit: 4/5. 1000µ฿ for you, once. Cool.
  • Convenience: 4/5. Like them, write your bitcoin address on their wall and wait. Pretty fast, isn't it?
  • Payment speed: 1/5. They'll send you your 100.000 satoshis in a day or so.
  • Risk: 0/5. There's no risk here, except if you are really concerned about security and don't want Facebook to know one of your bitcoin addresses.
  • Final Score: 8/10. It's once, it's fast and you are getting over $0.03 for doing it at the moment I'm writing this, so why should you skip this opportunity? Visit them and press "Like"! (and, since they seem to be so nice, consider buying coins from them in the future!)

Site Review: BitSprinkle

Maret 03, 2013 Add Comment
This is a site that I found just yesterday, lurking around the Bitcoin Reddit (which you should visit from time to time). It's very similar to BTC For Me (reviewed here): you send a tweet and receive free bitcoins. Let's see the details of BitSprinkle:



http://bitsprinkle.warp-6.net/



How It Works:

  • BitSprinkle gives you free bitcoins after you send them a tweet. The tweet must include your bitcoin address and their Twitter name "@BitSprinkle".
  • After a couple of minutes (only three in my case) you'll have 1000µ฿ more in your digital wallet!
  • You can do this only once. They do this as a welcome present to new bitcoin users so as they can "play" with bitcoins without the need of buying them on a market exchange.

Best Strategy:

  • Create a Twitter account if you don't have one. I don't think they will send bitcoins to an empty or a recently created account, so make sure you actually use it before asking them for bitcoins.
  • Create a new Bitcoin address only to receive bitcoins from BitSprinkle. This way you can assure yourself that they are actually paying you. Or use the address you created when you got your reward from BTC For Me.
  • Tweet the following message: "Hey @BitSprinkle sprinkle me some #Bitcoin BITCOIN ADDRESS", including your bitcoin address where it says "BITCOIN ADDRESS".
  • Wait a couple of minutes until their script catches your tweet and sends you the bitcoins.
  • Done! Now you are 0.001฿ richer.


Great! 1000µ฿ for a tweet!


Site Review:

  • Expected profit: 4/5. 1000µ฿. Not bad for sending just a tweet!
  • Convenience: 4/5. If you already have a Twitter account, this shouldn't take you more than one minute.
  • Payment speed: 5/5. Near-instantaneous. You'll be paid in a couple of minutes.
  • Risk: 0/5. Zero. Not considering the possibility of Twitter being under heavy load and not being able to process your tweet.
  • Final Score: 9/10. Why would you miss the opportunity of getting 1/1000 more bitcoins? Go to BitSprinkle and get them while they last!

Get Bitcoins For Chatting At CoinAd (4 updates)

Maret 02, 2013 Add Comment
Update 1, 04/03/2013: For the last 24 hours CoinAd has been inaccessible. It seems they have been hacked. I've sent @coinad a tweet to confirm this.

Update 2, 04/03/2013: Ten hours have passed and now it's back. Nobody knows what happened.

Update 3, 05/03/2013: It's broken again. I'll consider it fixed after it's up during three days in a row.

Yes, you are reading correctly. Since yesterday, CoinAd visitors who use the chat option are receiving bitcoins for doing so! Do you think it's too good to be true? Well, then look at this screenshot:



https://coinad.com/?m=chat



How To Proceed

  • If you haven't got an account at CoinAd yet, create it. If you don't already know this site, check out our review.
  • Log in with your account and click on the chat option at the top of the page. There's also a little link under the captcha:


+0.01mBTC FTW!

  • Chat with the rest of people you'll find there. And I really mean it; don't spam or you'll get banned forever. Every time you send a message you'll have a 25% chance of earning 10µ฿, which will be added to your CoinAd account. Update 07/03/2013: The chance has been increased to 35%!


When you get the prize, the text (+0.01mBTC) will appear after your message!

  • These bitcoins are delayed until you decide to release them. After that you'll receive them in less than a day on your wallet.


40µ฿ for solving a captcha once per hour,
10µ฿ for chatting once every four messages!


Opportunity Review:

  • Expected profit: 5/5. Assuming you don't spam and keep your rate of sending messages to, let's say, four per minute, you could earn up to 14400µ฿. If you don't sleep. Woo!
  • Convenience: 5/5. Chatting is easy. And fun. And interesting. Sometimes.
  • Payment speed: 2/5. You'll receive your coins in less than a day after you release your delayed balance.
  • Risk: 1/5. As getting the coins for your message is a random event, I guess there's always the possibility that you don't ever get +10µ฿!
  • Final Score: 9/10. If you are ever bored or want to relax doing something that doesn't require too much thinking, go to chat to CoinAd! You'll have fun and might get some bitcoins on the way!

A Quick Goodie From CoinVisitor (1 update)

Maret 01, 2013 Add Comment
Today I'll tell you a fast way to earn a good amount of bitcoins for free. We already know CoinVisitor. They give you free bitcoins for visiting websites. And now if you Like CoinVisitor and send a tweet to CoinVisitor they'll reward you too!



A nice reward awaits you!



How To Proceed

  • You will need a Facebook account and a Twitter account to do this, so if you haven't joined these social networks yet, register now!
  • Create a new bitcoin address to assure yourself that CoinVisitor rewards you for liking and tweeting them. Or use the one you created when you got your bitcoins from BTC For Me. Or the one you created to surf webs at CoinVisitor! You decide.
  • Log into Facebook. Go to ConVisitor's Facebook page and Like them. Post a message on their wall with your bitcoin address.


The Facebook page of CoinVisitor

  • Log into Twitter. Send them a tweet with your bitcoin address and wait until you get a sweet goodie on your wallet! :-) Update 1, 03/03/2013: Send a tweet to @coinvisitor, not to @BitcoinMaster!



Oh, let's see...



Yaaaaaaaaaaayyy!


Opportunity Review:

  • Expected profit: 5/5. 2500µ฿. Once. Awesome!
  • Convenience: 4/5. Tweet them, Like them and wait. Fast if you already are registered on the main social networks of the Internet.
  • Payment speed: 3/5. In a few hours you'll have 1/400 more bitcoins to hoard.
  • Risk: 0/5. None. The bitcoins are free.
  • Final Score: 9/10. Don't skip this opportunity. There's no other way to get so many free bitcoins in so little time!
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