

How the Internet Archive is having a great time with Bitcoin - rtra
http://blog.archive.org/2013/04/03/how-the-internet-archive-is-having-great-time-with-bitcoin/

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jtchang
I have so much respect for the internet archive. To me the internet archive
represents an entity that really understands the "Internet" and aligns closely
with a lot of the ideals of free speech and information access.

Plus the wayback machine is super cool!

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manish_gill
I'm more interested in mining them. Is it too late to start jumping on the BTC
train ? Do you need special processors? Last I remember, you could still mine
Bitcoins using GPUs.

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dmm
You can still mine with AMD GPUs but the difficulty has been rising fast due
to the release of ASICs.

For example, right now a Radeon HD 7970 will earn you about 1.4 BTC per month.

ASICs are not for sale anywhere. You can preorder from butterfly labs but
there is no indication when they will ship.

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anigbrowl
Why not an FPGA?

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pmorici
They did do FPGA, many of the companies selling FPGA boards to mine have
ceased operations because interest has dropped off since ASICS are where it is
at now.

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anigbrowl
/facepalm

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blhack
Okay, fine. How do I buy some bitcoin?

Is bitinstant still cool?

edit1: Okay, MT Gox seems to be having some server problems, but things are
going...slowly.

edit2: Mt Gox really wants my driver's license? This seems...not to be
something that is a good idea. Should I really give them my driver's license?

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rheide
MtGox requires a fair bit of verification, but they've also been around pretty
much the longest, and have already had to deal with all the security issues
that other bitcoin sites are only beginning to discover. I trust them.

(That is to say, I trust them long enough to do the exchange, and then I
transfer the bitcoins to my private offline wallet as soon as possible. And
you should too.)

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blhack
Did you give them your license, though? That seems to trip every single
"identity theft" alarm I have.

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rheide
So you want to open a bank account but you don't want to identify yourself?

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jlgreco
Are they regulated as though they are a bank?

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epscylonb
Yes, AML (anti money laundering) and KYC (know your customer).

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jlgreco
Is that all?

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deepblueocean
I wonder how much pressure IA feels to convert its donated bitcoin holdings to
cash, given the run-up in exchange rates that has happened recently. Does IA
prefer to support Bitcoin as if it were, as its proponents suggest, a real
currency with sticking power for the long-term future? Or is there more real
and permanent good to be had from converting that money to dollars to support
the Archive's excellent programs today?

Clearly the latter must trump the former at some price. I think that price may
be well below the $/BTC exchange rate today.

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MacsHeadroom
The recent run-up is nothing.

The price will be $300/BTC by next week and $3000/BTC by next year.

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unimpressive
I need to start recording bold predictions like this in some sort of journal.

EDIT: I meant in general, not just for bitcoin.

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toomuchtodo
Want me to write a browser extension that submits such quotes to the Internet
Archive in their WARC format? :)

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unimpressive
I'm not really sure what the internet archive would do with them. It'd make
more sense from their perspective to just save the whole page.

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brown9-2
Are the employees being paid in fixed Bitcoin amounts, or amounts relative to
a USD-based (or other local currency) salary?

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brewsterkahle
we paid in $-equiv: the Internet Archive calculated the price of bitcoins on
April 1 and use that (rounded down to $100/btc). seemed fair.

