No its not. The blockchain is currently almost 12GB. Last week I downloaded a game that was 28GB. Thats just one game. 1TB hard drives are $60.

Yeah, if you are getting started it takes a fair amount of time for the blockchain to come down. If you are in a rush, just use Electrum (which will be up and running in 30 seconds) until the blockchain has finished downloading.

Plus, bitcoin devs are working on ways to prune the blockchain.

Blockchain size is not something you need to worry about.

Like in so many other cases a backup would have solved this problem. Both a digital backup and a paper wallet (stored in a very safe place) is required when dealing with any amount of Bitcoin.

> It was good advice at the time.

Actually, no it wasn't. Good advice would have been: Use your brain. Research Bitcoin until you understand how it works, what it is and what it isn't. Then, decide if it is workable and worthy. If it is, decide how much you are willing to risk investing in it. Don't invest more than you can afford to lose. Note that this is good advice for any new technology.

This is what I did early in 2011. At first I was like most people: "That can't possibly work." But I researched and I found it could and DID work. And I wanted it to succeed, so I did whatever I could to help it (which included investing in it).

When I finally figured out what it was all about I got a weird feeling. I can best describe the feeling as "This Is Important". I got the same feeling when I first found out about the Internet.

You must have been trying to get a reservation at 'Seize'. That's not even the real phone number for reservations... The real number's a secret, closely guarded by people they deem... acceptable

"I lost all my documents because my hard drive died."

Now think about which of these is most likely to happen, and which one is worse when it does happen.

Idiots who don't understand fiat currency make me sad.

Indeed, I believe this is responsible for much of the hate towards Bitcoin, which I would have expected to receive a much more positive response from the /. crowd.
Trying to understand Bitcoin causes people to realize that they don't really understand currencies, when they think they do, and the cognitive dissonance results in anger.

Just because you use currency every day doesn't mean you understand it. If you did, you'd have gotten rich from forex trading and you wouldn't be on /. right now.

I just really hate to go back to chasing that upgrade dragon.

Its not as bad as it used to be. A decent gaming rig lasts a LOT longer these days. I used to be on something like a 6-8 month upgrade cycle. My current video card (Radeon 6950) is just over 2 years old, and still handles everything fine, I could probably easily get another year out of it and maybe more. A $300 card amortized over ~3 years is pretty cheap.

Can you even charge someone for attempting to poison someone, when their chosen methods had no possibility of ever hurting anyone?

Sideshow Bob: Attempted murder? Now honestly, what is that? Do they give a Nobel prize for attempted chemistry?

That isn't what makes Bitcoin volatile. It is volatile because the market is so small. Which means that small players can cause large changes in the value by doing certain things. Sure, Bitcoins market cap is $1B USD, which sounds big, and it is for an individual. But in terms of the global economy its TINY. Once Bitcoin gets past $1T USD market cap its exchange rate will much more stable.

"Mining" is actually sort of a bad choice of word, because it implies that the purpose is to create the bitcoins. Its not. The purpose of mining is to verify the transactions and secure the blockchain. Bitcoins are given to miners as a reward for performing this service for the network.

And, as others have already said, this reward will gradually decrease until 21M coins are produced, at which point the miners reward will come entirely from the transaction fees instead.

One of my favourite bits from QI:

Alan Davies: Eight hundred Americans die in a McDonald's every year.
Rich Hall: Which one? Best to avoid that one.

I suspect you were trying to be funny, but you can actually do that.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Paper_wallet

No, they have all been relevant. This is just the first time you realized WHY.

This sort of thing is EXACTLY what the bitcoin creator was thinking about when it was being developed. Its *my* money. No one else should get to decide who I can send it to.

I never liked that Dr. Stupid.

Proprietor: Why don't you try W. H. Smith's?
Customer: I did, they sent me here.
Proprietor: DID they.