Quote from: catfish on November 08, 2011, 01:10:54 PM

Quote from: bulanula on November 06, 2011, 07:37:40 PM

Quote from: catfish on November 06, 2011, 07:14:38 PM

Quote from: Idzy on November 06, 2011, 03:49:12 PM

mining for gold/silver does sound interesting.

I've been doing this since the very very beginning of my mining exploits, back with slush's pool in actual fact.

Every bitcoin I've mined has been spent on silver and gold coins.

Having a direct link from the pool would be a compelling reason to join back up here, but of course, actual rates and types of gold/silver coin would be an issue. Does slush *really* want to get into the bullion dealing business?

BTW - for those seeking gold, nice small bullion-grade coins are the Mexican 2 and 2.5 peso coins. At current rates, they're costing me around 40-50 BTC each, which is achievable with a smallish mining setup every week. Seeing a gold coin appear in the post every week makes this mad enterprise worth it.

Whether the constant extraction of value from the BTC economy to precious metal bullion is good for the Bitcoin economy is a question best moved to the Economy forum... (the answer is no, it's not that good for all miners to be doing this). For that reason alone, it'd probably be best for the pools to get out of the 'extract value' business and let miners pay other Bitcoin-accepting merchants for their bullion, as it increases the BTC velocity and viability of the currency. If all miners simply cash out from the pool directly, then the value of mining will crash very quickly. All sellers and no buyers - this is a very serious issue BTW.

Where are you getting the coins from mate, since I am in the UK too. Thanks !

This is the same with NMC -> automatically being to BTC. Price will crash soon. We need to unload the BTC for $$$ with precision. It is a bit like quantitative easing

It's not really like QE but I won't put my fixed income geek hat on and bore you to death with shifting the maturity profile of outstanding sovereign debt in order to alter the duration and hopefully reduce the yield of short-term debt, allowing cheaper financing for banks at the cost of 'kicking the can' and stoking inflation. Oooops, just have. Sorry.

NMC to BTC is an almost certain crash because of exactly what I said (and you re-iterated) - without a thriving *trade* using the currency, and just sellers cashing out for other currencies, you've effectively got a trading pit full of sellers and no buyers. The only buyers would be speculators, and I can't see many reasons to speculate on NMC with a constantly-fading value unless you can naked short them, which should be illegal. Regular shorts require borrowing the NMC to begin with, creating a buyer and reducing the profit in the short (in a simple market like NMC).

I'm still concerned about the miners-offloading issue with BTC, but there is at least a regular *trade* in BTC and people buying the currency to use in purchasing things they don't want recorded on credit cards / bank accounts (even legal stuff, like gold, causes nervousness - as slush said, European nations are tightening down on personal bullion purchases - requiring reporting to govt - and the USA, of course, has the spectre of Roosevelt and the 1933 gold confiscation... I'd like to see Obama try that *these* days given that American gold-bugs tend to be long on copper and lead Wink

too).

Equally, if we spend our mined BTC at a BTC-accepting bullion trader, then there's *some* hope that this will keep the BTC circulating. I know that most bullion traders accept BTC only if they can cash it out immediately... which is just passing the buck, really - but maybe sometimes the trader may keep a 'float' of BTC to spend on items elsewhere. Regardless, it's better to mine your BTC, receive BTC, then spend them in the BTC economy. Having pool operators directly converting mined BTC into other currencies / PMs would be disastrous for the BTC economy IMO - it'd put enormous downward pressure on the BTC rate.

Finance-geek hat off - I use Mick Bruce of MJB Monetary Metals. I've been buying from him since *before* bitcoin, using GBP. He's honest and reliable. But the recent issue with Intersango means he stopped accepting BTC last week - I've got a load burning a hole in my pocket so I ought to contact him to see if anything has changed... Next day UK postage, he's never let me down.

I'm being nice here - didn't want to give this info out on open forum as he only has a limited stock and *I* want it available for *me* to buy with my bitcoins. Cheesy

I have no affiliation with Mick - just a satisfied regular customer.

I have dealt with Mick Bruce as well (and will in the future) and can second all you have said about him.
I would offer my services as regards to distributing gold and silver to miners.
If I could agree on, say, austrian harmonies or 1g gold bars (so i can standardize my restocking for better prices)...?

Shipping to continental Europe is ~5 for registered mail, one would have to take this into account. I would also have to remodel my shop as to "auto-trigger" purchases^^

I am turning quite some of the BTC I make around since I do have to restock - but I am also an avid SPENDER of bitcoin (airVPN, bitcointorrentz, and playing on GLBSE)...

If there really is interest in this, I'm game.