CGWatcher: A watchdog for cgminer

May 20th, 2013 CryptoBadger

CGWatcherEver wish that you could keep an eye on your miners 24/7? Maybe you’ve had cgminer inexplicably stop mining in the past, or you’re currently testing out settings that you’re not sure are stable—whatever the reason, it’d be nice if you immediately knew about issues that required a cgminer restart.

Enter CGWatcher, a tool that will keep an eye on cgminer for you. CGWatcher monitors several cgminer outputs, and will automatically restart cgminer whenever an issue is detected (e.g.: a dead/sick GPU, no submitted shares for the past x minutes, hashrate below a set threshold, etc).

It’s a great little tool, and I highly recommend it—especially if you don’t have your miners at a point where they’re completely stable yet. You can read more about CGWatcher (and download it) at the author’s website.

Guide: Cryptocurrency Wallet Security

May 16th, 2013 CryptoBadger

Litecoin walletSo you’ve built your own mining rig, you’ve mastered the art of trading for profit on the cryptocurrency exchanges, but you haven’t given much thought to securing your digital fortune against theft and accidental loss? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Wallet security isn’t exactly a glamorous topic. In fact, many of you might even assume that you don’t need your own wallet at all—after all, mining pools and currency exchanges are more than happy to hold your money for you, right?

Letting somebody else control your money is a mistake that will likely end up costing you at some point. That mining pool operator that you assume is trustworthy could very well be a teenager halfway around the world that has no problem stealing your coins. The various digital currency exchanges are unregulated, not necessarily secure, and a daily target for hackers—good luck getting your money back when one is breached or goes belly up.

Since it’s still basically the Wild West when it comes to cryptocurrencies, the only way to ensure that your digital wallet can’t be stolen or lost is to secure it yourself. Thankfully, this isn’t all that difficult if you follow a few basic rules. Read on for the guide.

Read more »

Department of Homeland Security orders Dwolla to stop processing payments from Mt. Gox

May 14th, 2013 CryptoBadger

Users on Reddit and the bitcointalk.org forums are reporting receiving emails from Dwolla stating that they are no longer allowed to process payments associated with Mt. Gox, due to a court order from the US Department of Homeland security. The Mt. Gox / Dwolla combination has been the most convenient (and cheapest) way for most people to convert bitcoins into cash.

The full text of the email from Dwolla reportedly looks like this:

You’re receiving this notice because our systems have indicated that you’ve processed and completed a real-time Dwolla-to-Dwolla payment to Mutum Sigillum LLC (“Mt. Gox”) within the last 24 hours.

Due to recent court orders received from the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Dwolla is no longer legally able to service Mutum Sigillum LLC’s account.

This is a courtesy email encouraging you to follow up on any uncompleted orders with Mutum Sigillum LLC as Dwolla is now unable to move money to and from Mutum Sigillum LLC’s Dwolla account.

Dwolla is not party to this matter nor does it have any information or further insight into the situation. We strongly encourages those with questions to contact Mutum Sigillum LLC

Note: Dwolla requires a court order before honoring requests such as seizing funds or revoking access to an account.

On behalf of Dwolla, we apologize for this inconvenience.

I haven’t seen anything official from either Gox or Dwolla yet, so it’s possible that this is a coordinated hoax in an attempt to manipulate market prices, I suppose. The prices of both BTC and LTC are already down quite a bit on the news.

Update: Mt. Gox has posted a short statement on their site regarding the order.

Update 2: CNET is reporting that they were able to confirm the validity of the story. Not a hoax.

Update 3 (5/15): Ars Technica has the reason for the DHS action.

Reminder: upgrade your Bitcoin client before May 15

May 10th, 2013 CryptoBadger

Bitcoin logoIf you’re running Bitcoin-qt or bitcoind, check to make sure that you have the latest version before May 15th. Running old versions after May 15th will cause you problems.

Bitcoin.org explains why this is necessary:

A bug caused a temporary block chain fork on 11 March, 2013. After investigating that bug, we determined that the bug can happen even if the entire network was still running old versions of Bitcoin-Qt/bitcoind. Therefore, the only option is to require everybody to either upgrade or workaround the bug.

You can get the latest version at bitcoin.org.

Wall Street Journal: Why Bitcoin is being taken seriously

May 8th, 2013 CryptoBadger

The Wall Street Journal posted a short commentary on Bitcoin today:


(if the video doesn’t load for you, click here)

The altcoin explosion… and how to profit from it

May 6th, 2013 CryptoBadger

AltcoinsIf you’re following the cryptocurrency mining scene at all, you’ve probably noticed that there are digital currencies other than Bitcoin and Litecoin. Quite a few of them, actually. Bytecoin, Terracoin, PPCoin, Feathercoin, Freicoin, Novacoin… the list goes on and on, and it seems like there is a new addition weekly.

The sad reality is that virtually all of these coins bring nothing significant to the table when compared to Bitcoin. The Bitcoin code is open-source, which means that anyone with a few hours of time on their hands can make some minor adjustments and fork off a brand new virtual currency that is nearly identical to the original in everything but name.

But why would somebody make a near-clone of Bitcoin? Why would anyone use a knock-off currency when they could just use bitcoins instead? Read on for some answers about altcoins, and how you can profit from them as a miner.

Read more »

Khan Academy on Bitcoin

May 3rd, 2013 CryptoBadger

The Khan Academy posted an introduction to bitcoin mechanics, including brief overviews of the block chain, mining, and how transactions work:

It’s a bit dry, but if you’re fuzzy on the basics of how digital currencies work, you’ll probably find it enlightening.

Coinlab sues Mt. Gox for $75 million

May 3rd, 2013 CryptoBadger

If you’re wondering what’s going on with the price of digital currencies over the past day or so, this lawsuit between two of the biggest players in the bitcoin arena is likely to blame.

From the Gawker article:

The Coinlab-Mt. Gox juggernaut was supposed to bring a new level of service, along with the legitimacy that came with the Silicon Valley Bank’s backing, to Mt. Gox and the economy as a whole. The partnership was considered so important to the growth of Bitcoin that some observers credited it with sparking a massive 40% surge in Bitcoin prices past $250 when it was first announced, during which some big Bitcoin hold probably made millions. (At least until the price crashed back down again.) Now the biggest hope of Bitcoin has devolved into the biggest lawsuit.

Forbes journalist living on bitcoin for a week

May 1st, 2013 CryptoBadger

A Forbes staffer is chronicling her week-long experiment to live solely on bitcoin for one week. Her journey only began yesterday, but you can read about how the first day went by clicking the link.

BBC News Report on Bitcoin

May 1st, 2013 CryptoBadger

The BBC posted a short “how it works” video about Bitcoin today:

(click here if the video won’t load for you)

While short, the video is interesting, accurate, and up to usual high BBC standards. Keep your eyes open for a shot of cgminer running about 2 minutes in. =)

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