The Bitcoin Thread

[etienne_marais]

How does one calculate time to solve block (zcash) ?

sol/s: 38399
network rate (sol/s): 101979543
block time: 127.39s
any other info needed ?

 

[C4Cat]

I wonder if we could start a separate thread for bitcoin mining? Many people interested in bitcoin are not really interested in mining rigs and software. Just a suggestion, putting it out there. Use it, don't use it...

 

[etienne_marais]

I wonder if we could start a separate thread for bitcoin mining? Many people interested in bitcoin are not really interested in mining rigs and software. Just a suggestion, putting it out there. Use it, don't use it...

Can we agree on:

this thread: general Bitcoin (and perhaps ethereum) discussion excluding mining
this Thread all other crypto currencies (general discussion and trading as per title, excluding mining)
A new thread: something like 'Crypto Currency Mining' (bitcoin,ethereum,other altcoins)

 

[Excalibur]

I wonder if we could start a separate thread for bitcoin mining? Many people interested in bitcoin are not really interested in mining rigs and software. Just a suggestion, putting it out there. Use it, don't use it...

Agreed.

 

[jacosmit]

Mining Rig Rentals Similar to NiceHash with the exception of you rent a dedicated rig for a couple of hours.

Ooh, is it profitable?

 

[jacosmit]

Agreed.

Go for it, gooi a link when it's up.

 

[etienne_marais]

Any objections ?

Cryptocurrency Mining

 

[C4Cat]

Can we agree on:

this thread: general Bitcoin (and perhaps ethereum) discussion excluding mining
this Thread all other crypto currencies (general discussion and trading as per title, excluding mining)
A new thread: something like 'Crypto Currency Mining' (bitcoin,ethereum,other altcoins)

Yes, that would be great

 

[21stcn]

Hi there

I have a question regarding Bitcoin purchasing, specifically using Luno. I hope this is an appropriate place to ask it (I can't really find anywhere else). Perhaps someone will be able to answer.

The question has to do with Luno instant buy feature. Yesterday I bought R20 K worth of bitcoin through Luno. I had been watching the price for about 48 hours and had alerts set so that I could buy when it dipped below 26 000 ZAR/BTC.

I ending up buying when the luno BUY price was R26300. Here is the timestamp of the purchase:

Tue May 16 17:08:27 GMT +02:00 2017.



However when I reviewed the transaction, I see that I actually paid R27 317 ZAR/BTC. Firstly I literally did not and would not have bought at this price, but secondly, the price had a high that day of R26 801, according to Luno's own graphs.



So my question is, what is going on here? Why was the price R1000 more than it said it was when I pressed BUY, and how was it R1000 more than the price high for the day? What I am missing here? Is there any way to look up the transaction in the index (they don't provide an id)?

Luno is by far the most convenient and developed tool for South Africans to participate properly/legally in the crypto market (that I have found), but how can anyone be content using the instant buy feature if you basically can't trust the price?

 

[Lunomoney]

Hi there

I have a question regarding Bitcoin purchasing, specifically using Luno. I hope this is an appropriate place to ask it (I can't really find anywhere else). Perhaps someone will be able to answer.

The question has to do with Luno instant buy feature. Yesterday I bought R20 K worth of bitcoin through Luno. I had been watching the price for about 48 hours and had alerts set so that I could buy when it dipped below 26 000 ZAR/BTC.

I ending up buying when the luno BUY price was R26300. Here is the timestamp of the purchase:

Tue May 16 17:08:27 GMT +02:00 2017.

-snip

However when I reviewed the transaction, I see that I actually paid R27 317 ZAR/BTC. Firstly I literally did not and would not have bought at this price, but secondly, the price had a high that day of R26 801, according to Luno's own graphs.

-snip

So my question is, what is going on here? Why was the price R1000 more than it said it was when I pressed BUY, and how was it R1000 more than the price high for the day? What I am missing here? Is there any way to look up the transaction in the index (they don't provide an id)?

Luno is by far the most convenient and developed tool for South Africans to participate properly/legally in the crypto market (that I have found), but how can anyone be content using the instant buy feature if you basically can't trust the price?

The Instant Buy/ Sell looks at what's feasibly available on the market, it doesn't always guarantee the best rate.
If you'd prefer to make more advanced trades where you can specify the price and place limit orders I'd recommend using our Exchange. I've linked in a guide on how to use this below.

Before the order is made, just before you enter your PIN, a confirmation is made for the buy/ sell.

In the background it gets fairly complex.
The Instant Buy/ Sell looks at the available liquidity and what's available at the value you're requesting it. The page then generates a quote for 60 seconds. If the order is executed, the order is still placed on the exchange, but in the background.

Any BTC order is made on the exchange, it's just easier and quicker to do it via Instant Buy and Sell.

Hope that makes sense

 

[HunterNW]

See page 62 and 63 - Asked the same question. And what I did learn: Use the exchange and use buy/sell order. Sometimes you even buy at a lower price. On the 12th i placed a buy order for 27200 and got it at 27184.
Instant buy/sell..... never again.

 

[C4Cat]

The Instant Buy/ Sell looks at what's feasibly available on the market, it doesn't always guarantee the best rate.
If you'd prefer to make more advanced trades where you can specify the price and place limit orders I'd recommend using our Exchange. I've linked in a guide on how to use this below.

Before the order is made, just before you enter your PIN, a confirmation is made for the buy/ sell.

In the background it gets fairly complex.
The Instant Buy/ Sell looks at the available liquidity and what's available at the value you're requesting it. The page then generates a quote for 60 seconds. If the order is executed, the order is still placed on the exchange, but in the background.

Any BTC order is made on the exchange, it's just easier and quicker to do it via Instant Buy and Sell.

Hope that makes sense

This seems to be a common misunderstanding people make, it's not really explained very clearly (at all) on your website.
In fact, on your website it simply says: Instant buy or sell - This feature allows you to instantly buy bitcoin at the current exchange rate. which is very misleading.
I really think you need to be clearer on the site how it works.

 

[Lunomoney]

This seems to be a common misunderstanding people make, it's not really explained very clearly (at all) on your website.
In fact, on your website it simply says: Instant buy or sell - This feature allows you to instantly buy bitcoin at the current exchange rate. which is very misleading.
I really think you need to be clearer on the site how it works.

Fair shout, I can see where potential confusion could come in here.
The price does move around though, and a different price is quoted when buying or selling based on the spread. That's way too much information to display, so we simply list how much Bitcoin you're getting for Rx.

So to confirm how the price is calculated - there isn't just one price, and we can't quote an average price since the order still needs to be processed on the exchange. If there is only 0.01 BTC available to buy @ R20 000, and an order of 1 BTC @ R20 500, the system processed from the order that has the liquidity available. In this case, the order @ R20 000.

I'll bring this up with our Product team and see where we can potentially make some changes.

EDIT: We are working on making the confirmation screen clearer, just confirmed with our Product guys

 

[21stcn]

This seems to be a common misunderstanding people make, it's not really explained very clearly (at all) on your website.
In fact, on your website it simply says: Instant buy or sell - This feature allows you to instantly buy bitcoin at the current exchange rate. which is very misleading.
I really think you need to be clearer on the site how it works.

This is exactly it.

I understand the mechanics now of the instant buy sell functionality, however I did not before, and the reason for that is because Luno explains this function inadequately.

I had read through everything on your site and assumed you had a mechanism to guarantee the price you advertised, which is of course possible using hedging on your part. Just because you still trade on the exchange during an instant buy does not mean you can't guarantee the price you advertise by any means, because you can of course pay more or less yourselves, so there is nothing intuitive about how your system changes the price at literally the last minute, to be clear, which you seem to have implied when explaining your internal trade mechanics.

This feature allows you to instantly buy bitcoin at the current exchange rate.

This, being the only reference to the instant buy system, is not good enough and borderline deceitful. What you explained to me you need to explicitly explain on your site, unless you are somehow profiting from the lack of transparency. You should also provide more transparency as to the transaction id and the blockchain. You guys are dominating here, please just keep it above board ffs otherwise I'll just go back to less polished avenues. You're doing well, just keep it fair; that's the point of this whole cryto business.

I'll bring this up with our Product team and see where we can potentially make some changes.

You should know this is the only responsible thing to do here.

 

[Lunomoney]

This is exactly it.

I understand the mechanics now of the instant buy sell functionality, however I did not before, and the reason for that is because Luno explains this function inadequately.

I had read through everything on your site and assumed you had a mechanism to guarantee the price you advertised, which is of course possible using hedging on your part. Just because you still trade on the exchange during an instant buy does not mean you can't guarantee the price you advertise by any means, because you can of course pay more or less yourselves, so there is nothing intuitive about how your system changes the price at literally the last minute, to be clear, which you seem to have implied when explaining your internal trade mechanics.



This, being the only reference to the instant buy system, is not good enough and borderline deceitful. What you explained to me you need to explicitly explain on your site, unless you are somehow profiting from the lack of transparency. You should also provide more transparency as to the transaction id and the blockchain. You guys are dominating here, please just keep it above board ffs otherwise I'll just go back to less polished avenues. You're doing well, just keep it fair; that's the point of this whole cryto business.



You should know this is the only responsible thing to do here.

See my edit on my last post, it's something we're working on
The intention is in no way to be deceitful though, that's not how we do things.

 

[21stcn]

See page 62 and 63 - Asked the same question. And what I did learn: Use the exchange and use buy/sell order. Sometimes you even buy at a lower price. On the 12th i placed a buy order for 27200 and got it at 27184.
Instant buy/sell..... never again.

Will do from now, at least until they improve transparency on the instant buy/sell. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Lunomoney]

Will do from now, at least until they improve transparency on the instant buy/sell. Thanks for the advice.

Not sure if you saw my last edit.

EDIT: We are working on making the confirmation screen clearer, just confirmed with our Product guys

 

[21stcn]

EDIT: We are working on making the confirmation screen clearer, just confirmed with our Product guys

Good! Thanks.

 

[RandomDesign]

Luno have an announcement message that they're implementing dynamic fees from the 26th, because of the "substantial" increases in transaction fees recently. Blocksize gonna tip this train...

 

[Thor]

This seems to be a common misunderstanding people make, it's not really explained very clearly (at all) on your website.
In fact, on your website it simply says: Instant buy or sell - This feature allows you to instantly buy bitcoin at the current exchange rate. which is very misleading.
I really think you need to be clearer on the site how it works.

100% agreed. Instant buy is a added tip for luno. I tell people to use the exchange just put the price a few bucks lower than what the current price is and you'll get it soon enough for a reasonable price.