Bitcoin, P2P & Distributed Computing How to mine on the Internet By :Michelle Davies

WHAT IS BITCOIN?

Instant peer to peer transactions Worldwide payments Low or zero processing fees And much more! Bitcoin is an open source digital currency, a protocol, and a software that enables… Source:

More…. Created in 2009 by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto, it was released under the MIT license It is a decentralized currency Bitcoin uses public-key cryptography, peer-to-peer networking, and proof-of-work to process and verify payments. (Each transaction requires confirmations - the more confirmations means the more valid the transaction was, most places go off 4) Bitcoins can be transferred back and forth using a wallet. Wallets have unique addresses with an identifier of alphanumeric characters, beginning with the number 1 or 3, that represents a possible destination for a Bitcoin payment.

How Does It Work?? As a new user, you only need to choose a wallet that you will install on your computer or on your mobile phone. Once you have your wallet installed, it will generate your first Bitcoin address and you can create more whenever you need one. You can disclose one of your Bitcoin addresses to your friends so that they can pay you or vice versa, you can pay your friends if they give you their addresses. In fact, this is pretty similar to how works. So all that is left to do at this point is to get some bitcoins and to keep them safe. Source:

Casascius Physical Bitcoin (can be purchased from Ebay or Casascius's website at a higher rate, could be brass, gold or silver plated depending on the series purchased) What does it look like? Back Front

Wallets, Transactions, Etc. Online Based Block Chain Info: MTGox: MultiBit: Downloadable/Application Based Bitcoin-QtBitcoin-Qt is an app you can download for Windows, Mac and Linux. Bitcoin WalletBitcoin Wallet for Android runs on your phone or tablet.

Mining on your PC/Mac/Unix machine There are 2 Categories You can either… A: mining for yourself B: part of a mining pool ***If you are mining for yourself then you may just want a basic mining app to run on your computer if you are mining towards a "mining pool/group" then you would fill out that info in the mining client being part of a mining pool increases your chances of getting bit coins because you are part of a group but at same time anything you mine gets distributed across the entire group

Bitcoin Mining Devices

BITCOIN VOLUME vs. PRICE MtGox Info for the period 3/17/13 – 4/17/13 Source:

What can you do with BitCoins? List of Online Vendors who accept BitCoin: BitCoin ATMs are gradually being rolled out: Man tries to sell house for BitCoins: Texas man sells Porsche for BitCoins: Texas-family-sells-Porsche-for-bitcoins php Texas-family-sells-Porsche-for-bitcoins php

Articles of Interest Recently in the news… The Bitcoin Boom s/elements/2013/04/the-future-of- bitcoin.html s/elements/2013/04/the-future-of- bitcoin.html Trust: The Bitcoin Of Innovative Cultures 13/04/09/trust-the-bitcoin-of-innovative- cultures/?ss=strategies-solutions Digital 'bitcoin' currency surpasses 20 national currencies in value gital-currency-bitcoin-surpasses-20-national- currencies-in-value/#ixzz2Qkj8Q9N6

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN P2P NETWORKS AND GRID COMPUTING? …And how does Bit Coin factor in?

P2P Network Model P2P (peer to peer) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or work loads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application. They are said to form a peer-to-peer network of nodes. Via Computerworld.com

BIT TORRENT A protocol that supports the practice of peer-to-peer file sharing and is used for distributing large amounts of data over the Internet. The service allows users to communicate with peers by voice using a microphone, video by using a webcam, and instant messaging over the Internet. SKYPE P2P Network Examples Common uses of P2P: file sharing, instant messaging, voice communication, collaboration, backup, sensor nets, distributed computing, defense

Grid Computing Model A type of distributed computing. Grid computers are multiple numbers of same classes of computers clustered together. A grid computer is connected through a super fast network and share the devices like disk drives, mass storage, printers and RAM Grid Computing is a cost efficient solution with respect to Super Computing. Operating system has capability of parallelism Grid computing combines computers from multiple administrative domains to reach a common goal, to solve a single task, and may then disappear just as quickly.

CLIMATEPREDICTION.NET A distributed computing project to investigate and reduce uncertainties in climate modeling. It aims to do this by running hundreds of thousands of different models (a large climate ensemble) using the donated idle time of ordinary personal computers, thereby leading to a better understanding of how models are affected by small changes in the many parameters known to influence the global climate. (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data. PROJECT Grid Computing Examples Common uses of Grid Computing: intensive scientific, mathematical, and academic problems through volunteer computing, and it is used in commercial enterprises for such diverse applications as drug discovery, economic forecasting, seismic analysis, and back office data processing in support for e-commerce and Web services.

Bitcoin Network Model Bitcoin (BTC) is an online commodity which was first described in a 2009 paper by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto, who called it an anonymous, peer-to-peer, electronic payments system. Bitcoin creation and transfer is based on an open source encryption protocol and is not managed by any central authority. The creation of new bitcoins is automated and may be accomplished by servers, called bitcoin miners that run on an internet-based network and confirm bitcoin transactions by adding codes to a decentralized log, which is updated and archived periodically. Each bitcoin is subdivided into 100 million smaller units called satoshis, defined by eight decimal places.

Could potentially be used for nefarious purposes, since it is not regulated Crime Drug Purchases Weapons Murder DDOS Attacks Etc, etc. Legality