Presentation prepared for 4/17/13's ComputerWise on Blue Ridge TV. You can also watch the video of the Interview Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxY-E-ETFiM

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

2. WHAT IS
BITCOIN?

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

4. 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 27-34
alphanumeric characters, beginning with the number 1 or 3,
that represents a possible destination for a Bitcoin payment.

5. 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 email works. So all that is left to do at this
point is to get some bitcoins and to keep them
safe.
Source: http://bitcoin.org

7. What does it look like?
Front Back
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)

8. Wallets, Transactions, Etc.
Online Based
Block Chain Info: https://blockchain.info
MTGox: https://mtgox.com/
MultiBit: https://multibit.org/
Downloadable/Application Based
Bitcoin-Qt is an app you can download for
Windows, Mac and Linux.
Bitcoin Wallet for Android runs on your phone
or tablet.

9. Mining on your PC/Mac/Unix machine
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Software#Mining_apps
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

10. Bitcoin Mining Devices
https://products.butterflylabs.com/

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

12. What can you do with BitCoins?
• List of Online Vendors who accept BitCoin:
https://www.spendbitcoins.com/places/
• BitCoin ATMs are gradually being rolled out:
https://bitcoinatm.com/
• Man tries to sell house for BitCoins:
http://mashable.com/2013/03/22/house-bitcoins/
• Texas man sells Porsche for BitCoins:
http://www.chron.com/communityblogs/atmosphere/article/
Texas-family-sells-Porsche-for-bitcoins-4409598.php

13. Articles of Interest
The Bitcoin Boom
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blog
s/elements/2013/04/the-future-of-
bitcoin.html
Trust: The Bitcoin Of Innovative Cultures
http://www.forbes.com/sites/henrydoss/20
13/04/09/trust-the-bitcoin-of-innovative-
cultures/?ss=strategies-solutions
Digital 'bitcoin' currency surpasses 20
national currencies in value
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/03/29/di
gital-currency-bitcoin-surpasses-20-national-
currencies-in-value/#ixzz2Qkj8Q9N6
Recently in the news…

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

15. 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

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

17. 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.

18. 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.
CLIMATEPREDICTION.NET SETI@HOME PROJECT
A distributed computing project to (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence)
investigate and reduce uncertainties in SETI@home is a scientific experiment
climate modeling. It aims to do this by that uses Internet-connected computers
running hundreds of thousands of in the Search for Extraterrestrial
different models (a large climate Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by
ensemble) using the donated idle time of running a free program that downloads
ordinary personal computers, thereby and analyzes radio telescope data.
leading to a better understanding of how
models are affected by small changes in
the many parameters known to influence
the global climate.

19. 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.

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