back to article Wanna use Bitcoin on your site? BitPay's open-source library wants to help

Bitcoin payment processor BitPay has released the source code to a library aimed at making it easier for developers to build applications that use the virtual currency. "Bitcore is an open source JavaScript library for doing anything you can imagine with the Bitcoin protocol," the company said in a blog post introducing the …

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  1. jake Silver badge

    I'll use virtual currency roughy ...

    ... when I decide to drink virtual beer.

    Honestly, the mind boggles ...

    1. BeerTokens
      Pint

      Re: I'll use virtual currency roughy ...

      Enjoy -------------------->

      1. jake Silver badge

        @Beer Tokens (was: Re: I'll use virtual currency roughy ...)

        Ta. But I don't see that as a drink. I see it as a pat on the back.

    2. Mark .

      Re: I'll use virtual currency roughy ...

      Yet you're happy to comment virtually.

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: I'll use virtual currency roughy ...

        Why, yes "Mark .". Yes I am.

        And you are virtually responding. It's called a conversation. People have been using written language to communicate ideas for thousands of years.

        The difference between you and I? I made a point. You did not. Shill for bitcoin much? ::checks back-log:: Why, yes you do. Why? What is your stake in it?

  2. M Gale

    I have to wonder.

    How long until this, plus some webgl, gets co-opted to use the GPUs of web site visitors to mine coins?

    Assuming WebGL can be thus co-opted, of course.

    1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

      Re: I have to wonder.

      There's probably little point unless you can compromise literally tens of thousands of AMD GPU powered systems.

      1. M Gale

        Re: I have to wonder.

        Or rather, compromise a popular website with a hidden canvas element and some websocket funkiness.

        WebGL is basically GLSL. It runs on the GPU, be it AMD or NVidia. It may not be specifically suited to GPGPU operations, but then, Javascript isn't particularly suited to Bitcoin mining. It can still be used to (slowly) do such though!

        In fact, after a bit of Googling around, getting data out of a WebGL shader program seems to be scarily possible, in much the same way as getting data out of a generic GLSL shader program. Pretend the array of data is a texture, pass the texture in, work on the texture, read the texture out again. Or pretend the data is an array of vertices, depending on which type of shader you're co-opting, I suppose.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Love the way any thread about bitcoin has the zealots lurking, ready to jump down the throat of anyone daring to suggest this 'currency' isn't the best thing ever in the whole wide world.

    Probably the same clowns who told everyone to buy these bits of code a couple of months ago when they were $1000 each.

    1. Keith 21

      Exactly!

      A month ago, 1 Bitcoin was 'worth' US$1,000.

      As I type? It's at US$280.

      Which makes for an horrific rate of inflation of Zimbabwean proportions...

      1. M Gale

        Re: Exactly!

        Y'know I'm tempted to see if it drops below $100 then buy one just to see what it does.

        Worst comes to worst, I'm out by about £60. Or it could bounce right up again and I can cash out for £600.

      2. Andy Kay

        Re: Exactly!

        $280!? Tell me where. Current price is above $600 just about everywhere.

        1. Stuart 16

          Re: Exactly!

          $280 is the price on the failing MtGOX site where no-one can withdraw any money making the transaction volume effectively zero. Any weighted average, the method used to calculate the volume of other commodities, will not include the Gox price so the price is actually $652 or £389

          https://bitcoinaverage.com/#USD

          But that doesn't make for a cataclysmic headline so journalists ignore it.

  4. ecofeco Silver badge

    Flooze and Beanz

    How'd those work out?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Great news!

    For those who want to use a currency which is plummeting at an alarming rate.

    I mean, who could fail to love a current which has lost 60% of its value over the past 10 days?

    Heck, I would LOVE to accept payments whose value drops 25% in one day (as it currently has today).

    Great news indeed!!!

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Still pops out to C++ to do the hard-core crypto

    No ECC in Javascript, I note.

    1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

      Re: Still pops out to C++ to do the hard-core crypto

      Rationalwiki suggests that there is JS bitcoin processing code in the wild. Are you saying that it's impossible, or just impractical?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Still pops out to C++ to do the hard-core crypto

        It can be (and has been) done but t'is a tad slow.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Still pops out to C++ to do the hard-core crypto

          Actually, it cheats even more than that. It depends on a resident openssl to do the really heavy lifting.

  7. e38500

    Mark . is right

    Bitcoin will always have usefulness. At the moment its main use is for low cost items - its volatility ensures that expensive things won't find a use for it. But once the price settles down, it will slowly spread bit by bit (pardon the pun) and vendors' confidence in using it for higher value transactions will increase. It has several benefits over "normal" money which make its use attractive.

    Think of it as the Poundland of the currency world. Once upon a time Marks and Spencer was a Poundland (okay, in Victorian times they called it a "Penny Bazaar" but same thing).

    Mark my words (pardon the second pun)!

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