Bitcoin Forum

Hi everyone!  I'd like to take a minute to announce the Bitcoin Foundation's upcoming conference, Bitcoin 2013: The Future of Payments.  It will take place in San Jose, CA, May 17-19, 2013.  The content will include panel discussions, keynote speakers, a hackathon, VC pitches and much more!  Full details can be found on the conference website: www.bitcoin2013.com (http://www.bitcoin2013.com)

Note that this is a "soft launch" of the website - we are looking for interested sponsors and panelists to submit their information.  In order to receive sponsorship and exhibitor details, make a request through the site, and I will follow up with you individually.  Attendee registration will be up soon, and you can submit your email address through the site to be notified when it's available.

I've also answered many questions on this forum thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=134175.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=134175.0)

We hope to see you there!

Hey, Lindsay. Check the links on this page: https://bitcoinfoundation.org/blog/bitcoin2013.com/bitcoin2013.com/bitcoin2013.com/

Neither of the bold text link correctly.

Thanks for letting me know - I've updated the blog links.

Registration for the Bitcoin 2013 conference in San Jose is now open!  You can register by going to the bitcoin2013.com (http://bitcoin2013.com) site and clicking the "Register Now" button, or the "Attendees" tab.  We hope to see you there!

I registered!

I have no idea what activities and speakers I paid $250 for, or why they asked me about dietary restrictions, but this is the first bitcoin conference in the U.S., and I wouldn't miss it!

Here's some additional info from another thread:

You had to pay 250$??

Well more like the third in the US.  I wish I could go though!

This is quite obviously the 2nd international conference in the US.

A friendly bump, to further discuss the latest without the drama the other thread(s) developed.

Hate to take you away from some shiny new toy, but just wondering if there's anything of value that you can lay on us.

Thanks, TBF.

~Bruno K~

We just announced our list of panelists, speakers, and topics for Bitcoin 2013.  You can check it out on the conference website: www.bitcoin2013.com  Register before March 15 to get early bird pricing - we hope to see you there!

Since Gavin is at the top and I'm at the bottom I assumed at first that the list was in order of importance, then I realized that it was alphabetical by last name :)

http://www.bitcoin2013.com/bitcoin-2013-panelists.html

And you wouldn't be the last on the list if MNW were to present, but I guess we don't see that happening. He was originally on the London conference list, but that didn't materialize.

What I really came here for was to post a friendly bump and link the panelists page above.

Also, to see if there's an interest for those attending the conference to hear me present how Bitcoin can improve philanthropic efforts through an enhanced entity currently known as Bitcoin 100.

There's no argument to when Bitcoin breaks-out, NPOs and NGOs, alike, will slowly start embedding Bitcoin donation buttons unto their respective websites, with entities such as BitPay acting as the liaison to convert bitcoins to their local currency prior to depositing the funds into their bank accounts. Even when Bitcoin becomes mainstream, I believe a Bitcoin-100-type entity still needs to be in place to facilitate the process, coupled with acting as a liaison of sorts to address any and all concerns that would most certainly arise. And be self-funded, not needing to solicit further donations from bitcoiners or elsewhere.

If you feel that what I've outlined above on how I believe I can accomplish such a feat, and would like to learn more while attending Bitcoin2013, please let me know by posting here. I would love to give such a presentation, as well as sit on some appropriate panel.

Having been on stage probably over a couple hundred times during my entertaining years in Nashville, I'm pretty sure I still remember how to hold a microphone, assuming microphones are to be used opposed to one being audio-assimilated like a Borg.

I look forward to your replies, with apologies for posting such a request in this thread. I believe Bitcoin2013 will turn out to be an exceptional event. Now, only if we can can get one more female on the panelist list, otherwise Rainey will be forced to go to the lady's room alone.

~Bruno K~

I'll attend, as long sure you don't schedule it opposite Gavin or some other unmissable talk...

For anyone who might be interested, earlier that week in San Francisco is Finovate Spring:

Concourse Exhibition Center
635 8th Street (at Brannan)
San Francisco, CA 94103

May 14, & 15, 2013

 - http://www.finovate.com/spring2013/

Approaching fast!

Concerned about video quality. Any updates on this front?

Today is the last day to register for $250 instead of $300.

I just registered.

See you guys in May!

Ok, actually I think *today* is the last day to reg at $250...

Who else is going?

I will be there.

Which is the best hotel in that area? Can you recommed me one? I do fly-in from german for that event.

I will be there as well, probably glued to my phone on BitcoinTal... oh wait, it's a Bitcoin Conference?

nice 8)

I'm going.

I will be attending.

I'm going. Riding in from Vegas on my motorcycle.

Just paid the fee.  To drive or fly from Seattle, that is the question.  See you all there.

I don't think I ever paid more than $100 to attend a conference, and was all ready to sign up for this one until I saw the registration fee. REALLY on the fence for this one now. Seriously doubting the conference itself (speakers and presentations) will be worth the $300... but on the other hand it'll probably be my best chance to meet the rest of all of you in one place. Decisions decisions :P

So I'm thinking Papa Johns should cater the event...  ;D

Shotgun!

I'm going. Flying in from Washington DC. San Jose is an expensive whore to get into.

http://finovatespring2013.eventbrite.com/ (http://finovatespring2013.eventbrite.com/)

I'll be there.

Hmm, thinking of going...

Currently it seems the BTC price for attending is 30% more than the USD price, is this right ?

http://www.bitcoin2013.com/

I am also not sure if their payment form is secure, it's not easy to see who's the payment processor, and whether the CC info is sent in the clear or not, as the input form for CC payment is just a popup of sorts. Currently it seems like that visitors have an incentive to pay with CC as opposed to bitcoins. That's not very good, is it ?

I've sent them a message about it, and hope to get a reply soon.

Thoughts ?

What topics would you guys like to see addressed in the "Future of Bitcoin" panel?

I created a poll and discussion about it here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=165206.0

Please go vote!

NO WAY!!!

if you do, please wear this so we know who to look for:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_VxvLMNwEuC8/TBlNw0OePiI/AAAAAAAABbc/JW4ED9V3K14/s1600/bear_mask_04.jpg

Hey Lindsay,

What's the food situation? I don't see anything on the website about that. Is some food included? Lunch maybe? Will there be venders selling food for bitcoin?

I haven't had breakfast yet this morning, so all I can think about is food :)

Thanks!

My buddy and I are driving up from LA.

You guys realize this things going to be a media frenzy now. I hope the venue holds up.

Given that it's in San Jose, I'm hoping it's a VC frenzy.

Not the growth whores. Bitcoin is actually an important invention for once, not some geo-social, mayor of Starbucks type bullshit.

"Jeez, those assholes over there keep suggesting we pivot Bitcoin towards 'the picture-messaging vertical'"

Just kidding, those guys are doing good work over at Coinbase and Bitpay etc.

damn too bad i cant make this one. just so happens im not in the area on the day. cant wait to see what gets discussed there, hopefully some good videos get uploaded for me to watch after the event.

Good point! Everybody, remember to look and behave professionally. Top hats and monocles all the way! http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/560/poeemotexi4.png


Also, if there IS media, they WILL try to talk to you. Take this from someone with a lot of experience, Do not talk to them! You WILL sound like a babbling idiot! If they want legitimate bitcoin related stories, they will be trying to get to the top people behind bitcoin, like guys behind BitPay, Bitcoin Foundation, Bitinstant, etc. If all they are looking for is to write up some sensationalist garbage about this crazy libertarian currency that's supported by gold-bug, tinhat wearing, gun-toting yokles, they'll be coming for you. So if they come for you, just remember, don't be that exploited yokle! No matter how much the "Look, I'm on TV!" tempts you.

Also, trolls are not just on the internet. Bitcoin is big enough for them to bother now, so there could be some of those at the convention, too. If you happen to come across any, just behave and ignore them.

No way! It's animal costumes for admission. By May 17 everyone there will be a millionaire so WTF right.

According to this map, the Marriot is the closest hotel to "Hall 1" where the convention is, narrowly beating the Hilton.

http://mappery.com/map-of/McEnery-Convention-Center-San-Jose-California-Map

When is the event Friday night?  Trying to figure out how early my flight needs to leave.

great advice,  now... looking at airfares and costs, would spending 3.5K USD for this convention be worth it ? coming in from scandinavia.. one one side i an thinking i will be taking part in an historical event, on the other hand - the wallet cries. decisions, decisions..

On Thursday before the conference is:

GigaOM Bitcoin Meetup 5/16/13 6PM - 9PM
 - http://bitcoinsanjose.eventbrite.com/

Another piece of fun advice:  Laptop thefts happen with some regularity at tech conferences ... at a Bitcoin conference if the thieves don't STEAL ALL THE LAPTOPS, they're sleeping on the job.

Prepare for theft by having a good backup and either not leaving coins on your laptop or at least using full disk encryption and wallet encryption. Be prepared to keep your laptop with you at all times. Consider bringing a lock for it.

Similarly, protect your smartphone with Bitcoin Wallet.

This may be too late to organize right now, but next year you should have a session where everyone in the room just laughs at the terrible media coverage of bitcoin. Point out all the factually incorrect statements, the ignorant criticisms and the outright FUD. Or better yet, turn it into a trivia game with contestants answer whether the reporters got it right or wrong. Put the whole thing online. It'll be great!

Man, I really wish I could go to this, but with PorcFest (The Porcupine Freedom Festival in New Hampshire) coming up and expenses associated with that, I had to choose one or the other. In that case, PorcFest wins. Hopefully I can make it to Bitcoin2014... any idea if there are plans for another one next year, or is that on hold until it's seen how successful this one is?

I'm coming to the conference all the way from Finland. Very excited.

Not to change the direction of the thread, but is "Technomage" a Babylon 5 reference, by any chance?

It is. I started using the nickname after reading the book trilogy "Passing of the Technomages", which is some of the best B5 related anything that you can experience. It's so good that I'd rank it fairly high on my overall book ranking.

Great, too bad it's in the US. Organize one in Europe and I'll be there!

Excellent, and agreed, though I really enjoyed the PsiCorps trilogy as well... the ultimate fate of Bester was one of the things I wanted to know after the TV series ended. I'm glad JMS declared the book trilogies to be canon to the story line.

Even being in the US, it's still a bit far for travel in some ways (west coast)... hopefully, a future one will be on the east coast or at least the middle of the country.

Here you go: http://unsystem.net/ (http://unsystem.net/)  :o

See you guys in Silicon Valley next week  8)

If my Android phone is not rooted, are the bitcoins on it reasonably secure?

Only after you create a backup of your wallet and move it off the phone.

I'd love to go... Next time! Any update about the video recording? I really hope there will be something available shortly after the conference!

I'll be there. See you guys in a few days.

source
http://www.bitcoin2013.com/topics--schedule.html (http://www.bitcoin2013.com/topics--schedule.html)

Oups, I missed it, many thanks!

Let's hope Marriott and the rest of the major hotels are done changing all the guest room locks:
 - http://arstechnica.com/security/2012/12/fix-for-hotels-electronic-door-lock-hack-slow-to-roll-out/

i'm not rooted and i've never had a problem with Spinner.

http://www.corporatetravelsafety.com/catalog/hotel-safety-c-35.html

keep your laptop in your room safe.
(they can probably hack those too though...)

it's one of those things that is not really worth going to unless you are speaking or on the panel.

1. Gut the insides out of a broken laptop.
2. Put a Wi-Fi Raspberry Pi, GPS, and a g-sensor in it, so you know if it gets moved, and how far.
3. Fill the rest of the empty space in the case with explosives.
4. Wait until you see that your laptop has been stolen and is still on the move.
5.  ??? ??? ??? ???
6. Profit?

Haha, now you can be sure there will be feds all over the conference.

That's OK - that's what they're supposed to be for:  to keep us safe.

Although I'm sure they think that fucking with us endlessly and making our lives a hell on earth is just a bonus.

Behave, talk smartly to the press if they ask you questions and make it more popular :)
Side topic possibly some Pizza for the crowd showing that bitcoin transcations do work as a demonstration and that it is just the beginning
Or that you can get gift cards from over 50,000 retail locations using bitcoins
http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/09/mobile-gift-card-app-gyft-partners-with-bitpay-to-start-accepting-bitcoin-payments-on-its-android-app/
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=204877.0

Incidentally Saturday, May 18th, is the 3rd anniversary of Laszlo's offer to pay 10,000 BTC to have 2 pizzas delivered to him.

There were some nibbles but nobody confirming they would do a deal, so three days later Laszlo asks:
 "So nobody wants to buy me pizza?  Is the bitcoin amount I'm offering too low?"

And following that a deal was struck. Two pizzas delivered for 10K BTC.
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137.0

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7287/8740121347_44b56da440_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/93641348@N04/8740121347/)

See you guys at the conference..

You're missing the point of conferences.

One does not go to a conference in order to listen to the presentations - those will be recorded for later viewing. One goes to an event like this for the socializing and for the networking. The conversations that happen out in the hallways while the presentations are going on are more important than the presentations themselves.

I thought he was asking if any one of us was interested in presenting on it, maybe I misunderstood, but I completely agree with you - and that's why I'm going :)

I'm in San Francisco!  Where can I spend bitcoins?  Is there a list somewhere?  I'm only aware of Cups and Cakes, the sushi restaurant, and the grocery store that were listed in that reporter's article about trying to live on bitcoin.

Note that San Francisco is very, very far from the conference. Hope you got a hotel room closer.

Heading down for the GigaOm meetup tonight.  I'm just assuming there will be room at the marriot or hilton or something right near the convention center.

I'm hoping to use the Gyft app to the full extent.

Ugh, just found out about the GigaOm meetup tonight. Registration is closed. :\

Here is for the networking app
via @bizzabo http://www.bizzabo.com/event/#124315

I'm hoping to come down from SF for a few hours. Does anyone know if there will be a "more reasonable" one day fee at the door or if entrance is closed now?

The cast of "Let's Talk Bitcoin!" will be in San Jose this weekend!

We would love to meet some of our fans and hear their take on bitcoin.

http://www.meetup.com/Lets-Talk-Bitcoin-San-Jose-2013-Conference-Meetup/events/119200952/

I'm in the Bay Area, is this worth going to San Jose for if you are not going to spend the $300 to actually go in the event?

Im going to show up, il be the guy in the green yankees hat :D

Everyone going to this conference, please post pics and let us know how everything went.

I'm so mad cannot join, so I'd like to get as close as possible to being there ;) thx

That's why I posted early on this and waited for an official thread to appear want it to be exciting :) And the forum to unite there XD
Even though I won't be going sounds like it will be interesting its the convo's not the speakers sometimes :)

I'm coming and I'm not bringing any coins with me. Fuck that.  :D

for those not attending the conference, there will be some 'talk radio' coverage as the hosts of Free Talk Live are broadcasting live each afternoon from the conference, you can listen at http://lrn.fm/ or on tune in radio app on smartphones , search 'Free Talk Live'

Who knows maybe this conference will be a Woodstock of Virtual Currencies someday haha

The $300 entrance fee actually makes it more of a Bitcoin elite/high society club. Why don't we "commoners" get together at Singlebarrel on San Salvador st Saturday night? If the lords & ladies of Bitcoin Abbey want to come too that's fine.

Troll...

San Jose is under an hours drive from sf. Many people commute that daily in ca.

Ill have a beer with ya if nothing else...just pm me when your around.

I might be be able to do that. Get back to you.

Just a heads up, since today's premeetup went so well.. the plan is for people to meet up again tomorrow at 4:00 in the Marriott Bar prior to conference registration opening.. feel free to come by, grab a drink, and talk some bitcoin...

Yeah the pre-conference meetup was like a conference itself! Standing room only, very high energy. Everybody was so excited to be there and meet people they've seen online for so long. The camaraderie was palpable.

Really excited to be here with all you guys!

Has the BTC foundation planned to live-stream the event for those of us who can't make it? You just need to rent a decent camera, a computer with Flash Media Live Encoder and a UStream/LiveStream account. Please guys do us a favor... looks like it is going to be epic. The best part will be the networking tho. Plenty of awesome people there!!!

http://quantabytes.com/articles/report-for-day-zero-of-bitcoin-2013-the-future-of-payments

This thing had better be good - I had to wake up at an extraordinarily uncivilized hour in order to get up in time to make my flight.

I'm mad I missed my flight yesterday and won't be there for a few more hours yet :(

See y'all soon.

Also I'll be arriving round 11 to SFO, if anybody needs a ride to the conference center just let me know.

 :P

Let them eat cake.

With beers.

Cool. I'm at 30,000 feet, and on my way.

LOL - I may have watched a few too many episodes of Downton Abbey. In fact, I make my girls call me Pa Pa.

#madrespect to those showing up and spreading the btc gospel.

Would loved to have made it out there.  Will def. catch the next 1 in Vegas, but this 1 seem huge and is making me a bit jelly :)

glglglglgl bitcoin'ers in CA!

What? No Micon-Inaba shenanigans? Booooring.

On a train now, arriving shortly.

(Just a common commercial train, not a luxury private train - my bitcoin holdings can command just so much indulgence)

Can anyone post what Charles Lee the creator and lead developer for Litecoin sad?

I just invested in LTC :)

I'll second that.  The host at the tech museum told me it was the most energetic, riveted crowd they could remember hosting.  They were having a lot of trouble kicking us out even one hour past the scheduled ending time.  Looking forwards to the rest of the conference where the discussion can reach a higher level.

SWEET! I will be there.

Hi, everybody, but any video link?

Bitcoin Conference, I am in you  ;)

No livestream? We're supposed to be on the bleeding edge, people.

Meh... it's a bit pricey, but conventions tend to be. I just signed up to go to the LP of PA convention, which is way more minor than this Bitcoin conference, and the cost was like $115 or something like that, so $300 isn't TOO bad. Now, if it was $500 or more, THAT would be over-the-top.

Your idea of a "gathering of commoners" is still a good idea, though... if you want a less pricey gathering of many Bitcoiners, check out the Porcupine Freedom Festival up in New Hampshire (aka. "PorcFest"). Last year's PorcFest was, up to that time, the most Bitcoin-friendly event ever.

http://porcfest.com (http://porcfest.com)

I demand next years conference have 10 livefeeds of the stage ^^

So far it's been worth every penny and it hasn't even really started yet.

Other thread is a livestream its off now wait for tommorrow
Now we need an archive stream :)
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/flippro?utm_campaign=t.co&utm_source=12122863&utm_medium=social
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bitcoin-conference-20130517,0,1935134.story

+1

Smoothie,

Where you at.  I want to meet my favorite troll.

WAAAAH this conference is so much fun!!  It's been amazing meeting so many of you thus far. This movement is gettin' cray.

At the Marriott. Pm me so we can meet up.

Oh no way. Whats your REEAAALLL name smoothie? :-)

Why?  ::)

It always starts like that. Next he will be asking you out on a date ;D

And so begins another love-com series  ;D

You sure seem to know a lot about that huh lol

Guys ask you out on dates? Haha

BTC Rainbow festival on a random mountain in Tenessee with free concert is interesting, I will definitely attend.

Even despite the $300 fee, there are WAAAAAY more people here than I expected!

Come stop by the Ask Bitcoin Experts table between the Bitcoinstore and Bitcoin Foundation sections. I'll be there most of the day. Had some toughies so far, but still nothing we couldn't answer  :)

No homo here, but it happened more than one time already. As long as it's respectfully asked I can respectfully say no and leave it at that.

Can't say that has ever happened to me.

You need to work out more.  ;D

Thanks for that man!

Rassah,

Good to meet you. Looking forward to the rest of the weekend!

Hasn't happened to me either, but I do get mistaken for a woman from behind quite frequently.

It's the long hair rather than my nice ass.... just sayin'.

Is it possible to discuss the conference without talking about homo stuff?

Trace Mayer had some good information in his section this morning "legal classification of Bitcoin"

I couldn't get away from work. What did he say?

He said a lot. Bitcoin can be classified differently based in your approach in the legal system.

Also he said your private key is like freedom of speech.

Cool - I hope someone recorded that.

http://www.youtube.com/user/digitalmagus7?feature=watch
"Winklevoss twins presentation PART 2 of 2" was a good talk.

The must see panel:
Issues of Regulatory Compliance

Hope it was recorded.

It was being recorded not sure how/when it will be made available.

I was surprised by the number of participants.  Has foundation stated how many tickets were sold?  My guesstimate is that is 300 to 500 but with so many simultaneous events going on it is hard to judge. Looks like it is a little more than 1,100 attendees.  So far a great conference, with great speakers, well worth the price of admission.

Thanks - rub it in with salt.

More than a thousand tickets were sold, reported during last night's keynote intro. The sessions did seem a little sparse this morning, outside of Gavin's State of the Coin address.

All right, I am going to try and head out there tonight and hopefully meet up with forum members(I'm not attending the convention).
Does Singlebarrel on San Salvador work for other people as well?
Where are you all going to be at?

Could you make the hackathon free for established developers? Or maybe a discounted pass for it? I am concerned the bar for entry is too high and bitcoin is losing potential allies by pricing them out of the market.

I'm in the same hotel for another gathering (Nebula awards) and was pretty excited when I bumped into a fellow in the elevator who mentioned the bitcoin convention was going on in this building. I wanted to go check it out and see what was happening in the world of bitcoins with actual people instead of just online and maybe give me a reason to pull mine out of cold storage and re-engage with the community. My wife was also chatted up and invited over to the conference when it was clear she's learned enough from my ramblings to know what she is talking about with them. This morning I went over and checked out the programming and was even more excited about the hackathon. I'm a developer by trade who specializes in mobile payment systems with millions of retail dollars flowing through code I have written on the iPhone everyday. I am also an entrepreneur at heart and really do enjoy hackathons. I was also excited to see the trade show area but when I asked about abbreviated tickets, was told there was no way I could participate without paying the $350 entrance fee for a singe day. This is unfortnate for me because I only have a few hours before I have to go put on a tux and participate in a monkey show. It isn't going to be worth $350 to me to check out the companies here and/or try and find a project I'd be wiling to put some programming time into.

I'm a little disappointed that I can't participate at a level lower than $350 for a few hours and wonder how many other people in this tech heavy city are giving this con a pass because the entry bar is too high for an afternoon. I still have a couple hours to kill, so I think I'll go spend $20 and cruise the comic book convention (don't judge me, I am nerd through and through). It'll probably be a lot less interesting but the costumes should be a whole lot better. I do hope to participate in one of these in the future and enjoyed watching the tv interview of the big instant dude out front.

Also, if anyone wants to rent out their badge for an hour, let me know a price. I'll be around until tomorrow morning.

I had to work and couldn't get back to town in time but I do suggest Singlebarrel. They have the best drink menu in town. If you do go order the Penicillin. You won't be disappointed.

Greetings, I've been recording amateur videos of the conference as I go along. Professional videos should be out in a week or two by bitcoin foundation, but for those who couldn't make it, here's some shaky but watchable videos. I will keep uploading more over the next few days. Enjoy!
If you are feeling generous, please tip/thank me here:
185By4a1Lt2HnKLAKR5EmidZMYgp5D­DSaj

BITCOIN 2013 FUTURE OF PAYMENT VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/user/digitalmagus7/videos?flow=grid&view=0

Great videos, thanks for sharing. You really provide a feeling of being there. I was a little worried that someone would run you over when you crossed the street early with no sidewalk on the other side.  :o

Hey thanks for the vids!

Thanks for the videos!

Great job!

They were interesting thank you

This conference was definitely worth the price. So much material being covered.

The ability to hobnob with all those people you frequently irritate must have been priceless.lol

Lol well I had a shirt on that said "I am a smoothie". Didn't have any problems. The conf is too big for that stuff.

Very good turn out!

We debuted the trailer for our documentary today at the conference.  If you see us tomorrow, stop over and get a free t-shirt.  :)

http://player.vimeo.com/video/66482225

Cool!

I didn't see your booth. Which is it next to?

I would like a free shirt.

Yeah, I crashed the event at the Hotel Kabuki in SF one year. They were well dressed in casual professional attire. I had on old jeans and a Bitcoin t-shirt. I looked like a hobo compared to them. lol

But they were all very nice.

It looks awesome! Looking forward to the release of the full version!

This is an amazing trailer!

You did an excellent job!!

Looking forward to seeing the documentary...

Congrats!

smoothie.  the new elitist. :)

Lol I admit I was being an ass earlier this year when talking about the conference. I concede once again I was wrong in my presumptions.

Are there any videos of the Dev Q&A session?

Also Dan Kaminsky seemed to be a great show too.

Sucks we're both so busy we never get a chance to hang. I think I only saw you twice this whole time!


Dude, I still have yet to see you! Stop by the table at the BitcoinStore section and say hi, please! Bunch of people have asked about you already.

I enjoy meeting people from the forum in person to finally put a face to a name. So far the forum members I've talked to include:

cypherdoc
mindtomatter
aantonop
etotheipi
maaku
JoelKatz
CoinHoarder
Gavin Andresen
misterbigg
gmaxwell
Luke-Jr
casascius
Pieter Wuille
Rassah

...and several others whose handles I can not remember.

good news

OMG - Luke-Jr is there! Does he really look like his photos? That's the one person I would really like to meet. LOL

He looks like this:

https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/30aa55ee8573680ee4bbb556dae3160c?s=420&d=https://a248.e.akamai.net/assets.github.com/images/gravatars/gravatar-user-420.png

Gah. I haven't seen 2/3rds of those people yet.
Luke is shorter and not as skinny as he looks in the photos. Very shy and quiet, too. Mostly I see him walking around on his own  :-\

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BKhIwNZCIAAs9G7.jpg

I'm on the left in a black shirt and red tie. Tuxavant in a cap.

... sell out ... you'd do anything for a coin.

wow amazing video thx

Thanks for the photos. I should claim that I look like a young Brad Pitt but honestly i look a little like Tuxavant. He's a handsome fellow, isn't he? lol

Rassah, you look exactly like I thought you would. Very professional. Love the power tie.

I'm so disappointed that I couldn't make it. I knew early in 2011 that I found something great when I found Bitcoin. I started buying and mining them as fast as I could. Congratulations to all involved. It looks like Bitcoin has made it big time.

Wrong. I wouldn't scam someone. If it comes to trading fiat for coin on exchanges you bet your ass I will take the profit I make.  ;D

Nor would I knowingly lie to get coin. Lol

I will stop by tomorrow.

what are the freebies you guys get ?

I feel you, it's so big and with so many things to do it's hard to find everyone.

I hope to grow my own list today, I'll be wearing a red buttoned shirt in case anyone tries to locate me.

He would do anything for coin; but he won't do that.

I'll be the one in the turquoise shirt...right cypherdoc? Ok see you all In a few hours ok ... :D

ready for another day at the conference. I flew all the way from Australia for this and I'm glad i did.

I'll be wearing a pink carnation in my lapel

cypherdoc, smoothie let's try to meet up at breakfast

cypherdoc, I bought some of your coin designs from

http://btctrinkets.com/presta2/index.php?id_product=16&controller=product

Lunch works better if you guys can.

T-shirts from the registration. Also, at various company desks I've seen stickers, buttons, and even chocolate bitcoins. At our desk by BitcoinStore we have more stickers, buttons, and jars of snacks, and Casascius stopped by and dropped off a few aluminum bitcoins without private key stickers. There have also been the sponsored/hosted parties with free booze and food.

Worth every satoshi I paid

Agreed.

And now I know who you are  ;)

The alt chains panel had Chris Larsen of Ripple. I can't say that I was convinced that ripple was decentralized.

I am interested what Charles Lee sad about Litecoin?
he should be speaking atm...

I can't say I was convinced that your t-shirt was torquoise, but then again, I may have to have my gay card revoked >.<

Saw this guy in first class on the way home. Anyone know the old geezer? He looks like he had an eventful weekend, too. Must have been partying at the convention next door to ours.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/575875_882824975033_1199473284_n.jpg

Thorough enjoyed meeting so many people at the conference!

no, i think i saw him in the mining session. ;D

Somehow I doubt that  ::)

Though I could TOTALLY see Tony Stark (Iron Man) as a bitcoiner.

That's Stan Lee. He was signing autographs at the comic convention next door. I wonder if the guy on the left even has a clue about who is sitting next to him.

Looks at wiki image looks at photo looks at where Stan Lee was during that period
http://www.mercurynews.com/sal-pizarro/ci_23260859/pizarro-comic-book-legend-stan-lee-coming-big
== Legend Found ;D

Bitcoin's major hurdle to overcome:   Stan Lee tells more credible stories than 90% of the "bitcoin elite". 

I flew in from London to attend the conference and thought it was great.  My main observations and reflections were:

* The quality of the dialogue was extremely high.  A core understanding of Bitcoin and how it works was assumed - which enabled the discussions (lunch, panels, presentations, etc) to focus on more advanced topics.   Examples: the frequent references to coloured (sorry, "colored") coins, the altcoin panel and the various speakers on payments system (e.g. BitPay and Paymium)  --- they all assumed an intelligent *and* knowledgeable audience, which allowed them to go far further than a typical conference session.

===> Reflection:  this was great for a conference such as this but we should not forget that almost everybody in the world who was *not* at the conference is still struggling with the core Bitcoin concept, if they've even heard of it....  i.e. people leaving the conference shouldn't make the mistake of assuming everybody *else* thinks this way or has come this far in their thinking when we get home...

* There was a pervasive sense of optimism:  most speakers took it as a given that Bitcoin (or a successor) is going to change the world and that the only question is how quickly and who builds the most successful platforms/exchanges/products/tools, etc.

* The colored coin concept is HUGELY powerful - I had thought it an interesting diversion before I came but, after it was explained a few times, it made me realise just how versatile the core "distributed ledger" metaphor really it.   

* The Paytunia/Paymium presenter included a *really* powerful slide that I think could be used to explain Bitcoin in more contexts.  It had three diagrams.  1) four boxes representing the Visa/Mastercard payment system (merchant/merchant acquirer/issuer/customer), 2) three boxes representing Amex/Paypal and 3) two boxes representing cash and Bitcoin - i.e. direct payment from payer to seller with no intermediaries, etc.   In one chart, it explained why Bitcoin was different to everything that has gone before and justified the claim of others that Bitcoin is "cash with wings".   I presented on the conference to some colleagues yesterday evening and used this slide --- it helped their understanding immensely.   

* I was hugely impressed by Gavin.  Beforehand, I wasn't sure what to expect from his "state of the coin" keynote but I thought the tone was just right.  It was essentially a list of: "here are the things I worry about" --- *exactly* what I would expect from a chief architect/lead developer on a complex project.  I thought he got the tone just right

* I must admit I walked out of Charlie Shrem's pitch - it was rambling, unprepared and barely coherent.  Odd - I was expecting much more.

* I caught the end of Erik Voorhee's talk and all of his panel discussion.  Both were excellent. He is extremely eloquent, articulate and thoughtful in how he presents the topic.

===> Reflection: I don't think his style would translate well in all cultures - his political worldview influences his choice of language (understandably and deliberately) but I suspect this would result in the phenomenon of him and an interviewer "talking past each other" in, say, the UK.  Something for him and others to consider as Bitcoin awareness spreads and mainstream outlets increasingly invite Bitcoin experts to interview


All-in-all, a great conference and I left convinced that "math-based currencies" are going to change the world.

If I have to sit through one more presentation which starts out with a history lesson about 'first, humans used barter, then blah, blah, blah' I swear I'm going to puke.  I walked out of at least one presentation at the start for this reason.

About the only thing which is more annoying is when a person asking a question takes 5 minutes of everyone else's time to describe how much they want to suck the presenter's dick or whatever.  Sometimes they don't even get to the question at all.


Of course.  Everyone likes a free lunch and sees a way to get rich by sponging off the work of others.


I missed Boussac's presentations being more interested in the tech end of things, but got a chance to catch up with him in person.  Paymium either bought or was given coins that I entrusted with ~jav, then either lost or stole them.  This gave me a good reason to wish to meet him.  Pleasant conversation in spite of the misfortune though.


I didn't meet up with him this time, but I've met him in the past.  I'm still waiting for an answer to my question about what he would do if the government 'just said no' to Bitcoin.  No danger of figuring that out at something like the conference though so I was not to surprised.


Didn't get a chance to say 'Hi' to Erik either, and kind of wanted to since we worked on a minor project in the distant past.  As for being 'thoughtful', if he had done anything more than regurgitate Austrian school hokum and bunkum I'd be shocked.  Again, I found more interesting things to see so I missed his stuff.

---

My favorite presentation was Eli Ben-Sasson's thing.  I can see a large number of places where the work could be applicable to distributed-crypto-currency-like systems and tangential tasks.  I'll be looking forward with great interests to developments in his team's work.

Did you go to the same conference, or killed time instead at the comic convention next door?

Agreed. One problem common to almost all the panel sessions was the inexperience of the moderators.  An experienced moderator knows you don't passively sit there, asking every panellist to comment on every question, that the questioners needs to get to the point and that the key to a good panel is *controversy* or debate.... exploring areas of dispute/disagreement is a great way to get to the heart of the panel.   An hour of listening to people say "I agree" is not ideal.


Not sure I understand.  What are you objecting to?  The repupurposing of the bitcoin network for the tracking of real-world assets? something else?

Essentially that, yes.  I'm bummed out that it takes so much overhead already that users (including my friends) are discouraged from running a full node.  In other words, are no longer reasonably capable of being 'peers' the the supposedly 'peer2peer' solution.  That lie is finally starting to be deprecated it seems...years after I suggested that it might be intellectually honest to start doing so...  Anyway, the issue will only get worse when they need to process data for everyone who wants to use Bitcoin as a reliable messaging and storage solution.

It does seem that there is a significant overlap in the groups of people who bitch most loudly about the fees/block size are they who are all ga-ga about colored-ish utilization.

Speaking as a non-crypto newbie,  when I saw what it took to download the block chain and run a node I just shook my head. I really don't understand how it scales --  and was surprised to hear the guy from Google suggest it wasn't a problem at the GigaOm event last week.

I was under the impression that colored coin making and tracking was done entirely from the client, not touching the Bitcoin network other than to send Satoshis back and forth?

I was wondering if someone was ever going to give a real review of the conference. It's not very informative to constantly hear praise. That just lacks truth. Every time I have watched one of the "key players" questioned they usually appear inexperienced and never are asked the hard questions or put on the spot at all because of your "sucking the presenter" phenomena.

I have seen many more people willing to store hundreds of gigabytes of porn on their harddisk, then people willing to store the blockchain.

And it's not free lunch, you store the blockchian for your own freedom, which is not free, and miners are paid to run the infrastructure, that's exactly why Bitcoin is not a pyramid scheme.

The idea that end users will not hold the entire blockchain, but rather use SPV clients, dates back to Satoshi's original whitepaper.

In a communist society you are limited in how you can use the shared resources. In a capitalist society you pay for the resources and use them however you see fit. It does not make sense to limit what you can use the blockchain for as long as a fee is paid to compensate.


This is correct, the argument is that sending satoshis back and forth allegedly bloats the blockchain.

I have no info specifically, but I would suggest that generally speaking things which make a solution available to anyone with the capabilities which don't exceed your own, but come close to it would be considered less of a bug and more of a feature.  ...and Google has capabilities matched by very few.  I suspect that such entities could also derive business intelligence information from network analysis which would allow them to subsidize the operational aspects of operating the solution.  Much as they do with e-mail.  Such an intelligence value-add would be denied completely to lesser players.

I've worked with systems that generate data with no thought put toward clean-up.  By their nature, they never reach a state of equilibrium and become increasingly challenging to deal with.  Often they eventually lock up or collapse absent an overhaul.

Whether real or imagined, I was impressed by what seemed to be a concept of pruning the block chain which could potentially address some of the problem of bloat (though I always suspected that a determined attacker could subvert this more easily than something like the double-spending protection.)

Also, I thought I picked up on a concept of relay fees which would potentially keep verifying relay nodes (e.g., bitcoind/qt) in the game.  I went back a year ago or so and am pretty sure I found it again.  But it's buried and seems rarely discussed.  It could be argued that 'that is only for mining pool operators' I suppose.  And would anticipate mining pool operators making that argument.

I have heard pleas from dev to 'run a full node' (which, in my mind, conflict with the lack of focus on efforts to lighten the burden of doing so.*)  I had a chance to chat with Garzik briefly at the conference to obtain more information on this.  It might be noted that if one does not also hear a corresponding plea to 'punch a hole in your firewall', it was neglected for lack of time to explain.  Perhaps unfortunately, my bitcoind build seems to work fine without being accessible.


(*) not completely true.  The LevelDB and Bloom filter work helped immensely, although I sense that it was driven in part by a pressing need to simply keep the system operational and thus alive for long enough to get some more centralization in place.  And this without even barely touching the supposedly absurdly low 1MB block size limit and being less than 5 years into what is supposed to be a durable financial solution which people can rely on with significant funds.

Finally, someone I respect discussing the subject. Isn't this the same complaint I've read about SatoshiDice? The devs don't seem concerned about SDice why worry about it in this case?

Thanks for the comic relief afforded by your sarcasm.

Actually, I imagine that the core dev members, or at least certain of them, see the same value in SD that I do.  Namely, as a load generation tool capable of facilitating edge case analysis earlier than otherwise likely.

SD was almost single handedly responsible for helping discover the BerkeleyDB mis-configuration long before it otherwise may have been...and by an operator who was willing to work pro-actively to resolve the situation at expense to himself.

SD will also be responsible for understanding the impact of transaction fees on the economy and thus allow a better decisions to be made about how a design might best leverage that resource.

The question we are currently struggling with is (imo) related to the makeup of 'peers' in the system.  Quantitatively and qualitatively.

Your attempts to map this issue to broad political philosophies feels strained to me.  If anything, it is mainly a 'tragedy of the commons' type situation which is a concept laying in a somewhat orthogonal plane.

That said, my current preference is to provoke significant fees and see how things play out in the 'capitalist' mode.  This because I strongly favor and continue to see it possible that Bitcoin falls into a 'reserve' roll and leaves the heavy lifting of supporting a fair fraction of the world's exchange economy to a expanding set of dispensible solutions.


I think it is pretty fair to characterize this as a self evident and provable reality.  I'll take a second look if/when block chain pruning occurs.

LOL - I'm pleased, most people can't tell when I'm being sarcastic.

SDice is going to start charging transaction fees?

SD has always had transaction fees.

When Mike Hearn and others are cavalier about block chain bloat, it's because there are existing solutions being worked on (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=204283.0). The process started with the 'ultraprune' branch that became 0.8, and will continue to improve. If all of the proposed optimizations are implemented, bitcoin can and will scale to VISA-level transaction processing, while being runnable on a commodity PC. It doesn't make sense then to devote valuable conference time to rehashing issues where we already know the work we need to do.

Speaking of that, is your ReDonate campaign ready yet?

Right at the top of my list of things to do. Thanks for the reminder :)

I didn't know that. I'm not a gambler so I didn't really follow it that closely. Didn't Pieter develop ultraprune a long time ago? Why is it taking so long to implement?

this sounds impressive!

0.8 is ultraprune. Synchronization is a lot faster with 0.8 than before, but there are still a lot of other fixes that need to be implemented to really solve the block chain bloat 'problem'.

So you can't really say the problem is solved but it's very close.

 :'(

Regarding Peer to Peer, I always thought the part relating to verifying and relaying transactions was the peer-to-peer aspect, with things like mining and storing the blockchain being much less so. Satoshi himself mentioned that eventually we'll likely end up with just a few copies of the blockchain in gigantic data centers, with almost everyone running SPV clients that, although don't mine, still check transactions for validity, still relay them, and can still check the integrity of the blockchain database and compare it between providers to make sure it's legit.

Wait, are you saying you don't appreciate Meni Rosenfeld because he doesn't focus his attention on the client side of Bitcoin? I'm confused?

I'm not necessarily doubting that he said that, but I've never run across it.  Can you provide a pointer?

The closest thing I've seen to such a statement is Mike Hearn staying that the system could operate with 6 or so copies of the full block chain owned by large entities.  Maybe he didn't state who owned them though, and I am not going to put words into his mouth by claiming that he thought it was a good idea.  He can speak to that himself if he's so inclined.

Wow, centralization at its finest. I'll make sure I pass that info around at the next PorcFest.

The system could operate with zero copies of the complete block chain. Really all the network needs is a validated UTXO set and enough recent history to handle reorgs. The only difficult part is calculating "enough".

No, I'm saying www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwu-6GxBHN4

I'm still a little confused! I get the Rodney Dangerfield connection but the meaning of your other statement is unusual, other than people working on mining are worthless and will be replaced. But maybe you didn't mean that.

All these slowpoke responses, maaku's project is probably the single most thing that's happening on the technical side, yet people hardly paid attention :-\ Luckily, Vorhees came to the rescue....

Satoshi's white paper:

Thank you for quoting the entire passage.

I didn't mean they were worthless. Just that mining will become more and more specialized, and storing the blockchain even more so, but that's OK, because a lot of the peer to peer stuff is done on the clients who can keep miners and blockchains honest by constantly comparing them.

I understand now. Verification is already becoming more specialized and the people are adapting. As long as the process remains in the hands of the people then it will remain a system that I can support. I think the system you are thinking of where everyone is running SPV clients is a long way off. Today pools control the process and people like organofcorti and Meni Rosenfeld do a lot to keep that system honest.

That is indeed convincing.  Convincing that ~rassah took significant liberties in interpreting the whitepaper, that is.

No I didn't. This was discussed after the whitepaper, too. I just don't have time to look for it.

Programmers/computer scientists like to talk about theoretically worst-case scenario, I think that's what Mike Hearn really meant.

And if freedom is of value to a person, it's not unfair for him to participate in the verification himself without being given meaningful economic benefits.

Hmmm.  I see...

I would like to be snarky and negative about your project, but as I scan through it, I cannot say that I feel it is completely without hope.  As best I understand it at least.  So, I hope for the best and will be watching it with interest.  Possibly even contributing if I feel that it is going in a way which will benefit me.

That said, one of my biggest complaints has always been that 'VISA-level' is actually pretty lame.  Some biz guy at the conference mentioned the number of cell phones vs. the number of bank accounts.  Something like 5x10^9 vs. 1x10^9.  (I only heard this from a friend as I was attending the tech related presentations.)  We are talking about some big big numbers if the worlds population is to gradually adopt distributed crypto-currencies as a means of transacting in economies.

Stratum was supposed to be 'the future of Bitcoin' as I recall ~moonshadow describing it.  I sense that he was not looking at the big picture.  I sense also that targetting 'VISA-level' will also fall into the same sort of trap.

If any one 'distributed crypto-currency' does NOT get into a scenario where it works in conjunction with off-{chain/backing/whatever} systems, it will likely mean that it has failed, and this is definitely the case with Bitcoin IMO.  The question then becomes what the solution looks like at that point.  Is it simple and reliable?  Or is it complex and filled with new and unproven conceptual underpinnings and methods?

It could be the case that in order to provide even a workable 'reserve' capability, Bitcoin would need to be 'VISA-level'.  That is the basis for my interest in your solution, and again, I wish you well.

BTW, I hope you are not going to make the same mistake as Bitcoin in taking a 'C client defines the system' approach (or PHP or GO or whatever your implementation choice happens to be...)  If so (vs. a more formalized specification) than it will count as a big strike against my hope for a solution which has long-term hope of success.

HAHAHA So true.

Hey all!

I thoroughly enjoyed the Bitcoin 2013 conference last weekend. Wish I could have stayed in Cali. . . Anyway, does anyone know where I can find recordings/transcripts from the conference? My only regret was that I couldn't be in all four rooms at the same time! There was so much information to be absorbed in that building. I definitely met some of the brightest minds I've ever encountered at that conference.

MegaD

Hopefully the foundation will release them soon.  I'm eagerly awaiting all the talks I couldn't make it to as well!

Great weekend.

I thought it was absolutely ridiculous that it was cheaper to buy admission with a credit card at the door.  I'm sure the organizers of the NY and Vienna bitcoin conferences will not have such a retarded system in place.

Bitcoin price:  3btc
Credit Card price:  $350

Peter Vessenes is clearly incompetent.  Mtgox gets booted out of the conference because of his stupid lawsuit, and then it's more expensive to pay admission with bitcoin.  How is this acceptable?  What has coinlab done for bitcoin anyway?

You might have noticed that the BTC rate has fluctuated a lot lately, and keeping things simple means whole numbers on admission prices. $350/3 or $116.67 is a pretty reasonable approximation of the average value of one BTC in the week up to and including the conference.  

It is inexcusable to create an incentive to pay with a credit card at a bitcoin conference.  They could easily have changed the rate to 2.9 or 2.8 bitcoins depending on the current exchange rate.

I am looking at the rate during the conference and $116.67 per BTC seems fair considering it needs to be set once really.
http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#rg10zig6-hourzczsg2013-05-16zeg2013-05-17ztgSzm1g10zm2g25
As it was a Bitcoin conference perhaps it can be argued the $350 should have been $345 or $340 depending on the rate. The difference is really only the price of a coffee and a sandwich!  :)

Of course if bandwidth and storage cannot scale, that is likely to be the case I guess. But that being said, only 6 datacenters storing the entire blockchain might not be a real problem as long as all full nodes continue to run based on snapshots of the blockchain at a given date to reduce its size. Though I don't know all details surrounding this question, and I couldn't go at the conference this year (sadly!).

No kidding! I would've gone to just about everything if I could've. On one of the panels I was at, Peter noted that they're thinking the next one will be a couple days longer, so hopefully the schedule won't be so tight.

And then there where Lightening sessions going on as well. 

When one of the session got boring I cut out an hit up a lighting session on statistical analysis if btc price sings and that was on of the better sessions I attended and it was not even on my radar.

I just skipped almost all the talks and talked to as many people as I could.  I figured I will always be able to watch recordings later.

ya that was a good plan as well.  So many smart, interesting people with some really terrific projects and idea.

Here http://www.mail-archive.com/cryptography@metzdowd.com/msg09964.html

There was a recent article in Bitcoin Magazine that analysed the blockchain size, but most of their articles are not available online. The main point is that the blockchain size will increase linearly, while the capacity of hard drives and internet speed increases exponentially (although right now the blockchain appears to increase faster because the block size limit hasn't been hit yet). The article looked at some worst case scenarios, and even using really conservative estimates, 20 years from now people will easily be able to store the whole blockchain on their phone and download the whole thing in a few hours.

That does not hold true once the blocksize limit is removed, which will happen eventually.

Unless I am mistaken, removing the blocksize limit will still result in a linear blockchain growth once bitcoin adoption levels off.  The exponential growth of storage capacity and internet speed will always pass it.  Great to meet you at the conference!

Hey Seth! Thanks for stopping by the expert's table. I definitely remember your name, cause it has "otter" in it, and those things are frikin cute!  :D
Also, thanks for teaching me a bit about geography, in that there are two Rica's in the Caribbean. Still a bit embarrassed about that *o.o*

If you're thinking what I think you're thinking, there's a Rica and and Rico  ;D

Thank you!   :D


I doubt it. Rather, even if/when the software-coded blocksize limit is removed, it is still in the miner's best interest to keep a block size limit in place. It would help keep the transaction fees up, as opposed to everyone just sending everything for free all the time, and it would allow them to continue earning enough to cover storage costs. So, I guess as with mining, there will eventually be a free market competition for who can store and transmit the blockchain most efficiently while getting the maximum amount of fees out of it. So, just as mining costs tend to approach mining profits, storage expenses, I.e. blockchain growth, will tend to approach storage revenues. Thought I think Seth is right in that it will likely lag behind tech quite a bit. I mean, the full blockchain is 8 gigs, while you can buy 1,000 gigs for under $100 now.

There is insufficient consensus to make that prediction.

I was responding to: "the blockchain size will increase linearly".

I don't think there is sufficient consensus as to what will happen once the blocksize limit is removed. However the odds are very slim that it will remain a straight line.

Miners are not a monolithic entity. If miners try to keep a grassroots size limit, every individual miner has an incentive to mine a bigger block and scoop up all those floating transaction fees. This is a classical tragedy of the commons scenario.

There needs to be a good tx fee mechanism that properly sponsors both the amortized cost of hashing and the marginal cost of processing (storage, verification, communication). To sponsor hashing you need to limit (or charge for) the total value sent in a block; to sponsor storage and communication you need to limit the block data size; to sponsor verification you need to limit the total script complexity.

Ah, you are right.  It's a small wonder that it is a bit cumbersome to dig up and not exactly front page on the Bitcoin marketing literature.

As I read this, it reminds me that I actually have seen it before (which is probably why something in the back of my mind kept me from denying it outright as impossible.)  I probably read it shortly before I went on my tirade about it being a fucking lie to call Bitcoin 'p2p', or at least will be.

It also probably corresponds to the time when I started suspecting Bitcoin of emitting some whiffs of Ponzi-tiveity and looking out of the corner of my eye for the location to the doorway.

Can you tell me where I can research various entities and see if they pay fees?   I wanted to see how much people like dice and gox pay back into the system since they are the largest users of capacity.  I am not familiar enough with everything to know how to do this.

SatoshiDice is easy - their addresses are constant and public, and you can look them up. In fact if you go to the blockchain.info homepage you'll see that almost half the transactions are SD, and labelled as such. AFAICT they always pay a fee.

For Mtgox it's a bit harder.

I remember MtGox used to pay Eligius pool directly for it to accept their free transactions. As in personal contract as opposed to mining fees. I don't know if that changed, whether they are using someone else, or if it stopped completely.

The blockchain is not currently increasing in size linearly in a straight line, as you can see here:
http://blockchain.info/charts/blocks-size?timespan=all&showDataPoints=false&daysAverageString=1&show_header=true&scale=0&address=

It is increasing exponentially because we are in the adoption stage where more users are added.  Once bitcoin reaches its potential market size, or once it hits a blocksize limit, the blockchain size will increase linearly.  We will never see sustained exponential growth in the number of monetary transactions that humans need to conduct.

Bitcoin merchant adoption and transaction fees have grown 1000% over last year, which is an extremely high rate that temporarily outpaces hard drive capacity growth, but this cannot be sustained very long.  Hard drive space and internet speed show no signs of slowing their exponential growth rates, so they will always outpace the bitcoin blockchain in the long run.  Exponential growth will always win out over linear growth.  People will be able to store the blockchain on their personal computers forever.

Some day I'd like to see accounting software that uses Bitcoin addresses for individual accounts, let's you book entrees and move money around all day internally off blockchain, then at the end of the day balance out all the transactions and post the resulting ending balance transfers to the blockchain. That would allow for a third party permanent public record to reconcile to, and would allow a company to run its accounting finances on the Bitcoin network without spamming it with transactions (you can do multiple transfers between multiple addresses in a single transaction). That may contribute to blockchain bloat a bit, but it the verifiable account entrees in the chain may be s service businesses would gladly pay for.

Yes. That's the sensible middle-ground which hopefully will be reached in the future. It reduces the problem of small transactions hitting the blockchain, but also keeps the blockchain open for all, instead of restricting it to bitcoin-banks similar to how the Fedwire system operates.

In practice that probably wouldn't bloat the UTXO set at all.

where are videos of Dan Kaminsky from the conference?

Someone kindly posted this recently:

  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=219519.0

Kaminsky was on the security one (at least...that's the only one I saw live.)

After midnight when my bandwidth become free I'll watch some of the ones I missed in person.  Satellite connection.  Bummer because I just got bitcoind (along with openssl, boost, berkeleydb, etc) compiled and I would like to be running it to see how it does on a high latency connection.

What is Kaminsky's deal?  Saying there is a 0% chance for Proof-of-Work to survive the year?  Wtf?  He seems a bit misinformed about bitcoin mining.  He thought GPUs couldn't currently mine bitcoin profitably, and he also thought that one entity having over 50% of hash power would result in a bitcoin price of zero, which was obviously not the case when deepbit did it.  He also seems to believe that scrypt is ASIC-proof, which is not true.

Yeah I was puzzled by that as well.   None of the questioners asked him to clarify.  Of course most of the people lining up to "ask questions" are usually ones trying to push an agenda or make long monologs in the form of questions.   They already have their questions in mind before the panel start.

I wish he would clarify. I mean like it or not Bitcoin can't be changed.  It can be forked but barring a complete consensus of all users (not all miners or developers but all users) the existing network will continue to operate.  Nobody is going to get a consensus on moving from POW.  So not sure how he can be bullish on Bitcoin and at the same time say Bitcoin is dead unless it moves beyond POW.  If true (which I doubt) then Bitcoin is already dead and just doesn't know it.

I missed meeting you at the conference D&T!  My favorite way of reading this forum is by doing a search for your posts.  The general post quality has become so terrible recently compared to a year or two ago, I can't stand it.

Jeez, what were you going to do if you met him?  Hump his leg?


Always happy to do my part.

He's way off.  Check out @dakami and @jgarzik twitter.  There is even a bet on the floor (that he's trying to back away from).

Cool. Thanks.

Great idea