Josh Reeter: I reached out to joepie91 through IRC for help on reviewing my code, his confidence, open source contributions and experience within the language I was targetting was a great match for me. His mentorship has really helped improve the quality of my code through consistency and just a better understanding of concepts.

Tejas Manohar: Sven is an incredibly talented developer that works with utmost diligence. He has thorough knowledge of Node.js platform along with the tools built on it and is really passionate about crafting the right implementation to solve most any problem at hand.

Daniel Sauerbrun: I hired Sven (joepie91) to help me beat the learning curve for Node.js; I needed quick tutoring as I was building out a codebase from scratch for a startup. Not only was he an excellent tutor in helping me understand concepts instead of just giving me the answer, but he was also available for me pretty much whenever I needed him. I expected to need ~25 hours of his services; however, I have made so much progress with him that I can't seem to get past 10.

Kaveh Khorram: In about only 8 hours, Sven (joepie91) taught me about modularization, callbacks, working with third-party modules, correct variable use, express routes and promises just to name a few. Sven often went into overtime just to make sure I understood a topic, and always made sure I had a thorough understanding of the material before ending a session. Sven is one of the most, if not the most experienced NodeJS developers I've ever worked with.

Correction: You found a "mistake" in their website. Some might call it a flaw, but it is certainly not a security flaw or exploit.

Please don't spread alot of FUD, this might actually be a serious matter. Someone might have exploited a real security vulnerability.

I would also recommend *not* requiring you to *unsubscribe* (as sometimes such things don't even work or nag you further).

Why not simply automatically unsubscribe someone after they fail to donate 2 or 3 times (with the last contact reminding them how to re-subscribe)?

I’m happy to announce the launch of ReDonate, the only 100% voluntary recurring donations service.

ReDonate allows you to receive monthly donations from fans or users, without locking them in to a subscription, and without any automatic charges whatsoever! There are no restrictions on what payment processors or payment methods you can support, either.

So, how does it work?

When you subscribe to a ReDonate campaign, you indicate how much you wish to donate to the campaign per month. Every month, you will receive an e-mail reminding you of your pledge, including donation links for various payment methods that let you donate straight away. None of your accounts are ever automatically charged, you are completely in charge of whether you wish to keep donating or not!

You can unsubscribe from a ReDonate campaign at any time, for any reason, without any kind of penalty. Just click the unsubscribe link in any of the e-mails we send you, confirm your unsubscription, and you’re done! No more “whoops, forgot to cancel” moments.

--- Log opened Mon Oct 31 18:58:37 2011
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< alolymous> hey
< SterNiX> hi
< alolymous> bebakshid, farsi-am khob harf nemizanam. inglis bebinam
< alolymous> so have any of you heard of bitcoin?
< SterNiX> i have heard of its name alolymous
-!- ArmanHayeEmam is now known as NamirolMomenin
< alolymous> what do you know about it?
< alolymous> is there anyone here from isfahan lug?
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< SterNiX> not at the mo alolymous
< SterNiX> theyre a couple that i know of
< SterNiX> there could be more, but i only know of 2
< alolymous> ok so i work with bitcoin
< SterNiX> aha nice to meet u
< alolymous> my father is from iran, and i have spent time in iran in the past
< alolymous> and this project has something to offer to iran i think
< alolymous> however it's complicated
< alolymous> as the project uses vast amounts of cryptography and networking concepts
< alolymous> does mohi still participate in ubuntu/linuxshop.ir?
< SterNiX> i got an email form linuxshop.ir
< SterNiX> and i think he does
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< alolymous> http://arioslinux.org/ haha cute
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< alolymous> SterNiX: Short version of what bitcoin is: it is a currency, but an entirely new kind of currency that can’t be seized or frozen by governments, one which is integrated with its transaction system where transaction fees are optional, and where you can transfer any amount anywhere instantly without any authority knowing or interfering.
< alolymous> good article: http://falkvinge.net/2011/05/19/the-information-policy-case-for-flat-tax-and-basic-income/
< alolymous> i'm thinking that using bitcoin, iranians could pay for goods using paypal
< alolymous> and get around the US embargo
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< alolymous> so would that be a useful thing for iranians? a way to buy paypal dollars using rial
< acathur> though getting some bitcoins is not easy imo at first place
< alolymous> acathur: you mean in iran?
< acathur> alolymous: no, i mean in general
< alolymous> from which country?
< acathur> iran
< alolymous> USA/Europe/UK it's pretty easy
< alolymous> yeah hence an iranian exchange
< alolymous> imagine people could easily trade goods around online with the rest of the world without having restrictions on how they spend their money
< alolymous> transferring money in and out of iran is near impossible.
< alolymous> but with bitcoins it'd be really easy.
< alolymous> it would even be possible to order goods from the USA to Iran
< acathur> by getting bitcoins i meant having some bitcoins for payment
< acathur> mining bitcoins just isn't a good idea anymore afaik, so one would need to exchange them with dollars for example
< acathur> and that's the problem
< alolymous> it really isn't.
< alolymous> let me explain how a bitcoin exchange works
< alolymous> persons A, B, C want BTC for their IRR, persons X, Y, Z want IRR for their BTC
< alolymous> so the second group demands bitcoins and puts up a buy order of 100 IRR for 10 BTC
< alolymous> however there isn't much bitcoin available, so the first group only sells a tiny amount
< alolymous> 1 BTC for 10 IRR
< alolymous> that quickly gets bought up. but then A, B, C want bitcoins still eventhough there isn't any on the market
< alolymous> so they start to compete and place higher orders (demand goes up)
< alolymous> 99 IRR on the market
< alolymous> X, Y, Z decide to put up 6 BTC
< alolymous> therefore the market reaches a supply-demand equillibrium at 99 IRR = 6 BTC
< alolymous> now somebody sees the price is a lot higher on the UK exchange.
< alolymous> by buying GBP with their IRR, they can engage in arbitrage and make money
< alolymous> again the supply-demand relationship brings a market equillibrium
< alolymous> http://bitcoinwatch.com/
< alolymous> if you denominate the USD price in GBP then you'll see they're very similar because of arbitrage
< acathur> true. yet i couldn't find anyone who would exhange BTC for IRR or the other way. so i'd probably need to use a third currency in the middle, using the BTC -> USD -> IRR or the other way around
< alolymous> that's why i'm saying to make an exchange in iran
< alolymous> BTC -> IRR
< alolymous> then present it as a cheap/easy way to make payments to/from iran
< alolymous> since right now, it is impossible to send money to iran
< acathur> i like what you say too, but do you know anyone or anywhere to do that now? i need BTC and there's just no one who'd exchange for IRR
< alolymous> when i started out with bitcoin 1 year ago. i had no way to buy bitcoins
< alolymous> so i created the UK exchange
< alolymous> it's very easy now to get money in the UK
< acathur> (just asked mohi to join here)
< alolymous> ok cool. he knows me from a long time ago
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< alolymous> i was waiting to see why nothing was happening in iran
< alolymous> there is at least one iranian user: whois bitcoin.ir
< alolymous> registered with IRNIC (so inside iran)
< alolymous> and an address in Tehran
< alolymous> mohi: hey
< mohi> hey buddy!
< alolymous>
< mohi> wasup?
< alolymous> do you still run linuxshop.ir?
< alolymous> i saw you have ubuntu 11.10 on there
< mohi> ya
< mohi> not much time for it. there are some operators soing the stuff ;-)?
< mohi> doing*
< alolymous> what are you doing now you left the army?
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< mohi> just messing around ;-)
-!- miadbahrami [~miadbahra@178.131.221.6] has joined #technotux
< mohi> ya my military service has finished
< mohi> acathur: pinch you buddy
< alolymous> that's cool.
< mohi> alolymous: are still working on bitcoin?
< alolymous> yes
< mohi> alolymous: woohooo my famous friend ;-)
< alolymous> i was trying to message you a ton before because bitcoin is incredible
< mohi> wow nice
< mohi> i think acathur has something in common with you then on bitcoin!
< mohi> ping acathur
< alolymous> like i'm surprised why this takes off in a huge way in USA and UK
< alolymous> but not in Iran
< acathur> mohi: ?
< alolymous> in iran where something like this is needed more than anywhere else
< alolymous> and i was sitting there waiting. wondering what are iranians doing?
< mohi> acathur: as i remembered you used to mess around bitcoin sometimes.
< alolymous> mohi: what do you know about bitcoin? tell me.
< acathur> mohi: yup
< mohi> alolymous: iranians are in their historical dizziness! enjoying their deep sleep!
< mohi> alolymous: mate! take it off me then push it in acathur's!
< alolymous> the whole world revolts from new york to egypt and iranians sleep
< acathur> people just don't know/care about it yet. i found about it in the middle of wikileaks news
< alolymous> imagine now in iran, where it can be used for buying goods from the USA or sending money to/from Iran quickly/easily/cheapy to anywhere in the world
< alolymous> and the enormous potential for positive social good.
< acathur> or imagine governments fighting with BTC?
< alolymous> it is the first time in history that we have a monetary system without the intrusion of middlemen and corruption. the system is totally pure with a strong privacy model.
< alolymous> acathur: you mean like how they tried and failed with bittorrent?
< alolymous> fuck, i really want to do this just to give 2 fingers to the retarded sanctions
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< acathur> thanks alolymous. even if it's still of no use in iran
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< alolymous> why would a currency that allows economic freedom be less useful in an unfree country than in the UK?
< acathur> it really is useful, but no one uses it here. as you can see.
< alolymous> mohi: do you want to test it out? all i need is for you to register an iranian limited company, then open a business bank account. once a week you send me a list of bank deposits, and i give you a list of withdrawals.
< alolymous> it really is minimal effort on your part, but i need somebody in iran i can totally trust.
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< moha> alolymous: let me some days buddy ;-) Im too much busy on these days and i think i should be ok in next tw weeks
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< alolymous> meh

I understand from your correspondence that you are enquiring about potential regulation issues in respect of a digital currency called Bitcoin.

I appreciate that you have taken the time to contact us about this matter,  I can understand why you have referred the matter to the FSA.  The legislation that we deal with here at the FSA is the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA). 

In any event, it may help if I give a brief outline of what is covered by FSMA before considering how this may affect your proposed activities.  FSMA is concerned with the regulation of financial services and markets in the UK.  Under Section 19 of FSMA, any person who carries on a regulated activity in the UK must be authorised or exempt.  Section 22 of FSMA provides that an activity is a "regulated activity" if it is an activity of a specified kind carried on by way of business in relation to investments of a specified kind. 
 
The activities and investments are specified in The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001 ("the RAO"), which is secondary legislation under FSMA.  Specified activities are defined in Part II of the RAO and include arranging deals in investments.  Specified investments are defined in Part III of the RAO and include various investments.  Therefore, if a company is conducting a specified activity, they will need to be authorised, or exempt.
 
A full list of activities regulated by the FSA is available in the Perimeter Guidance Manual of the FSA handbook.  I have attached a link to the relevant information for your attention:

Detailed guidance on whether you need to be regulated can be found in the Perimeter Guidance Manual (PERG). www.fsahandbook.info/FSA/html/handbook/PERG.
Please note that a full list of the investments regulated by the FSA can be found in chapter 2.6 of PERG

www.fsahandbook.info/FSA/html/handbook/PERG/2/6   

A full list of activities regulated by the FSA can be found in chapter 2.7 of PERG

www.fsahandbook.info/FSA/html/handbook/PERG/2/7

Perhaps it would be helpful to say what Bitcoin is.

As I understand, the system has the following features:
   (a)   It is a form of digital currency.
   (b)   It is not issued by anyone.  It is not backed by ordinary currency or anything of value.
   (c)   There is no central record on which transactions are recorded.
   (d)   There is no central authority that verifies the validity of the coins.
   (e)   There must be some sort of system for upgrading the IT application but we don't anything about it.  It is likely to be quite informal.
   (d)   The coins are generated out of thin air as a reward for system users who voluntarily perform computer operations on blocks.
   (e)   Blocks are records of prior transactions.
   (f)   Transactions are broadcast to the network.  Anyone can create a new block using whichever transactions it wants to include.
   (g)   A digital coin is valuable if and to the extent that sellers of goods and services are willing to accept it.
   (h)   If I want to buy something with Bitcoin I can either generate the coins as described above or, more likely, buy them, for real money, from someone who buys and sells Bitcoins. 
   (i)   You wish to run a business of buying and selling Bitcoins in this way.
   (l)   If I am a seller as well I may accumulate Bitcoins.

Will emoney be involved?

Emoney means electronically (including magnetically) stored monetary value as represented by a claim on the electronic money issuer which:
   (a)   is issued on receipt of funds for the purpose of making payment transactions; and
   (b)   is accepted by a person other than the electronic money issuer;
 
You will see from the description above that it is not issued on the receipt of funds.  It is therefore not e-money.

Is deposit taking involved?

There is no deposit for the same reason as with emoney.

What about the Payment Services Directive (PSD)?

Specific guidance on Payment Service Regulations (PSRs) can be found in chapter 15 of PERG

www.fsahandbook.info/FSA/html/handbook/PERG/15 

In particular you may wish to review question 12 of that section
I strongly suggest that you also look at the approach document for Payment Service Regulations as well.

www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/other/PSD_approach.pdf 

That said, buying and selling Bitcoin is rather like acting as a bureau de change.  These are not caught by the PSD.  This is because the firm does not help the user to pay third parties such as merchants but just sells him the Bitcoins. 

Moving on, the creation of Bitcoins and sale to users potentially amounts to issuing payment instruments. Therefore the question is whether Bitcoins are payment instruments.  This means something used in order to initiate an instruction requesting the execution of a payment transaction.  A payment transaction means placing, transferring or withdrawing funds.  The key definition is funds.  This means banknotes and coins, scriptural money, and electronic money.  This means that the question is whether Bitcoins are money.

It is not yet clear what money means in the context of this particular piece of legislation.   Our favoured approach at the moment is that one asks whether the value functions like money, whether or not it is money in the more traditional sense.  It could mean any medium which, by practise, freely passes through the community in final discharge of debts and full payment for goods and services, being accepted equally without reference to the character or credit of the person who offers it and who in turn can tender it to others in discharge of debts or payment for goods or services, even though it may not be legal tender.  So Bitcoins could become money for the purpose of the PSD Regulations if and when they become widely used.  If this is the case then you need to be aware that the EU takes the lead on interpreting the PSD and it may come up with a different approach.  For example it could say that in effect each person using Bitcoins to buy something issues the coin because any transfer of a coin creates a new need to get it incorporated into blocks and accepted by the system.  That would mean that those who make a business of buying and selling Bitcoins would be issuing a payment instrument.  There might also be an argument that anyone creating a new block issues value for the same reason even if no coins are generated.


For the need for authorisation you would also need to be undertaking the activity by way of business.  For guidance on this please refer to questions 1 and 4  in PERG 15.

As for the  Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF) requirements, your firm will be caught by our Handbook requirements on financial crime and AML if it is FSMA-authorised. If it is not FSMA-authorised, it might still be within scope of the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 and again, the firm should seek legal advice on this. If the firm is within the scope of the Money Laundering Regulations, we might or might not be the competent supervisor for the firm's compliance with these Regulations - the flowchart on p2 of this document

www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/other/approach.pdf

can help the firm determine who its AML/CTF supervisor would be.

Independently of whether your firm falls within the scope of FSMA or the Money Laundering Regulations, the fact that it appears to be handling funds (in the broadest sense) makes it likely that the firm will be caught by the UK's sanctions regimes. The following link provides more information
www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/fin_sanctions_faqs.htm

I suggest that you read this information, and, taking into consideration any exclusions that may apply, you should be able to determine whether or not your proposals would require authorisation. Please be aware that while the FSA can provide general guidance, we cannot tell you whether the proposals would or would not need to be authorised. Where you are involved in speculative contracts in relation to Bitcoins, we need to consider whether the rights in the Bitcoins will amount to one or more of the investments specified in PERG 2.6. In particular, the investments in PERG 2.6.20-24 are the most relevant to your activities.

Any person wishing to carry on one or more regulated activities must apply to the FSA for authorisation (unless they can abide by the terms of an exclusion).  The application pack is available on our website (www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/Doing/how/index.shtml).   

Also, a small shop doesn't need a pc nor a laptop. Smartphones with dual core are sold today. You don't even need dual-core for this. A small screen and a smartphone is something any business can afford today. Two years from now this can easily and cheaply be mainstream.

Actually, no. We produce both transactions instantly, and send the second one without waiting for confirmations.

I hate to say this but this still suffers from all the issues that previous suggestions for point of sale stuff has, in that it takes a great deal of time comparatively to confirm the transaction is actually valid. People aren't going to wait around for a quarter of an hour after buying a stick of gum to wait for a transaction to verify.

Jav, your work is really exciting. but the space is a problem. If a merchant has to find a place for another PC or Laptop in their store, it will not be the ultimate solution.

It doesn't change the transaction time - it just means the receiver can trust the transaction at zero confirmations.
If all the exchanges used this, it would mean that the prices should stop lagging the mt.gox price.

I was also offering a service with an EC2 small instance, until I discovered a solution which is 80% cheaper than that, and it was proven even better in performance. You can get a VPS (VM) in many places in Europe. I use Giga-International. The EC2 small instance equivalent is 10 EUR/month with practically unlimited bandwidth included, and excellent connectivity to the rest of the world.  I am sure there are many others as well.

In other words, I could consider donating as you offer useful information, but if you don't seem to care about costs, I feel that my donation would be wasted, if you see what I am saying.

Its an issue if you propose a system that allows people to form private armies and they decide to take you as a slave.  If you have allowed them to form an army and there is no state, all you are left with by way of defence is saying "Is there supposed to be violence? No."

That's a very poor alternative to democracy.

[...]
Because that is the whole point of anarchism. No initiation of force.
[...]

So there won't be any violence in an anarchist society ?

Why couldn't they exercise force?

If someone has the power to kill you, its pointless to say that they cannot exercise force.  They can do as they please and you'd best hope they stop at taking your possessions.