It's not (I want to run websites), but I'll keep them in mind.  Seems weird to charge by the hour for a server, though.

Thanks, guys.  I've used namecheap and cinfu for domain names, didn't realize they provided VPSs.  I'll check them out.

Anyone know what happened to BitVPS?  I heard they were under new management, but the one customer service message I got in the past five months still said James.

I don't know what happened to them.  I've used them for years with no problems, but my servers have been down for months with no response to my tickets.  Can anyone recommend another VPS service?

I put my wallet got hacked, but that isn't entirely accurate.  What happened was I got scammed out of a few coins on localbitcoins.  I agree, this survey needs more choices.  Plus, I keep my coins in multiple ways.

I've been kind of out of the loop, and I could use some good news.  Would you mind sharing?  Main thing that comes to mind for me is the release of OpenBazaar.

My motivation for creating this, if I had one, was to convince myself to let go of the HODL mindset.

The key is to store your wealth where it will gain/retain the most purchasing power.  Over the past year or so, the USD has beaten bitcoin at holding purchasing power.  In previous years, it's been bitcoin by a long shot.  In the future, who knows?

Think of it as investing in another currency.

Just remember, never invest more than you can afford to lose, and quit while you're ahead.

I'll make a note to send you a pm at the next beta stage. 

I see.  Sounds like a pretty good system, but the advantage of the "second-highest" system is that in a normal system, the buyers have to worry about what other people are bidding, so they don't bid too high.  In a Vickrey system, they are never charged more than they had to pay to win.

That's very interesting.  Is the final price the high bid, or the second highest?

I found out there's quite a bit of academic work on auction theory.  A lot of it is out of my league, but it's convinced me that I'm on the right track.

This question is related to an online game I'm designing.  Items will be bought and sold in a bid-ask system inspired by bitcoin exchanges.  I figured this would be the best place to ask this question, because there are people here with experience in using these sorts of systems.

To summarize, the system I'm talking about is one where users can either place a "bid" order to buy an item, or an "ask" order to sell it.  If the highest bid is priced higher than the lowest ask, the transaction takes place, and the price is that of whichever order was placed first.

This works fine for a high-volume commodity like bitcoin, but in my game design the system will need to deal with low volumes, including unique items that may only be sold once.  In addition, I want players to be able to buy and sell "derivatives" of a portfolio of commodities, so it is extra important that a good, automatic price discovery mechanism is used so that the portfolio can be sold for a fair price at a pre-designated time.

What I'm worried about is the problem of "auction sniping".  I notice in many games and some real online auctions, the dominant strategy is to wait until the last minute, then bid a tiny amount more than the highest bid.  This is bad for the seller in at least two ways:

1.  Because the auction is decided entirely at the last minute, the seller's opportunity to attract bidders is severely limited.  You can run the auction for a whole week, but good luck getting any bids until five minutes before close.  Only people who happen to be online at that time will bid.
2.  Buyers are competing on timing rather than price, meaning that the final price will often be below fair market value.

To that end, I'm considering modifying the exchange rules based on the concept of a Vickrey auction.  The differences would be:

-All bids and asks are hidden.
-If you place a bid, and then an ask is placed that's below your bid, you pay whichever is higher: the price of the ask, or the price of the second-highest bid.
-If you place an ask, and then a bid is placed that's above your ask, you gain whichever is lower: the price of the bid, or the price of the second-highest ask.

The advantages of this system are:

-No possibility of "auction sniping".
-Even though bids/asks are hidden, there is no risk of bidding too high or asking too low.  You never pay more than you needed to, you are never paid less than you could have been.

The disadvantage is that bids and asks would be hidden, which may be offputting to some people.

What do you think?  Would this work?

(A complication I just thought of:  If I bid $15 for 5 units, Bob bids $10 for 1 unit, and Charlie bids $5 for 4 units, do I pay $10 each for all five, or do I pay $10 the first one, and $5 for the next four?  I'll have to think about that.  EDIT: Recording this for my own reference, since I doubt anyone will read this.  I think I've concluded that it is most fair to all parties that the $15 bidder pays $10 for all five units.  The other alternatives I've considered would leave him paying less than $10, which would be confusing and frustrating to Bob.)

Realistically?  I'd probably spend most of it lying in a hospice bed, too sick to do anything.  I don't think there's such thing as a disease that leaves you in perfect health for 30 days, then kills you the day after.

Or maybe when the doctor told me I had 30 days to live, he meant it as a threat.  In that case, I'd probably try to come up with some kind of plan to stop the doctor from murdering me...

I had no reason to believe there would be anything about him on the first or second page.  This is an event that happened almost a year ago, and there has been very little news since.  It was an odd coincidence that something finally came out recently.

Yeah, I was surprised to see it was a civil case.  Anyone know why he wasn't charged with fraud?

You may not have had $1 stolen from you, but what about the real purchasing power of each dollar?

That said, I agree with you that security is a HUGE concern for bitcoin.  Too many people are flippant about it just because they think their own stash is secure, but we have to remember that there are many, many decent people out there without the attention span or technical knowledge to take all the necessary precautions.

The project is a minimalistic browser based game.  The server is being developed separately.  You will create a user-friendly, visually appealing javascript client that communicates with the server through http requests using an API that I will provide.  I'll give you the rest of the details in private. 

Please tell me about your experience and if possible link some examples of your work.  I am willing to put serious money into this for a qualified individual or team.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

I'm sorry I overlooked one thread out of this entire massive sub-forum of which I am not  a regular.  Besides, how was I supposed to know there would be news recently after months and months of silence?

Patronizing lecture aside, I appreciate the help.  Thanks.

(If this is in the wrong forum please move.)

I know he was facing SEC charges, but I can't find any information about the trial.  Anyone know what happened? 

Maybe it's because I don't know much about how insurance works, but I don't see the problem.  As long as all parties consent, what's wrong with a private insurer providing some oversight as a condition of its policy?

^ To be fair, it just says he was charged, not that he was convicted.