I was just reading about how BTCC is offering priority tx to users. If they want faster confirmations they pay extra and get pushed to the next block. BTCC has 13% of the network so I guess this method might work pretty good (for speeding up the tx in question) but I fear that all manner of negatives will come with it. If BTCC can make profits at this more parties will start doing it, pools and groups will form, it will be like mining where there is an arms race. Then it is all over the place and regular little tx fee transactions will take forever (like when stress testing)

I realize not all transactions require super fast confirmation but some types are dependant on it. Is this going to kick off a new arms race? What can be done to stop this before it gets out of hand? Bigger blocks? Are we finally going to see btc's inability to scale?

I've got a bad feeling about this but I don't understand the tech enough. Need I worry?

EDIT I just saw a thing on the Lightning Network which I didn't 100% understand but get enough of to see it is different than this (off chain) would Alan not be the perfect remedy to prioritized tx?

Lamb crotch? Lol sounds like lamb chop alias to me. Funny but never to be taken seriously or actually listened to. Just like the about a million others on these forums.
I will stay tuned for the drama though... Making popcorn right now

I don't understand why people can't just buy their own stuff on Amazon unless you are talking about users who live in countries that Amazon won't ship to.
Then of course there is the fact that just like you don't really need partners, if I wanted to do this scheme why would I need you?
Also... You'll lose tons on the shipping.

Indeed it is panicked, but a panicked "intention" more than reaction. It's the kind of thing politicos say in the heat of the moment without realizing how difficult and ineffectual their actions would be.
There's so much politicking around these terror events, obviously the politicians are scrambling to appear in control after being totaly shown powerless, they all want some kind of boogie man to point at. Why not magic boogie man money? Hardly anyone uses it or understands it, we will just throw it under the bus and the populace can believe their govt is looking out for their well being.

If they can't stop a handful of extremists (who they were aware of and knew posed real threats) stopping btc won't do squat

Well if confirmation times weren't so slow this issue would never have come up. Slow confirmation is a big problem for a lot of transactions (not all)
If BTCC gets any traction with this expect to see an all out war amongst the biggest players. Hopefully it will cause a backlog amongst the paid priority tx guys.
Now, would larger block size do anything to stop this?

These stories just prove how little they actually understand Bitcoin. Either that or the whole things just a front, an excuse to hurt Bitcoin. Either way it won't work. It's been attempted time and again and we're still here aren't we?

If this gets new adopters involved it's great. Seems like they have a good range of services and are trying to be easy to set up and use.
Bitcoin needs regular joes involved. It's been a niche tech nerd thing for too long and it is t necessary in fact it is limiting adoption. The more people learn the better, FUD won't affect them, they will see all the benefits and the actual simplicity of using BTC.
So far all the bright innovation has just been 3rd party stuff which, if you understand BTC, is absolutely unnecessary and just keeps people ignorant.
I like this 21 thing and I hope it catches on!

How many times have we seen official crackdowns and bans of Bitcoin in the past 3 years? How many times has it stopped or killed Bitcoin?
All this means to me is CHEAP COINS... If the govts keep it up I'll have 100s by next March

Looks like eBay is building a private network/token to oversee payments within its network. An alt coin and private blockchain to manage payment between buyers and sellers in their system. I'm not sure how they plan on controlling the value of the eBay coin, I'm guessing it's a crypto solution to replace PayPal i.e. You put funds into your account and eBay uses their crypto to move those funds around their system, do your transactions etc. when done you can cash out to your linked bank account.
It will work well for their platform, we are going to see banks cc companies and all sorts of e-commerce companies adopt these ideas. It's a perfect way for them to monitor, oversee, and manage all the commerce they conduct. Their "coins" will have no volatility either since they are simply tokens that represent your funds inside their system.

These guys have been saying "we are watching btc very closely" for a while now. And when they say "crypto currencies definitely have a place with us" this is what they mean.

Realistically this is the future of crypto. Bitcoin may very well be left by the wayside.

10k is possible even 40k per coin, but it depends on market depth, widespread adoption, ubiquity of acceptance. If btc had 10% of visa's market share... Sure each one would be worth thousands.
Unfortunately we are nowhere near that and it doesn't look like we will any time soon.
There just aren't any real world use cases where btc has proven better than cc. Except the illegal stuff, and we all know illegal activity is unsustainable.
If you could pay your rent, bills, groceries in btc, be paid in btc and survive using only Bitcoin as easy as you can with cash then we might be getting somewhere. And I don't mean use Bitcoin to buy hurt cards or go through some other 3rd party. When everyone everywhere accepts Bitcoin the same as they accept other payment methods we will see tens of thousands valuation. Until then it is only going to be speculation and arguments

Exactly. It's no wonder every single offering here is some scam or fail. Obviously people will invest in anything, even a dead horse.

Bogus news reports like "govt cracks down on btc to stop terrorists" are just easy propaganda.
Release news that a currency hardly anyone uses will face increased regulation does 2 things; it makes people think the government is doing something, and it appeases the public that they won't be affected.
The terrorists may very well use btc, but I'm sure it is a small percent of their total funding.
If they wanted to stop terror they wouldn't have installed, armed, trained and funded them in the first place.

Besides, everyone knows ISIS prefers dodge.

I have the ZeroBlock app on my phone. It has a "news" page. This page aggregates news from many sources... CoinDesk Crypto Coin News, Bitcoin warrior, money & tech, wsj, wired, even major national newspapers such as the guardian and nyt... Even reddit.
It's pretty much all the btc news that's fit to print

I was just wondering about how detrimental dust can be to miners. I had my BFL 60 in my basement and it worked fine until it simply stopped. Fan runs makes noise but no hashes. The only thing I can see is that there is a fair amount of dust and dirt in my unfinished basement. Could this be what killed my miner? What can I do to remedy it?

I had bfg miner and the BFL included software, but like I say, it has been a while since I've mined successfully. I'll try to download newer versions and see what happens.
Could it be hardware problems? How would I be able to tell this?
I have a lifetime guarantee on it but BFL is a no-go for me forevermore. I'd just like to know what's wrong in case I decide to give it away to someone ( there are lots of guys wanting to mine "for fun and education" I might give it away)
Anyways I will try all your suggestions and see where it gets me. Thanks for the help

You can easily find an old asic for cheap, it's the shipping that will be expensive. Try eBay- you can even search for items within you country to save on shipping costs.

If you desire the effects of unionization maybe you should take a closer look at the pools. Slush, p2pool and elegius all operate responsibly and consider the community as a whole at the same time as trying to give their members a good deal for their hash power.
If you are looking to see a cartel to artificially jack up the price of btc maybe you need to look into some sort of pyramid ponzi thing like MMM

People complain about btc getting a bad name from scammers but they can't scheme up enough scams and disreputable con games when it means they might personally benefit

I don't know what you're thinking OP but I don't like it

How powerful are these things, like in layman terms? Would the bullet go through a telephone book? A record album? One inch of wood? Like if you shot me in the leg from across the room would the pellet go right in or just leave a welt?
I used to have a pump action air rifle and it was weak as hell. We'd play war and shoot each other with it. So long as you only got hit where you were covered with denim you'd be fine

Hey
Good to know you're out there. I live in bc and manage to find plenty fireworks cheap out at the reservation, but I will be in Montreal next year. Do you have a physical shop?

I think btc is going to slowly go down until it sees its bottom in February or March. Then, anticipation of the halving will pull price up again possibly to a modest bubble at the halving. We'll have to see.