Take a service like Xapo for instance :

You have two people registered to the Xapo service. Xapo runs their own private ledger keeping track of all transactions made between the accounts registered on their platform. These transactions are fast and almost free, but when you want to send that money to someone that are not a registered Xapo member, then that transaction will have to exit the Xapo database/ledger and move over to the Blockchain. < on-chain >

So all transactions not done on the Blockchain are called offchain transactions. ^smile^

Only problem I see with this is the absence of any kind of trustworthy ranking system. We used to have LAN sessions back in the day, and we had 2 semi-professionals playing against us. They wiped the floor with the competition and they always took the money pot.

The other people stopped playing, because they had no chance of winning any of the games. How will you match up players based on their skill levels to make this fair?  ^hmmmmmm^

I agree, this "kicking the can down the road" solution is not working. The community and the developers should start to act aggressively to take this technology to the moon. We compare Bitcoin with NASA, where they had huge incidents and still went forward.

Challenger disaster = Mt Gox
Columbia disaster = Silkroad

NASA did not give up, they landed on the Moon and then on Mars. We should learn from our mistakes like they did and we should take this experiment to the Moon and then onto Mars and beyond.

Bitcoin just make it easier for people to scam people globally. Most of these scams are also "faceless" because the victim is unknown to the person doing the crime. < This makes it easier > You might think twice if you knew the victim was a unemployed divorced mother with three young children, but some of these people are cold-blooded narcissists, so they feel nothing for other people.

The world is full of these people, and Bitcoin is one of the tools that are being used for these sadistic crimes. Bitcoin is also not the only tool, so let's not over exaggerate it's role in this. 

Your argument have two sides :

1. If Bitcoin becomes 100% anonymous, it will get banned in most countries. Not even cash is 100% anonymous. The government and the consumer should have a option to track money, if it has been used in illegal transactions. Examples : terrorism / theft / extortion / Money laundering etc.

2. Bitcoin should have enough anonymity to also protect the financial data of individuals from the average criminal on the street. < Your financial status will make you a target, if this data is linked to you and if it is public knowledge >

This is why we use mixer services. The average person will not be able to link the bitcoins to you, but the government can use the courts to obtain that information. ^smile^

Trump already made some crucial moves to strengthen the US economy. He wants to depreciate the dollar and also reduce the dependency on exports for products and services that can be produced and rendered locally. We might see some drastic and controversial changes during his 4 years.

In his mind, the US subsidized and supported other countries and neglected their own country. He might create more jobs this way, and this might reduce debt. That is to say, if the consumers use this extra income to pay the debt, and not to spend more on fast food and cheap consumer goods.

Just to add something, I noticed Blockchain.info is not updating or reflecting the situation as quickly as other block explorers for some reason. I have 3 transactions unconfirmed for more than 18 hours at the moment, and when I use Blockchain.info, it does not even show that the transactions are unconfirmed.

When I used https://blockexplorer.com it showed the status immediately. So this might just be a bug in Blockchain.info software. < A delay between what is shown, and what the real situation is > ^hmmmmm^

Bitcoin will not prevent crime, but it can be used to trace the criminals and this will lead to their capture and hopefully imprisonment. The Blockchain is a excellent tool to follow money. Yes, there are ways for these criminals to make it more difficult for authorities to follow the money, but with enough paper work this can be done.

Interpol can use Bitcoin as a forensic tool, to audit all financial transactions that were done with Bitcoin. ^smile^

Just as a side note, this is not the norm. We are currently experiencing a "spam" attack and there are about 60 000 transactions in a huge backlog because of this. So do not get discouraged by this, and follow the advice that was given in this thread so far. The problem comes in when you are not the one sending the money and they used some wallet service that do not have the option to increase the fees. ^hmmmmmm^

This is why we use Mixer services like the one in my signature. You send your coins through these mixer services and it would become very difficult for anyone to follow the coins. < not impossible, but not accessible to the average Joe > They would have to approach the courts to issue a subpoena to get that information.

We do not have to be involved with illegal actions to use these mixer services, but it just adds a extra level of financial privacy that Bitcoin lack as a default feature. < Bitcoin is Pseudo anonymous >

Where do we start with this? :

~ Poor customer support < Many complaints have been reported >
~ Centralized decision making & bad decisions < Accounts linked to Bitcoin gambling, will be blocked > 
~ KYC/AML requirements & strict verification procedures.

They grew too quickly and cannot handle the support needed for this kind of operation. Everything runs fine, until something goes wrong, then you are basically on your own.

If you do not have the private key for your bitcoins, you have zero control over it and then you are just a ledger entry on their database.

Worst case scenario will be when power hungry people like Mike Hearn and Gavin come back, when the Core developers fail to deliver. I feel that they are failing already, because they are deliberately holding back small increases in the block size to pave the way for SegWit and the Lightning Network. In my books that is sabotage.

There are more power hungry people out there, who would gladly take on this challenge. ^smile^

It's fine, I just figured as the signature campaign manager, you should know if there are any hiccups that might influence the smooth flow of the campaign. I will monitor the unconfirmed tx's and see how things plays out in the end. Thanks for the prompt response. ^smile^

Lauda, Just a heads up. The latest spam attack is causing payment problems with unconfirmed tx's running into the 50 000's at the current moment. Mine has been unconfirmed for more than 24 hours. Hope this is not going to be a pain for you guys.

Have a nice day, everyone. Hope this will be cleared soon by the miners. ^smile^

Ok, I thought I would ask, but would a NSFW section on your site be doable? < Private or invite only >? Players can pay extra or VIP's can have this as a extra bonus for being special. ^smile^ You guys can hire additional people to run these NSFW/Adult sections.

I would love to play Strip poker or Blackjack against naked dealers for a extra fee to spice up these boring games. You can even outsource this section to a Bitcoin partner active in the XXX sector, if you cannot do this yourself or fund a separate site for this?

What do you think?

StripFaucet

What about a strip poker faucet? Let the faucet users go head-to-head against each other for those Satoshi. You have them guess a number between 1 and 10 and then have them undress an animated character playing strip poker. The first person to fully undress the opponents character gets the prize or they get Satoshi for every item that is removed. < Not all numbers will undress the opponents character > 

You can provide default characters and also sell custom characters and even clothing to them for these games. This way, you get some Satoshi back from people buying these custom items. ^smile^

In the end KimDotcom will have to implement a counter party token to make this successful, because SegWit and the Lightning Network will not be implemented for at least the next 2 to 3 years. I cannot see how this will work without these upgrades or going the off-chain route.

He cannot use centralized services for the off-chain option, because these services will get taken down, once this is linked to his service. ^hmmmmmm^

Yes, because all talk is about the influence of both these markets on the price. We want to see, with the least amount of effort, who is influencing the Bitcoin price at any given time. This will also be handy for the people doing arbitrage between these two markets. ^smile^

You could possibly show the average price from 3 exchanges in each of these markets to give us a better idea of what is happening in those markets.

Ok, So this is an attack targeted at nodes. Why would someone go through all the trouble to do that? Can this be a strategy to force people to accept SegWit or to make them realize that it is needed? The other possibility is that this is a external attack from a competitor, to take the network down.

What would be your opinion on the motive for this attack?

Satoshi was active on this forum and other Cryptography forums, until Gavin was approached by the US Government, then
Satoshi just went quite. This is where all the conspiracy theories started, that he was assassinated or murdered for his coins and all that nonsense.

I think Satoshi is a group of people, and one of them died. < We know who he is >

I think they might have exposed themselves, but then they saw what happened with Dorian Nakamoto < media circus > and they just decided to stay hidden.