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1) SHA-256 compromised as in there is a quick way to discover the nonce required to produce the valid block hash.
Assuming the discoverer is malicious and stupid:
2) Attacker zip through blocks, providing instant confirmation for his malicious activities.
3) Attacker tries to sell all the coins.
4) Exchanges freeze.
5) No one needs convincing that the hashing algorithm is really broken.
6) Bitcoin algorithm switched
7) Everyone agrees to rewind to a block before the attack
8 ) bitcoin continues.
Assuming the discoverer is malicious and smart:
2) Attacker zip through blocks at 5 minutes interval to avoid detection.
3) When this has happened for a while, more and more people will become suspicious
4) 5 - 8 will happen.
Assuming the discoverer is benevolent:
2) Research claims SHA-256 compromised
3) demonstrates this by zipping pass a few blocks.
4) 4-8 in the stupid attacker case happens.
I have left out the other serious implications of the complete breakdown of SHA-256.
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Did he sign off when he was last heard of?
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It doesn't work like that. There is a limit to the number of bitcoins ever to exist. Out of the 21 million, only 12 million has been mined. There are many big players holding a lot of coins, like Satoshi (who would probably never move his coins, for doing so signals the second coming of Satoshi), the FBI with their seized coins, the Winklevoss brothers, DPR's missing stash, etc, lost coins like the hard drive in the land fill (6K there), plus a lot of people are holdhodling. The amount of bitcoins available on the market is far less than the 12 million in existence.
The coins that are for sale now are not on for the same price. At the time of writing, on Mt.Gox there is $30million worth of bitcoin available for sale. You will get BTC28400. The price would be pushed to up to $4500/BTC. Of course, you can do it across many exchanges, but to sink even with 50-60 million into bitcoins would either take a long time, and/or would push the price up noticeably, and you won't get 100K BTC
Accumulating a position of BTC1,000,000 without being noticed is nigh on impossible. It will take a long time, you will need a lot of cash because the cost will rise.
Thousands? May be, hence I voted yes. Even some investment companies are doing it. Hundreds of thousands? No.
Except for seizures, like TonyOliver said.
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I wouldn't close my bank accounts just yet. I still need them for paying bills and getting my wages. Besides... my bank pays me for moving money fiat currency around the few accounts I have with them, as long as I don't overdraw. My credit card pays me interest on the amount I owe them as long as I pay on time. It's like Homer Simpson and the devil's donut, as long as you don't take the last bite....  Of course, none of the above is effective against the level of inflation we are experiencing. Who am I fooling.... At the moment, I hold 50% of my purchasing power in crypto. 40% BTC 58% LTC ~2% other alts. |
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Downloading bitcoin-qt is the quick part. Once you start bitcoin-qt you will need to keep it running and wait for it to sync.
It will download the blockchain from the network.
Once it has done that you should keep it running so that it can stay in sync with the network.
If you stop it and start it again later it will have to catch up with the network.
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This reminds me of the film The Day After Tomorrow, where all the wealthy northern countries had to plead for asylum in poorer southern states. Shifting to a different coin would be an epic sudden transfer of wealth. Imagine all the bitcoiners crowding at the borders of litecoinland. There will be tears. There could even be blood.
If we had to change coin architecture I don't think it would be a shift to an alt coin. The alt coins will excel, but those who hold bitcoins will come together to implement the necessary changes to bitcoin in a way that preserves everyone's holdings.
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Correct. That is the GIT repository for the source code. The sourceforge ones have compiled binaries. bitcoind is the headless version. bitcoin-qt is the GUI version. The full client will download the entire blockchain, which is ~16GB now. This can take days. Not everyone use the full client. But being one is good for the network. You will play a part in relaying blocks and transactions. |
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They are the same guys BTC-E and OKPay use for receiving International Wire Transfers.
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When I exchange money at a money changer counter, I am not asked for ID, so why can't money changers do the same with bitcoin?
In a country where bitcoin is not considered a currency, and where there are no regulations requiring ordinary businesses to obtain ID of customers who pay via bank deposit or other indirect means, then deposits can be anonymous because AML / KYC regulations might not apply. I'm not sure about that but I'm looking into it.
A money changer deals with currencies. Bitcoin is not a currency in virtually every country on the planet at the moment. That's why money changers can't "do the same" with bitcoin. I was not assuming that Bitcoin is a currency. I ask, where is the precedent for requiring ID checking of customers for cash-only small-quantity Bitcoin exchanges, when the same requirement does not apply to cash-only currency exchange below some value per transaction? Secondly, I have a question for anyone here: Iff Bitcoin is not a currency, then how and when should KYC regulations apply to deposits/withdrawals to/from Bitcoin exchanges? I would imagine a crypto only exchange would not necessarily need to comply with AML/KYC at this point. Bitcoin is either a currency or it is not. Applying currency rules to it in some places and not other is double standard. You cannot say "bitcoin is either a currency or not" unfortunately. Each country has a right to decide on that question, and it will take years for some to answer it. Very few have to date. Ok. In a given country that is governed by law, bitcoin is either legally a currency or it is not legally a currency. |
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In the long term?
It's called a quantum-computer and it can make a bit be 0 and 1 at the SAME time, potentially solving any hash in a matter of microseconds.
So far, this still a theoretical thing, but scientists are working and getting closer on the concept.
If anything can destroy bitcoin at it's core, its that thing.
By that time, we will have quantum cryptographic coins.... Qubitcoin. |
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When I exchange money at a money changer counter, I am not asked for ID, so why can't money changers do the same with bitcoin?
In a country where bitcoin is not considered a currency, and where there are no regulations requiring ordinary businesses to obtain ID of customers who pay via bank deposit or other indirect means, then deposits can be anonymous because AML / KYC regulations might not apply. I'm not sure about that but I'm looking into it.
A money changer deals with currencies. Bitcoin is not a currency in virtually every country on the planet at the moment. That's why money changers can't "do the same" with bitcoin. I was not assuming that Bitcoin is a currency. I ask, where is the precedent for requiring ID checking of customers for cash-only small-quantity Bitcoin exchanges, when the same requirement does not apply to cash-only currency exchange below some value per transaction? Secondly, I have a question for anyone here: Iff Bitcoin is not a currency, then how and when should KYC regulations apply to deposits/withdrawals to/from Bitcoin exchanges? I would imagine a crypto only exchange would not necessarily need to comply with AML/KYC at this point. Bitcoin is either a currency or it is not. Applying currency rules to it in some places and not other is double standard. |
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You can import your wallet to blockchain.info.
For security I would recommend you wait though. There will always be other opportunities later.
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I have heard of it long before I got into it in December 2012. At the time I was looking for something new to do.
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At 19:33:
Bill Still: well as I said before the the cryptographic algorithm was created after that the Snowdon revelations and with the whole an essay NSA intrusion in mind so it's way more complex and way more difficult
What? Sorry, an error slipped through... youtube transcripts.... |
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At 19:33:
Max: ... tell us why do you like it (Quark), Bill Still.
Bill Still: well as I said before thethat the cryptographic algorithm was created after that the Snowdon revelations and with the whole an essay NSA intrusion in mind so it's way more complex and way more difficult
Bill Still: Perhaps the NSA could eventually break it but they certainly can't break it in real time or anywhere close to real time so on
Bill Still: I'm not I'm not smart enough to know, you know, exactly whether or not they'll ever be able to break it but all I know is this is the best one that I've as far as I can tell
I sense a presence here, hmm... it's a male, or a female, not sure.
Could be a little boy, or an old lady, could be either.
Cheerful, definitely cheerful joyful character.
Wait... it is trying to talk to me...
It says "Get the...".
"What are you trying to tell us?"
It says "Get the fxxx out".
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Personally I like to chisel them into stone like the romans for a full scale vintage effect.
How do you keep the monoliths from prying eyes?  You build a pyramid around it with lots of booby traps. You seal it, then you let it be known that the whole thing is cursed and death shall fall upon those who dare to enter. That should keep it safe for a few centuries... If he ever finds that he wants the coins back though, the adventure would be epic. |
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not a shop. im not talking about a store. im talking about something like mtgox or bitstamp. except inorder to avoid so many of the regulations they only take cash. since they would never touch the banking system in anyway i dont think they would even be under the jurisdiction of FINCEN and i dont think they would have to comply with AML regulations at all.
yeah a shop would be a regulation nightmare at this stage, until fincen or whoever decides what they want to do with bitcoin i guess a shop is not v practical. Even if you have an online xchange that only takes cash, 1. where would people come to deposit cash ? like u meet them in the street and stuff ? , 2. Even if you have like a shop or office, end of the day the cash will go to your bank account (unless u put it under your pillow but that doesn't make sense) lot of cash inflow to your account will raise alarms and then before you know it swat is raiding your home trashing everything the people who ran the exchange would work out of an office. that office would have a front desk with a cashier. no bank account. just a very large very secure safe with cash in it. perhaps you could buy up a building that used to be a bank. If there was an earthquake then a fire, they can embed a message in a transaction to themselves on the blockchain: “Building Destroyed, Vault Intact, Credit Unaffected.” |
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Difficulty and mining cost is linked. If mining becomes unprofitable, miners will ease off mining, and the difficulty will drop to match the target block time of 10 minutes, the remaining miners will share the mining reward, which would be greater than before.
In other words the whole system will stabilize on a reward level appropriate to justify the amount of mining. Difficulty, mining reward and bitcoin value feed back to each other.
Yes but the question is what happens when all the coins have been mined? Fees are part of the mining reward. If no one pays fees, bitcoin mining collapses, difficulty collapses, value collapses. In the process someone will start to dispose of their bitcoins in anticipation of the crash. They will pay fees to get the transaction included. The system will eventually reach an equilibrium where enough rewards ((block reward + fees) X bitcoin value) will be provided to justify mining at a given difficulty. As long as the value of bitcoin is high enough, even a satoshi in fees will ensure mining continues. Bitcoin being valuable is a result of it being in demand. If it is in demand it will change hands, there will be transactions.... etc etc. Of course, if no one uses bitcoin, i.e. no one uses the network, it will die. If no one pays fees, bitcoin would be very easy to mine. |
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Is something going on with the Block List stats page or do we have any issue with the past 3 discovered blocks? There are no Block Hashes, Round Duration, Accepted Shares, etc... It looks like there was a stale Block and the subsequent blocks have no data.  I think the round timer has stopped working properly too, it keeps incrementing and not resetting when a new block happens. Payments seem to be added correctly though so no worries. I'm sure wizkid will fix it when he has time....... Blockchain.info is showing those blocks we found so hopefully all will be well. |
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Difficulty and mining cost is linked. If mining becomes unprofitable, miners will ease off mining, and the difficulty will drop to match the target block time of 10 minutes, the remaining miners will share the mining reward, which would be greater than before.
In other words the whole system will stabilize on a reward level appropriate to justify the amount of mining. Difficulty, mining reward and bitcoin value feed back to each other.
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