Jump into hierarchal view in your trust settings and you can check exclusions by DT{0, 1, ..., n-1} members (where n = depth).

Assuming it takes 4 minutes per rating to investigate the validity of the reference and tag, that's 100 hours of work. On just the ratings. :/

---

It's a huge timesink even with some rating overflow from other DT users.

HostFat

He is very shady, is not transparent in his ratings, ignores requests to appeal negative ratings, has questionable judgement....the list goes on.

He also does not leave negative trust against untrustworthy people (although some may be untrustworthy), he leaves negative trust for arbitrary reasons.

How Segwit2x is still listed in HitBTC and still alive is perplexing, while other coins like Burst is continued to be ignored.

But if they are making money out of it, who can blame them?

Everyone knows this. Do you suggestion on any online wallets and desktop wallets to save the XRP along with the bitcoins in the same wallet provider. I do not want the answer that hardware wallets are only the safest one.
I believe people having various coins in the online wallet those are attacked by the hackers but desktop wallet are not been hacked as of now. So is there any desktop one.

I think electrum wallet only support bitcoin not for XRP..

Let's not kid ourselves: This forum being a sanctuary to intelligently discuss bitcoin became second fiddle long ago. Now the majority of people who sign up here do so just because they see it as a source of income and nothing more. The merit system will at least force these users to contribute something worthwhile but when the majority of users signing up here have little to zero knowledge of bitcoin and/or can't articulate themselves in English very well this makes their chances of being able to rank up very slim so that's why they're so concerned.

I would like a website in which you can enter a public key and it will tell you all of the forks in which you are holding money at, mostly because it's impossible to keep track of the money you have as a bitcoin holder anymore, since new forks are created everyday but anyone with a normal life is not able to keep track of a million forks and add in yo0ur protfolio whatever amount of BTC you where holding at a particular time. Ideally you could enter all of your public addresses in batch and it would tell you the total amount of BTC you have including all the available forks. Just an idea. I assume this program does something similar but I would like it website format. If you use Tor to access it you wouldn't need to worry about privacy (linking your public keys to your IP, and it still it wouldn't mean one holds them).

You have received a total of 100 merit. This is what determines your forum rank. You typically cannot lose this merit. You have 0 sendable merit (sMerit) which you can send to other people. There is no point in hoarding sMerit; keeping it yourself does not benefit you, and we reserve the right to decay unused sMerit in the future.

I have 0 sMerit.

I discovered bitcoin while studying about how to protect my privacy on the internet.

Crytpocurrencies and privacy and closely related. This way many people here care about privacy, however I still see many users in this forum who are not using basic privacy tools, like an ad block.

This simple guide is for those people.

Usually people who think they don't care about privacy say: "I don't worry about  privacy because I have nothing to hide."
When you go to the bathroom you close the door, even if you have nothing to hide.

While surfing on the internet here are a few tools that will help you protect yourself against tracking and privacy invasion.

• Avoid any Google product. They are not to be trusted as Google will track your data to ad services.
  
  
• Browser recommendation:
  Firefox / Brave browser / Tor Browser
  
  
• Browser Extensions: (works even on Firefox Mobile)
  UBlock (an adblocker)
  Decentraleyes (blocks content delivery)
  HTTPS Everywhere
  
  
• E-mail provider:
  Consider changing to a encrypted e-mail service, not U.S based
  ProtonMail / Tutanota
  
  
• Search engines:
  I know how it's hard to not use Google. The best private alternative is Duckduckgo .
  If you find very hard to stop using Google, consider using Encrypted Google  (I really don't know if it is truly encrypted)
  
  
• Encrypt your Android Device - Protect your music, photos, personal data that can only be read with a password.
  
  
• Fix Windows 10 privacy configuration, to avoid Microsoft data collection.
  
  
• Some good VPN (protects your traffic data and enables geo-restricted content):
  Proton VPN - Free version available.
  Tunnel Bear Free version available.
  Nord VPN - Free version available.
  To use full time you will need a paid plan on a good VPN service.
  
  
• Private cryptocurrencies:
  Monero (the most popular), PIVX, Dash, Zcash, Particl, among many others.
  

Important note: Privacy is a never ending task, as you can always do something more. Start doing what is easier for you. There are also many other useful add-ons, programs, etc. This is just a very basic guide, as I see many people who don't even use an adblocker

If you want more information about privacy, go to https://www.privacytools.io/


Edit: Added Https everywhere extension and encrypt mobile device.
Edit2: Added VPNs and private cryptocurrencies.

• There are 2 different Segwit address formats. They are P2SH (starting with a "3") and bech32 (starting "bc1")
• P2SH can be sent to by people using older Bitcoin software with no Segwit support. This supports backwards compatibility
• People sending from newer Bitcoin software that has Segwit and bech32 can send to the new address type that starts "bc1"
• People sending from older Bitcoin software that has no Segwit probably cannot send to the new address type that starts "bc1"

So, if people send you BTC from old software, give them the Segwit addresses that start with "3". If people send you BTC using new Segwit Bitcoin software, give them the Segwit addresses that start with "bc1".

If you don't know if someone has the newer bech32 software or not, there's no need to worry, their software will simply refuse to send the transaction, so no harm can be done.

• You won't get the Segwit fee reduction unless you spend from one of these addresses
• The addresses starting "3" are normal addresses. They already exist in the Bitcoin blockchain now. The difference is that the Bitcoin script permits a wide variety of options, in this case, using Segwit in a way that old Bitcoin software can handle (obviously old software has no clue what Segwit is, it didn't exist back then, this method works around that)
• The addresses starting "bc1" are not normal addresses. They are brand new, and only work with Segwit
• With addresses starting "bc1", it doesn't matter if you USE UPPER CASE. or if you use lower case. bc1bech32segwitaddressescanbeupperorlowercase is the same address as BC1BECH32SEGWITADDRESSESCANBEUPPERORLOWERCASE, neither your wallet software or the blockchain will care

There are no guarantees. Bitcoin isn't like going to Walmart (where a price is the only price you can get), it's like going to an auction house. The miners control whose transactions they include in blocks, and they can do it any way they like, even totally crazy ways that lose them money.

But, you could expect to pay fees of ~50% less than non-Segwit transactions, for a regular transaction where you pay from just one address to one address (with one change address). Why? Sort of complicated, but I can explain if you like.



No. Old addresses can exist alongside Segwit addresses in the same wallet.

If you're nervous about this, just use a new wallet for all Segwit transactions. But Electrum's approach to wallet specs is flexible enough to allow it, and also the standard way of doing it, it has alot of fail safety built into the design. It should be fine (Disclaimer: I don't use Electrum wallet)

In this post, I will explain the basic about Bitcoin Blockchain and Proof of Work, an algorithm that validate transactions and create new blocks (mining), as detailed in Bitcoin whitepaper, by Satoshi Nakamoto. This apply also for Ethereum and other similar blockchains that use Proof of Work (PoW).

Please feel free to point out any mistakes, as I had some technical and English doubts while writing it

First, we need to understand the concept of hashing, only then we can analyze how blockchain works.

What is a Hash?

A hash is a cryptographic function that receive an input of any length and generate an output of a fixed length , an alphanumerical sequence. Simply put, it is a bunch of random numbers and letters.
This is a great website, it shows how hashing and mining works. You can enter some text there to see how it works.
https://anders.com/blockchain/hash.html
It is important to note that a hash has a fixed size, no matter how big or small the input is. Any small change in one letter in the input will generate a completely different hash (output). This is important if you have a big data, because all this data can be converted to a small hash, which will work as a fingerprint of that data.

Blockchain

The idea proposed by Satoshi is to register transactions on a block. When the proof of work solution for that block is found, it is hashed. Each block includes the previous block’s hash, forming a chain of blocks (blockchain), and each additional block reinforcing the ones before it.



Because of that process, if any transaction in a past block is changed the output hash will be different.
When you make a Bitcoin transaction and you see that you have 5 confirmations, that means that 5 blocks were mined after that transaction. A transaction with 6 confirmations is considered irreversible.

Proof of Work

In the Blockchain, all transactions are publicly announced to all nodes, as there is no central authority who validate transactions.

Proof of Work is an algorithm that rewards participants who solve a cryptographic puzzle in order to validate transactions and create new blocks (this process in known as mining).
This puzzle consists in scanning for a value (called Nonce) that when hashed, the hash begins with a number of zeros.



In this website you can see how this process works. You can try to find a Nonce that when hashed generates a hash that start with 0000 on your own. You will see that it is hard, unless you are very lucky. And you are going to be lucky twice in row, if you do go to a casino or something like that lol.

The difficult in finding that nonce increases exponentially as more zeros are required by the block. Difficult is adjusted so that one block is mined every 10 minutes.

Miners only get their reward if they are mining the longest chain, as it has the greatest processing power invested. If the honest nodes control the majority processing power, the honest chain will always be the longest and will outpace attacker’s chain.

To modify a past transaction the attacker would have to redo the PoW of the block and all subsequent blocks, and outpace the honest chain. For this to happen, the attacker’s would need more processing power than the honest chain, also known as 51% attack.

I'll try to chip in on anything that I think is worth mentioning. Depending on what you want for the guide it would likely be best to make it complete, and include examples.

Disclaimer: This is just my personal policy/format, and isn't endorsed by the forum.

Here's my two cents:

1. When reporting a thread which is in the wrong section specify where you think it belongs, and if it's not easily identifable offer an explanation why you think so. [e]

2. When reporting a post for plagiarism include a link to the original source/post. [e]

3. When reporting a user check their post history, and identify if they are making similar posts throughout their posts. If they are report one of their posts, and leave a comment in the report field stating this. [e]

4. If reporting someone for a malicious link/malware include any evidence that you can. Sometimes Total Virus can identify malicious links/programs.  [e]

5. When reporting someone for duplicate posts/threads include a link to the others. [e]

6. When reporting multiple bumps it's best to report the earliest bump and only that one, and include a comment in the report field that there's more in the thread. [e]

7. When reporting someone for ban evasion include a link to their profile, and the topic/post that proves they are the same person. [e]

8. When reporting someone for not following local thread rules. Quote the local rule, and explain why they have broken it. [e]

9. If you suspect a user of using an automated translation then include why you think so, and also a link to the translation text would be beneficial. [e]

10. If you are reporting posts similar to: "Great post", "Great project" or "This project rocks my socks off" then check the OP of the ANN thread, their website or social media and see if they are offering an incentive to post. If they are report the OP rather than individual posts. [e]

Examples:

1. A thread asking a question related to the forum which has been posted in Bitcoin Discussion should be reported as some variation of this: "Wrong section doesn't belong in Bitcoin discussion. Move to Bitcoin Forum > Other > Meta. as it's asking a question about the forum."

2. "plagiarism without providing a source: <link to original source/post>"

3. "Spam. Please check this users post history as they have made several of these types of posts"

4. "Spreading malware. Total virus has identified that this could be malware:" <totalvirus>" link.

5. "Duplicate post/thread: <link to duplicate>

6. "Multiple bumps in thread."

7. "This user is ban evading: <link to profile> here's the post connecting the two accounts: <link to connection>

8. The user that's being reported has started a discussion within the thread. "Broken local rule. 'Do not post discussion here only bids'"

9. "This post is badly translated, and doesn't make sense. Suspected automated translation. Please check here for an identical translation: https://translate.google.co.uk/#auto/ar/This%20is%20an%20example"

10. "Offering an incentive to post by rewarding those who do with a bonus, please check: <link to evidence>"



Yes, there's actually quite a few out there or you could just search up the sentences on Google yourself. Here's an example of one

Basically, a few users have tried to prevent staff from detecting their plagiarism by changing certain characters to others which look the same, and therefore don't impact readability. This can sometimes prevent copying a piece of text, and trying to find out it's source as the characters are slightly different. Another, method that some members have used in the past is changing words that mean the same, but aren't spelled the same. For example, one could replace "But" with "However". Which makes it harder to identify plagiarism. Online tools normally incorporate this. Plus, if you suspect a user is using one of the methods above just search up without words that are easily changed but, mean the same, and you should yield results. I'm struggling to find a way to show an example which would be clear, and concise. Hopefully someone else can chime in with an example.

I will act as your lawyer in negative trust cases. if you believe that you were tagged wrongfully, I will defend you by following the forum rules.

If there are enough evidence of wrongfully red tagging the forum members, DT2 members could be kicked out from their positions.

Try my service and let us all have a healthy community.

Fee is 0.02BTC for each forum account and each negative trust.

My latest work could be found here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3502223.0

After paying me there will be no refunds, if you were not satisfied with the result, you could open a scam accusation thread against me and get me a red tag for scamming you.

This is self-moderated, I will only remove off topic replies, you are free to post whatever you want as long it relates to the topic.

EDIT: first case is pro-bono. means no fee.

EDIT 2: due to circumstances, I am willing to use escrow, fee for escrow is on the client. also my fee has changed to 0.02BTC

EDIT 3: disclaimer: you are paying me for my time, not for my ability to remove your red tags, I don't have any control over trust network, I could only point out abuse of power, this fee is for my time.


EDIT 4: money could stay in escrow until I spend at least 3 days and write at least 200 lines as a draft for defending my clients. after which the escrow should release the funds to me.

Combining the two most growth-oriented segments of the digital economy – blockchain technology and travel, HoweyCoin is the newest and only coin offering that captures the magic of coin trading profits AND the excitement and guaranteed returns of the travel industry. HoweyCoins will partner with all segments of the travel industry (air, hotel, car rental, and luxury segments), earning coins you can trade for profit instead of points. Massive potential upside benefits like:

• HoweyCoins are officially registered with the U.S. government;
• HoweyCoins will trade on an SEC-compliant exchange where you can buy and sell them for profit;
• HoweyCoins can be used with existing points programs;
• HoweyCoins can be exchanged for cryptocurrencies and cash;
• HoweyCoins can be spent at any participating airline or hotel;
• HoweyCoins can also be redeemed for merchandise.

---

¹ - bonus offer for a limited time: your IP address will be handed over to the US government.

You stumbled across a well-known security issue, which usually affects identifiers such as domain names.  E.g., paypal.com vs. pаypаl.com—see, the same difference!  Or the notorious whole-script confusable, аррӏе.com (not the same as apple.com):



Lookalike letters from different scripts such as Cyrillic and Greek are used in lieu of Latin letters.  In this case, U+0430 CYRILLIC LETTER A which UTF-8 encodes to { 0xd0, 0xb0 }:



Tip of the iceberg, indeed.

This exact issue has spawned a plethora of discussion in Unicode TR 39, Internet RFCs (see especially the RFCs related to IDN, among others), and vendor specifications—not to mention, mountains of blog arguments.  I will try to gather up some links for further information.  A quote from UTR #39 below should give a brief overview of the types of confusables.  I will try to answer questions insofar as I reasonably may.

---

Registries (not registrars) typically have policies about this.  For example, off the top of my head / if memory serves, in .de you can register domains containing äöü but not any other non-ASCII characters.  The purpose of such policies is to prevent this type of attack.

---

I think this should suffice for an overview:

https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr39/tr39-1.html#Confusable_Detection

I understand different people have different purpose before they make a decision to do anything. My younger brother first invited me on BitcoinTalk as I have huge interests in crypto space. First few weeks were nothing special for me since I can have any information now a days from google search. But as the days were going my realisations were getting stronger that I am really learning some stuffs which I may never had any clue whatsoever, even to go for searching it. I would never encountered the topics like how to sign a message or even what is BBCode type lessons.

They say, if you hangup with 5 millionaires, you will be the sixth. You can not measure everything with money. I am here talking about knowledge and skills for life.

Here are an ongoing list of topics that benefited me to learn new skills (thanks to the BitcoinTalk community):
How to sign a Bitcoin address to prove ownership (archive): Thanks to shorena for the awesome tutorial.
How to sign an ETH address: Thanks to hilariousandco
PGP/GPG Signed Message - Public Key: I could not find an English version of the lessons however I ended up discovering the tutorial in a local board (Indonesian). I had to use google translator to understand the contents. Thanks to Husna QA for the brilliant effort.
Knowing about BBCode and learning it's use (archive): Thanks to roslinpl for the well presented topic.
Vanitygen: Vanity bitcoin address generator/miner [v0.22] (archive): I am still trying to get a grip on this. Thanks to samr7 for the resources.
How a feature can change the entire game of getting publicity: I am talking about BitcoinTalk signature space feature and idea of using it as signature campaign. I am a marketing guy, it helps me to identify strategies - specially marketing strategies.
Satoshi's own written topics/conversations: It's an exciting experience reading something satoshi himself typed.
...more will be added as I discover and learn.

==============================================================
| The BCT PGP/GPG Public Key Database: Stake Your PGP Key Here: Honorable mention. |
==============================================================

We see all these bounty hunting, easy money making, shit posting, spamming, scamming in the forum. It gives a negative impression to the visitors. But isn't it true, for the knowledge seekers (about bitcoin, crypto space, Blockchain technology) this place still is a heaven? FREE knowledge for life!

Let the conversation keep going... I would like to hear about your personal developments.

The Merit System was created to reward the posts or threads that offer great contributions to this community - be it new knowledge, great research, a thought provoking question, or a bit of comedic relief.

If we expect good contributions from each member of this community, then providing education, resources, and support to the newest members among us is the reciprocal part of that expectation.

Here's a list of some of the best posts/threads that can be found in the Beginners & Help board. I encourage all of you to continue the list going as new resourceful threads and posts are made.

And I propose that we dedicate a merit source to the Beginners & Help board to acknowledge those that seek the deep insights from our Community's elders and those that help Newbies find their way.

Cheers, HabbyB.
---------------------
The List

(1) Newbies - read before posting - This is probably the most cited thread in the Help & Beginners board, all Newbies need to read it, so many don't...until given the hyperlink. The current 29 merit is far too low compared to its value to the community.

(2) [Overview] The one thread to link them all - Arguably the most comprehensive list of education-related links and resources in this entire Forum. It's locked, it should be raised to the rafters - sticked as a banner at the top of the board!

(3) Terminology - An incredibly long list of definitions for common terminology or jargon used in the cryptocurrency world.

(4) Newbie All-Day - Ask All Your Bitcoin Questions Here! - Wow, if every Newbie could stumble upon this thread most of their initial questions would be answered.

(5) [Guide] Handling splits: UASFs, BIP148, etc. - A commentary of the highest order on coins splits and hard forks.

(6) Most Common Mistakes Of A Newbie - Asked by a Newbie, to help improve the actions of Newbies. This is the type of attitude the merit system seeks to reward!

(7) How to sign a message?! - Educates Newbies on how to add or ask for an additional layer of verification to their transactions. It's been fairly well merited, at about 100 today, and remains an important part of the education of people new to crypto.

(8 ) A warning about Alt Coins - ok, this is an old one but it needs to be resurrected. The ICO market is bigger today than any time previously and the bubble hasn't popped. And Newbies, more than any other group, need to be aware of the risks that come with chasing alt coin ICOs.

(9) Which Bitcoin Wallet Is The Most Good And Convinency - Posted by a Newbie at the time, this person asks a simple question that every single one of us asked ourselves when we were new. And this guy asked for advice from the Legendary, Hero, Senior, and Full Members of the time. This is a perfect example of how a Newbie jumps in on this Forum to get good advice from the right people, and now this person is a Hero Member.

(10) $10,000 to invest - what would you do? - Once a Newbie knows how to this thing of ours works, they need to make some decisions on what to buy. This thread provide a good discussion the various approaches to investing in crypto and how to hold on for dear life.
---------------------

Where is the button to give out Merit?
Do that disappear because my merit is 0? :thinking:

You have sMerit to give out - he doesn't.  The link won't show for him.

This has been reported by other people earlier in the thread. You can try the Enhanced merit UI [1.1] to avoid the problem or just always remember to close the tab after sending merit.

This week's payments have been sent. You can view the transaction here.

---

Because it's fun playing with data, I decided to see the stats of Merit for users in the campaign.
Some interesting facts:
- Average participant has earned 28.7 merit
- The total amount of earned merit is 1666 merit (at the time of this post - merit counts for most users should automatically update) ^{LoyceV's vanity kinda applies here}
- Members in the campaign have received 2.7% of all merit given on the forum  (1666/61278)
- 44 members have reached 10 or more merit earned
- Range: 0 to 138

Just thought it was interesting, not doing anything else with it yet.

I said it before and I'll say it again. Every time I see the ChipMixer signature when I'm browsing the forums, I know that the post is a quality post. I'm proud to be a part of this campaign, and even more proud to wear this badge of honor.

DarkStar_, you're pretty badass campaign manager. Don't tell him, but you've edged out @hilariousandco as my now all-time favorite camp man. And this camp is by now by far my favorite one. Should I dare be brazen enough to call this the best signature campaign on the forums, and not just because I'm a part of it... There really are some amazing quality posts being produced by us!

Great job pruning, DS, keep it up big homie.