I'd be interested in a wearable Bitcoin badge. That way, if you see someone else wearing one, you know that you can transact using bitcoins instead of fiat currency.

If you lose the keys, you can no longer sell the domain name or change the IP address of its DNS, but the domain name itself doesn't immediately stop working. So you have plenty of time to choose a new domain name, set it up, and install redirects from your existing site.

You can protect against this by leaving a copy of your keys with a couple of trusted people. That's a much better solution than leaving your domain name hostage to an untrusted registrar.

In the 1990s, Turkmenistan was selling .tm domain names and I registered one. After a couple of years, the Turkmenistan government decided there were .tm websites they didn't like and they removed access to the domain name. But there was plenty of time to get a new domain and install redirects. It worked just fine.

Ultimately, a name is just a name and it's not the end of the world if one is lost. Even cocacola.com could switch to cocacola2.com and it wouldn't be the end of the world.

That's very clearly expressed, thank you Hal.

What you describe is almost exactly what I have in mind. Additionally, I would allow the domain name itself to be subsequently changed to any other untaken name:


The advantage of allowing domain name changes is that it makes the initial registration easier. Registrars can generate arbitrary registrations, then change the name when they sell them to their customers.


Exactly. The "50" is arbitrary, but that doesn't matter. The initial scarcity will be reflected in a high price, which will encourage people to generate, which will raise the difficulty and ensure the security of the system.

With 7200 registrations being generated daily, there will soon be plenty to meet the demand. The price will then drop, with transaction fees maintaining the incentive to generate.

That artwork has come together nicely. I wish I could draw like that. I can do technical drawing but not artistic stuff.

I like the Bitcoin gyroscope (or whatever it is) above the whiteboard. Is that a pencil or cigarette in her mouth?

If not, then someone would leak it.

Foresight Exchange works well with unlimited stock. Whenever there's a matching bid and offer, a new betting pair is created for that claim.

Me too. Foresight exchange is great (despite its clunky interface), and if there was a similar Bitcoin-based service I'd use it.

This is seriously worth doing. I pledge BTC 20

You're not kidding! Every month I receive a few letters that should have been delivered to someone else.

Here's a 2004 article describing the problems:
Royal Mail 'loses 14.4m letters'

Having said that, my mail to morpheus has always been received.

Satoshi met a banker who had a horseshoe above his front door. When Satoshi asked what the horseshoe was for, the banker said it was a good luck charm which kept interest rates favorable.

Satoshi snorted and asked the banker how he could believe such superstitious nonsense, to which the banker replied "Of course I don't believe it! But I've been told that it works, whether or not you believe."

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Why is there a need to pre-announce an amount? Anything that arrives at the incoming address can be delivered to the outgoing address after deducting the fee.

So I can back up my system to Bencoder's site any time I want, and all it costs me is 0.1 BTC if ever I need to restore my files. Bargain!

Some does and some doesn't. There's plenty of open source software that is public domain.

It seems there will also be a huge market for Bitcoin Private Investigation services.

This is a typical bland "central planning" solution. The free market admits much more flexible systems.

One vendor may employ a junior to take an ice cream cart to bring the wares to the furthest parts of the beach. The vendors might stagger their hours, with one starting early and one finishing late, and both serving the market during its peak. A third mobile vendor might cruise the length of the beach to service anyone who doesn't want to walk. Vendors might develop specializations (e.g. deluxe ice creams, or perhaps shaded seating) that would encourage some customers to visit them even if they aren't the closest vendor.

A free market is always much more interesting and vibrant than a planned one, even if it is "imperfect" according to someone's theory.

The loss of sex.bitcoin would surely make sexy.bitcoin and xxx.bitcoin more valuable.

I don't argue from a matter of principle, just from a personal preference that I would prefer non-expiring but losable domain names, compared to ones that must be renewed regularly or lost to others.

It's the same as with bitcoins, it just makes the remaining names more valuable.

I assumed you would have the domain name forever without further fee. After all, we don't pay an annual fee to keep our bitcoins working.

The fees could come from domain name transfers, and of course the generation of new domain names.

I think it's better for the tip addresses to be located at the same place as the tippable material. Otherwise they get out of date, or you get confusion between different people who use the same handle, etc. Also, having the tip address at the content is better publicity for bitcoin.

If he is motivated enough and intelligent enough to use a non-mainstream language like Scala, it's obvious that he has the technical expertise. But that's not really what you're asking, is it?

Anyway, don't fall for the attempt of corporations to try to make you accept the blame for abuse of your number. It's just a number. If a fraudulent purchase uses that number, you don't have to pay for it. That's the law. You're not responsible for auditing Visa and MC merchants' internal systems.