Some people seem to have gotten this the wrong way, this is not oil production we are talking here where little is put on hold and most is burnt right away.

Bitcoin production is ALREADY insignificant, and its becoming EVEN MORE insignificant. Note that this has been occurring over time as designed, most coins are already minted and the reminder is the last 14%.

It didn't matter if mining was profitable or not, if there were few or millions of miners, Bitcoin production was set in the code and this has executed as written. Bitcoin is a program running in a computer, which happens to be distributed across the globe. The program is very well documented and reviewed, thanks to being Free and Open Source code.

Furthermore if you paid attention, this "reduction" of production has occurred very smoothly, not suddenly. Again, exactly as designed. It was fast and furious at first, and now its slowing down into a crawl going to the point of irrelevancy. 86% of the coins were produced in 11 years, of the reminder 14%, 86% of that (420k BTC) will be produced in the next 11 years, and so on and on. See the pattern? (ok its actually every 4 years half of the previous, but you get the idea).

There is nothing "new", unexpected or "sudden" about a halving, it is the continuation in the programmed slowdown in bitcoin production. Most of the coins are already in the market, the supply and demand is largely decided by whats already out there already, this 14% remainder isn't going to affect the price much anymore.

Yes it is LESS and LESS than before, this is absolutely correct.

And yes, technically its not 21 million bitcoin, the absolute number is measured in satoshis, there are so many of them before it ever becomes a practical issue. Just express everything in satoshis and see for yourself.

Yes a bitcoin is a cosmetic unit of measure equal to a hundred million satoshis, the actual number is near 21 000 000 000 000 000 satoshis.

It must be nice to live in a country with economic freedoms for you to make a comment like this. There are places with millions of people where access to foreign currencies is heavily restricted. Paypal doesn't work without a credit card, and to get that you need a bank account in a foreign country (a country whose fiat can be freely exchanged into USD) with significant movement to warrant issuing a credit card with the smallest of credits tolerable to the bank.

Everywhere in the world access to bitcoin is possible, but not foreign currencies. Have you ever faced the difficulties a foreigner must face just to open a bank account in America, so he/she could then start getting access to all those fabled services you mention? And that is before the American government starts forbidden companies from dealing with said country.

Did you even notice all those steps, and often expensive and slow procedures all go away with Bitcoin?

Yes it is easy when you live in the land of freedom, but stop to think what happens when you do not. Ever paid attention to the list of countries service X is not allowed? No because you don't live there, why would you care?

Let me "try" to give you a tale.

I live in a country where the average monthly wage is $5 (as in FIVE US dollars). A visa to ENTER the United States costs at least $150 per attempt to get, they mostly deny it. No, we cannot enter without it, 3 month non visa required tourism is a benefit for the "nice" countries only. Also the US Embassy was closed, so if you wanted to obtain one you would have to travel to a neighbor country. Unlike in "nice" Europe, where such a deal would take under $100 for a plane ticket, around here getting to the neighbor country means at least $400 USD, AND many countries now require a visa simply to enter, which in turn costs more money and paperwork demonstrating "somehow" that you are totally not going to overstay working there...

And that's even before putting a step in the destination, now suppose you did (and the immigration officer didn't turn you back because he/she didn't like you); you now go to the bank and face a new wall of difficulty just to open a bank account. Things like having, i don't know 10k USD lying around (hope you could declare those without looking suspicious) AND all the paperwork KYC, etc. Its often simply not allowed and you better have a friend making you look like you live there (ie. utility bill) etc. And then the bank has fees if you don't move certain amount. Yes there are services that give you a virtual address and re-mailing from the States, but that is even more money most normal people simply can't afford.

All this mess and we still haven't gotten to your fabled services. Paypal requires a credit card, now you might get those in your place by shopping at the grocery store or something, but that is not how it is elsewhere. Convince your foreign bank that you are "Worth" getting a $500 USD credit card or whatever the smallest valid amount it, who cares you deposited 5k...

All this wall of text and i have not even began describing the mountain of hurdle all of this is, compare to Bitcoin where all you need is download a wallet, and often not even that (but its best).

You cannot naively use Western Union or the likes when you live in a place with restriction to foreign currencies, at best you'd get absurd taxes and at worst you won't get anything (or the service is forbidden).

Do note that a country where Bitcoin is banned cannot stop Bitcoin, but you would need to be smarter like using Tails with Electrum, etc. However a country where the USD is banned, is a whole different ball game. Think drug dealer like life, when foreign currency trading becomes a black market. Of course you haven't lived that in your nice place.

Just because politicians have the power to ruin your life, doesn't mean they would... Or would they? Said anyone who lived prior hyperinflation.

Public blockchain records are not an issue if you don't let them associate your real person to your address and only make a single transaction per address. You can go to an altcoin if that makes you feel better, but Bitcoin holds its value better than any other, while being completely free from the State.

Do you even know what the word "control" implies?

Take Bitcoin source code and read it. There is no possible way someone could change the rules on the fly on a whim, exactly what governments and financial institutions controlling fiat do.

False indications? Where? The current price is the result of the market forces, freely expressed with buy and sell. There is no entity behind doing nothing beyond what any other actor in the market can.

When everyone in the world is involved in Bitcoin, control over them over. Right now people are chained to the whims of a few politicians that can destroy their fiat's purchasing power overnight (I know well, because i'm living it).

No one can come tomorrow and decree that Bitcoin is suddenly valued at half (ie. increase the number of coins to 42 million). Such a change simply cannot occur without the vast majority of holders, miners nodes agreeing, and they have the economic incentive to NOT do that.

The more people move into Bitcoin, the less they will be controlled.

I still think exchanges should let users choose a "slow" withdrawal method that involves using 1 sat/b tx fees. Yes, even funds being moved from their cold wallet.

If you want to withdraw $100, $10 in fees is too much, and there are people willing to wait in exchange of paying less. But exchanges don't ever think about it and blame it on Bitcoin.

Using an altcoin is no solution when you want to cash your profit and hold them in Bitcoin. If anything, this is an anti-Bitcoin practice, exchanges should be more mindful of what this implies.

Of course you could just use BraiinsOS or any other method to reduce the speed. What is the advantage over running a couple of 10THs S9s? An extra Xilinx arm controller?

But sure it can be easily done, no need for any dev fee firmware. Can you make your S9 produce 10 THs and consume 750W?. Maybe the "trick" is just to use immersion so you can cut the fans power draw...

You picked a bad one here. Smallpox. That thing was "destroyed", and written off from the world. Decades ago many countries stopped applying the vaccine for this and without the vaccine it is quite deadly, but since its not supposed to exist, it shouldn't be a problem...

Unless someone lied and kept a live specimen as bio weapon, but since the vaccine remains it shouldn't be a problem in theory (except for the first infected), should an outbreak somehow occurred again.

Of course there are far worse out there that could be used as bio weapon, some without any cure or vaccine.

Mass hysteria does nothing good even in the worst scenario, and the procedure remains pretty much the same anyway: Quarantine, isolate, treat the infected best you can, wait until it dies out. My only fear is if that virus escapes into poor "3rd world" countries, it will spread like wildfire.

What is the point of voting for people do to only what you want, when you could vote for doing the things you want in the first place? Why do you need a candidate to act like a robot, when you could make the choice directly? If you already have the technology to cast votes, you could also do direct government.

Wherever this is good or not, its another debate. But robot candidates (robot is a portmanteau of slave) are pointless.

Your system of reputation would then require meta reputation, i don't think this is good...

And who owns "Bitcoin" in the rest of the social media? If Satoshi was forced to be a community manager form the start, he/she/they wouldn't had time to develop the thing in the first place...

I just hope this account isn't "Verified" like they do with public figures, i have no idea since i don't use Twitter.

I just finished the Skyrim main quest line which was disappointingly short. I'm now doing Morrowind, thanks to the open source openmw game engine. Its surprisingly entertaining despite dated graphics and more keyboard oriented controls.

No idea about their next game. I have played Bethesda games since Terminator (89?) which was pretty much like modern GTA, way ahead of its time (yeah, open world like "city" in EGA simple polygon glory).

The first of the games that would later be named Elder Scrolls was an infinite open ended world (procedural generated), it felt gigantic as if playing in an Earth sized world. I never managed to complete the main quest (its impossible without a guide anyway) but you could lose yourself so deeply in it that it didn't matter. Yes that game is now freeware but i doubt many would play it with its classic Doom like graphics (dosbox runs it just fine).


Yes in an ideal country, your internet wouldn't be metered and seriously limited to the point you can't watch many pictures let alone play games. I don't live in an ideal country, but i remember when my internet used to be unlimited and reliable, those were the days.

Remember this, when it happens, you won't have time to prepare. Always keep a couple of offline sandbox type games around just in case. It might be some catastrophe that takes your internet fail for months or more. In my case its a political catastrophe but lets leave it at that for now.

In the 90ies people didn't have much connectivity, it was similar to my current situation very limited and slow and metered.

With a small camera to scan qr codes from others? That part is actually simple. And the connection direct wifi.

People could also scan bill amounts or type numbers in. I see it easier thinking hardware wallet on a wrist than a full android device, but that could be done too.

Of course the point is that it could work without any other device around, otherwise it makes no sense. Its fine to do some minor syncing and configuration at home but that should be it.

Banks may survive if they join the exchange and crypto financing business, AND switch to full reserve practices when dealing with Bitcoin, etc.

That said banks will have to shrink. They have to, so they can remain alive. There is simply no need for so much banking once people become aware of Bitcoin.

I have the feeling that Bitcoin can trigger the world to a move to the Austrian school of economy, this is what current banks need to face reality about. Most of their existence is due to the fractional reserve legalized Ponzi scheme, and this is going to go.

Before Bitcoin, they could have continued with the Chicago school practices, stimulating people and nations to get in debt and live paying their debt with a permanent inflation as the way they believe economy growths, and fractional reserve money, money that doesn't exist anyway amounts to 90% of that which is the cause of bubbles in the first place.

When they become aware that money won't lose value anymore, and that in fact may even gain some, they enter in panic. They neglected the Austrians and now they see no future or are very scared. The genie is out of the bottle though.

Yes the economy growth has to slow down, but its better to have steady growth than the permanent roller-coasters of bubbles and crashes. Austrian economy growths from the savings of people, not debt and its credit expansion (euphemism for: "more money that doesn't exist anywhere").

You have to study fractional reserve banking to understand the implications of this, and preferably the Austrian school of economy, to get a picture of the future.

Banks are no longer needed, they are optional now. Know your place.

Who needs to leave money in the exchanges, willing to risk losing it all overnight? It is the traders. The holders are already doing what you say, your message has existed for as long as Bitcoin has had exchanges and online wallets, it is the reason behind that 3rd of January ritual.

Some people live from trading, therefore what you suggest will never occur. I'm sure some exchanges are counting on that, and covertly doing fractional reserve practices. Those will have higher profits than the others, perhaps biasing the market in their favor. It is a recreation of the banking history two centuries ago.

The best we can do is keep warning people that if the coins are not in their own wallet, they can lose them. It technically means the private key, but common people simply won't get that part (wallets are just collection of keys).

As for scarcity, you have to re learn the law of supply and demand. Deviate too much from what the market perceives as fair, and its own self regulating mechanism kick. If price climbs too fast, many will want to sell to join the action, then wait for the correction to buy again. Yes, traders.

So your message amounts to telling traders not to trade. It isn't happening.

The UI would need to be redesigned. I haven't seen any Smartwatch yet so i'm not sure what are their limitations, if they are just Android on a wristwatch, i don't see why it wouldn't work. Interacting with the thing (due to size) might be tricky.

OR

The hardware wallet manufacturers could find a way to make a wearable wrist version and be done with it. Oh, maybe adding a clock would be nice too

Yes it would be practical, secure depends.

I don't think this person was weak or old, 34 year old DOCTOR from the very Wuhan hospital, who ended becoming a patient Jan 30 and now is dead.

There really is a threat, it appears to have been contained so far, but its no common flu like you say, its serious. It does propagate like the flu, which means worryingly easy.

That said i don't think this will affect Bitcoin much, if at all. Mining operators in China, live in the farm itself, they don't really need to be going out much. I suppose it might disrupt asic production, but that's another matter. If anything, it will slowdown somewhat the diff increase as they won't be expanding or upgrading miners for a month or so until people can go back to normal and the quarantine is lifted up.

I have an issue with Bitvest. I made an "Instant account", this worked fine, then i turned it into a normal account that also appeared to work fine, closed browser. Tried another day, tells me to Sign in, I fill the login info and password, click "remember me", then press the Sign in button... Nothing. No error, and no signing in. Tried with Firefox then Chromium (Both Linux), same thing.

Anybody else experienced this problem?

It doesn't help when the largest manufacturer operates their own pool AND pre-configures their miners to use it... But i think things might change later.

I also agree ASICs should get their own section. GPUs are however used by both miners and gamers, and sometimes one group can benefit from the other, so i'm not sure about the "mining hardware" suggestion.

And the funny part is that such a naive ignore pattern would ignore theymos. Bossian, you DON'T want to ignore the forum admin, Do you? Granted, its only a bitcoin address, but its a signature none the less

I have been doing this for years with Stylus (a free from ads stylish fork). This is an addon for both chromium and firefox based browsers.

It is a matter of accessibility. It would be great if more sites were mindful of the needs for non bright background alternative themes, but too many sites don't care. Using Stylus, i can enforce (css) styles when needed on all sites (global) or on specific sites.

Some people have even made styles specifically for bitcointalk, one of them is called "Nex Dark theme", i'm using it right now and it seems to work well.

Traditionally forums used to provide at least a couple of themes users could choose from but this is a largely ignored feature, they usually stick to a single too bright theme.

Its funny that something like Youtube took so long to understand the importance of this. Watching videos with bright white around it is a giant no-no. Unfortunately Youtube made the option available only to Chromium based browsers, nothing Stylus cannot cure...

Of course you can also make your own style and share it with others. There are no limits on the things you can do, so long as its css. I don't particularly care about the fonts, but colors i do. Oh did i mention that you can even use multiple styles? There is a certain "bug" when using a dark GTK theme which is also cured by Stylish (No more black text on black input boxe [dark GTK]).

This is what happens when you have an almighty State that stomps on everyone's freedoms: Oppression, of the worst kind.

Rather than investigating the reports made by a Doctor, Wuhan authorities were far more worried about covering it. And he paid the ultimate price...