Not sure if this is the right place to post this, tho I'm quite curious as to what goes into establishing/maintaining a mining pool. Some things are quite self-explanatory, such as needing a good quality server and perhaps a nice-looking front end. However, how much traffic should one expect, and how does one prepare accordingly?

How does one go about implementing the necessary functionality of a mining pool (setting up a reward system, supporting X, Y, and Z coins, being able to withdraw to an address, etc)?

Also, how would a front-end be set up? I've seen among many alt-coin pools a sort of standard front-end, but what goes into creating one (and where do other pool owners get this "standard" front-end)?

Does this mean I want to start a mining pool? Maybe, maybe not. Tho if I do, it probably won't be any time soon. Regardless I feel its interesting to know.

The fact that HK is under China's thumb is also a big negative. I think even if HK were independent they'd be more open to cryptos. Not sure if I can offer a good alternative tho. Maybe Singapore? Just throwing something out there

I think there's already such a service. I haven't used it since I'm not a merchant, but I think its worth checking out.

coinpayments.net

It's fine! I just checked the spreadsheet and it appears correct. Thanks!

Lol it turns out that after getting cudaminer working that my CPU is faster than that GPU..but yeah I'm mining on that pool. Don't know if this coin is going anywhere (doubt it), but tis funny.

1661S3rkoE3u8Z6CHFqcDrHMYqzNTzgvAt

Well..mining this for the lols..but I've been having trouble getting my NVIDIA Quadro K1000M working on mining..any pointers?

Hey Waldo, I sent you a PM about my wallet needing to be changed. It was a Terraminer, and the wallet address was an inputs.io address..and they recently got hacked and shut down..so I cant really receive any of the revenues associated with this miner whenever it becomes active..can you change my mining address to:

14xj21idQyiKK3FXm4abXseYQ6j7QkLko1

Idk what address I gave you in the PM, but they are both part of the same Electrum wallet I have, so it doesnt matter.

For the lols

21mSTBqPJusTqfZoTTWombbw8WZtf2gLYR

That argument does make sense and I always saw that as a reason to not even consider anarchy of any form. Tho I'd propose that there be a new power structure that relies of voluntary interaction rather than one monopoly over force and so on. Those who align with anarcho-capitalism may argue that multiple competing entities that provide law and justice could be a viable option. I'll admit that businesses may WANT to exploit workers and customers, and they may try, but amidst healthy competition people could always leave said company for another, or even begin their own.

Indeed I don't. People should show skepticism and care when approaching something they don't know..though I don't like that saying "curiosity killed the cat". Curiosity can lead to experimentation, which can be very rewarding at times, though of course that depends on the context..clearly being curious about what your own poop tastes like isn't gonna turn out well for you.

As far as anarchy goes, though, I do see a new form of order coming from it in the sense of people being held accountable. I think that's what people think of when they say there should be rules, because if someone does something wrong, they must be held accountable somehow. The way I imagine anarchy would be a society that creates a form of accountability and order without the need of what we know as a government, which we know is a group of people who are placed in some moral echelon above everybody else (legal monopoly over force, etc, etc).

Good points indeed. Whenever I think of the word "anarchist" I think of how others perceive it moreso than how I feel about it. Also I found myself aligning with anarchist ideals shortly after calling myself a libertarian (Ron Paul anyone?). Though with your last point..I dont really feel it's so "natural". If it were this way, then why do we have so many people, even today, advocating for strong, central rule? Even when the US was founded on tiny govt principals, there were people in the US who wanted a king. Sure we've come a long way from outright monarchies, but perhaps what we have now won't result in anything much better later on. Maybe its fairest to say that people inherently seek some sort of organization, and that the only way to achieve such organization is with a central authority with such massive scale and power?


Remember, though, that most little kids have this curiosity to at least touch their own poop but parents disallow that. I'm not saying they should allow their children to do that stuff, but what I am saying is that the only reason we "know" shit tastes bad is because we were told this by our parents and strictly prohibited from experimenting. That and well..shit stinks and you can smell it..you can't smell anarchy


Wouldn't most people create their own "-ism" to reflect this combination, though? lol

So over many months I've felt my political views change gradually. From being a small-government libertarian to sympathizing with anarchist ideals and points. These include the whole idea behind the non-aggression principal and that the state is nothing more than a hazardous monopoly over force and the creation/enforcement of law. However, I must ask those who call themselves "Anarchists" (regardless of what kind of anarchist you are), what made you say with confidence and ease "I am an anarchist"? Remember that we were all raised with the notion that "anarchy" means "chaos", and that we should fear anarchy. Thus for me, I have a hard time saying "I'm an anarchist" (in my head at least) and feeling comfortable with it simply because of the stigma around it.

What made you decide with certainty to call yourself an "anarchist" or "anarcho-[insert word here]"?

Also, what made you get over this kind of discomfort with openly calling yourself an anarchist (assuming you had any discomfort to begin with)?

How much do you want to bet that if a default does happen, it'll happen while the government is "shutdown". If that happens, more people will fall under the notion that they desperately need government now more than ever, not the other way around.

As much as this is more of an individual "getting busted" kind of thing, I can't help but feel this is going to be just another piece of FUD opponents of bitcoin will use to say that bitcoin facilitates all kinds of illicit activity.

"SEE! WHAT DID I TELL YOU?! BITCOIN IS BAAAAADD!!!" I hear them cry.
"BITCOIN IS FOR CRIMINALS!! HISSsssSSssSS" I hear them cry some more.

Sorry if this is a newbish question, but I'm curious about what types of writing would count. I ask because I know that I can be paid for writing, but say I write an essay for a class or something..would I be able to get paid for that?

Also, I occasionally write for bestofbitcointalk.com, and I'm assuming as long as it's my own writing I can upload it right? I'm also guessing I'd have to copy&paste it onto devtome to get that acknowledged.

Hey waldo, I was just curious: If at any point that these ASIC miners become unprofitable for BTC mining, would you considering mining any other SHA-256 coins with them? It'd make sense, but no group buy threads ever mention that whatsoever xD

I kinda got the same impression from reading and digesting the post, however it wasn't explicitly stated (until now of course).

I will say, though, that I didn't use the exact example you gave, rather I just tried to give the reader, in a nutshell, what happened when the price of BTC changed; how would bitUSD and bitDER react individually when prices went up, down, etc.

But anyway the short article did get posted: http://bestofbitcointalk.com/2013/09/17/a-potential-innovative-system-of-price-stability/

I recall a couple things not being explained for the sake of brevity and not overwhelming the reader, but I hope it does the thread justice.

A small donation would always be appreciated if you felt the summary was accurate but of course you don't have to 

Thanks a bunch


After reading all of that, I feel it does a great deal in clearing things up. It actually makes it a lot easier to understand compared to before. Albeit it's still quite a bit to digest, and still rather complicated, but it might doable if I ever get the chance to write up a summary of it. I think I'm gonna run it by you first whenever I finish that, just to make sure I didn't butcher it

EDIT:

So I did manage to come up with a couple questions.

1) Can bitUSDs be used as a medium of exchange to buy goods/services? You did say people would be able to buy bitUSD and send them to others just like regular BTC, however does "sending" them also include buying things with them (assuming merchants even go out of their way to accept them)?
2) You mentioned demurrage for people holding bitUSD as a means of paying interest to bitDER holders. In this case, would the interest rate (for maintaining bitUSD to USD parity) be able to counteract that? Also, would a negative parity interest rate amplify the demurrage? If so, I'm assuming the reason would be to maintain the balance between outstanding bitUSD and bitDER?
3) With your Issuance/Redemption system, I'm kind of wondering about the number of bitUSD and bitDER I'd get. Say 1BTC = $100 or inversely $1 = 0.01 BTC. I decided to take that 1BTC and convert it to a pair of bitUSD and bitDER. With your equation:

4xn = n bitUSD + n bitDER

Does n represent the number of bitcoins? I know that since x represents how much 1 USD would equal in terms of bitcoin, if I were to plug in 0.01 for x and 1 for n, I'd get:

0.04 Bitcoins = 1 bitUSD + 1 bitDER

Since 1 bitUSD is supposed to equal $1, and 1 bitDER is supposed to equal $3, how would the math work out so that my one $100 bitcoin will translate into the proper number of bitUSD/bitDER while maintaining an equal number of each? I'm not sure if it's because I'm very tired, but it doesnt seem the math works out right. Or maybe I'm entirely wrong in the assumption that 1 BTC can be converted into a pair (or pairs) of bitUSD and bitDER.

Hmm..perhaps edit that Issuance/Redemption equation? Such that:

D(4xn) = Dn bitUSD + Dn bitDER

Where D = the dollar value of 1 BTC

That way if we were to change it and say that 1 BTC = $50 or inversely $1 = 0.02 BTC, with 1 BTC to be converted, then:

50(4*0.02*1) = 50(1) + 50(1)

4 BTC = 50 bitUSD + 50 bitDER

So if we were to check to see if the dollar values match up:

4(50) USD = (50*1) + (50*3)

200 USD = 50 + 150 USD

200 USD = 200 USD

I kinda just did that on the spot, and good thing, too, because that conversion was seriously bothering me. Maybe that Issuance/Redemption equation should be revised Or maybe we can just say that the number of bitUSD/bitDER one gets is equal to the dollar value of BTC at that time.

So I've been digesting all of this information for perhaps the past hour or so, and I still have a few questions in my mind. Actually I get the feeling I'm going to be throwing a LOT of questions at you, sorry in advance

I think I'd like to start at the most basic level. You speak of people holding either bitUSD or bitDER. But say I was the average Joe who doesn't understand all this, and I wanted to exchange 1 USD for 1 BTC (the conversion rate listed in your example). If I did just a straight conversion from USD to BTC, what exactly would I be holding onto? I'm supposing it depends on where I got it from? Also, you mention 3 different levels of backing for bitUSD/bitDER; would each level of backing be it's own product? (say I, the average Joe, wanted to feel secure with BTC. I'm guessing I'd buy the 8-fold backed BTC?) It didn't feel very clear from reading. And if that's the case then where would the reserve backing come from? I also wanna get to understand what the unit bitDER represents. I understand that a derivative merely an asset (in this case a currency) that derives its value from something else (in this case another currency). Which in this case would be the derivitive itself, BTC or USD (I'm assuming the former)? As I was reading I also got the impression that bitUSD and bitDER were separate entities entirely, which I find difficult to wrap my head around since..you know..bitcoin is bitcoin is bitcoin.

While I understand the intent of creating confidence in the value of bitcoin (or altcoin, whichever adopts it first), I worry that this system won't be easy to understand by many (which I would hope is the goal: to get many people using a currency utilizing this system). Because if the system itself is very complicated, I begin to wonder what it would look like in practice (if it'd be easier than anticipated, or a complete failure due to its steep learning curve).

Anyway I try to ask good questions, I just hope some of these weren't stupid questions