Ghash.io, Cex.io Coindesk, Bitcoin Foundation all under one very exclusive roof in Canary Wharf, the financial fraud capital in the world. At £720 per ticket for entrepreneurs this is an interesting approach to a decentralised network that empowers the individual.


If you don't know Canary Wharf, it's rather like Dubai without the weather.

So if you have something to say you can watch the content for free on their Livestream and have your say on Twitter #Coinsummit (I believe they have the hashtag up on their big screen at the venue).

I am watching it now, if I get significantly annoyed by the elitism I may be moved to do a show on World Crypto Network and I would be keen to get any insight from you guys here. Are events like this harmful or do you think it's just a load of old money trying to stay relevant?

Thanks very much. Picking up more traction now!

Update: We now have almost 200 people signed up!

No problem, thanks for posting good to know people like what we're doing.

We will be having a panel debate on the recent hacks and setbacks for Bitcoin. We are planning a live Youtube linkup with New York to talk to Kristov Atlas and Josh Walker.

Check for details: http://www.meetup.com/London-bitcoin-meetup/events/172326872/

Update 4th April: We now have almost 200 people signed up!

UPDATE: We now have speakers confirmed. In fact we have a waiting list now as too many people want to do it.

110 people already coming join US there's plenty of room and it's free: http://www.meetup.com/London-bitcoin-meetup/events/172326872/

I don't intend for it to be a way, disagreeing and debating doesn't mean falling out. In fact one of the reasons I love wisdom (philosophy) so much is that you can learn from an adversary and still be friends afterwards.

That article was great by the way, thanks for sharing, I loved this quote:


This is what I meant by throwing technology at a problem without so much attention on the social aspects of it.

Should Bitcoin regulate the Banks?

I got this tweet the other day from @pierebel

@MrChrisEllis Bitcoin can regulate Government and Banks, we should really be spinning it around on them.  There's no need to regulate code

Thank-you for taking the time to deal with each point. I just want to focus on this one for now, I don't mean the law  literally, I am talking about human enforceable rules.

I take as my assumption that there are two kinds of laws in our world, human laws which can be broken and natural laws which cannot. There is also an assumption that human laws rely on enforcement in order to be effective. When you code you are baking rules in to an experience in such a way that it makes it very difficult to break without hacking the system itself.

Andreas and other commentators have said that the regulation of Bitcoin lies in the code itself. So on this basis is it not relevant to ask who decides on who makes those laws or rules if you prefer?

I look forward to hearing your suggestions.

I completely agree. One of the central criticisms of Bitcoin is that most of its price is mostly backed by a speculative sentiment, people are just waiting to get rich off of circumstance and relying on the effort of others (developers and entrepreneurs). So raising the topic this way may help us explore what really lies beneath the price because we can talk about the core values behind the protocol and the community and trust it takes to sustain it over time to gain trust.


This point is very well made, I am definitely putting that one in. Imagine if Lehman Bros had a blockchain.


Yes we can bring up issues like fees and cheque kiting and ask them to justify themselves.

Okay so if you were given £10k worth of prime space what would you do with it?

I'd really like to get everyone's feedback on something. I have managed to get some free space London's O2 which is a huge venue and a bit of a coup. I know I am insane and have thrown myself in waaay too far at the wrong side of the pool but I'm doing it anyway and want to get people here involved.

This is what the venue looks like on the inside:


It has a 16x9 foot screen behind it as well on which I plan to place Mr Antonopoulos : )

A live adversarial debate on the state of Bitcoin following the hacks on its ecosystem. Here are some initial thoughts:

The issue I want to address is that while Satoshi got the protocol locked down pretty tight his innovation didn't allow for human error. It's all very well having a really secure piece of software but if exchanges etc have sloppy code then it is all undermined.

Trowing technology at some of the problems we face is not going to make them go away. Is Bitcoin just a redistribution of wealth from one group of people to another?

Code is the new law. Are coders the right people to be deciding what's right and what should be legislated?

Barclays have PingIt and there are many other emerging p2p payment networks so is Bitcoin even necessary as a standalone currency? Why can't the banking system simply integrate Bitcoins open source code in to their existing infrastructure?

I do not hold these views myself, I just want to address them as I hear them being raised by critics and think they need exploration.

Andreas Antonopoulos and I will be taking part, Max Keiser will be appearing later in the evening but have asked if he can attend earlier. I even have received interest from Barclays and Lloyds to take part in the debate.

I want your ideas, suggestions and questions that you would like to see addressed. I can select key questions from this thread and raise them on the day.

EDIT 27/3: Speakers for the panel are now confirmed and 110 people already signed up

EDIT 22/3: Andreas has had to cancel along with some other speaking arrangements https://twitter.com/aantonop/status/447102361815617536

Am working hard now on finding a replacement, any ideas/help are welcome.

Hello friends,

I am here to tell you about an event I am helping to organise that grew out of London Bitcoin Meetup. Patrick and Matt came up to me and asked me what I thought about the idea of Kickboxing event in which the winner would receive Bitcoin? Well one thing led to another and yesterday we met with Max Keiser and he agreed to get on board and join us as a special guest on the night.



Max Keiser will be presenting the championship belt and the Bitcoins to the winner and we need you to help us make this the biggest Bitcoin event of all time. The venue has a capacity of 1,700 seats ranging from Balcony seats to ring side tables.


We are a 3 man startup and are borrowing quite a bit of money to make this happen so with your support we'd love to finish the evening up by announcing the next event in the summer which will be a Heavyweight category. You can follow us on Twitter for more details where we will be giving away free tickets and special offer discounts for Bitcoin purchases.

Bitcoin isn’t just an opportunity, it’s an obligation. The biggest threat we face isn’t fraud, it’s the unwillingness of good people to question their previous assumptions and search themselves for their true values. In many ways frauds act to keep us honest because money isn’t just a tool we use to get our needs met, it’s a site that brings together both honest and dishonest intentions.

Last week I felt compelled to comment on what was going on a Gox so Thomas (MadBitcoins) and I made some videos in response to the enormous amount of FUD and confusion surrounding the story. I apologise for not being able to bring you the newsletter as normal but I felt that there was an urgent situation that needed addressing.

And so now it’s over to you. The team at Feathercoin have decided that we would like you to write the Newsletters in the future as a collaborative effort. I will be on hand to write any content for the intros and TL;DRs but I will have no more say over the direction than anyone else. We feel it would be good to hand over the body of the News to the people in the community and it could give you the chance to get noticed and discover your voice.

One of the things I have tried to do with this Newsletter is to use it as a platform for all the hard working people who make Feathercoin what it is today. I think having a platform comes with a duty to help serve others so that they can see how they can help each other. I would like to see this Newsletter continue to shine a light on the people who perhaps aren’t getting the attention they deserve.
 
We has a meetup at the Oxford Blue, the local Feathercoin watering hole. It was a good evening for all who turned up with several members from the Oxford Crypto Group arriving to the meet as well. All members of crypto are welcome to attend so please do not think this event is for Feathercoiners only. There was a lot of discussion over the merits of Dogecoin and the disaster that is MtGox.
 

As you will know we as a community have been working together to raise funds for Prostate Cancer UK, and with your help we smashed our original target of 3,000 FTC and have set our sights on doubling that goal. Again I would like to say thank you on both behalf of Prostate Cancer UK and the Feathercoin Community. Some of these funds were raised through a raffle which was drawn at the Oxford Blue, congratulations to all the winners.
 

A massive thank you has to go to the following people for donating prizes:

• Netnerd[/*]
  
• MTRinser[/*]
  
• Matl[/*]
  
• HopeStillFlies[/*]
  

And whilst I have Netnerd in my mind he brought along a few of his new Gold Edition cold wallet coins and they look fantastic! Complete with Certificate of Authenticity, to show where in the limited edition run of 100 your coin is. These unloaded, DIY cold storage wallet coins will soon be available on the Feathercoin Market for purchase.  


Last Thursday I had the pleasure to attend Warwick University's Economics Society on a debate entitled The Future of Finance. I was expecting to met with skepticism as I was the only person there representing a crypto currency but to my pleasant surprise everyone was very curious to learn more with some of the students already mining!
 

This talk made me realise something. The real battle ground isn't about winning over governments or pandering to regulators. A Cryptocurrency is already regulated in the code. The code is the law. The real battle ground is with the young as they are the ones who are going to inherit the system we leave them with.

The real battle lies outside of these chatrooms and forums, it's out there in towns and cities all over the world, it's with the people on the fringes.

My plan for the future is to spend more time pounding pavement and meeting people; there is plenty of awareness about Bitcoin but not very much understanding. This Friday I will be at Hull City Council to talk about how their local needs can be supported the power this technology provides and I would really appreciate your support.
 
Feathercoin has now been updated to 0.8.6 which fixes a bug experienced by some Mac users and other fixes included in Bitcoin 0.8.6. We are also including some of the excellent features that have been included in Bitcoin OMG. These include Disable Wallet Mode which allows you to run the client without a wallet attached and Coin Control so you can specify where the funds come from when sending and where the "change" should go. More control for the users is always a good thing.
 

To update to Feathercoin 0.8.6 please head over to the download section at the Feathercoin website. This includes the Windows, Mac, Linux wallets and a link to GitHub for those who want to compile their own.
 
The MtGox fiasco has left the Crypto community shocked and confused. The exchange that started it all turned around and abandoned us. Not something anyone would have foreseen. Some members of the community are rethinking their stance on Crypto and one can’t blame them for it. A lot of them have potentially lost a fortune. Add to that all the other incidents that have happened, anyone would have second thoughts. These are truly trying times for us.Those of us who were not invested in Gox can only offer our sympathy.
 

We are limited by what we have and who we are but that does not mean we cannot push ourselves further. Bitcoin is not just an amazing piece of software, it’s more than that. It’s an ideology that has brought like-minded individuals together, it’s an ideology that has spurned the growth of start-ups, and it’s an ideology that has given us what we lost during the industrial revolution. It has given us control over our financial future and given us the freedom of choice. And it is our duty to ensure that this piece of software lives on.

To those who are having second thoughts about Bitcoin or feel that it may not survive. I want to borrow some lines From Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses”.

“We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are---
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

Take from this what you will.
 
UncleMuddy our resident engineer has taken a thread started by Kevlar and turned it into a working ATM. This is excellent work and shows the talent in our community. This ATM should début at the next Feathercoin meet in Oxford where we can buy preloaded private keys for English pounds. If you want to know more you can contact Uncle Muddy over at the Feathercoin forum.

Please welcome to the Feathercoin team Uncle Muddy, Netnerd, MrWyrm, Draco and motherlode1. Uncle Muddy is the chap responsible for the ATM above and last weeks unofficial newsletter, you will have seen him on the stream from the Oxford Blue if you watched it, I put him on the spot by getting him to do it. He did great so do not let him say otherwise. Netnerd is a very active member of the community who has been producing physical Feathercoin wallets like the gold one pictured in the newsletter above. motherlode1 has been doing an excellent job running the Feathercoin Reddit community and has a critical mind to apply to Feathercoin. By popular demand MrWyrm has been added to the team, he is level-headed in times of chaos and we appreciate his high levels of sanity. Draco bring in years of marketing and promotional experience and plans to work in areas of general marketing, merchant adoption, brand recognition and organising charity events.
 
Communities form around a common need and it's important to remember that fraud isn't something that happens somewhere else, it's a threat that everyone needs to aware of. MtGox provides us with an opportunity to show the world how to respond to dishonest behaviour in the financial system.

We have suffered many economic crises in the past but for the first time in history the people have the tools they need to fix it for themselves and take back control. If you work for someone who creates a climate of fear you have an obligation

You can find the last official newsletter here: Everything Points Towards Success. Today special thanks go to Uncle Muddy, Motherlode1 and Ruthie for their contributions to this newsletter.
 
You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook or come on to the forum to stay up to date.
 
Thank-you for your time.

The original link will take you to the full video. It stopped abruptly at the end when someone logged off but it was a long video anyway including how to keep your Bitcoins safe using paper wallets at 1:09.

http://youtu.be/1mWkY5yIAnc

Thanks, we can take some questions later on Youtube

You make some good points here that I had not considered, notably that getting a court involved would probably only make things worse. I have however posted a public request on Twitter and Reddit which so far seems to be getting some support.

I am open to suggestions on this. Right now where I am is that I don't think it's wise that we sit back and wait. We have an opportunity to show to the world that we can get organised and bring some much needed closure to this issue. I propose we all start putting pressure on Gox to declare the facts. IF Mark has screwed up and feels it is going to be embarrassing for him then someone needs to go in to the offices and talk him down and tell the truth.

Is there any evidence Mt Gox have any employees other than Mark?

The guys in the IRC chatroom #MtGox seemed to confess earlier they are just customers who get given some perks for modding.

But what makes you think they have the fiat?