whenever i see a 'financial' news service try to scare people away from a sound investment.. its a good time to buy

whenever i see a 'financial' news service try to  oversell and get excited about a sound investment.. its too late to buy, as the positives have already been taken advantage of.. days, weeks or months ago.

so in my eyes.. bad news from bloomberg is good news for me

they wont take tax from bitcoin.directly.
but they will treat is as they do any foreign currency.

EG
if your european, and you work for dollars. keeping it in an american bank account(imagine like keeping bitcoin as bitcoin) the European tax authorities wont do much. but as soon as you convert it to euro's or try spending it in europe. Bam, income tax

if your european, and you invest in an american company. keeping it in an american sharebroker account(imagine like keeping bitcoin as bitcoin) the European tax authorities wont do much. but as soon as you convert it to euro's. Bam, capital gains tax

if your european, and get funded via another currency, even if you find ways to pay your landlord, grocery store and other things in that foreign currency, if they notice you registered a new house, car, or other modest priced item, Bam civil investigation and fine.

the only way to avoid red flags for doing normal things. is to be fiat rich in the first place, then nothing normal will look out of place
having money gives you loop holes.
EG having funds in a bank, writing a cheque but then cancelling it before the recipient can cash it is fine
not having funds in a bank, writing a cheque that bounces, is nt fine
yet the recipient is victimised the same way.(not getting paid)

ordering something on ebay, paying for it but then requesting a chargeback, is fine
ordering something on ebay, and just not paying, is not fine.
yet the recipient is victimised the same way.(not getting paid)

governments dont need to care about who paid you, or need to care about how much you were paid to start a civil recovery process on you (tax fine)

there are many non-blockchain ways to red flag someone. for instance
if they see someone applying for a mortgage, but have filed tax forms to say they have no income... red flag
but if they see someone buying a house outright, but have filed tax forms to say they have no income... red flag
seeing someone apply for car insurance on a modest priced car. red flag
poor people cannot really afford to maintain a low priced car with no income. so if governments see you driving a car.. red flag
even things like passports and plane tickets.. red flag
their bank account statement shows funds moving in and out that technically should not exist to such a poor person

then all they need to do is make a court order to get you to investigate yourself, where you have to provide proof of payment, etc as to how you were able to maintain a less than poor lifestyle while being poor. while they just sit back and work out how much to fine you to settle their minds. or how much time to put you in jail if they drum up a story that you got funds through criminal activity. whereby you are then really pressured to prove where funds came from including proving it was 'legit'

this is why so many poor people get hit with tax fines.. because its easy to spot a poor person with money then it is for a rich person.

these government tactic end up making poor people paranoid.
EG
even going so far as having no insurance so that they really really need to be watching what they do when they drive.
concentrating harder to not get a speeding ticket, parking ticket, to avoid red flags about a vehicle.
yes you can register a car to a "trust" or offshore entity. but u cant get car insurance on a trust.

cant have any registered property or insure your house/property
ending up as a nomad living in squats (ref: amir taaki as prime example)

if the recovery plan is based on trading fee's recouping losses.. then lets take bitfinex for instance
they have done $4.5m in volume today based on https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/bitfinex/
which at a 0.3% fee (0.1% take 0.2%make) works out at $13.5k in fee's
even if they ploughed every penny of the fees into making everyone whole. its still 5,300+ days (upto 15 years at current volume) to actually make people whole again

so bitfinex for example better have some reserves. or can buy the debt back at pennies to the dollar as a settlement agreement with their creditors/debtee's(customers) or they are in for a world of hurt

after all
lets pretend they never needed to spend any money on wages, offices, servers, etc over the last 2 years, just so they could build up a reserve.
checking* they had an average $6million trade volume a day* ($20k fee) it would have still taken them 10 years to rake in enough reserves to have $72m.
*2 year average from stats

knowing they actually were spending fee's on business costs over the last couple years. there is no way they have reserves to cover the loss and no way they can make anyone whole again in the next couple years using future fee income either.

not unless some numpty buys the business valued at (-)72mill for a single $1. and puts in the other 72m to make customers whole again.
.. knowing that at their best years (prior to hack) it would take 10 years to just get 72m in fee's before business cost deductions. i cannot see any numpty investing 72m to make customers whole..
or as i said not unless they can settle with their creditors/debtees(customers) with a pennies on the dollar settlement.

the address you used in what you described.. the one you copy and pasted to use with circle.
if you dont know which one it is because you have done other transactions.
you can probably go to circle and look at their transaction history and see where the funds went to, to remind you which address it was

or you could look at the bitcoin core transaction history if you remember the amount and see the address that received that amount. or look by date if you can remember when you done that transaction..

the other option is just to do the bits i said in 'note for later' where you can get all privkeys of all addresses you own and just move everything, rather than just a single value from a single address

but you mitigate the "trouble" by decreasing the valuable information stored on the web server.
basically just making the web server a GUI.. and a hidden remote system is the engine
then its not "serious trouble" but just "potential trouble", which good security and many layers (as ive said several times) makes trying to hack the webserver near usely and timely to attempt.

compared to private keys stored on the webserver. which can be a 5 second copy and paste hack.
having to tweak a request database. compare users to funds, add a fake request and also add a valid verification request is more layers of security.

the web server doesnt even need the public sessionid(or other cryptographic id) of the user validation because the web server does nothing.

the separate system can verify balances check signatures of the user validation(by this i dont mean a bitcoin private key, but some other cryptographiic id). so the hacker cannot really fake a request either.

even things like 2factor authentication where the "answer" is not saved on the web server.
and its the hidden server that pushes a 2FA to the customer and then reads the database again to see some response.

like i said. nothing is ever perfect. but adding layers and not having everything stored on one "honeypot" web server is just grossly negligent

if people are adament they want fingerprint technology to be used, atleast make it workable
afterall, people have 10 fingers

i would suggest a method that has 10 keys(one per finger). but only needs lets say 3 keys to move funds.(3 of 10 multisig)
that way any of your 3 fingers would be accepted.

but just a 1 finger one key is not a good way to secure funds especially due to chemical burns, papercuts, age and other things that can affect a fingerprint

you do realise that ANYONE can have one server that holds NO private keys but instead has a database
this database just stores requests.
EG
USER12345 requests 0.01 to 1Ar4nd0mAdDress verification: adjsfhskfhjfhljkhasfhlsakjdfhsalkjf

then on a separate system unknown to the server. because the server not making an outbound API call to any known destination.. or doing anything requiring logging the other system.. this separate system can look in. and read this database and process the requests as and when it sees new request.. by looking in remotely. rather then a web server pushing data out. things get a little more secure.

we no longer live in the 1980's where reading a database takes minutes. but milliseconds. so the difference between having the keys on a server, and having the keys on a separate system is about a few miliseconds in actually moving funds when a customer requests it. which those miliseconds are meaningless in regards to block times of ~10minutes anyway.

as for securing the database, like i said by not communicating out(no outgoing API call), the server does not reveal the IP address that has the keys. also by adding a few basic security things you can sense if the database is being tampered with from within this could signal to the host to do something
where requests requires a verification code that can only be signed by the users sessionID(not a bitcoin private key) or some other crypto proof the intended users made the request. amungst other things can all reduce weak points.
well nothing is fool proof but if you add enough layers you can slow down a hacker long enough to spot him.
but either way its alot better then stupidly having a basic script that stores the private keys on the webserver and immediately processes withdrawals without checks

in bitcoin core go to the command line
help > debug window > console tab

and type in
dumpprivkey <yourbitcoinaddress>
where <bitcoinaddress> is the address you send the funds to. dont type in <>, just type the address you want the key to.

you will get the private key of the bitcoin address you send the funds to, and you can copy that private key into another bitcoin program/service to then move those funds once that program/service has the key.

note for later:
before doing anything else to fix/reinstall/change bitcoin core.
get all your private keys the way mentioned above.
also make a backup of the wallet using different methods
EG
going to your directory and copying the file
within bitcoin core go to file -> backupwallet
from the command line
dumpwallet <filename>
where <filename> is the name of the file you want to call it. dont type in <>, just type the file name,
you will get a file with human readable results in text format showing the privatekeys and corresponding labels and bitcoin addresses of all addresses in your wallet

ofcourse read it and double check you havnt missed anything

i say backing it up in the 3 ways. because one way may fail if your computer is having issues and the worse thing you can ever do is realise that one has failed when you try to use it after deleting the original. and that is the only copy you have and doesnt work

e-coin was the corporate /private currency
"you the customer scan the qrcode and WE(e-corp) deduct the balance from your wallet"
e-coin isnt really a blockchain currency but more like Apple pay..

they did mention bitcoin several times. in relation to the main character messing with a silk road service.

on a separate note there will be a new show called "startup" which is going to predominently about cryptos
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5028002/

though i feel its going to be more aimed at the scammy altcoin arena.

governments cannot automaticly remove bitcoin out of someones bitcoin private key. but they can take fiat out of bank accounts with a court order.

with a few laws, governments can 'threaten' its residents that if they hold bitcoin they need to pay a percentage of bitcoin value to the government or face legal action.

at the moment in most developed countries, bitcoin is classed as an asset. and so any income or gains you make from your assets need to be declared and taxed.
at the moment bitcoin is treated as a civil thing (finance), meaning there are some loopholes, but if they raised it to criminal, then things can get nasty

its not about the currency.. taxes are predominently about where you reside and the laws of the land you reside on. no matter what the currency is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN54jbbBpiI

https://youtu.be/WdjGT5_TfC8?t=41s

https://youtu.be/QsoLfpEPJ64?t=1m30s

and if you are now over the comedy of the videos above.

a few "known faces" of the bitcoin ecosystem made this compilation a couple years ago
its not them shouting "i am satoshi" but saying something more than most fiat lovers want to hear
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQqZ9b0S0BY

first of all,
the exchanges are where bitcoin has its value not the 15mill coins in peoples cold store
there are not 15mill coins on exchanges, there are only a few hundred thousand coins and those coins that exist on the exchanges are not set at a fixed order price. they vary
EG
1000 coins at $600
1000 coins at $605
1000 coins at $610
wont get you 3000 coins by spending 1.8mil.. it will cost you 1.815m
then next 3000 coins spread over different prices wont cost 1.815m but more.. progressively costing you more and more for the same allotment of coins

if you are looking for a way to raise the price. its not to flood an exchange with $1billion.
after all the current <$600 price point is not made up from <16mill coins x <$600
its only a few hundred thousand coins supply on an exchange. meaning at only one time there is far less than half billion of real dollars or less supporting the bitcoin price, not $10billion real dollars

if $1billion flooded the exchanges where there was only a supply of a few hundred thousand coins. the price would sky rocket, and when i mean spike, i mean SPIKE!!.. but then that spike would not be sustainable. just like the $1,200 spike a few years ago was not sustainable.

the slower you make the movements to increase the price, the more sustainable and natural it will feel to the speculative market. but the less of a high price those funds would cause, and the more you would have to devote to keeping the buy wall alive. because of the slower rise time, this means more new orders coming in so more needs to be spent sustaining it for longer.

the faster you make the movements to increase the price, the less sustainable the spike will be, but the spike would for a short period would be a higher all time high and not as much would need to be spent on the sell side due to lack of supply in a small time period. but would need more spent on a buy wall.

in both situations that $1b spend cannot guarantee a sustainable new high price.
in both situations that $1b spend cannot guarantee the price wont eventually fall.

however, if someone was to do it.. here is a better method
split the $1billion into 4 baskets of $250m
put each basket on each of the 4 prominent exchanges.

use $125m(half basket) to buy coins on each exchange by eating the sell orders on the sell side, resulting in raising the price
then use the other $125m to try keeping that price up by creating a 'buy wall'  on the buy side, that is too large for other sellers to eat to prevent a instant price drop

in short flooding one market with $1b wont last long. could be a few hours, could be a few days. because the other exchanges at a lower price would arbitrage the Mo'Fo out of the spike for profit until that spike disapears.

if you spread the funds across a few exchanges, it will feel less like a glitch. and you may be able to sustain it for a few months because the arbitrage effect wont be there to eat up the spike.

you can try many different things to either push for a short term new all time high or a long term smooth rise. but eventually if the price is more than an accepted speculative value.. then people will sell like a Mo'Fo firstly thanking you for your generosity and then screaming fear of the impending price drop.

if you are able to sustain the price for 6-12 months, giving enough time so that miners can make mega profits to then buy new rigs, repeating to make more profits to buy more rigs until the new high becomes less speculative profit and instead a minimal break even(more of a real reason to be high).. then you have a chance of that price point lasting because no one is stupid to sell at a loss, but this takes months to cause that miner reaction not hours/days

reasons:
noobs dont know better (still have the fiat mindset that banks are easier)
people dont trust themselves (worry of accidently getting a virus or house fire/floods wrecking their computer)
running a full client is not the same as a two tap smart phone app
backing up the privkeys is not as simple as 'File -> save as'
re-backing up the privkeys after every 'change address' is not an 'autosave' function

though there are alot of people consider running a full bitcoin client as being straight forward (i do as do many others) but we atleast have to admit it to ourselves that to average joe, its not actually straight forward.

even if these custodian wallets put on disclaimers such as
"we manage the funds for you meaning the funds are stored using our private keys, but we follow your requests as to what you want to do with your balance. but please be aware we do not insure your balance against loss, theft or accidents"
or less subtle
"we own the funds on our private keys, we can follow your requests as to what you want to do with the balance. but we are not insured in any way"
people would still use custodian services, for a mixture of reasons

bitcoin itself is not the problem. its only code. it has no artificial intelliagence, nor emotion nor a voice or opinion.
the problem is bitcoin users and bitcoin businesses..

stop the rhetoric that bitcoin businesses need AML regulation to be legitimate and safe for customers

at the very most bitcoin businesses need to have consumer protection in mind.
regulations are not about 100% consumer protection. after all people were made homeless after the regulated banks were bailed out..

regulations pretend to be about consumer protection but are only 5% involved with that category.
businesses should avoid the failures of fiat regulations that stiffle business (95% headache of regulations) and expand and be better at consumer protection than the fiat world is

so as long as consumer protection is covered then that would atleast allow legit businesses to do business with customers confidence that if anything went wrong there is someone that can slap the book at a business.

i honestly thought that bitgo was going to be a positive with all of their 'security' and insured funds if using their service.. but the bitfinex incident made me lose faith in bitgo's service offering. things like this need to change

tax evaders and tax avoiders are 2 separate categories of people
evaders are people that should pay but dont
avoiders find the loopholes to not need to pay (off shore accounts, trusts, etc)

but just handling bitcoin as an alternative currency is by itself not enough to avoid tax. just like an american using euros is not enough to avoid a bill from the U.S IRS

my opinion
1. it took well over a year for bitcoin to have over 300 nodes.
2. openbazaar is not advertised well, so only gets a hand full of people
3. do the stats show users that just use it for 10-20 minutes a day to buy something. or only people running 24/7 as the stats may differ depending on what the stats are based on.
4. explaining point 3 more. not everyone wants to run a node 24/7 just to buy something once a month, its why bitcoin has a couple million users but only 6000 nodes

davis actually has a point
bitcoin is not the solution to banks. meaning banks should use bitcoins to solve their scammy ways
bitcoin is an alternative vs banks. meaning with bitcoin, you dont need banks

dang it. here we go again. more self stroking of your ego, in a manner no one but you understands.

time to move your topics offtopic because i know this is not going to be the only random thought you are going to have today.
i predict you are going to make atleast 6 random topic posts that are meaningless to bitcoin and dont make sense and have no references