Yes, if designed openly and transparently, such as Bitcoin: Free and Open Source software, then sure, certain applications could make for better governments. But, most initiatives are not done this way. See, if you deploy such a system, everyone should be allowed to run their own nodes, etc. Electronic voting comes to mind, it could be made possible if properly designed. And then people could just vote from home directly about many issues more frequently, rather than representatives every few years.

But, politicians don't like that stuff. People governing themselves are too risky, then they could lose their jobs...

Nope. The biggest in history, is fractional reserve banking, and its still ongoing. It only takes about 10% for the world population to withdraw their money from banks at the same time to collapse the global economy.

And its legalized. The history of modern banking knows why. Fact is most people are ignorant of this, and because of that, it keeps going.

If you think the Tulips and Mr Ponzi were bad, wait until you actually learn about fractional reserve bank, the way modern banks operate.

Private keys should never be casually handed, period. The current best practice is to use the seed words, and copy that with your hands avoiding electronic devices.

Once copied, you could in a secure disconnected PC do things like typing them in a text file, and encrypt that, or steno-graph it yourself in one of millions ways, then encrypt that, etc, etc. No apps, no sending things to others.

There are various free open source tools that can help you do this, if you are inclined to do so electronically, but you could just do it physically as well. Pick a book, mark some words, done.

Ideally you should never watch the actual pk ever yourself, only once when you create the wallet and type the seed words but never make the pk display anywhere. The practice of the old paper wallets have been discontinued for its dangers.

I don't see the problem of keeping some bitcoin stored away in a cold paper seed word wallet without so much drama. Its not like its a marriage or anything, it's simply another coin. If you meant trading, then that's a whole other beast, and the altcoins are of course all unsuited for long term.

But, you should rather than take an all or nothing approach, just leave some in bitcoin. That's of course your decision. But this is not a club, you don't have to tell anything or anyone. You don't even need this forum to hold some coins.

The lambo stuff was only for the early investors, that getting rich thing by just owning coins is no more. If you want to cash from early investment, consider doing a part of it, so that IF the price goes up later you don't feel as bad as me not investing in bitcoin in 2010.

I own an R4 still running it 24/7 but we don't get winter in the tropics, my question is: Does the R4 makes for a good space heater? Or you need something stronger?

Yes, but i downloaded the Linux cli version and ran it for testing. Since it wasn't working well i stopped using it. The idea is excellent, however, but if i were to deploy in a mine, it would need to work as intended.

Without connectivity, the program eventually quits. Yes, i could rig a script to endlessly launch it again but this isn't elegant, but that doesn't solve the main problem: It wasn't connecting to Poolin when there was connectivity, it only looks like its working but Poolin sees nothing, and network traffic reveals no attempt to connect to Poolin at all.

Perhaps the windows version works better, but that i didn't try. I just don't like the idea of having a windows router in a mine... Tho i did my tests at home, not in a production environment.

This file SmartAgent_BTC_Ubuntu.zip includes a text file called "帮助.txt" which points to a no longer available file on github, so it maybe that the Linux version needs updating. I found the file as posted before, its the very important description of the json config file: https://github.com/iblockin/Poolin-SmartAgentExplan/blob/master/bitcoin_smartagent_readme.md

A suggestion would be to add a working example of a config json file, and the documentation should be in the text file not just in github.  It could be that my json is wrong, so here it goes:


Problem is: Miner is connecting fine to Proxy but Proxy does not appear to connect to Poolin.

Well the more they mention it the more it will pick people's curiosity. Even if its "always bad things", people will start wondering if this bitcoin thing truly has something the establishment fears?

I'd say its good, not exactly advertising, but exposure. I has to enter the language of all nations, in all languages, bitcoin is called bitcoin. That is even better than the word coin or money, which changes all over the world, not to mention the fiat names...

This is the reason why the idea of a network inside a network was done. Some call it "deep" but its just another network, that can run on top of internet without being checked, controlled or blocked. The whole point these networks its to break from these.

Internet topology is actually decentralized, it was made so it could withstand nuclear attacks. You cannot destroy something in particular to stop it, tho the lazy way things have been running lately actually could cause major disruption, to those who weren't ready (ie. already using Tor, etc). Censor resistance is one way to view it, neither State nor private entities should be controlling you.

Something on internet could some better centralization, DNS for starters. While not strictly necessary, few people know the IP number of some basic sites, in case DNS goes haywire. So you could start replacing that by not using the "main" DNS (alternatives do exist). And so on we could go with each of the elements.

If things go really bad, Bitcoin could go "deep", and it still would work running in a network that runs safe on top of the unsafe network. This scenario is already improbable on a worldwide level, its possible in some countries. A more proper description is just running nodes and pools as tor hidden services or their equivalent in similar networks (freenode, etc). But this is a worst case scenario which seems to have already been overcome. Still, there ARE nodes running in there...

Can you use internet without Google? Yes you can. It takes discipline but you can completely get rid of Google from your life. Centralized social networks are even easier, its only the stubborn contacts that won't just use decentralized alternatives.

Last block no, last coin yes.

You say (now) its at risk, but this has always been Bitcoin's design. Take a look at some of the altcoins that people don't care mining anymore, then you can have an educated guess to what will happen.

Fact is Bitcoin miners will greatly diminish, but not disappear. It might go back to what it used to be in the first few years, this time only people that want to do it out of their own pocket. If you think (now) that this is a mistake, you never learned Bitcoin's design.

Since the beginning, Bitcoin (network) doesn't care if 10 or a million miners exist. The blockchain is still safe, and the nodes work and ensure things for everyone. And yes, expect the number of nodes to be higher than the number of miners, when it becomes completely unprofitable to mine in the future.

If you have free electricity, for example because you invested in renewable generation, it would be technically profitable, or perhaps if there is some market for the so called "virgin" coins, which are rapidly diminishing in production.

After 10 years you never saw this coming? What have you been doing? This is NOT a problem, it is doing as intended. Less miners do NOT put Bitcoin at risk, and there is never going to be a complete stop in mining, there is always enthusiasts that don't care.

Now you might remember Cannan's idea of putting asic miners inside household appliances, this is probably something that will be revisited. Canaan simply acted a bit too soon, but Asic miners inside TVs, Wifi routers or even simple heat spreaders will cater to these people, that will want to keep Bitcoin's network running, or the merchants that have already embrace it and are running nodes too.

The hashrate will reduce, but not as much as you think. Because the more efficient asics compensate the situation. However, later it won't be that profitable to manufacture those asics, and much less devote so much money in r&d to improve them as much as with the market in 2016. Even Bitmain will have to reconsider their core business if they want to remain around.

This could take the next halving or two, but it is coming, like it or not. The theory is that at the end Bitcoin transaction fee provide the incentive, i guess so but LN threatens those fees to be negligible anyway so it will be mostly enthusiasts many in from this forum (i expect the large Chinese, etc. miners to leave).

The "data" that you input in this "database", is made to fit only with the previous entry. So your entries are encrypted and matched in this fashion, so that once subsequent entry is written you cannot alter it anymore. Trying to replace the data from an earlier entry (block) would make it mismatch all those that comes afterwards.

This is perfect when you want an application where entries, once written, cannot be modified (tampered) afterwards. Of course you need decentralization for redundancy and security because otherwise it would be trivial to replace the whole thing.

It definitely is a database or ledger, but it does not have to be of financial nature. You could store mundane things like vote (something you don't want tampered). You can also make a centralized insecure blockchain, residing in a single server or only a couple of nodes in a datacenter.

So lets just say its a secure distributed immutable database.

Well 120 years is stretching it but 60 years ago Internet simply did not exist beyond a few universities exchanging emails. Internet only started coming to people's lives around 45 years ago. Already, there are generations of people that have never lived without it.

Warren Buffet and Donald Trump are in the same wagon, they made their money the old fashioned way, when things were so different.

Technology is also improving at such an accelerated pace that even things their parents used are no longer available for their children. Cassette tapes anyone? Those "react to" videos in youtube with kids reacting to (used to be) common things from the 80ies and 90ies are hilarious but also condemning (ie. a telephone).

Some of you may have even forgotten about analog tv (you can come visit my country if you feel nostalgic about NTSC).

The world saw Bitcoin born in 2009, and there is no turning back. Finally a coin that does not lose value overtime, outside the manipulation of the State and the few. Something that you can use online, and is secure. finally the ideas theorized by the Austrian school of economy can be put to use, and we are only going to see the beginning.

I can imagine a bit how Tesla felt in the beginning of electricity, and how his alternating current changed the game, forever.

jostorres: No we are not, already been 20 years in the 21ist century...

Yes, because more and more efficient asics enter the market, and this ironically strangles the miners which are about to get their profits halved this year.

In the previous halving the S9 was introduced while there were several people running S7s. Now the S17 are here and several people run S9s.  Due to the halving, and a not spectacular bitcoin price, do not be surprised to see people "retiring". Do you remember the S7 owners complains in 2016? I do. While mining continued, a good chuck said goodbye. This story will repeat again this year. Even with bitcoin price rising, this only delays the inevitable somewhat, maybe a few more years.

If your mining operation is already running borderline, you are in trouble. Shrink or leave before its too late. If you are relaxed because you use Solar energy or such, you will be fine. Smaller mining might profit less, but its also much more stable.

I'm in IT, and I have already devised a master plan that will effectively reduce mining footprint (actually Satoshi did): Do NOTHING.

Yes nothing. Because the halvings ensure mining becomes less and less profitable overtime, the large mining you see today will be gone tomorrow. You are only watching the last leg, until it becomes unprofitable to mine at any electricity price.

Exactly how you should always consider the State intervening in the economy: Don't. Just wait it out and see how it solves by itself due to free market forces.

As for bush fires, i think Australia (the World actually) should somehow start a massive reforestation campaign.

Halving may increase price somewhat but not as much as some people expect...

While its true NEW bitcoin production will be halved, MOST demand of bitcoin is coming from the market. Most bitcoins have already been made, whats left is a tiny amount (3 million?) And those will come out slower and slower every 4 years, so slow most people will simply forget about them or their influence to price will tend to diminish as if they weren't there anyway. This is also why large scale mining is destined to end, only the hobbyists and those with free energy shall remain.

For this reason i think its logical for the price after halving to be something UNDER twice the market price. Miners WILL feel the pain, as they did in 2016 and many will just quit as well.

For holders there is nothing to worry, a slowdown in price increase is still a price increase. Besides, its not like fiats are slowing their 2% yearly inflation.

SETI is not a communications device it is hoping to get a signal intended for others to receive it. Their promoters stated from the beginning that we lack the capacity to produce a strong enough focused enough signal to be received (in time anyway) across the galaxy.

So the hope is to "catch something" only if another sentient race has purposefully left such beacon for others to find.

They themselves, Sagan et al, knew that casually catching things not explicitly intended to be found in the first place, is unrealistic. Also you may seem to ignore the fact the Voyagers probes contain a gold record (as in vinyl, but made of gold) with imagery and sounds of Earth, so this was his attempt to "communicate". At the speed these things travel, it is unlikely anyone will find them before this solar system goes extinct (Sol goes supernova in a billion years or so).

You should also know that the speed of light is too slow for interstellar communications. Astronomers measure distances in light years, so this is the amount of earth years you need to wait for a dot of light to reach. Closest place is 4LY away, all the others are even farther.

You could argue the privatization of the field is decentralizing it. Sure, until recently, it was only a couple of State run agencies, but know in addition to a few more State run agencies, we have private startups successfully moving things from/to space. Besides, what did you think, that radio telescopes are free? No they are not, they are expensive.

I have always waited to see if one of those catch on. This is the right solution in the end, if you must have social media which is to go decentralized p2p. Funny enough i do have a Steemit account, but never use it (you need to wait until they give you free tokens to start using it, or buy them). I think you get and give those tokens rather than "likes".

Aside from radio meshes (typically wifi) i have seen little which could actually replace internet. And yes it would be great to have something like that, but few people see the point. Yes in an ideal world, every one would have bought an open mesh node in their home, which is essentially a neighborhood wifi. But it is slow and laggy, and people fail to see the point vs commercial internet. But it would hurt you to purchase one and leave it running, while optional, you could connect your node to the internet so that it gets a bit more "attractive", and have it as a form of "guest wifi".

Then after reaching "critical mass" we could start doing serious things, such as running bitcoin nodes on it etc.

As explained here: Forum ranks/positions/badges (What do those shiny coins under my name mean?) It basically goes up with more posts you make that others find interesting AND is also time based, so even if you write interesting (not copy pasted) things non stop, it would take at least like two years to max up.

This is per design of Android OS, its not related to a particular browser. The best you can do is limit yourself to use the least amount of apps and hope for the best. Try not to use more than 2 apps at the same time. Even so, it appears to be time based, regardless of available ram.

In the newer androids a secondary screen is possible, i think you can emulate one in dev options, so maybe try that? (move the app to the secondary screen) so it remains "always open".

This also ensures that newbies don't get top skills overnight (and the dreaded account selling). Of course the real reason was to ensure a steady cashflow, as this was (is?) a subscription game. When it takes a LOT of effort to level a character, when you encounter one you admire it. But in games where you can level up quickly, you are more like meh.

Obviously this caters to a little different scope of target player base than those in free to play (Pay to win?) games, where you can literally buy your leveled up character officially anyway, or the paid perks makes it so easy it isn't funny.

When WoW was conceived, those f2p + real money shop games had yet to take over. MMOs were either free or subscription. And there have been a lot of different attempts to monetize games ever since, with mixture of everything. Some single pay to access areas or items, some are half free half subscription some are both subscription or access, etc, etc.

But of course there have also been new game concepts ever since, and obviously the graphics department has improved a lot.

Now if you were to play in a private server, without any monthly fees, you will probably not feel hurried to level up and play at your own leisure, assuming of course the server operator doesn't disappear and is willing to maintain it for years. But many of them tweak the xp rates up anyway.

I have experience with various MMOs, but WoW in particular i never played, since i avoid subscription games. Remember that even if you only have time to play 1 day or nearly everyday, you have to pay the whole month the same. Same as with cable tv vs "video on demand" streaming services.