I think that's very unlikely to happen here in the United States.  I mean, you never know, and to be honest back when I first looked at Bitcoin several years ago, I thought any significant threat to U.S. dollar hegemony would be "banned" -- either actually prohibited or regulated to death.

Now, I think they'll be more interested in taxing it.

I also think the gov't and/or Fed and/or SIFI-size banks will strongly promote their own competing "crypto".  Quotes intentional.

The U.S. government seems very interested in other applications for blockchain and distributed ledger more generally.  And frankly, they could use it.  Some of the IT systems I'm aware of in the government are ancient and extremely fragile.

Government people don't think with the same mentality as business people, at least not here in the U.S.  The system doesn't incentivize cost savings -- they have to "use it or lose it" (their annual appropriation).  They also don't have to worry about bringing in customers or making sales, money just magically appears in their accounts on October 1 of every year.

There's so much potential to disrupt the status quo, both to streamline and benefit the government, and also to decentralize the control they currently wield.

It's very exciting.

(Finally, in the unlikely event that they did prohibit it, I'd form a business in another jurisdiction and continue on my merry way.  If they choose, they can fight change -- but they can't stop it.)

I agree.  It's already happening.  The 'tipping point' will come and then BTC will be everywhere.

I see that you are protective of your idea which I completely understand.  However, you might want to consider what parts of it you could share with a larger group of people and what parts you could save until you've built a trustworthy core team.

It's important to keep your idea closely held, but also important to be able to share enough of it with others to help build interest.

In any event, I wish you all the best with your concept.  There's nothing more exciting than the prospect of changing the world.

Hi All,

I am in the advanced planning and initial implementation stages of a concept that I consider to be very promising and something that will fill a needed niche in the bitcoin and wider cryptocurrency ecosystem.  Frankly, I should have done it years ago when I first messed around with BTC -- but as I've told some of you, I didn't think bitcoin would ever become what it has without it first being regulated out of existence.

While I'm kicking myself about that now, I've made plans to refocus efforts on this new venture.  I currently run a business in the project management and IT services field, but I'm preparing to focus significant portions of my time onto this new venture, because I believe that BTC and related technologies truly have the potential to reshape the world, and that's something I want to be a part of.

My questions for the community...

What is the best way to announce this venture, when it is ready?  Obviously website, announcements here and in the coin media, a white paper that describes the concept (which is not a "traditional ICO" though it may launch one at some point).  What else?  Contact some Legendary people by PM and engage them in a dialog?

Any suggestions to make the most effective presentation possible for the concept?  I strongly believe in what BTC enables in terms of societal betterment, and want to do what I can -- using my skills toward these goals.  To me, this would bring a more satisfying life than my current business of writing government grant proposals, RFP responses, and implementing the awards.  I would rather empower people and businesses than governments.

I also want to ensure that the concept gets a fair shake and serious consideration by those that may want to participate in it, through its initial roll out, leadership and governance structure, as well as for the end-users we will be working with.

I have some ideas about how to accomplish all of the above, so I'm really just seeking any other opinions that people may have about successes and challenges that they have seen encountered in these presentations.

Thank you for any thoughts or advice either on here or through PM.  I am very excited about this concept and can't wait to be able to share it with you all!

Wow, so sorry to hear about this happening to you.

I might be doing this wrong as I'm not as familiar with Eth as BTC, but I'm showing that the wallet had no transactions prior to this one.

https://etherscan.io/balancecheck-tool?a=0x3f13171bedaf7a2b6e69fc12e08ff0429d8b059b

So... I am thinking that while it must be a valid address (either that or Eth does not check/care), that the wallet has never actually been used.  I don't know if that helps or makes it worse in terms of recovery.  Again, very sorry and I hope you are able to recover your funds.

Hackers are always active.  It never ceases to surprise me the sheer volume of attacks my that my businesses infrastructure servers face.  These are nothing but normal web servers, storing nothing of importance.  Yet there's bots that troll the internet looking for any system that has exploitable known vulnerabilities.  Endlessly.  I wonder if there's been any calculations of their cumulative bandwidth effects on overall IP traffic.  Probably would be interesting to take a look at.

In any event, considering that is just for simple websites with nothing of value whatsoever, you should treat your crypto like it's gold, or fine pieces of artwork.  Especially if you're doing any type of website or any business or service in the crypto space.  You're basically painting a huge target on yourself that says, "ATTACK HERE".

I am preparing a venture for the crypto community that I hope is well-received.  I know that security planning and implementation is absolutely paramount to our success.

Thank you very much for the tip!

I think I would keep as BTC the USD value that the coin represented when it was gifted to me.  As the coin appreciates in value, I would sell small portions of the coin (to keep the fraction worth around the same as the 1 BTC value was originally) and invest in some solid altcoins.

In other words, keep the principal, diversify with the gains.

But then again, all of this could change and should be reevaluated if market conditions warrant adjustment.

I certainly hope it does make a comeback, it sounds awesome!  These are the type of innovations needed to bring BTC to the masses.

In my view, bitcoin will greatly change as it is adopted.  Payment systems have always had to adapt to changes in the environment they are used in.  Checks used to be cleared by transportation through trains and automobiles.  Today its all done via imaging.  Credit cards, which started out as metal plates, were once deposited like checks with a manual imprint of the embossed numbers.  Along came electronic terminals that changed the game.

PayPal was, and is, a game changer that got people to hand over their financial details to a trusted website so that they could purchase from less trusted places -- often people, on eBay.

Bitcoin needs wider acceptance, and it will get there.  There will be a "tipping point" of mainstream acceptance and then all the major online merchants will rush to implement BTC payments on their platforms.  High speed transactions are a must.  Merchant costs / transaction fees in line with credit card payments are a must.  If SegWit doesn't get BTC there, other innovations will come along and make that happen.

If bitcoin keeps innovating to address challenges, expand its capabilities, and promote ever wider usage, it could "last" as long as any form of currency.  In fact, because it is not tied to any particular country, culture, or language, it could last longer than those that are.  Silver and gold have been used as a store of value for thousands of years.  Bitcoin (though from a technical perspective it will likely look very different than what it is now) could last just as long.

I have not read your materials yet.

ICOs will not be banned.  They need regulation.  Some of the offers I've seen lately are frankly outrageous -- and I can't believe they obtain investors.  But they do!

There are lots of great ideas that I've seen, but many lack the business know-how to bring them to fruition.

Here in the US, ICOs will be regulated differently depending on if they are structured to be Howey test compliant ("pass") or non-compliant ("fail").  There is a legitimate place for both types of tokens.

The "wild west" will draw to a close with appropriate regulation.  With this change, larger institutional investors are likely to get more involved in the ecosystem.

I am new to this board but I am not new to this field and I'm seriously considering shifting a substantial part of my focus to capitalize on this opportunity.  Not only for the wealth to be created (which is, of course, appealing), but for the good that decentralized crypto, and the wider blockchain technologies, have the potential to bring to the world.

I wish I had a way to help you.  Best of luck though, I hope you can recover them somehow.

Wow, that's crazy!  Did you look through the books/binding and/or packaging for a listening device or some other type of sensor?  In the context of drug cultivation investigations, I've heard of "bugs" being planted in packages that people bring inside.

Unless mining is illegal in your jurisdiction, you could go to the police and tell them what you've shared here.  If they were investigating you, thinking you were running a grow operation, they would probably be very happy to learn you're just mining.  Might want to take a look at your rig to verify.

I think a reasonable fee is potentially a good idea but if the fee were too significant that could stifle promising concepts from reaching the investment community.  Or, alternatively, it could cause ICOs to shift their announcements elsewhere.

One thing that I think is sorely needed among these ICOs is a standardized list of terms.  Some of the ICO whitepapers I've read have such horrible presentation and lack of concrete information that I can't imagine anyone investing anything in them, regardless of the potential of the concept.  As someone coming from an environment where I have reviewed many (far too many) IPOs, the quality bar of ICOs needs to be raised.

I couldn't agree more.  I played around with Bitcoin years ago just to see how it worked.  I considered making a sizable investment in it at the time (boy I wish I had!), but I honestly thought that if it were to grow and become a real threat to traditional fiat currencies it would be quickly outlawed.

Instead I see the opposite happening.  Yes, regulation of crypto in general is coming/here (at least some of which is probably needed, but we need to be careful that regulatory overreach does not occur), but the technology itself is not going anywhere.  A certain amount of regulation legitimizes cryptocurrency.

Most of my colleagues have no idea what bitcoin is, despite it being discussed here and there in various (non-crypto specific) financial and technology media.  But more are aware of it this year than there were last year, and I expect that will continue until it reaches a "tipping point".

I am confident that blockchain and crypto technologies will reshape society, and we are the 1%, the early adopters.

Thanks!  I wasn't aware of this service, I'm going to give it a try with my next transaction.