-1

I'm fine with silent updates normally, but when it comes to Bitcoin: Don't we always say that "if the Bitcoin developers did X [insert evil plot here], people won't use the new version". This argument is kind of defeated by silent automatic updates, no?

Don't get me wrong, I trust the current developers, but if we are going around making arguments for Bitcoin's security, those arguments should have rock-solid footing.

Progress!  

On the audio front

The script was handed in on schedule on Friday and the finished voice recordings came in yesterday! The studio sent three takes in total. The first one wasn't what we were looking for, however the other two were both damn near perfect. So we spent an hour listening to both and eventually settled on number two, because it sounded a tiny bit more enthusiastic in the very important first section.

Music. Until this morning this was a bit of an open question. But about half an hour we've struck a deal with a film music composer/producer who's both excellent at what he does and (thanks to a preexisting work relationship with our designer) within our budget. He agreed to do both an original score as well as the sound design for the video. I'm really happy this worked out, because a custom score is much, much better than an off-the-rack one and it was not at all clear that we'd be able to afford one. Just like with everyone else on the team, we were a bit lucky.


On the graphics front

Our designer did tons more graphics over the last few days, we're almost ready to start putting it all together during animation! We lost some work on Saturday due to an Illustrator crash, but other than that, everything is going rather well. I don't want to spoil anything major (the final video isn't too far away now anyway), but I think it would be nice to release a little something with every status update. So, for example, yesterday our designer was testing a possible new font:



The script lists some examples of what you can already buy with Bitcoins today, for example:



And of course no such list would be complete without a mention of Alpaca socks, would it?



Remaining todos are the music, some graphics and most of the actual animation work. The next status report is scheduled for Monday, March 14th. If all goes according to plan, that'll be the last update before the release of the video.

Our only goal with this video is to spread Bitcoin and make people interested. Technical information is only included insofar as it helps that goal. As bytemaster says, we need one video to bring new users into the fold and a different one to explain the technology in depth. This one will be the former. I don't want to exclude the possibility that we will work on the latter afterwards.

Hey everybody! It's time for our little team to come out of the woodwork! We're about done with our script and it'll go off to a professional voice actor for recording tomorrow. The graphics are being done by a motion graphics designer who specializes in explanation videos just like this. Getting him on board was the lucky break that made this whole thing possible.

The reason for this post is only to announce that we're working on this and perhaps to find out if another professional team may be working on it quietly as well.  

When it's done, the video will be released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license. I plan to release as much of the graphics etc. as possible under the same license. I want this project to be a continuing resource for remixes and Bitcoin-related videos by other artists.

We won't release the script ahead of time to avoid it being laden with a history of public debate and personal investment by the time the video even comes out. And since the video is aimed at a general audience, we mostly sought feedback from design, marketing and film people as well as anybody who never heard of Bitcoin. That said, we did make sure we got the technical stuff right. Special thanks to the #bitcoin-otc channel who (mostly unknowingly) helped a great deal in making the script technically accurate. We've also got help from some specific members of the community who I'll thank publicly once the video is out.

What I will post however are a few early draft images to give you a sense of the visual style.

This one is from the opening:


This one is from a later part where we explain how to make a transaction:


Bitcoin is worldwide!!


Don't mind the sizes, the final video will be standard HD. Also they're just draft elements right now, they may look different once they're animated and part of a scene.

When will the video be released? We don't have an exact date, but I will post a status update on Tuesday. Feel free to ask questions if you have any!

I haven't seen any threads about this, so here goes.

Google Summer of Code 2011 is now accepting submissions! To participate, a so-called mentoring organization has to:

- Submit an ideas list by March 11th
- Have an administrator available who can appoint a mentor, respond to inquiries within 48 hours, ensure deadlines are met
- Have a mentor (if one drops out the administrator can appoint a new one) to review code and answer questions for the student (the mentor can also be a group of people)

The organization does not have to be a legal entity, an open-source project like Bitcoin is fine.

So, do we have several ideas suitable for a GSoC project? Secondly, to the senior developers here: Are any of you available to act as our representative to Google?

More information: http://www.google-melange.com/

Awesome!! Can't wait to see the documentation!

That's ridiculous. You have to pay for the audit whatever the outcome is. There is no incentive on part of the auditor to fudge the result. On the contrary, his professional reputation is on the line.

Technically, he wouldn't have to code anything. He could just run...


... and it would do all the coding for him.

Those remarks are eerily reminiscent of Alan Greenspan saying that the housing market is not a bubble, but may "experience a slow, gradual decline". If an asset price is largely speculative, there is no such thing as a slow decline. Once it loses 10-20% speculators freak out until the price reaches a more realistic price.

Bitcoin will either find widespread adoption, or it'll remain an obscure toy for contrarians. I own 5600 Bitcoins. In the former case I expect they will be worth more than USD 1 mio, simply because to accomodate such use, the Bitcoin economy would have to expand more than 200-fold. Conversely, they may not, in which the Bitcoins would be worth a few cents, certain below what they are trading for now. (Certainly everything in between is also possible. )

It's calculated risk. It's certainly possible that the price will drop sharply on some bad news, maybe from 1$ down to 0.1$, maybe from 10$ down to 1$. In any event, I'm holding them partly as a long-term investment and partly because for those things that you can buy with Bitcoins, they are actually really convenient.

Which language is the script written in? Does this offer include the source code?

I quite like the front page as it is. Remember it's the front page of a piece of open source software. Not the "How to get started with Bitcoin website". Why don't you just post a link to www.bitcoinme.com instead when you're dealing with newbies? Or better yet, create your own introductory site the way you think is best!

Also, I would recommend a service like MyBitcoin.com over the official client for people who are just trying it out. Since you don't have to install anything it's less commitment and you still have all the same features.

Zurich meeting was awesome, so what the hell, I'll hop on a train and get down there! 

Looking forward to meeting some genevoise bitcoinières! (Fun fact, the Genevoise was a short-lived currency in Geneva at the end of the 18th century!)

I hereby declare the meetup a success at four attendees and a great time all around. 

Looking forward to the next one!

I'd be happy to drop by as well.