Holy crap your crayons are flying faster than your brain.

The point still stands that in an initial phase where GPU mining isn't even on most people's radar - there'd be no obvious competitive advantage to the campaign for one processor maker over another and so no suspicion it was all designed by company X whose graphics cards are better at it.

I actually thought you were just posting this for giggles....  
but by your response it appears you take bullshit like this seriously and so the preschooler & woodpecker on acid comments apply directly to you?

cute..  they even went so far as to start with CPU mining so as to avoid suspicion.

This is why conspiracy theories, marketing and religion have such power..  in pursuit of a picture they've already envisioned in their mind, they join unrelated dots like a preschooler, and insert dots like a woodpecker on acid.

(A positive article in the economics section of the widely respected German newspaper 'Die Zeit')

Die Kriminellen sind in der Minderheit
http://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/2011-07/interview-Grinberg-bitcoins


(English Translation)

The Criminals are in the Minority
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zeit.de%2Fwirtschaft%2F2011-07%2Finterview-Grinberg-bitcoins&act=url

As an out of the blue post .. it makes the whole thing seem like a cheap marketing scheme, or worse - feeds the ponzi/pyramid arguments (stupid as that may be).

Just my opinion.. but I reckon it doesn't help. 
As an answer to someone asking where to buy.. it'd be fine.

Tax Tips
Bitcoins: The Taxless Currency
Josh Ritchie on July 18, 2011
http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/bitcoins-the-taxless-currency/07182011-7115

(An interesting graphic on bitcoin and tax)



(someone else picks up on the theme..)


What are bitcoins and how do they avoid taxes?
Connor Livingston on July 20, 2011
http://www.techi.com/2011/07/what-are-bitcoins-and-how-do-they-avoid-taxes/

Skeptics of financial system push Bitcoin as alternative online currency

http://www.brandonsun.com/lifestyles/breaking-news/125900603.html?thx=y

Leads with old news of the 'stunning crash'  and is overall quite negative on bitcoin.

Getting in on the ground floor of a new currency

http://poststar.com/app/blogs/?p=69740&cat=2669


This isn't the 1st time I've seen the user 'dacoinminster' pimping his tradehill referrer code in the comments of news articles.
Way to trash the good publicity with a 'spammy' feel  :/

Hacker Arrests May Have Included Core Member Of LulzSec

http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2011/07/19/hacker-arrests-may-have-included-core-member-of-lulzsec/


Only one mention of Bitcoins..     chalk this one up as slightly bad press by association I guess.

Only 'astronomically unlikely' if the particular software generating the address is doing it properly.

I think this needs to be followed up by the OP with bitmarket - just in case they are either generating addresses incorrectly, or somehow assigned to more than one user.

Actually potential value as a collectible was one of the main reasons I ordered some bitbills.
I'm hoping I get the early beta version and not their newer version... but I might have been a bit late for that.

Even if bitcoin doesn't eventually succeed - it's cemented it's place in internet history - so I guess the early bitbills will have *some* value.

Virtual Economy Pioneer Edward Castronova Skeptical of Bitcoin (So, So Am I) EDIT: that's the title - not my comment.
http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2011/07/edward-castronova-bitcoin.html




The  July 06 Edward Castronova  posting referred to (which doesn't appear to have been noted in this thread) EDIT: my comment.

http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2011/07/bitcoin.html

Coin of the cyber realm
How the geek set hopes to create a new world currency, one that relies on a network of users, not on a central banker

http://www.vancouversun.com/Cyber+Coin+Internet+currency/5125735/story.html

This is just a syndication of the previous Ottawa Citizen article.. I don't know that it's worth posting such syndicated items here in general, except to give an idea of how much exposure bitcoin is getting. Presumably the vancouver sun is 'notable' even if it's not the source.

There have been numerous discussions on it.

I tried here with a chart to get some consensus on visual hints to go along with names:
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=27663.0

You think they wouldn't reduce the fee or increase the payout rate to compete?

Also.. the more widely their system is used - the less often people would need to deposit to their bank accounts. They could use their credit within google's system directly with other merchants/users.

If I need to convert bitcoins to dollars there is a delay of a couple of days and an extra fee.. 5% is easily lost on such conversions at the moment.

World's Leading Bitcoin Exchange, Mt.Gox, Acquires MtGoxLive.com

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/7/prweb8656007.htm

Google have their own spiffy video regarding online payments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EEOWbIqQdE

So *we* here all see the benefits of a decentralized system like bitcoin - but will the consumers and merchants?

One of google's strengths is making things easy, which for the average merchant/consumer bitcoin is not.

Is bitcoin's success going to be less about the ideals of freedom and decentralization and more about the practical aspect of what payment system gets the most share of the mobile market?

Google need only add user-to-user payments, and suddenly, to a lot of people - it's all just one payment system vs another... convenience wins.

Will the fact that bitcoin is fundamentally different simply be lost on the general public?
Could a perceived edgy/underground/political nature of bitcoin work against it? 

If any centralized system can gain worldwide domination, it'll surely be google.  Bitcoin might have the edge as far as sneaking into China via the back door - but is it enough?

At some level - it really is a common goal. The difference is that many if not most people think they already have a decent measure of freedom as balanced against other concerns. They may be horribly wrong..  but pushing in-your-face ideals isn't always going to point them in the right direction - giving them the right tools (e.g encryption,smartphones,uncensored networks,bitcoin) will help lead them there.

They absolutely could. Self interested politicians (a tautology?) will pick up on and amplify any fear and distrust to their advantage.
If you want to rely on the fact that bitcoin *geeks* could no doubt keep bitcoin going for their own niche purposes even under sustained political attack - you're ignoring the larger userbase that will not participate if governments make it inconvenient.
If bitcoin had a certain critical mass and popular appeal, even this may be impossible for the politicians to stop, but until then, your approach endangers the long-term success of bitcoin.

^THIS... totally this.

Look at the famous bitcoin video which shows the two people throwing a coin to each other and bypassing the bank.
That is about as political as you need to get with bitcoin.
Even people who generally don't see too much wrong with how things are will have a bit of a smile at that.

They threw in the part about accounts not being able to be frozen - which might worry many people if they actually thought about it.
It's fine to reveal natural effects such as this that bitcoin has..  and these things will no doubt be discussed in the media
However, it's better discussed in a thoughtful balanced manner e.g "gaddaffi/wikipedia bypassing government account restrictions - 2 sides of the bitcoin"
vs.. "hahaha.. the government can't screw with us now!"

Well.. there must be many better choices than Theymos.
I don't have anything against Theymos - but just from the point of view of distribution of power, it would surely be preferable that it's not someone who is an admin or mod on another bitcoin forum.

I think if someone else reasonable puts their hand up for it, that'd be better... but who decides reasonable is up to the particular forum I guess.

How do we verify that it is? Do you know the origin of the symbol?



On the one hand - it's great to see you making the effort to do this properly.. Moving forward on this might help quash the ridiculous baht misuse going on.

On the other hand.. wareen mentioned the  "#-B combination from RylandAlmanza"  -  have you seen what he's talking about?
It would make an impressive looking glyph and might be easier to verify that it falls under the appropriate license.
However.. to move forward with that, we'd presumably have to get it out there and adopted by the community first, and there's no indication as yet that it would be preferred over the double-stroke B anyway.

Funny you should say that..  I mined exactly 2 blocks back then.  Wasn't til June this year that bitcoin hit my radar.. and those coins were suddenly more interesting.  It wasn't that I didn't think bitcoin would be interesting when the value was low..  I was just completely surprised (as I guess many have been) by the rate of change as far as mining difficulty and value and general buzz.