I have really learnt so much from this thread. I feel like the discussion now needs to heads towards Mining. How Quantum Computers could affect mining and Decentralized aspect of the CryptoCurrencies. One of the thing which is mainly agreed in this thread is a move will be made towards "Quantum resistant Algo", which will prevent Quantum computers to break private keys but what about mining? Given that Quantum computers will be only a few in numbers, Basically these few "companies" would become the centralized figurehead for "Cryptocurrencies". Since there won't be a mining competition how will "cryptocurrencies" survive? Since currently, One of the reasons why people use Cryptos is their Decentralized aspect.

I will give FB's Libra's example. E.g FB gets their hand on one of few early "Quantum computers" they could basically make Libra stand out because it will be the only coin with the most "hashing" power / most secure, but they could easily decide which coin lives and which dies. Basically, if mark then wanted to mine BTCs, even after implementing the "Quantum Resistant" algos, Mark could just mine every block since he will have the most "hashing" power. I'm not familiar with How "Anti Asic" algos for mining work, but could in theory "Anti Quantum" algos could be made for Mining which could prevent this Centralization?

Since TMAN is busy, DesignMan can talk with you 4 free Sir.

I think we are being hypocritical by saying that. We mock people who believe in a deity for believing in things like "Magic" yet we have our own words for describing things we can't explain yet. Rather than saying "Random", "We Don't know the pattern yet" would be a better way to put things forward as it will encourage us to look deeper into things and discover these new patterns. There is a difference in how an academic will see the word "Random" and what an average joe will make of it. I feel like when we use words like "Random" this leads to ignorance, Religious folks are a perfect example of this. I don't want to see Science become a thing which it separates itself from. So yes words do matter...

Well, their website clearly explains it on their How it works ^[1] page.


They basically scan the URL/File with Antivirus providers who they are partnered with. A false Positive in this URL's case which you linked could be, One of their providers could have detected a malicious file/code linked in the paste.ee domain and would have blacklisted the whole domain as a malicious instead of blacklisting the specific URL which resulted in this false positive. They mention this even on one of their pages ^[2].


As for what's the rate of "False Positive" results from virustotal I couldn't find the error rate on their website nor from doing some googling. So at what rate these occur, it's a hard figure to guess.

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Sources:
[1] https://support.virustotal.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002126889-How-it-works
[2] https://www.virustotal.com/gui/monitor-overview

Just go with Bitcoin initially if you want to target the biggest audience. For my personal projects, I didn't even bother adding the altcoins because the demand isn't just there. Unless your Game is something really "Spectacular" and will attract all sorts of crypto enthusiasts and it will offer in-game purchases then you might want to add some altcoins in, if there aren't any then spend your time on other things.

I don't know what we are arguing about, I think we are on the same page but we are viewing it from a different perspective. While we agree that miners are motivated by "Profit", this can be used to create a monopoly that's all I'm suggesting. I never said this is a bug but rather can act as a means to create something which does not ascribe to the values of decentralization. For example, Exchange X wants to monopolize itself as the only exchange where you can Buy/Sell Cryptos, it can by simply making an "agreement" with pools to not even include TXs from Exchange Y, even if Exchange Y is willing to pay the same amount of fees. That's where I see the issue is. That's where the centralization can happen. By Allowing miners to select which payment goes through and which don't, it basically facilitates the way for centralization to happen.

I think the same applies when a player doesn't want to leave his "current employer" and he should be respected for his/her decision and let's not force X way of thinking upon others. Not everyone plays for Money by saying that I am not denying that some do play for it, but if you ask the majority of Cricketers their answer won't be Money but rather the Passion for Game and remember no amount of money can derive your passion in the real world.

I would say if your answer is "nothing", then you aren't clearly educated enough about Cryptos or computers. There are certain measures which can be taken to prevent these. Only the uneducated get hacked and only the Lazies lose their backups. These aren't even a technical issue but rather User ones.

Anyway, my vote goes to Decentralized Computing/Cloud storage. Projects like Golem and Storj are some of the best applications of Blockchain I have seen/used.

@squatter, But the real world suggests otherwise. Monopolies in real-world do all sorts of shady stuff to eliminate competition. Things like Price slashing, Preventing competition to emerge, do happen in the real world. Just look at Intel for an example. They had a monopoly in the CPUs market but now when AMD is coming back with Solid stuff, They have slashed their prices by almost 50%. So in my scenario, Coinbase paying a premium to eliminate competition is quite possible and just like you said there is nothing which can prevent this, In real world at least there are regulators which monitor this sort of behaviour, but with Bitcoin, there is nothing monitoring this. I feel like this is an area which can be further developed.

I will expand on my example, Let's say Coinbase in the future decided to eliminate the lighting network. It makes a "deal" with the pools to not accept any "closing" TX from the Lightning Networks to establish itself as an instant way to send bitcoin payments with current mechanism this can happen. I feel like a better model can be developed or a mechanism can be developed which will prevent this.

@figmentofmyass That's really a skewed way to put it. Miners can't solo mine, that's a fact. In the current environment, Miners are being forced to work in the pools. I would rather question why no one has challenged this "pool" concept so far. It's the 1st step towards centralization iyam. Once these people form alliances what I have stated before becomes a reality. These pools can/already dictate which TXs go through and which don't. That is too much power for something which is technically decentralized...

As for filling the blocks that's not really a strong argument. Once the chunk of miner's earning is coming from the Fees there is literally nothing stopping them to only include transactions which they want. Consider this in the future. Let's say Coinbase becomes "huge" in the future and they make a "deal" with these pools that they will only include Coinbase's TXs into the blocks they form and will reject any other TXs. It leads to further Centralization of Bitcoin, what's currently stopping this to happen? As far as I know, there is no mechanism in place which will prevent this from happening...

If you are looking for the "best" noise-cancelling headphones then Sony WH-1000XM3 has no competition, I can vouch for that personally and there are tons of reviews on youtube about its noise cancellation but just like @odolvlobo said, they are a bit expensive compared to PXC550. So if you are looking for the best, then you can't go wrong with Sony.

@NeuroticFish Depends on how you define the word "Useful". Having a higher amount of Karma allows you to post on certain subreddits, they are basically "sub-boards". On more popular subreddits like "r/videos" newbies can't post/share a link. Since these subreddits receive millions of impressions every day. Having a top post on one of these Subreddits can be quite beneficial if we are talking from a monetary perspective. There are special subreddits that you can only join when you receive X amount Karma. I remember a board for only "Merit-earners" was proposed here as well but I think it never became a reality.

Well, that's one way to put it but the reality is the pools do decide which TX goes through and which doesn't, Just look at how many Transaction Accelerators exist already today. They are essentially acting as "Banks" if you are willing to pay "Top dollar" your transaction gets through within minutes. It isn't far-fetching that these pools can decide not to accept transactions below X amount of fees once the mining reward goes down... There is nothing stopping miners to extort fees if they want...

Your account's creation date doesn't matter. What matters is why are you here? Do you want to spam all over the forum to make a quick buck or are you here to learn, talk and discuss things related to cryptocurrencies? Your intention is all that matters. I hope that answers your question.

Indeed. As for the rest, I agree with you. We can never be certain about how things will roll out but having "Backups" doesn't hurt anyone which is why things like "Quantum resistant" algos are being developed.

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@squatter it doesn't have to be 51% attacks, Just look at what happened with the bitcoin tx fees when we were "mooning". Miners can definitely extort whatever fees they want... They can basically hold the network hostage. It has nothing to do with being a troll... Dismissing them won't resolve what's currently possible. Also, Past behaviour isn't a really good point to argue from iyam. "Just because we saw 1000 black swans doesn't mean white swans don't exist."

At least we are "identifying" that mining has become "concentrated", The top mining pools will BTW disagree with your statement The 1st step towards fixing something is identifying something is wrong... The worse thing which could happen is we let these things slip by till its too late to fix. Although I believe with "code" its never too late.

BTW I don't see anything wrong with OP's idea of everyone being able to mine. Mining if his algo works and that is a big if at this point, becomes a mere game of luck compared to what is now a current display of One's fortune, unfortunately. It has nothing to do with redistribution of wealth, although bitcoin's original motive wasn't redistribution of wealth, it was to take power away from the top 1% or "Centralization" in a nutshell... Moving towards an algo which is more based on "Luck" than what we have now could help with Redistribution of wealth aswell.
 
Giving it a second thought I wonder how the price would react if bitcoin mining becomes a game of mere luck compared to what it is now. Right now one could argue bitcoin's price is directly linked with how much energy it is required to mine them, what happens when it becomes a game of luck rather than a competition of who has the more hashing power...

That's really a skewed way to put it. Money is not everything. Ask people who have got the money and they will tell you otherwise. There are more valuable things like Happiness, personal development and so on. "Sports People (Athletes)" often have long carriers lasting at least a decade and they make a fortune no matter what sport they play in or whatever their intention might be. So yeah it's not all about money always... The are other factors in play.

I kinda disagree. Majority of people ain't stupid but are rather misinformed/uneducated and TBH I don't blame them. When you are constantly bombarded with stories of rags to riches from cryptos and stock investments. People become an easy target. Lacking the technical knowledge behind the Cryptos and the Machine learning/AIs is one of the major reasons why Scams like these exist. It's basically Presented as a "magic tool" for them from what they have read and seen online. Stupidity is when they know the technical knowledge behind all this but yet still fall for it. I don't think majority of people who fall for these scams even know basic Computer handling knowledge. Cryptos is a different dimension altogether for them.

Exactly, India did a similar thing to their "cash" a while ago where they blacklisted certain denominations of their currency. The main purpose behind this is to create a digital ledger of sorts for all the TXs making it more trackable just like @DdmrDdmr mentioned. This also has to do with corruption. From what I have read Italy suffers from corruption so it will help their economy in the long run... BTW accepting cryptos will only hinder their cause. The whole idea stems from removing Anonymity and creating a full trackable system.

It's a fancy prepaid card in a nutshell. Already has been done countless times... Except I believe something based on Lightning network, I haven't seen one of those.