If this is a centralized service using a protocol they designed, it would resolve most of my concerns. Although one concern that would remain would be the fact that I was attacked by a shill when I tried to ask questions.

If I was incorrect, I would ask how they are different than CM? AFAICT, they are basically the same as CM, except for the amount of time that bitcoin can be held at the mixer. Obviously CM can handle larger amounts due to their reputation.

Most likely you need to update your config file to reflect txindex=1

This is going to increase the amount of disk space required to run your node, and it will take longer to sync.

When you are running any kind of database, you need to create an index on any column that you will potentially search by. Putting information in RAM, increasing CPU capacity, increasing RAM, changing the file structure etc will not fix your problem.

This will make your database inefficient. It will require multiple queries any time you want to look something up. Lebeldb is not a relational database, and IMO you need a relational database in order to run a block explorer.

When the terms are changed after money has been sent to the escrow address, the escrow agent needs to be sure that everyone is on the same page. MJ should have delayed releasing the money. This might be inconvenient for the parties involved, but it is the escrow agent's job to ensure a safe transaction.

No, using escrow for an in-person transaction will not protect you. There will still be the potential one party gets robbed. It will also be impossible for the escrow agent to determine which party should get the money in the event of a dispute. 

Not quite.

From my understanding, it is trivial to create an arbitrary number of Mercury servers, any of which could be acting evil. So Alice could create 10 Mercury servers, initially all of them honestly, then one steals all of the bitcoin it is holding, so users stop using it, but Bob has no way to know that Alice is running 9 other servers, and there does not appear to be any way to decline to use any particular Mercury server, so even if it was known that a Mercury server was dishonest, there does not appear to be any mechanism for Bob to prevent his wallet from using Alice's known dishonest server.

With CM for example, if they were to scam their customers, this would quickly become well known, and people could simply not use their services. Granted those behind CM could create a new service after they scammed under their CM name, however they would need to build up a reputation before being able to attract a lot of business.

It is no secret that CM is a centralized service, and that there is the risk that CM will scam their customers. CM does not try to hide this. With Mercury Wallet on the other hand, their documentation is misleading in that it is saying that funds in their wallet are not at risk of loss. There is also the concern that dkbit98 is shilling for this wallet while falsely saying he is not.

The point of delaying the release of the money is to wait for someone to potentially say that something is wrong. If he already knows something is wrong, there is a dispute and he should mediate accordingly.

I would not have agreed to escrow a transaction that involved in person delivery. What if for example, the OPs account had not been hacked, and there was simply a dispute as to if the physical coin was actually delivered? There would be no way to resolve the dispute as it would be one persons word against the others.

Notwithstanding the above, if the terms of the trade changed, I think it would be prudent to delay the release of the money. This would allow for the buyer to flag something as being wrong.

These kinds of attacks against someone asking basic questions should set off red flags to anyone considering to use this wallet.

I also think it is strange that you are promoting something originally posted by a one-post newbie
DeFi obviously has risks, and these risks are very well known. I don't think anyone is trying to hide these risks, or lying about these risks not actually existing.

Well it is the escrow's job to ensure the trade goes smoothly, and if it doesn't to see that the scammer does not end up with the money. That is what they are getting paid to do. If the escrow is not willing to do basic due diligence before releasing the money, I don't see the point of using them.

The amount in question in this case is $50k. I don't think it is unreasonable to use a little bit of care when dealing with that much of other people's money.

Lightning Network protocol has measures in place that specifically prevent the theft of bitcoin by your channel partners. As far as I can tell, there are no similar measures in place with Mercury protocol.

I don't think it is accurate to say that you have full custody of your coins at all times, or at least this would not be true if you were to say "sole custody". This is according to my understanding of how Mercury works.

Every centralized service that holds custody of your bitcoin says that you can withdraw at any time. So did most ponzis before they imploded.

I don't think it is safe to entrust your money with Mercury until the issue of an malicious SE stealing your money is addressed.

That website appears to be intended to get people to want to get vaccinated. Certainly an interesting way of trying to achieve that adjective.

IMO, the best way of getting people to use smoke detectors is to explain the benefits of using smoke detectors. Simply providing the data as to why smoke detectors are going to prevent fire-related deaths is going to get almost everyone to want to use a smoke detector.

Similarly with vaccines, giving the data as to why getting the vaccine will benefit them is going to get most people to want to get vaccinated. If you try to force people into doing something, many people are going to reflexively try to resist.  

PS - if you are the one behind this website, can you PLEASE make the font more readable? The 24 pt font is ridiculous. Granted it does give more space for more ads.

According to what appears to be the escrow agreement, the coins were to be shipped to the buyer.

This was not long after eseayan's password was changed, and should have set off red flags.

I am interested to see what MJ plans to do about the situation.

I think wanting to wait for a study to confirm a drug is efficient in treating covid is reasonable. Although if potential side effects are minimal, and the risk of taking the drug is low, there is an argument to allow people to take the drug (ivermectin today, or HCQ mid last year) as long as patients understand the risks, and studies are ongoing.

The opposition to ivermectin today is not that there needs to be a study confirming that ivermectin is effective against covid. When studies on HCQ were ongoing, many on the left were actively hoping that HCQ would not show to be effective, as is the case for ivermectin today. 

Thanks. The documentation at https://docs.mercurywallet.com/docs/ should be updated with their clarification.

I think the other issues are probably more important to be addressed before anyone should consider trusting their money with this type of service.

Minerjones has a history of playing fast and lose with what he is willing to do for his own (potential) profit. He is willing to auction off items on behalf of third parties without being in possession of said items, and does not take responsibility when he cannot deliver the items (no disclaimer is made that he is not the seller, that the auction is subject to any additional terms, or that he is not the one actually shipping the items).

It is not unusual for an escrow provider to have the seller ship directly to the seller -- as an escrow provider, I engaged in this practice, and would give terms to this effect, I would say that in the event of a dispute the respective parties would need to provide evidence to support if they lived up to the terms of the agreement.

It is best to confirm all the terms of the trade before a funding address is provided, and that does not appear to have occurred in this case. MJ said it is safe to "ship" the physical coin once the escrow address is funded, but MJ later posted that he was told via PM that delivery would be done in person. IMO this should have set off red flags, and he should have either asked for additional verification from the buyer to confirm he is speaking to the correct person, or delayed releasing the funds to see if someone shows up claiming to be the buyer whose account was hacked.

There seems to be a lot of forum members who were last active in the 300-500 days ago range on this list. I can't help but wonder if these people were somehow negatively affected by covid. My guess is that at least some of them were.

Some of these people had moved on from the forum before the advent of the merit system, but received merit because of their prior contributions. Some of these people likely abandoned their old forum accounts in favor of new accounts in order to improve their anonymity -- this is something that has always happened, but the merit system brings attention to when a good forum member stops using their account.

Some people on this list have moved on from using the forum for a variety of reasons. Years ago, I remember reading posts about people writing that they had to look for jobs after suffering a theft or loss, with those posts being one of their last posts.

It appears there are some studies that are ongoing regarding ivermectin currently.

There is opposition to using ivermectin even on an experimental, or compassionate use basis. There was similar fierce opposition to hydroxychloroquine even while studies were ongoing. The reason for this is that if there was an efficient treatment for covid, the lockdowns and other means of control under the guise of "protection" from covid could no longer be justified.

I read the documentation, and it appears there might be some missing information.

The second paragraph in the "overview" section starts talking about the "SE" but this term is never defined. It is unclear what this is.

At the end of the first paragraph of the "statechains" section, it says that any collusion between the "SE" and an old owner of a UTXO that results in theft of a UTXO can be trivially proven. This does not explain any consequences of this collusion. If someone were to buy up all the 0.0001 BTC UTXOs one at a time, and sell each UTXO before buying the next one, if they are colluding with the "SE" what would prevent them from being able to have a tx confirmed to an arbitrary address? I don't see anything in the documentation that would.

The "fraud proof" paragraph again says that it can be trivially proven if the "SE" is corrupt, and alludes that the ability to prove a "SE" is corrupt is an incentive to be "honest". Again, the documentation does not explain the actual consequences for the "SE" for being corrupt. The LN protocol for example, has concrete consequences for publishing an old channel state to close the channel -- the other party is able to recover the entire channel balance of both parties. There does not appear to be any financial consequences for a corrupt "SE" that I can see.

I am curious if you are in any way associated with this project.

This is according to Joe Rogan, and may or may not be true.

The opposition to Ivermectin is not about Ivermectin, nor is it about the vaccine. It is about control. The opposition to Ivermectin is about control. Democrats want to mandate (aka force) people into doing something they know they will receive pushback to, and force as many people to do what they don’t want to do as possible. This will lead to Democrats being able to get even more people to do what Democrats want them to do.

I don’t think the day of the week new videos are released is particularly important, as long as it is consistent. You should set this according to your schedule so that you can reliably release videos that day. If your release schedule doesn’t match when viewers are able to watch new videos, viewers will watch new videos later. If you say you will post new videos on Tuesday, and someone can view new videos on Thursday, if they check your channel on Thursday to not find a new video, they might not come back to look for additional videos.

I think this is an escrow address. It was posted as being the address to watch for payments last year. It is certainly not a new address.

If LL said he would find escrow two weeks ago, he should do so.