Looks like the server had a mini-crash. It was down for five minutes just seconds ago and is now back up again. The guys at Reddit even mentioned it:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2tg15e/is_bitcointalkorg_also_down_now/

Not sure why everyone here is bashing Monero. Unlike most other altcoins, the CryptoNote coins actually do bring something useful and innovative to the cryptosphere and aren't simply copy & paste clones of Litecoin. Bytecoin was the first CryptoNote coin but it was marred by somewhat shady distribution. Because of this, the community forked it - thus creating a number of different but similar coins (link). Out of these, Monero happens to be the biggest one.

Here is the link to the CryptoNote whitepaper. It's a bit complex to understand if you don't come from a mathematical background so here is a more simplified explanation. There are some valid criticisms of the Cryptonote protocol such as blockchain bloat but overall I think the ring signature technology is pretty neat.

Bytecoin and Monero is just another application of blockchain technology. The blockchain is an invention that can and should be used for more applications than just Bitcoin alone. Even Satoshi realized this when he contributed to the development of Namecoin (a decentralized DNS). Microsoft (link) and IBM realized this when they started exploring blockchain technology for the Internet of Things (IoT). Just three days ago, IBM announced its proof of concept for ADEPT (link) - a blockchain-powered distributed network of devices.

Now you have projects like Ethereum, NXT, BitShares, and Counterparty which also aim to utilize the blockchain technology for other uses beyond that of a simple A-to-B payment system. This will always happen and this should always happen. This type of innovation should be encouraged because this is exactly how technology is supposed to work.

That being said, I have some criticisms about OP's post as well such as his prediction that Bitcoin will fail as a payment system and that the core devs will simply lie back and let this happen, although I agree with him for the most part.

Interesting. I was under the impression that GAW Miners were one of the more legitimate businesses in the industry. Their CEO is public and his real identity is known unlike many of the other cloud mining companies where everything is anonymous.

It could be worth it. If someone makes a dice script and sells it to 50 people for 0.01BTC, then he would have made 0.5 BTC. That's a pretty nice sum. An experienced coder could probably create such a script in a few hours. An exchange script might take a day or two to create.

Also another reason of course is because I don't have a lot of funds.

You're not wrong but if you're lucky, then you can get a 300% return if your address is on the waiting list at the end of the round. It's only for one address picked at random though.

Website isn't working for me either. It's still stuck on "Connecting..."

Either the site's down or it's loading very, very slowly. Hopefully it's just a minor issue.

Hi, I would like to buy a PHP script for a cryptocurrency exchange similar to Cryptsy. I am willing to pay 0.01 BTC (this is negotiable). The source must be open and willing to accommodate a wide variety of cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin, Litecoin, and Primecoin. I would also like to see screenshots and a demo version to test out before I buy. Trusted members preferred.

I am also interested in other Bitcoin-related PHP scripts such as escrow scripts, dice scripts, faucet scripts, inputs.io clone, and Microwallet-style wallet scripts.

Post here or PM me if you are interested in selling. Thanks!

I am interested in creating my own dice/gambling site (like Primedice and Just-Dice) and my own altcoin exchange (like Cryptsy and Poloniex). Does anyone know how passive such sites are? For example, writing a novel is passive income because once you write it and find a publisher, you don't need to do any work for the money to keep rolling in. Another type of passive income is a rental property - especially if you have a property manager, and automated trading where you write the trading bot and it does all the trading for you. Most large businesses also generate passive income for their owners.

So how passive is a dice site/altcoin exchange? Could I write a site using PHP and Javascript, announce it here on the forums, and then leave it alone and still get money? Since it would all be automated and the site will automatically skim the profits from the house edge or trading fees, am I correct in assuming that I won't need to do anything further other than maybe check to see how it's going every once in a while?

I have two domains parked on Sedo which earn roughly $50 each per year. Renewing them on Godaddy costs about $10 each and even less if you have a coupon:



Unfortunately, $100 per year is nowhere enough for me to live on completely so I can't say I'm retired yet! I love passive income and would love to extend my passive income dreams further via things like blogging, ad revenue, automated trading, creating websites, etc. I might even create my own dice site or altcoin exchange! I wish to retire by the end of 2015.

I hope this is true. But Belitung Island has a population of 262,357 according to Wikipedia so it's not like it's deserted or anything. If everyone is still alive then surely we should have heard from the passengers by now?

1 days, 22 hours and 18 minutes here.

Interesting, so 7.5 TB makes 0.136 BTC worth per month.

I have about 10 external hard drives with roughly 500-1000GB each and 5 internal hard drives with roughly 100GB each. Would it be worth "mining" in my situation? How many coins should I expect to get with 5-10TB?

Looks interesting, but it's a tad concerning IMHO that a single centralized entity has control of the vast majority of coins (and hence stake). JD and dooglus are trustworthy, yes, but that doesn't mean the site is impervious to hacks. Bitcoin faced a similar problem when GHash.IO had over 51 percent of the hashrate. GHash.IO is trustworthy, but for a short while, Bitcoin was no longer decentralized.

Just came back and it looks like my faucet dropped from 1248 to 1199. Not too big a difference I suppose. I hardly ever use the chat anyway.

Looks like the price is going back up again for some reason. Bought some cheap coins at under 7,000 sats and a couple even under 6,000 a while ago. Would have been nice if I bought a bit more but I'm not complaining.

Glad to see Apple took my advice.

Why does everyone keep talking about GPUs? I thought this was a hard drive capacity-"mined" coin?

So what's the deal? Was Mateo just really, really lucky or was there something fishy going on (i.e. he found an exploit in the system)?

Now that Bter has got pretty much all of their NXT back (minus 8 million) and both NXT and Bter have emerged relatively unscathed from this crisis, I'm betting those who sold their NXT at a steep discount during the hack on old.bter.com feel pretty stupid.