Fortunately, I don't have any BTC in Kraken... But I do have 12000 € worth of altcoins... Let's hope we won't get Gox'ed!

It sure looks like a mammoth upgrade. Not normal. Not a good sign.

Of course it doesn't end. The "it" in my "Where does it end?" rhetorical question refers to the endless hard-forking, not to progress in general.

I don't think there's any point in analysing it any further. Some of us are conservative and choose the slow, scientific approach. Others are more impatient and want a solution "right here, right now". We can agree to disagree.

It's not a sophism. The key word here is "liberty". Are you willing to compromise Bitcoin's decentralization by HARD-FORKING it to a bigger block size, so that you can buy your coffee at Starbucks and keep a permanent record of it in the blockchain? Bitcoin's enemies will still exist, and will still spam the network. Then what? Increase the block size even more, to accumulate more garbage? Another hard fork? Where does it end?

What's needed is a solution that is inherently scalable by design, such as the Lightning Network (or better ones that will surely come). It just doesn't make sense to do a hard fork that merely alleviates the problem temporarily while compromising decentralization, when a much more elegant solution does exist, has already been tested and is almost ready to implement. After LN is implemented, there may be a need for a moderate increase in block size. That's the "valid reason" you are asking. A reason that comes from scientific method, not from a thoughtless "bigger is better" mentality.

The blockchain simply cannot hold every little insignificant transaction that is ever made. It is a waste of resources and totally inefficient. Back in the days when transaction volume was low/moderate, this could be tolerated. Not anymore. Have you kept every little note you've ever made in every little piece of paper since you were born? Do you keep all the shopping lists you make every time you go to the supermarket in a log book for future reference? Should every blackboard on every classroom be made to permanently preserve everything that's written on it?

There has to be a garbage collection mechanism in Bitcoin. We've reached a point where the garbage has become too much for the network to keep storing. The solution is NOT to make more room for even more garbage, but to find a way to destroy them and keep them out of the network. That's what LN does. Thousands of "coffee-sized" transactions aggregated to a single transaction that only takes a small fraction of a block instead of flooding the network. No loss of significance of information, because such information is not significant. No hard fork needed! Want to do an important transaction on-chain? You can, just like today. And you will pay much less fees than today, because LN will free the network from all those millions of petty cash transactions that would otherwise flood it.

Sorry for the long post. It just infuriates me when people fail to see the moon and keep staring at the finger pointing to it...

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." -- Benjamin Franklin

Just replace Safety with Throughput.

Be patient, people! The scaling problem will be solved, and it will be solved in the right way, and for the long term. Nobody wants a temporary "patch" that requires a hard fork and compromises decentralization. When there are valid reasons to increase the block size, it will be done.

It reminded me of a documentary I once watched, which showed that small mice are a delicacy in certain regions of China, and are often eaten alive without cooking! Yuck!

I like your explanation. That little mouse is a true HoDLer!

What a cute little thing!

I want to eat it alive!

Fair enough, and congrats on your gains, which, after reading your long reply to JJG, I'm sure are well-deserved.

I'm jealous!

That's what I thought too, and didn't swap... But was that the smartest choice? After watching my friend's Kraken account balance going from 2000 € to 30000 € in a matter of weeks, I can't help but wonder, what if...

But, let's keep the spirit positive!

Something tells me I'll be the winner of micgoossens' game this time. Which means we're going to reach $24777 on the 10th of February. Which makes us all winners I guess!

Go BTC go!


Edit:


I'm guessing the above post by Dabs is very much related to the first paragraph of my comment above...  

LOL, you're right about Kraken, but it worked OK at the time...

Good thing is that he is now a HoDLer! A Ripple/Stellar HoDLer! He just logs in to Kraken to check his balance. Every other day he calls me and thanks me for what I've done for him. And whenever we go out for dinner or drinks, he always insists on paying the bill. So I got something out of it too, thanks XRP/XLM!

A few months ago I helped a friend setup a Kraken account to buy some BTC. This guy is completely tech-/crypto-illiterate. To him, Bitcoin, Ripple, Stellar, DOGE, are all equivalent.

A few weeks later he told me that BTC was too expensive for him to buy (a common newbie reaction). I explained to him that 1 BTC = 1000 mBTC, etc., so even 0.1 BTC is still a good investment. He ignored my advice. Using common sense, he concluded that the only chance he has to quickly multiply his investment would be to buy cheaper altcoins, because, according to his thinking, if they're cheap they have the potential to grow much faster and much more than BTC.

He bought a few altcoins. No BTC. His two biggest purchases were 10000 Ripple and 10000 Stellar Lumens. He paid about 2000 € for both purchases.

Today, his crypto stash is valued in excess of 30000 € (a 15x gain), with the majority of the gains coming from XRP and XLM. All this in just 4 months! Had he followed my advice, he would have less than 1/4 of what he has now...

I told him that he should consider buying some BTC, but he's blinded by his unexpected gains and is now determined to ride the Ripple/Stellar wave until the end. I just hope he won't be disappointed when the trend reverses and the bank-coins start losing value (or BTC does a 10x again this year)...

We will!

And many thanks for the cool games!

Haskell is a functional (as opposed to procedural) programming language that is well established and with an excellent track record in the scientific community. It's a good thing.

I think it has to do with one's frequency of posts about coin A, in a thread that talks about coin B. It's not about what one posts, but where he/she posts it.

This is a general comment, not about you.

Edit: bitserve beat me to it.

Do yourself a favour. Get a TREZOR. Seriously. I don't think you want to expose yourself to the risks of owning and maintaining a paper wallet. Write your 24-word seed on 2-3 small pieces or paper, laminate them, and store/hide them safely in 2-3 separate places. Also, use an additional 25th word/phrase (passphrase), so that even if someone finds your seed, it will be useless without the passphrase.

All done! You can sleep peacefully at night. Definitely worth the 100-something € to buy the TREZOR.

Congrats man! That was close!

Losing 0.1 BTC is nothing compared to losing $45k...

I own both TREZOR and Ledger h/w wallets. Well, TREZOR was my first, and hence has seen much heavier use than the Ledger. I like both. The good thing about the Ledger is that it supports many more coins than the TREZOR, and the Ledger team is usually quicker to release support for forks, updates, etc. Also, the Ledger contains a "secure element" that is supposed to improve security. I think both are more or less equivalent for most users, and they are currently the best you can get, but I tend to like the TREZOR slightly more, probably for sentimental/subjective rather than technical reasons...

jojo69 has posted a comparison video. Watch it for a more hands-on comparison.

No need to worry. If the TREZOR company goes bust, just enter your seed in a Ledger. They are compatible. It's a standard. There will always be a way to get to your coins from your seed. Plus, the servers of these companies don't know (and can't know, by design) your seed or your private keys.

Oh man, really sorry to hear that. From the moment I read your first post about this, I knew it was a losing battle. It's tough to outrun the network (even the slow and overloaded Bitcoin network). It was inevitable that he would get a confirmation before you could act...

Some advice to help avoid situations like this:

1. Buy (and use) a TREZOR or Ledger h/w wallet.
2. Use a good Anti-Virus s/w (not M$ SUCKurity ASSentials or DAFTender).
3. Train yourself to sense intrusions (needs years of experience).
4. Be paranoid about the organization of apps and files on your PC.
5. Don't use Windows 10 if possible. It significantly compromises (3) and (4) among other negatives.
6. Online and PC/phone wallets are to hold small amounts of coins, and only temporarily.
7. Buy (and use) a TREZOR or Ledger h/w wallet.

Again, really sorry for the loss, and I hope it was a small percentage of your total portfolio.

Sorry... Post corrected!

Thanks for the batch file link jojo69! Worked great!

That was a great post. I found two more batch files for the removal of telemetry updates from a Windows 7 installation. Didn't keep the links unfortunately, but you can find them easily by Googling for them. Applied them all, to all of my PCs. No side effects. And hopefully a cleaner, more secure system.

Thanks NiceSoft12!

Edit: Thanks jojo69!