We really need to improve bitcoin's startup time for the first-time user, notably the block chain download. Has anyone given this any thought already? I would suggest - guarantee that blkNNNN.dat is the same on all platforms (Linux, Windows, 32-bit, 64-bit)
- publish zip-compressed block chain up to block XXXXX on bitcoin.org, where XXXXX == the largest height of hashes built into bitcoin
binary - publish zip-compressed block chain via trackerless torrent
- call out to remote BT program to download block chain, falling back to HTTP if not working
Another option is to add a more efficient network retrieval method, such as a "download-pkg" command, where a "pkg" is defined as a pre-packaged, pre-compressed range of blocks. a list of block chain ranges packaged could be retrieved via "list-pkgs". Or generalize this concept further by permitting the bitcoin network protocol to share and download unspecified binary objects based on SHA-1 hash. |
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I think the second stage of economic growth is the payment processor, and the ability to pay for goods.
IMO, MyBitcoin's Shopping Cart Interface (SCI) is quite adequate for payment processing. It is equal to the level offered by Pecunix, Liberty Reserve, GlobalDigitalPay and Perfect Money. |
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+1 agreed
I've been thinking about reselling shared web / VPS / dedicated.
I have the corporation... anybody have suggestions for good providers?
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Are Kir and I the only ones who believe in the utility of BTC for Facebook apps? Nobody else want to jump in here?
I think it's a very good idea. Huge potential audience. |
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URL: http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/roubini30/English[...]
The trouble, of course, is that not all currencies can be weak at the same time: if one is weaker, another must, by definition, be stronger. Likewise, not all economies can improve net exports at the same time: the global total is, by definition, equal to zero. So the competitive devaluation war in which we find ourselves is a zero-sum game: one country’s gain is some other country’s loss.
The first salvos in this war came in the form foreign-exchange intervention. To diversify away from US dollar assets while maintaining its effective dollar peg, China started to buy Japanese yen and South Korean won, hurting their competitiveness. So the Japanese started to intervene to weaken the yen.
This intervention upset the EU, as it has put upward pressure on the euro at a time when the European Central Bank has placed interest rates on hold while the Bank of Japan (BoJ) and the US Federal Reserve are easing monetary policy further. The euro’s rise will soon cause massive pain to the PIIGS, whose recessions will deepen, causing their sovereign risk to rise. The Europeans have thus already started verbal currency intervention and may soon be forced to make it formal.
In the US, influential voices are proposing that the authorities respond to China’s massive accumulation of dollar reserves by selling an equivalent amount of dollars and buying an equivalent amount of renminbi. Meanwhile, China and most emerging markets are accelerating their currency interventions to prevent more appreciation.
The next stage of these wars is more quantitative easing, or QE2. The BoJ has already announced it, the Bank of England (BoE) is likely to do so soon, and the Fed will certainly announce it at its November meeting. In principle, there is little difference between monetary easing – lower policy rates or more QE – that leads to currency weakening and direct intervention in currency markets to achieve the same goal. In fact, quantitative easing is a more effective tool to weaken a currency, as foreign exchange intervention is usually sterilized.
[...]
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The current bitcoin community is quite small, and the bitcoin-related websites tend to be bare bones, produced by geeks for geeks. The average consumer would have a difficult time obtaining bitcoins, and a difficult time finding useful items on which to spend bitcoins. At the moment, bitcoins themselves would be considered high risk to novice and experience investors alike.
And... I think things are fine like that, for the moment.
bitcoin currency will benefit from a slow maturity. That gives the technologists time to work through minor flaws in the system (witness the recent security updates). Gives hackers time to attack the system, to try and make it fail. Gives cryptanalysts time to study the system.
The average consumer, and consumer-friendly websites and bitcoin acquisition methods will come over time... without any need for "strong leadership" of bitcoin. Let the free market do it's thing.
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From where do the ratings come? |
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How about you open a side PP account to allow withdrawal, but not funding? This seems like a valid and convenient use of Paypal. ACH would be a highly useful method of deposit, but that's only in the US, as mtgox noted. |
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Incorrect. See response at link. |
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That is incorrect.
The content in gavin's patch makes my getblock largely redundant -- but they are not incompatible.
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I am really thinking about investing over $1000 of my savings into Bitcoin. Would this be wise? Is BTC safe and stable at this point?
From an investment standpoint, bitcoins qualify at a high risk investment. They are brand new. The regulatory regime is unknown or grey in many areas. It is still quite easy for someone with deep pockets, or a botnet, to control >50% of the network. That said, so far, the experiment seems to be working! |
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Don't forget bitlist. With such a small userbase bitlist is actually more useful than an auction site because auctions in small groups are unpredictable.
That's certainly true for the two VISA debit cards I lost money on...  |
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Offshore where, exactly? (seriously, is there a state whose laws wouldn't attack bitcoin exchange services?)
Nevis seems popular these days (MyBitcoin uses it, I notice). But even offshore, for United States citizens, means reporting to the IRS - ownership interest in a foreign entity
- transactions between the United States and a foreign country
and possibly all bookkeeping of the foreign entity to the IRS. This does seem to indicate that United States citizens could legally operate offshore, outside the jurisdiction of the Banking Secrecy Act, PATRIOT Act, etc. with regards to banking and currency exchange, as long as the transactions are reported to the IRS for taxing. However, I Am Not A Lawyer and This Is Not Legal Advice. ;-) |
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So... it's B450 for $50?. It means that one bitcoin currently worth $0.11 - that's good =)
If you go by bitcoinmarket's PPUSD asking price, the buyer paid $36 for a $50 card. |
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Paypal works just fine for normal businesses with on-going customer-business relationships. An established business does deal with the occasional chargeback, but that's just part of the system. The law (here in the US) strongly incentivizes sellers to work hard to please the buyer, because chargeback capability is required by law to protect the consumer. For the most part, the system works as expected.
When it comes to cash, however, the system clearly breaks down. Presumably that's why ATM withdrawals from credit cards carry a higher interest rate, and often, more security protections (PIN requirement, etc.).
We need to figure out how to access the "ATM withdrawal" portion of a credit card, at the exchanges.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-goldIn 2007 the proprietors of the e-gold service were indicted by the United States Department of Justice on four counts of violating money laundering regulations. In July 2008 the company and its three directors pleaded guilty to charges of "conspiracy to engage in money laundering" and the "operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business" in the U.S. District Court for D.C.[1] The company faces fines of $3.7 million. Yep. That's why exchanges should register as Money Service Businesses (MSB), if they are making money. They also need to adopt anti-money laundering (AML) protections. Unsurprisingly, AML protection means not permitting huge sums of untraceable money to pass through your exchange without some sort of identification of the user. Non-profit exchanges are on a little bit better ground, legally. But they still need to adopt AML protections, if they want to avoid running afoul of the law. (or move offshore) |
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But exchanging money in an untraceable way for bitcoins, and then back, is kind of a big bright shiny red arrow pointing at the exchange service. I, myself, believe there's no such thing as "money laundering", only money that taxes weren't collected upon, but that's not the point.
The United States' anti-money laundering (AML) efforts are not primarily aimed at uncollected taxes. It's more about preventing criminals from using crime profits for legitimate purposes. I would rather not have bitcoins purchased from the Bitcoin Store used to purchase the world's most dangerous WMD, and from there, used to kill people. I would rather not have the Zetas, known for kidnapping and murdering policemen, politicians and journalists, using bitcoins to fund their organization. The best way for bitcoins to be successful is to ensure the majority of transactions are for purposes that the world's governments consider legitimate. And the quickest way to kill bitcoins in the long run will be to encourage bitcoin use by criminal elements. |
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The info posted on buybitcoins said that one person was using as many as 25 different credit cards. This must have only been possible because it was completely automated, right?
Hardly. Never underestimate the motivation of a thief to do this sort of manual labor. Their pay rate was, what, $600/hr? |
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If another exchange wants to try again with PayPal, I think there is a safer way to do it.
MtGox used PayPal's merchant interface, which is the logical way to do it, but it's quite attractive to those who have stolen a PayPal account, because they can initiate the BTC purchase and everything happens instantly.
Instead, the buyer could request the exchange to use PayPal's facility to send an "invoice" by email. When the buyer receives the PayPal "invoice", they then make the payment. The process can still be automated, and is almost as convenient.
But someone who has stolen a PayPal account is unlikely to want to get involved with emails back-and-forth. If they can't just spend the funds directly, they'll probably go to another site where they can.
As an additional measure of security, Paypal offers a facility where the merchant authorizes (places a hold on) funds. That authorization lasts for up to 3 days. A merchant can, for example, authorize (hold) for 48 hours, then complete the payment. |
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