lesson one
dont use online wallet for long term storage. only use for daily 'pocket money amounts'

lesson two
even if you have forgot your password, as long as you have the private key to your hoard you can use it anywhere.

lesson three
the private key is the most important thing in your life. keep it as a paper wallet. when you intend to spend a small amount of coin, produce a new paper wallet. Import the first(old) paper wallet to a desktop/web client do your spending and send the remnants/change/ hoard left over to the address of the fresh UN-IMPORTED paper wallet.

that way no hoards of coins remain in programs/cloud services.

here endith the lessons

avoid mentioning step 6.....

thats then making people think that bitcoin will become a government fiat.

instead say people will keep their bitcoins on them, whether its on a laptop memory stick, a piece of paper or a smartphone. and there is no yearly interest made from bankers 'borrowing' your money overnight. but the yearly interest is just the value increase for just hoarding the coins.

there maybe services where you can put in pocket money amounts to convert to fiat or use as escrow to instant payments that are PRE-confirmed before being spent at starbucks etc but long term storage should stay with the owner.

as this is the whole point of bitcoins.. no centralisation.

explanation.

the royal mint.
they take in used notes and coins that have been in circulation and reject the forged ones and only accept in the proper genuine coins. they then mint new verified coins once all of the checks are done plus they mint an amount of fresh coin or notes increasing the amount of coins/notes in circulation.

the only difference is.

in bitcoin. YOU are the bank its in your possession under your lock and key, no trust required by governments/corporations.
in bitcoin. YOU own, control, govern and decide what you do with your coins.
in bitcoin. YOU can be the minter too. but its called mining.
in bitcoin. YOU can give it away, hoard it, spend it without other people arguing with you about laws.
in bitcoin. YOU can send it across the world in seconds and they can get it verified by miners within a couple hours if you want to double check what they received is not forged.
in bitcoin. there a set amount of new coins being produced, its not just endless supply of new coins produced uncontrolably at the whim of governments causing issues to the economy.

the freedom of speech does not mean everyone has the right to shout over each other so much that nothing can be comprehended and the topics get distorted.

the freedom of speech would only be violated if there was no way to make a random off-topic room or a north korea room and allow anyone who was interested in those topics to move to a more suitable location.

when inside the bitcoin room, it can meander off topic to a degree, but remember if it starts to get manic, off topic beyond repair then some moderation has to be considered. there is nothing stopping you from messaging people to say "come to this more suitable room" and create your own community. you can always re enter the bitcoin room and talk bitcoin freely once you have finished the passionate off topics.

that is your freedom.

by the way im not a moderator or a foundation member, i am an outsider like everyone. i just dislike those who think that moderation to keep the peace is a bad think.

if your passionate about something. that is not the main topic. show your passion in a suitable location, you are sure to get followers.

according to the article above just over $20 mill goes through silk road a year.

yet going by http://blockchain.info/stats

$26mill of bitcoin transactions went around the world IN ONE DAY!!

so please media people dont think silk road is the main use of bitcoin.. its just 1 out of over 365 uses. if you just base it on the cash volume moving around.

but if you base it on the number of websites theres THOUSANDS accepting bitcoin. bitpay have atleast 2k businesses on their books, along with other webstores with their own personal carts and methods of fiat conversion.

silk road to bitcoin is like what 'walking street' in phuket is to the Thailand baht.
silk road to bitcoin is like what the red light district of Amsterdam is to the EURO.

yep a great time to buy coin at $7 and hold it for the rise

then those redeeming at the now $90 can get a nice amount of bitcoin and u have left overs for busness profit or future customers.

or left as a reserve to counter any more volitility/future purchasing power

well if its free electric and you would continue paying rent whether the building was in use or not. then of course using the office as a location for your mining rigs is more beneficial and profitable then doing it from home.

but now you have to think about the equipment and maintenance costs. as well as any "business" costs with registering as a business and all the health and safety regs you will have to abide by, due to having a large scale electrical units housed in these offices, producing excessive heat.

bitcoin foundation already have great PR people.. the crew behind bitinstant are great spokespeople.

and i know atleast one of them is highly involved with the foundation.

if you ever watch any of the public speaking that the bitinstant crew do, their words at these events alone prove my points validity..

i have seen when a mega price dump happens they turn off selling coins or put a warning that their stocks are low. after all why sell coins at a loss

the FPGA is not really hard work to achieve.

look at Ztex.de.. its all there for anyone to do. and has been available since before BFL even became a corporation paying their $50 to buy the brand name...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=40047.0 (august 29th 2011)

so its not like BFL ever done much research, just development costs mostly.

fuel costs..
well im talking about the day you finally have the cardboard "GIFTCARDS" in retail stores. where people want to waste car fuel to get their "giftcards" by walking into walmart or a 7-11

offering an online facility is not a GIFTCARD but more simply a redemption code via email/webpage.

which if we take away the whole car fuel go to retailer blah..

lets use blockchain.info. if i put in $100 into blockchain.info wire transfer.. id still get a better rate..

yes but still stipulating ON YOUR SITE that resellers may add on fee's protects you.

secondly when you want to go to walmart or 7-11 if you dont have that stipulation then they would want to sell a $100 card to customers at $100 and then buy the card wholesale from yourselves under $100.

by having terms in YOUR SITE you can protect yourself from resellers demanding a under $100 wholesale price.

although i find the reseller additional fee a flawed business model, i have tried to atleast compensate my thought process to aid your current model and get to a middle ground that atleast removes future headaches you may come across sticking with your business model.

but as i said last week buying at the mid $70's holding it as a reserve to then sell a week later would net you profit without having to have silly +10% gox prices or giving the customer less bitcoin then they expect.

i do agree though that a simple you will receive 1BTC for $100 is better then lots of % and + symbols spawled across the pre-redemption page.

the only issue i still have is that in england i can still go to my local post office visit a moneygram cashier desk hand over the money, be given a code. type that into bitinstant.com and get bitcoin at 6% of the ACTUAL money i have put in.

so a $109.99 customer payment for a product that has a $100 tag but ends up as a under $100 allotment of bitcoin, still seems excessive.

but hey.. baby steps, you'll get there

you will always find that those that want to keep coins cheap for a while will tell you not to buy, or infact try to tell you to sell so they can buy in cheap themselves.

precious metal guys will also say that bitcoins are the devil because unlike 30 years ago when the only alternative to fiat hoarding was precious metal. which helped the precious metal hoarders know there would always be a future demand. suddenly now realise that not everyone will be converting to precious metals, making their heavy hoards less desired and demanded. and obviously less valued in the long term.

so you will always get many people saying why not to buy bitcoin.

take this guy. his first video was hating bitcoin because he is a precious metal hoarder and has no desire to ever buy bitcoin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRnP2Vj7ppw

take his own quote as gospel "never take anyones word as gospel, especially those who own it and sell it" so that alone is a reason not to favour silver over bitcoin. as he wants you to desire his silver more. and for a precious metal lover he seems to have looked quite deep into something thats not a threat to his metal hoard.

he goes on about how he has no emotions towards bitcoins. yet then makes a dozen more videos about bitcoin. i do not fear termites eating into my home, it is possible to happen. but i would not get emotional enough to make several videos and researching something that i think i wont want in my home.

couple weeks later.. he now has bitcoin and has confidence in bitcoin, but now wants to scare people about the alt currency litecoin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI2LVH4JfV0

the lesson to learn is those shouting propaganda have a hidden reason

its about trust.

first of all..
if you try to do a paypal trade then forget it.
traders wont deal with unverified paypal so you need a verified account. to have a verified account on paypal you need a bank account. which brings up the question. why prefer to use pay pal over wire transfer in the first place.

the answer on many minds is charge bank fraudsters. only a small amount of OTC traders will take on the risk of a paypal trade.

so attempting to mention the phrase paypal in the same conversation with trading will cause people to suspect you even without knowing the details.

secondly people do trade on otc, but if you only want 1btc the hassle involved with dealing with someone remotely will have a higher price for a small amount. so its better to just use blockchain.info, dwolla, moneypack etc.

OTC is turning more into the wholesaler place where people that want bulk who have trusted experience and have a trusted method of payment get the good deals as there is obviously less risk, less headaches and they can spread their profit margin across multiple coins to give others better deals.

everyone else has to use the "retailer" sites like local bitcoins, bitinstant etc

you could ask for his IP, but in the end everyone knows his address, name, family, how much the mortgage of his house is, his previous court appearances. so knowing his IP is meaningless now.

what needed are those that actually got defrauded by him to pull their finger out and use the information legally. else there's no point going on about it and just leave it as a lesson learnt.

+100

nope. from what has been read. alot of people invested at the time on avage $1000 each. so then wasting another $1k on flights or a couple $k on investigators, court fee's etc is not in their interest.

some people were not socially outbound enough to want their names made public or form a class action suit.

then came whispers of the SEC being interested already, made those few people that would have put money into a court case, decide that it was no longer required to spend their own cash and leave it in the hopes the SEC will do something.

the short of it..

no one bothered. alot of doxing and remote harassment with trendon and his family. but no one went to him to slap him across the face with a wet fish face to face.

lesson to learn. if its gonna cost you alot of money slap the person you are dealing with, with a wet fish face to face if they break the deals contract. then think hard and deeply about doing the deal.

the itunes $50 CLEARLY  states why its $59.99 on that website.

"activation fee"

its not just showing on one page $50 and at the checkout $59.99 without giving a good reason.

so please do the legal bits...

its called terms and conditions, descriptions, transparency, crossing the T and dotting the i's..

you wont expand your great product into bricks and mortar retailers in your current form.

you think i say all of this because i am trying to tell people not to use your service .. no i am not.

i am telling you in as plain english as possible to UP your game, as you can make alot more money long term by changing the back end of your business model and atleast looking beyond your daily profits, to think about monthly/yearly profits you could make. aswell as expanding your brand name.

if your not going to do a "reserve" business model where you buy while cheap to then profit later, but instead copy the business model where retailers add on a "activation fee" that will lose you some browning points when going into meetings with retailers, as they love a cut of the retailer advertised price.

but not having and T&C to be transparent also will hurt you, as the retailers will see lots of pitfalls that customers can use and abuse.

having a "if you don't like it, don't buy from us" mentality instead of a functional business brain that is searching for idea's suggestions and criticisms to improve your brand. or if you simply cannot handle criticism which is actually beneficial to your product. makes you not a wise business man.

i will make it simple in laymans terms so you can tart it up into the proper legal terminology

Terms and conditions
Some retailers may charge an activation fee,delivery fee or service charge fee ontop of the advertised price, to cover the costs outside of giftcoins.me control.
Please be aware that the redemption rate is based on MTGox +10%, the actual redemption value you receive will be able to be seen prior to redeeming your card.
Due to the nature of these products a refund is not possible after a redemption has occured.
for more details of our policies please contact us at: <your email>

feel free to add more terms and conditions to cover your back if you can't be arsed to change your business model.

i am glad you have moved one step forward by promising a pre-redemption valuation. thanks. now a few more steps forward and your brand name will have no issues expanding.

P.S my first post mentioning the reserve model the bitcoin was at $75 and at one point dropped to $68. it is right nw $88. you could have bought 100 coins and held them for one week and then given people redeeming their coins at $88 a more accurate $ vs BTC and still had BTC left over for personal profit.

a profit of between 15%-23% giving the customer a proper at mtgox value or even more profit by keeping your % above spot. but hey you know whats best.. lol

its nothing new. regulating the fiat side has always been a thing that most countries do. bitinstant already have stuff like this covered, as do the other legit exchanges.

its just now that governments are mentioning the terms "virtual conversion to legal tender" instead of the old "other currencies, digitial, or foreign to legal tender" blah blah. the SEC/FSA laws have been the same for ages..

so if you want to cash out to FIAT then expect more of the same from the likes of bitinstant, dwolla for amounts over a few hundred euro, dollar, pounds when using exchanges.

but if you wish to convert bitcoin to litecoin, name coin, dev coin or any other virtual. or vice versa.. you will remain unaffected.