Well I mean technically that isn't even enough.  Yeah, you can run it through tor, but you have to realize that with Bitcoin you know what address it's coming from, how much, what level of 'taint' it is, and also where it's going too.  If you have transacted Bitcoin's through tor since day 1 then yeah, maybe your ip might be hidden to some extent, but I'm pretty sure there are other ways for police to track who is doing the sending and receiving.  Bitcoin's blockchain has so many factors that can reveal a user, not to mention that I would assume over 75% of people using Bitcoin has bought them off some online exchange that traces them to their bank accounts.

Even though I love the effort put forth by the devs, I still remain optimistically skeptical about the whole thing.  Bitcoin has been proven to not be the least bit anonymous and getting more and more easier to track by governing authorities, as you can see from Coindesk's recent article, "New York police win FinCEN award for Bitcoin investigations" ... I just don't see why you should run on the backbone of something that has been proven to reveal identities of people time and time again.  But I like the initiative to start the trial runs of something like this.

I don't really get why people feel so secure with using Bitcoin in the first place on these marketplaces on the deepweb... It's pretty well known that it is super easy for people to be tracked down; and people don't realize that Bitcoin is NOT truly anonymous in the least bit.  Example A:  New York police win FinCEN award for Bitcoin investigation

Haha, I've been making some pretty big strides in changing her ways of thinking... but the fact of the matter is that, like what other people have been posting, she doesn't really see the point of it; primarily because she doesn't see how it is possible that the USD (or any other major fiat for that matter) can ever collapse along with a global economy. 

I've explained to her the ways the central banks operate and how "creating money out of nothing" will inevitably have to result in some catostrophic collapse... but whenever I get to that point in the conversation, I just usually lose her interest and we end up changing subjects...

It's ok though, I don't need her to understand my view point as much as I don't need to understand hers for not thinking with my same logic. 

I don't understand why the guy wouldn't just sell the coins over at localbitcoins, that's what I would personally do if I were this hacker since they are probably pretty tainted now... so you might want to check over there?

Plus, do you really think the police (especially in the US) is going to do anything to get you back those bitcoins?  I'd be surprised if your local police even know what Bitcoins are, rather than them actually know how to go about a process of identifying and retrieving the Bitcoins for you.

It's funny whenever I talk to my SO about bitcoin because she listens to all of the news reports about the whole "terrorists being funded with bitcoins" ordeal, so whenever she sees me on this forum or doing anything that involves crypto currencies, she actually thinks I'm talking to terrorists and that sort of thing... which every time I have to tell her that I'm, in fact, NOT talking/funding terrorists.

I've had multiple long talks with her when we've been drinking about why I like crypto currencies so much, and that leads me to getting into the whole aspect of why I believe the monetary system is a sham and that the fiat system will inevitably collapse... Every time these conversations come about, she always ends up calling me crazy but that she loves me anyway...


I think that can be said for everyone here... exactly what I'm reminded of on a semi weekly basis lol.

That would be true as long as there are enough sellers and buyers that is running your program though, from what it seems like.  I still like the idea of a program like this that is a decentralized anonymous market place, but the only thing I'm not so sure will go over well with people is the fact that you force people to use the Ophion currency instead of allowing any currency to be used in the market place.  I understand that gives value to this asset, but at the same time, if you only have 100 people or so that buy Ophion coins, then those people can hold them for speculation without knowing that they would ever want to use them on the actual network... It just doesn't seem necessary to force people to use this coin that is backed on Bitcoin, which is not truly anonymous in the first place...

The value of Bitcoin doesn't make it automatically better.  Sometimes the value of something in a market that can be easily traded on exchanges, such as bitcoin, can sometimes be manipulated. Plus, it's been not a secret that Bitcoin has been having some problems dealing with issues that's currently going on "under the hood". Block size, fungibility, etc... these are all stuff other altcoins are working on, and these could possibly upset Bitcoin if Bitcoin's blockchain infrastructure can't handle the stress of the network and be able to function like it's supposed too.

So, I was reading through the details of the service a little bit... and from what it looks like is that it is a more "anonymous-ready" version of ETH? Does OPHION allow for other payments to be used in the market place?  I'll read through some of the white paper in a little bit, but currently busy with some side projects of mine at the moment.

Application:

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Yeah I guess you got a point, but I would definitely want my kids to learn their mistakes about mishandling money they earned now (while its relatively a small amount) than later on in life when I potentially won't be able to care for them, etc. ... It's just funny to say that "a kid earning money is dangerous"... I guess that's just me, but it's not like kids are going to have the potential to die from a little business they have developed to earn money or whatever. I mean if that's the case, school, play dates, etc can be considered "dangerous".

That is a very true view point. Banks might could see this stuff as a type of "Ponzi scheme"/"gambling token" so they could probably justify not wanting their customers to deal with it at all and would suggest them staying far away from it. Specifically since they probably don't know much about it and what Bitcoin could do to banks in general.

I really don't understand what both of you guys are talking about here... How could it ever be "dangerous" to earn money? What research? I'm so lost.

Anyway this thread has become so overdone with the same comments it seems like... I think OP hasn't commented on this thread in a while.

I would say that Bitcoin has potential to disrupt banks, but it's going to take a while for that to happen, not to mention many revolutions. People can be presented the facts of the scams the central monetary banks put on people, but until they act on it, it's not going to matter.

Plus you have to think about EVERYONE having to use Bitcoin... So with that in mind, how are people who are homeless going to use Bitcoins? Or people in third world countries? Blind people? There is a lot of stuff we have to realize will become issues in the long run of things if we really want to disrupt the monetary system of every nation.

Great point... even though it's still pretty young in terms of publicity, I think the word of Bitcoin has already been released in the mainstream a couple of times.  The fact of whether it was "good" publicity or "bad" publicity in the eyes of the public through the mainstream media is not really relevant.  I think the fact of the matter is that Bitcoin has been heard by millions of people and they know what it is and does.

Now, what fact that the public probably haven't heard in the "mainstream media" is that the cost reduction in sending funds over the internet... It's stupid how low of a transaction fee Bitcoin possesses in relation to paypal or Western Union... That's the biggest thing that Bitcoin needs to promote for itself.  Whether Bitcoin can handle the transaction size if it does get serious "mainstream publicity" and transactions sky rocket is another argument, and I think Bitcoin devs need to start taking a serious look at that.

At first glance of reading this (and no research on my part), it seems that this quote from Goldman Sachs was probably taking out of context... but just for the sake of conversation, let's just say that this story is true and the tweet is real.

Yes, it is true that people in the banking industry will probably lose jobs in the future do to tech and tech alone... how far this will go up the ladder is up for speculation.

Technology is growing so rapidly it is literally mind boggling to try and keep up with the latest tech and the "next big thing" to be on the market.  The thing is, is while this is always good for the consumer, it is not always best for the *economy*.  For the true anarchist, this is a nice scenario to think of because "CHAOS! L0L"... but the reality is is that unemployment is going to increase, which reduces the # of consumers, which starts slowing down the economy.

So to say that Bitcoins "underlying tech" is going to disrupt everything is just the tip of the iceberg, and people (especially government) need to start waking up to this inevitable reality.  The big question that needs to be answered by government is, "how do we ensure the citizens well being once their jobs become inapplicable?"

While I personally hate the big banks (or banks in general) as much as any one on here... I feel empathy for the workers (not the CEO's of big banks) that work for the sake of needing money.  While Bitcoin has the potential to revolutionize the monetary system and free people from the central banks, we (& government) need to figure out how to deal with the aftermath of such a revolution that could disrupt a way the economy works.

Well, I'm pretty sure a couple of big time companies accept bitcoin as of right now for some services and goods... Overstock, Microsoft, etc.  ... even though when I say "etc.", I've actually ran out of examples.  But I'm pretty sure a quick google search of which sites accept bitcoin would be fairly easy.

I think the main point of this thread is *if* it were to go "mainstream" on Ebay specifically would it create enough publicity to make Bitcoin "mainstream".  The answer is "mehh... idk".

While a lot of people still use Ebay for a lot of things, and also for the fact that I don't personally use it for anything; it's hard for me to tell if Bitcoin being incorporated on there would do any good.  It seems to me though, that a lot of people are starting to outsource Ebay for goods they would get on there for Amazon Prime and stuff like that... also, I see people are starting to form small local groups you can hook up with people in your area to sell and trade stuff on Facebook, which would be for free... in which you could also use Craigslist, but that's another topic.

The fact that Ebay's rates are so stupid high is a reason to not use Ebay at all... if Ebay's founders had any sense, they would at least try to cut out some of the fees (especially if they are dealing in paypal) and use Bitcoin.  Whether this promotes Bitcoin or not is hard to tell... Seems to be more "ebay stores" selling to people directly than people selling to other people.  If some old grandma goes on Ebay to buy something for her grandson on there, she is going to look at that gold BTC symbol and she would have no idea what that is, nor care.  If someone does know what it stands for but don't have any, they probably won't take the time to go purchase some because they don't know how too...

Interesting to think of what the possibilities are if it does make it to Ebay though... lots of potential scenarios could come up.

Not really trying to be harsh on you guys or anything like that, but what's the point in having a poll on which altcoin users want to be able to use on the site when you don't even listen to the majority?  There are like 12 other altcoins that currently have higher votes than ether... I mean I understand ether is a hot commodity now and days with it's value right now in BTC, but I mean in all reality the poll is kind of pointless now, no?

Obviously you are going to get very different answers on this type of thread, and what it comes down to is what you feel comfortable with doing.  There are tons of different options people may pitch on here; but what it comes down too, is that you take the time and look into these investment choices and choose the one you feel is "the best".

Now, I would probably take however many bitcoins and buy an oz. of gold and probably a couple oz's of silver, which will probably leave you ~7ish Bitcoins left.  I would keep 1-1.5 in a personal wallet to readily access, 3-3.5 BTC in cold storage, then I would look at your options for the remaining Bitcoins remaining in altcoins.  Now, I know that you and a lot of people consider altcoins as P&D scams, but there are seriously some good stuff that has just came out and old ones that have had serious renovations to them that make them a fair coin that gives users different benefits from just your average Bitcoin blockchain type of coin.

There is a lot of hype around Ethereum right now, which is a completely different animal from Bitcoin and any other cryptocurrency for that matter, and it might work well and become very successful in the future... from what I've gathered, it's just a token to work on a decentralized cloud sort of database.  Then you have "anonymous" cryptonote coins, and the one that I've seen that has the "fairest" launch and distribution is Monero... XMR also is doing some pretty ground breaking technology with regard to Ring CT and is interesting (to me atleast); and also you can pay any bitcoin address with Monero anonymously by using XMR.to .

If altcoins doesn't suit your fancy, then I would probably suggest dishing out another .5 BTC to another wallet you might like to gamble with; me personally, I like gambling on golf matches, because I like to watch golf and know a little bit when it comes to who is who, and who might do good in a specific event... plus you get pretty ridiculous odds when you bet on someone to win.  I put like .02 on some guy that I thought would win, and he came like 2 strokes away to winning; which would have won me somewhere close to like 3 BTC.

All in all, there is a lot you can do... just do your own research and see what you think is right to do with that sort of capital.  However, like everyone has said before, I would store a decent amount in cold storage for long term holding purposes because you never will know what will happen to the price a couple years down the road (whether that's good or bad).

Good luck!

I think maybe he was talking about the fact that it is hard to understand what is the right way to buy and store bitcoins.  It can be confusing even when looking at all the different possible wallets and exchange sites that you could possibly end up using. 

Just know that when using bitcoin wallets and that sort of thing, you want to be in control of your private keys.  There will be certain web wallets that want you to sign in with an email or something of the sort and then you can access your wallet.  That's pretty sketchy, and if anything happens to the website (i.e. Xapo, Circle, Coinbase, etc. etc.) then your bitcoins go down with the site.  There are plenty of "good" wallets that allow you to control your private keys directly (i.e. breadwallet, mycellium, etc. etc.) and you can have them on your phone... then there are things you can do to go "tinfoil hat" secure by doing offline wallets and that sort of thing.  Point just being, that you want to control your private keys... usually if that's the case and either remember the key (or pneumonic seed) or just write it down somewhere, then you'll be fine.

As for exchanges... there are also a lot of options, and can be used with what you prefer to deal with.  If you're looking for super convenient... then coinbase or circle could be where you want to go (if you're located in the US).  If you want some anonymity, you can buy from other people directly through localbitcoins.  Also you might be lucky and find a Bitcoin ATM around you if you are located in a pretty big city.

Just research it for a little while and you'll find what things are best suited for you.