Personnaly I think Satoshi's code is quite tough to understand, that's why I'd like to see other implementations, for instance in python.

I also wonder whether it could be possible to split the program into different parts.

For instance, blocks could be downloaded and shared with a standard P2P program.  One file per block.  I know that may be beyond the maximum number of opened files on most OS but...  I'd like also to see those files in ASCII, and not in binary.  Same for wallets.  Performance is not an issue with bitcoin anyway, execpt for generation.  So ASCII could be fine.

Also, the libcrypto++-utils package contains command line tools to use cryptographic functions, such as ECDSA.

Using standard P2P program, command line tools and ASCII files could allow to write the full bitcoin client in a bash script.  I think this would be pretty cool.

Having people working for you, for instance.

Or building your own business.  It is work too, but by work I meant the kind of work you were talking about : the waged work.

The more implementations we have, the better.

Unfortunately, writting a client is no easy task.   Satoshi's code is far from from trivial.

Because the banker might have paid him to do so, for instance.

Dude, quoting a signed email like this is totally not cool...

I hope you won't do that with the mails I sent you.

A 3rd party audit is just a displacement of the trust from the bank to an auditing company.  It doesn't solve anything.

+1

Well, they'll tell you you can.  Truth is you won't.

What I mean is that even with a bitcoin bank, despite the technical possibility for a customer to withdraw his funds at any time, statistical laws can be found, allowinng the bank to determine an optimal reserve ratio.

Notice that nothing prevents an islamic banker to lend your money (with no interest of course), to someone.

This means that you could also lose your savings with this system.


There's nothing wrong in fractionnal reserve banking, as long as the customer knows what is is doing.  He is giving his money to someone else.  There is necessarly a risk involved.

This is a highly important post, imo.  Thanks.

When I first red Satoshi's design paper, I immediately thought that there would be something very useful with this concept of a distributed time server.  However, I wasn't quite able to see exactly what it would be.

I think you've pined it.

Say I'm an artist and I've just created something that holds into a file.  In order to protect the paternity of my work, signing is not enough.  Because anyone could sign a copy of the unsigned file.  Therefore I have to find a way to prove that I've been the first one who signed this document.

Bitcoin can allow me to do this, just as you described it.  I sign my file.  I turn the hash of the signed document into a bitcoin address, and I send a small amount to this address.

I think this could have a huge impact on artistic creation.

Well, you're supposed to trust a bunch of bureaucrats who will audit the bank and check that everything is in order and that the accounts have not been falsified.

I think those activities come naturally once you start collecting and storing money from the public.

When you collect money from the public, you can not just sit on that money, doing nothing.  It would be a waste of resource.  You will eventually decide to do something with it, without telling your clients if necessary.

That's why banking is usually described as an unseparable set of apparently different activities :  collecting, storing, offering credit and so on...

How do you know they are 100% reserved ?

Anyway, it might be a good idea to do it.  The banker could make money on transactions and the deposit could be rewarded with an interest.  This would be a comeback to basics of banking.  It could be fun and educational.

I would not be interested as an investor anyway, for I've always prefered equity shares than debentures.

Which banks are you talking about, exactly ?

Insist.

Give them a link to mybitcoin.com and to mt Gox.

Ouais j'avais vu ça aussi.  Mais effectivement c'est nominatif et il y a un délai de plusieurs jours je crois.

Je doute qu'une version anonyme et en libre service existe en France.

Madhatter cherche des collaborateurs pour proposer des cartes VISA (giftcards) contre des bitcoins.

J'ai bien trouvé des "cartes cadeaux" (KADEOS) à la poste mais ce ne sont pas des cartes VISA.  Ça y ressemble mais non, ça permet juste d'acheter dans divers magasins (genre Fnac, printemps, conforama, en fait les ensignes du groupe PPR on dirait...).

D'après lui on doit pouvoir trouver de vrais cartes cadeaux VISA dans les stations services ou dans des "épiceries" ("grocery store").

Comme il fait super froid en ce moment j'ai pas très envie de faire le tour des stations services pour trouver ça...


Vous en avez déjà vu de telles cartes en France, vous ?

Ok I understand now, but a political system is not a philosophy.

Politics is all about making decisions, including those implying the use of coercion.  Therefore, I doubt it makes any sense to claim being both socialist and libertarian.  Socialism is about forbidding free market and private ownership.  Socialism can not be libertarian.

Petitions !?  You're kidding, right ?  lol

This will be great news once it is confirmed on their official website.