I am Limited to 10 personal messages per hour how do I remove this limit? Is there a way to upgrade my membership?
For doing over-the-counter trades, you probably want to get yourself set up with GPG and start using that. When trading on the forums, you might think you are trading with the trusted forum member but in reality it could be a compromised forum account and you are about to send your bitcoins into some scammer's pocket. With the -otc Web of Trust (WoT), if the person has authenticated, you then are nearly guaranteed that the party you are trading with is truly the same party whose trust history is well documented. - http://www.Bitcoin-OTC.com - http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#bitcoin-otc-foyer - http://www.bitcoin-otc.com/viewratings.phpThere's always IRC chat, Skype, GibberBot, text messaging, and Crypto.cat - https://crypto.cat |
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the largest hurdle is the political/ regulatory one. It seems one of the major contributing factors for M-Pesa was because the regulators were willing to look the other way (after a significant payoff no doubt). I'm wondering if there is any possibility of getting around this, while still utilizing this for trade with retailers.
There was just a good summary for outsiders posted: M-PESA slipped past financial regulators and banks, who seemed to think little of the service, and by the time it took off, its market position was sufficiently strong that it could avoid the onerous regulation requirements under which banks fall.
That's where Bitcoin is today. Other telecoms have replicated M-PESA’s technology, but they’ve yet to replicate its agent network. Load-balancing cash requirements seems to be the hardest piece. (Cash tends to flow from urban to rural areas.) With bitcoin there would the be the same type of cash management issues. But the difference is one M-PESA agent isn't going to trade cash with another M-PESA agent because there is no way for them to avoid the payment network fees, (the agent does earn a commission but that is a fraction of the fees). But with Bitcoin, the fee is a trivial amount. So the agents at the edge (rural areas) are likely going to be the ones with extra bitcoins and they simply need to find a trade with an agent in the middle that then needs coins to sell to customers in the urban areas or to other traders (local or globally). Also, something that is interesting: Local entrepreneurs who double as M-PESA agents do so not for margin from the service but to drive foot traffic into their stores. - http://www.christinacacioppo.com/blog/blog/2012/10/14/notes-on-m-pesa/ |
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any good ideas that I could provide as a service? That's a pretty wide description. How about some qualifiers. Like are you thinking of doing ECommerce where bitcoin is a payment method? Or something local, like exchange? Or software or online service? etc. If you are just fishing for ideas, then maybe start by describing some skills that you have. |
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I accidentally provided my e-mail address instead of my bitcoin address in Coinapult, provided my pin, and hit send.
Well, it appears you may have uncovered a little bug with Coinapult. I just replicated this ... I used coinapult to send bitcoins to an e-mail address, and then from the e-mail sent to that address was the coinapult.com URL with the secret. When spending from that I pasted the exact same e-mail address, and no subsequent message was received. So it appears that Coinapult doesn't behave well when withdrawing to an e-mail address that is the exact same e-mail address that the wallet payload belongs to. This is one for evoorhees or Coinapult's support to look into. |
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So my coins (which I have sent to myself) have disappeared, and I'm not entirely sure what to do.
Just to confirm, from Coinapult you sent to your own bitcoin address and that does not yet show that the payment was sent. Have you checked Blockchain.info for that address? That will help in troubleshooting to determine where the problem might be. - http://www.Blockchain.info |
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Most people are too stupid to know what to do with their money.
Most people would be better off with a pension plan than a self-managed 401k.
I'd rather own shares of companies you named, than a kickstarter style startup where 100% losses are all but guaranteed, like "wikispeed."
I see. You are likely one of those kind of people who think my life will be better without sugary sodas sold in sizes larger than 16 fluid ounces and that, in looking out for my welfare, that practice should be banned? |
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Typical crowdfunding investors, even with basic disclosure requirements for participation, won’t have the investment savvy to determine whether an investment is real or a fraud.
tl;dr: People are too stupid to know what the best use is for their money. They are much better off letting the professionals on Wall Street manage it for them. If there is no competition for investment, then everyone puts their money into the same pool of equities and thus it is easier for fund managers to make a great profit, even with mediocre choices or worse, from making really risky bets. The people should be thankful there are regulators stopping such stupidity like dumping $120/year on some stupid idea like this and thinking they will have any equity worth a dime further down the road: - http://www.wikispeed.com/WhatWeNeedInstead they should be investing in only listed securities where because the listed companies file reports you can trust there is no fraud and that you won't lose money: - http://finance.yahoo.com/quotes/HPQ,INTC,CAT,MCD/view/dv;_ylt=AtzVn5O1xTuk6.Mfsa8sAPcLv7gF |
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I seem to recall MtGox arranging it so that if you sent bitcoins from your MtGox account to an address associated with another MtGox account they didn't bother making the bitcoin transaction and just credited the account. Does anyone know if this still their policy?
Yup, by default if the recipient address is for another Mt. Gox account, the transaction is internal and never hits the blockchain. You can mark the checkbox "Open Transaction" for it to always use a blockchain transaction regardless of whether or not the recipient is on Mt. Gox. - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/MtGox#BTC_2 |
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I would like to do something like this: all_the_transactions_in_the_chain.each { |t|
puts "#{t.inputs.join(',')} -> #{t.outputs.join(',')}"
}
Access to the details (inputs and outputs) of a transaction come from Raw Transactions: - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Raw_TransactionsTo get it in a single query like that, you'ld need to populate a datastore yourself. And is it possible to write a piece of code that gets called on every confirmed transaction as the bitcoin client gets this information? Confirmed transaction, or just any new transaction? The API command "listsinceblock" will let you know new transactions, and then the Raw Transactions will give you the details on it. [Edit: I don't want to use blockchain.info, blockexplorer or any other sites. There are other tools that can help as well. Armory provides easy access to blockchain data, see the "Extras" folder. Also libBitcoin might provide this to you as might ABE blockchain explorer source.] |
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I haven't done any in person trade, so how does it work? does the person hand you the cash first? or do you send them the BTC first?
If it is just an over-the-counter (OTC) transaction, like from an offer to buy on Craigslist, then you'll want to make sure to meet in a public place. LocalBitcoins suggests: Remember to propose meeting place
Good meeting places are public cafes and restaurants with wifi-connection.
With LocalBitcoins, they have this "Transactions" feature which works as an EWallet with additional useful features for doing face-to-face trades (e.g., after releasing the bitcoins to your account, the seller is sent an SMS text message with the release code that was previously known only to you.) As far as cash first or BTC first, it probably works best when the buyer presents the cash and counts it. The terms of the trade are verified, and then the bitcoins are sent. Upon receipt of the coins the buyer then hands over the cash and the trade is complete. Of course, this gives the opportunity for the buyer to run off without handing over the cash. If that is a concern you as the seller may wish to ask for someone to witness the sale, or perhaps even have an intermediary hold onto the buyer's cash before sending the coins. The recommendations from the wiki are still valid: Make sure both parties agree to the terms of the trade with signed messages
This allows either party to go public if the trade has become sour and stops your trading partner from claiming the details of the agreement were somehow different.
(now a face-to-face trade doesn't have to be GPG signed, but an invoice reviewed in advance would be the equivalent) - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Secure_TradingAs a buyer in a face-to-face trade that is not being done through LocalBitcoins.com, you might want to consider the risk of a double spend from a 0/unconfirmed transaction -- especially for any transactions that are for larger amounts. These are relatively rare and hard to successfully pull off, but if a $500 wad of cash is at stake, you might want to wait until there is at least one confirmation first before completing the trade. |
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I seem hard pressed to see where there's a solid exchange of this currency between consumers and retail/service businesses. See, back in 1991, an engineer at CERN was sharing with his peers and anyone else who would listen this invention of his from a couple years earlier. You might not recognize it, ... but here's what it looked like:  It wasn't an instant success -- for content producers it was more difficult to set up and use than alternatives, and the experience was less than ideal for the content consumers. Of course, that is the WWW before the graphical browser arrived -- the exact same thing you are using to view these words right now. That's where Bitcoin is yet. It is known the potential of a decentralized digital currency. Bitcoin works as a cheaper, faster and better international wire transfer (for transferring the currency BTC), it works as an alternative to Western Union, it works for retail payments ... like for this cupcake shop: - http://cupsandcakesbakery.com/2012/10/buy-cupcakes-with-bitcoins/or for a cab driver: - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scGM3nRsrlYWhat Bitcoin doesn't come with is a guarantee or a big corporate backer. Neither did Tim Berners-Lee's world wide web. It took a while before the right combination of things came together (several years later, incidentally) before the technology changed our world ... in a huge way. So, does Bitcoin today have any large "legit" merchants? No, there's no national Starbucks chain yet where bitcoins are accepted. Does that mean there won't be in the future? I wouldn't bet on it. |
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So, you met with a cop who was trying to entrap you...
Oh sure ... law enforcement trying to entrap someone? Like what you see on TV? That doesn't really happen, does it? - http://www.ktvb.com/news/134150428.html |
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Bitcoin is designed to be anonymous.
Not true. Bitcoin is meant to be pseudonymous. There's a difference. From the Bitcoin wiki: While the Bitcoin technology can support strong anonymity, the current implementation is usually not very anonymous. - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/AnonymityIf it were anonymous, Goat's 400 BTC would still be gone: - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=82600.0 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=113389.0 <-- Another example. And if Bitcoins were anonymous, this wouldn't be possible:  - http://toolongdidntread.comNow as far as it being possible to use bitcoin in an anonymous manner, can you identify a single thief from the following? 1. MyBitcoin Theft (1110544 $)
2. Allinvain Theft (502750.20 $)
3. July 2012 Bitcoinica Theft (305200 $)
4. Bitfloor Theft (248088 $)
5. Linode Hacks (230468 $)
6. Bitomat.pl Loss (236000 $)
7. Stefan Thomas Loss (128000 $)
8. Tony Silk Road Scam (100000 $)
9. May 2012 Bitcoinica Hack (91306.46 $)
10. Bitcoin7 Hack (50000 $)
11. June 2011 Mt. Gox Incident (46970.91 $)
12. BTC-E Hack (42000 $)
13. Mooncoin Theft (24000 $)
14. Betcoin Theft (15509 $)
15. February 2012 Bitcoinica Theft (15000 $)
16. Bitcoin Syndicate Theft (12134.61 $)
16. Ubitex Scam (11668.70 $)
17. Andrew Nollan Scam (10978 $)
18. October 2011 Mt. Gox Loss (8115.12 $)
19. Bitscalper Scam (5000 $)
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