I've also anticipated this happening.
If it continues, it will simply add pressure for a competing exchange that is much more anonymous and is always mixing customers Bitcoins.
You could call it the BMBTCX (black market bitcoin exchange). Making it truly anonymous and secure would be challenging.
But I'm sure you could go there and buy tainted bitcoins for a discount. In time, tainted bitcoins may become a non-issue.
It will be interesting to see how this develops.
Hope they catch anyone involved in fraud.

Sounds like a website needs to be built where stolen funds can be published and individuals and organizations can digitally vouch for bitcoins being tainted or not.
Might be cool.

2/2/2012

Here's my wish list:
    An exchange with complete anonymity. That would make registration a pain as well as resetting passwords, but I would like to see it.
Everyone's Bitcoins get's mixed up making it very hard to trace.
Allow exchange for 100% backed precious metals.

Each one of those would come with a lot of challenges, but that is what I would like to see happen.

What if the binary said "Honest Banking Without Borders"?

I just like the idea of having something cryptic that needs some explaining.
It makes it more interesting to share with people.

Very good job BTW. If that was the final version I would still be happy with it.

I only suggested 7 bit so more quotes could be included, but I'm sure there's other option of more text is desired.

I really like the "no banks, no borders" as well.
I think it would be nice to see 'em both.

why so much support for the FDA?
Do a google search for "FDA Hidden agenda"
As with all research, it takes time to sort between fact, opinion, and fictions, but if you really think
the current FDA cares about public health.... you've been deceived.

The whole point of the U.S. constitution was to limit and distribute power in government because when it is
consolidated and increased it is always abused. Who regulates all these bureaucratic regulating agencies?
When they screw up or have alternate agendas rarely anyone puts them into check.
Let the free market do it.

FDA just creates health moral hazard - people stop taking their food health choices into their own hands 'cuz government has their back. what a joke!

Those who would change freedom for security deserve neither freedom nor security and always end up losing both.

I like this. Good job.

WHAT IF you put a few of those quotes in the background written in 7 bit binary ASCII.
Just a thought 'cuz I really like them quotes.

Very Interested.
I Had been thinking of doing something similar for sometime.
Too busy with work and family life to make it happen.
I'll be glad to contribute financially.

Before this gigantic dump I had pondered my bitcoin positions and if I should change any of them. I came to the conclusion that Bitcoin technology is so revolutionary that no one knows when a multi-millionare or billonare decides to drop some pocket change on us. At the same time, the "early adopters" still show such a huge profit that any one of them could decide to cash out crashing the market.

Long or Short, either position is a gamble. Only time and more adoption will make Bitcoin less vunerable. We are definantly in "early adopter" phase 2.  It may take a few years before even us are considered "early adopters". Who's sticking around? I plan too. Next paycheck, I will be picking up some cheap coins knowing full well there may be panic sells or even early adopter sells, but the day will come when they will be rinsed from the system.

Thanks for the response and the pool references.
Do you know the URLs to these other two pools?

Thanks for creating this pool. It has been nice to put my i7 CPU to work on something.
Have you considered changing the name and logo. My family finds it offensive (as do I) and I have to wait 'till they all go to bed before I log in.
The sentiment behind the logo and name resonates with me a lot, but still offensive.

Please consider.

Thanks.

Might I also add that the global hash rate is one way for the miners to vote on how much BTC is worth.
That is huge unintended benefit of mining that many fail to recognize.
If half the miners got up and quit, the price/BTC would defiantly go a lot lower.
The perception that mining follows price is an argument of "what came first, the chicken or the egg?"
As bitcoin continues to mature the relationship between global hashrate and price will become more apparent.

In the future, Bitcoin mining will not be a get rich scheme - it will essentially pay for itself + very little extra.
With patience, it could pay a lot more if the miner holds onto the coins as Bitcoin's value has the potential to rise over time.

What percentage of your bitcoin money do you have riding on this speculation?

You could be right, but when your money is behind your statements then it means a lot more.

If it is below, I suspect it will not be by much.

My speculation/prediction and money is it will not dip much below $3 and maintain a price of $3+ for a while.

We'll see.

It is looking pretty good!
Making it through the weekend without a serious crash was a very good indicator for me.
The total global hashrate also appears to be reaching a bottom (still needs a few more weeks to confirm).
The average cost to mine BTC is north of $3 if you take into account the hardware capital being paid off within two years (reasonable time for computing technology)
It gave me a lot of courage to throw up a nice bid wall around 3 (anyone wan'na sell?).

I agree, things are looking very good for some stability for the next several months with a price between $3 and $4(keeping fingers crossed for the holidays).
After that, the next crash will be in a positive direction - My speculation.

That is interesting. I was unaware of that.
How does that work? How could I, for example, create a transaction with arbitrary data?

thanks.

"handling the entire transaction history"
Are you saying it become more processor intensive as the blockchain becomes longer to verify transactions?

What exactly is Unenforceable? Need help understanding.

BIP - Bitcoin Improvement Proposal by AllTen.

If I understand correctly the block size can be as large as 1MB with the current version of the Bitcoin client.
a simple modification would probably allow for larger block sizes.
Also, there are no limitations on what can be put in a block. you can put whatever you want if you are a miner.

Bitcoin's greatest feature IMO, other than for currency, is storage of data in the most secure and highly distributed database this world has ever seen. The countless market applications for this are hard to fathom.
However, if the block chain becomes bloated with all this non-currency transaction data it could have a negative impact on bitcoin and I'm sure it would make miners unhappy in the long run as disk space fills up.

So here's my (incomplete) proposal: All non transaction data in the block chain would require two fees. One fee to the miner for KB usage (same as before) and another fee that would go into a type of savings owned by no one that would be used to compliment miner rewards after all 21 million bitcoins have been mined. Obviously there's a lot of detail missing, but that is the gist of my proposal that I look to the bitcoin community for help in critiquing it.

With your input, I will be updating this post as needed.

Thanks

--------------- Update: 10/08/2011 -----------
Well, looks like my proposal needs a complete overhaul.
Thank you for your comments. I thought I had a better understanding of Bitcoin Technology, but maybe not.
Anyways, Here are some questions I've been pondering before I scrap this idea or re-write it entirely.

1) How exactly is arbitrary data stored in the block chain?
   Is there more than one way?
   My current understanding is that it has to be part of a transaction signature and this is the only way. True?
   If so, what is the maximum size?

2) I'm still having difficulty understanding the economics of transaction fees.
   why does a miner care how big a transaction is in kb? seams trivial. Does it require more processing power to authenticate and verify?
   what metrics can a miner use to calculate a reasonable fee to accept or reject transactions?

your answers and/or links to previous topics is much appreciated.

Who said anything about linking prices? They would just be paying for space in the block chain to the miners.
What we need is for someone to come up with a pricing shceme for space in the block for non bitcoin transactions.
One idea of mine is to have two fee: one that goes to the miners and one that goes into a savings that will
compliment miner rewards after mining all 21 million coins. Need to get my but in gear and write a paper for presentation.

Maybe it has already been covered in this thread, but has bitminter considered doing merged mining?
I wouldn't mind having some NMC to dump on the market. It's use is over hyped in my opinion.
With the ability to store anything in the block chain, Bitcoin could easily evolve to cover an entire host
of solutions such as this.