I find it useful to draw a parallel between bitcoin as an internet protocol and smtp (e-mail) or http (web).
No one can "pull the plug" on email or the web.
I always stress that bitcoin was first a protocol (described in Satoshi's paper), then a network formed around that protocol only then it can become a currency like any other currency, except it's not debt money.
People must understand they are using debt money (USD or EUR) to appreciate the benefits of bitcoin.

This might be off topic but a deterministic wallet is more secure thant a random wallet with respect to man-in-the-middle attacks.
If a webshop using a deterministic wallet makes its master public key public (as it should), then a paranoid shopper can verify that the payment address associated with her invoice belongs to the merchant's wallet.
I dvelopped two apps to demonstrate this use case (those are RoR apps that I intend to open source when I fidn the time to do so):
the webshop is deployed on microbitcoin.net and the address verification app (still in beta) is on bitcoinrad.io.
You can try out bitcoinrad.io with your own electrum master public key and addresses.
The bitcoinrad.io service should be duplicated so that multiple verification sources are available to merchants using deterministic wallets.
Multiple verification sources, possibly exposing a unified API, would greatly reduce the risks of a MITM attack.

The payout was just sent with tx iD :

0c3b8530af20f5c67a1ff7c1a7e7fd3cacb7ea6b44faa416beaeb0f2c5108f8a.

The final payout of this claim process is scheduled for Monday, September 30.
Please visit your wallet page if you are still expecting a payout.
If the status says "large balance" or "multiple claims", you neeed to contatct me or Arsy via PM asap to provide proof of identity and ownership. Those users who did provide the required information got their payout already a while ago.
Thanks for your cooperation.

@tous: merci de créer un thread si vous voulez discuter les âneries de Jorion et autres illettrés numériques (on dit aussi innumérés). Réserver ce thread aux liens vers les articles.

Aujourd'hui dans l eMonde, un article plutôt au-dessus de la moyenne:

le-bitcoin-monnaie-trublion

UPDATE
We had to deal with more convoluted claims this time so we missed our payout date of September 18.
The payout will be sent tomorrow September 20.

C'est sans doute vrai, mais je vais quand même essayer d'argumenter car j'ai regardé de près OpenUDC avant de conclure quoi que ce soit.
Il s'agit d'une monnaie"élastique" (à masse monétaire potentiellement illimitée, cf l'excellent livre de Detlev Schlichter sur le sujet) comme l'euro.
Le fait que ce soit un logiciel libre est une évidente nécessité qui devrait s'appliquer à tout système monétaire, pas une caractéristique suffisamment distinctive pour assure le succès d'un projet.

Le fait que l'euro soit une système privateur ne fera pas le succès d'un logiciel libre. Seuls les progrès de la conscience par l'éducation peuvent faire bouger les lignes figées par l'ignorance. Les partisans d'openUDC ont raison lorsqu'ils identifient le dividende universel ou le revenu de base comme une avancée démocratique fondamentale, résultant directement du progrès technologique qui nous affranchit de la nécessité de faire travailler tout le monde. D'autres modes de distribution de la richesse doivent émerger et le revenu de base est une idée très intéressante. Mais ces nouveaux modes de distribution ne sont pas et ne seront jamais liés à un système monétaire ou à un autre. En fait, inciter les gens à utiliser un système monétaire pour bénéficier d'une prestation sociale est à l'opposé de la philosophie du logiciel libre. De manière générale, une innovation doit, pour s'imposer, réussir à résoudre correctement UN problème. Tenter de résoudre moyennement plusieurs problèmes à la fois avec un projet innovant est le plus sûr moyen d'échouer. La question du dividende universel et celle de l'argent-dette sont deux problèmes liés mais bien distincts. Bitcoin répond très bien au problème de l'argent-dette mais ne prétend pas résoudre tous les maux de la terre.

Les partisans d'openUDC se trompent aussi lorsqu'ils imaginent qu'une monnaie ne doit pas faire l'objet de spéculation. La spéculation est un phénomène naturel (car fondé sur la psychologie humaine) qu'on ne peut pas plus éviter que la pluie ou les tremblements de terre. Tout actif liquide sera affecté par la spéculation. Le blé et les matières premières alimentaires sont affecté par la spéculation. Aujourd'hui, les producteurs de blé font partie des spéculateurs. La spéculation est en réalité facilitée par les monnaies élastiques qui accroissent les risques et donc les effets de levier. Une monnaie "valeur" comme bitcoin (à quantité limitée, appelée aussi monnaie matière première) limite le risque lié à la monnaie et permet donc au producteur de blé d'exploiter son avantage (sa connaissance de la culture du blé) par rapport au spéculateur purement financier.

Seriously? Why did you wait nearly 5 months to "talk to a friend" about iw when you have so much time on your hands to stalk me on the forum?

Anyway if your alleged "friend" waited for so long to wonder about his/her iw balance, it must be insignifiant to him/her or else he/she was using iw for long term storage of a signifiant amount, a purpose iw was never intended for.
I am afraid the best things have to come to an end, even this claim process.

UPDATE
The next payout date is rescheduled to Wednesday, September 18. Please accept our apologies for this delay due to our limited resources.
The final payout date is set to Monday, September 30. If you have a payout awaiting your approval, please visit your instawallet page to confirm it.
The page will not be available anymore after Monday, September 30.

I guess that you have not noticed my above post
Please provide claim number, status and amount in your PM (or simpler, the wallet key that contains all three information).Thx

I confirm that the sender from a pooled wallet like gox does not control the sending address afaik.
Please provide claim number, status and amount in your PM (or simpler, the wqllet key that contains all three information).

For the sake of completeness, I should mention that my upgrade on OSX 10.7.5 from the 0.8.3 version to this new 0.8.4 triggered a re-indexation of my blockchain files (OP mentioned only 0.7.2 or earlier).

Yeah, another suggestion is to put tvbcof on your ignore list like I did.
This will compress the thread by a factor of ..

In am very calmly telling you that your highlighting in red the headline is only aggravating the situation.
If no money was stolen why is it that you are listing our site under this calomnious thread title ?
If there was "mass panic" acccording to you, why would you add to the panic by listing us under the thread ?
Anyway your thread is bliss for our competitors (by that I mean mostly banksters).

No. This is truncated information amounting to libel. As an amateur journalist, you should check the "press" thread to read more professionnel versions of the same shit.

I believe there are at least 3 highly qualified candidates in this election, namely Elizabeth Ploshay, Trace Mayer and Joerg Platzer.
Both Elizabeth and Trace write and speak very well about Bitcoin. I met Trace at a NACHA conference in Vienna where we were both invited to pseak and I was impressed with his etnhusiasm and clarity. Elizabeth has experience in dealing with the powers to be and would add much needed gender diversity at the board.
Joerg has my vote today though because of what is has helped accomplish in Berlin (convince local businesses to start accepting bitcoins), an experience I would like to replicate in my home town (Paris). He would add much needed international diversity to the board too.

Article dans Grazia (signal par une copine ;o)): diabolisation du net. Consternant.
Article Grazia page 1
Article Grazia page 2

On savait déjà que la presse écrite considère le net comme une menace pour les intérêts et les pouvoirs centralisés qu'elle représente mais la "campagne de presse" coordonnée des groupes de presse (salut les actionnaires de la presse française: Financière Bazire, Silvio Berlusconi, Yves de Chaisemartin, Jean-François Kahn, Maurice Szafran, Alain Weil, Principauté de Monaco) est évidente en cette rentrée 2013.

+1


Absolument, lance UN journal, il n'y en a plus (même le Canard a vendu son âme au dieu Euro).

Peux tu stp relancer avec Christian un formulaire sur doodle ou meetup pour la date du prochain meetup, genre première quinzaine d'octobre ?
J'aimerai bien en être cette fois-ci. Merci.

Updated on OSX and Win7 without a glitch. Many thanks to the dev team.

The problem is that you are not supplying the claim numbers. Without it I cannot do much.
If you want me to help you, it helps that you help me help you.
In general, replies come in the form of a payout. If the payout is not coming that is because we have not received the necessary information.
We do not have the resources to baby sit the claims until they can run.
Its too bad that the thread has been poluted by a few posters with unjustified accusations: that makes it more difficult to follow the thread for our instructions but the instructions have been posted.

As a supporter of e-gold the guy must have fallen victim of a true fallacy: gold is a collateral and the bitcoin network is not .
Gold is a collateral because it has industrial applications in jewelry ? Bitcoins do have industrial applications in the field of payment processing.
The bitcoin network is scalable either through its own versionning or through altcoins networks if needed.

Well, for anyone who can think things through, an internet overlay network like bitcoin is made of computers and telecom equipment run by people.
In what way is it different form a large corporation processing electronic payments (like Visa, Mastercard, Western Union,etc)?
It's mostly about the legal structure since they are all made out of the same (computers, telcos, people).
Bitcoin is community run with people joing and leaving in a frictionless, informal process while large corporation have contracts and regulatory compliance that create frictions, inertia and costs.
Bitcoin is new because it is P2P but also because the units of accounts are shares of the network at the same time.

These two aspects (collateral and units of accounts=stocks) are most often overlooked or misunderstood by critics.