The reason PS got in trouble with the US was because they were accepting cash from US players via doubtful means. With BTC there would be NO WAY the US government could prosecute them.

They could make a totally different client and website (pokerstarbtc.com?) and start from there.

Pokerstars is missing on a great opportunity to use bitcoins as a stakes medium.

1. Since it isn't technically cash or any "valid" currency per US standards US players could play with BTC without any legal consequences whatsoever.

2. They can incorporate a micro mining component to their pokerstars client which can give players some microbitcoins and a chance to start playing with minimal stakes sort of like giving away play money. Alternately they could produce the bitcoins themselves and give them away in micro quantities to their new players much like they already do with their own play money (which has actual cash value too about 1 million PS playmoney per $5 USD).

3. they can offer introductory games and tournaments with extremely low stakes given bitcoins divisibility nature. They can easily hold the customers bitcoins in their super secure servers and super easily accept and payout bitcoins.

I am just wondering wtf are they waiting for? Are they planning on making their own virtual currency just for pokerstars? That would be dumb IMO.

Creo que en España le pasa lo que a muchos paises super desarollados. Mantienen salarios minimos excesivamente elevados y cpn muchas protecciones laborales. Sistemas de pensiones exageradamente generosas y mucha complicacion burocratico para contratar y despedir trabajadores. Eso lo que hace es elevar el desempleo de una forma atroz, y mantiene el status quo para lo que ya tiene trabajo, dificultando la entrada laboral a los jovenes.

La gente protesta porque se esta marginizando economicamente pero no entienden bien las causas creo.

Si estaria bien.

Comicastle/Fantastico: tienda de comics americanos y mexicanos en la ciudad de Mexico, Guadalajara, Queretaro y Monterrey. Compraventa en efectivo de bitcoins.

Very interesting. I will be following it and hopefully contribute some. I believe there is an ssl_openssl_lib.pas that handles compilation under different OS like win and linux, you might want to use instead (ararat synapse uses it).

Arch has a rolling release system, so it must continuously be upto date in all the installed packages. It didn´t intentionally break their Bitcoin build. You can still use Bitcoin on it, except that the wallet.dat would be saved in libdb5.1 format and therefore not transportable to another non libdb5.1 system.

Casascius suggestion is the best idea IMO. If I had the time I would try to code a push for it.

I am an archlinux user and my bitcoin client doesn´t run anymore, because Arch automatically upgraded libdb to 5.1 but bitcoin needs to have 4.7

For more info on this see this discussion;

My concern here is portability of the wallet.dat. For maximum portability the client really shouldn´t rely on any library. I can understand that you will want to use a database for the block chain data but not for the wallet. It is simply not necessary. Correct me if I am wrong but the wallet is a series of private keys and be saved in a simple text file for maximum portability (even printable for paper backup).

I strongly suggest in the next release to remove the wallet from a database file and store it a simple text file.

The digital and fast nature of bitcoins are the solution to this problem.

Client software can be made that accesses access an encrypted wallet which requires that  password to access the encrypted wallet has to be composed from two or more "associates" passwords. Only when the composite password is assembled can funds be sent. This avoids the kidnap scenario above unless the kidnappers decide to kidnap the daughters of all the associates at once.

For the walmart cashier example, the cashier never has to have access to Walmart's wallet.dat. A very simple program can access the wallet for her and confirm to her funds have recently been received from the checkout customer, much how credit cards work. The only reason nowadays cashiers handle cash is because they have to give back change which is not relevant with bitcoins, and because they can't immediately deposit the excess to the corporate bank account.

Of course, honest merchants thrive, and the ones who try to keep a quick bitcoin or two because of a mistake are going to be quickly dismissed. Same happens with cash, if you accidentally pay with a $50 instead of a $20 and realize later, you might or might not get your missing money back if you go to the only merchant you spent money that day.

But I think you are mistaken about the block chain being able to save you or your merchant from accidental transactions. First a merchant should never have the same public sending address because it is not secure. And even if he did, nobody is going to save you or even believe you if you claim a merchant "stole" your bitcoins, why would we, or why should we for that matter?

For better of for worse (I personally think its for better) with bitcoins you are truly on your own. Its going to be tough for many people to transition from government money transactions (with credit cards for example) to real online cash type money like bitcoins, after so many years, generations even, of being consumer protected.

I am referring to transactions online. If you make a mistake sending money to a different Dwolla account or another bank account, it can usually be saved by asking the bank to reverse it, of if you mistype 10000 for 100.00 a bank will probably catch it and tell you there are limits. Not with bitcoins.

Of course, the flip side is that with bitcoins you are totally on your own. No margin for mistakes or stupidity.

Bitcoins are backed by its scarcity due to its difficulty in making them, with cpu power. That is why its resistant to full fledge speculation.

Davux, que te interesa? comprar bitcoins o venderlos? Se puede manejar deposito o transferencia bancaria. Vi la oferta de tradehill, y lo voy a considerar. La verdad se me hace un poco absurdo ofrecer descuentos por promocion cuando ahorita anda muy limitado el mercado, pero en fin.

fabianhjr,si claro pueden comprar comics con bitcoins, de hecho pronto lo pienso implementar la opcion en mi sitio web. Pero por ahora los pueden cambiar en efectivo y de ahi comprar.

Estoy pensando que si puedo ofrecer vender bitcoins sin tener que comprarlos antes en Mexico. Los compro en MtGox con mi cuenta de Dwolla y luego los transfiero.

Speculators are not bad at all, they provide information about the currency.  What Bitcoin needs are more market mechanisms like being able to short, have futures, etc. The more market info is out there the more solid the currency.

Hola Mexicanos,

Compro bitcoins en Mexico. Tengo una cadena de tiendas fisicas (Comicastle/Fantastico) y las puedo usar para pagos en efectivo de bitcoins. Las tiendas se encuentran en: Mexico DF (Col, Del Valle, Coapa), Satelite, Guadalajara, Monterrey y Queretaro.

Puedo pagar en efectivo, Paypal y transferencia bancaria. Con pago de Paypal y transferencia bancaria no es necesario obviamente acudir a las tiendas.

Tambien pienso vender Bitcoins, pero solo si he comprado por este medio antes (por cuestiones de contabilitad) y solo en efectivo o transferencia bancaria (No Paypal).

Pago precio de MtGox x USD x pesos cotizado en xe.com x 0.95 (5% de comision). Ejemplo si tienes 100 BTC que quieres vender:

$B100 x (14.05) x (11.75) x (0.95) = $15,684 pesos.

Si quieres comprar $B 100:

$B100 x (14.05) x (11.75)  / (0.95) = $17,377 pesos.

Interesados contactarme con mensaje privado. Si tienes preguntas o dudas ponlas directamente  en este tema por favor.

A bank run like the ones that happened pre-fed days are not likely to happen, because the Fed backs all banks 100%. If people start withdrawing cash like crazy from their bank accounts, the Fed simply orders cash to be printed as it is necessary. Of course people would be holding on to pieces of paper with nothing to actually back it up.

Has anyone mentioned Free Pascal? It has an IDE and it can virtually do anything and natively with practically any CPU or O/S. For GUI applications you can use Lazarus IDE and practically most widget sets. Its fully open sourced.

It has a rich ancestry with Delphi and Turbo Pascal, with tons of open source libraries.

Easy to learn, readable code, object oriented, and simply rock solid fast compiled native executables like C, or C++.

I am thinking of making a bitcoin client port to Lazarus, if only I had some time...

This isn't a development "problem", its a protocol problem, it a problem at all. The protocol is set in solid stone, and cannot be changed.

The 50+1% problem is not really that bad. To begin with it would only disrupt the last block, at the most two while the network reorganizes itself when people (actual people, not machines) realize something is amiss. Secondly it would be extremely hard to reach this state even with a huge pool in operation.

What would be more feasable is that the deep bit pool agrees to divide itself in two or three entities ('deepbit1, deepbit2, etc).

That is great. I wonder though if it gets to be abused, campuses are going to start banning mining rigs...

Electricity and weather conditions are a big factor in mining cost effectiveness.

Those who live in cold weather or can either get free aircon or electricity (in an office or school for example) have a huge advantage.