and once more this place gets even weirder...  Yeah... I think bitcoin attracts the fringe elements of society in all directions. If you have something to rebel against, bitcoin is for you. I think it is even weirder when I see socialists/communists posting to this board in support of bitcoin. It is like they didn't get the memo. --- Staying on target: If I were to send >100K to a person for their campaign, I would probably send a check and not use a credit card. The thing is, many of Ron Paul's donations are probably <$100 and so the percentage comes out of all of those combined as well. If bitcoin did become a commonly accepted currency, it would become really easy to bribe politicians with it. It is the equivalent of sending an unmarked envelope full of cash, but much easier to hide the actual transaction. You wouldn't even need to do a song and dance about campaign financing and job offers to politicians after their political careers are over. Just an encrypted email with a private key to an address, some money stashed in it, and a suggestion that they should do xyz. |
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I wasn't referring to you, I ment anyone that you send paypal to so that they can pay for something.
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Keep in mind I think Paypal is reporting earnings now to the IRS (I don't remember the source of the info). This will look like an unreported income (if you don't report it). If you reported your earnings in bitcoins, then you may be able to discount this as already reported income. (IANAA)
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Any interest in litecoin or namecoin bills?
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We could probably make a double sided token that was simply a slug that accepted a hologram on each side. That could be used to make some neat two-party bitcoins.
The premium would be higher - not so sure it would be worthwhile for 1 BTC at current rates, but 5 BTC and above, would not be so bad.
Just curious, who would be interested in such a thing?
I would be. Bills would also work well too and would be much lighter to ship. |
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I personally believe that 7 billion is well above the carrying capacity of earth, and the first to innovate and shed complete dependence on farmland will prosper immensely in the end. I could give a rat's ass about the government in the big picture, really. The counter examples provided are all retarded: * The moon - is the fucking moon. * Space in general - might as well be the fucking moon. * Under the ocean -  * In the middle of the Sahara (yes part of nations, but I don't think anyone would care) - inhospitable * North or south pole - inhospitable * Somalia - I like both food and not having my family raped and mutilated in front of me. This 'absurd logistical nightmare' is the life that millions of people lead already. I don't think you know much about sailing, yachting or boating in general. Talk about inhospitable. How do you explain New Jersey? It also might as well be the moon. (New Jersey native) New Jersey has a bad reputation, but it has a wide variety of wilderness, farmland and mountains outside of the areas that most people tend to see (unfortunately most just see Newark airport, which is as bad as can be found in NJ). Don't just accept the general accepted limited view of NJ. You will miss out on a lot. |
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If there's an interest in "community holograms", I would be willing to take up a collection and spearhead an order with the label production company and basically do the following: That certainly would make it cheaper to alternatives to startup but SHOULD it be cheaper/easier to get into the physical Bitcoin biz? I mean lets take you for an example. You "could" rip people off by making copies of private keys and stealing funds however you have already sunk a lot of money into the project. Couple thousand for custom designed hologram, couple thousand more in runs of the holograms (now on 2nd version), thousands more in physical coins plus the time, energy, and effort put into it. So while when I buy a coin from you it is possible you "could" rip me off I don't think you will. If the barrier to entry is lower doesn't that lower the implicit trust in the "issuer"? In essence they have less skin in the game, less to risk if they decide to run a scam. Sadly Bitcoin is full of scams, theives, and idiots who will trade their reputation for a quick hundred bucks (or less). So far the only two significant physical bitcoin operators (you & BitBill) have be legit. Look at the track record for exchanges, wallets, etc and that in itself is pretty amazing. Cheaper to startup means that it will also be cheaper to sell, and push margins way down. So a physical bitcoin might cost a small percentage above actual bitcoin value. This would be a wonderful thing as it would be equivalent to getting cash from an ATM. Legitimacy is an issue, and questions of how to determine how much a vender can be trusted is difficult. I don't know if the cost to a new custom hologram would deter a scammer. That might just be considered an investment in a large scale scam. I will be releasing some code on github which will create pdfs easily that output QR codes on double sided slips for behind holograms, and this will make it at least an effort to get the private keys in mass for what you are printing. In the end, anyone producing physical bitcoins could be a scammer. I trust Mike as much as I could trust someone I have never met, and know only through the internet. That said, he could have been storing the private keys all along and just waiting for the key moment to swipe the many thousands of bitcoins that reside on all those coins. How do we deal with this situation (outside of not producing physical bitcoins)? I think the one way would be the multiple private key & public key combined bills which would require multiple producers to collude to steal from users. Since no single operator would be able to have access to the coins, this does a lot to resolve the situation. If the algorithm can be found for 3 or more operators, I would probably trust it more than most other things. By lowering this barrier to entry, this will bring more producers to the market, and this will reduce the costs that would be needed for this type of protection. Eventually you will never see single private key physical bitcoins, and double private keys will be the standard. Lowering the barrier and getting more producers is the first important step in this process. |
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I read the book but I am guessing there is a user of note.
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http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/120450Replaces Atlas' many usernames with "I Am Atlas." Have fun.  Sorry if I missed a few things; this should cover your daily browsing though. Donations: 16CgAMBWzqXf7dZvJnx2Cdt7VFp8srEmc3 You can shrink your conditionals by putting all aliases in an array, and then using indexOf. var aliases = ['john', 'bill', 'steve'];
undefined
aliases.indexOf('bill');
1
aliases.indexOf('bill')>=0;
true
aliases.indexOf('j')>=0;
false
aliases.indexOf('john')>=0;
true
indexOf returns -1 when string is not found. Then this
str = str.replace(" Atlas", " Unremorsefully Atlas");
str = str.replace(" I.Goldstein", " Unremorsefully Atlas");
str = str.replace(" Ragnar", " Unremorsefully Atlas");
str = str.replace(" Immanuel Go", " Unremorsefully Atlas");
str = str.replace(" ALPHA.", " Unremorsefully Atlas");
str = str.replace(" Harvey", " Unremorsefully Atlas");
str = str.replace(" Anonymous...", " Unremorsefully Atlas");
can be replaced with for(var i in aliases){
var name = ar[i];
str = str.replace(name, " Unremorsefully Atlas");
}
Gotta keep it DRY. |
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Brief summary of who is Atlas...
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I have played with the Ron Paul checks I got and did notice that the holograms used on them are not "destructive enough" for a real product. You need to make sure that removal of the hologram totally destroys the check/bill in a totally obvious way - without in any way destroying the private key. I think this is one of the things that really needs to be worked out.
I really like the idea of somehow embedding the private key inside the bill so it has to be ripped open to get it out.
Also suggested is to have the stickers from the two sides make contact with each other through some holes in the paper - or something like that...
Thanks for the feedback. For the custom holograms we are going with the company that Mike uses which is much more distractible. I have about 50 more bills in my stock and I think that will end series 2011A for the bills. After that I will be going with the custom hologram and changing up the design a little from what I have learned so far. Series 2012B will have some more difficult to reproduce qualities, be double sided, and be denominated funded bills. I probably will still print a cheque form as well, as people seem to like them. I like the idea of the holes through the paper to link the double sided together. |
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Which one are you buying?
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Nice terrytibbs. I guess I should have pushed my bid a little later. I didn't think there was anyone else going to push it to the wire as well.
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Is there anywhere I can exchange cash for bitcoins? I'm willing to send by snail mail but bitcoins4cash seems to be down.
I have received random anonymous envelopes in the past containing nothing but a little bit of cash and a Bitcoin address. I have always obliged at the current rate as of the time I opened the envelope. My mailing address is on my home page about two thirds of the way down, just below the Facebook like button. I would recommend a printed QR code for your address. Typing in a public addresses not yet in use is a little tedious. |
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I believe it is Japanese.  |
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My suggestions for alternatives were supposed to all not be good ones. I was showing a basket of similar ideas as far as the trouble you would have to go through to exist in them.
Sorry I made the assumption about the independence from the government thing. I thought that was the point. I am interested in how you could effectively use the ocean for food production that would be more effective than lets say in a desert climate.
By the way, I am not too shabby for a novice sailor, thank you very much.
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Seriously? You aren't joking or trolling? You can't see the benefit of a mobile city free from all government interference?
I guess I am semi-trolling as I am asking a group of diehards to explain to a skeptic how such an absurd logistical nightmare could be considered a viable option. Alternative places to live that face difficulties on different magnitudes of this: * The moon * Space in general * Under the ocean * In the middle of the Sahara (yes part of nations, but I don't think anyone would care) * North or south pole * Somalia (no real central government for the last 15 years, and is a good libertarian example of an economy that works without government) (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia) If you acquired a large cargo ship to live in lets say, and lived in it, you would still fall under international law, and you would still need to transact with people living under governments and thus would be tangentially interfered with by said governments. You can live in the wilds of even the USA and still avoid the reach of government. And you will have solid ground, access to drinkable water, farmable land, and trade with outsiders. There have been plenty of people that have successfully moved off the grid and without the likely outcome of meeting a watery grave. |
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You might want to look at using scratch offs. That was what I had as my original concept. The plus is that scratch offs are fun.
Tamper evident generic holograms work well for cheques. They might beat any other method as far as ease of application and price.
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