Gold has already lost to fiat in terms of usage.

I don't know if gold will disappear, but its definitely in trouble because its difficult to check if the gold is real or tungsten-filled.
We also know that most "gold" is paper gold... which is quite funny really.

I have also seen physical gold that was marked with lasers or something - so am I trusting the lasers or the gold?

Actually trading real gold incurs heavy fees/costs of course.


Also what exactly is the case for gold?

Investment: Land is probably safer and more profitable.

Doomsday: Just buying supplies with cash will probably be more likely to work. If you CAN'T buy stuff anymore
where are you going to spend the gold/silver coins you hoarded 50 years waiting for disaster?
Canned food would help you more.

Currency: Hasn't been for decades/centuries?

Currency collapse: Any investment, bitcoin, job or ownership will help you there.


LTB told me they don't even use silver anymore at "Pork fest"? Its mostly Bitcoin now.

Actually a stores software could do the following:

1. Listen for doublespends.
2. Check transaction bytes and fee are valid and sensible.
3. Listen for propagation.

If you are well connected or hook up to some service that is you can accept the transaction in 1-10 seconds with a very high degree of certainty.
(If the item costs more than 2000$ its probably important enough that you can go get an icecream first before picking it up )

There is a company already doing this I heard on LTB, but I forgot their name.

Since you covered everything else nicely I will just comment on this.

A network of partially validating nodes would be very fast since each node only needs to deal with a small subset of data.

So if you configure them so that a block isn't valid until say 3-10 nodes from each validator subset says they are + no fraud proofs are handed in - miners would have very little incentive to withhold data - their block would just be orphaned.

(Validator subsets would remember the full history of certain address scripts and get all other data from their peers)


As for selfish mining that is a different topic that I believe is easily solvable.

Is there anyone Greek on this forum/thread?

If banks are closed tomorrow its a golden opportunity for Bitcoin.

I believe my product can enable the masses to easily use Bitcoin, please PM me if you want a free shipment to distribute.

So have you bought a ledger HW-1 then?

Their product has everything a mobile phone has - except mobile phone - so I'm not surprised at the price tag at all.

To me its just not good design to put that many features in a product, of course I'm quite biased (see my sig ).

Right now the two cheapest hardware wallets are the Ledger HW1 and the BlochsTech Bitcoin card at 15 and 20 EUR respectively.

However what would you consider cheap? At what price would you get one (either/other)?

Do you think dedicated devices help Bitcoin usability and security or are apps and SMS services the way forward?

Ah yes that is true.

However only 64% of Americans even have a smartphone of any kind. A smaller number have internet access and a mobile camera on their phone.
Maybe 50% of Americans have both. Then some of this number will not have the technical skills to use apps.

So my card has a larger potential market than all mobile wallet apps... and that is just the wealthy tech savy Americans, the numbers will be even lower for 2nd and 3rd world countries.

With my system only the merchant needs a smartphone.

+ my system is more secure and faster than a mobile wallet (because my app can see the TX while sending it).
My system can also work during periods of no internet connectivty what-so-ever due to card side caching of TX data.

Everything has limits, I'm quite happy with mine

Sounds cool.

My card's code is not in Java unfortunately (ZC Basic), but anyone is welcome to build a java implementation on the protocol - I was hoping/planning for a diverse ecosystem when I designed it

I'm not entirely sure which part you refer to.

Of course with a fully open source protocol and terminal app one way or the other I expect an IPhone app down the line - eventually even purpose built POS systems.

You go to your local Bitcoin merchant, touch the card to his phone and give your PIN code.

The third time you go to the same merchant no PIN code will be required and you can simply swipe your card like Will Smith did in I, Robot.
(Don't worry it's still safe as there are various checks and limits in place)

If he/she does not have the required app show him/her the QR code on the front of the card.
Tell him/her it will make the Bitcoin payments faster, easier and more robust against internet interruptions.
(For the moment this is for NFC enabled Android phones only)

The idea was to gamify usage so that you are rewarded for using your card.

The fee means I could basically give away the cards and build infrastucture.


Speaking of which you guys can send me your addresses if you want a free sample at:
Info@BlochsTech.com

That fork will never gain support. Sure the someone might make the code change, but there would be no support of that code.

The only ones who would benefit would be one or two mega miners. No merchant, full node operator or normal bitcoiner would run it.

It signs transactions, verifies block difficulty and everything so its definitely a lot more advanced and powerful than a paper wallet.
The way it works is comparable to other light clients such as Electrum.


And yes you can store as little or as much as you like. I would recommend something like 2 months expenditures or less to be on the safe side.
Use an offline generated encrypted paper wallet for the big savings.

Its meant to be used to pay groceries and other everyday stuff in a very easy manor.

(Probably still alot better security than many people have on their thousands of dollars worth of bitcoins)

Thank you. Yes I will ask him.

The physical card uses that graphic for the front and its white on the back, I'll upload some real images and a demo video soon.

Security is as good as possible with a smartcard - better than most thought possible - but this card was made for normal people spending Bitcoin every day using PIN codes so if you're looking for a bunker for your coins an encrypted paper wallet or one of the other hardware wallets would be better.

I use normal letters so maybe ~10 days.

If it disappears on the way I will try to find a local dealer in that region and send more reliable packages to him that he can distribute.
I'm trying that for Thailand at the moment.

I'm still experimenting

Sounds cool. I'll look into it. Since my solution is highly price competitive such things are not a problem.

It is my pleasure to announce that I have a working Bitcoin card for sale.

It was developed based on a thread on this very forum and now it is a reality.

It is:
- An open source platform/app and protocol.
- Very very user friendly.
- Cheap, 20 EUR.
- Secure for the everyday Bitcoiner.
- The perfect gift for people you want to introduce to using Bitcoin.

You can read more in my FAQ.

Picture time (its not just a graphic the real product is ready for sale, tested and has already shipped to some individuals):




You can get one at my website: BlochsTech.com

Questions are welcome.

The project is now completed.

Yes that is right, you can buy a Bitcoin Card NOW at my web site: www.Blochstech.com

No pre-orders, no waiting, no nothing. Buy and use.

This is a userfriendly Bitcoin wallet card for only 20 EUR.
Anyone with a NFC enabled Android smartphone can accept it which should mean a good amount of existing physical Bitcoin merchants.

You should be able to choose your full node server and could choose a BTCore server I guess.

Is this a joke? you do realize that as soon as your XT client sends your coins they will disappear from your normal Bitcoin wallet too right?
Even if you wanted to you can't separate them as the TX's are identical and valid on both chains... and there is only one chain right now.

Later AFTER the hardfork you MIGHT be able to separate them via doublespend attack against yourself, but if things got that far no one would be accepting the old chain anymore.

Its not an altcoin. If you have Bitcoin then you also have "Bitcoin XT"

IF there is a big controversy and split in the eco system merchants might require that your TX is accepted on both chains for a while, but ultimately the chain with bigger blocks will win.