That's true in theory, but in practice, it's impossible to "prove" something isn't a scam. MtGox could be a scam just waiting for enough money to sit there before taking off for all we know, that doesn't mean they haven't given properly demonstrated that they aren't a scam. That's why anything anonymous should be boycotted from the start. It's hard enough keeping a public business honest, doing business with an anonymous private one is basically gambling with your money.

I can't explain why that is, but here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/MyBitcoin (it may have been before your time).

TL;DR? They stole 51% of everyone's money, tracing them showed an anonymous registration in a country known for anonymous shell companies .

The last time you visited a police station demanding the police help you reclaim your stolen funds, did you refuse to tell them who did it while demanding they do something about it as well?

This.

In practice, an anonymous wallet or mixer that has demonstrated they are not a scam, are merely long cons (mybitcoin.com) or sleeping trojans.

Escrow is essential for real-time purchases, especially bets where either party can back out easily on their promises. Future purchases like pre-orders make escrow a bit difficult. I suppose rather than escrow, collateral of some sort could be provided in that case, but I haven't done much thought on that. Any suggestions?

I could, anyone could, the question would be why would I. Have I ever run with anyone's money despite handling thousands of bitcoins for other parties, both individuals and companies? I've never scammed a single person and I've gone above and beyond when it came to paying off loans or debts of other natures. I have one of the strongest characters in this community, despite being a bit manic and having misdirected my energy at times. Sure, I've made bad decisions and learned just how far off the norm I was for them, but what you seem to be attacking is the mistake itself (dead horse anyone?) instead of my ability and willingness to learn from my mistakes and make up for them (which I have found sets me apart from many "men" in this world who are attracted to bankruptcy, excuses, hiding behind LLCs, and running away from their problems with no concern for the damage they've done). The comical irony is an anonymous account on a forum arguing with me, a long-time self-doxxer and transparency nut, for not being honest and avoiding accountability. Really?

I've already stated multiple times on this forum and elsewhere that the previous prank of mine was completely out of line and that I had learned a valuable lesson when it came to screwing around with people on the topic of finances (read: don't do it). If I did that again, I'd be a liar. I'm not a liar, so I wouldn't be doing that again.

Everyone knows I'm not only paying my debts, but that I have always paid my debts (despite my own circumstances, and most of the time being a direct cause of poor financial circumstances. What good is having what you want when your debt to someone else causes them to be in need?). Did you know that when Roger Ver invested in DialCoin, and Charles Lee (Coblee) invested in BitcoinMall, both purchasing shares in the companies I was running, and things didn't go well (DialCoin closed due to fraud coming from the UK, and BitcoinMall never tookoff) and the companies closed, I hounded both of them to let me buy the stocks back because I told them I didn't think it was right that they should suffer for the company's mistakes? I felt *bad* that they had put money into an idea, team, management, opportunity that didn't return a profit for them and wanted to recoup their losses 100%. I'm *still* waiting on Roger Ver to tell me how I can pay him back. I'm paying Charles Lee right now actually. This doesn't even include the business loans for prototypes of Ellet that I made that I *personally* paid back when the company didn't take off, or DialCoin's liquidity loans that I *personally* am paying back despite the *company* being defrauded. Your ignorance of this is not your fault, it's just not something I have never made public previously.

The picture you're trying to paint is convenient since I'm still paying people for the bet, but it's far from accurate. It's the equivalent of me saying that you don't pay your bills because you haven't this month's electric bill yet. It would make more sense if you had actually agreed to pay by a certain time and didn't. I've agreed to pay everyone by timelines they stipulated, and have paid more than half now. This is well known and your argument has been invalidated numerous times.

In your broad disingenuous generalizations and loaded statements, you continue to refer to me as "thinking I am smarter than [you]". It's simply not the case, although with each statement of yours I read, I do feel I am much more honest than you. Afterall, anyone can leave after making a mistake. I'm still here Rampion, still doing business, still helping, still making up for things. It's easy to think someone has integrity when they are anonymous (like yourself) and keep their vast and various mistakes a secret from the world. I make mine public, learn from them, and work on myself for the benefit of myself and everyone that depends on me. That to me is worth much more than any opinion on this forum.

That said, despite your intentions (which may be of malice as you certainly do sound like a troll most of the time), your posts help me to take a better look at myself and how I present myself. Through this process of painful learning, I am able to do things more transparently and better prepared the next time. Thank you for helping me become a better person, it is something I strive to do for others here and judging by the color of my ignore link, have (apparently) succeeded in doing for over 2 years. Keep vigilant, but always with an open mind.

That is something you'd need to ask BitInstant. I am not affiliated with them.

Here's a pretty good, up-to-date writeup that explains the gist of it.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2013/04/17/the-trouble-with-crowdfunding/

Looking for someone to come represent NameCoin at the Bitcoin EU conference (http://theconference.eu) on a panel of alternative currencies. Anyone available to come to Amsterdam September 27-29 and sit on the panel with Charles Lee (coblee) and others?

It is crazy, it is a scam, it's designed to keep small businesses (who are not so easily influenced by politicians) out of the mix. It's kind of like what is happening in Bitcoin with all these big shouldered businesses, "foundations", and boys clubs. The US government only cares about you if you can make them a profit, and even then only if you're a pushover to their policies. Just look at recently passed crowd funding legislation if you're in the mood to vomit.

You'd need to bid 1 @ 0.9 to place a bid at this point.

It was originally expected in May (as Yifu had advertised), but he's now telling me to expect it inside of this month. The only reason I'm selling these profit shares is because I want some liquidity *now*. If I had the rig at the moment, I'd just mine coins myself and keep 100% of them.

You can register state-wide, but then you need to get proof from each customer that they don't live outside that state, and risk losing your license, fines and imprisonment if you're caught doing business with any customers outside the states you're licensed in.


http://www.fincen.gov/financial_institutions/msb/msbstateselector.html

BitInstant is registered as a money services business. https://mega.co.nz/#!E99RzY6B!Mol5t0UtPPLb9epFgbgxrhojhfcrk41W51Bybp0YsXs

My guess is because there is less than 3 hours left. I expect to see a bit more gun jumping, considering the last auction I had (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=165105) ended at 1.25~1.5 BTC per 1%, then several other sales were made up to 2 BTC per 1% after that.

Proving once again, anonymous + business = joke

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden/Dp03vGYD

This is not an independent online petition on facebook that won't go anywhere, this is a legal petition that the White House will be forced to respond to publicly (and probably won't go anywhere other than a canned response about how Obama takes security violations seriously but will "look into it"). That doesn't mean we can't show them that we're all watching.

edit: The number of votes is increasing every second. This is amazing to watch!

I also use XE.com frequently, have been pushing for XBT usage, and am very pleased with this update! Thank you XE for making our lives easier!

Now comes the interesting question: where does the price come from? (I read what they claimed, but I want to know the exact sources)

Why bother? There is nothing here that a wallet plugin in the browser wouldn't solve. Blockchain.info already made one that connects to the BitcoinQT on the desktop through the API, why wouldn't it work like that for sending tips?

Exactly the point. And the fact that you'd need to send someone your bitcoins in order to use them for tipping is a bit derpy too. I wouldn't use it.

This too.