We need to duplicate the effort! If you think Bitcoin is a viable technology, and if there is a place you'd like to see accept them - please do contact them and suggest they do so.  Don't sound scammy, don't insist - simply make a suggestion.

As for pooling funds together for large donations, bitcoin100 works just fine.

Good points, Terk. Furthermore, the slight-of-hand attack you described in yor next post is great. BIP38 addresses these kinds of problems, and canton is working on implementing it.

Welcome to Bitcoinland! Before you start moving money around, I highly recommend spending a day or two reading about the basics of how Bitcoin operates. This will make us all happier.
You can start on the Bitcoin Wiki, stickies in this board, or redd.it/18kt6y

Here is the broad picture:
Private key is a private, random string.
From Priv Key, public key is derived using a one-way function. Practically impossible to do the reverse if you know a public key.
From public key, the address is derived using a different kind of one-way function. Again, impossible to reverse.

You can generate as many key pairs and addresses as you wish. In fact you should have a new one for each transaction. Most wallet programs and online services do this for you.

Happy reading, and come back here soon!

You do realize Bitcoin network is not compatible with space travel due to lag, right? You'd never be able to propagate blocks fast enough, and there would be local forks budding everywhere.

The color of his "ignore" button explains why.

Except- market is not falling for it by any significant measure.

In case anyone has missed it: this thread was referring to now old news. The latest news imply the opposite: coinlab has filed a lawsuit against Gox.

Am I to take it that the OP prediction is now to be reversed?

It means eventually somebody was bound to confirm the value of OP by asking the question you asked.

This is correct.

You forgot 1b, 2b, 3b: spend a little bit to create positive PR, with "news" articles, analyses, empty promises in press releases, etc.
No one should get me wrong - I am an optimist. Bitcoin is a great technology with immense potential. The potential, however, has not been realized. We need more useful tech built on top of it, and less speculation.

Read the comments, and think. Also, do the math. How many satoshis are there?

Things usually work out much better when you don't try too hard. After officially giving up, and paying up the dues, I could finally have some fun with the sample wallet. I was able to read the key in about two minutes, without any apparent damage.
Canton, I emailed you with the details.

Yes. You could prove that it's never been spent, not that it's never been seen. The way to do this is by using a public ledger of digitally signed transactions.

Thinking forward, it may be possible to prove it's never been seen by using quantum cryptography.

No, it is not. You are discussing a value here, and how much I value one Joule of energy changes depending on the efficiency of the available technology, and what situation I am in. So, the value changes. Even the Joule itself may be changing as the universe is expanding. You built your model assuming constants are constant, so no need to get all excited when your model shows that they are constant.

PG is the opposite of a sock puppet.

I finally got a couple of hours to play with the early prototype. Here is what I was able to get by simply shining light through the wallet:


Now, as much as I am satisfied that I was able to read most of the letters, the level of satisfaction will not increase significantly if I spend time doing this until I am able to read all of the letters. If it was a 100-coin wallet, maybe.

Furthermore, canton included a sample sticker (that he did not apply to the wallet he sent it with) that would pretty much render my attempts completely futile: the sticker substrate appears to be metallic. No way we'll be able to read through that any more that we can read through Casascius coins.

I give up! Since this private key was inadvertently revealed elsewhere by canton, I will not be sending my dues there; canton, PM me a new address!

This was fun. Again, if you do make your own paper wallets, and you store any significant value in them, do not take tamper-proofness lightly.

For the record, we agree on BF. I just brought them up as an example - granted, not a good one, but the only one. There is definitely plenty of room for people willing to work on addressing issues which are not likely to get attention from the current BF leadership. I also don't see any fundamental reasons for conflict, such as mutually exclusive goals. It's simply a matter of operating in different areas of the Bitcoin ecosystem. Ultimately, everyone involved wants transactions to keep getting verified and secured, and the advantages over other payment systems maintaned and strengthened.

Interesting.

The technical issues will keep emerging as Bitcoin grows and evolves, and these issues will be global, nation-blind. The best way to address them is to concentrate resources in one entity, such as Bitcoin Foundation or any similar group. This ensures we don't waste resources by multiplying efforts.

On the other hand, we have regulatory issues and educational efforts, which are very country-specific due to different legal systems, culture, and political sentiment. It would be silly to attempt to help Bitcoin in these areas with one-size-fits-all solutions from a single, global entity. What is needed are regional groups that coordinate when appropriate. What OP proposes might work best at this level. Based on IPs of nodes, and number of Internet users per country, we can see that highest levels of adoption are seen in Scandinavia, so these countries may be a good testing ground.

I therefore propose that we keep discussing best ways to organize, but then organize - and incorporate - locally in each region. These groups could then communicate and coordinate as needed. I am currently in Canada, and would most likely join local group with the formalized membership and voting procedures.

I suggest you delay the story, so your current positions are not exposed. Only when your order is executed, you come and tell us what it was. Same value for the reader, but more fair to everyone.

This is a valid point. No matter what market size is, there will always be players willing and able to move the market for their own benefit. Even more so when players have essentially free fiat available (banks).