I've had one manufacturer out of all of those contacted state that they'll get back to me. I'm presuming they'll take this back to the office, and decide whether they can fit it along with some of their other projects. Hopefully, they come back to me with some good news, and we can then discuss it a little more specifically. For me, its a great project to be involved in, and should appeal to manufacturers if not for being part of Bitcoin, and Bitcointalk history, but the marketing benefits that come associated with that. Also, from a manufactures point of view these coins are a guaranteed sale, and therefore profit to them. We'll be able to find 300 users willing to pay for the coins if we take a look at the votes, and if they can give us a good price potentially covered by a crowdfund sort of situation between a few users passionate about Bitcointalk.org Right... age != contribution especially when you look back at the still-spamming account farmers.
I assure you being an old user, and that fact alone isn't going to net you one of these coins if this project does become a reality. I had previously talked to some users about the logistics of this... If post offices started using GPG then we could essentially have a shipper to receiver end-to-end encrypted passage.
That's an interesting idea not only for a project like this, but in general. More like mob rule! Or are we going to elect the "Puppets" who will vote on our behalf?  Speaking of democracy, why limit it at all? We should open up a shop and let everyone buy one for a limited period of time I will be damn pissed if I don't get 1 even tho I haven't contributed shit to the forum... Trying to stick to what the community wants, and what theymos would be likely to put the official name on it if it was deemed good enough is fairly difficult. This is also partly the reason why I don't want to be the one picking the users to get coins. I'm trying to think of a unbiased way of going about that. |
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This is good news, thanks for sharing. I'm glad that a major charity is accepting crypto! As an aside, and for those who love drowning in stats, this online charity evaluator site is very useful in helping you to decide how best you can help those in need, and how to ensure that your donations are going to the intended recipients rather than being siphoned off by middlemen. The only thing with this is if you expect the money you're giving to charities that claim to help as much as possible how do you know givewell isn't receiving money to advertise charities as the best to give too. Unfortunately, as we all know charities can be some of the most corrupt businesses around. I'm not suggesting UNICEF or givewell are doing that, however its another layer that you have to trust when giving money to these charities. |
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I'm pretty sure this is a new change, and I'm assuming that means its fixed. When I was creating my reporting effectively thread around a year ago I definitely didn't have images within the preview section. That's what I thought. But I don't see any other reason for that. Maybe the forum uses a different "technique" to render the image in that page?
The way tracking pixels work is by linking a image which is hosted at your website, and you have direct access to the logs of the visitors of that image. By introducing a proxy there's a third party involved to prevent this. At least, that's how I'm assuming this is being dealt with. I know. I mean, what if in that page the image would just be loaded from the original website instead of passing through theymos' proxy?
The preview page? Well, the poster of the image would be the only one seeing it as its in the preview so at that stage there's no reason to proxy it. That's if I'm understanding the question correctly. |
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P.S. if you want to use that tool you should also first verify if it is using good entropy source to generate the random seed phrase. it seems to be doing that but i've never used it for anything but testing and although i think it does it correctly but since it is not such a popular tool for "generating" seeds you may want to verify that.
This is an important point. Its all well, and good verifying if its coming from the correct source, and hasn't been modified, but if the way it handles entropy isn't up to standard its not going to get you anywhere. Even with reputable tools like this I would recommend everyone using them to create sensitive data to validate everything, and look at how it deals with entropy at a base level. Read up on the different pros, and cons of using such a tool, and only then decide whether you're comfortable with setting up a wallet/private key using this method. The article seems confusing for me. I feel it is better to use an offline hardware wallet to store Bitcoins and other altcoins. It is easy to use a multicurrency wallet than a paper wallet.
They each have pros, and cons associated with them. Generally these are the cons of each method: Paper wallets: - Can be lost, damaged, and stolen. - Very complicated to make for beginners. - Not suitable for a hot wallet. Hardware wallets: - Require hardware, therefore there's a cost. - Hardware can fail/corrupt. - Can be stolen, lost, and damaged. Both methods are probably fine in most cases. |
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There's only sMerit deadlines for merit sources , but for normal users there currently is not limit/deadline. However, it has been proposed that sMerits should decay to encourage users to spend them, but nothing has been implemented for that yet. Merit sources "pool" of merit refreshes every 30 days, and therefore they are encouraged to use up all of their sMerit within those 30 days.
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Generally, its a good idea although the only issue that I see with this is sort of embedding a view point on a newbie who might not be too familiar with the forum, and therefore they immediately discredit the user. Newbies are somewhat impressionable whenever they join a community. They will likely remember the users who are helping them, highly trusted users, and will discredit users based on trust. Which if the beginners and help section is being used correctly would impact on how they view certain users replies. They aren't familiar with the trust system, and probably don't quite understand that its subjective, and not a be all end all sort of system. I think we can all agree that the trust system is pretty grey in several areas with DefaultTrust users fighting one another.
The idea of the beginners section being used correctly is for users to ask seemly simple, and basic questions to the rest of the more seasoned users regarding Bitcoin. Rather than exchanging Bitcoin or anything that would normally justify a trust rating being shown in a section.
Although, the trust system might be used for more than transactions/trading I'm not sure whether we should be influencing a newbies perception of a user if the section consists of mainly around newbie inquiries about Bitcoin, and light discussion involving Bitcoin.
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Edited: Now it's back to normal
The latest update I could find was this (via Loyce's website ): olcaytu2005's judgement is Trusted by:
1. mentalpanda (Trust: +1 / =0 / -2) (2 Merit earned) (Trust list) (BPIP)
2. jackfruit (Trust: neutral) (0 Merit earned) (Trust list) (BPIP)
3. sonerbo (Trust: neutral) (4 Merit earned) (Trust list) (BPIP)
4. Starin (Trust: +3 / =0 / -1) (0 Merit earned) (Trust list) (BPIP)
5. Zonnk (Trust: +1 / =0 / -0) (0 Merit earned) (Trust list) (BPIP)
6. MesutCan (Trust: neutral) (1 Merit earned) (Trust list) (BPIP)
7. ATAK T-129 (Trust: neutral) (0 Merit earned) (Trust list) (BPIP) This data is from 05/10/2019. Not quite sure what went on for it to come up as trusted, and then suddenly "fix" itself though. |
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We couldn't possibly answer this question as there are multiple factors to consider, and at the end of the day its you that has to be comfortable with keeping a large amount of Bitcoin in your own home. I wouldn't even keep my life savings in one place let alone in one wallet, but then you have to consider if putting it in multiple locations is any safer. An option you have is splitting the passphrase up into multiple pieces, and storing them in multiple locations. Thus rendering each bit useless without the other. However, that might be going a little bit overboard if you're comfortable enough with the setup.
Some of the things to consider, and ask yourself:
- Likelihood of your house being burgled
- Likelihood of where your coins are stored from damage (flooding etc)
- Whether anyone knows you own Bitcoin
- If your house was burgled, how easy is it to access where the wallet is stored
- Considering the fact that your house has documents, and pictures the thief might be able to identify you, and your family members, and potentially guess that.
Probably more that I'm failing to remember to as of right now. However, despite all of this your setup is likely more secure than the majority of users on here. Although, all of this is subjective some users here will pick a bone with sharing with family members in case of death or they might be worried that the USB you intend on using might be compromised, but its all down to your personal comfort level, and trust.
Are there security issues with your proposed setup? Yeah, definitely. However, its a better setup than average.
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In my opinion, I think 300 collectible coins in total are enough. Let's me explain why I choose that figure.
(1) 50 or 100 coins are very limited, and the forum has so many prominent users as well as staffs. The limitation on 50 or 100 will prevent good users to get them. If we look at BPIP, most merited profile page, most of users in top 50 or even in top 100 are very prominent users. There are very little new users get spots in top-50 or top-100.
(2) 300 will give opportunities to good users, who have been here long enough to have significant contributions, but neighther have had long history enough nor significant contributions to be competitive compared to extremely prominent users and staffs.
(3) Such collectible coins (if new users can get) will play as good proof of motivation, and newbies will be inspired from it.
Looking at the poll result no one wants it as limited as 50 coins, and I can understand that. Although, about the idea with newbies earning these coins I don't think that's what purpose these coins are suppose to represent. I think the plaque idea of earned merit could be more suitable for that. And limit of 300?? there are thousands of forum members......
They're meant to be rewarded to users who have contributed greatly to the forum while also going to active users. Therefore, it would seem unfair to give these to users who are just established etc. I feel anyone who has contributed greatly to the forum or who is an historical figure on the forum should get a coin. And I don't know why forum should give perconalized certificate, with shipping data it's a good way to deanon someone :0 Other questions it's not important to much for me.
If I can find a manufacturer which is willing to ship the products direct at least I won't have to deal with shipping issues. Ideally, I don't want to be handling the delivery information or the process. Personal certificates would likely be appointed to usernames rather than names though. Upon receiving their items users could then show off their items without exposing their identity. I think this is the biggest issue considering the nature of Bitcoin, and I feel like a lot of prominent users on the forum won't want to give out their information, and then the whole project falls flat on its face as our 1st, 2nd, 3rd choices of users might not want the coins, because of the mentioned issues. |
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Casascius just carries a good name inside the Bitcoin collectibles market, and definitely has had more exposure than most other manufacturers. Plus, has already contributed with historic pieces in the past. I've contacted him on the off chance that he would be interested. I know that Casascius wouldn't be interested in funded coins since he ceased making these back in 2013? However, due to the recent news these likely won't be funded, at least without requiring the user to pay for it. If users were to pay for them I'd only run it on a pre sale basis as lots of people get enthusiastic at the time and then bugger off if there's actual money required.
Ideally, that would be the plan if it did require users to pay. I feel like we'd miss out on a lot of important users of the forum which I think deserve something like this due to the payment though. It just feels weird to go up to someone, and be like "Hey, you are eligible for this, but you have to pay" |
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I would love to see some Legendary set of coins with holograms of avatars of some of the oldest accounts.
Like a bitcointalk history set.
I had an idea to make a set of plaing cards with some of the established members' avatars, but again lack or time is what stopped me.
Don't make me pinch this idea too  I'd probably buy a set if someone did this. Honestly, if this project is feasible I don't think I want to pick the users who get it. I might request theymos to actually do that. After all, he's the one that's had more personal exchanges in the background. Denarium might be a good person to contact. They seem pretty active and the have a contact link on their site (I'm happy to do this if you don't want to). Noted, thanks for that. I'll see if they would be interested in a project like this. The 3 listed in the OP would likely be my first choices as long as we can strike a good deal, but I have a feeling I'll need some backups. Not sure if this has been mentioned but I was thinking that a bitcointalk plaque could be made (at an expense of say $200) out of brass or pewter and given to a user for a certain number of merits (like the YouTube plaques) when we more commonly see people with 10000 merit it would be quite a nice way to go I think.
That's actually a neat idea. Again, it doesn't really mean anything if it hasn't got the stamp of approval from theymos to be official. |
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Theymos has given his support, and told us reasons why he would not be putting in effort in this one, and really he has a lot to handle already on the forum.
If the community can pull through with this, with the special efforts of a few, I think it'll be amazing and theymos would be proud.
We are also here to help the community grow, and our collective efforts come in handy just as Theymos'.
And if anyone wants to make this project reality don't hesitate to get in contact with me. I've already contacted the main 3 manufacturers listed on this thread, but have also asked for some help off the more prominent users in the collectible section to suggest alternatives. I'm not expecting a reply from a few of them due to inactivity, and not all of them if any will be interested in making custom coins. I'm really hoping I find someone on the forum to do this rather than an external manufacturer, and it seems the votes agree with that view. @Welsh maybe get the community to crowdfund the coins and those that have helped crowdfund would get a coin themselves that might give a incentive for getting this done. You could sell these with the permission of theymos.
I don't really want to publicly state that this is going to happen for obvious reasons. I'm testing the waters to see how viable for little old Welsh this would be. Ideally, I'd like to stick to the communities wishes for these coins, and if possible require no investment, but that would likely require negotiating a killer deal with the manufacturer. Crowdfunding could be a option, but I'd rather avoid selling these coins. At the moment the vote is winning for "paid for by forum funds" which I guess now translates to Welsh's funds. The issue with crowdfunding is that users will expect a coin, and I'm not sure whether that fits the criteria of receiving a coin. Its almost buying the collectible coin where the idea of this is to reward users who have made substantial contributions to the forum. I'm not sure how many users would be willing to crowdfund if there was no guarantee of getting a coin sent to them, and that sort of bias is something I'd like to avoid. |
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I'm going to contact some of the manufacturers on the forum. I'm absolutely adamant that this should stay within the community, and be manufactured by someone on the forum with a little bit of history. I definitely don't have the pulling power that theymos has that's for sure, but I'll see if I can make this project feasible. I'd love for something like this to happen, and I'm not prepared to wait for the 20th anniversary |
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Theymos just posted this: I decided that I won't have time to see through the creation of a coin myself. If one or more other people want to create collectibles, I can advertise them into the 10-year-anniversary topic which I will eventually create. And if there's a really good product, I would be willing to partially subsidize the cost of them for the top n forum members, or something in that general vein. But I decided that there'd be far too many things to figure out from scratch with an official forum giveaway (eg. creating the design, getting the coins made, delivering items, safely/privately sharing data with various new service providers, debating exact giveaway conditions, etc.), so if anything is going to be done here, it'll have to be done independently.
Sorry if I got people's hopes up.
Hopefully, there's something else planned as a little celebration. I might as well lock this thread, unless we can rally together, and make this happen? I'd probably be willing to put some money into this to get this going. Although, it never has the same appeal as an unofficial coin. |
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For me it doesn't matters who will make these coins, but it must be our forum member. We celebrate anniversary of Bitcointalk, so IMO it doesn't makes sense to hire someone who isn't even part of our community. Yeah, I'm absolutely for the idea of using someone who is within the community. That way there's a little more community vibe, and love put into it rather than just some random cooperation. Honestly, if I could pick a poorly made coin (not implying the ones listed are poor) by someone from the forum, and an amazingly designed coin from someone external I'd pick the crappy one every time. I think that some biggest contributors of Bitcointalk should receive funded coin, they simply deserved it most. But who exactly will be these people - it will be subjective choice. All remaining coins should be available for sale and I definitely would be interested to get it. And offcourse, design should be chosen by community.
Only problem here is delivery - lot of people here value privacy and may not want to reveal their address to get coin. So, in such case coin should be given to next person.
I considered making a list of some of the users who have made some noteworthy contributions to the forum in the past. However, thought that would be a little too much bias. I'm going to leave theymos with that decision, unless he asks for nominees. With all the issues with delivery, selecting users, and getting the coin made this will likely go beyond the anniversary, but that doesn't stop us from beginning production on Bitcointalk.org's 10th anniversary. Although, there hasn't been any word from theymos on a special even for the anniversary theymos doesn't strike me as someone who wouldn't do something for that landmark. |
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More concerned about how the distribution will be processed since I'm from a region not much forum members will be interested in this to ship in bulk. Always wanted a collectible coin but considering the shipping procedures and other factors, I haven't showed much interested although I'm all in on this (submitted my vote). If there's a easy way to ship 1 coin down here to Africa (Nigeria), count me in.
Not sure what the restrictions would be on shipping I guess that's something theymos will have to look into. I'd hope that shipping expenses wouldn't be a factor of deciding who gets selected for the hounour. I think there should be 100 coins made & handed out to the top 100, most recognised posters on the forum (see Vod’s website for the top 100 - https://bpip.org/report.aspx?r=mostrecognized) It’d be cool if they were funded (paid for with forum funds) & the design chosen by theymos. There you go theymos you get one I didn't select a certificate, but in retrospect it would be a very nice challenge to collect them all (personalized) if they're a giveaway for selected users: who's going to get one at 10 years, at 20 years, and will still be around at 30 years?
Even if the collectible coin didn't come to fruition I'd love to at some point make a few unofficial certificates for users for their contributions to the forum or even Bitcoin. Sounds like it could be fun making those too. I chose Funded and Paid by forum funds. A man can dream!
I'm assuming forum funds is what theymos was referring to when he suggested the possibility of not requiring users to pay for them. Maybe its from the staffs monthly payment |
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Without specifically seeing exactly what you're talking about I can't really give you an in depth answer. However, if your account was banned, and you feel that was unjustified then you can send a ban appeal to the email included in the banned message. The admins would have then looked at it, and investigated. If they thought that the ban was unfair they would then unban you.
If you were permanently banned for specifically plagiarism then that's a permanent ban, and without successfully appealing it you wouldn't be able to post the announcement thread without it being considered ban evading.
Posting advertisements within someone else's thread no matter if its wanted by the OP or not is still against forum guidelines. I just gave the example of OP's sometimes reporting these kinds of messages.
In terms of how you should go about notifying users that you have taken over the project? Like I said I don't know the specifics of this case that you are referring too, but as long as you notifying the users doesn't break forum guidelines then you are free to do so.
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Banks can do whatever they want. It's their services, and their terms that you sign up for. A few banks in the past have supposedly closed down accounts which have been trading in Bitcoin. However, I'd always advise to take this with a pinch of salt as the user may have infringed their terms, and policies another way.
Although, I have to say these concerns just gives more of a reason to ditch the banks, and become your own manager of your money.
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The only issue I see with the community decided design would be the issue with multiple accounts voting for certain poll results which could skew the results (Just like this poll is also subject too). Whether, we allow community submitted results, and have a cut off where no more submissions can be submitted then vote on it. Ultimately, I feel like with the abuse of polls it could end up with theymos making a decision on it. Although, I feel the community submitted designs is definitely the way to go about this. PS: I did not read any of the contents you put in the OP (just in case you wanted to brainwash :-P ). So my picks were biased free :-D
I've actively tried to stay unbiased at least towards the beginning, but I think I've ultimately failed in that as it proved to be difficult. Unfortunately, as a result there are a few personal opinions mixed in there so I would encourage users to vote before reading unless they don't understand a certain option! I'll likely edit some of the things which could add bias into it. This isn't an official vote obviously, and polls can be abused, but hopefully will get the ball rolling if it hasn't already, and prove somewhat useful to theymos. |
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Regarding the up and coming 10th anniversary of the forum, and a lot of speculation whether anything special has been planned, and if anything has come to fruition with the production of the collectible coins idea, and assuming they haven't I thought we could take on the philosophy of OgNasty's quote here: I have long wanted to put out a community coin designed by the community, for the community. And allow everyone to pitch in with ideas, and voting in hopes to move the Bitcointalk collectible coin proposal into a reality. Hopefully, with the end result being a community driven effort to show our appreciation to those that are rewarded the coins by theymos. Here are some of my thoughts, however feel free to pitch in with your own ideas, and poll suggestions
Candidates to manufacture the coins Assuming they would be willing to manufacture the coins Casascius casascius the man himself who started it all, and is probably the most renowned, and respected due to being the first person to have manufactured a collectible Bitcoin coin called casascius. A user at the forum since 2010, and has contributed to the forum separate from his collectible coins manufacturing. Plus, in my opinion it would be fitting to have one of the more prolific coin manufactures create the Bitcointalk 10th anniversary coin. However, casascius doesn't seem to be that active in the last few years he definitely still remains one of the most recognized within the Bitcoin collectible world. According to BPIP stats Casascius is the 182nd most trusted user on the forum. smoothie smoothie known for their LEALANA coins. Has most recently worked with Monero coins, and has shown a decent production value. Being part of the forum since 2011, and arguably one of the most trusted users within the forums collectible scene, and has proven to be a productive user of the forum over the years. We probably wouldn't go far wrong with getting smoothie to manufacture the coins. smoothie being still somewhat active in the community is a plus. According to BPIP stats smoothie is the 26th most trusted user on the forum. Kialara Kialara being one of the newer users considering they registered on the forum in 2014. However, I think its fair to say that their production, and design of coins is nothing to scoff at. Probably providing the most elegant designs on this list, as well as still being part of the community for a number of years. Kialara looks to be still active, and participating in the forum. According to BPIP stats Kialara is the 75th most trusted user on the forum. External manufacturer who is not part of the forumWe could potentially search for other manufacturers which haven't been part of the forum, however this could end up taking away from the magic of the coin. I liked the quote by OgNasty of making this a community coin, and honouring that I believe it would be better to get manufacturers who are directly part of the forum. *I think its worth giving one of these coins to the manufacturer of the coin as a thanks, and being part of the creation process. The design process Deciding on a design should in my opinion be done via the community if we would like to keep to the theme of a community created coin. Therefore, I would suggest holding a competition for anyone on the forum to enter on a dedicated thread. They would submit their designs for the coin, and their reward would be getting one of the coins themselves for designing it. This should prove to be incentive enough. The result could be determined by either theymos, a whole community vote, or only those that are to receive the coins. How many coins should be made and should they be funded? As proposed by theymos he suggested creating between 50, and 300 collectible coins. My suggestion would be to create separate groups, and rewarding them for different reasons if the budget allows. As well, as including both unfunded, and funded coins. For example, the first 10 coins could go to those which were absolutely vital to the development, and survival of the forum who have contributed so much that they deserve to be remembered. These first 10 coins could be funded with small/large amounts. The rest of the coins can be distributed unfunded, and to those that have had a remarkable impact on the forum, contributed greatly or been somewhat of a icon to the forum. The issue with funding coins is a license may need to be required depending on the legislation of the country the person funding them resides in. I believe Casascius ran into problems with FINCEN because they believed it to be transmitting money. Certificate and presentation? I believe a certificate presented with the physical Bitcointalk coin would add a personal touch. The certificate could state who it has been rewarded too, as well as thanking them for their efforts. These certificates could be customized, instead of customizing the actual coin for each user, and could save on costs without cutting back on the personal thank you, and meaning of receiving a Bitcointalk collectible coin. Presenting this in a box with the Bitcointalk identification on it or perhaps a logo of the collectible coin on the box could be a nice final touch.
Distribution Costs Theymos hinted to the possibility of giving away these coins or the possibility of requiring users to pay for their coin to receive it. Manufacturing these coins as well as adding the possibility of further customization could rack up, and become very expensive quickly. The idea of allowing users to pay for their coins is a good ideal, and although I believe the vast majority of users would be more than willing to pay for such an item what happens to the coins which have been appointed to someone, and they don't want to pay? Distribution of the coins could then become problematic. Delivery and logisticsExpanding on the point made in the costs section of this thread; The fact that users may not want to give their delivery address, might not have access to a PO box or might not even respond could become problematic. Therefore, the best option in my opinion would be messaging those that are to receive coins, and if they don't respond after a certain amount of time then the coin is distributed to someone else. If we were to create a public announcement of the users who are to receive coins, and possibly adding personalized certificates with each coin all users would have had to confirm they would like to receive a coin before this happens. Who gets the coins? We know the coins will have a limited supply which begs the question who should receive the coin, and what criteria must they fill? It is assumed the criteria will be determined by theymos However, Here's some example criteria: - Active user (to avoid coins not being claimed) - Iconic users of the forum (Users with a lot of history, and are known by the majority of the community) - Those who have contributed substantially to the forum (major development, major security bounties, and long serving staff members) - Using a formula such as BPIP's MAT (Most merited, activity, and most trusted) - Using a custom formula similar to BPIP's |
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