That's exactly my point.  I think overall, it's a little better than what we have now.  It's novel, but it still leaves us with many of the larger problems we still have that are the result of any distributive currency.

Holy crap how lucky was I?

A block was found in 2 seconds.  I run at 400 m/hash and I got 1 share out of the total 630.  I ended up with .07 BTC.  In 2 seconds.  Sweeeet.

In my opinion, only simple bartering remains the solution to all currency issues.  It places importance primarily on the process of exchange, not on the products or a currency and thus facilitates healthy person-to-person communication.  I think civilization had it right to begin with and then currency came along and jacked the whole thing up (e.g. paper money is not important to me, but it's important to everyone else, so THEN it becomes important to me and displaces my values.  Bitcoin is no different).

And, it is also my opinion that the theory behind Bitcoin isn't that brilliant.  The brilliance came from putting the pieces together (i.e. taking the theory, creating a mathematical analogue of it, representing that analogue in a computer program, and marketing it) and having the motivation to actually do it without knowing if it would catch on.  I, along with many of you, also have many brilliant ideas but we simply don't try to fulfill them to their ends because we think they might fail.  If they fail, it's a waste of our damn time.  And I have objections to Bitcoin because I think it is weak in theory, but strong enough to 1.) Be better than traditional fiat currencies and 2.) Gain the respect of a significant number of people.  It's a currency for the at-least moderately wealthy and computer literate.  It is not a currency for the poor or the uneducated (I use uneducated in a very general sense here to represent those who will have trouble understanding it and would need to dedicate a very significant amount of time to do so).

Edit:  Any idiot, no matter how dumb, can place their own value on a product they own and place their own value on a product they want.  Thus, any idiot can barter and know whether or not they are happy with the exchange.

I actually see these symptoms of depression as 'direction signs' so to speak.  It seems to me that many people who are depressed may think, "If only I could get more motivation to go out in public more...to have more sexual desire...to be interested in the things I used to be...etc...then I wouldn't be depressed."  In my view, these symptoms are actually the mind's defensive response against the mental illness, just like a fever is a body's defensive response against a physical illness.  In other words, I think the mind is already taking care of certain things for you, and that actually, the lack of sexual desire, lack of motivation, lack of social efficacy, etc. are useful in that they lead the person to the root of the problem.  I think that instead of trying to immediately try to seek these things again, the depressed person should spend time with themselves to learn more about themselves and to reflect upon their lifestyle; to find what it is that truly makes a person happy.  Specifically, what makes a person happy are the things that are intrinsically beneficial -- the things that the more you have of them, the more your happiness grows.  This is not true for extrinsically beneficial things.  The more money, fame, fortune, possessions, drugs, etc. you have, you do not become exponentially happier.  But things like love, wisdom, contentment, humility, etc. -- the more of these a person has, the happier they become.  People often try to drown their sorrows in a drink, by surrounding themselves with tons of people in a social environment, by buying a new car, but all of these things lead the person away from the solution for happiness.  That is why I think the symptoms of depression are actually a good thing if one assesses them with deeper insight.  Your mind is telling you not to pay attention to these things, because are things that are far more important.

No, you could've done it if knew how to generate the algorithm from the theory, but you didn't; he did.  And, no one else did before him.  Thus, it's novel.

Going back to your previous posts, I still think he did it to get rich because there are a lot of class and other problems that Bitcoin does not fix and will arguably make worse.  It's far from a perfect currency as far as virtue is concerned.  But, as I am lucky enough to afford a capable graphics card, computer, and internet subscription, and to be educated enough to be able to understand how to operate the necessary software and navigate the forum and exchanges, not to mention have some additional funds to invest, I'm jumping all over Bitcoin.  I do like some other features it offers, however.

The true novelty of Bitcoin lies in the math, not in the programming (as the programming is a reflection and implementation of the math).  That's why the programmers (and you) didn't do it.

perhaps consistent .2-.4 ish bets will keep it interesting, and seeing how the jackpot keeps rising, it should still keep it profitable

haha im throwin down every 2-3 bets

It's gonna be when the jackpot is still as low as it is and someone slams 5 BTC down on the table (thus hoping other people throw large amounts too, but at the same time, taking a major risk).  After that, a series of .1 BTC bets aren't gonna cut it unless you get other people willing to throw down multiple BTC.  Otherwise it could go on for a while.

By the way, this was my first thought and I really don't care to give it any more at the moment since I've been slowing banking :-D

Being novel technology-wise has nothing to do with the plausibility of him wanting to get rich fast.  If you're a programmer, and you're that good at it, chances are you're not also a major league baseball player, or a CEO, or a stock broker, etc.  He utilized his talents to make money, and it's not hard to understand.  That's like saying a musician signed with a major record label but didn't want to be rich; he simply wanted to spread his music around for people to be happy.  How does the fact that it's technologically novel suggest that he didn't want to get rich?  If I had the programming skills, I'd do it.  By the way, the risk of developing the code (if he is that good) would be maybe a couple weeks/months time, if that.  The only hard part was the math (even the theoretical concept isn't that difficult -- just think about what you would want in a currency -- but the math is).  It would have taken the most time to simply find the right algorithmic balance.  Being 'novel' has something to do with it...'technologically' novel is irrelevant.

Excellent.  I'll be in for a while 

Still goin, looks like steady interest.  Pot at .5250....well worth a .1 BTC bet.

Smack.

Well, a look at Google trends indicates increased interest in the past couple of days.  Do you think this is related to the conference this upcoming weekend?  Might be the time to buy...

Edit:  I recognize the data for this assumption is minimal as it seems the increase started only 2 days ago and may just as well fall off again tomorrow.

To me, this is a a weak argument.  Obviously, we haven't witnessed  an "intense development effort for such novel systems" since Bitcoin because that would be a period of what...2 years?  And, the Internet has only been around for a couple decades before Bitcoin.  The age of digital global information exchange is still in its infancy.  And, I would argue there have been novel attempts on a smaller systemic scale.  Linden dollars, for one.  Did Linden dollars make the 2nd life owners wealthy?   You betcha.  Now you got Facebook Credits.  Perhaps you could even go before digital communication and look at things like Baseball Cards, the popularity of which exploded in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  This could be thought of as a currency for kids (after all, there were price guides that pegged the value of a baseball card to a fiat currency).  Who got rich?  Baseball card manufacturers (the Satoshis)  and card shops (the exchanges).

Edit:  With the baseball card analogy, although they were also very popular back in the days when kids put them in the spokes of their bicycle wheels and milk men delivered them at your door, the explosion of popularity in the late 80's and early 90's was aided through digital communication.  Online price guides, auctions, etc.  helped to 'stabilize' the value of cards.

Question...It is my understanding that once a gemstone crosses the 1 carat weight threshold, it's proportional value goes up significantly.  In other words, a .5 carat gemstone is NOT usually worth half of what a 1 carat gemstone is worth because its much harder to find 1 carat of a particular gem and have that entire carat be free of inclusions.  Is this true?

In my opinion, anybody who thinks 'Satoshi' didn't create Bitcoin with the intention (at least, in part) of getting rich, I think you're fooling yourself.  It's clearly built into the structure.

At this point, it's in the hands of the community.  The OP's post is relevant because depending on how many BTC Satoshi owns, he can cash out at any time.  The stronger the community becomes, that gives Satoshi less incentive to cash out immediately.  If there are overwhelming signs of an absolute market crash, Satoshi is the one who can solidify it. 

You see?  You see?  This correlates with my "don't use the word 'Troll' " post.  This just affirms that the Bitcoin community is full of nerds.  I think I have some soul searching I need to do.

And if the codes didn't work (implying you wanted to buy them and he sent you false codes), then how are you selling one?

Here's a fairly comprehensive list



The Policy Based Profession:  An Introduction to Social Work Policy Analysis for Social Workers  978-0-2-0548592-5
Community Psychology 2nd Ed.    978-0-495-03965-5
Generalist Social Work Practice:  A Strengths-Based Problem Solving Approach   978-0-205-51682-7
Living Hinduisms  0-534-52011-1
Indian Religions   0-8147-52011-1
Cognition 6th Ed.   0-470-03978-7
Race and Ethnic Relations:  American and Global Perspectives  978-0-495-50430-8
Foundations of Social Work Practice   978-0-87101-374-3
Overshoot - The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change   0-252-00988-6
The American Promise:  A History of the United States   0-312-40358-5
Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism  1-55939-026-3
The Art of Public Speaking   978-0-07-322865-5
Uppers, Downers, and All-Arounders  0-926544-27-6
Geography:  A Global Synthesis    0-582-32030-5
Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences   0-534-60246-0
Cognitive-Behavioral Methods for Social Workers  0-205-42379-5
Applied Social Research  978-0-8400-3205-8
Going Local   978-0-415-34780-8
From Irenaceus to Grotius:  A Sourcebook in Christian Political Thought   0-8026-4290-7
Understanding Religion in a Global Society   0-534-55995-6
America:  Religions and Religion   (Sticker covering ISBN #)
Human Behavior in the Social Environment   978-0-415-80311-3
Understanding Children's Development   0-631-22823-3
Psychology   0-534-56742-6
Tonal Harmony:  Introduction to 20th Century Music  978-0-07-255260-8
Evolutionary Psychology:  The New Science of the Mind     0-205-37071-3
Biology 7th Ed.    0-8053-7146-X