All this does is strengthen my association of "ex-con" with living in a police state. It no longer has any automatic negative connotation.
Exactly. According to this post of him, Roger apparently provoked the wrong people, and got sent to jail for a non-crime that normally is not actually punished. It's crypto-totalitarianism. Everyone is a potential "criminal". Provoke the wrong people, and they may literally destroy your life. This exact same thing happened to a friend of mine's dad. He ran for state political office and they threatened to destroy his life if he didn't quit the race. When he didn't, they trumped up some absolute garbage about how the insurance company he owned sent some business paperwork with mistakes in it through the mail, constituting mail fraud. He spent 10 years in jail. The case was complete nonsense, his business was the very clean, and everyone involved knew it. Our "justice" system is a joke. That's insane. Every day I feel less bad about wanting an economic collapse to come about and smash this system, and to ruin those sorts who depend on it and use it to enact such injustice. |
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Well, I don't know if this is too much for free advice, but I'll give it a shot.... I'm nearing completion on a Bitpay payment module for Ubercart/Drupal. The module can be downloaded at the below link (WARNING: it's unfinished, and I need further testing. Anyone who grabs it and runs with it, does so at your own risk!) Edit: altered code and uploaded newer zip fileFurther edit: I've posted the module up on github for public viewing and editing. /edit I'd like to have the module settings (function uc_payment_method_bitpay in file uc_bitpay.module) be validated whenever they're saved. The settings don't have their own submit button, they get saved whenever the submit button at the bottom of the form which applies to all method settings gets clicked. But despite looking for documentation and going over the code, I can't find how to create a hook for it. (Yes, I'm fairly new to Drupal.) I've already got the code to do the validating created and set aside into a function. Where do I put the function name so it'll be called when appropriate? |
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Just for the record, had another smooth transaction with this service a few weeks ago, forgot to mention it in this thread like I said I would. I hope I never have to go to the store for my prepaid airtime cards again!  |
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So if you're not doing anything wrong why are people so worried about being anonymous? i guess i've never worried about it yet. Why is it such a major part of bitcoin? just curious.
Good question. Don't think of it as people worrying about being anonymous, but rather people just wanting the ability to maintain some privacy if they so choose. Remember, Bitcoin is money. And the way the system currently works, all transactions are publicly viewable. Ask yourself, if every transaction everyone at your bank ever made with anyone else was viewable by anyone with a few clicks, wouldn't you be a bit more concerned about your privacy, possibly even total anonymity? Also keep in mind, it doesn't have to be total anonymity. I have public addresses so people can identify spends from me, and so anyone wanting to send me money for whatever reason (debt, gift, purchase, etc.) has at least one reasonably-easy-to-find address they can send it to. And I use BitcoinSpinner, an Android app that only gives you one address that gets constantly reused. But I also have other addresses and wallets that I maintain various degrees of privacy with, for various reasons. Having that be easy to do is always a plus, no matter who you are, or how innocuous your transactions. |
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BTW, there is a 'Donate' option you can access if you click the option button on your phone on the main screen of BitcoinSpinner. It hasn't been tested much  Thanks for the reply. What about increasing the fee a tad and make some of it go towards your reward ? There could still be the option for the cheapskates to compile it themselves and remove that extra fee. Not sure how the user base would respond to that. Your time and resources ain't free, so.. Depends on the amount. If the mandatory 0.0005 BTC fee was increased to 0.001 BTC, with half going to donations and half as a transaction fee, I doubt anyone would even notice. For that matter, I'd recommend at least a 0.0015 BTC fee, with 0.001 BTC being for donations. With current BTC prices of ~$10, that's less than 2 cents total per transaction. Extremely reasonable. But anything more than 0.005 BTC total, it might limit my use. Anything more than 0.01 BTC would have me reconsider using BitcoinSpinner. |
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This topic has a good point and it's being ruined by SCIENCE.
What happens when power is cheap to the point that you can run an overclocked GPU for a penny a year? That was what the question should have been as it's actually a good question. Does the value of bitcoin drop or does the price of the GPU back it then? And if so, what happens when the CPUs, GPUs and ASICs that "crack" those "passwords" are manufactured for $1 per minirig? What happens to Bitcoin and the network?
Other things become the limiting factors. Energy may get to the point of being practically "free," but it will never be unlimited. Suppose we are able to develop 100% efficient solar panels for 1 cent US per 100 square meters? At that point, the limiting factor won't so much be money or electricity as how much space you have to lay out solar panels. Ditto for "zero point energy" or whatever it's called. What little I know of it suggests it relies on space... 8 cubic meters of space could generate 8x the power of 1 cubic meter of space, but that's it. At that point, the guy with the mansion has the edge on the guy with the tiny apartment. There still wouldn't be an infinite amount of hashing power coming online. Of course, I'm fairly certain we could probably calculate some actual limit (I believe I've seen some maths on the threads that lean toward that.) There is a minimum energy expenditure per logic/math calculation, and we could probably determine a minimum hardware area/volume required per calculation as well. Upshot of it all: hashing power will continue to go up, based in part on how much energy out of our productivity we (as a global society) choose to devote to mining. But there IS a hard limit, and there will still only be a new block every 10 minutes on average, and the price per bitcoin will still be primarily determined by demand, and little else. Q: "What happens to Bitcoin when free energy is available?" A: Nothing much. |
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There is no market regulated by strictly market consumers (i.e. a free market) in traditional banking. Were there one, depositors would shop around and pay attention to the credibility of each bank which in turn would force them to compete with one another and not collude. And it's that simple to solve this problem: remove FDIC, remove all guarantees, remove lenders of last resort, remove regulations and BOOM all the crooks will go up in smoke and what will remain are the honest players.
Yep, but it might take a while. Might look like the current bitcoin economy for some time first. |
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Jan, I finally decided to double-check BitcoinSpinner's "Export Private Key" function; I'd been wondering about the problems people have been presenting with importing their keys. I also remembered having trouble importing my exported key into StrongCoin a while back.
BitcoinSpinner is NOT presenting a proper Sipa-format private key.
The string my wallet exports doesn't start with a "5;" in fact, the first character is actually a "9." I tried importing the string just as it was, and I tried importing it after prefixing a leading "5" to it. Neither form was recognized by bitaddress.org's code, nor were they recognized by Blockchain.info's wallet. Replacing the leading character with a "5" resulted in a successful import and what seemed to be a legitimate address, but it was not the correct address for my wallet.
I'm running BS on a Motorola Droid X, Android version 2.3.4. I'm using BitcoinSpinner version 0.5.3b.
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Intellectual inertia must be overcome. This occurs at varying rates for depending on all sorts of factors, but mainly influenced by success. Success is hard to argue against.
Oddly, every aged person I've mentioned Bitcoin to immediately uses the scam word. I think it mostly has to do with the well rooted idea that all important systems must be centrally managed. And the natural conclusion with that logic is that anything with the properties of currency that isn't government controlled or regulated must then come with extreme risk.
Baby boomers and up sure do seem to be unusually authority-centric. They were the generation that molded the 60's in the U.S., right? |
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If I was you I would be advertising heavily on Silk Road  This may seem like a joke, but it would probably be quite profitable (and totally legal) to do so. |
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This obstacle is lack of knowledge.
People don't know how anything about the dollar/euro, but still use it. As far as they are concerned, someone gave them dollars for their hard work which they can use to buy other goods & services. Same thing will happen with bitcoin. Thing is, dollars and euros are "backed" by governments, and most people act as if governments are gods. If a government created it, then even it's worst work will be more legitimate than something thrown together by a bunch of geeks acting on their own! I think for most, it'll take some authority to convince them of Bitcoin's legitimacy, and that authority will likely be the masses of people they see using it. Which implies we're going to have to build Bitcoin's userbase slowly over a long time (unless something changes the game, like an economic collapse and a mad rush to move money out of paper assets.) |
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Many people over the age of 45 who are not in IT have a mental obstacle to understanding bitcoin. This obstacle is lack of knowledge. Unfortunately Bitcoin and bitcoins are highly abstract so in order to be able to wrap your head around this concept and understand it you first need to have learned a few simpler abstract concepts as a foundation. Just like in school they start teaching the very basic abstractions and then they build on top of those so that kids can understand the more complicated abstractions. I agree with this, but the layers of knowledge that must be built up in order to enter the "sphere of comprehension of Bitcoin" can be daunting. Sure, younger folks who've tinkered with computers and still remember their calculus courses don't take much time to get it. But people in Schiff's circles? I've about given up. I suspect he's one of those who never got around to setting the time on their VCRs, and can only barely make use of their DVRs (if they have them.) Such people have so many required layers of knowledge missing I almost feel like I'm demeaning them by trying to get them to the point where they can understand. As a simple example, I've witnessed people in his mode of thinking hear about Bitcoin's features, and then offer a dismissal such as "well, any code can be broken." This isn't strictly true, but it's the impression derived through movies and TV and... well, history (states cracking codes during wars, etc.) The idea of practically uncrackable codes based on difficult math--nevermind the entire concept of public-key encryption--is one they're just not well-equipped to handle, and they'll likely have no desire to equip themselves to the extent required to truly understand. Do they have to understand to get it? No, but what that means is that, whether they'll admit it (even to themselves) or not, they'll be relying on some authority to confirm for them that Bitcoin is worthwhile. Since we can't exactly expect governmental endorsements anytime soon, we're just going to have to wait for a critical mass of users and advocates to surround them before these folks start to take Bitcoin seriously. TL;DR - Trying to convince Schiff and folks like him (usually those in his age bracket) of Bitcoin's utility is a waste of time; better to spread the idea to those who can actually understand it, and let Schiff and company follow along in 5 or so years. |
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That was longer than expected. And I think in presenting all that, you've brought up another issue (not really related to ecology even) that makes this whole thing even messier.
I'll be fair and give your post a full reading, even though my response won't touch on most of it. I'll post the response in due time.
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*checks Mt. Gox*
*sees a last price of $11.09801*
Huh. Yeah, I could see it. Not gonna bet the farm, but it doesn't seem unreasonable.
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That being said, I will put out an offer for 7 days for someone to buy 1 of my first-day ordered Jalapenos for 100 BTC.
o.O *sits back, waits to see who buys this thing* |
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The wallet parsing program that spits out private keys with a drag-n-drop is working perfectly! We've tested it on 0.3.24 and 0.6.3 wallets, and it handles compressed keys. For each address, you get the private key in base-58 format, and the private key in hex format.
I'll be posting a link to the program, including source, soon.
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what are you guys betting is the mark where we see that mad-rush 'hockeystick' growth that leads to a crash and burn?
Well, it could also lead to a leveling-off, couldn't it? To answer the question, I'm still banking on sometime (late) this year. |
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Holiday ham candied bacon?!! Oh yeah, I'll definitely be checking this out.  |
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.......
I'll bite.
If it isn't the elimination of a given species, then what is the problem that greed is causing in these instances?
I think he was arguing that in fact the people causing the elimination don't actually own the species. Their livelihood depends on it, but who cares as long as there are enough for them to harvest within their lifetime? Well, that was part of my point. In many places, endangered species aren't allowed to be owned. So, people poach to get them, and if they poach, they aren't going to be too concerned about taking care of the herds. Ideally, the fact that animals are roaming on what's considered public property shouldn't prevent people from being able to round up and own them. Still though, if some problem beyond elimination of a species was actually FirstAscent's concern, I'd like to hear it. |
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