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4781  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Bitcoin snack machine (fast transaction problem) on: June 10, 2011, 08:30:47 PM
This doesn't actually require someone to hold your Bitcoins to confirm. Here's my solution to this problem.

1. A trusted third-party is chosen. This third-party does not have to be trusted by the person paying the snack machine, just by the person who owns the snack machine.
2. At least an hour before the tasty snack purchase, the hungry customer-to-be sends a transaction with an input to the value of the maximum he wants to spend on merchants trusted by the third party. The script requires a signature from both you and the third-party before any outputs can be added, and if it isn't claimed after a certain period (like a month) it's refunded to you.
3. You wait for this transaction to get 6 confirmations.
4. You go to the snack machine and your phone prepares a transaction with the price of the snack sent to the merchant, and the rest sent back to you as change. You sign this transaction and send it to the third-party.
5. The third-party signs it, releases it and gives the snack machine the green light to sell you tasty snacks.

If the third-party is unable or unwilling to sign the transaction, the money is eventually refunded to you.

The point of this is that the third-party will only sign one transaction for that input, and therefore it can't be double-spent, so long as the third-party is trustworthy.

Thoughts?
That's basicly escrow, but it doesn't solve the fast transaction problem because if you knew that you were going to want something from a snack machine in an hour, then you don't really need rapid confirmations anyway.
4782  Other / Obsolete (buying) / Re: Portable USB 1:1 duplicator on: June 10, 2011, 12:39:41 PM
Could be perfect, but I can't tell yet.
4783  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Technical Support / Re: Previously confirmed transactions now unconfirmed on: June 10, 2011, 04:59:59 AM
Blah. Using all 8 connect switches and I'm only getting 5 connections.

This echos the results of another user who did the same using the first eight of the published fallback nodes.  Is this what you did?  This means that three of the eight fallback nodes have been knocked of the Internet.

Are teh connections that you are getting, are they working?
4784  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Technical Support / Re: Previously confirmed transactions now unconfirmed on: June 10, 2011, 04:34:18 AM
Doesn't appear to be working. Should I just keep adding more nodes?

Use -noirc and -connect=ipaddress instead.  This will connect you to only the ip address of the node you specify and not announce your address to the irc bootstrapping channel.  You can use up to 8 -connect= switches.
4785  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Technical Support / Re: bitcoin not connected (after 129686 blocks)? on: June 10, 2011, 04:28:18 AM
I suspect that there is an attack of the p2p network itself underway.  Use the -addnode= switch and some fallback node IP addresses.  Better yet, use the -connect= switch with several nodes and the -noirc switch to not announce your IP address on the irc bootstrapping channel.  I suspect, but cannot verify, that IP numbers that show up on the irc bootstrapping channel are getting cut off somehow.
4786  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Technical Support / Re: Previously confirmed transactions now unconfirmed on: June 10, 2011, 04:21:50 AM
Try restarting the client with the -addnode= switch and an IP address of one of the fallback nodes.  I suspect there is an attack underway against the p2p network itself, or the IRC bootstrapping method.  Your not the first to mention weirdness.
4787  Other / Obsolete (buying) / Re: Portable USB 1:1 duplicator on: June 10, 2011, 03:10:51 AM
Here is another option, though I think it needs some work and might not be appropriate for this particular project.

I just got a 404.
4788  Other / Archival / Re: Silk Road: anonymous marketplace. Feedback requested :) on: June 10, 2011, 12:25:34 AM
If anyone is feeling generous and has a spare account that they are willing to gift to me, please PM me to make my day.

me too.

Nothing worthwhile ever comes easy.
4789  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: First experience - Disappointed with something on: June 09, 2011, 10:18:46 PM
I have begun experimenting with bitcoins. I've mined my first coin and was going to send 0.1 (approx $3 current value) to my Tradehill account to test the waters there with my first trade. This is when I noticed something terrible, it asked me for 0.01 (mandatory) fee to send the 0.1. 10% fee on a $3 transaction? I realize that I could send more, or wait until I have more... but I personally find this to be unacceptable.

That fee was instituted when a bitcoin was less than a cent.  The growth has been far faster than we anticipated and this is being worked on presently.
4790  Other / Archival / Re: Silk Road: anonymous marketplace. Feedback requested :) on: June 09, 2011, 10:15:18 PM
In principle, yes, but central banks own gold, and they own significant part of the supply, enough to control it's purchasing power during 80's and 90's. So if there ever will be return to commodity backed currencies, it would be gold, not Bitcoin, because of universal trust in gold, and also because of better control over it by states. This would also kill Bitcoin's chance to join official economy, because gold would be a lot more trusted and stable.


This is probably true, but likely irrelevent since the central banks cannot return to a gold standard and maintain.  Even if they did, I'd consider this entire experiment a success on that note alone.
4791  Other / Obsolete (buying) / Re: Portable USB 1:1 duplicator on: June 09, 2011, 09:53:35 PM
Something like this?

EDIT: Sorry, appears to be out of stock.. This site however reports to have one left...

Almost, but that device doesn't actually 'dup' anything, as the user is required to peruse the source device on the lcd screen and select files.  Still, you did find one for sale, which is something I wasn't able to do.  PM me your address, and I'll send you a nickel.

EDIT: according to the reviews, it also can't power a usb device and is notablely slow, so it wouldn't fit the bill.  I want a device that can copy at full usb 2.0 speeds, as well as provide enough usb bus power to light up two thumbdrives.  It's for this project...

http://deaddrops.com/

So that I (or anyone else) can walk up to a deaddrop location with this device and a thumbdrive with a respectable amount of freespace, plug it in for a couple minutes, and take off without ever having to stand there with a laptop in the open.  If the user wishes to place something on the deaddrop, he just turns the device around and uses his own thumbdrive as the source.
4792  Bitcoin / Mining / Re: Ok, this is what i don't understand... on: June 09, 2011, 07:42:24 PM
I believe he is solo mining with GUIminer, NOT pool mining, and wants to know if it is working.

That is the only time I have ever seen a "difficulty 1 hash"


The only situation that I can think of that the client would report a difficulty of one is if you are trying to solo mine without a connection to the bitcoin p2p network, and thus do not have the blockchain.   If you start a client without a blockchain, and tell it to mine, it will attempt to start the whole thing over again with the genesis block, which is hard coded into the client.
4793  Other / Obsolete (buying) / Portable USB 1:1 duplicator on: June 09, 2011, 07:06:23 PM
I've been looking for this for a while, and even searching the makerspace type hardware hacker forums, and I can't find what I'm looking for.

I need a small, self-powered (i.e. batteries) usb drive duplicator.  One source, one target.  The device looks at the source and attempts to non-destructively copy the data found on the source to the target, if the target's data is older than the source and the target has enough space remaining.  This is for the deaddrops project.

0.05 BTC to the first person that can pm me with a reference to wherever I can actually buy such a device or kit for such a device.  I am the sole judge of whether your references qualify.
4794  Bitcoin / Mining / Re: Ok, this is what i don't understand... on: June 09, 2011, 06:47:37 PM
I'm familiar with the mathematic principles and computer technology behind bitcoin. However, even with reading alot of the beginner's topics and other forums and such, I'm still left with a couple questions about the implementation of the currency.

A few questions:

1. Work done: I understand that my computer (mining at 250 Mhash/s) is chugging away to find a nonce for the hashing algorithm that yeilds a solution that fits in the current difficulty level. However my question is: As I watch the block count go up on the bitcoin client, does my computer have to start from scratch each time?? Or am I still working to find one of the predicted 2016 (or whatever it is) blocks for the current difficulty level?


All miners are working on each block, one at a time.  There is a designed delay of about 10 minutes between each block to allow for future network latency of spreading blocks and transactions.  There is no "starting from scratch" however, your computer is repeatedly hashing the 80 block header, all miners have equal odds of success with each hash performed.

Quote

2. "Accepted": What is a Difficulty 1 hash? And when my computer "finds" one, is it a solution to a block that wasn't under the difficulty target, Or is it some other incremental calculation?


"Difficulty" is a relative metic.  It's the number of times more hashes (on average) it takes to find a solution than it would be if the "target" number were it's highest possible setting.  The system will not permit a target of greater than 32 leading zeros of the 256 bit hash.  Thus a difficulty 1 hash would not solve teh currency difficulty.

Quote

3. Remembering: Does my solo miner remember the work it has done if I close it or my computer turns off but I get it back to work within a reasonable timeframe and before the difficulty level goes up?? I ask because the "accepted" number resets each time..


No, and it doesn't need to.  It doesn't matter because there is no begining or end to the work.


4795  Bitcoin / Mining / Re: Ok, this is what i don't understand... on: June 09, 2011, 06:39:52 PM
This is what i'm talking about... where is the definitive guide/FAQ/Wiki that breaks all this down.

read the white paper on the main page under docs.  If you don't understand the white paper, no flash animation is going to help.  You will not understand it the first couple of times that you read it, but hopefully it will click eventually.  I was literally asleep and dreaming about it back in July woke up with a start with the thought, "That's f*cking genuis!"
4796  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Write a Congressperson! (My letter to Ron Paul) on: June 09, 2011, 05:50:30 PM
i used to vote ron paul, until i heard him suggest selling the fort knox gold supply. then i realized hes the illuminati alternative.
my fix for congress: public financing for elected officials, and term limits

Aj, glad Im not the only one that caught that about selling the gold (assuming there is gold in there!)
If the gold were sold you know who would buy it, the elite. And then the american public would be stuck with nothing but TP.
He who has the gold has the power.
 

You guys realize that politicos sometimes make rediculous statements to highlight the rediculousness of the situtation, don't you?  He made this comment within the context that there are still people that believe that there is gold in Fort Knox, and that it underpins the value of the US FRN.  If that were so, then attempting to sell the gold would naturally require an audit of the reserves.  He knew that the powers-that-be would refuse any such thing, but Ron Paul also knew that some of their own supporters would then think "hell, why not?" and a very small percentage of them will be started down a path to revelation.
4797  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: John Stossel talks about the Bitcoin on: June 09, 2011, 03:22:30 PM
Quote from John Stossel's article:

Quote
It is a digital currency that my producer tells me is valauble partly because it's untracable: there is supposedly no way for the government, or anyone else, to see who owns or transfers Bitcoins.

Maybe he should have checked with the Wiki first: Bitcoin Wiki: Weaknesses - Tracing a coin's history

Quotes from Bitcoin Wiki: Anonymity (just one link down the line)

Quote
While the Bitcoin technology can support strong anonymity, the current implementation is usually not very anonymous.

Quote
The main problem is that every transaction is publicly logged. Anyone can see the flow of Bitcoins from address to address (see first image). Alone, this information can't identify anyone because the addresses are just random numbers. However, if any of the addresses in a transaction's past or future can be tied to an actual identity, it might be possible to work from that point and figure out who owns all of the other addresses. This identity information might come from network analysis, surveillance, or just Googling the address. The officially-encouraged practice of using a new address for every transaction is designed to make this attack more difficult.

First, he admitted that he was operating on hearsay; second, it's a blog not a news article and third he is still way better than most of the "articles" on Bitcoin I've seen thus far.
4798  Other / Politics & Society / Re: The Gun is Civilization on: June 09, 2011, 02:49:09 PM
I moot a counter-argument for the sake of debate. (I'm generally in favour of guns)

I have gun, you have gun. The first to shoot wins. Therefore the first to abandon the reasoned debate for violence wins.

I don't think that's very civilised.



This results in a social event wherein the violently uncivilized are quickly identified by the rest of society, by reason of their victims.  Then, as a method of protecting itself from future violence from such persons, proceed to negate their violent tendencies in an organized fashion.  Some would form posses (or hire rough & tumble types) to capture or kill the offender, as well as send the appropriate warning to others with a violent tendency to squash it or face similar consequences; or the offender will eventually encounter someone who is aware of his history and is faster than he is.  Thus the old adage, 'an armed society is a polite society'.
Agreed - but the original victims of the overly-violent are still dead. The posse system was notorious for it's corruptibility. But the tendancy of people to band together for the common good is, I think, a better claim for the basis of civilisation than the gun.

It's in the nature of humans to band together.  That doesn't always result in civilization.  Gangs & mobs are perfect examples of groups of people who band together for a force advantage, and is entirely contradictory to a civilized society.
4799  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Solution: How to shift the decimal on: June 09, 2011, 02:33:56 PM
Quote
This would be just one of the "cool things about bitcoin: they reproduce!!!!"
Oh no, please don't! I would like to see as few decimal shifts as possible. Who needs different prices every month?

Well, if it peaks at 1000 USD per Bitcoin, talking about mBTC would be a perfect match. I just hope that people don't confuse that with MBTC.

Hey Americans, how is the metrification of your country going? I saw that you already accepted some prefixes, like using $4k to mean $4000. What about some of the other prefixes like M (Mega, 1'000'000) and m (milli, 1/1'000'000)? Do you think that the average American Internet user will be able to cope with those?

I wish I could pay my rent with 500 mBTC/month

Eh. It's a rough battle. As an engineer in this country you have to deal with both systems. Duckbills. I hate English units.  Perhaps bit coin will be the last straw that turns America metric. One can only hope.

I hate Metric.  Only engineers like it.
4800  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: How would the network handle a sudden drop in hash rate? on: June 09, 2011, 08:02:58 AM

If Bitcoin is still around in a year, I plan on investing in hardware that will only be used to mine in response to a drop in the network hash rate (most the time, it would be used for other things, or even sit idle).


I plan on building a mining rack to put into my garage, and set it up with my thermostat to turn on and off the GPU miners based upon the heat demand in the fall and winter.  So I can have a warm car and still a change at catching a block every now and again.
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