Swiss online(?) magazine published daily since 1999 Argent virtuel: des bytes et des dollars (Virtual money: bytes and dollars) Daniel Saraga 2012-12-04 http://www.largeur.com/?p=3798(snippets via machine translation) ... Computer scientists have invented a libertarian currency fully decentralized: the bitcoins ... This is a story of money, but not wealth. For nearly four years, a community of users rather marginal attempts to redefine the concept of money. ... Extremely durable, the system is recognized as a masterpiece of computer security. ... A study of the ETH Zurich published in September 2012 revealed a gap: "It's easy to make a double-expense when the goods purchased (eg a hamburger) is delivered promptly without waiting for the validation of the network," says Elli Androulaki. The researcher proposed a parade that could be integrated into the next version of Bitcoin: immediately inform the seller trying to double expense. ... Acquired via credit card on one of the 30 existing trading platforms or directly "undermined" the bitcoins can buy gold, pay services or internet access to games or online casinos. ... |
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I find it sad that you would characterize this woman as a 'little old lady'.
I've worked on electronic assembly lines - and people of all ages do it. Mostly it's relatively unskilled work.. just requires attention to detail and some dexterity.
When I worked in an electronics factory, we wore antistatic overcoats and had an antistatic wristband which connected to grounding points on the desks - but perhaps that is particularly cautious.
Static damage to chips seems to be pretty rare - ICs are fairly tough nowdays.
As has already been pointed out - yeah, that pic is from 'back' in the FPGA era.
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Währungen: Euro, Yuan, Gold und Bitcoin gegen den Dollar (Currencies: Euro, Yuan, Gold and Bitcoin against the dollar) Nikolaus Jilch 2012-12-04 http://diepresse.com/home/wirtschaft/international/1320204/Euro-Yuan-Gold-und-Bitcoin-gegen-den-Dollar(snippets via machine translation) ... China and South Korea join forces, euro and gold gain in importance: The position of the U.S. dollar as a world currency wobbles noticeably. And now even the Internet has its own monetary system: Bitcoin. ... Add to this the growing importance of gold and euro - and the emergence of new online currencies like Bitcoin. ... Iranians use Bitcoin ... Young Iranians have started taking Bitcoin, writes Bloomberg. ... |
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Picture Postcards: Happy Halving Day from Bitcoin die-hards Morgen E Peck 2012-12-03 http://txchnologist.com/post/37110949761/picture-postcards-happy-halving-day-from-bitcoinLast Wednesday, Bitcoin—the global, stateless, digital cryptocurrency that has won the heart of technophiles, libertarians, and privacy advocates everywhere—reached an important milestone. ... Bitcoiners around the world celebrated Wednesday as the ball went down and many sent in their pictures, providing a rare visual tour of Bitcoin’s global reach. ... |
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Some videos released from the London New Finance November 2012 Seminar: Digital Money I haven't watched it all yet - but I have to cringe at what I've seen so far from Amir. He seems to have launched into a spiel about it as a 'subversive' tool.. Is this really the audience for that??? Answering the mobile phone on stage... really?? Fine, you forgot to turn it off - embarrassing enough, but to answer it.. 'hello?' Good grief, either just turn it off at that point, or answer straight away with 'sorry I'm in a conference I'll call back'. From the panel discussion, we see Amir fluffing his way through an answer that didn't seem to bear any relation to the question. He completely failed to point out how Bitcoin manages to separate Identity from payments. A gift ...on a plate, thrown away.  Audience Question: Are you all assuming that payment is the killer app for wallets... or is it for example identity, because you have to separate identity from transaction flows from funds flows.. the concept of a payment is a mixture, depending on the context of all 3.
Amir: Ah.. so yeah it's like 1 in 35 1-pound coins is counterfeit and there's like.. a lot of the arguments I've seen .. people saying oh yeah we need to move to these like cashless payments.. is..oh yeah.. there's this huge level of fraud .. or that there's all these costs inherent in the system that... and a lot of the solutions I've seen proposed always involve somehow externalizing that costs onto the users as opposed... away from the financial processors.. and I don't really see that like as a winning argument.. if we wanna.. move forwards.
Other panel member: A simple answer to the question. No I don't see payment as the killer app, I see it as a necessary - to allow anyone to play in the game. So I think the killer app is something that drives the customer to perceive they get value from the wallet but it doesn't have to be measured financially.
Not sure If I can bear to watch it all. edit: My apologies if I'm being a bit harsh.. I know it's a tough job to get up in front of people and speak! |
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As much as I like this usecase - the story does strike me as a bit of an exaggeration. I've no particular insight into what's going on in Iran - but while there have been a few nodes popping up in Iran over the past couple of weeks as evidenced on: http://blockchain.info/nodes-globe?series=48hrs... it doesn't look like much. Perhaps they're using things like the blockchain.info/wallet rather than full nodes, but I'd like to see some evidence that there are even as many as 100 people using it there. I worry also that this story brings attention to Bitcoin as a 'sanction buster'... when it's barely got off the ground as such and is more easily squashed. edit: but on the plus side.. this sort of attention will probably inspire more interest amongs Iranians abroad, and then their families/friends back in Iran. |
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As an Australian, I understand 'in rude health' to mean in very good health - but yes, it's not a particularly common phrase.
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Damn you, Julz, beat me by 5 seconds  I suppose we should update the 'New Articles' thread first to avoid this  |
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Dollar-Less Iranians Discover Virtual Currency Max Raskin 2012-11-29 http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-29/dollar-less-iranians-discover-virtual-currency... Iranian-American bitcoin consultant Farzhad Hashemi recently traveled to Tehran and talked up bitcoin to his friends. “They are instantly fascinated by it,” he says. “It’s a flash for them when they realize how it can solve their problems.” Iranians working or living abroad can send bitcoins to their families, who can use one of the online currency matchmaking services to find someone willing to exchange bitcoins for euros, rials, or dollars. ... |
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E-currencies reach a major milestone Alex Dymoke 2012-11-29 http://www.cityam.com/lifestyle/technology/e-currencies-reach-major-milestoneFOR SOME, Bitcoin is an unregulated rogue currency for pornographers and drug dealers. For others, it is a victory for economic freedom, and a way of protecting business transactions from what they see as the inherent volatility of the banking system. But despite its contentiousness, the controversial e-currency is in rude health. Yesterday it reached a crucial milestone – its “halving day”. ... As the arrival of halving day proves, Bitcoins are becoming more and more widespread. Over the last three years it has become the world’s most widely used alternative currency and its been tarred with a fair amount of controversy along the way. ... This article contains some obviously out of date information which looks like a copy and paste job... There is also a Bitcoin stock exchange, where companies can make initial public offerings and pay dividends with it. One website offering Bitcoin options trading was “listed” this month for an implied valuation of half a million dollars. Perhaps the most infamous of these sights[sic] is Bitcoinica, a platform offering margin trading, short selling and stop orders run by 17-year-old Chinese high school student Zhou Tong (pictured).
From wikipedia: "City A.M. is a free, business-focused newspaper distributed in and around London, England. Its certified distribution was 132,076 copies a day in May 2012, according to statistics compiled by the ABC." |
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For those who do think education on the mechanics of Bitcoin is a worthwhile goal... consider that the recent 'cryptoparty' phenomenon can dovetail in with Bitcoin quite nicely.
(hashtag #cryptoparty on twitter)
This is a grassroots effort to promote a wider understanding of privacy/encryption tools, technology and issues. (e.g peole talk about and attempt to educate each other on Tor, GPG, OTR etc)
I went to a cryptoparty in Sydney last week, where someone got up and spoke a little about Bitcoin.
Get along to a cryptoparty in your city ( or start one!) and help make Bitcoin a component of it.
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I think a good tradition would be to cut something in half. Even if it's just a bad habit. Happy halving day everyone!  I like this one. Cut something in half and post a pic/vid of it. Cut a fiat note in half ? Yeah, that's a good one because you can tape it up and still spend it. |
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