If you click on the block # link you'll see this: http://blockchain.info/block-index/351976

(the block was an orphan so never became part of the current blockchain)

The happens fairly regularly as part and parcel of the way that the Proof Of Work (aka Nakamoto) blockchain system operates.

Ouch - well I do feel for whoever it was and wonder if they'll come forward to report it (am certainly glad that I did when it happened to me)?

Hmm... it is in your Receive address list?

I have already had at least half the people interested simply *give up* on signing up to CIYAM Open because it currently requires GPG (hint - it won't be a requirement soon because I actually do *want* people to join up rather than attack them for not knowing how to use GPG).

Add IRC to the mix and you have created a system that only *geeks* can use (seriously some Bitcointalk people ought to get out into the *real* world at least once a year or so).

As for scammers I think you'll find that pirateat40 had a *very* good OTC reputation.

It's good to see someone finally motivated enough to perhaps make this happen (it didn't before and yes the OTC stuff is just way too hard for most people).

For this to work best I would recommend that it be documented in an open way so that hopefully down the track other rating sites will use the same implementation (rather than ending up with multiple incompatible ones) and I see such rating tx's as having far more value than SD tx's do.

If the rating data is view just as being data (which I would recommend) then cram as much as you can into that (and as many different types of things such as id verification level) then the website's success will be in simply and hopefully powerfully being able to let you "view" a buyer/seller without having to understand the low-level stuff (although important for that to be available for other sites to display also so you can be assured that the website isn't misreporting).

Being able to "filter" out buyers/sellers based upon their obscurity (for example) would be a nice feature for the website to contain.

Transaction was confirmed a while back and balance is unspent - are you using the 0.8.0 client or an earlier one?

(most likely assuming the address is correct and is yours then your client has simply not *caught up* and yes with earlier versions of bitcoin-qt in particular this can take as much as two weeks)

Some further ideas: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=printpage;topic=87339.0

(a bit more complex but would provide a much more powerful system)

And as you pointed out yourself - fees are not needed to secure the network (and that will continue to be the case for a *very* long time) - personally if SD up and disappeared I would not be the slightest bit concerned and I don't really see the max. blocksize change actually likely to even occur (as so many have simply stated they would rather have a hard fork occur than to accept that).

With all the fuss about raising the max. blocksize limit to help SD increase their # of tx's even more (and their own statements about just how much more in tx fees they pay over the norm) I think there is simply *zero* evidence to support your theory (and what may happen in >100 years of very little point even discussing today).

And "as soon as the need for tx fees kicks in" (other than to prevent excess spam type tx's which of course is why fees already are needed and were right from the start) will be most likely be decades from now - so hardly something to create alarmist threads about IMO.

I think you ought to explain your "fundamental flaw" theory to Satoshi Dice as apparently they have completely missed it.

I would also recommend *not* requiring you to *unsubscribe* (as sometimes such things don't even work or nag you further).

Why not simply automatically unsubscribe someone after they fail to donate 2 or 3 times (with the last contact reminding them how to re-subscribe)?

Indeed - "don't believe anything that you read and it's probably best to be skeptical of everything that you see with your own eyes".

Not a bad effort but one thing to be clear about is that Bitcoins never *actually* traded at 0.01 USD (although the media loves to report that) as all the supposed trades that occurred between the *hack* occurring and the system being brought back up after it was shut down were *wound back*(and from memory after Mt. Gox started trading again it was from around 17 USD).

That is a point - although as I did get free XRPs I would probably provide the 200+ XRP for at least the first hundred or so people that wanted to be paid by this method (and who don't have sufficient funds for this).

If people learn from others that they are able to get paid for tasks in their own currency with little fees then an initial small amount to "open an account" would probably not be such an impediment.

The *only* concern that I have is whether or not it will work as promoted which is that it should be very simple to make payments to people between currencies including BTC with an extremely low risk of any failed payment (assuming I have not blindly trusted unknown entities) and in a manner that is fast and has significantly lower fees than using existing payment systems.

If it delivers this then I am 100% happy for the guys to "get rich" from it (as I am sure it would help my own project greatly).

Finally - a nugget of gold!

Personally if the guys become billionaires I couldn't care less - the important thing is to create a system that *works* full stop.

(if it works and the freelancers will accept it then I will be using it)

Really - are you from Mars?

No regular person even just understood a word that you said - and *this* is the problem that it seems so many here just don't get.

Answer: unless Ripple can be understood by a *moron* it will be a failure (not necessarily to its founder who seems to be rather clever at making money).

Although there has been a lot of fuss (and interest) from Bitcointalk I really don't see any *normal* people are going to be signing up to Ripple as it stands now.

It seems not much simpler to use than Bitcoin (which I think we all know is really only usable by nerds).

CIYAM Open is looking at Ripple closely but so far I don't see anyone that wants to be paid via Paypal changing to this (if you think that this isn't so then how about you get people from freelancer.com to work for it).

Thanks for that (and hopefully it won't be pulled anytime soon) - actually the UI side is easy - the mod_auth side was the harder part (but will keep my eyes open for updates to OpenID).