The gov would not allow a competing currency to rise up without a fight. The US has gone to war with other countries for less (many conspiracies on this). I do think btc and gold, silver, are going to be one of the best investments one can go into. We'll see
YOUR government, The US government, Would goto war over something like a Rising Currency. And i would be on the other side, Killing you for DECLAIRING a type of Currency "Bad and illegal" Why? Because they could be worth Anything Anywhere. Fuck the United States' lust for war, You have the Biggest debt, And you plan to FIGHT it away, Rather than bend over backwards like a man, And take your medicine that you loaned from China. Or hey, Hey how about this, US invests in bitcoin, And saves themselves from collapse, Why? Because they could be worth Anything Anywhere D'you guys remeber when USA tried to buy oil from Iran and Pakistan? And Iran wouldnt take USDollars?, They wanted things like Gold/Silver The US Shot the fucking guy, And waited for the next guy to accept USDollars. Well, He said NO aswell, Poof, Gone from history and Silenced. Next guy stepped up and took a buncha Shit Printed USDollars that took about a Day to crank out. Its worthless. You have an interesting view on history. Blame the USA for anything if it makes you feel better... but the fact of the matter is: A fertile land, founded on liberty has the potential to raise great and terrifying harvests. The USA has generated greater good than any other nation on earth. See the internet, which is without a doubt the greatest tool to promote freedom that has ever existed. |
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I'm going to think about this --- and get back to you =P
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Calling Bitcoin a religion would do nothing to advance the cause of freedom nor invoke any legal protection, and would make us look psychotic and out of touch.
As if sending lots of money to a guy with an eyepatch promising 7% per week from a secret business plan hadn't already done that  HA! Seriously tho, it bears some thought... at the very least it would involve a custom client and some seriously intricate misdirection on the part of those involved --- you'd actually have to accept donations and disperse humanitarian aid... as well as spiritual advise... "Bitcoin given right to not be taxed" could be a very interesting legal issue in a few years. |
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P2P file sharing is not illegal. Copyright infringement may be illegal under certain circumstances; however the most common liability for individuals is civil damages. In the scenario where a government were to try to stop Bitcoin the most efficient method would be to get Microsoft and Apple to shutdown most of the nodes. They can then concentrate their resources on the much fewer remaining GNU/Linux nodes. What is is really scary is that this can be done without making Bitcoin illegal thereby avoiding the legal and constitutional challenges that would arise in many countries. The best analogy is Wikileaks, just replace VISA, MasterCard, PayPal etc. with Microsoft and Apple in the Bitcoin case.
It would take most users a grand total of 2 hours to be back up and running on another OS. It would take less than 3 days for someone to hack out a patch to fix windows so it would work again. Microsoft would find it morally reprehensible to do this. Apple wouldn't... but who really cares about mac users? |
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This sort of email I find myself sending often. It's completely legitimate and also the best way to push adoption without actually being pushy. I like to use "I'd love to become a customer, but I only transact online using bitcoins... any information on when you'll be accepting them as a payment method?" same thing for donations, "Would love to donate but..." |
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I probably didn't even create these icons in the first place. But what exactly do you want to do to it that can't be done with the image in its current format?  Forum avatar with a spinning gold bitcoin... =P |
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So it's like a digital gold?
Interesting. Thanks.
That's how I like to think of it. It's scarce, relatively inflation-proof and is "mined". Of course, it's not so easy to ship a bar of gold across the world for less than a penny! That's really the thing that will eventually make bitcoin survive and prosper... if we can get it to be used by someone in a commercial capacity to move money around. |
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wish the ground wasn't volcanic rock here, I'd love to be able to dump excess heat into it.  Interesting locations are fun! With volcanic rock as your starting point you're talking 300% deeper than normal to find a stable temp. So you're basically talking about digging 30-50 foot hole... putting sand (or pulverized lavarock) in the bottom over your heat exchange tubes and then filling the hole back up with rock pieces. I don't suppose you've got a handy fissure or cave on your property? Otherwise, I think making this sort of hole happen in that location would be too expensive... maybe if you were also sinking a heat exchange system for your house at the same time...maybe. |
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Because someday, once I've been digitized... I plan on putting them all into a digital vault and swimming in them.  |
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Thanks for making me feel that I am not an idiot anymore  And thanks CIYAM for you explanation with example. Interested in knowing more about it! Regards, Kevin. Ack. Sorry. I didn't mean to imply that you were and idiot... But some of us have been explaining this thing for so long that we settle on answers 'a 10 year old can understand' because when we're accurate and specific most peoples eyes just glaze-over. I tend to use 'a complicated calculus problem' or very often I don't even mention proof of work anymore and just tell them 'basically its verifying transactions to collect the transaction fees' |
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So it's not a puzzle (this is a simple way to explain it to an idiot). It's an SHA256 Hash that is being generated. If you're interested in what the process is you can find refs. here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-2This idea is called 'proof of work' and it's how the bitcoin network prevents doublespending and builds the blockchain. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_of_work |
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...And where do I fit in? Despite what it may look like, this is a technical discussion about the disadvantages of GBT.
imo - you're at least honest in your intent and presentation. I'm not saying that GBT couldn't or shouldn't be replaced with something that is better that what it is now... I'm just saying given the choice between gbt and stratum --- I'll take transparent and clunkier over obfuscated and streamlined. Also I'm not saying 'kill stratum with fire' but I won't be using it until the transparency issue is addressed. |
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So how do we protect from cracking the card once it's stolen?
I'm going to say for my project that that's largely out-of-scope and that this allows you to execute physical security. Think of it like a paper wallet in that context. Fair enough - ok - you make the initial card... and I'll see about the security dongle that does biometrics once you've got specs out on the card's api. |
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I may not agree that it's an issue but Kano is not a troll for voicing his a opinion. I have a YouTube channel and I get a lot of trolls and Kano sounds nothing like the trolls I get. I got so many I did a video for them... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sQaIeHvuM0It was funny and even the trolls loved it. Hey D, big fan. That being said, Luke's right. Kano's in this for profit more than love (obvious from his post history here if nothing else). In addition he tends to bend the truth past the breaking point quite often. These two statements are fact I'd encourage you to verify their veracity for yourself. The following is my personal opinion which I happen to believe is right: The reason that LukeJr supporters tend to discount poster like Kano is the simply because Luke has a technical mind, understands how things work and also is a proponent if not an advocate of the bitcoin network's need to be transparent. That's basically what this entire post is about... Luke (and myself and anyone who loves liberty) would rather take a slightly less streamlined process that we can see through than trust a pool op to inform us of what's happening. So sure, Stratum is less bandwidth at the cost of giving the pool op the ability do whatever they want behind it and the miners never knowing. It makes me wonder what they'd like to hide. Also, I'd call it trolling when Kano comes here to decry the 'bad design' of GBT when the real issue is exactly what I've posted above... at the very least he's dishonest for not simply making his case for what it is... the desire to open a wedge into bitcoin that can be exploited later either by himself or others... without those of us actually doing the work knowing about it. |
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The Shire Society is not a place, it is a society. However, over 1100 people have moved to "the Shire," though it's not clear how many have officially joined the Shire Society, all of them (plus almost another 12000) have joined The Free State Project, another society which is not a government. You should probably stop digging while your head is above ground. BTW, what's a "socity"? It isn't a society. It has no historical culture to make it one. It's a (imo cute) contrivance that utterly fails at it's goals by one simply fact. You cannot annex land in the USA and simply declare sovereignty. It doesn't matter if you own that land or not. This is illegal, immoral in the extreme and while well intentioned it just doesn't work. Now maybe if you stayed strictly in your shire... you might legitimize the idea that law enforcement and government agents coming into the shire were violating your (illegal) sovereignty, but the simple fact that the participants are traveling in and out constantly makes the entire thing seem stupid. Every sovereign nation on the planet has paperwork, laws and enforcement - can't remove yourself from them by simply stating that you're not participating. You can only remove yourself by... actually removing yourself from that nation, not by annexing and occupying it illegally. |
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I likely won't even be considering biometrics. It's extremely tricky to revoke an eyeball or fingerprint. My understanding is that the card cannot be dumped (or at least it's an optional setting). If it's possible to dump the card at all (barring scanning electron microscopes), it's not going to work as it will always be possible to find a way but I'm confident that won't be an issue.
Hm - seems like you'd need to setup some second factor auth otherwise you run the risk of having the card stolen and being unable to prevent anyone from using it. I have been thinking about that. It would likely be a passcode or pin but optional in case you are likely to be using the card on an untrusted system (though even with a keylogger or hacks, you'd still need the wallet physically attached so that may not be a big deal to have mandatory). Also up for consideration are wallet backups and/or importing external wallets. Likely I would require a passphrase on first use. But in theory, it should be possible to set up a fresh wallet on a compromised system with no security risk. Right just include the code to generate and address in the program on the card... I think we've come full circle here tho, if we're going to require a user to enter auth on a device/machine they don't own, and might be unsecure... then we need some sort of security measure in place to prevent malicious action on the part of the vendors machine. If that's a 4(or really even a 10) digit pin... then it's vulnerable to being stolen and cracked... just plug it up to a computer and throw pins at it until it breaks. Which leads us back to a customer owned dongle... or biometric device. So how do we protect from cracking the card once it's stolen? |
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We bought units as we had money. What's wrong with that? We didn't have a set amount when we started. We had enough to buy x amount of units so we did. We got in when the announcement happened. In the meantime, as we mined more we reinvested that income into more units (30-45 days typically to do this).
Believe us, if we could have put the amount of $ we've spent on pre-orders upfront we would of. That's just logical. But what I'm saying is we've invested as the money came along. No debt. No maxxed out cards hoping to recoup the cost quickly. This is a sound approach and we stand behind it.
I see, yes in that case - you've done it exactly as I would have. Like I said, at this point I'm choosing to diversify a bit with other hardware orders, just because I want to try them out and the longer the delay gets the more likely that one of the other makers will deliver first. Don't get me wrong, I'd still love it if BFL ships first. But I'm not counting on that for maintaining my mining income. |
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The word "assemble" can be misinterpreted. Soldering components to the PCB? Or putting the PCB (with all components already soldered) together with a cooler into a case? My guess is BFL's first batch will be soldered by the same place that did their FPGA boards, and BFL will put the boards together with coolers in cases in their own facility.
That's my impression too, but I think their end goal is to be able to do both, without any outside assembly at all. The confirmation that the existing foundry would be used for the first wave of ASICs has forced me to delay upgrading the rest of my fpgas. The QC at that place is just sloppy - so chips that aren't flush. I don't really think I'd want a rig that comes from there... hopefully they'll get fully in house before the second round... up the quality a bit. But if you win the bfl signature contest (but you won't coz you still have not put the link to your profile here in your entry there) you'll have to put up with one, with lifetime warranty though. My link to profile here is in my sig there... Don't particularly care if I win I'm still going to enter and advertise for them and they can DQ me if they want - as it's their contest and their rules. Granted it would be nice to get a freebee - but I don't really need it, and it would probably be better for bfl if they gave it to a non-customer. |
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A troll or scammer? Don't think so, and you seem like an asshole for trying to make those accusations. He seems to be expressing the same frustrations I feel dealing with the community of "clearnet" BTC users. Then again he's trying to market items, the bulk of which is obsolete and priced above the current going rate elsewhere, to a tiny potential BTC customer base. And the reality is that it's very tough to profitably sell late-model tech online (ebay, etc), even if you're getting paid to dispose of it. I had to give up doing it in bulk 10 years ago. Too much competition and not enough buyers, so the prices fall quickly. If anything, you have to focus on the cream of the crop. It's frustrating wading through a "catalog" website that only has maybe 5% of it's inventory that's actually appealing to potential buyers out there. If I was the OP and I had stuff like that coming in constantly and wanted to sell the stuff that's not popular online, I would focus my efforts into opening a thrift/surplus store type of operation with low pricing so you could turn over as much stuff as possible. Then again, it might be cheaper just to recycle or throw it out these days. I'm saying that while BTC-spending buyers here can be extremely demanding, it's mostly the fact that there's hardly anyone domestically who's interested in buying the OP's stuff period. And the people who can market this kind of stuff in other countries, who don't find 5 year-old technology so disposable, understandably want it as close to free as possible. I've tried to buy 3 times from him on this thread - the first time he wanted to 'value bitcoins' at 75% of market value. The second I offered to pay the price listed on the site in bitcoin valued near market and and additionally pay the shipping via creditcard, but while he at first seemed interested... no quote for the shipping was ever delivered. The third time I received no response at all. My personal conclusion - guy probably doesn't have authority to sell negotiate prices for this business... and thus can't make a fair deal. It implies that he was hoping we'd allow him to undervalue bitcoins so he could recover his retail costs + profit on that 25%. |
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Why would you cut taxes for the rich (or punish horribly the middle class) while you are trying to balance the budget. The only balanced budget in recent memory came from a 39% tax rate for the upper bracket. It is simple, we have done it before, it WORKS.
Combine the additional revenue with modest across the board cuts including defense and you can get a balanced budget. Leave student loans as they are, as the rate is ALREADY ABOVE PRIME. Education is a cost for a functioning society and pays dividends later. Changes need to be made to how colleges operate and to the very high costs but that is a separate issue.
Here's my # step plan designed to save the US economy. #1. Freeze all Spending at current level. #2. Remove Capital Gains tax. #3. Remove Income Tax & associated employment related taxes. #4. Install Flat (sales) Tax at 20%. Convert IRS into regulating entity for monitoring, collecting and reporting on income from this new tax. #5. Open Borders. Remove tarifs. #6. Wait a month. #7. Look at the new report from the converted IRS - do the math on deficit new tax income. #8. Reduce all government spending by the percentage needed to balance the budget + double the cost of interest on the national debt. #9. Repeat 6-9 until nation is out of debt. Simple easy and effective. It would take all the downward pressure off the economy. We'd have an initial 30-50% reduction in government spending and the total on collected taxes would rise to make up the lost income in under 2 years... aided by all the former illegals now paying sales taxes and the massive growth the economy would under go by making it much cheaper to employ someone. And as soon as that happened then we can start growing entitlement programs and spending in all areas to consume the surplus. Being happy with a 10 or 20 or 50 year plan to pay off the debt. |
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