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5701  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Jim Cramer - 'peso-bitcoin trade' on: June 23, 2012, 02:11:54 AM
Lol, it seems to me that he's kidding, but I'm not sure.

Heh, ya, he was kidding -- trying to downplay the news of the china/brazil central bank liquidity swap. Details here:

 - http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-brazil-in-30-billion-currency-swap-deal-2012-06-22-6103239

He's got a point.  This single event from two of the largest economies in the world barely got any press, likely because the combined GDP of these two countries is more than 250 times the size of this agreement.  But the agreement is a significant development though.

But even so, the size of this agreement is also 500 times the size of the current value of all bitcoins combined.  i.e., Cramer couldn't have picked any other two currencies with less relevance to help him make his point.

Cramer is past the "first they ignore you", but still stuck in the "then they laugh at you".

But you gotta wonder who bought all the bitcoins in January to cause it to spike from $4 and change to $7.  It wouldn't be a surprise to me if he a picked up a few himself.  YTD, bitcoin is beating the snot out of all his other of his investments ( http://www.gainerstoday.com/Jim-Cramer-Charitable-Trust-Stocks-Stock-Market-Picks ... well, except for the $AAPL).

 - http://www.gainerstoday.com/Jim-Cramer-Charitable-Trust-Stocks-Stock-Market-Picks
5702  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Barnes & Noble accepts Bitcoin Magazine on: June 23, 2012, 01:34:50 AM
He typed something into the computer and said they didn't carry it, but to try to bigger shop on Union.

I was with my wife, so I didn't have time to have a long discussion (she doesn't like the word bitcoin...).

LOLZ!
5703  Other / Beginners & Help / Re: BitInstant not responding to support emails on: June 23, 2012, 01:21:36 AM
I have used them before and it was indeed 'instant', but I did $1200 in deposits with them yesterday and I still haven't received anything from them!

You could try their IRC support.  Click on the "Need help" graphic:
 - https://www.bitinstant.com/contact
5704  Bitcoin / Legal / Re: MT.Gox account hacked - lost 2k USD - MT.GOX will not explain how. on: June 23, 2012, 12:59:46 AM
I lost roughly 2000 USD from my MT.Gox account at 08:40 JST on the 31th of may 2012.

A lot of that going on.

"MtGox account got cleared out"
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=85533.0

"All BTC disappeared from my Mt. Gox account"
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=88368.0

Another:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=80562.msg941759#msg941759

And another:
"My mtgox account got compromised, what can I do?"
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=84585.0

And on other services as well.  Here same thing happened to some GLBSE users:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=84893.0

In none of these was the person using multi-factor authentication.  Mt. Gox has had Yubikey support for a while.  Mt. Gox accounts now support Google Authenticator:
 - https://mtgox.com/press_release_20120605.html

5705  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Bitcoin's Usefulness - So utterly apparent on: June 22, 2012, 07:54:25 PM
Bitcoin is about taking control of your own situation, just like America was. But sadly both are destined to die

That's why a sudden surge for a decentralized digital currency towards global ubiquity would be worse than it taking a generation.

William Godwin said, “Revolutions are the produce of passion, not of sober and tranquil reason.”  

Learning the why of Bitcoin takes much longer than learning the how.  But once that is learned, going back or towards anything else becomes much more repulsive.
5706  Economy / Trading Discussion / Re: Bond party FUD thread on: June 22, 2012, 02:24:56 AM
Also, does anyone have credible figures about the magnitude of "deposits" in the various nonexistent/vaporous bonds and companies?

Here are a couple valuation tables:

 - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=84399.msg974903#msg974903
 - http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2012/05/glbse-valuations-13-may-2011.html

Overall, this shows a relatively pretty small amount.  Eyeballing it I see maybe a quarter million USD.  Maybe at peak for all issues (not just the top 20) the total was twice that (wild assed guess).

If this is large enough to cripple Bitcoin's current recovery when it finally shuts down... let's just say I would be disappointed.

Funds held by Bitcoinica totaled far larger amounts (perhaps by an order of magnitude larger) and Bitcoin didn't skip a beat.

Additionally, if some (or most) of these were to collapse, the bitcoins would presumably already have been spent, thus there's no selloff of bitcoins that would result.

The event you fear would, however, give pause to it occurring a second time (at least not right away ... memories are sticky, but the pain fades and it happens again eventually).

What I'm surprised by is why there aren't a wider variety of asset issues.  Of course I had expected word to get out that you could create a "fund" that would "invest" in "[put some commodity or other asset here]" and raise "capital" on GLBSE -- all for about $50 (not including the cost for the fake ID).

But what I thought we'ld see (and hoped we'ld see) by now were things like what you'ld see at an angel pitch fest maybe and trying to raise their seed money here (and yes, using their real names, addresses, portfolio history, business plan, a paying customer or two, etc.).

It is like the elephant kept under control having a leg chained to only a tiny stick.  Equity crowdfunding is here, waiting to be put to good use!  [Crickets ... ]

What GLBSE needs are some successes with meatspace ventures building and shipping in a way that proves how these markets can work just fine for those trying to raise capital in an honest, transparent fashion.

Incidentally, another thread on this "what if Pirate defaults" topic:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=86853.0
5707  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: [ANN] Bitstamp adds support for two-factor authentication. on: June 21, 2012, 11:22:41 PM
What if I lose my phone
When setting up your two-factor authentication on your mobile phone you must note and safely store the provided 16 character code. With that code you can install authenticator to other devices if yours breaks down or gets lost. Without that code Bitstamp cannot grant you access to your account.

Please consider an exit address where there is a sane method of recovery if both your phone and the securely-stored 16 character code are lost.

 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Exit_Address
5708  Economy / Currency exchange / Re: [URGENT] Mtgox Euro bank problems!! on: June 21, 2012, 10:44:31 PM
Not sure about you, but if more banks are gonna do this, alot of Mtgox customers and not only Mtgox customers will be annoyed since they will simply not get there money into any exchange easy as nowadays.

You might want to let your bank know that there is a less disruptive step they could take than feezing accounts.  Ask them if they know of Yubico's Yubikey.
5709  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Technical Support / Re: Where to add the wallet in an ubuntu installation? on: June 21, 2012, 10:02:22 PM
 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory
5710  Bitcoin / Development & Technical Discussion / Re: Is it possible to run Bitcoin on Google App Engine? / alternatives? on: June 21, 2012, 09:47:36 PM
What's so less secure on running Bitcoin in App Engine compared to running it on an Amazon instance? In the latter option you have to make a secure connection between App Engine and this instance, which in my eyes leads to the same, if not even more, security issues?

Neither can be secured.

This is some useful reading:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=81045.msg894870#msg894870
5711  Bitcoin / Development & Technical Discussion / Re: Is it possible to run Bitcoin on Google App Engine? / alternatives? on: June 21, 2012, 09:34:32 PM
\So, does anyone here either has experience with running Bitcoin in App Engine for Java or would anyone have an idea how this could possibly be done?
I know there are a lot of Bitcoin applications out there, I'd like to know how these manage their Bitcoin traffic.

I'm trying to avoid needing a separate Amazon service running all the time next to App Engine.

If what you are after is the blockchain there might be a way to replicate the data into App Engine's Google Cloud SQL (from libbitcoin's MySQL data, perhaps).  

But if you are wanting to put a wallet on App Engine, here's an idea: Why don't you give me half the bitcoins you were thinking of storing, then we'll go out back, I'll kick you in the nuts and we'll call it a day.



 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEeqCbEFIJw (length: 10s)
 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvDu3IysKiM (length: 60s)

i.e.,  If there is any lesson to be learned from the Bitcoinica mess is that shared systems and cloud infrastructure cannot be secured.
5712  Other / Beginners & Help / Re: Buy Bitcoin with sms/phone - Need help/advice on: June 21, 2012, 04:02:38 PM
I think i'll stop the service during summer holiday and try to offer something more stable after for september.

Doh!

Your customers aren't frustrated with this being not stable.  They are using a service in which they have no alternative.  Even if you can maintain the operation at a degraded level (e.g., processed in batches, just a couple times each week for instance) that would be better than seeing the service halted.

5713  Economy / Service Announcements / Re: Mr Bitcoins - Buy Bitcoin Fast Safe and Anonymously - Same Day Delivery on: June 21, 2012, 09:10:34 AM
We are Launching with only Australian cash deposits, and then expanding for deposits in other countries after we have launched, we will cover other countries as fast as possible.

So if the site gives a ticket for a cash deposit method for INR (India Rupee), does that mean you've expanded to include INR (it is live, and functional?)

I got a PM that confirmed INR funding on Mr. Bitcoins is functional.

Next question, should the domain resolve without www.?

e.g.,

 - http://MrBitcoins.com doesn't resolve
 - http://www.MrBitcoins.com does resolve
5714  Economy / Marketplace / Re: Request for Proposals on: June 21, 2012, 08:46:49 AM
so as i understand, when a miner creates a new block by solving the proof-of-work, the miner is able to send 50BTC to an account,

Well, the 50 BTC doesn't have to be to just one address -- it an be generated to multiple addresses, like how Eligius offers it, for instance.  

as well as embed up to ~1MB of 'extra data', correct? I'm still trying to understand the block formation, the merkle root and the relation. What i'm trying to get my hands on is a root instance. Not as great as having a genesis block, of course, but a block Smiley So what I get is 50BTC in my account and some data in the blockchain.

so there's a question: what type of data can one embed in the block (plain text?). i know the whole "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks" hard-coded comment in the genesis block(s) satoshi generated...so could i embed json, for example? maybe 64k? maybe more?

Ya, ... well bitcoin wasn't built to be a data archive service and while technically you can probably do what you want, know that you'll be pissing off a few people doing so.  Particularly those who are waiting for their transactions to get included and your blocks just made them wait even longer.

But here's another variation:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=47283.0

Topics like this have come up before:
 - http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/18
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2901.0
5715  Economy / Service Announcements / Re: Mr Bitcoins - Buy Bitcoin Fast Safe and Anonymously - Same Day Delivery on: June 21, 2012, 08:38:18 AM
We are Launching with only Australian cash deposits, and then expanding for deposits in other countries after we have launched, we will cover other countries as fast as possible.

So if the site gives a ticket for a cash deposit method for INR (India Rupee), does that mean you've expanded to include INR (it is live, and functional?)
5716  Economy / Marketplace / Re: Request for Proposals on: June 21, 2012, 07:35:56 AM
Anyone care to speculate as to why anyone would require that the blocks be mined with no transactions?

Perhaps for numismatic purposes?

i did not write i wanted blocks mined without any transactions.

I see, my misunderstanding.  I thought "clean blocks" meant "no transactions" (other than the one with the message).

what i wrote is that i want to buy a block of coins and have a specific data-message embedded in the block upon creation. then i want the entire block transferred to one of my accounts in a single transaction.

Hmm ... well, if you are just describing the address that the 50 BTC are generated for, that can be any bitcoin address, so the miner could just stuff in your address as the one that earns the generated coin.  (It still takes 120 blocks to confirm like any other new generated coins take).
5717  Economy / Marketplace / Re: Request for Proposals on: June 21, 2012, 05:21:01 AM
i am willing to disclose a bit more about my project

Anyone care to speculate as to why someone would require blocks mined with no transactions?

Perhaps for numismatic purposes?
5718  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Critical mass community on: June 21, 2012, 02:46:46 AM
Epcot Center.

Using an NFC wristband perhaps?



I describe this here:

 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=88553.0
5719  Other / Beginners & Help / Re: Cory Doctorow discusses the Pros and Cons of BitCoins on: June 21, 2012, 02:29:44 AM
The rich (in Real Money) can afford the computer systems to dedicate to mining to become richer (in BitCoin).

Right now the miner's profitability is at a higher level than it has been but let's say that this level is a constant for the purposes of this discussion.

So Bob the miner spends today $1,000 on (used) hardware, and gets 1.4 Ghash/s.

He'll earn 0.6 BTC per day, worth about $3.84 at the current exchange rate ($6.59).

His electricity for that rig (725 Watts) costs $2.61 per day, so his gross profit is about $1.23 per day (or 0.2 BTC per day).

Assuming the exchange rate and difficulty do not change over the next one year period, Bob will have taken in about $450 worth of gross profit.

Let's say he then sells his rig, at $800 (just 20% discount for being used another year), and is left with $250 worth of net profit.

So for a $1,000 investment, Bob got a 25% return.  This is not including his time invested.

In this example, Bob did better at mining than using that $1,000 to buy bitcoins outright.

But this is assuming the exchange rate didn't change.

Let's say instead over the next year the exchange rate went up a little over 50%, from $6.59 to $10.00 but let's also presume that the difficulty rises so that the profitability stays at about the same level it is now.

Presuming Bob sells enough bitcoins each month to pay for his electricity costs, he'll have roughly the same 0.2 BTC in profit per day.  So one year later, Bob will have the 0.2 X 365 = 73 BTC in profit, but at $10 per BTC that is a year from now worth $730 USD.

And at the end of the year his equipment can be sold for $800, so subtract $200 from the profit, leaving Bob with $530 for mining, or a 53% profit on his $1,000 investment.

Next take Joe the speculator.   Today Joe simply buys $1,000 worth of bitcoins -- at $6.59 he gets about 150 BTC.  A year from now at $10 per, his stash is worth $1,500 so he profited $500, or about 50%.

Bob went through the effort to mine, including the acquisition and disposal of equipment over the one year and came out no better than Joe.  The reason Bob did no better than Joe was because Bob's $1,000 was invested in hardware that doesn't gain in value.

If the exchange rate were to have gone even higher, Joe the speculator would have made more profit (and a greater ROI) than Bob the miner.

Now what happens in practice is that network-wide the mining capacity lags price so if the exchange rate goes up there are periods of time that margins for mining are generally higher.  But if Bob is in Bitcion for the long term he actually would prefer the exchange rate not rise, at least not while he still is invested in the hardware.  This also means that when the exchange rate drops quickly, miners are better off shutting down so as to not lose money on electricity.

The point of all this was to show how if the exchange rate goes up, speculating does better than mining.  If the exchange rate goes down, mining does better than speculating.  Mining can still lose money, but you can lose it a lot faster from pure speculation.

So this "rich get richer" has nothing to do with being able to buy the (relatively) expensive equipment that has caused a high barrier of entry that excludes the poor from mining.  Mining is quite simply just a less risky form of speculating on the bitcoin exchange rate.

But for putting money into speculation, you are exactly right.  A person who has only $25 to speculate will only get $25 richer if the exchange rate doubles.  Where the person who buys $1,000 worth of bitcoin will become a $1,000 richer if the exchange rate doubles.

But for the poor there is no barrier to entry for speculating.  You can buy $50 worth of bitcoins and pay nearly the same rate as that a wealthy person who speculates would pay, for example.

This cuts both ways though.

Eight months ago when the exchange rate was under $3 there were still people calling bitcoin a ponzi and complaining about those who were lucky and got in under $1.   But they weren't expressing concern over those who had bought at $30, $15, $8 and $5 who remained underwater yet or had sold at a loss.  There still are many people holding bitcoins today who are severely underwater on them yet.   Just as the wealthy tend to gain more (dollar gain per capita) on the way up. that same subset of the population were the ones who mostly saw losses on the way down.
5720  Other / Beginners & Help / Re: Help urgently needed with registering GPG key on bitcoin-otc on: June 20, 2012, 11:41:32 PM
I do the clearsigning, then pastebin:

;;gpg verify http://pastebin.com/RQUbnS##
<gribble> Error: Failed to retrieve clearsigned data. Check your url.

I've again tried just about every command in the guides, but still can't figure out how to add my GPG key. I don't seem to be able to find a clear instruction for how to register my GPG key after I've registered an address.

Any suggestions??

Perhaps the raw paste is needed?  Otherwise it ends up being an HTML page.

 - http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=RQUbnS##
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