No one is buying to hedge against 15% increases in energy prices or 15% falls in the dollar.
Speak for yourself. I'm not about to sell the silver that I presently own, but hedging in Bitcoin is much easier than trudging down to the local dealer to buy more metal. That and I also get the possible benefit of speculative gain. Speculation isn't an exclusive motive. |
|
|
|
A few questions I have that might as well be answered here than anywhere else:
Does Satoshi approve what changes make it into the new official Bitcoin updates?
Not anymore. Gavin Andresen is the lead programmer on the main client.
How long did Satoshi mine Bitcoins as the only miner in the world before he released the software / when did Bitcoin become released for people to mine?
Less than a day, I believe. Both started sometime in Jan of 2009, but the exact details are available on the wiki. Did Satoshi sit on an entire years' worth of mined blocks before he released this for other people to mine?
No, and it's pretty obvious that his machine wasn't particularly powerful, as in the very beginning (looking at the charts from blockexployer) it would take hours between blocks in the very beginning even at the minimum difficulty of 1. It didn't take long at all before others were jumping into the game and mining alongside of Satoshi. For perspective, the difficulty is a ratio metric, and the currenty difficulty of 92,348 means that the current "target" is roughly 92,348 times more computationally intensive than the minimum. I have no doubt that Satoshi mined a large number of coins, but there is no way to know if he still has them. |
|
|
|
mm would be used almost exclusively
Almost being the operative word. I know for a fact that not all metric tool manufacturers stick with mm, and not all of them are up front about it. Chinese tool manufacturers are particularly bad about this, in addition to sloppy fit in general, but they also happen to be the cheapest toolmakers in the world. In my experience, Chinese tools following the American Standard aren't as bad about fit, but that might just be me. Sure, here in the UK you can easily buy rulers that show centimetres - particularly the (plastic) kind used in schools, but the more serious kind too. But wouldn't that fall under the "a poor workman..." case? I guess I'm not being clear. Every tape measure that I've seen in the US has both inches and cm. When I say 'tooling' I'm not refering to measuring devices, but to actual machine tools designed and built with the intent to be used with a particular part, in turn designed to fit withing a particular system of measurement. A common example is a socket wrench set. I presume there are (commonly used) fractions of inches that are smaller than millimetres, and that's where the precision comes from?
Well, there is no such thing as 'common' sizes smaller than a mm in any context, but yes. The procession of dimminishing sizes is very orderly, and can be understood intuitively to anyone that has experience with the larger tools that use fractions of an ich. What fractions in particular? Father McGruder mentioned decimalised inches, which would be 2.54mm for 1/10th of an inch, and seems fairly useless to me. He's not talking about conversion from AS to Metric, but about the division of an inch into hundredths. At least that is what I thought that he was talking about. I'm assuming something in the order of 1/32" or 1/64"? I remember rulers with inches divided into 12s and 16s, but powers of 2 seem logical (possibly due to too much binary) - is that how it works?
Inches are normally shown divided into eighths on a common ruler, which is simply three halvings. Furthur precision is gained by continuing this process; one-sixteenth, one thirty-secondth, one sixty-fourth, and so on. The precision is base 2 and infinite. I've not seen a tweevlth used on any such measuring device within my career. I'm not saying that they don't exist, but they are not really an American Standard issue, perhaps a throwback to British Imperial? |
|
|
|
but I pay $2/GB for my internet usage so I'm hoping around 500MB or so.
Why is this? Are you on a wireless ISP plan? Or do you herald from a nation with poor access in general? |
|
|
|
1. I see that there is a reason for transaction confirmation being relatively slow, where the main limitation comes from the protocol which allows procession of a block every 10 minutes.
Bitcoin's transactions confirmations are relatively fast, actually. The banks and credit card companies maintain the illusion of instant transaction processing by simply making an advance guess on the likelyhood that your transaction isn't fraudulent, but then takes days to confirm. Bitcoin could use a similar method to have instant transactions as well, but doesn't necessarily need such a method. As far as I have understood, paying a fee increases the probability for a transaction. I sent out three orders at the same time (same origin, same recipient, same amount), but one with zero fee, one with 0.1 BTC and one with 0.2 BTC fee. All three transactions got their first confirmation after ca 1h, and it took ca 2h to get 6 confirmations. Shouldn't those transactions with fees have been processed faster?
This shows that, at present, there is no gain to adding voluntary transaction fees. It is strange that your transactions took so long to process. Was your client connected to the Bitcoin network at the time?
What fee should be paid to "ensure" that the transaction will be in the next block?
There is no way to garantee that any particular transaction will be in the next block.
2. Do I understand that correctly, that blk0001.dat contains the complete global history of transactions?
At present, this is an accurate understanding.
3. My blk0001.dat file is 122 MB. When the bitcoin network is growing transactions will probably grow exponentially. Will that cause the file size also to grow exponentially? If so, isn't that a showstopper?
The protocol includes a couple differnet methods of mitigating the expansion of the blockchain, none of which are presently implemented.
4. Can't it just happen that an ISP blocks all bitcoin connections, let's say, if a government decides that bitcoin is illegal an forces ISPs to do so? Or are the bitcoin packets designed in a way so that they are not (easily) discoverable by an ISP?
Traffic is quite open, and easily identified or blocked. However, there are other methods of hiding the traffic, such as TOR, I2P or just a SSH tunnel. |
|
|
|
and biggest exchange being in Japan,
Wait, are you saying MtGox is hosted in Japan? I though that the founder was from New York State. |
|
|
|
Length is an exception to the 'generally halving' rule, which is why I didn't include it. It could stand to be fixed, and yes, most such measurements are mixed. However, fine measurements are always measured in fractions of an inch (tool sizes for example) and tend to be significantly more precise and easier to think about than metric units, which can be rated in cm or mm and often do not mark which upon the tool.
Ah, interesting about mixing. For fine measurements in metric, (I assume you mean for something like carpentry or metalworking?) Among other things, yes. mm would be used almost exclusively
Almost being the operative word. I know for a fact that not all metric tool manufacturers stick with mm, and not all of them are up front about it. Chinese tool manufacturers are particularly bad about this, in addition to sloppy fit in general, but they also happen to be the cheapest toolmakers in the world. In my experience, Chinese tools following the American Standard aren't as bad about fit, but that might just be me.
- I had a crusty old carpentry teacher who shouted at the class if anyone used centimetres!
I can imagine why. This can only be because he has experienced the order of magnitude error that can occur because of this.
I presume there are (commonly used) fractions of inches that are smaller than millimetres, and that's where the precision comes from?
Well, there is no such thing as 'common' sizes smaller than a mm in any context, but yes. The procession of dimminishing sizes is very orderly, and can be understood intuitively to anyone that has experience with the larger tools that use fractions of an ich. I always found mm precise enough, but I was never much of a carpenter...
That pretty much says it all, right there. |
|
|
|
For fine measurements in metric, (I assume you mean for something like carpentry or metalworking?) mm would be used almost exclusively - I had a crusty old carpentry teacher who shouted at the class if anyone used centimetres! I presume there are (commonly used) fractions of inches that are smaller than millimetres, and that's where the precision comes from? I always found mm precise enough, but I was never much of a carpenter...
Anyone ever use decimal fractions of an inch? I have. Yes, but only in an engineering context, using a micrometer. Even then, the workmen tend to object to decimal fractions, and insist on plans using halving fractions. Even tool/die makers hate using decimal fractions, and they almost have to because if modern machinery isn't made in Germany, it's designed there and made in Japan. |
|
|
|
Honestly, I doubt that Satoshi is actually Japanese. His writing syntax just doesn't fit.
I agree. Also, there remains no Japanese translation of the primary documents, nor of the main Bitcoin webpage. |
|
|
|
Minor thread necromancy, but you guys are ignoring a HUGE 500lb gorilla in the room:
Hemp.
The Diesel engine was originally designed to run on hempseed oil.
It also solves the eat-or-drive conundrum, because the press-cakes from the seed make amazing flour.
The stems/stalks can be made into fiber for paper, rope, clothing, etc.
We all know what the flowers are good for.
And, the starches in the rest of the plant can be made into bio-degradable plastics.
If I could only grow one plant, It would be the Hemp plant.
Can you "source" that statement? I believe he was less interested in the fuel which most credit to ( coal dust, peanut oil, etc) than the Air. He was fascinated by compressing "Air" to heat it and then inject "fuels" into the engine. I'm not going to research it for you, but he ran the first demostration model on hemp oil, and marketed the engine as a means for third world nations to become less dependent upon foreign energy companies. Try Google, I hear it's pretty good at this kind of thing. Do you know there was a rumor that he was killed by Coal Industrialist as a threat to their empire? Back then, that was like the Oil Companies killing people over the 200 m/gal. carburetor. Funny how that happens.
I think that you are getting slim data out of your rumors. The mostly likely cause of his disappearance was the German government (his own) as it was apparent that he was marketing his engine to the British navy in the leadup to the first world war. The German navy already had the tech, and likely desired to keep the advantage. He boarded a ferry to cross the English channel, and never disembarked, and his body was never found. |
|
|
|
In the course of my life I've had to use both systems quite extensively. Base 10 and base 2 are great with regard to engineering and computers. Yet they, at best, add nothing to the (general) halving of measurements that American Standard uses, and at worst make thinking in such metrics more difficult and therefore more prone to error. This has nothing to do with Bitcoin, of course, since it's a computerized metric; but think about it....
Even the metric system is based upon entirely arbitrary units, such as the meter, liter and gram. AS is mostly taking an arbitrary unit and repeatedly halving it. Some examples...
Dollar, half-dollar, quarter, bit (no longer used) (The dime and nickel were introduced only due to decimalization, the same is generally true in British Pounds)
Peck (2 gallons), gallon, half-gallon, quart, pint, half-pint, cup, gill (4 fluid ounces)
If you grew up using meters as your primary unit of length, have you ever found yourself thinking in half-meters instead of 50 cm? For example, measuring a wall of your house with a tape measure, if you need precision you write down meters and centimeters, but then you are really measuring in centimeters. But if you are just shooting for a general measurement, say for example, judging the area of a flat you intend to rent to see if your funiture will fit, do you think in half meters?
For that matter, have you ever thought in half centimeters?
What about when you buy petrol? Sure, the pump measures in liters and hundredths of a liter, but when the pump says 11.51 liters, do you think "eleven and a half liters"?
While driving, do you think of a driving distance as km's and meters? Or do you think, "it's about 3 and a half kilometers to the next turn"?
I'll concede that metric is much more uniform, and there is much to be said for that, but AS is easier to think within.
Couple of points (from someone who's pretty exclusively metric, but lives in a country that hasn't ever completely adopted the metric system - it still uses pints for beer, and miles for long distances). Sterling isn't quite like the dollar, it uses 1, 2 and 5 rather than doubling. So... 1p, 2p, 5p, ... 10p, 20p, 50p, £1, £2, £5 for coins (£5 coins aren't that common), and for notes it follows the same pattern: £5, ... £10, £20, £50. Centimetres are something of an aberration: normally SI units focus on 1000s. There are also decimetres, which don't seem to have gained any traction but which I remember from school rulers in the 1970s. This aberration only seems to exist with measuring distances, and only at the >1mm to <1m scale. There are no special words for 10 metres or 0.1mm, for example. I tend to focus on one, appropriate, scale and stick to it. So I would never think of "1 metre and 50 centimetres" - it would always be 1.5 metres (or, I'll concede, 1 and a half metres - though to be honest I do tend to think in decimals rather than fractions: "half" is just short-hand for "0.5" to me). I wouldn't think of centimetres when dealing primarily with metres. (Incidentally, is that true for AS folk? Do people tend to work in feet, or use mixtures? I see things like 1' 2" which suggests units get mixed, but I don't know if that's just when written or if people think in mixtures as well). My problem with AS is that the "number" keeps changing: 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard, and I can never remember how many yards (or feet) in a mile. I can see potential advantages in using 12 instead of 10 - if there was a system that had 12 inches to a foot, 12 feet to a "bigyard", and 12 bigyards to a "twelvemile" then I could see some value in that. But 10, or - better - 1000, seems perfectly usable to me. Length is an exception to the 'generally halving' rule, which is why I didn't include it. It could stand to be fixed, and yes, most such measurements are mixed. However, fine measurements are always measured in fractions of an inch (tool sizes for example) and tend to be significantly more precise and easier to think about than metric units, which can be rated in cm or mm and often do not mark which upon the tool. |
|
|
|
. . . I think conservatives will find reasons to hate bitcoin, but liberals might be convinced to love it . . .
If a Jesus-freak like me can love bitcoins, then being conservative is no barrier. I think that it depends upon the definition of conservative and liberal, which means differnet things to different people. I would guess that Gavin's intended the term conservative to be a synonym for "luddite" or "too old to understand the interwebs". It exposes a bias in Gavin, if I am correct, but not a fault per se. Personally, I don't think that Bitcoin has political connotations beyond what individuals attribute to it. It neither favors the status quo, or any particular economic system. It simply is, and it's attributes lend it well to being disruptive of the status quo only because it currently isn't included. If the 'powers that be' can adapt, Bitcoin will change little beyond the efficiency of p2p exchanges and online commerce. That said, history has shown that the status quo is usually too deeply entrenched into it's own mythologies to adapt; and usually gets replaced altogether as a result. |
|
|
|
It's not a belief that keeps things the way they are. It's the fear of loss. Loss of reserve value, loss of the reserves themselves
Well, you have to really believe in the Fed in order to think that the dollar will not collapse. By keeping their reserves, they risk losing much more. That will prove true, eventually. In the meantime, 'normalcy bias' limits the logical conclusions here. They know that their populations' recent well being is built upon a house of cards called "international trade" and fear a great "chinese recall election" if they are seen as even remotely connected to the fall. Sticking it to the US isn't a powerful enough motive.
Why? The Chinese improve has not so much to do with the US buying their stuff with dollars but much more the Chinese being able of producing these stuff in the first place. They should stop accepting subsidizing the dollar and start feeding their own internal market with their production. It's true that their internal market demand is probably not the same of that of US and therefore the capital structure would have to change, what can be a bit painful. But it would be in their own benefit. They should really stop being mercantilists and let the Chinese people enjoy more the increase in capital the country has gone through. What you are discribing is "decoupling", and might yet happen, but there is little evidence that it's going to happen in the next several years. As it is, China's industrial base is strongly tuned to the manufacture of products intended for export, and it's no small thing to retool such an industrial base to serve a completely different culture. Not to mention the reserves they're sitting on are a bomb...
Again, normalcy bias prevails. It's been a bomb for decades, and yet it is inarguable that the Chinese people are overall better off today than if they had simply never started working for the Western nations in this capacity. The risk is real, but the possibility that their is still much more gain to be had is also real. Like playing Russian Roulette and you are on the fourth pull; sure it's dangerous, but there are still two more chambers left.
I think the Chinese government has somehow realized the problem they've put themselves in, they just won't admit or take desperate actions. But they're slowly acquiring gold for example, they've strongly shifted from US long-term bonds to short-term ones etc.
Yes, there are certainly signs that the Chinese are hedging against a future wherein the US FRN is no longer a trusted reserve currency. This does no mean that they are willing to be the first one's to take the leap. |
|
|
|
Are you just being amusing, or do you really see any benefits in those crazy backwardds units?
In the course of my life I've had to use both systems quite extensively. Base 10 and base 2 are great with regard to engineering and computers. Yet they, at best, add nothing to the (general) halving of measurements that American Standard uses, and at worst make thinking in such metrics more difficult and therefore more prone to error. This has nothing to do with Bitcoin, of course, since it's a computerized metric; but think about it.... Even the metric system is based upon entirely arbitrary units, such as the meter, liter and gram. AS is mostly taking an arbitrary unit and repeatedly halving it. Some examples... Dollar, half-dollar, quarter, bit (no longer used) (The dime and nickel were introduced only due to decimalization, the same is generally true in British Pounds) Peck (2 gallons), gallon, half-gallon, quart, pint, half-pint, cup, gill (4 fluid ounces) If you grew up using meters as your primary unit of length, have you ever found yourself thinking in half-meters instead of 50 cm? For example, measuring a wall of your house with a tape measure, if you need precision you write down meters and centimeters, but then you are really measuring in centimeters. But if you are just shooting for a general measurement, say for example, judging the area of a flat you intend to rent to see if your funiture will fit, do you think in half meters? For that matter, have you ever thought in half centimeters? What about when you buy petrol? Sure, the pump measures in liters and hundredths of a liter, but when the pump says 11.51 liters, do you think "eleven and a half liters"? While driving, do you think of a driving distance as km's and meters? Or do you think, "it's about 3 and a half kilometers to the next turn"? I'll concede that metric is much more uniform, and there is much to be said for that, but AS is easier to think within. |
|
|
|
Spam = transactions made for the purpose of disrupting the network.
Why would somebody do that? What is the advantage for them? There could be a number of motivations, not the least of which is geek vandalism. Comparable to a graffettii artist. Basicly just because one could. Secretly strike back at the new "Man" in a Bitcoin future. |
|
|
|
Satoshi is Number One. Or perhaps Two, or Six.
Be seeing you.
Seven. Of nine? |
|
|
|
These governments are not dumping anything, the topic title is a bit misleading. They keep huge dollars reserves... if they dump that, then you'll see the dollar plunge. I don't think they'll do it though, not while they remain believing in mercantilism.
It's not a belief that keeps things the way they are. It's the fear of loss. Loss of reserve value, loss of the reserves themselves, loss of their social position (civic leaders in control) and ultimately loss of their lives in a revolution. Every one of these guys would pile on if one major player were to start dumping their reserves, but none of them wants to be the first to take the leap. China's reserves alone could send the US FRN into massive inflation, but in doing so the Chinese government cuts their own throat. They know that their populations' recent well being is built upon a house of cards called "international trade" and fear a great "chinese recall election" if they are seen as even remotely connected to the fall. Sticking it to the US isn't a powerful enough motive. |
|
|
|
Oh, and jobs aren't created by human desires.
Wow. That's so contradictory to evidence I can't even imagine how you arrived here. So, in this theory, how does the character actor at Walt Disney World fit in? |
|
|
|
Looks like BRICS decided that US is too stretched with Afghan, Iraq and now Libya to also wage wars against them even for sake of maintaining the super ponzy going
They're probably right. |
|
|
|
I don't like the idea of 'preserving the familiar'. If we did that, America would still be using feet and inches... oh, wait. Feet and inches are far better than the common alternative of metres. The latter is based on decimal, one of the worst possible radices, and has only ever been adopted by force. America deserves credit for not forcing people to use an inferior system. Amen to that, but America the government has actually tried. |
|
|
|
|
Show Posts
