Everyone,

Please read this thread starting here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=46982.msg561346#msg561346

BEFORE you submit all the personal information Bitcoin7 is requesting in order to "verify your account"

This may be an identity theft attempt.

The reason we need to give this kind of information (passport, license, utility bills, etc.) to Mt. Gox is that they need it to comply with regulations so they can continue our accounts and continue their business.

But, we have already been told by Bitcoin7 that they are discontinuing business!  They do not need all this personal identification information for that.  Remember that Bitcoin7 was originally a verbatim rip off of other exchanges.  This looks like a verbatim rip off of the Mt. Gox account validation procedure.

All they need is a simple way for people to reclaim their accounts so they can give them back whatever money and BTC are left in the “hacked” accounts before they close up shop.

There is absolutely no reason for anyone to send this kind of information to an exchange that is going out of business.

Here is what I have tried so far:

I entered the mini private key S4b3N3oGqDqR5jNuxEvDwf and got the response "Private address added to your virtual wallet with address 1GAehh7TsJAHuUAeKZcXf5CnwuGuGgyX2S. There was no coins in there, maybe you did a typo?"  This is the correct public key address and there are no coins at this address.  So far so good.

I entered the hex private key for the same key 0c28fca386c7a227600b2fe50b7cae11ec86d3bf1fbe471be89827e19d72aa1d and got the response "Your private address could not be redeemed (already redeemed?)".  I guess this is the expected response and it proves that they calculated the same account for this version of the private key.

However, when I enter the WIF 5HueCGU8rMjxEXxiPuD5BDku4MkFqeZyd4dZ1jvhTVqvbTLvyTJ for the same private key it calculated the wrong public key address.  So there appears to be a problem/bug when using the WIF.

I reported this bug to Mt. Gox.

I then used both a real mini private key and a real hex private key to attempt to import Bitcoins from active accounts (opened physical coins).  In both cases it calculated the correct public key address and found that there were Bitcoins in the accounts and promised to import them into Mt. Gox.

The Bitcoins were eventually moved off the accounts for the private keys I entered into Mt. Gox and placed on new accounts withing Mt. Gox.  This proves that they sweep the value off the imported private keys so there is no way to reuse the private key to send Bitcoins out of Mt. Gox.

See http://blockexplorer.com/address/13MsUf2Nnowoj8gdZBfBSyBJzVcC1R7hZA

And http://blockexplorer.com/address/13MT4QvExmajXAYqKQeMXAh9saVTVP6f6a

Both (one from a mini key and one from the hex key) showed up in my Mt. Gox account:  The notation looked like this:

This shows both the notes I put in when I imported the key (first bits of the original public address and the private key type used) and the new public address the Bitcoins were swept into.

Of course it supports it all you have to do is tell Mt Gox to send Bitcoins to the corresponding public key, however since you have imported the private key into your Mt Gox account the coins would just be sent from your Mt Gox account back into your Mt Gox account, unless I am missing something in your question.

There is a lot of information about them in this thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=17043.0 right here on our very own forum.  Seems like there was a lot of red flags from day one.

Turns out NO:

Yet another one bites the dust.  Luckily I have leaned the hard way to a) keep minimal money at any exchange, b) keep 0 BTC at all exchanges, c) use very strong passwords, d) use unique passwords for all of my BTC related accounts.  I guess this is to be expected for the near term.

Agreed, and that needs to change.  So, what we need is real software that meets all the requirements (audit, feature, safety, etc.) of the customers.  Real software that correctly addresses the block reorg issues, etc. that you brought up, whether open source or not.  We will need someone like you (2112), who obviously seems to know what sort of testing and validation is required, to help out in that area.  I have a lead for a large customer (buddy is one of the VPs) that I am working on.  I will keep everyone posted on the questions they ask me.  Even if they don't sign on it will be very interesting to go through the process and see exactly where all the roadblocks are.

I use StrongCoin.com because all private key math is done on my computer in Javascript and not on the server.  The server only keeps encrypted versions of the private keys so the server (and server owner) does not have access to the Bitcoins.

2112 is one smart guy, he seems to know everything about everything!  2112, not everyone is as smart as you are.  Most of us work in teams where each person is an expert at one thing.  Casascius admits he does not know everything about everything like you do - that is why he is forming a team to work on the project.  You have made one point:  a real POS system will need to be better than what we have now.  We all know this, so basically you have contributed exactly zero so far.

+1 on this issue with the word "sticker" and my 5 year old.  After she opened one for me I explained to her that the coin was now "spent" and she felt bad.  I put the sticker back on and gave it to her.  She loves it because it is so pretty in the light - she likes it a lot better than the other boring coins without stickers on them that I have given her.

Could those developing software please post links to this site so we can match them with our potential businesses?  I know that there are some POS systems out there and more under developement.

I really like the idea from the previous post:  include the network fee inside your fee.  For example:

Charge 1% of the transfer up to some maximum number (let's say 1BTC)

Out of this fee you send let's say 10% on to the network and keep the other 90%

These are just example numbers - you get the idea.

Also +1 on no fees for transfers within my own accounts.

You could also do a reduced fee or no fee for transfers between all of your own customers (kind of like the cell phone network's family plans) this could be used to bring in more customers.

I really like what they are doing over at StrongCoin.com:

All private keys are individually encrypted with passwords of your choosing.
One nice feature is that as you create your passwords it give you an indication of the strength of the password in order to help you pick better passwords.
The unencrypted private keys never leave your computer - all computations involving private keys are done using JavaScript on you computer instead of on the server.
You can generate your own pubic/private key pairs to your hearts content.
You can use StrongCoin to import the value from physical Bitcoins or Bitbill or paper wallets
It allows you to create paper backups of your private keys.
The web site itself is very clean and user friendly.

It is a work in progress but I really like what I see so far.

I use firstbits.com for that.  Perhaps a link to firstbits.com?

First, I LOVE this site and idea.  It is exactly what we need to get non-technical people to learn about and start using Bitcoins.

Here are a few bugs to report:

1) Import Key Function, Import Mini Key drop down - Incorrectly calculates the private key from the mini key (probably a very simple math issue).

2) Import Key Function - probably should change the action button from "Import Mini Key" to just "Import Key" since there are three different types of keys in the drop down.

3) Send payment function - Typo.  "The amount ot send" should be "The amount to send"

4) Instead of charging a set fee of 0.01 BTC for your service when I transfer coins I think it would be better for you and the customer if you charged a percentage of the transfer amount - maybe up to some maximum value.  Maybe 1% fee up to a maximum of 1 BTC (or whatever you decide).  The reason is I may want to send some very small amounts in the future like 0.0001 BTC which I could not do with your current system since it would cost me 0.01 to send 0.0001.

5) Could you please let the customers (me) set the network transaction fee - instead of hardcoding it to 0.01 BTC?  As it stands now when I transferred 1.00 BTC you took your cut (0.01) which is OK with me (but I think it should be a percentage see above) and then you hardcoded another 0.01 for the network.  So it cost me 1.02 to send 1.00.  Please allow us to set the network transaction fee value to anything we want, including zero.

Love your public key for transaction fees:  firstbits/1strongx.  How long did it take you to find it?  [BTW note that firstbits/1strong is a different address!!!]

I would love to recommend this site as the easiest way to redeem physical money (physical coins, Bitbills, etc.) once you get the mini key issue fixed.

Your web site is well done, very clean and a pleasure to use.  Thanks!

I was going to send you a small donation but I do not see a published donation address anywhere and I don't want to send it to firstbits/1strongx since the current balance shows exactly how many transactions have been processed through your site so far (18 at 0.01 per transaction).

I am interested in joining in the fun.

No, but the guy did a great job and I sent him a small donation. 

Just go to the page which will load the script.  Disconnect from the network.  Run the script.  Make address pairs to your hearts conntent.  Save all the files in a secure location.  Reconnect to the evil internet.  Of course you must be aware of any key loggers, etc.

You can go to this website and it will generate as many public/private key pairs as you want/need:  bitaddress.org

Just use the bulk address option, set the number of rows to 1000 and it will generate a CSV file with 1000 addresses and their corresponding private keys.  All the private key generation takes place on your computer, not on the server, so with some care your private keys are secure.