This is like staring at a lava-lamp..........stoned. My question is, why should I or anyone cares?
Am I missing something important here?
The idea behind firstbits is that it allows you to identify an address without having to use a really long impossible to remember bitcoin address. Assuming the following: - My bitcoin address is 1Danny49wgfnwlkhiw4sf9wfp9wfeasps9fgu
- A transaction has been received and stored in the blockchain to this address
- No earlier transaction has ever been received to any address that starts with the characters "1Danny"
Then I can tell people that they can send bitcoins to my firstbits address "1Danny". It's easy to remember and convenient for brand recognition (imagine McDonald's receiving bitcoin payments and advertising their bitcoin firstbits address as "1McD"). So, someone has gone and generated LOTS of addresses that use common words in the beginning of the address. This means that they are sitting on these addresses and nobody else can use those words as a firstbits address, since the person sitting on them is the first person in the blockchain using an address that starts with that sequence. Now the person doing this might believe that they can re-sell control of these addresses to people who desire them, but anyone with any knowledge about bitcoin at all will realize that the addresses are not secure since the seller would know the private key and could steal any bitcoins received there. Could the buyer not vanity generate a matching address later? |
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After a long series of discussions I would like to welcome Paul Christie Artists and Ravenscourt Design as two of the latest UK organisations to start taking Bitcoin alongside their existing payment options. Paul Christie Artists specialises in bespoke portraits, pictures, paintings and prints. Actively taking commissions, all displayed works are also available to buy from the website. Ravenscourt Design will also consider design commissions using Bitcoin.      (The principle of Paul Christie Artists and Ravenscourt Design is a relative of the OP) |
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Thanks, am actually trying to get some of the organisations listed there on the phone to confirm they are still live... Thank you! CoinMap seems quite good in UK. P.S. Could you add links to OSM in your list, please? For example: Good suggestion. Done. |
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2 factor authentication now on BTCe
Any opinions on that ?
Great, at last. What type of two factor authentication is this? I'm guessing it uses google authenticator and is time based? Where can I find a guide to use it? |
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I'd like to introduce Steven Lee, who I spoke to on the phone this morning and have just discovered is the owner of two Bitcoin businesses in Brighton. I'm glad to welcome him to our growing Brighton community! One of his organisations provides alternative heath products, the other very nice quality vinyl bitcoin stickers to go inside the windows of shops, cars and the like: Bitcoin Stickers Electronic HealingSteven has kindly offered to donate some of his vinyl stickers to me to hand out to new organisations in Brighton who start accepting Bitcoin. Another Brighton meet up may be on the cards soon. If you're nearby please contact me for details
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Wait... I bought flawed coins? Is there a program to trade these in for non-error coins when they become available?
Happy to trade you  ! |
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Nicely balanced article. This might also explain why the BTC price has crept up today...
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I have a pointer to this thread on reddit to try and capture the widest possible demographic of Bitcoin users: http://redd.it/1j0ppn |
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I've noticed some people reply to my comments in a thread or when I quote them pretty quickly. Some of these threads are quite old.
I therefore assume that they are using an option somewhere on this forum to check back for replys to their previous posts.
My questions:
1. Is there such an option?
2. What other options and features are available to make my life managing threads easier?
3. Is there a canonical guide to these features anywhere?
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Thanks, am actually trying to get some of the organisations listed there on the phone to confirm they are still live... I think you mean "principal", not "principle".
Thanks; fixed. Good find. Added. Thanks. I've contacted them to confirm they are in the UK. Thanks, contacted a few to confirm that they re in the UK. Great finds, thanks Frank. Spoke to Ricky at Sash Window Preservation and he's delighted we're doing this list. I've also sent him forum details. |
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Can anybody give a small summary of what happened? Seems confusing at the moment. I have some TRCs and am wondering whether they will be worthless.
This seems to be the most concise explanation, crucially there are two things going on; the timewarp bug and the attacker currently has >50% hashing power on the TRC network: Since TRC is based off the BTC source, is the 6 hour thing something BTC fixed previously that TRC never copied? Or is it a TRC-specific bug?
TRC not only didn't copy the fix, it made it worse. Asymmetrical difficulty changes (where difficulty can go down more than it can go up) allows the attacker to amplify the effects of the attack. No serious crypto-currency can have an asymmetrical difficulty system. It is trivial to exploit. |
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Thanks! A refreshingly objective article. |
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Since TRC is based off the BTC source, is the 6 hour thing something BTC fixed previously that TRC never copied? Or is it a TRC-specific bug?
TRC not only didn't copy the fix, it made it worse. Asymmetrical difficulty changes (where difficulty can go down more than it can go up) allows the attacker to amplify the effects of the attack. No serious crypto-currency can have an asymmetrical difficulty system. It is trivial to exploit. This is a very clear explanation, thanks. |
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I hope they give out his IP.
You gotta be kidding right? You want a pool to give out the IP of someone who might have done the attack, so you can harass him? First you need to start by realizing that it is not even wrong to attack a coin. If there is a weakness that can be exploited everyone that wants to spend the energy and hashes is free to do so. That is the problem with most of these alts, they are not secure enough so dont keep money in them that you cannot afford to lose. I'm partly inclined to agree with the above. Also correlation does not prove this entity's guilt. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? |
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Glad to see you made it outta Newbie. For all practical purposes, this NPO seems like a viable entity deserving funding from Bitcoin 100. I'm sure you won't mind if another 24 hours passes so that if anybody has a concern it'll give them time to express it, but I'm pretty sure there shouldn't be a problem. If nothing is posted on this thread shedding any negative light by tomorrow evening, I'll contact Rassah and get the ball a rollin'. In fact, that ball is already in motion with this reply. Bruno Kučinskas If they are successful in their application for funding I'll go through the details of setting them up to use Bitcoin. "Give a man a Bitcoin and he'll convert it to fiat, teach him how to use it and he'll join the economy." If anyone knows places where the virtual doctors can buy the equipment for their charity in btc it will have an even more positive effect on the Bitcoin economy. |
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