Insuring what?

If you aren't sure how it got stolen then you need to assume you are still compromised and that it could happen again.

Can you share any details?

e.g., operating system, wallet (e.g., local bitcoin client and version, or online e-wallet, etc)   If local, do you have wallet encryption?

Last weekend (dates for Thursday through Sunday April 5-8) was slightly profitable for the standard weekend dip strategy (sell on my Wednesday evening, watch closely starting late Saturday and get back in as price rises).  The gain was about 3%, less about 0.5% in fees (thanks to special discount available last week).   The weekend dip "indicator" (week's high is below previous week's high) at the time though was false, so this really doesn't count as a +1 if keeping score.

The week prior (March 29 - April 1) was almost a money loser but then a reversal on a weekend rally brought the price back almost to even.  So that was about a 1% loss after considering fees.  Again, the indicator was flat week over week, so no weekend dip was expected and thus wouldn't be a -1 if keeping score.  Someone with great timing could have picked up about 2% though.

The week prior to that (March 22 - 25) had the classic weekend dip indicator and depending on the timing, gains should have been 5% to 8%.  Solid +1.

The indicator for the week prior (March 15 - 18) was false, and trading the dip strategy would have either broken even or gain a percent or so.  So no +1 though..

Prior to that, (March 1 - 4) the indicator was true but just slightly so.  Regardless the condition was true so it counts.  Trading the weekend dip brought a 5% or so gain.  Going to take the +1 on that as well.

So, for the previous five weekends, trading the weekend dip when conditions were ripe scored two for two, and at least a 5% gain on each.  Trading the weekend dip strategy every weekend regardless of whether or not the indicator pointed true would have you possibly up another couple of percent.

This is being written while looking at conditions for this weekend (April 12 - 15).  The previous week's high is about flat compared to this week's high.  So the indicator is false and this weekend the weekend dip strategy probably shouldn't be traded.  Bitcoins should be held onto throughout the weekend, but keep some cash handy in case there is a buying opportunity if there is a dip.

Of course, that is boring.

So ...  deviating from plan means watching the chart closely.  If the weekend dip starts to occur (e.g., gets down into the $4.80s) then try to sell before it gets below $4.85.  The intention is that at some point over the weekend a better price, maybe $4.60s again or maybe lower, will present itself.   If after selling the price spikes, there will be some resistance at $5 so the worst loss after buying back in probably won't exceed 4% including trading fees.

There is something odd though.  Bitcoin transactions are at high levels (above 8K transactions per day), but no rally or selloff which usually is the reason for seeing higher transaction count levels resulting from bitcoins beng moved to and from the exchanges.      The number of bitcoins (raw output #s) is high ... over 1 million BTC per day.   There aren't a whole lot of BitcoinDays being destroyed either.    Yet Mt. Gox claims they can't keep up with all the cash being withdrawn to Dwolla.

So something interesting is happening, I just can't put my finger on it.  Is it something good for the exchange rate, or bad?  Hard to tell but generally higher transaction counts when not accompanied by either a selloff or rally is a good sign though.

Going to need be quick with the trigger finger to buy back come Saturday.

Congrats, author Ben DeMeter ... you win the prize!   It's been quite some time since there has been so much fail in a single article.


And I think I once read on the internets that in China they're trading kidneys for bitcoins!  (incidentally Kenya leads the list as being the country in Africa with the most bitcoin nodes ... 5: http://pastebin.com/G4dq2vcC )

"Rich" Bitcoin users?  How the hell did the Linode breach get spun as "rich users" getting their coins stolen?  And "credit and debit accounts" LOL





 - http://www.businessinsider.com/dont-bank-on-digital-currency-bitcoin-replacing-the-dollar-2012-4

Oh, and DeMeter's angle?  http://www.creditcardassist.com  (a credit card comparison site)

I don't know if the two are interoperable, but Armory has the ability to send signed messages:

 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=66862.0

 - http://pastebin.com/wMzsddmE

Where would you be able to exchange a EUR PaySafeCard?   Not much use for them from Bitcoiners.

Here's an example, only got about 60% of face value here:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=75651.0

Though maybe you'll find some poker player who will buy it off of you:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=67287.msg782718#msg782718

If it is just BTC/USD then probably not much need and will be hard to get to where there is liquidity.

If it happens to have BTC/USD but also offers:

BTC/MXN
BTC/KRW
BTC/TRY
etc.
with bank transfers as funding and withdrawal then yes, those are unserved markets in need.


or it will convert cash in and cash out methods that nobody else has
e.g.,
BTC <--> M-Pesa
or
BTC <--> Barclay's PingIT
or
prepaid card cards --> BTC (e.g., partnership with Plastic Jungle)
or
MoneyPak --> BTC

etc.

It could end up being a photo finish!  This last adjustment period id is looking like we'll end up with a 3% drop in difficulty.  Some explanation for that drop might have to do with the mining on blocks that became orphaned, thanks to miners that hadn't upgraded to code that supported changes to the Bitcoin protocol.

That puts the date late December 8th, 2012.  The bet says December 9th or later so there is still more than 24 hours cushion for the "December 9th or earlier" side of the bet (the "agree").  But a lot can happen yet.  With 22% margin, either the price needs to go up or there will be more GPU miners droppng out.
 - http://bit.ly/HEzoMm  (mining profitability currently 22%)

correctIon: you *borrow* BTC now ...


Yup, the delays in getting funds moved to the exchanges are a big reason.  Sending funds to an exchange can be done using cash deposit at a bank nowadays using BitInstant, for example, but that is in the 4% fee range and takes a trip to the bank.   If a BTC line of credit could be drawn from, then the purchase using the proceeds of the loan can occur today.  Then when the cash transfer via electronic means (e.g., through Dwolla, for instance) occurs bitcoins can be bought later and the loan paid off.


There are lot of instances where BTC funds are the only or best payment method.   When the seller dictates the payment method the buyer complies.  And there are other reasons as well.   Like to pay off a previous loan.  (Ya, taking a loan to pay off a previous loan -- crazy!  Who do they think they are, the U.S. Government?)   And, don't forget, some of these requests are being made by scammers -- either with the intention of defaulting when taking the loan, or with the intention of repaying and building a good reputation history (see definition of "confidence game") to be able to do a bigger scam down the road.

Yes, that is what happened. That is confirmed by the information provided by dexfor.

There have been other leaks as well, (e..g, pool that had its user database list stolen), so the sender might have sent to additional addresses than just the nearly 40,000 email addresses leaked durign the June 2011 Mt. Gox breach but at least this indicates that it wasn't a new breach that somehow identified specifically who is using OK Pay.

Can I exchange it for bitcoins instead?

As far as that spreadsheet, just know that the volumes only reflect MTGUSD and not trades of other currencies at Mt. Gox and not any trades at any other exchanges.  On some days this is 20% or more of the volume that exists at Mt. Gox.  But the volumes are generally consistent for getting a sense of trends.

A "news" source, that states announcements of new IPOs scheduled and on IPO day a summary of issue coming off the block.

Maybe just publishing it in a @BitcoinGlobal tweet would be sufficient for the level of activity the service has now.

You're very welcome.

I see the tweets that mention each transaction and each country destination.  e.g., https://twitter.com/#!/BtcDirect1

Would you consider adding the site's URL at the end of each tweet?

e.g.,
  

And a way to know sooner when there are service issues?  This new use by thallium205 is a testament to how much of a utility BlockChain.info has become.  But like a real-world utility, the number of people affected when the entire service fails is huge.

I know of another service that solved the dilemma of how can a free service afford to meet service levels required by those dependent on the service -- they offered commercial subscriptions.   There was no change to the service except that those paying the subscriptions got a weekly monitoring report showing availability and other metrics.  The revenue from those subscriptions though was used to pay for the monitoring service and for an on-call admin who would respond to alerts and do ticket triage so the founder/developer wasn't stuck supporting the project all by himself.

tl;dr: Blockchain.info is becoming critical infrastructure for Bitcoin.

Maybe exactly like an ATM withdrawal ... against an account that offers an overdraft/credit line.

For the first-time visitor to the site, there's a usability problem.

Clicking on the Play Poker Now button only seems to refresh the page.  Of course, the reason this occurs is because the site requires you to log in or to register.  But there is no message indicating this.  Unless you are running a full screen browser window you won't even see the username and password fields.

So the first-time user might think the button and/or site isn't working.

Got some serious issues with the blockchain reporting pages.  Clicking on a block reports: "Unknown Exception"

The site shows the flag for Austria but that isn't in your list of 23 names.

Account-to-account (A2A) transfers at Dwolla show instantaneously, so the problem is most likely that Mt. Gox hasn't sent through your transaction.

This can be for a number of reasons sometimes including ones that are beyond Mt. Gox's control.  Dwolla just did a huge update over the weekend -- something that previously has caused problems for bitcoin exchanges which need to rewrite code to restore the same functionality that was available before the update.  (Dwolla's transactional and reporting systems are insufficient so exchanges resorted to doing "screen scraping" to get the data needed, believe it or not.)

Other times the problem has to do with cash management.  Mt. Gox doesn't know how many people will be withdrawing to Dwolla, so they only keep a certain level of funds in Dwolla that that they estimate will be needed for A2A transfers to fulfill the exchange's withdawal requests.  When Mt. Gox runs out of funds in their account, they too have delays in moving funds over to Dwolla - it can take a day or three just like with anyone else.


If you are counting on Dwolla to do inter-exchange arbitrage, yes -- the delays from the exchanges are frustrating.  And as a result because the flows are not running smooth the arbitrage opportunities become even more pronounced which gets traders even more anxious.

If it isn't for inter-exchange arbitrage -- what's the harm from a few hours?  Withdrawal to a bank is usually a couple days before you can spend the funds.

We can thank a number of factors for lessening the bitcoin exchange rate volatility.  Some of the reasons which caused volatility before could will return, but one of them is probably gone for good -- that one being the difficulty in moving funds to and from the exchanges.

A while back, only the trader's cash balance already at an exchange would be the only thing that could slow a selloff.  A single trader or a few others acting in unison with lots of cash available for buying and lots of bitcoins for selling had full control to move the market price.

Nowadays, however, when there is big drop in the price there are plenty of buy-and-hold types with cash on the sidelines waiting to buy the dip.  Ether that cash is already at the exchange, or can be moved there quickly.  This is thanks to innovations like Dwolla itself and now Dwolla Instant as well but also thanks to the cash deposit at a bank method using BitInstant, 1 hour SEPA bank transfers at Intersango, and cash purchases at AU post offices.  Being able to quickly move cash to the exchanges has softened the blow of selloffs that occur either due to impatient sellers, events that shake confidence (e.g., hacks or actions by banks and governments) or just as likely, intentional acts by price manipulators.

Dwolla Instant's limit is just $500 but that is $500 more than you could get before they started offering it.  And it can be used in a lot of places.  

The potential from Dwolla comes in how there are many exchanges where Dwolla is accepted directly:
  Mt. Gox, Intersango, Camp BX, and BitFloor
or where Dwolla funds can be used to transfer through BitInstant to:
  BitStamp, CryptoXChange, VirWoX, BTC-E and Bitcoinica even

Previously there were price moves at one exchange that were not matched with corresponding price moves at other exchanges.   Arbitrage was difficult because unless the arbitrageur already had funds lying in wait, opportunities to trade and profit couldn't be exercised.  At least now these opportunities (which represent inefficiencies in the market) are smaller and last a much shorter amount of time thanks to the ability to more quickly move funds to and from the exchanges.  It still isn't instant though ... the range for when the exchanges give credit for incoming Dwolla transfers can be ten minutes or it can be ten hours, and that's still a frustratingly long wait compared to "immediate".  And it still isn't cheap (there are relatively high fees for using BitInstant, for instance), but it is a vastly superior situation to what existed back when we could see a 20% price move down one day and then back up the next day simply because that's how long it took to get funds into position before bitcoins at the lower price could be purchased.

But if you look at where arbitrage opportunities remain, they tend to get cleared quickly in BTC/USD markets where Dwolla is one of the deposit methods.
 - http://nyse-group.de/bitcoin-arbitrage

And that's just methods of getting cash in to take advantage of buying opportunities.  There are many factors that happen to also work to lessen the price spikes that can occur as well.  In addition to an even wider variety of methods for cashing out (e.g., to reloadable ATM/debit cards, to MoneyPak, etc.) we now also have methods for buying and selling CALL and PUT options (MPOE) and  we also have Bitcoinica with its leveraged margin trading for its BTC/USD contract-for-difference market which is where those who think the market is overbought usually show up first.   And a bitcoin-based market for securities (GLBSE) gives the ability to immediately convert between equity shares and bitcoins.  Long term, this may have a tremendous impact on bitcoin liquidity.

So, Bitcoin's ecosystem is getting large enough that a single component like Dwolla Instant itself can't do much to hurt or harm bitcoin, but combined with all the other improvements, Dwolla Instant is something definitely nice to have available.