What would you say to the following list and descriptions of the principles Bitcoin is built upon: - consistency - the total supply of bitcoins to ever exist is forever arbitrarily limited and fixed
- tangibility - issuing new bitcoins requires labor in the form of finding a specific tangible number as a solution to a specific cryptographic math problem
- transparency - all Bitcoin transactions are public and forever stored in the blockchain for anyone to see
- anonymity - all Bitcoin transaction are only between cryptographical pseudonyms without the need to have their true identity revealed
- security - all confirmed Bitcoin transactions are with mathematical certainty irreversible, all bitcoins are with mathematical certainty non-counterfeitable
- decentralization - Bitcoin has no central authority and is voluntarily run by consenting autonomous peers in a peer to peer network
- self-ownership - only the owner of a pseudonym gets the password to spend his bitcoins in effect making them his property unless he chooses otherwise
- integrity - all bitcoins are counted equally(are fungible), virtually can’t be frozen or blocked from being spent
- practicality - Bitcoin works anywhere, for anyone, non-stop, and the protocol allows for many practical layers on top, just like email, http..
- rationalism - the Bitcoin software is written under the MIT open source license and is not a logically inconsistent intellectual property of anyone but merely organized information everyone can use as they wish
Did I miss/too loosely describe anything? So I've amended the list and made a few other improvements. I threw out scarcity and replaced it with consistency. I was debating between consistency and predictability and in the end decided that predictable doesn't quite capture the certainty of the fixed supply, soundness is also an option that I'm still considering. I changed the description of tangibility. I followed the advice given and replaced virtually with mathematically. Decentralization I felt needed a bit clearer description so I changed it. I replaced capitalism with a lot more politically neutral and philosophically clearer self-ownership. I also found the 10th principle to round up the number of principles:
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For recreational purposes and as fodder for the bulls, here's a chart I just made that attempts to get a better picture of actual Bitcoin transaction volume (in USD, from 2011 through now) by exploting the effect of a recently discovered bug in the satoshi client that causes "the change output to never be the last output of a transaction": (click for larger version and more info)If this indeed shows an accurate enough picture of Bitcoins actual transaction Volume (the extent to which this is the case is unknown to me) then I can't help but say: this is fundamentally bullish. If that is indeed accurate, wow!
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WTF what is this, $130k bid vs $100k ask fight?!
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The problem of forgotten passwords
I also think a lot could be improved how this is communicated to new users. For example the warning "Don't Forget Your Password! As your password is not shared with us it is extremely important to remember it, if necessary write it on a a post-it note now. There is no password recovery process! " Is in normal sized letters in dark blue color on a light blue background.. Why not make it BIG RED letters and in a pop up before they can even enter anything with a 3 second delayed close the popup button? And why not make this message more concise? If I were you my message would read: WARNING: Lost passwords are UNRECOVERABLE and will results in LOSS of ALL of your bitcoins!
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What about:
(Trans)portability: You can easily transport it around the world without having to worry about capital controls.
This is one of the reasons I'm accumulating BTC instead of gold.
Covered under practicality and integrity.
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I wouldn't necessarily call the first principle scarcity since they aren't exactly rare. I would find another term to describe the set amount.
Got a better word to describe the same principle? Finite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FiniteI was thinking predictability as a principle for Bitcoins fixed supply. I somewhat agree that scarcity may be a poor choice of words since Bitcoins aren't really scarce per see, especially not right now.
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i think you need to add a #10, and i know you're gonna love this one. we've disagreed about it before but i still think Bitcoin is:
10. democratic-as in fair to all who care to participate on an individual basis. even if you disagree with the term, there is nothing in the other 9 principles that indicate fairness, which i think is a fundamental reason why ppl are willing to participate.
There would need to be a hell and it would need to freeze over before I'd do that. And Bitcoin is not fair. What it is however is built on integrity, which I included.
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What would you say to the following list and descriptions of the principles Bitcoin is built upon: - decentralization - Bitcoin has no central authority and is run by autonomous peers in a peer to peer network
Hmm. I would disagree on that one. There is a central authority right now (or they claim to be), the Bitcoin foundation. I remember you were quiet pissed about that, but the fact is still that lead developers are the authority at the moment. You are mistaken. They are but a voice, just like everyone else.
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i don't think the word has to end in a -y to be a principle.
1. scarcity: i've never liked this word either. gold isn't scarce; yet its more valuable than fiat b/c its supply is fixed. how about "determinate" as in fixed? Don't like that. 2. anarchy: i don't like this principle either. what's wrong with "decentralized"? is that not a principle? Yup. Changed it already. 3. security - all confirmed Bitcoin transactions are with virtual mathematical certainty irreversible, all bitcoins are with virtual mathematical certainty non-double spendable
I don't think that's accurate.
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Got a better word to describe the same principle?
anarchy - Bitcoin has no central authority and is run by autonomous peers in a peer to peer network You could have decentralised. I'm looking for principles not engineering methods.EDIT: on second thought, you just gave me a brilliant idea! I looked at http://thesaurus.com/browse/anarchy and to my dismay this word's meaning is generally used completely differently than how I use it. I 100% realize the meaning of words is just a commonly shared subjective preference and therefor it's a very good idea to use the most commonly shared preference if one's goal is to best communicate one's ideas. So I replaced anarchy with decentralization and the idea you gave is to start calling anarcho capitalism decentralized capitalism!
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I wouldn't necessarily call the first principle scarcity since they aren't exactly rare. I would find another term to describe the set amount. Anarchy probably isn't a good term for promoting BitCoin to the common consumer. We want it to gain credibility, not infamy Got a better word to describe the same principle?
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What would you say to the following list and descriptions of the principles Bitcoin is built upon: - finiteness - unlike the infinite supply of fiat currencies the total supply of bitcoins to ever exist is forever arbitrarily limited and fixed
- tangibility - issuing new bitcoins requires labor in the form of finding a specific number by solving a cryptographic math problem
- transparency - all Bitcoin transactions are public and forever stored in the blockchain for anyone to see
- anonymity - all Bitcoin transaction are only between cryptographical pseudonyms without the need to have their true identity revealed
- security - all confirmed Bitcoin transactions are with mathematical certainty irreversible, all bitcoins are with mathematical certainty non-counterfeitable
- decentralization - Bitcoin has no central authority and is voluntarily run by consenting autonomous peers in a peer to peer network
- self-ownership - only the owner of a pseudonym gets the password to spend his bitcoins in effect making them his property unless he chooses otherwise
- integrity - all bitcoins are counted equally(are fungible), virtually can’t be frozen or blocked from being spent
- practicality - Bitcoin works anywhere, for anyone, non-stop, and the protocol allows for many practical layers on top, just like email, http..
- rationalism - the Bitcoin software is written under the MIT open source license and is not a logically inconsistent intellectual property of anyone but merely organized information everyone can use as they wish
Did I miss/too loosely describe anything?
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That's a bit of a slap in flatfly's face, wouldn't you say? I hope you talked to him before you did that..
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Am I oversimplificating or something?
No, I think your post was fantastic. +1
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- Japanese & Spanish Transactions up
You mean translations?
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I'm smelling the me.ga effect here.
what is me.ga? Kim Dot Com's new file storage locker service. mega.co.nz thanks. how does one who was thrown in prison under such a high profile incident recover so quickly? When both governments involved in the case are total fuckups There was a rumour going around that his service will accept bitcoin payments He is a complete moron if it wont.
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If Bitcoin was a private business what do you think the manager would think about such a suggestion even if it is a large market.
Luckily Bitcoin is not a private business. The market will decide if this is good publicity: Press 2012-6-13: "Bitcoin, the currency of choice for on-line drug dealers and money laundring, has found a new niche; copyright infrigement and child porn. CEO of the reborn Megaupload, Kim dotcom, is reviveing his business after last years bust by the FBI which left him with all his assets frozen. To circumvent monetary reprisals, he now accept Bitcoin for all his services on megaupload. - "Megaupload coustomers have the added benefit of not having to worry about being traced through their transactions with Megaupload, no matter what kind of material they upload", Kim Dotcom says. Do we need the above? Yes, desperately. It's certainly no worse than Silk Road with drugs and whatever else the corporate media claims one can buy there.. And Bitcoin should be used wherever it fits it's use case.
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i have not much reason to prefer euro over dollar, except that i can pay with euro everywhere but not with dollar
That does not an agreement make. It does however mean that for YOU individually euros are a more marketable commodity than dollars because past experiences have taught you that people in your area are willing to trade them for other stuff, plus a small gang of thugs (also knows as the government) demands you hold euros when they want to rob you (also known as when you have to pay taxes). It could happen and it probably will happen very soon that this will change and the preferences of people around you will drastically change where they will not want to exchange their stuff for your euros anymore and they wont break any agreements doing so.
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The biggest problem is the bitcoin.org website.
For once I 110% agree with you. But where is the hold up? Can you specifically list the problems? I mean it's pretty hard to imagine someone like bitpay or bitinstant or mtgox or even bitstamp wouldn't sacrifice some of their capital in order to fund a website overhaul and relaunch..
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