There is no safe way.

Gambling is an absolute no-no, as you already know.

Daytrading against alt coins works for some people, but you need to be constantly aware of exchange rate developments - and of course like all daytrading it can be risky and requires some base capital to work with. For people who don't really know what they're doing, daytrading is maybe the same as gambling...

Investing into someone's business idea rarely doubles your cash within 6 months. That period within a business' lifetime is normally lossy. Even after that, it's a high risk thing.

Investing into your own business (plus hard work, plus a good amount of luck) might probably work. You'd need to do something that's definitely in demand, and you've got to be good at it so you can corner a reasonable bit of the market.

Onkel Paul

One difference of XPM against the others is that the total number of coins isn't fixed. The block reward is not adjusted based on the number of blocks, but based on current difficulty (higher difficulty means lower block reward).

Otherwise (blockchain mechanism, transaction signing etc.) they are all very similar (most alt coins are more or less modified clones of bitcoin anyway).

Onkel Paul

Höheres Risiko von Orphans.

Onkel Paul

Just noticed that bitcoinity.org added a checkbox for logarithmic display!

Great move!

Onkel Paul

So wie's aussieht, kann man die Gold-Parity und den 1000€-Bitcoin bei der $1000-Bitcoin-Party gleich mitfeiern - ein bisschen Zeit werden die Jungs ja wohl noch zum Organisieren brauchen, bis dahin ist das Thema dann auch durch...

Onkel Paul

This all depends on what you absolutely must be able to do while in that situation, and which things can wait until you get back.
Performing all bitcoin-related tasks (transfer, access to exchanges and other websites) on a computer that might be compromised is not advisable.
If you just want to be able to receive and send bitcoins, a hardware wallet might be ok. However, if the host country is likely to be suspicious of strange electronic devices, customs/immigration might become suspicious. You might also want to keep it empty or with just very little funds when you enter the country, so there would be no great loss if you'd lose it.

To safely store your BTC while you're abroad you should absolutely use cold storage, maybe in some form of m-out-of-n protocol so that you can place the partial paper wallets in several different locations, and no guardkeeper is able to access the contents without colluding with at least one other.

Onkel Paul

If addresses are actually generated using a truly random source, the probability of hitting an address already in use is orders of magnitude smaller than the risk of life on earth being eradicated by an asteroid impact. You can safely ignore that risk.
However, when addresses are generated from "random" passphrases there is a nontrivial risk of collision. If you use "correct horse battery staple" as a passphrase, you might think that you're really clever, but you're certainly wrong...

Onkel Paul

Nee das ist mir zu aufregend. Ich geh jetzt ins Bett und verschlaf die $1000 :-)

Onkel Paul

But did they reimburse her for the costs caused by the unwarranted account freeze?
Imagine you can't get at your money when you need to pay a bill or your rent - many businesses will apply a hefty surcharge if you pay 15 days late.

Onkel Paul

Bitcoin is money.

You know how to get money? Work hard, sell something valuable that you own.
Begging for $40000 won't do.

Onkel Paul

At least they seem to be the same files others have downloaded and checked quite some time ago:
http://www.isthisfilesafe.com/sha1/959ADED69D3D010B970906CDFB0993146811570A_details.aspx

The win64 hash is mentioned here in the original post:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=255782.msg2724425#msg2724425

So it looks like the files are genuine.

Onkel Paul

XRP has collapsed only if you look at its BTC exchange rate. If you look at the exchange rate to more stable currencies, it has remained at pretty much the same level for a long time, becaused Ripple Labs can essentially keep it from rising above their set target of about 1 XRP = 1$-Cent (by just dropping more of their huge supply into the market).
A high exchange rate for XRP is not in Ripple Labs' interest - they want their system to have more or less stable costs for their users. This means that XRP should have a constant value in fiat terms, because that's what most people are used to.

Onkel Paul

Most tedious: collect at faucets and other giveaways - this will yield very little, and as it is mostly "dust" it will cost significant fees to spend, but it might be ok for testing how things work in general.
Hardest: mine them (investing into mining hardware is not likely to yield a positive ROI nowadays, so just forget it).
A little easier: mine alt coins and exchange them into bitcoins - this only works if you're lucky and you know what you're doing, so forget it as well...
Easiest: buy them (at localbitcoins, for example).
Even better: provide some service or sell goods for bitcoins. Be careful not to be scammed, and if you want to do this regularly, build a reputation by being really good...

Onkel Paul

Since you did not specify the year I'm willing to agree with your prediction.

Onkel Paul

Wenn der Client tatsächlich 0 Verbindungen zum Netzwerk hat, geht natürlich gar nichts - auch nicht das Herunterladen der Blockchain.
Kann es sein, dass eine Firewall die Verbindungen blockiert? Das würde ich als erstes untersuchen.
Da du das Programm aktuell heruntergeladen hast, sollte es auch eine aktuelle Liste von Peers haben, zu denen es sich verbinden will.
Eventuell kannst du auch mal die Datei "peers.dat" aus dem Bitcoin-Verzeichnis (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Data_directory) löschen, wenn die von der vorherigen Installation stammt und lauter Schrott enthält, bringt die vielleicht den Client durcheinander.
Ach und bevor du irgendwas änderst oder löschst, solltest du vielleicht mal in die Datei debug.log schauen, ob da Hinweise zu erkennen sind.

Onkel Paul

However, if you want to get your feet wet with mining, alt coins may be the right choice - especially when they're new, you might mine a bit before too much hashing power is being thrown at them, and be able to exchange some for a "harder" currency such as bitcoin :-)
But buying alt coins for BTC or fiat is most likely too risky unless you have a very specific use for them.

Onkel Paul

Your Email address is only visible since you did not check "hide email address from public" in the account related settings.
Your privacy is primarily your own responsibility, the forum has settings which make reasonable privacy possible, you just need to use them.

Onkel Paul

Sorry, für Bären gib's dieses Jahr nix zu Nikolaus!

Onkel Paul

Looks like these folks are working on such a thing.

Don't know whether this will be a viable product, but it looks like they are serious about it.

Onkel Paul

There's nothing wrong with discussing things in the newbie section, and it's also a good idea to spend at least some of the 4 hours reading what others have already posted. You'll be amazed at the number of threads asking more or less the same questions that you wanted to ask 

Onkel Paul