I was already aware of the danger posed by a single party gaining control over too much of the network. However, it still seems to me that more frequent blocks would allow for quicker transaction confirmations and would still allow the same level of security.
I think that's a FAQ, too... Since block generation is a poisson process, the actual time between two blocks can be much less than the average time. If the time between two blocks is less than or close to the full network propagation time, the probability of orphan blocks rises significantly. Orphans essentially weaken security because when two versions of the blockchain are considered valid by different parts of the network, and the conflict is not resolved quickly, there is a risk of involuntary double spending / reversed transactions. Onkel Paul |
|
|
|
|
That's a standard newbie question.
Short answer: the goal of the bitcoin block hashing mechanism is to make the system secure.
To achieve that goal, a "proof of work" mechanism is used which ensures that to break the security more than half of the total hashing power needs to be controlled by the bad guy.
This goal contradicts directly with the efficiency goal: If the algorithm were designed to use only little resources, its security could be broken with only little resources - i.e. the system would be totally insecure.
Maybe this comparison helps to understand the issue:
You could cross a river by just throwing a rope to the other side and fixing it there. This would be far cheaper and efficient than building a bridge using thousands of tons of concrete and steel. However, your rope bridge would not be suitable for vehicle traffic carrying goods, it could only be used by artists balancing on the rope and would immediately snap if you tried to use it for transporting a ton of goods.
Onkel Paul
|
|
|
|
|
No, it does not depend on you being from the US or not.
With ripple, you need to have some XRP to have an account and to have credit lines.
50 XRP for an account and 12.5 XRP for credit lines.
In addition, you need some small amounts for transactions, but these are somewhat like milli-XRP, so with a moderate amount you'll get very far.
As 100 XRP are valued around one dollar, it's not expensive.
If you want to have some XRP for trying out Ripple, many folks would be willing to sell you some or even give you some for free.
Onkel Paul
|
|
|
|
RippleLabs doesn't even know my name, how are they supposed to give anything to the Gov?
As far as I know you are stuck with the key that RippleLabs give you, so if the ledger is transparent all your transactions are traceable to your ripple account. Correct me if I'm wrong. Wouldn't be that hard to link an account to a person if that person starts using ripple payment network for many transactions. You don't know very far. Of course you can create new ripple accounts, just like you can create new addresses in your wallet or entirely new wallets with bitcoin clients. There are some differences in handling which make multiple addresses in bitcoin much easier to generate (the bitcoin client supports it directly, while the standard ripple client only works well with just one account, and additional ripple accounts need to be funded just like the first one, so you should be careful to avoid linking the accounts through initial fund transfers). The account keys are not created by RippleLabs, but are public/private key pairs generated by the client (and if you don't trust the Javascript client on the ripple.com website, you can download it and run it from your own server or even locally). Onkel Paul |
|
|
|
|
It's quite likely that the computer from which the connection was made was itself hacked.
Using hacked servers to cover their tracks is pretty standard behavior of internet criminals - much easier than installing TOR and using it correctly :-)
Onkel Paul
|
|
|
|
|
Ripple's server is open source now, you can run your own server - however, you probably won't make it into anyone's UNL, so your server will not be used as a validator in the network at the moment (unless you find other server operators who are willing to put your server into their UNL).
With the server issue out of the way, there's the client issue - the current Ripple client is probably both too powerful and not functional enough for your users. Writing a new client that does exactly what you want but uses the ripple ledger to store transactions is not a simple task but should fit your goals pretty nicely.
Your user database could stay mostly the same and just needs to add fields for the ripple account information.
The question is how much work/money you would want to invest - your description sounds like you'd prefer a low-cost solution, which makes it a bit difficult :-)
Onkel Paul
PS: of course, a simple roll-your-own database solution might work as well - however if the local community trades significant amounts, it might be hard to protect it against hacking and fraud.
|
|
|
|
Ist doch logisch - alles was elektronisch ist, kann beliebig gefälscht sein, aber wenn es ausgedruckt und eingescannt (und am besten noch gefaxt) ist, dann ist es auf einmal ein hieb- und stichfestes Dokument...  Onkel Paul |
|
|
|
|
Don't post too much or read other's forum posts, because otherwise you might be expelled from your safe little cell.
Onkel Paul
|
|
|
|
No. No. Legal means legal. If I sell a hot dog on the same corner as a drug dealer, are my profits subject to confiscation?
If there's reasonable suspicion that your profits can be linked to the criminal activity (for example, you might have been a money laundering accomplice of the drug dealer), why not? In any investigation concerning criminal financial activities, accounts are frozen until it has been determined what funds are criminal gains, and what funds are "innocent" money that just happens to be parked in an account. Like it or not, this is pretty normal and has nothing to do with the fact that in this case bitcoins were confiscated. In the SR case, determining which sums are legal and must be returned to their owners might be difficult - I somehow doubt that DPR earmarked the funds with a legal/illegal flag. Onkel Paul |
|
|
|
|
So you paid over 2,000$ to someone whose identity you don't know, who only has a gmail address?
If you ever want to have a bridge, I have a very nice one to sell to you...
Onkel Paul
|
|
|
|
|
Most of these questions are answered in various FAQs all over the place - have you searched around a bit?
It really does not make sense to answer questions which others have answered with great care already.
Onkel Paul
|
|
|
|
|
You can just register with a new name (unless it's already in use).
The forum policy allows alt accounts.
Onkel Paul
|
|
|
|
Hello peeps ,
I come across threads talking about mining being dead but I do not understand why .
My thoughts :-
1) Mining is the simplest most anonymous way to obtain Bitcoins .
But the Bitcoins obtained by mining hardware are generally more expensive than those bought directly on an exchange because miners are heavily overpriced. 2) Running miners in a home could allow you to lower your central heating thermometer transferring the energy to a heat producing source (miner)that also produces value (bitcoins ).
Heating with electricity is not very cost-effective. There are much cheaper forms of energy if all you need is heat. 3) Miners placed into mineral oil with stones or bricks will release heat long after you turn the miners off .
Yes but only as much as the energy they consumed. And remember, that energy was pretty expensive to start with. 4) Using miners as a replacement heating source negates the electricity cost .
If you would heat with electricity anyway, that's true. Direct heating with electricity is however not cost-effective in most parts of the world (I think the ISS is heated electrically, as burning stuff inside might be a little hazardous  ) 5) with enough miners you could in fact place them in a sealed container filled with mineral oil and use them to heat your hot water system to save on make your energy usage more efficient while still producing a product with value ?
I may misunderstand some of the reasons for saying mining is "dead" but I feel that wasting the heat provided by our miners needs some thinking outside the box .
A usb miner placed into a 2 litre bottle of mineral oil can be used to keep a larger bowl of water warm ,while cooling the miner .
If we look at usb miners as a heating element then mining seems to be a case of adjusting your hash power to suit your income requirements .
Again, electricity is a pretty expensive source of heat, even if it is being used to mine some mBTC as a byproduct... Onkel Paul |
|
|
|
Somebody paid from a wallet which had small amounts in several different addresses. Inputs of the transaction are these addresses, the outputs are desired amount and a little change that goes into a new address. is it possible to map the 1st transaction into the 2nd and 3rd one? are they connected in some way? or the 1st transaction they give me is only for misleading me ? (and i got the amount from others)
There don't seem to be direct connections. But without knowing the details it's very difficult to say what's wrong here. Onkel Paul |
|
|
|
Why would anyone send BTC26,000 without checking they had the address right? It's basically putting a banker's draft for $3.25million in an envelope and not sealing the back. Edit: NM, retard using commas instead of decimal points. Using commas is not retarded, that's just a matter of locale. But mixing it up is slightly un-intelligent... Regarding the original question: If you expect payments from people, you should give each of them a different receiving address so you know who has paid and who didn't. So if you know that the 1MCL... address is yours but you don't know who sent you bitcoins to it, it's really your fault, you should do some better bookkepping. But it's really the payer's job to prove that he has paid you (by showing proof that he sent the amount to an address that you have given to him). Onkel Paul |
|
|
|
Mit dem Unterschied dass die Sicherheit deines Wallets auf dem PC in deinen Händen und nicht in denen des Online-Wallet-Anbieters liegt.
Was je nach deiner Kompetenz in PC-Sicherheitsdingen besser oder schlechter sein kann :-) Onkel Paul |
|
|
|
I think a little hard would be a severe understatement. >99% of your users use ripple.com/client, which does not allow choosing validator nodes.
The client allows you to set the server to which it connects. If that server has a different UNL or even is part of a copycat ripple network, the client will work with that. Couldn't get much easier. Onkel Paul |
|
|
|
|
Ich seh das Ganze viel mehr als distributed exchange - Ripple IOUs würde ich nur in solcher Höhe und für so lange halten, wie es für einen Umtausch/Handel sinnvoll ist (und natürlich nur IOUs von Gateways bzw. Leuten, denen ich 100% traue, dass sie mir auf Anforderung mein Geld bzw. Coins auszahlen).
Bei MtGox oder Bitstamp hat man ja im Prinzip auch nur IOUs, und speziell bei MtGox sieht man jetzt, dass 100 USD.MtGox noch lange nicht 100 USD sind - bis man die in den Händen hält, vergehen schon mal Wochen oder Monate.
Onkel Paul
|
|
|
|
|
You still don't get it.
If you want answers, you should ask questions that can be answered.
With your original statement, everybody can only guess what you currently have, what you want to do, what you already tried, where problems appeared etc.
The original comment was a (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) hint that you should (re)phrase your question such that it is an actual question.
Onkel Paul
|
|
|
|
|
Show Posts
