But Armory's offline signing isn't standalone.


It still needs the connected instance to create the unsigned transaction which is than brought over to the offline system for signing.

And here's the reason you wouldn't want to trust the merchant to build the unsigned transaction for you:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=68482.msg1187718#msg1187718

I haven't looked at this closely but the approach is interesting

VisualBTC - Android-based hardware offline wallet using animated QR codes
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=210371.0

From the BitInstant support thread:

CPU mining fizzled out this same way. Eventually even the bot owners (who stole the compute time + electricity from their marks) quit even though it was still technically profitable because even the small effort put in yielded so little value in return.

GPUs are not returning great profit but still today decently profitable for the typical (paying $0.15 per kWh).   But back a few months ago the prognosis was that "in a few months" it's all over for GPUs.  Well, the ASICs took longer to start shipping in quantity but they are today shipping and this is what is happening without the backorders even coming close to having been cleared:

 
 - http://bitcoin.sipa.be/speed-lin.png


Nope ... an exchange rate rise, even hitting BTC/USD of $500  won't keep the pace anywhere near the difficulty rise.   Start planning some other use for your GPUs.

I'ld love to see some sought after product or service be offered with the only payment being Bitcoin.   For instance, if there was some event that has sold out except for a block of tickets that can only be purchased with bitcoins -- that would cause many to enter their first bitcoin transaction.

I opened a Question on Bitcoin StackExchange as a place to aggregate these exclusive to Bitcoiner deals:
 - http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/11546

How to use 2-factor auth on mtgox, even without a smartphone
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=111943.0


This type of loss happens a lot:

MtGox account got cleared out
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=85533.0

All BTC disappeared from my Mt. Gox account
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=88368.0

Another:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=80562.msg941759#msg941759

And another: My mtgox account got compromised, what can I do?
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=84585.0

Yet more: MT.Gox account hacked - lost 2k USD - MT.GOX will not explain how.
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=89142.0

And more again: Bitcoins stolen from MtGox
 - http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/x8lcv/bitcoins_stolen_from_mtgox

And yet more: Stolen from Mt.Gox coins. Help return the coins.
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=119816.0

Or more here: Email from Mt.Gox this morning.
 - http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/z0na5/email_from_mtgox_this_morning

And even more here: I just had $715 stolen out of my Mt. Gox account.
 - http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/12j9gi/i_just_had_715_stolen_out_of_my_mt_gox_account

And the biggie: Bitcoinica MtGox account compromised
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=93074.0

With more here: Unauthorized Account Activity on my Mt.Gox Account - Account Compromised/Hacked?
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=94140.0

And even more: *MY* Mt Gox Account was Hacked - lost it all today... now what!?
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137795.0

Ditto: My MtGox account was just exploited - 3 BTC stolen
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=141816.0

Ditto on the ditto: Just lost 190 bitcoins through Mt. Gox
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=141831.0

And other ones get added to the list: Unauthorized withdrawal on Mt. Gox
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=147070.0

And then here: How I got robbed of 34 btc on Mt.Gox today
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=173227.0

And recently this: My MTGOX account was hacked!
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=186422.0

And now yours: mtgox account compromised...anyone else?
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=229300.0

And another fairly recent one: My funds and BTC have just disappeared from my Gox account!
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=174556

And on other services as well. Here same thing happened to some GLBSE users:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=84893.0

And elsewhere, BitMarket.eu in this instance:
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5441.msg1259168#msg1259168

And on bitcoin.de as well: Bitcoins stolen from bitcoin.de.
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=130264.0


In none of these was the person using multi-factor authentication. Mt. Gox has had Yubikey support for a while. Mt. Gox accounts now support Google Authenticator:
 - https://mtgox.com/press_release_20120605.html

If the exchange you are storing funds with doesn't provide OTP, consider using a different exchange:
 - http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/4113/which-two-factor-authentication-methods-are-available-at-which-exchanges

If you are storing funds in an EWallet, consider using a paper wallet.

Again, here is a fantastic guide: How to use 2-factor auth on mtgox, even without a smartphone (from a second device, of course, not from the same computer you log in on).
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=111943.0

Ouch.

Well, fortunately now there is integration with your shopping cart provider (3DCart)  which works with BitPay so that you don't have to be exposed to counterparty risk of doing it yourself through an exchange.  Looks like you're already doing this:
 - http://forums.3dcart.com/27113-post5.html
 

Incidentally, the main URL site cannot be accessed securely but there is an alternate URL that is secure:
 - https://deadmansapp.appspot.com

So the name of the hotel is Mani - Akrotiri?   

Located in Porto Kagio:
 - http://goo.gl/maps/P9ZMf

There certainly is correlation:


 - https://docs.google.com/a/digicoast.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0AmcTCtjBoRWUdHVRMHpqWUJValI1RlZiaEtCT1RrQmc&oid=10&zx=cdrtjfh4wgfg
 - https://docs.google.com/a/digicoast.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmcTCtjBoRWUdHVRMHpqWUJValI1RlZiaEtCT1RrQmc (underlying data)

Clearly, difficulty does tend to rise when the exchange rate rises, difficulty drops are correlated as well though less so.

But the relationship is that difficulty follows price, and not the other way around.
 - http://blog.brocktice.com/2011/05/25/the-relationship-between-bitcoin-price-and-difficulty/

You are assuming that if they accept bitcoins as payment that they then pay out bitcoins to the freelancer/contractor.   That would be nice but each side of it is independent -- they could accept Bitcoin payment and then pay out fiat,  or hey could accept fiat and then pay out bitcoin as well.     I know these sites have two problem areas ..., one being payment card/bank transfer fraud where the payment gets reversed (or claimed that it was not authorized).    The other is with abuse where the "gig" was fake -- and was instead a front for money laundering.

I don't know that a Freelancer will want Bitcoin to be used.   Payment fraud (reversals/chargebacks) is one reason freelancer/contractors aren't working directly for others.  But with Bitcoin payment there's no chargebacks.  Thus there's no risk to dealing directly with an unknown party as long as services are pre-paid by the hiring party.

So Freelancer, oDesk, etc. all rather enjoy the current necessity to use an intermediary.

They are certainly aware of Bitcoin.  This is from more than two years ago:

I see that has changed:

- http://www.billpayforcoins.com/faq.php

And continues to 31:06.

GC as in General Counsel.   The description for the episode reads:

This was a fantastic interview!

So this "meeting in Washington with Treasury", was this the same meeting that Gavin was describing where he'ld be meeting with Jennifer Shasky Calvery (director of FinCEN)?     I'ld like to know more about that meeting (who, when, where).

For the question at the end about the "datacenters owning the bitcoins", a similar argument is how transaction fees go to the miners so the miners will be the ones who end up with the bitcoins.

That isn't a problem though because mining has a trivially low barrier to entry, such as this ASICMINER USB block erupter:

and thus there isn't much seigniorage over the long run.

This is in contrast to fiat banking which is a regulated monopoly, consuming hundreds of billions of dollars of fees just in the U.S. (e.g., NSF fees, account maintenance fees, etc.), merchant fees (paid by the merchant but whose costs are built into the price charged), etc.    With the banking system there is a structural flow of funds from the customers (user) to the provider (banks).  With bitcoin, that's just not the case.  

As far as the miners having control of the network, that's not really true.  The miners are essentially employees.  Tony described this perfectly at 30:50 in the video regarding the March 11 hard fork.  Hey said "which [side of the fork] which the majority of the users" is what determined which side the miners switched over to.      And that's a perfect example of where miners didn't call the shots, ... nor did the Bitcoin developers.   The mining capacity went to the side where those who pay the miners were on.    Because Mt. Gox is still such a huge percentage of the market, if they had been on v0.8 that side of the blockchain fork would probably have remained the longest chain and everybody else still on v0.7 would have needed to take emergency measures to accommodate the resulting locking issue.      i.e,  the economic majority (those who have coins and those who buy coins) are the ones who control the miners and not the opposite.

This essentially becomes a current account denominated in USDs -- one that is funded with bitcoins which are converted to USDs and then stored by your service.

Wouldn't this make your service a target in the same manner as the digital currency exchanges who have recently lost their domains and/or bank accounts?

Can you describe further what it is you are asking help with?

This week was a perfect example of how we had a pretty clear Weekend Dip green light, and following the Weekend Dip strategy would have yielded a nice gain.   

 - http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#rg10zczsg2013-05-21zeg2013-06-08ztgSzm1g10zm2g25

Oh well, it's not reliable for trading anymore but I'll keep an eye out to see if the pattern returns.

Followup report of Wednesday's Bitcoin Meetup:

 - http://spelunk.in/2013/06/07/los-angeles-bitcoin-meetup-2/

Followup report of Wednesday's Bitcoin Meetup:

 - http://spelunk.in/2013/06/07/los-angeles-bitcoin-meetup-2/

Satoshi Square (Project Buttonwood)
In-Person trading
Wed. June 12, 2013  6:30-8:00 pm
Downtown, L.A.  (Grand Park)
 

- http://spelunk.in/2013/06/04/satoshi-square-la-june-12/
 - http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/05/06/a-push-for-a-bitcoin-buttonwood/

Satoshi Square (Project Buttonwood)
In-Person trading
Wed. June 12, 2013  6:30-8:00 pm
Downtown, L.A.  (Grand Park)
 

- http://spelunk.in/2013/06/04/satoshi-square-la-june-12/
 - http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/05/06/a-push-for-a-bitcoin-buttonwood/