There is a 12hr gap between blocks 4990 and 4991 https://explorador.petro.gob.ve/block/5704fcc043a037ca0a3101f43f6647facc8c1693e12cfa6d0d5edc3ebf883570

Last 7 day period summary:

First block on the 9th, #4023: https://explorador.petro.gob.ve/block/44ccb4cb83e085c61ebf31093961f05f4b1248cf69db36f41b2388726f24f2b7
Last block on the 15th, #4982: https://explorador.petro.gob.ve/block/2fe727509913d6c8ddbf560a5830dfef3ac56821bf6044874b5665443cf9e96a

960 blocks per week or 5 blocks per hour.  The block time is varying between 1 minute and 12 hours, with an average of 20 minutes.

Before we had instant worldwide communication by radio and TV, the weak countries were taken over by stronger countries, similar to your failed private business example.

History of country and government changes from 5000 BC to current:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?src_vid=ymI5Uv5cGU4&v=-6Wu0Q7x5D0

Nowdays, countries with power to take over weaker countries would have to do it while all other strong countries watch, judge, or interfere.  For instance if Russia, US, UK, Israel, or China wanted to take over Venezuela, the other strong countries would see it clearly and act in the best way they can.  The political cost is far too great to take over another country anymore so they get left as-is.  Now we have 15+ strong countries just watching Venezuela and the best each of them can do is let it be while the citizens starve and/or revolt.  I agree this is the best strategy.

I congratulate Maduro for trying to use a new technology to help himself, his citizens, and his country.  I think it will be many failed attempts, but most all attempts at positive change are failures at first.  This version of his crypto plan is a joke, but much less of a joke than the version he presented 6 months ago.  Maybe in 10 years he or his successor will figure it out.

So if I send him Bitcoin now, I have the possibility to exchange and withdraw back to Bitcoin later?  Revolutionary!  Maduro is a wizard with elecrtonic money.

If Maduro offered you a boat load of oil in exchange for you buying some over priced Petros, it might make sense.  For instance, lets say you value the oil at $100K, and Maruro values it at $60K.  You buy $80k of BTC, then exchange them all for petros through Maduro and he gives you a free boat load of oil.  Masduro gets 80K of BTC, you get worthless petros and oil you value at $100k.  You saved $20K and Maduro made $20K over his expected value of Oil.  If the petros become worth anything someday, you made even more.

Why offer Petros at all?  Can't he just sell the oil for $80K BTC?  Maduro benefits by showing that you bought 80K of petros, not 100K of oil.  The oil purchase doesn't have to be logged at all.

Why wouldn't Maduro just charge $100K USD for the oil and make more?  Because of the embargo.  Somehow he has to exchange the 100K USD back to gold or BTC or whatever he holds his assets in.  I'm sure he holds lots of USD, but he's already having trouble spending that.

Whitepaper quotes:
Confirmacion de transaccion: 5 bloques
Tiempo entre bloques: 60 segundos

The gap between blocks 411 and 412 was 16.6 hours again.  Every day for the last three days there has been 16-25 hour gaps.  On the good side, blocks 412-425 averaged 14 minute blocks.  That would mean best case confirmation times are 70 minutes and worst case is 2 days with block 400 on 11/2 to block 404 on 11/4.

I'm really glad they are publishing their blockchain explorer info now.  Finally some reality in this story.  This is much better than news with no substance.

According to the block explorer at petro.gob.ve, the petro miner must be going offline a lot.  Block 403 from today was mined 24.8 hours after block 402 from yesterday.  There is another 17 hour gap between block 400 on Friday and 401 on Saturday.  I'm just guessing, but maybe they don't allow decentralized mining and someone is DOSing their only miners.  Does anyone know how many miners they have?  I see sometimes they get 4 blocks in a row with average 10 minute gaps, but then it stalls again.

My email says "your current DTR holding: 1658 DTR"
Is there any way I can see that on the blockchain or dynamically through a web form?
How will they fund my 1658 DTR?  Will it automatically go back on the ETH account I sent my funds from?  How do I see which account I sent it from?
Please add a blockchain or web entry that shows me my balance, which account I funded it from, funded for how much, date and time, etc.  These are blockchain basics.  At a minimum, post a spreadsheet with those details or send me another email with my complete details.

The most important thing I want to know is how you will send me my 1685 DTR once this ICO is over.  Do I need to send you a new ETH account address?  Do I have the option of using a different ETH address than what I funded it with?  How does it work for BTC and XRP buyers?

I bought this ICO because I was solicited from Gatehub.  I trust Gatehub and also bought Quantum there.  This lack of basic bookkeeping is making me not trust it though.

Have you ever heard of a smart contract?  When I bought the DRP ICO, I sent ETH and within 2 minutes I saw my DRP ICO balance in my wallet.  It was locked and I couldn't trade it because the ICO was still in progress.  A few months later I used my same Private Key to vote through the ETH network to unlock the tokens.  DRP actually used ETH bookkeeping and features for the ICO sale and unlock.  Maybe there is a level of competence difference between DTR and DRP programmers or maybe I'm missing something.

Why do I care?  I care because this email doesn't feel safe.  I have to spend a lot more brain energy to remember what DTR I have and guess how I'm going to get it on the blockchain someday.  If you care about customers and want customers to feel good about your product, then just share everything on the blockchain or a spreadsheet or whatever you have.  don't send a half baked email with partial information that just leads to more questions that can't be answered.  Your customers are blockchain customers.  we expect to be self service.  We don't want to ask you what our balance is.  We want to be our own customer service rep and check our own account independently.  That is the beauty of the blockchain.  Please quit hording the information to yourselves.  That is not decentralized.  That's not what I want to buy or invest in.  I want to be equal to you and have equal access to your information.

Do you wonder why BTC is such a simple easy product and has virtually no unique features, but is the most valuable?  It's because I feel like I'm an equal when I purchase BTC.  There is no customer service and I like that.  I am the company or employee as much as the others.  I can also mine or sync the whole blockchain if I want to.  If you aren't open like bitcoin, then you are jumping on the blockchain bandwagon trying to catch some free upswing from the real players doing the real work like BTC.  It's easy to be real.  Just put your books on the blockchain and don't give users any reason to ask you questions or call you because everything is right there for them from the beginning.  If they can't find it themselves, drop features and make it easier for them.  Quit putting yourself between the users and the product you're telling them is already theirs, but isn't yet.

I own all 80 of the $50MM+ tokens except for TRIG, OKCash, Asch, and Bitconnect.  I own over half the tokens 15MM to 50MM.  I hold by market cap and would only put $20 in an $80MM coin if I was buying it.

The reason why I don't own this one is Counterparty.  Every Counterparty trade is a BTC trade and recorded on the BTC blockchain.  That's bad because even sending one token costs $2 and may cost $20 in 3 years.  It also takes 30 mins to confirm transfers.

TRIG is an interesting idea and I read the whitepaper at http://blocksafefoundation.com/Blocksafe_whitepaper_version%202_draft%20_.pdf

I have these questions...

How many tokens for a video or event?  If it's a $2 transfer fee for BTC and the TRIG token itself is $2.64, then the minimum of an event is $5.  Even if each event is a fraction of a TRIG like 0.001 TRIG, each event costs a minimum of $2 BTC.

I've used Counterparty coins before.  You buy and sell them with XCP, not BTC.  You can trade at Bittrex, but owning a coin there won't activate any features.  If 10,000 users all owned TRIG on Bittrex, then there is just one wallet owner, Bittrex, not the users.  so in order for 10k users to actually use TRIG, then they have to each have a counterparty wallet and use BTC and XCP to use or trade them outside of Bittrex.  It is slow and expensive.  Try creating a free empty Counterparty wallet and transferring 1 BTC, XCP, or TRIG to it.  I've done it and it's a long wait and $2 BTC fee.

It may get slower and more expensive as BTC does.

Unless each TRIG video or transaction is $1,000+, this won't work.  Instead of burning $70million coins, they should have transferred 30 million off of Counterparty and onto Ethereum or some other platform with more speed.  Maybe Bitshares?

I don't think TRIG a fraud or lie.  I just think they don't have anyone technical on their team and I don't think it can happen unless they leave the Counterparty platform.  Once they leave, maybe I'll buy my $20 worth.  or more if their Mkt cap is higher by then.

Lastly, look at the MktCap of Counterpatry, XCP itself.  TRIG MktCap is over it's platform.  How many other platforms have coins valued higher than their creator?  I know it's possible and even common for $100,000 software to be installed on a windows machine, but none of those companies with $100k software have market caps valued higher than Microsoft.  I believe coins will be similar and TRIG will go down soon.

MyEtherWallet.com supports ETC and ETH.  There is a dropdown in the upper right to select your coin.  It accepts TREZOR, Private Keys, and other passphrases to send your coins and ERC20 tokens.  It integrates with various blockchain explorers for both ETH and ETC.  It also will let you create ETH and ETC wallets if you want to test sending $10 or something first, before you send to Bittrex.

If anyone is interested in contributing to this idea, I can add you as a GitHub Collaborator to my wiki or you can copy it to your own GitHub page and do what you like with it.  The idea is free for all to use in any way you want.

https://github.com/RayMetz100/CounterCoin

# CounterCoin
A bitcoin ATM without a cash dispenser.  Shop owners handle the cash manually.

There are 3 separate parts. 
1. A $100 paper wallet private key printer, with no memory and not connected to the internet.
2. A $400 customer internet PC.
3. Shop owner's existing PC.  $50 QR scanner only.
Profit potential is also defined in it's own section.

### Private Key Printer
- Based on $35 Raspberry Pi 3
- I found a free Linux Private key generator tool, https://github.com/grondilu/bitcoin-bash-tools , that might work.
- Need to find a Raspberry Pi compatible printer that prints QR codes.  $90?
- This should be under $100 and work with a single push button.
- No screen.  If we find key software for multiple coins, we can have multiple buttons.
- If Raspberry Pi 3 doesn't work, we can use a $179 Win10 PC intead.  I already have this working MINIX NEO Z83-4 http://minix.com.hk/en/products/neo-z83-4 It requires a monitor, keyboard, mouse which bumps the cost to $250 over the Raspberry Pi
- Need to ensure security in open source.  Any scripts or software should immediately reboot after key is printed.
- Need to make sign explsining risk to using shop generated private keys.
- It's open source, so any software engineer can modify and steal private keys if they wish.  Shop owners will need to understand risk and trust first, then customers will have to have trust with shopowners.
- Customers should be able to make this device at home and use their own rather than shopkeeper device.

### Customer Web PC
- This is similar to a PC you'd find for free use at the library.  It will have minimal custom software with hyperlinks to crypto coin websites.  It will also have a simple conversion calculator, QR scanner, and printer for public keys.  Windows 10 or tablet/phone based.  Touch screen desired.
- It would cost about $400 for a Win10 PC, http://minix.com.hk/en/products/neo-z83-4 , touch monitor, printer for public keys and customer desired conversion amount, and QR Scanner.  Writing the software there should be super easy since it will be web connected and Windows 10.
- Customers can choose to use their own Phone instead of this Public PC if they wish.
- Need to find software that clears last user's changes and resets the PC for each use.
- Need warning popup software to warn customers not to store passwords / private keys from this PC.  Not responsible, etc.
- HTML 5 could be used for the User Interface.  Need to find a popular/easy HTML 5 library.  open source.  Goal is to make it easy for others to help through GitHub.

### Shopkeeper PC
- Shop owners will use existing software like Coinbase, MyEtherWallet, and Trezor. 
- No custom software. 
- The only hardware would be a $50 QR scanner.
- Need to find or write training materials.  Find links to the best existing training for CoinBase for instance.

### Profit potential
#### Shopkeeper
- The shopkeeper can charge whatever they want including transaction fees and favorable exchange margins.  The basic exchange rate software on the customer PC can have customizable fees and exchange rates.  Ultimately it's up to the shopkeeper to transfer as many crypto currency as they wish and exchange as much cash as they wish.
#### Computer Service Tech
- A computer tech with enough knowledge to understand this page, can charge what they want to build, and install the equipment.
- The Computer tech can make arrangements with the shopkeeper for ongoing profit sharing and service.  It would be based on trust since there is nothing in the software to enforce or tally the use.
#### Software developer, designer
- No profit potential that I can think of.  I want to spend minimal effort here, but this is needed to get to the Shopkeeper and Service Tech income.

I'm holding my first crypto class tomorrow.  Wish me luck.  I'll let you know how it went afterwards.

Practice using real crypto currency at QA Library

Saturday August 12, 2017 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM, Queen Anne Library Meeting Room, 400 Garfield St, Seattle, WA 98119

Crypto coins can be sent and received with a smart phone or computer, similar to how email works. In class we'll trade real coins, manage our own crypto wallet balance and password by practicing sending and receiving them with other students. It will be similar to a “practice using email” class.  The crypto coin we'll use is Ethereum Classic, ETC, which costs less than 1 cent in transaction fees and confirms transactions in 1 minute.

Bring these supplies if you can:
-Smartphone, tablet, or laptop with camera for scanning barcode account numbers and passwords.  Wi-fi or Internet.
-Notebook, paper, and pen.
-$5 max to practice trading with other students, if desired. $1 bills or quarters are best.  It's ok to trade things other than money like toothpicks(I’ll bring), cookies, crafts, or poems and ok to send crypto coins to others for free.

1.5hr Agenda
4 mins - Ray Intro
7 mins - Student Intros
4 mins - Explain account numbers, public keys
7 mins - Explain account passwords, private keys, security
15 mins - Distribute empty wallets. Demo real paper and web wallets. Also demo empty toothpick wallets
8 mins - Demo how to check wallet balances, students check their empty balances
15 mins - Demo Sending Coins to a student. Explain trading. Send coins until at least half the students have real crypto currency in their crypto wallets. Students verify their new balances. Explain USD exchange rate. Distribute toothpicks as trading tokens
25 mins - Student to student trading and gift sending. Practice sending your own coins with each other. Set your own rules and prices. Be generous if you're able.
5 mins - Wrap it up. Security Reminder. Brainstorm future class ideas

The public library has strict non-commercial rules. If anyone spends or obtains more than $5 of crypto currency from class, I ask them to donate it to the other students during class to share and educate.  It's open to all and ok arrive empty handed. Someone is likely to send you some free crypto currency and you may leave with real crypto coin in a printed paper wallet or smart phone wallet.

Thanks,

Ray Metz
Queen Anne Resident
Former Microsoft developer for 8 years

If someone has their name on an empty envelope, hands it to me, I press the Litecoin Private key print button.  The printed side of the laser printer is face down.  I take the paper off the printer, folding the private key out of view without seeing it. I scan the public key only, place it in the envelope, seal it, an put it in the vault, then turn off the PK printer device with no local storage.  I'd be pretty sure there is no other copy of the private key.

If I print a keypair at home, put it in my own sealed envelope, take it to my private bank and place it in my safe deposit box, i'd also feel safe.

I personally have over 20 paper wallets in various coins and denominations, stored in vaults outside my home.  I've given them as graduation gifts, teasers that spurred people to learn and get their own coinbase account.  I've sold papers to family for $10 to $300 each.

I've worried about people losing the paper, or letting it be seen.  I've lectured them about it.  I've cashed many of mine as tests.  Before I knew how to create my own paper, I bought a keypair card from ebay, loaded it with what now is over $100 of bitcoin($15 then), gave it as a birthday gift, then later found out the seller stole the money I put on it, though the key foil was still unscratched.

Like Colt, Remmington, and gunpowder, I think Satoshi would be proud I'm actually using his invention, though it is more dangerous than using Chase, Bank of America, or the bow and arrow that came before.  We are reckless pioneers.

The youtube link is neat.  Too bad they are out of business.  I think writing my own open source software may be best.  The time is worth a lot more than $1,000 though. I'll dream up a system here and maybe copy it to a new github project later.

Private Key printer:
Offline/airgap private key kiosk that accepts $1 bills or a store owner PIN.  No screen, maybe 3 buttons for BTC, ETH, and LTC.  Based on a $200 Minix NEO or Rasberry Pi and a cheap laser or thermal printer.
They can skip this PK printer if they bring their own smartphone or paper wallets or generate their own PKs at home.

Public Internet PC:
Hardware:
Minix NEO Z83-4 Win 10 PC, $200
No printer
QR barcode scanner, $40
Touch screen, $150
Software:
Touch screen windows shortcut buttons to
https://www.myetherwallet.com
https://blockchain.info
and similar wallets that accept scanned public and private keys.
Touch screen conversion calculator linked to coinmarketcap.com with easy buttons to convert $20USD.
 Pen and paper or $70 Brother Laser for note taking.  They can also email themselves.  
Warning Sign to not generate PKs on the public PC and to spend full wallet after scanning PKs.
They can skip this PC if they have a smart phone and know how to use it.

Funding PC:
Shop owners existing PC and cash drawer
They can use Coinbase, trezor, or whatever they want.
Requires a little training, but involves exchange profit and customer interaction so they would learn quick.

Physical vault:
Maybe some customers would ask them to store their private keys in a vault or safe deposit box.  Customers do it with gold diamonds, and guns, so why not private keys?

I want to install a bitcoin machine at my family pawn and gold shop.  They know little about computers and bitcoins, but a lot about cash and security.  Is there a self service, wifi bitcoin scanner+printer machine for around $1000 that I can buy for them?

I can help them put another $1000 in a bitcoin wallet and link them up to fund it, then if customers sell bitcoin it could print a cash receipt for them to pay out in cash from their existing till.  If customers buy, then the shop owner can take the cash and enter a password for the customer or something.

Two features I want are easy for customers and easy for shopkeepers.  Low limit transactions under $300 is fine.  I want it to work with no third party company.  It should communicate to public bitcoin only.  Even no fee is fine, but im sure the software can build in an adjustable fee or selectable conv rates.  In this way they can trade merchandise or gold without cash and ID customers on their own without a 3rd party company.  Altcoin is also ok.

I could teach them how to use blockchain.info, bitaddress.org, a handheld scanner and printer to do the same thing.  I may have to.  There is some magic in customers interacting with a machine directly though.  Bitcoin is all about letting the (software) machine do the work, instead of people like governments and bankers.  A machine for the initial customer interaction may be worth $1,000 here compared to a human teller only.  Full machines are $5-10K.  I don't think I'm ready for that investment yet.