On Tuesday August 8 I'm hosting at bitcoin night at the Winnipeg's hackerspace, Skullspace (skullspace.ca), 2nd floor 374 Donald.

Approximate schedule
5:45-- doors open to public, come see our hackerspace
6:00 -- brief hackerspace community meeting or show and tell
6:15 -- bitcoin/CAD cash trading session, complete with a live, in person order book of bids and ask. I'll be present as a market maker for both buy and sell.
6:45 -- bitcoin auction: put something you'd like to get rid of up for bitcoin auction (concealed reserve prices can be facilitated)
7:00 -- roundtable discussion on the state of the bitcoin and crypto currency world
8:00 -- if there's interest, hands on workshop on splitting your pre-fork BTC out to BTC and BCH (bitcoin cash / bcash)
8:30 -- Showing of either a bitcoin or bitcoin related documentary or technical/conference talk. Your suggestions welcome.

Regarding the June 27 giveaway, has their been any clarification from the Stellar Foundation re P2SH bitcoin addresses, which are commonly used to implement multisignature?

I'm involved in a fund that uses a 2 of 3 multisignature address. Will we need 2 signatures for proof of ownership to claim Lumens? Signatures from all 3 private keys? Or do we need to move to an old fashioned bitcion address starting with "1" where there's only one key pair before June 26?

Hi,

I created this poll:
http://coin-vote.com/poll/55d5fbe74df0a76e09bafeea
"To ensure a clear winner, I pledge my coins to econonomic war and will dump for or against BIP 101, see http://economicmajority.xyz"

And I wanted to try out the embedded feature ("generate code") on my accompanying website:
http://economicmajority.xyz

The provided links to jquery and boostrap go to http://coin-vote.com/index.jade, you must mean https://jquery.com/ and http://getbootstrap.com/?

Also found broken links in the embedded code:
http://199.193.248.126:3000/embedpoll/55d5fbe74df0a76e09bafeea
http://199.193.248.126:3000/poll/55d5fbe74df0a76e09bafeea
http://199.193.248.126:3000/images/logo.png

If I replace code-vote.com with each of the 199.193.248.126:3000 the urls work.

Anything else I should do?

Does anyone agree I have posed a more pertinent question than "Should bitcoin ever include blocks > 1MB?"
http://coin-vote.com/poll/557573b91ce32f881a045135

2112, you're right to call baloney.

A real hardware UART is a standard feature in microcontrolers. (for example)

I would be hard pressed to find a microcontroller datasheet that didn't have one. Even if I did, such a datasheet wouldn't necessarily go out of its way to explain that I the programmer of said micro could achieve the same functionality in software by bit banging general purpose IO pins. It would more likely be documented in a data sheet if such functionality were specifically included in firmware.

There are two commercial products I know of that had no UART and had RS-232 bit banged on general purpose (user) io pins, the low cost VIC-20 and Commodore 64. I think support for this was included in the firmwares.

With UARTs being ubiquitous and with bit banging being very inefficient, I would say there is next to no chance that any USB RS-232 adapter does that. I was wrong to raise it as a possibility. It's safe to assume they all have a hardware UART on the RS-232 side of them.

You only need to worry about the USB side of the signing machine. On reflection, that Wired article may have over-hyped the dangers. USB devices can't just arbitrarily read/write any system memory can they? I think a malicious USB device has to be more sneaky.

Thank you roman.z for contributing another soft modem to the world. They're pretty cool!

At first I thought this wasn't a good fit for bitcoin tx signing and was having the same "why not use RS-232" thought of others.

The one downside to using this is that it introduces yet another bus layer. Anyone using this should wonder if there is a security flaw in the decoder where a malicious encoder could break away from the bus layer and actually screw up the decoder software sufficiently to take over its execution environment. At least this can be audited for with this being a soft modem.

Ideal setup is probably to use RS-232 with the signing side RS-232 UART implemented in silicon (such as a super I/O chip), not by a firmware. Chances are that if the internet side of this is messing with the bus layer (if it were software defined and not a hardware UART) that it can't break past the signing side being hardware defined for the bus.

That way all security audit focus can shift to the data layer to make sure no malicious break-outs can happen there. Regardless of the link type, the quality of this layer of software will be the most important thing.

But, I appreciate that many people don't have the option of having a hardware UART on the signing side, so this is awesome.

Particularly because USB is not so very awesome:
http://www.wired.com/2014/07/usb-security/

Malicious firmwares on USB devices can do all kinds of nasty things to the host computer -- you don't want a compromised USB RS-232 adapter to be connected to your signing computer.

Let's go through some scenarios:
If you trust your RS-232 USB adapter for the your signing computer at the time of purchase, and if you can protect its integrity thereafter, consider two sub-cases:
 * Your internet side computer has a silicon defined UART -- there is probably no way it can mess with the bus layer aside from changing configured speeds and such and probably can not compromise the firmware of the software defined UART in the signing side RS-232 USB adapter

 * Your internet side computer has a software defined UART as well and can thus mess with things at the bus layer -- I'm going to say it is possible but unlikely that it could use that level of access to compromise the signing side USB device on the other end of the cable. There would have to be a security bug in the signing side USB firmware. Downside here is that these firmwares are mostly proprietary and thus costly to audit.


There very well may be situations where the continued integrity of the adapter can not be assured but the integrity of the signing computer can be (not simply by guarding it, but ensuring anyone who reaches it can't mess with it by using a TPM to ensure firmware and boot process integrity with the rest of the disk encrypted, fancy unique security seals on the case and regular internal inspections).

Write your fan fiction here folks where someone gets over the fence, drugs the dog, drugs the guard, hacks the walkie-talkie watchdog feature, hacks the security cameras sending video feed out by celluar to keep showing silent night, temporarily disables one alarm system with watchdog with fake watchdog, weaves through lasers of other alarm system that can't be disabled, cracks the safe, finds the USB adapter with the unique case, pops it open, desolders microcontroler that lacks flash memory (firmware uploaded on connect by computer), replaces with microcontroler that has malicious firmware flashed on, gets out of there by jetpack on the roof..... exchanges tumbled bitcoins for beachfront property in Caribbean...

We've done this every third Saturday, 2pm at our local hacker Skullspace for a few months now. This month (November 16) we're going to do this at the King's Head (main floor), 120 King St. at 2pm to co-inside with the BSides Winnipeg conference (2nd floor).

Will probably be the last month I announce one of these, there's now a meetup group forming on meetup.com, so that will probably become the best monthly forum for live multi-person trading in Winnipeg.

Short answer, the global bitcoin market as a whole is still very small and immature. Market forces that would correct this kind of thing haven't kicked in enough yet to close this spread.

To get a sense of how small bitcoin still is with the 4 billion USD market cap seen as late, remember that Twitter recently had an IPO followed by trading on the open market where its market cap went up by several tens of billions all on the opening day!

The situation MtGox has themselves in is itself a good illustration of how immature the bitcoin space is, other asset classes don't have major exchanges that can't find a decent banking partner. Blame some of this on MtGox, blame some of this on the fact that they've got themselves involved in a strange new thing called bitcoin.

But, with there being other exchanges, it all goes beyond that: in a more mature market, it shouldn't matter that MtGox is only able to do 10 wire transfers per day and that their SEPA withdrawals are slow too. They have decent Yen withdrawal, folks who don't want a long wait should be bringing their bitcoin elsewhere to sell.

Arbitragers in Japan with access to this should be wiring their funds to Bitstamp and BTC-e, buying bitcoin, selling on Gox and getting Yen back fast. A well enough resourced person could even borrow bitcoin to sell on Gox at the same time as their buy on Bitstamp so that bitcoin network transfer times don't become a factor. Unlike China, I don't think Japan has a capital control situation that makes this too hard for wealthy and resourced Japanese folks to pull off.

But there is another factor at play, any arbitrager has to look at the depth of the order books to see what really can be done, prices at the top of the order books can't be the only indicator.

In a more mature market, some of the forces I've mentioned will close these gaps between exchanges. In time they probably will.

But that's the thing about market forces, they don't act as fast as they are sometimes idealized to. We're all very spoiled by how very fast bitcoin transfers are.

Let's put this basic fact about the pace of market forces in perspective. Labour markets are perhaps one of the best examples of those that are incredibly slow. Try cutting wages in absolute terms in a deflationary environment -- as an employer you'll have a riot on your hands even if your cuts are well below the deflation rate (higher wages in real terms). Try convincing a friend to leave all their social ties behind and move for employment opportunities to another region in the same country. Try retraining for a new career.

Announcing another Winnipeg bitcoin meetup and live trading gathering, 2pm on Saturday October 19 at Skullspace, 2nd floor, 374 Donald. (ring "sksp" doorbell if door is locked)

Our indoor facility includes tables, WiFI, power, and an active 5.0GH/s BFL unit on display.

This will be the third time we've done this, and we understand the importance of consistency, so this has always been on the third Saturday of the month at 2pm.

Last month's gathering had an amazing $700+ CAD in trade volume and the folks at WTCR showed up and gave away BitFountain USB Block Erupters.
(can't promise every month to be that awesome)

Announcing our second, live bitcoin<-->cash market and meetup here in Winnipeg at 2pm on Saturday September 21, 2013. If this goes well, we'll do this at the same place and time every 3rd Saturday of the month from here on out.

One BTC seller and one buyer of last resort guaranteed to be present.

Location is Skullspace, our local hackerspace here in Winnipeg, 2nd floor, 374 Donald. Ring the "sksp" doorbell if outside door isn't open.

Perhaps the first ever in Winnipeg.

This will be at our local hackerspace, Skullspace http://skullspace.ca, 374 Donald St., 2nd floor at 2pm.

One seller with > 1.5 BTC and one buyer guaranteed to be present.

We'll be conducting a live order book (bids and asks) on a whiteboard, and traders can also deal with each other outside this. Folks with Litecoin are also welcome to place BTC/CAD asks on our whiteboard as long as they have Litecoin on an exchange that will let them trade for BTC and withdraw swiftly.

At Skullspace we've got a great net connection, some solid WiFi, lots of table space and available electrical outlets.

And, come say hi to the 5.0GH/s BFL miner that was donated to us. That's why I'm hosting this market, to help the organization sell off the mining profits we've made in the last few weeks.

Will probably do this again next month to sell off further mining profits.

Ooops, posted FTC address without noticing that my account was too new. Edited away, sorry.

I appreciated the interview Peter Bushnell gave on Let's Talk Bitcoin Episode 15. At first my thought was, "okay, its just like Litecoin except for a bigger block reward, so what, that doesn't make it a liter Litecoin". Peter's claim in that interview that they'll be looking towards being more innovative on future changes and not being conservative about them convinced me that FeatherCoin was worth a look.

Plus, FeatherCoin filled a niche for me -- I use an older computer that doesn't have the amazing power use scalability that newer CPUs have. I figured, I might as well do some CPU mining during idle cycles when I'm using this computer on an up and coming alt-coin and see if it takes off. Plus, electricity is cheap hyrdo-electric here in Winnipeg, so for the potential slight extra cost I might as well.

I'm looking forward to market prices for BTC based financial instruments/contracts becoming part of the discussion in speculation on top of the fiat for bitcoin exchange rates. Minute by minute updates is the kind of thing for IRC, not a forum.

For example https://1broker.com/?c=btcusd was re-launched 3 weeks ago with an interest rate to keep a balance between contracts for difference (CFD) that are short BTC against USD vs those that are long BTC against USD.

For some context, see the original announcement thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=123492

And here's the thread where the return of BTC/USD to 1broker was briefly discussed:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=218036

And read up a bit on CFD and leverage for context:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_for_difference

If you look at the 1broker interest rate chart, most of the last 7 days have featured a negative interest rate for those going long on BTC and a positive interest rate for those going short. Anyone know what the other 14 days have been like there?

As a long term bull I'm prepared for a rocky ride. With my position being one I can afford to lose, I'm not planning on ever selling at a loss, I'm going to religiously hold through hell and back. If there were a decent crash I'd expand my position.

With this in mind, the risk of putting some of my BTC in a slightly leveraged instrument such as with 1broker BTC/USD made sense to me. If I'm going to buy and hold more BTC at a certain crash point, so what if my CFD position is wiped around the same time? I'm bullish enough to see it as win-win -- either I get the opportunity for significantly cheaper BTC than my original buy-in or I get some extra appreciation from my original position being leveraged.

Naturally the long-term bull in me is discounting the chances of:
 * BTC hitting extremely near zero to the point where few markets exist at low volume and stays there super-long term
 * Or going super-long term sideways at a level that continues to make it as decent as it is today as a same-day transactional/transmission currency, but too low for where I've bought in.

Given my "never sell for a loss" attitude, the "BTC hits near-zero" scenario isn't even relevant. Either I get wiped out holding just BTC or I get wiped out holding a mix of BTC and BTC CFD.

I also discount the near-zero scenario given the religious-like devotion BTC has attracted. There's going to be some pretty decent fiat out there to buy up a collapsing BTC and show up for ASIC miner fire sales and auctions.

By analogy to religion, the protestant reformation gave orthodox Christianity quite the shakeup, but hardly killed it. Possible worse case, bitcointalk.org ends up being Constantinople or Rome of Bitcoin, though some temples like MtGox might get burnt down in the process. (May I call Gavin our current pope?)

This was my attitude I started looking at BTC CFD for the first time recently. Then I actually looked at the 1broker interest rate! Woah! 0.17% daily, - for long on BTC, + for short.

The fv function in spreadsheets (I used Libreoffice) is convenient for converting that to annual:
= FV(-0.0017, 365, 0, -1)-1 = -46% interest annual for long
= FV(0.0017, 365, 0, -1)-1 = 85.89% interest annual for short

As if the major run-up in price prior to me entering wasn't enough of a signal, this interest rate says it loud and clear -- Bitcoin's chance of having big future has already been priced in by the market. As you'd expect in any financial market, returns for us more recent new comers are not going to be as spectacular as enjoyed by the 10k pizzas that came before us.

I still followed the crowd and took a long position, mildly leveraged, but not as big of one as I may have taken with more favourable interest rates.

(Come on bears on this forum from these last few weeks, look at the interest rates being offered to you!)

I realize that 1broker.com is still a fairly new place to go long or short. I'd like to see some discussion comparing how these incentives compare to costs of going long/short at other more mature Bitcoin markets with CFDs, derivitives options, futures, other etc contracts.

My browsing and searching around on this matter didn't turn up all to much. Other sites seem to be a lot more opaque in how they price these things. No doubt some don't even have proper hedges for the positions they're selling, and those are less interesting as market indicators. Others I suspect are pricing in incentives to keep things balanced through means other than interest rates.

It would be interesting to see how short/long incentives at these other markets have shifted over their history and come to understand what sentiment they've expressed recently.