Thank you very much .  It was fun to make!  We went ahead and posted all the sourcecode here: https://github.com/Pixel-Map/pixelmap.io, just in case it helps someone who's interested in writing an app.  Thanks for the nice message!

Hi everyone!

I'm not sure if this is the right category, if it's not please let me know!  We recently released http://pixelmap.io, which is our first Dapp (developed on Ethereum).  If anyone remembers the MillionDollarHomepage from back in the day, PixelMap.io is very similar, except written entirely in a Solidity contract and stored on the blockchain.  This gives it the following benefits

• Each tile is truly owned by the entity that purchases it. Because the data is stored on the Blockchain, nothing short of every single Ethereum node shutting down can eliminate the data.
• The contract is designed so that in the event that a tile owner would like to update the image, change the URL the tile points to, or sell the tile for any amount they'd like, they can, without any central authority facilitating or controlling any part of the process.
• In the event that PixelMap.io itself were to ever go down, the data, owner, and URLs for every single pixel remains on the Blockchain, and any site could easily replicate and display the overall image. Essentially, the backend and database of the PixelMap.io is invincible as long as the Blockchain exists. Additionally, we are looking into using Golem and/or IPFS to fully distribute the frontend as well.
• The project is completely Open Source, which means anyone can view the code, audit the Solidity contract, or even set up more frontends if they'd like. For instance, if someone wanted to set up an easier-to-use tile editor for PixelMap.io, they could, as all of the data is stored safely on the Ethereum blockchain.

I've been gone from here for a few years (last time I was here I was setting up the first insurance company to accept Bitcoin ), I hope all has been well!  Let me know what everyone thinks, have a good weekend!

Ken

Hello  

I have a 1974 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce that I am trying to sell because Winter is about to hit, and my girlfriend would prefer to be able to store her car in the garage (We don't have room for both, and unfortunately an Alfa isn't a family car).  It currently has 76k miles, runs extremely well, starts great, and has had a ton of work done on it.  I purchased it on 06/18/13 from North Carolina, and drove it back home to Indiana (it ran great the entire time).  I originally paid $8,200 after haggling for awhile, before taxes.  The VIN is AR3045828 if that helps anyone look up information about it.  The dealer I purchased it from had just performed quite a bit of work. This is what they told me:

"Bright silver aluminum cam covers are a traditional Alfa look, and the new Weber side-draft carburetor has instant throttle response (don't worry, the original parts are included). Upgraded ignition parts, a new head gasket, and a fresh water pump mean it's ready to enjoy immediately. The 5-speed manual gearbox snicks through the gears and the suspension has a great combination of control and supple body movements, so the car is all-day comfortable. Four-wheel discs live behind stylish Ronal alloys carrying 185/70/14 Michelin radials."

(Here is the link to the ad http://www.streetsideclassics.com/showcar.php/cha/2102/1974-Alfa-Romeo-Spider )

On top of that, once I got it home, I wanted to fix the small issues I noticed (such as turning signals, mild oil leak, gauges, etc).  And had the following done to it:

-Check Oil Leaks, replace upper oil pan gasket, rear main oil seal, had oil changed, new oil filter, new fan blade
-Check gas gauge, replaced fuel sending unit, replaced elctric fuel pump
-Check lights, rewired for updated flashers, turn signal flasher
-Repair oil pressure gauge, fixed

As well as some other work, for a total of $2,822.65. It runs great, I drive it occasionally when the weather is nice, otherwise it is kept pampered in the garage.  It is legitimately extremely hard for me to sell it, as I adore the car, it really stands out from anything else on the road.  I have not parked a single time at any store without having someone compliment me on it, (or even at stop lights!!).  I originally bought it for my girlfriend, however considering the back seats are pretty small for kids (and only the front have seats belts) we really just don't get the time to drive it.  (Well I do, but it's kind of selfish for me to keep it just for that ).

Here are some pictures and videos of it that I took today:

VIDEO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XL3sXHXxIM&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDYO8SyItSo&feature=youtu.be

http://imgur.com/pGVx4ze,wpNz20g,Jg5bNIS,t8dW0Td,tjm5lTo,X7C5gxt,TgSHUJu,G9NubIO,4zX0rY4,br0J06N,3e0Z43b,tmvXgG4,jfo3pIs,JAPUcqV,tbKwWlW,mAyDgwl,YXkIp0Q,6Hl8tfE,LqY4wFj,zOvACD5,0MTTw6g,sLYZ52K,pJyucTj,KVAYkqA,vpoJNun,f5o4JTm,Wa3RC4h,Xria612,LVJyu6L,UIlGikO#8








I am selling it for $10,000 on ebay, but would be willing to sell it for $8,500 in BTC (which is currently 18.4BTC).  Thank you so much for looking, I will miss this car horribly .

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=271323516627

Ken

P.S. If anyone wants me to upload a video or has any questions, let me know.  It also has a brand new starter, so it starts extremely easily, and shifts great.  It's also a pretty fast car

If you want to contact me, the fastest way would probably be at ken.erwin88@gmail.com.  Or if you'd prefer to call, 317-522-7857.

Thanks again.

Yes definitely!  I know what an escrow is, however I've never used one.  Is there an escrow service that you would recommend?

Deal 

PM me your address, and send .2btc to 1DQLDDupqrgyobzatk8xfWY3uPnHZYKhYX and I'll ship it UPS ground ASAP tomorrow morning.  Thanks!

Ken

When I first discovered Bitcoin, it was right around the same time that I discovered Tor, and both technologies seemed incredible (and still do).  Bitcoins were about $2.50 each, and while I thought they’d probably increase in price, I was solely interested in them because I was intrigued.
Not much later, I returned to see how they BTC was doing, it was up to $6!  I kept thinking that I could have more than doubled my money, and it was at this moment that my mind switched to a complete pro-profit mindset. I bought a decent amount at $7, and finally sold all of them at $12, overjoyed at the time at how well I had done.

Fast forward a year, check back, the price has skyrocketed.  I started speculating again, and ended up even buying a bunch of LTC for a few cents, that oddly shot up to a few dollars apiece a week later.  I checked BTC-E constantly, selling, trading, but all of this time my goal had been to gain more US $.

One day though, (and I think its right around the day we wrote our first insurance policy with Bitcoin) I realized that at this point, I care more about Bitcoin surviving, and the economy flourishing.  The idea behind it is incredible, and I truly feel that it’s something that I should be working towards helping.  This has changed how I’ve felt about a lot of things, below are several:
Alternate Cryptocurrencies:  I know there is room for as many of these as can be thought-up, but I really feel like overall it is diluting the image of bitcoin, at least right now.  I view nearly all of the other coins (NMC, PPC, etc) as having little to no chance of surviving as anything other than a pump and dump.  And while I am probably wrong, I realize that I have been using these SOLELY for speculation, there is absolutely nothing that I can or want to buy with anything other than BTC (And even that is hard at the moment).
Selling BTC: I don’t want to sell my BTC on exchanges anymore, I want to spend them on other things within the BTC economy.  I am trying to stop seeing BTC’s value in USD amounts, when I spend it, I want to spend it in its BTC form.  I hope that makes sense.  I just found out a dental office not far from where I live is now accepting Bitcoins, and just knowing that about them is enough for me to want to use them just to support BTC’s growth.

Purchasing BTC: For better or worse, the easiest way for me to obtain BTC right now has been to transfer money to Dwolla then to MtGox.  I have NOTHING against MtGox and actually love using them.  However I feel that a tremendous weakness for Bitcoin is centralization and a reliance on very few exchanges.  I am a system admin, my goal is to eliminate any single points of failure.  Mtgox is almost, but not quite, a single point right now for BTC.  I realize there are other exchanges, but the price would crash substantially if something were to happen to MtGox.  I will be buying from other exchanges as often as possible to fix this, I actually just used Coinbase and it worked out very well. 
Conversations: I have been reluctant to bring up Bitcoin for a long time to most people, however recently this has completely changed for me.  I believe in this, I really feel like this is something that is going to change the world, and I am proud to be a part of it.  I am doing my best to promote BTC’s acceptance anytime that I can.

Anyway, that’s just how I’ve been feeling.  Does anyone else have any ideas on promoting Bitcoin’s growth?

Thanks!

Ken 

Still selling, reduced price to .3BTC though!  Works great

I'd add coinmap.org, someone else recommended it to me on the forum.

To furuknap:  Currently we are licensed in every state except Alaska, and only offer insurance within the US (We do insure people travelling from the US).  The reason however is because we've never had a market outside of the US (We currently have 3 branches in Indiana, one in Kentucky, and one in Florida).  I will definitely bring it up with the owners of the company and see if it's something that we can look into in the future.

To Joris/100x:  Both of you are 100% right.  Our first policy ended up costing more in terms of time getting it set up and payment delivered to accounting than a normal policy would, and I expect it will be the same for our first few commercial policies as well until everything becomes more automatic.  I do think that once everyone at the company becomes more used to accepting Bitcoin policies, that it will end up being cheaper in the long-term.  When we reach that point, I would definitely like to offer discounts and I'll see if that's possible as well.

Thanks again everyone! 

Ken

Wow, those two websites are great!  I just added our company to coinmap.org (says it should be updated within 15 minutes), and signed up for the Bitcoin newsletter.  Thank you for the links! 

Ken

@bitdroid Thank you for the suggestion!  I'll post it on there as well, let me know if there's anything I can help you or your friends with.

And about the pizza, thank you   I'm happy to be a part of Bitcoin's growth (even if it's a small role), I really do think that it's going to become huge one day.

Ken

@Bitdroid, As of now the pages have been updated!  Sorry about that I thought I had already done it, thank you for letting me know!
@John, I feel the same way, I can't overstate how exciting it was to get our accounting department on board, and to be able to introduce Bitcoin to so many more people.  I am very hopeful that someday our Bitcoin-paid policies will become a huge part of our business. 

Ken

Hi Everyone  ,

I just wanted to announce that we have now written the first insurance policy that is being paid for completely in Bitcoins.  Based on the advice from others that we received, we used Bitpay for the payment, and could not be happier with how smoothly it went.  Up until now I've only had a couple of CSRs and our Accounting department onboard, now all of the CSRs and Producers are becoming extremely interested in finding out more about Bitcoin.  I wanted to thank everyone from the thread here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155036.0 as well as everyone who has contacted me requesting a quote or offering advice, it has been incredible finding out all of the other different businesses that are doing the same thing that we are. 

We obviously aren't a startup company, we've been around since 1872, but there is a culture surrounding Bitcoin that is enthralling.  To any business that is considering accepting them, you won't be alone.  I have had so many people from this forum as well as even a call from a company in Canada working with Bitcoins all offering or seeking advice.  It is obvious that everyone here doesn't just want success for themselves, but is working for Bitcoin to be successful as a whole, and that is amazing.     

I can't name the person who bought the policy for privacy reasons, but I just wanted to thank you for working with us (And if you would like to be named let me know!).

Thank you again everyone, if anyone else would like a quote for any type of insurance, or has any questions, feel free to contact me.   

Ken Erwin | System Administrator
Beauchamp McSpadden
231 W. Canal Street ♦ Wabash, IN 46992
W:317.522.7857x2192 ♦ C:317.522.7857

You're probably right--I just felt pretty frustrated seeing my order cancelled.  I hope they get everything sorted out in the future, the interface is so much better than the rest.

Hi Everyone,

I have been obtaining bitcoins through Dwolla --> Mtgox and Coinbase.  Recently because I could lock in the price with Coinbase, I started using them more.  I locked in a purchase at $90 per coin, which is obviously worth much more now.  It was supposed to clear today, and today right before it cleared, I received an email saying the following:

"Unfortunately, we have decided to cancel this order because it appears to be high risk. We do not send out any bitcoins on high risk transactions, and you will receive a refund to your bank account in 3-4 business days.

Please understand that we do this to keep the community safe and avoid fraudulent transactions. Apologies if you are one of the good users who gets caught up in this preventitive measure - we don't get it right 100% of the time, but we need to be cautious when it comes to preventing fraud.

You may have more luck trying again in a few weeks. Best of luck and thank you for trying Coinbase.

Kind regards,
The Coinbase Team"

To me, this is very convenient, as the coins are worth much more now.  I had already purchased several coins before from them without issue (however they had not gone up in value nearly as much).  After having my funds locked up from March 28, until today April 2nd, I now have to wait for it to be refunded so that I can slowly transfer it into Mtgox via Dwolla. 

I just wanted to warn anyone else so they don't have the same problem. 

  Great news,

Wish I had bought more of them back at $2.50!!

Also--An insurance company is now accepting bitcoins (the one that I work for). https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155036.0

Not trying to advertise, but it's a real business, and judging by some of the companies that have contacted us, there are quite a bit more businesses beginning to accept bitcoin that are actual brick and mortar businesses, not just things like Wordpress etc.  

I do feel that the extreme increase in bitcoin price in such a short time IS overall hurting some adoption, as even though we accept Bitcoin, right now it looks like it would be a terrible idea to sell or pay for anything in something that is rising so quickly, so in that regard I think it's difficult to get people who WANT to pay with bitcoins.  For us at least, it would be better if the price stabilized so that it could be used without fear of drastic appreciation/depreciation in a short period of time.

Ken

Exactly like that, but with the "1" key missing.  I can email pictures if you'd like.

Ken

Wanting to sell a HP Compaq 2510p laptop,is has 2GB ram, Windows 7, 100GB HD, dual core 1.2ghz.

It works great (albeit older, hence the 1/2btc price), however it is missing the "1" key (it works if you press it, but the button itself is missing) and it prefers to be plugged in (I think the battery is toast).  Other than that it works great, works perfect for someone to use to surf the internet etc.  I don't need it anymore as I now have an XPS .

If you'd like to buy it, message me and I'll ship it to you.  U.S. only as shipping international would cost more than I'm selling it for.

Thanks for looking!

Received   Thank you again!!