Seriously creepy video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6kXZB6RBXc

There are two increasingly popular, so-called "trustless pyramid schemes" doing the rounds on the various forums at the moment.

The original (0.1 ETH, 1 ETH and 10 ETH):

http://pastebin.com/AGDsJL6j (already has 200+ "investors")

Now there's a 100 ETH smart-contract:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/3gdxte/with_ether_price_as_low_as_it_is_maybe_another/

If these continue to gain legs, it could self-destruct the entire network. "pyramid scheme" is a toxic phrase that no legit business wants to touch.

The guy who discovered nuclear energy must have despaired when he realised his creation would be used for Nagasaki and countless others.

Sometimes I truly despair for humanity. Today is one of those days.

Bitcoin - $3.1bn, XRP - $256mn, Litecoin - $54mn.

Crypto is smothering.

Are we in danger of falling below critical mass?

What needs to be done to allow us to BREATH again?

Here's a screenshot of tomorrow's pink pages:

http://i57.tinypic.com/25tj9dy.jpg

More positive media coverage. I guess it ties in with the high profile "Bilderberg" meeting in the Caribbean. Unthinkable to get this kind of coverage a few years ago.

As of today, Bitcoin's market cap is only x6 its nearest competitor.

http://coinmarketcap.com/

As the days and weeks go by, I see us going x5, x4, x3...

Should we start getting worried at x2? What then?

["interested in experimenting with the Ripple payments network".]

http://www.coindesk.com/top-dutch-banks-confirm-blockchain-experiments/

No interest "in using bitcoin directly – either its currency or network"

"Dutch banks won't actually be using bitcoin themselves in any way"

and they regard Bitcoin as a "high integrity risk".

"It is absolutely out of the question that these banks will transfer money over the actual bitcoin blockchain out of reach from the Dutch central bank."

However, and most interestingly, they are "interested in experimenting with the Ripple payments network".

Very interesting times ahead.

What is the story with all these "hacks"?

Surely the time to "hack" is not when the price is on the floor?

It's no coincidence, in my view, that the frequency of these "hacks" correlates strongly with low prices and/or market panic.

The biggest hackers are the exchange insiders. If this was a regulated industry, they would face massive fines, loss of livelihood and jail. There is no such penalties for these offshore operators. There's the added bonus that stolen Bitcoin can be almost impossible to trace.

[Bitcoin]

Jan 15th, 2015. I thought I'd have a look at the activity of some of the altcoins.

Bitcoin
- bitcointalk: 10m+ topics
- activity on https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/graphs/contributors - very high
- Comment: lovely old steam engine

Ripple
- xrptalk.org: 4,100 topics. forum.ripple.com: 5,400 topics
- activity on https://github.com/ripple/rippled/graphs/contributors - high
- Comment: like a Japanese bullet train (driven by a team of experienced, responsible and well-trained people)

Stellar
- stellartalk.org: 1,300 topics
- activity on https://github.com/stellar/stellard/graphs/contributors - medium
- Comment: like a Japanese bullet train (driven by a team of cry babies who are prone to throw their toys out of the pram at any moment)

NXT
- nxtforum.org: 108,000 topics
- activity on https://bitbucket.org/JeanLucPicard/nxt/overview - high
- Comment: resist the new world order. Hippies and anti-government cranks.

Dodge
- doges.org: 48,000 topics
- activity on https://github.com/dogecoin/dogecoin/graphs/contributors - dwindling
- Drug train

Darkcoin
- darkcointalk.org: 3,200 topics
- activity on https://github.com/darkcoin/darkcoin/graphs/contributors - low
- Drug train

My personal opinion is that
- Bitcoin is dying and will be dead soon. (Litecoin, which I didn't mention, is dead)
- anyone whose business model revolves around Silk Road Reloaded is going nowhere
- "off grid" hippie movements will die
- those who can straddle the tightrope of business and politics, as well as win the hearts and minds of consumers will win

So I'm just back from meeting guy in a cafe (local Bitcoin meet-up) where he agreed to sell me some Bitcoin (a few €100 worth). Normal enough. Or so you'd think.

He withdrew from his Kraken account to my BTC address. We were sitting there waiting for over an hour until anything appeared on blockchain.info

It was quite scary. Luckily he was a nice guy (as am I). I paid him in full with zero confirmations cos I felt I knew him well talking for so long.

Basically, Kraken are delaying withdrawals for over an hour. Be very careful out there!!!

Unconfirmed reports that certain exchanges have "temporarily" halted withdrawals.

I guess no regulation = no fines, no prison sentences, no consequences...

Bitcoin has dominated all other cryptos. Without Bitcoin, we'd never be where we are today.

But Bitcoin is now old tech (that's my view). Bitcoin is incapable of being a global currency (either today or in 100 years' time).

And as Bitcoin becomes less and less dominant, can other cryptocurrencies now diverge independently from BTC?

Pretty much every cryptocurrency of significant market cap has danced in step with Bitcoin. Until now.

From the market over the last week, we can see the beginnings of alt-coins decoupling from the Bitcoin monster. It's sad to see Bitcoin dwindle away and so many people lose their money, but it has to happen this way. Bitcoin cannot do what we need it to do.

As miners are being switched off, I presume the cost and time of doing a transaction increases?

What happens if a large % of BTC holders all want to process their transactions at the same time (e.g. in the event of a bank run)?

So someone told me to set up a cold wallet. The USB has been sitting in my drawer almost 18 months now. I have a lot of money in there and now I want to sell it.

So I plugged it in to my USB and I'm getting this error:



Any techies know what to do?

If you were forced to have all your wealth in crypto only, where would it be?

Now I know all cryptos are tied very strongly to BTC, but there are some interesting divergences taking place right now as BTCers panic and other cryptos (especially XRP) catch up.

Please only refer to cryptocurrencies with significant market cap.

[Why would that be?]

Was just looking at blockchain.info stats:

https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions?timespan=2year&showDataPoints=false&daysAverageString=1&show_header=true&scale=0&address=

The number of daily transactions is actually higher now than the $1000+ peak over a year ago.

Why would that be?

I've never seen it so dead.

No price movement. No volume. Nothing.

What is going on?

1 minute candlesticks:


3 minute candlesticks:


And what is this all about:
http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinMarkets/comments/2s3481/warning_okcoin_litecoin_sells_currently_not/

It's 06:00 in China. If it's still like this in an hour (i.e. at 07:00), I'm tranferring out of okcoin for a couple days.

Why is it so dead???

[I am asking what your strategy is in the event of a panic.]

***I am not saying the market will collapse. I am asking what your strategy is in the event of a panic.

Say the market collapsed (below $10), what would happen to the exchanges?

I guess trading would be "suspended" to allow the insiders to get out first and it would be very hard to convert the last remaining value of your BTC before hitting $10 and below.

How could I get back to fiat in a panic situation? I guess nobody on localbitcoins.com would be buying?

[Using reason and logic only. Leave the emotion and speculation to the other threads please!!!]

Using reason and logic only. Leave the emotion and speculation to the other threads please!!!

1. Assuming silicon ASICs have now approached their limit, how much energy (in Watts) would be required if there were 10bn people on the planet and there was an average of 10 transactions per person, per day?

2. Is there any way to get the transaction time down to below 10 seconds? (i.e. suitable for buying a coffee or paying for my groceries)

3. Is centralization of the network inevitable?