Google Plus social network have launched.  https://plus.google.com/  Is there a way that a bitcoinj or bitcoinjs web application ( https://github.com/bitcoinjs/node-bitcoin-p2p/issues/8 seperating the bulky blockchain held centrally from every users wallet held decentrally ) can be interfaced on the Google Plus web platform to allow Bitcoin digital goods transfers between friends on the Google Plus social web interface?  Knowing that Google is more friendly towards Bitcoin digital goods with the Google developed http://code.google.com/p/bitcoinj/ than other social networks like Facebook.

It would be helpful if the user just keeps his spendable (of small bitcoin value) wallet.dat file privately on his Google Plus account and reload it by uploading a new spendable wallet.dat once empty or buying Bitcoin digital goods into his online held wallet.dat at Google Plus or receive Bitcoin digital goods from friends into his online held wallet.dat at Google Plus.  When doing a transfer to a friend the application can hide the complicated Bitcoin addresses and just shows his friends names from his address book where he associated his friends Google Plus account with a Bitcoin address.  The Bitcoin digital goods' value to be transferred can also be shown in a national currency of choice (calculated at current market prices from major dealers) to simplify value of transfer comprehension for the average user.

Simple Bitcoin digital goods transfer interface example:

Transfer Bitcoin digital goods to:
                          Select Friend         Select value expressed in       Key in Bitcoin Value to transfer
                          John                     GBP                                   16.49 USD or 0.99 BTC
                          Suzy                    AUD                                      ^                ^
                          Sam                     USD                                      |                 |
                          Chris                    JPY                                     user           application converts
                                                     INR                                    key this       this on the fly from
                                                     EUR                                     in              online data available

A positive Bitcoin comment by a web user in this Forbes.com article:  http://blogs.forbes.com/steveschaefer/2011/06/29/visa-mastercard-surge-on-feds-friendlier-cap-on-swipe-fees/

Click on show comments.

Seems like MtGox trading volume is back to normalcy levels - before hack closure low volume levels and press mania elevated volume levels:

http://bitcoinwatch.com/

http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/

Countering Payment Reversal Risk for Merchants:  How long before online downloadable digital content / services merchants will proclaim that they only take Bitcoin due to the reversability of other payment methods, and the irreversable nature of Bitcoin payments?

Countering Bitcoin price fluctuation Risk for Merchants:  The merchant of the downloadable content / service can also protect themselves against fluctuating bitcoin prices by exchanging the received bitcoins immediately (programmatically) after receival. 

Countering Bitcoin liquidity Risk for Merchants:  Pricing of goods/services can take cognisance of the depth of market liquidity on major exchanges.  If your product is worth $50 dollars for example - and 100 customers are expected to order it per hour - it gives you $5000 - if the depth at MtGox of bitcoins wanted is $5000 at an average price of US$16.45 for example - you can convert your US$ into bitcoin (programmatically) by this conversion rate.  So depending on your product price and product volume you can offer a bitcoin rate on the fly if your site is linked to Bitcoin exchange data.

Simple Merchant shopping cart bitcoin transfer button script (should just be able to replace paypal/credit card payment link in shopping cart software with bitcoin enabled transfer link):  https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BitWillet

Countering Payment Reversal Risk for Merchants:  How long before online downloadable digital content / services merchants will proclaim that they only take Bitcoin due to the reversability of other payment methods, and the irreversable nature of Bitcoin payments?

Countering Bitcoin price fluctuation Risk for Merchants:  The merchant of the downloadable content / service can also protect themselves against fluctuating bitcoin prices by exchanging the received bitcoins immediately (programmatically) after receival. 

Countering Bitcoin liquidity Risk for Merchants:  Pricing of goods/services can take cognisance of the depth of market liquidity on major exchanges.  If your product is worth $50 dollars for example - and 100 customers are expected to order it per hour - it gives you $5000 - if the depth at MtGox of bitcoins wanted is $5000 at an average price of US$16.45 for example - you can convert your US$ into bitcoin (programmatically) by this conversion rate.  So depending on your product price and product volume you can offer a bitcoin rate on the fly if your site is linked to Bitcoin exchange data.

Simple Merchant shopping cart bitcoin transfer button script (should just be able to replace paypal/credit card payment link in shopping cart software with bitcoin enabled transfer link):  https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BitWillet

Countering Payment Reversal Risk for Merchants:  How long before online downloadable digital content / services merchants will proclaim that they only take Bitcoin due to the reversability of other payment methods, and the irreversable nature of Bitcoin payments?

Countering Bitcoin price fluctuation Risk for Merchants:  The merchant of the downloadable content / service can also protect themselves against fluctuating bitcoin prices by exchanging the received bitcoins immediately (programmatically) after receival. 

Countering Bitcoin liquidity Risk for Merchants:  Pricing of goods/services can take cognisance of the depth of market liquidity on major exchanges.  If your product is worth $50 dollars for example - and 100 customers are expected to order it per hour - it gives you $5000 - if the depth at MtGox of bitcoins wanted is $5000 at an average price of US$16.45 for example - you can convert your US$ into bitcoin (programmatically) by this conversion rate.  So depending on your product price and product volume you can offer a bitcoin rate on the fly if your site is linked to Bitcoin exchange data.

Simple Merchant shopping cart bitcoin transfer button script (should just be able to replace paypal/credit card payment link in shopping cart software with bitcoin enabled transfer link):  https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BitWillet

Countering Payment Reversal Risk for Merchants:  How long before online downloadable digital content / services merchants will proclaim that they only take Bitcoin due to the reversability of other payment methods, and the irreversable nature of Bitcoin payments?

Countering Bitcoin price fluctuation Risk for Merchants:  The merchant of the downloadable content / service can also protect themselves against fluctuating bitcoin prices by exchanging the received bitcoins immediately (programmatically) after receival.  

Countering Bitcoin liquidity Risk for Merchants:  Pricing of goods/services can take cognisance of the depth of market liquidity on major exchanges.  If your product is worth $50 dollars for example - and 100 customers are expected to order it per hour - it gives you $5000 - if the depth at MtGox of bitcoins wanted is $5000 at an average price of US$16.45 for example - you can convert your US$ into bitcoin (programmatically) by this conversion rate.  So depending on your product price and product volume you can offer a bitcoin rate on the fly if your site is linked to Bitcoin exchange data.

Simple Merchant shopping cart bitcoin transfer button script (should just be able to replace paypal/credit card payment link in shopping cart software with bitcoin enabled transfer link):  https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BitWillet

Can someone add to bitcoin.org's client page the following for Bitcoin to succeed securely:

A downloadable, lightweight bootable image file that automatically boots up into the bitcoin client when a usb stick of 2gb or so is connected to the computer and the computer is booted while it is attached.

It can be free license linux lightweight, automatically opening the Bitcoin client and storing the bitcoin block chain and wallet files on the usb - thus giving an easy to use client and a sterile environment.  It should only do bitcoin - if the user is done with bitcoin transactions - they shut down.

All users should use a dedicated partition, removable boot media to use the Bitcoin client - a free licence Linux image file can be created for non-tech savvy (linux and windows) users - they just burn it to a cd and boot their computer with it - complete with the client.  Wallet.dat is stored on dedicated removable usb drive during this boot session.  Only Bitcoin should be used on this boot session.  Restart your computer before doing anything else.



Optional, but not necessary if the operating system / boot record environment is sterile:

Just before the encrypted client closes - it creates a onetime flickering captcha completion puzzle (preventing screen capture) that should be entered at subsequent opening.

If at reopening captcha is incorrect - the past 10 or all such captcha's should be entered to unlock.

Seems like not just Bitcoin commodity trading (Bitcoin commodity also referred to as internet currency, due to ease of online transfer and exchange) is under attack.

From 15 July 2011 it will be illegal to do over the counter trading of metal currency at forex retail providers for all US citizens in terms of the recently enacted Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

https://www.kitcomm.com/showthread.php?p=1408112
http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?p=4721826
http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?p=4725167

Are Elitist, Protectionism measures rife now?

Is Hyperinflation imminent like in Weimar Germany?  http://www.shadowstats.com/

How much confidence in the US currency do regulators have when all these protectionist measures are put into place.  It is definitely not protecting the consumer who would like to hedge himself against excessive inflation in what used to be a free market.  Most easy hedging with commodity currencies are now criminalized in the US.  How do you hedge yourself, if easy accessible hedging measures are being criminalized?  Now hedging will only be for the select few who meets entry requirements for more steep entry requirements like full-blown e-miny gold futures contracts - talk about equality...  What happened to Liberty, Egality, Fraternity - or are some now more equal than others?  Maybe the french should take back their Statue of Liberty gift or maybe the United States should have imported and re-erected the broken down remains of the Berlin wall around it at Staten Island.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libert%C3%A9,_%C3%A9galit%C3%A9,_fraternit%C3%A9

Is the free world going back to pre-1789 France?

Is there an orchestrated, hidden, offensive maneuvre launched against Bitcoin (media smear campaign, paid off assassination hack attack on MtGox, bad timing for BitcoinMonitor to be down), or is it just greedy human nature showing its face in a highly publicised unregulated (in the same sense like paper cash transactions) environment?  Will good triumph over evil this time round?

Bitcoin Monitor down,  ( http://www.bitcoinmonitor.com/ )

when 91,800.02 BTC are transacted on average per hour currently ( http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/ )

PS.  If you were greedy - why would you hack Bitcoin Monitor - unless you want to disrepute Bitcoin, to buy low maybe, and sell high later?

Trash a neighbourhood - buy up all the property - revitalise it into an upmarket trendy new development!  Watch out for Bitcoin 2.0 under a new guise and new patrons (of the old establishment) getting a piece of the action this time round ...

1.  Globalised, decentralised, secure accounting system
2.  Sending encrypted messages publicly VERY securely to anyone you shared your wallet.dat file with (you both have the public and private key) for the value of potentially only 0.00000001 btc each (excluding transaction costs - because no transaction happens over the bitcoin network) - much cheaper than a one time pad - What would be the value of that?!?
3.  Security applications where strong passwords are required - one 0.00000001 btc can be used only once and then the next in a the wallet.dat file for the next login!

and more

4.  ...

Accounts.csv file still not removed entirely from public sites:

http://pastebin.com/search?cx=partner-pub-4339714761096906%3A1qhz41g8k4m&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&q=accounts.csv#1124

MtGox please act.

"In new developments in the world of online transfers it has been established that anonymously exchanged online virtual Visa and Mastercard debit gift cards have been used to buy drugs, child pornography and illegal pirated digital goods from online shops proxy-posing as legitimate digital downloadable goods distributors."



Whilst the above quoted scenario might definitely be a possibility in our everyday existence, it is used fictionally as a demonstration of a possibility.  In the main stream media however, a blind eye is turned to this possibility.  Is a big deal of this possibility made, or even investigated by powerful Senators?  Or are the Senators first waiting for a donation from Bitcoin to give Bitcoin the same respectful treatment, in order to be - not smear campaigned?  It is not Bitcoin in default, but the Bitcoin (or any other asset) laundering criminals that should be investigated.  Shouldn't it be publicly corrected and clearly be stated, that your crusade is against criminals and not the legal Bitcoin trading public?  Don't you have all the legislation currently in place to bring a suspected Bitcoin launderer (like any other asset launderer) to book?  If anonymization is the problem, is the problem you have not with the Tor network endorsed by some?  Because anonymization is not a standard feature of the Bitcoin algorithm.

A criminal's Bitcoins are worthless if it can not, at some stage, access an economical use, at its network entry or exit point.  Please use the transparent, publicly available Bitcoin blockchain to investigate your Bitcoin laundering criminals, subpoena a suspected Bitcoin user, or any under investigation, to testify what the source of their Bitcoins were.  You can even transfer it out of existence to any address without a corresponding private key - that is to say if a legitimate source can not be proven (this is if the onus under your jurisdiction is on the suspect to prove innocense) - it will justly increase the value of legitimately acquired Bitcoins for the damage done in recent press articles.  And then leave the legitimate free market, digital goods (uniquely identifiable Intellectual property of Bitcoin cryptographic keys, accounting allocation system in this instance) trading community, out of the generalizations - or be equatable and publicly demonize the debit gift card industry as well - and face damage claims from the companies/individuals involved.  Anonymous and untraceable is a misrepresentation - with engough time, effort and protocol and ip monitoring (in combination with tor monitoring already conducted), an investigation can reveal everything, if the onus of proof lies with the investigator and not the investigated.

Note:  It is not the Bitcoin algorithm's standard protocol to launder Bitcoins - it is a wilfull illegal act.  It is also against Debit Gift card companies' policy to transfer ownership from the recipient of a debit gift card - but debit gift card laundering will be an illegal wilfull act.

The poster's comments are solely his opinion, in a forum like this we do not need to give you permission to have your own opinion - it's a requirement.  We are not rendering any service of any kind - but expressing individual opinion.  This is a universal disclaimer for all posts of Cloud9 made on this forum.

Bitcoin P2P Crypto-Commodity

OK, so Bitcoin is a medium of exchange.  No one can question that.  And it seems a very effective medium of exchange.  

But is it a currency?  Is it money, backed by a store of value to be redeemable from the issuer giving the issuer no option not to accept it to be redeemed?  Or is it a secure accounting utility with a user allocated value due to market forces?

Can a Bitcoin site (bitcoin.org) decide individually whether to call Bitcoin a currency or not - because it has a decentralized nature?

Can a Bitcoin site (mtgox.com) decide individually whether to call Bitcoin an internet commodity or not - because it has a decentralized nature?

Can every Bitcoin holder, merchant, trader, etc. decide individually how they interpret Bitcoins?

Does Bitcoin allow for modern day barter transactions between the fairly secure Bitcoin Accounting Utility and a good/service?

See this legal ideas with regards to barter exchange as opposed to virtual currency (Scroll down to the end to Matthew C 's answer):

http://www.linkedin.com/answers/law-legal/corporate-law/finance-securities-law/LAW_COR_FSL/46277-12027705

Can Bitcoin be interpreted as an internet utility which can be bartered for any number of goods/services/other?

Is bitcoin.org 's blatant misrepresentation of Bitcoin not misleading?

"P2P Virtual Currency
Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer currency. Peer-to-peer means that no central authority issues new money or tracks transactions. These tasks are managed collectively by the network."

"... no central authority ... tracks transactions ... " - Can anyone not track transactions on the blockchain (provided Bitcoin was not laundered - and laundering Bitcoin would be illegal)?

P2P Virtual Currency - Does a currency not require a store of value backing it?

Does Bitcoin's only value derive from its secure, transferable utility value as an internet commodity described by MtGox?  Have we bought an internet commodity that we are bartering for goods/services/other as a medium of exchange?  Or have we been issued a virtual currency with a backed store of value - to be redeemed, without option not to accept, from the backing entity on demand?

Would "P2P Crypto Accounting Utility" not be a more aptly description?  Would it not be less incriminating to bitcoin.org 's author who identifies his Bitcoins as currency - even though it is not backed, or redeemable from an entity, without option not to accept?

Is Bitcoins an accounting utility or a currency when legally defined?

The  formal  description  of  Bitcoin  on  bitcoin.org  states  it  is  a  currency.

Is the  right  to  mobile phone network airtime a  digital  radio  wave  utility  commodity  that  enables  the  holder  of  the  right  to  communicate  voice  or  data  on  a  Network  over  vast  distances?

Is  the  cryptographic  key  pair  right  to  a  network  working  at  a  high  hash  rate  to  secure  values  attributed  to  a  key  pair  right  a  digital  utility  commodity?

In  short  -  is  Bitcoin.org  a  crypto-commodity  like  MtGox  sells  /  buys  for  fiat  currency?

Does  bitcoin.org  view  bitcoins  bought  from  someone  to  be  bartered  when  exchanged  for  goods  /  services?

Can  bitcoins  be  used  as  medium  of  exchange  in  barter  transactions  for  the  digital  age,  like  pebbles,  eggs,  salt,  gold,  mobile  airtime,  etc.,  have  been  used  in  other  ages  /  different  communities  as  medium  of  exchange  in  barter  transactions?

Or  is  bitcoin.org  proposing  a  rival  currency  to  national  currencies?

Which  of  the  above  would  be  legal  under  the  current  social  contract?

Bitcoin's hash rate pie chart on bitcoinwatch.com shows a sudden "other" group that was added to the hash rate that increased dramatically.  Are these nodes ip addresses' geolocation dispersed as would be expected by a broadly take up of the wide public or is it concentrated?  (Like "Suggested" here http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=57.msg175165#msg175165 and here http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=57.msg175245#msg175245 ).  Is the growth really this organic?  It seams like the hash rate climbed upward out of its exponential growth curve? ( http://www.bitcoinwatch.com )

Given a world wide internet population of 2,095,006,005 (March 31, 2011 - http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm )

and a 1-month average Bitcoin (bitcoin.org) general internet reach compared to general internet usage world wide of 0.03130% (June 6, 2011 - http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/bitcoin.org# - GRAPH - TRAFFIC STATS - REACH)

Will it be a reasonable approximation to estimate that Bitcoin (bitcoin.org) has a global internet reach population of roughly 2,095,006,005 x 0.03130% = 665,736 !! ?

Would the Bitcoin blockchain not be more secure if the blockchain acceptance criteria of 50% majority of nodes becomes 95% agreement of nodes at certain stages of high single mining pool node concentration?

See also http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=12153.msg170894#msg170894 ?

Are all nodes propagating the blockchain across the network - or only generating nodes?

If only generating nodes propagate the blockchain, does all Coin generators' nodes have an equal pro-rata ratio between cpu/gpu hash rate and connected network bandwidth to actually propagate the blockchain among new / non-generating nodes?

Or can a Coin generator's network traffic be throttled to a very low level and still have a hash rate share in the network of own hash rate divided by full network's hash rate?

Block chain propagation seems to be slowing - as more nodes are coming online and the cpu distribution is not equitable among all nodes (due to gpu's in use) and the nodes online for block generation/transmission is diminishing in ratio to non-generating nodes coming on line due to this fact?

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=1458.msg26046#msg26046

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=10860.msg155532#msg155532

Isn't this problematic for scaling the bitcoin network?