So I have been active here for a while now, and because I am not that technically-inclined, I tend to spend most of my time on the newbie board. Learning. I hope that the posts I have made there have contributed, and help people.

I raised a stink a while back about the splashing about of red paint by DT2, and since then (not from my post - I was only one of many), we've seen the introduction of merit. It's a great move forward, but we may not yet be in the final iteration of the system. Looking back at the motivations of DT2, I'm starting to really see their point.

Unfortunately, we're facing three issues on the Beginner's board, as follows:
- People who still don't know about the merit system, and are posting crap to rush to Jr.
- People who DO know about it, and are posting low-quality copy-pastas to get merit
- People who have figured out how to trade it, and are abusing the hell out of it

I take exception to this. We want more people involved in crypto to help the idea disseminate, and to raise support and awareness. For the mercenary, we want them to start buying in to raise the market cap.

But on a practical level, this is the number one landing pad for new users of crypto globally. And they should be set straight, immediately. For example, if abusers of the board system are on page 1, this raises associations that the entire idea of crypto is being abused, and is therefore a crook's game. That's not good.

I don't know how to apply, but I'm putting it out there publically that I would be willing to put my own time (after work) into moderating the Beginner's board, and would be vigilant about junk being posted, as well as merit-trading groups. I'm not bloodthirsty, I just care about this community, and I don't want it ruined. My approach would be to warn first, ban later. But you may be sure that there would be plenty of bans.

Is there a formal way to apply?

H.

You can check the drama here: https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/

Effectively, it boils down to this:

- Their payment system is broken
- People are being debited up to 17x their transaction
- Others are being refunded for legit transactions

Money is spraying everywhere, and not in most people's favour.

Un-link your cards and accounts until it's sorted. Few nasty stories on the sub.

H.

Update 2018-02-17: VISA have taken liability for issues caused, confirmed CoinBase not at fault.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/16/visa-coinbase-not-at-fault/?ncid=rss

Hello newcomers!

It's awesome that crypto is getting so much attention, and that so many people have found this priceless repository of information. Welcome!!

But....maybe a few things you guys should know, before you put digit to keyboard. Might save you some questions, might save you some hurt feelings.

1 - Here be dragons - As of recently, the forum has a merit system, which means you need to post something of quality to rank up. Although this is currently being abused, "red paint" (aka an untrusted tag, not good) is being splashed around on people found doing this. Don't, is the thing.

2 - Don't post nonsense or reply with nonsense just to fill some "activity" quota. It will get you by just fine up until Jr. Member rank, then you need merit, see above. On a more human level, just be yourself, say your things, ask your questions, and you'll be fine.

3 - Don't take advice on investing here. You see, the crypto world is filled with a very diverse selection of egos, personalities, wants, needs, ambitions, concerns and opinions. Some of them will be holding bags of some coin which they have a vested interest in pushing (you might see the term "shill-ing" used). There are agendas here, and you should always do your own research (DYOR). You'll see this advice a lot, and it's solid.

4 - Not every post is useful, helpful or truthful - again, hidden agendas. We have a delicious buffet of the ignorant, the arrogant, the stupid, and the just plain wrong. Read, think and consider carefully. The other end of the buffet which contains the smart, the informed, the insightful and the respected....well, you'll have to figure out who they are by yourself - and there are plenty. Ever picked something from a buffet that smelled delicious but tasted like how you'd imagine dog-turds would taste? It's the same here. A little tip: Their member status is not an indicator of knowledge.

5 - Most coins will fail. It's really, REALLY easy to make a new cryptocoin. There's a script for it. People got wise to the idea that "hang on, a script is not enough" a while back, but it's been replaced by other ideas now. See point 6, but the same. The junk will fall by the wayside, the really good ideas will succeed. Read whitepapers, check the social media action, look dev teams up on linked in and google, and ask here if there's something you don't get. Some coins will make you massive profits, most will eat your shoe-money.

6 - ICOs - the new script for alt-coins. Stands for "initial coin offering" (among other acronyms), and is a way to get in before the coin/token even goes to market. If your coin succeeds, you're in clover, but most will fail. Between the incompetent and the scammers, most of this market is like risking a fart when you know that prawn last night was dodgy.

7 - I can haz free BTC? - nope, you can't. There's no trick, and there's no shortcut. Bitcoin doublers, youtube videos on the "directory.io hack", advance payments (i.e. the 419), etc are all designed to part you from your coins. If it's too good to be true, it's not true. Never give a private key, never pay up front for a transfer of funds. Simples.

Hope this helped!

H.

Hi all,

Firstly, please forgive me if I say something technically stupid. I am not trying to spam or be a troll, it's just not my area. Your advice would be fantastic.

I am planning a project, and it depends on the following concepts (facts? - need your advice):

1 - Payment is needed up front, with no guarantee of what you will get, or that I will even bother to send you anything.
2 - When you do get your stuff, I might also be able to spend it.

First issue: How does a buyer know I will send, once they've paid? (and they are paying in advance)

I am wondering if a smart contract can help me here.

When payment received, product dispatched, tracking sent. If valid tracking is not sent, payment should be refunded to payer.

Does this look like a valid/do-able smart contract? And can it be done for any coin/token? (sorry, this is probably contract 101 stuff, but I genuinely don't know). That is, if we have an agreement where I send you 5000 arse-coins for 1 BTC, can it enforce this? Let's say we're dealing in FIAT or Eth, or a third party to the trade items.

Second issue: How does the buyer receive the currency, and how can they know I don't hold the private key?

At the moment, I am thinking that the buyer should simply create an account, get a heads up on what the product is, and create the means to receive it. Then tell me. With no private stuff shared.

In the context of crypto, though, this could be difficult for newbies. I am also thinking of physical items to deliver their product, which they should be able to have confidence that I won't have access to. (Example: Casascius coins, although I know they were based on personal transparency).

I know I am being vague, but I hope I have been clear about the general problems I am working out.

Anyone got thoughts?

Hi all,

Just want to open up a conversation about mods, and user-bans.

The recent introduction of the merit system was a major step forward (in my not very humble opinion), towards a useful forum, free of spam. The trust system was all we had before that, and it didn't really fit. I was a bit passionate about that in threads like this one. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2806313.msg28705551#msg28705551

Am feeling like I was a bit harsh now, tbh.

I get what the DTs were doing, discouraging spammers by tagging them early so they'd just delete. But the problem was that it diluted the value of the "scammer" red mark of plague. Which, to be honest again, is valuable.

With the merit system out there, and the DTs on low-alert, the responsibility is largely falling on the mods to identify (or react to reports) and ban these spam and scam accounts.

Do we have enough mods? Can they cope? Does this need review?

Thoughts welcome.

H.

PS: I am not volunteering. I am but a junior, with a pacifier in my mouth, still, and an attitude to boot. You probably don't want me. I'd do some fucking banning though, there is that. Trading boards....om nom nom. Anyhow

Hi all,

For those of you seeking some insight into technical analysis (TA), this article by Wolf of Poloniex might help. Important to say that this guy is not me

https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@wolfofpoloniex/bare-basics-of-trading-cryptocurrency

It gave me a LOT of areas to read into, and I like the writing style. He's a bit cocky though

H.

Might be my material, might not be. Some good posts on the Cryto board there, and I'd maybe like to reference some.

Is this allowed?

(will delete post when answered, and thank you for your help!)

[don't.]

TL;DR - don't. You will get flattened. The game is rigged, and you can't win.

EDIT: Updated to include "community-vote pumps". TL;DR - they're not better. You're still losing.

EDIT2: This is interesting: http://www.cftc.gov/idc/groups/public/@customerprotection/documents/file/customeradvisory_pumpdump0218.pdf

Hi all,

I have been researching crypto, dreaming about these golden lambos, and probably feeling a little bit of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). I wasn't an early-adopter, so I don't have old wallets full of bitcoins, eth or other stuff to play with. I'm entering the markets in January 2018, wondering how I can catch up with the old school, and have some of this magical internet wealth. I'm using my own money, and I'm not in a position to put in much of it, so what I want to see is growth, and I want that growth to be what crypto is famous for - explosive, ridiculous.....free money, right?

It didn't take much time before my reading lead me to the idea of a Pump and Dump. Simple concept, really. A bunch of people get together, pool their buying power, and use it to create a huge upswing in the market. Then once the price has moved up as a result of their purchasing drive, they sell at the higher price, earning awesome paybacks. 50%+ profit is not uncommon to hear about.

How could I resist? I googled it, and immediately joined one of the largest groups for this (42,000 members), whose name I will not post here.I was added to discord and telegram for the group, and was encouraged by the invite-bot to read the rules of the operation, and the schedule, as well as the advantages of the member ranks.

The rules told me to:
1 - Buy at market as soon as I saw the signal, to get in at a good price ASAP
2 - Not to sell until I saw the dump start
3 - Not to whine if I lost money because I was too slow

The schedule told me the exchange (so I could make an account - referral link provided, naturally), and the pairing - i.e. against BTC, ETH, whatever (it's usually one of these two). It did not tell me the coin. This will become important in a few moments.

The member ranking told me that in order to rank up, I'd need to publicise the group, and invite people to join, with these benefits:

1 invite - @Member rank (No time advantage, ability to talk in the chat.)
4 invites - @Representative  (0.5 sec earlier)
10 invites - @Associate (1 sec earlier)
25 invites - @Partner (1.5 sec earlier)
50 invites - @Minister (2 sec earlier)
150 invites - @Ambassador (3 sec earlier)
500 invites - @Top Promoter (3.5 sec earlier)

I took one look at that, and decided it was irrelevant. 3.5 seconds? Yeah, right, I'm quick. I have the golden fingers of a born gunslinger. Right? Member rank would suit me just fine.

I carefully checked the time of the signal - 8 PM EST, which was also 8 PM my time, and it would be on Binance, using an ETH pairing. I freed up all my Eth, taking a couple of small losses on trades to do so. Confident I'd get that back with a cherry on top. Ate early, got some beers to keep beside the computer, and settled in to wait.

January 31st, 20:00:00 - announcement is posted. The coin is MDA.

What the hell is MDA, you ask? I can't answer, because I don't know either. Nor did I care, because I wanted free money. I typed it pretty damn quick though, you can be sure, and hit that buy button as fast as my little digits would react.

And the candlesticks went MAD. Up, up, up, up, up - I've never seen so much green. I hadn't even had time to get the top off a beer, and here I was, already a trazillionaire. But wait, I need to sell now, right?

Here's how I fared out:

Investment: 0.085 Ethereum
Signal: 20:00:00
Bought: I swear this was 20:00:00:00:00:00:01 but maybe not.....price: 00195000 per coin
Time passed: 5 seconds
What happened: Market went insane - green green green
Sold at top of green candles, I *KNOW* I did...didn't I? Price: 00179880 per coin

Hmm....loss 7.75%.

How'd that happen? Well, as follows, and this is why these just don't work:

1 - Coin selection - this is selected by the leader of the group, and you don't seriously think that this is done 2 minutes before the pump, do you? Nope, the leaders will have been slowly buying up MASSIVE volume of this coin, in a way that didn't upset any volume alerts, over weeks. And now they own a shitload of it, all of which was bought at rock-bottom in a dead market.

When you are pressing "buy", they are pressing "sell" - YOU are paying them.

2 - Time - You see, despite the seriously good tech used in (some/many/most/few) exchanges, they're not actually reporting data accurate to like one second. There's a delay, and this is very important! The candlesticks you see are not representing the buy and sell orders in place IN THAT SECOND. But you're sitting there with your finger on the trigger watching the light show, and you do what I did....hit "Market sell". Mistake.

And then you find out how well you did. Grab a tissue.

UPDATE: Member voted pumps...lol

People are getting wise to this now, and I've noticed that some of the newer big groups (30K+ members) are offering "member-voted pumps".

Seems legit, right? I mean, if you're voting, they CAN'T POSSIBLY have this figured out in advance. Even playing field. Lambos at the goalpost.

Except....

They're doing it via a poll. Set choices. You vote on one of 3, or 6, or whatever. They are picking them for you. And holding massive bags of all of the dump coins.

If they miss a few polls in a row, they're OK with this - you get a telegram saying "Due to market conditions, today's dump has been picked by the admins". They're not wise, they're overloaded with some shite that didn't get votes recently

Again....When you are pressing "buy", they are pressing "sell" - YOU are paying them.

80-90% of people lose money in Pump and Dumps. Some will make money, sure. The leaders who had time to acculumulate the coins YOU were about to buy, and maybe some clever bunnies with bots faster than my fingers.

The victims are generally the group helping to pump, and some poor clowns who saw the price go ballistic and bought in out of sheer "Can't let this pass" panic. Once the dump happens (i.e. well before you knew it was happening), these people are already holding a bag of crap. PnD groups pick dead coins, with no future and no trade for this, so you can't even console yourself that you might get out in 6 months when it explodes. You won't.

I hope this (much longer than I intended) post helps you all. The moral of the story....if it's too good to be true, it's not true. Also, if you can't spot the dummy in the game, it's you.

H.

Not mine.

Shorena's post on how to sign a message is fantastic. Here it is:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=990345.0

Is it possible to get it stickied?

Hi all,

I've had a lightbulb (lambos beckon!!), but I am not sure I have the knowledge to think out the knots.

Basically, the issue is trust. Like this:

- Person A gives me (say) $100 to buy them crypto
- I buy it, and send to an address they choose

The downfall here for person A (and I might not be seeing all of them!) is that between the time of me buying (with their money), and the time for me to send it to them, it might have gone up. Why wouldn't I cash the asset out myself, tell Person A there was a tech issue, and walk away with a smug grin?

Can a smart contract solve this? Is there a way I can be tied into this kind of deal using some kind of existing tech? (EDIT: I *want* to be tied in, and I want to be able to show buyers that)

Let's assume that the payment HAS to take place at <time1>, and the transfer of the asset has to take place at <time2>. Let's call these non-negotiable, and a breach would be an issue.

I apologise if this is a stupid question, but I'm relatively new, and am trying to work this idea out in my head.

Thank you for all and any advice.

H

Hi all,

So as the title says, I am having difficulty squaring off percentage gain with pair/fiat-gain on altcoins.

On the one hand, I can see that 50% is 50% is 50%, no matter what way you spin the maths of it. And therefore every quid put in can give you back one and a half.

However, I favour a very aggressive trading strategy (possibly not a wonderful idea, but hey, my money ), and I'm being draw to the idea that it's much easier for a $0.01 coin to go to say $0.05, than it is for a higher market-cap asset like BTC to go from 10K to 50K.

I suspect that I am mentally falling prey to some kind of gambler's fallacy here, but there are so many examples....

Anyone got a good source/video/article etc that might be able to help me out?

In a nutshell, I have some Eth, I want to trade, but I am not sure whether to take a massive punt on the shitcoins, or go slower and steadier with the established ones. My instinct is to take the punt. But it's only that - instinct. I have a gambly streak

Advice appreciated.

Here you go. My stance on the subject.

I don't claim to speak for you all, so you should post your own thoughts. Disagreement and discussion is welcome.

Genuine shitposters: Sorry, you might not get much from it.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2806313.new#new

It's not moderation or reasonable anymore, it's pure bullying now. Lovely, stinky, racist bullying.

I'll get banned for fucking SURE, but I don't care.

The fact that the biggest crypto forum in the world is the least welcoming and most unfriendly to newbies just grinds my gears. This, of course, run by the biggest stakeholders. Ridiculous.

Hi all,

So, to get it out of the way, this account has newbie status. I don't think that should be relevant, but since this guy is probably about to tag me, let's just get the abuse out of the way. FWIW, I did have an older account (MUCH older), but I can't recover it, so them's the breaks.

So anyhow.

This guy "The Pharmacist" has been on a rampage on the Beginner's board. And that's fine, cos in fairness, there is a lot of crap posted on there.

But his trust ratings are all to do with "No english", "Filipino shitposter", and more "not as white as me" type comments. Yeah, OK, the last one was exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis, but it's not undeserved. Check his lovely trust history.

My question is simple: Is English required to participate in this community?

If the answer is yes, may I ask that all other language boards be closed down immediately. Also let me know, as I am not into that kind of closed-minded thinking. I'd prefer to get the fuck out of dodge before we have to validate with a picture of our KKK outfit.

If the answer, on the other hand, is NO, then why are this guy's trust ratings valid, and who is auditing them?

I get that he's in this "Default Trust" network....which in my opinion is a terrible idea to start with. "Default"? REALLY? I trust my great-uncle to tell me great stories about when he was a child in post-WW2 London. I also implicitly trust him to buy his round at the bar. I do NOT trust him not to grab my wife's ass when he's had a couple of glasses of red. So is he "default" or not? Well, I guess it kinda DEPENDS.

Trusted to perform escrow based on multiple previous dealings - great. No people skills required, just the ability to track a trade, potentially handle some postage, and a facility with wallets.

Trusted to moderate a board? People and interpretation skills most definitely required. Also a cool head, a calm approach, an intelligent approach to cultural issues, a diplomatic manner, and many other things.

Some people have both, and that's amazing. However, when we talk about TRUST ratings, this is not the same as moderation - that's required, and to be honest, the right people are in place mostly....nowadays.

So coming back to this default trust thing....

Someone is given this ability to place the Red Mark of Plague (awaiting proof they don't internally call it this) on anyone they like, for any reason, UNPOLICED? Are you fucking NUTS?

How did they earn it? Escrow? Fine, make them a trusted escrow. Moderation? Fine, make them a mod.

To let people run around like this posting racist red marks on anyone they choose is insanity. This is the biggest crypto-board in the world, and I can tell you that it's quickly building a reputation as the unfriendliest. Most especially among members of non-English speaking countries who don't have a dedicated child-forum.

Who says they are not valuable, or will not become valuable, members of the community?

You lot want Crypto to succeed? Yes? Then we need people from everywhere backing it and being curious. They don't deserve to encounter an arsehole like this guy. FYI: Google translate is pretty popular, but not perfect.

For this guy to run around tagging people because English is not their first language is plain wrong. You don't have to take my word for that. Check his trust page (all four billion pages of it, the arrogant bastard), and look at his remarks from late 2017 to date. More and more racist.

The Pharmacist - feel free to tag this account with negative trust. Don't you dare say that it's because of poor English though, because I'll debate you into a hole. Do the decent thing, and go back on your trust history, and remove the red marks you made on people honestly trying to learn and become involved. Collaborate with Mitchell and the mods on the Beginner forum to ban the genuine shitposters. Get your dirty racist comments off that page, and be a grown-up.

And for the love of God, would someone please get rid of this ridiculous, outlandish idea of "default trust", and the people who abuse it.

I knew there were some clever bunnies out there when it came to exploiting vulnerabilities, but I never realised how sophisticated.

Great story, and some great basic stuff to implement, security-wise.

https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@hacker0/how-i-hacked-hundreds-of-bitcoins-ama

Hope it's OK to link this.....mods feel free to remove post if I've broken a rule.

H

EDIT: Guess I asked hard questions

Very basic, I know, and I appreciate the answer is probably out there, but I might not be asking the right questions to the google-machine.

So my understanding is this...

In the beginning (TM), we had tally-sticks for transactions, which sucked because wood+termites=debt.

Then we had double-entry book-keeping, which is better, but prone to abuse and mistakes.

Now we have blockchain, whereby the ledger is visible, and miners validate it by in effect eliminating mistakes, and only putting the "correct" transaction into the chain.

What I can't quite grasp is how the altcoins work. I kinda get that Bitcoin itself was a proof of concept, but let's say that someone floats an ICO for "ArseCoin", where all arses, everywhere, will be validated through the blockchain that they establish.

Does this mean that all arse-owners need to buy in? And that if they don't, they are at risk of being classified as arse-less?

Or to be a bit less facetious about it...

Ripple. So this is apparently revolutionising the banking system. I picked this purely as an example, as it's the one I am closest to understanding (I think!), and it's known. Could be anything. Citation: ArseCoin.

Am I correct in understanding that the concept and the miners who bought in created a blockchain and support structure for the bank system to use, and that now the banks need to adopt this up-and-running "thing" to maintain the value of the unit?

What happens if they don't?
Who's selling it to the banks?
What's stopping the banks hiring some hotshot who gets this stuff and making their own?

And most importantly (in my head!)...

How does a bank, for example, take a "thing" that someone says is awesome ("Blockchain man, woo!"), and incorporate this into existing systems and procedures? Wouldn't this be a total rewrite of their internal accounting? Wouldn't this be a hard sell, in that some institutions are still using the same practices they used when they were swapping slaves for spice?

I have a mental gap, and it bothers me greatly. It's one of the crucial links I need to decide how to invest.

Discuss!

Been waiting for the 25th to get paid so I can start my nub-folio, and today's drops have frustrated me a lot.....

Not because of the price drops themselves, or any doubts over recovery, but because this is the time to be getting max value for my cash.

The rally will start soon, and I'll miss all that lovely profit

Hi all,

Theoretical question only

Let's say I want to give my friend Bob a wallet with 1 Bitcoin in it, cos I like Bob.

I want this to be wholly owned by Bob, and for him to have confidence it cannot be compromised - e.g. by me, the creator of the wallet. Bob's a suspicious one.

Is it possible for me to create a wallet so that the private key can be given to Bob without me ever being able to recover it?

Thanks

I'm doing my best to recover my old account, but although I know the email and have access to it, I am getting the message "This account has not yet been approved".

Can anyone advise?

Thank you!

TLDR: Nope.

Briefly got into the mining craze in early 2013, then life forced me to change direction.

Dragged out the old PC last weekend to see what interesting wallets I might have....

None, as it turns out.

Almost all funds (I think about 250 LTC was my main one) held on Cryptsy. Welp.....yeah, ok.

I do have a lot of FateCoin, if that one ever comes back

BitCoin core contained approx $40 worth of BTC....pretty happy with that tbh

Hi all,

I've been looking at collecting up a number of very small amounts of Bitcoin I have lying around in various wallets, and combining them into one wallet.

I'm a little worried about the transaction fees though....I don't understand well how they work, but transaction fee charts that I found show insane numbers ($28 average fee). This makes it impractical for me to transfer what would probably be considered dust.

In the longer term, I'd like to also know more about how transferring between exchanges and cashing out is impacted by this. (BitPanda -> exchange -> another exchange -> BitPanda -> out).

Am I missing a trick?

All advice appreciated.