[Andreas M. Antonopoulos]

"In the internet, no one knows you're a dog"
"In the bitcoin, no one knows your dog is a millionaire"

Recently I have watched a vedio in YouTube from Andreas M. Antonopoulos regarding where we are headed in open networks of the information economy. It will give us consice explanation about what might be our future with blockchain technology. So I thought it's worth to be shared.

<<<Link to the vedio>>>

[All the people will have a doubt of post from newbie account.]

Recently I have seen that a Newbie (accountsellerlion) created a thread regarding bitcointalk account sales. I know account selling is prohibited in the forum and they will be red-tagged if they caught. But the real question that we should ask from ourselves is "do you think is it enough?". I don't think so. This is what s/he said in that thread (look at the highlighted part) and that's the main problem I think and should be stopped. OP also suggesting others to create new accounts in case of avoiding getting red-tagged for account buying. Imagine what will happen if others follow the same way what OP did? @theymos I think we should reconsider the rules regarding account selling and buying.

Another thing I just want to get clarified, is it allowed to post telegram groups links in bitcointalk? AFAIK that's where all the black market deals are going on like merit trading, account selling etc...

<...snip...>
All the people will have a doubt of post from newbie account.
But the reason is the redtrust will be given to me for Account selling . I am not a scammer.

All are warm welcome.

Join this telegram group
<...snip...>

I am from Sri Lanka and we don't have a local board but the thread. The problem is the "Sinhala" thread is becoming a useless thread and I don't even bother to posting there. It's full of chitchats and I just want to start a new thread for the people actually cares about the crypto and other valuable areas. Can we start a self-moderated thread? because there are so many members out there who really want to discuss with crypto related things with our native language. I have already chatted with few genuine crypto enthusiasts and they also want to check whether is it possible to start a new thread with our native language as a self-moderated thread where they all can discuss without those shit talks. So is there any possibility for that? If not what are our alternatives?

I already send a PM to Cyrus by asking this matter and I still didn't get any reply from him either.
 
This is our thread>>>https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2106234.0

I have seen that lot of space between the username and news feed bar being wasted without any proper usage. So I just wanted to suggest, why can't we just use that space to display the live price tracking of BTC as I shown below. The main objective of this forum is also discussing about the BTC. So if members able to updated with the latest price of BTC wouldn't be a bad idea. I just wanted to know what other members have to say about this suggestion and I will lock the thread if this is already discussed.

[big red dots]

This user promote his/her website (Topics started by user) almost all the boards in the bitcointalk. I don't think his/her intention is noble since this user only shares the links for his/her website, but not sharing anything in the forum. I'm not saying his/her posts shared only on his/her website are less valuable. Some of them are actually worth to read. The problem is the way he/she promote his/her website, it's really annoying. This user always uses big red dots on the subject and with big useless pictures. I have reported two threads of him/her and even deleted by mods.

The problem is why the forum allowed to run this kind of promoting which I believed really annoying for other users. I just want to know is there any forum rule regarding a website promotion?

Note -I have searched and couldn't find a similar thread which addressed this issue.
  

[I just want to list all the users with 9 , 99, 249,... etc.]

I can't wait to get my PC back online to play a little with your database.
I just want to list all the users with 9 , 99, 249,... etc. merit and some other fun stats.

This is the motivation where I started to think about why we can't scraped the Merit data which iasenko searched, from available data in Bitcointalk Merit dashboard,prepared by DdmrDdmr (I called him as stat guru in bitcointalk forum ). So then he guided me how should I do this work. I manually scraped those stats from "Ranking-up pipe line tab" in the Merit dashboard. This list of members were tabulated according to the latest data available as at  30^th July 2018 and I will update this thread when Merit data dashboard updated by "DdmrDdmr".

Update 10 - List of Members were updated from the latest data available 19^th October 2018

Note^new - Already Ranked Up Members

List of Members in the Ranking-up pipe line

 

|Current Rank|	|                                Segment                                      |	|     User Name   |	|      Merit      |	|       Remarks     |
Hero Member	Could have ranked up to Legendary Member, Lacking Merit	BTCforJoe	970
		marlboroza	965
Sr.Member	Could have ranked up to Hero Member, Lacking Merit	TheBobyHunter	494	Merit abuser
		Aerys2New	451
Full Member	Could have ranked up to Sr. Member, Lacking Merit	slackovic	236
		chimkNew	231
		Koal-84New	228
		mu_enricoNew	233
		pebwindkraftNew	232
		Rosewater Foundation	232
		aliyagiz207	242
		fengxia	230
		Storx	233
Member	Could have ranked up to Full Member, Lacking Merit	Paolo.DemidovNew	95
		PolkeinsNew	91
		ovcijisir	94
		r1s2g3	94
		GR92	90
		Katewind	92
Jr. Member	Could have ranked up to Member, Lacking Merit	IsayNew	9
		redtag070New	9
		a.kaetana	9
		capableuwa1	9
		elmwood	9
		EnemyDown	9
		Hacpyrs	9
		Buzhou	9
		teradont	9
		Tagtuyot	9
		chathu789	9
		ArkadiyDeliev	9
		teradont	9
		-Sinner-	9
		alexacoiner	9
		astrixligtman	9
		BiteByte	9
		daduremi	9
		goffbar	9
		Gonzo11	9
		Hellokitty09	9
		itsandylandman	9
		iwanirawan	9
		KirilBit	9
		MkGregor	9
		papochka1	9
		pkblgn	9
		ProofOfLambo	9
		serizawax	9
		SlushPool official	9
		FabiAdr76	9

Note 1 - Table created by using [BETA]Signaturion - forum signature interactive editor by axicron
Note 2 - I only considered members having more than 90% of Merits & 100% required activities in order to rank up

[10 minute period]

When I reading ( I normally read a lot) through bitcointalk forum, I just found a valuble thread named Is it possible to understand bitcoin deeply without having an IT background? in Ivory tower board. Then I found this little gem, Mastering Bitcoin shared by bitmover and I go through the first chapter of that book. After reading the first chapter of that Mastering Bitcoin book, there were two things I still didn't got understood.

• Why Bitcoin network specially choosen the 10 minute period for allowing the decentralized network to validate a transaction through consensus process?
• Why Bitcoin address always starts with 1 and 3?

I tried to ask these two questions in that thread but then I noticed it's not allowed to post "member rank" too (even though board mentioned "full members members and above only").

Another thing I would liked to shared is every new members should go and read posts in those boards at least once a day (Serious discussion and Ivory tower ). Because it will helps a lot to improve English knowledge also while gaining vast knowledge about different fields(it's not just about crypto).

Why staff can manually whitelist or put some threshold earned Merit requirement for members who wish to post "Ivory tower" board. Because there are some members whose having lots of initial (airdropped) Merits, but doesn't interested to post those boards at all.

P.S.- I don't think spammers or shitposters even thinking about posting in Ivory tower since posts are not counted and no signature campaigns there.

[If it's from the eye]

If it's from the eye, a desire for picture begins when I can make a will on it, something that I saw or the moment I get the idea of what I saw remains as I want.

If it's from the nose, a desire for smell begins when I can make a will on it, something that I smelled or the moment I get the idea of what I smelled to remains as I want.

If it's from the tongue, a desire for taste begins when I can make a will on it, something that I tasted or the moment I get the idea of what I tasted remains as I want.

If it's from the body, a desire for touch begins when I can make a will on it, something that I touched or the moment I get the idea of what I touched remains as I want.

If it's from the mind, a desire for imagination begins when I can make a will on it, something that I imagined or the moment I get the idea of what I imagined remains as I want.

I just want to know what other members thinking about the "will", how it's born and do we need to attach to the "Will"?

[So why unhandled]

I have found this j.member(junk member) spreading his/ her refferel link all over the boards and even bumping threads within the same day. I have reported  a post from this user. One of my report also still marked as unhadled which i believed the one of this user that I reported. This is the second time(one is already marked as bad by mistake of mods). When I'm reporting low value/ spam posts are marked as good within few minutes. Why the Mods are some kind of inactive mode when someone is reporting the posts which include refferel links. My believe is, it's clear cut case according to the forum moderation policy. So why unhandled

Link>>>https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1035975

Note : I always likes to see reports to be marked as good since I got 99% accuracy.

[What is a Smart Contract?]

I have found a video which simply explained the Smart Contracts. So I would like to shared transcribed that content with for other members( specially newbies who loves to learn about crypto field and it's usages).

What is a Smart Contract?

Smart Contracts are just like contracts in the real world. The only difference is they are completely digital. In fact smart contracts is a tiny computer programme that stored inside a block chain.

Let's see one example in order to understand how smart contracts are works. Think about large fund rising third party platform, like kickstarter. Product team can go to the "Kickstarter" then create a project, set a funding goal and start collecting money from others who believing the idea. Both the product team and supporters need to trust the "Kickstarter"  to handle their money directly.

"Trusting a third-party is required if we are not having Smart Contracts"

If the project gets successfully funded, the project team expect "Kickstarter" will give them the money. On the other hand supporters want their money go to the project if it was funded or to get refund when it hasn't reached it's goal.

With smart contracts we can build the similar system that doesn't require third party platform like "Kickstarter". We can programme a smart contract to added holds all the received funds until the certain goal is reaxhed. The supporters of project can now transfer their money to the smart contract. If the project gets fully funded, smart contract automatically passes the money to the creator of the project. If the project fails to achieve those goals, money automatically goes back to the supporters. Because smart contract stored inside a block chain, everything is distributed. With this technique no one isn't control of the money.

But Why We Trust Smart Contracts?

Well because smart contracts stored on a block chain. They inherit some interesting properties.

"They are immutable and They are distributed"

Being "immutable" means once smart contract is created. It can be never changed again. So no one can go behind your back and tamper with a code of your contract.

Being "distributed" means that the output of your contract is validated by everyone on the network. So a single person cannot forced to released the funds because other people will spot this attempt and Mark this as invalid. Tampering with smart contract become all most impossible.

Where and How Can We Use Smart Contracts?

Smart Contracts can be applied in many different things bot just than crowd funding.

• Banks - issue loans or to offer automatic payments
• Insurance Company - process certain claims
• Postal Company - payments on delivery

This is only few areas where we can use smart contracts. Right now hand full of block chains who supports smart contracts. But the biggest one is "Ethereum". It was specifically created and designed to support smart contracts. Smart Contracts can be programmed in a programming language called "Solidity". It's also would noting that "Bitcoin" also supports smart contracts although it was lot more limited compared to Ethereum.

[Insert List]

It was observed that some kind of bug in "

Insert List" code. It was really annoying when I was posting. I tried too many times to Edit the post but it automatically added  "[/list][/list]" code twice at the end. So I just want to know is there any bug in that code?


This is how it looks like when I clicked the "Preview" button>>>https://i.imgur.com/Uv06pXb.png

This is how it looks like when I clicked the "Edit" button>>>https://i.imgur.com/Z0zY0MZ.png

Edit-This was not I originally posted but that bug hit me again when I clicked the "Edit" button, Now it's adding two [/list][/list] codes at the top also

As a Sri Lankan I am very proud what she has achieved at her age by being able to challenged one of Einstein's theory...

She is non other than "Asha de Vos", Sri Lankan marine biologist, ocean educator and pioneer of blue whale research within the Northern Indian Ocean. I would like to share one of her talk given at a local TEDx held back in 2014 which was very interesting. She opens us a different angle to see how the small shift of shipping route will reduse the number of whales killed by hitting the ships.

Link>>>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chuTDolbtwo

[posts that are objectively high-quality, not just posts that you agree with.]

Recently I have seen that one thread promoting some kind of exchange called "Nessie.io" in ANN section. Now it's the most merited recent topic with having 138 Merits (it's more than what "welsh" got for his masterpiece of "Report effectively". Is this the thrend for merit abusers? Is this the new way of marketing?

• Choosing a Newbie account or creating a new one
• Posting the content that you want to do marketing (it can be some exchange, some shit coin... etc)
• Giving away loads of sMerits to that thread by their own officials or sometimes agents promoting that site or shitcoin.
• Getting rank up (in this case being number 1) in the Top-merited recent topics
• Getting members attention without spending a penny(free marketing)

I think this is "conflict of interest" by giving away so many sMerits to a thread by its own promoters and some of the members begin to believe that "oh no this project has huge potential ( since having loads of sMerits)". Actually I  don't know wether Nessie.io has some potential or not. I just want highlight the fact of how the Merits have been manipulated in ANN threads.

There is a recent ongoing debate also going on regarding not giving sMerits for the posts in ANN section and I'm a true supporter of that idea. One last thing about Merit system, this is what "theymos" said...

While we will not be directly moderating this, I encourage people to give merit to posts that are objectively high-quality, not just posts that you agree with.

Link>>>Nessie.io - Exchange with Seamless Access to Digital Wallet & Gaming Services

Dogedigital - Wearing Nessie.io avatar and also having red trust too, gave 50 sMerits
AcoinL.L.C - Wearing Nessie.io avatar and gave 30 sMerits

[Hash]

Hash

Every block in a block chain has a hash. It's like a finger print. We can say cryptographic hash is like a signature for a text or data file. It identify the block and all it's content and it's always unique just as like fingerprint. Once a block is created it's hash is calculated. Changing something(data) inside the block will cause hash to change, in other other words we can say hashes are very useful when you want to detect changes in the block.

Hashing function

I think it's the most important mathematical operation used in Bitcoin network. It needs for proof of work. We can say it's some kind of mathematical transformation of data. We can select some inputs and transform those inputs into a 64 characters long number. In fact some of them are letters and numerical digits in hexadecimal^[1]. We can input limitless inputs through this mathematical system and can get a output number ( 64 characters long). If we even change small thing, just imagine changing one lowercase in to upper case in a single character in a input, it will ultimately change the whole output number completely. So no one can predict the output from what the given in input.

SHA-256

SHA(Secure Hash Algorithm) is one of a cryptographic hash functions which known as one of the strongest hash functions available. SHA-256 algorithm generates an almost unique, fixed size 256 bit hash. We can call hash as one way function so it cannot be decrypted back. Therefore it's more suitable for password validation, anti-tamper, digital signatures.

SHA-256 Calculator

This is the link >>> "+++hash calculator+++".

Just type whatever you like. So I will type my Bitcointalk username as "vphasitha01" and you can see the resulting hash at the bottom.

If I change one lowercase character ( say "v") into a uppercase character (say"V"), the resulting hash changes completely and just has no resemblance to what happens before.

So let's put some Bitcoin transactions as follows,

Code:

James ->5btc for Alex
Hari ->0.5 btc for Devon
Clair ->1.256 btc Jack

and below that we can input some random number, nonsense number. In fact in Bitcoin network we called as "nonce".

Then we change this number with objective to get the output hash starting with zero. So keep changing until we get the starting number as zero. So using this "nonce" we can able to get hash which stats from zero.

This is actually what Bitcoin miners are doing. They are trying to take their transactions and tries to find the right "nonce". So with those transactions they gets the hash which starts with zeros. In Bitcoin case it's more than one zero it's something like 19 zeros as time of writing. So it will take very long time to even for few zeros. 19 zeros? You will never would be able to do it by your own. There are special hardwares to do this process quickly called as "ASICs" (Application Specific Integrated Circuit chips).

Bitcoin network is calibrated to only miner within the span of ten minutes will be able to find the right hashes with 19 zeros. That gives them the ability to announce their transactions with reference to the Bitcoin network. They actually packaged them into a block with the "nonce" and sent it out to across the network. All the other miners verify for himself. So transaction is valid and has a appropriate hash and add up that block to the chain of blocks to the block chain and that's how blocks grows in the network. This is known as " Proof of Work" ,they proving that doing some work to create a block which leads to consensus.


[1] - It uses sixteen distinct symbols,most often the symbols 0-9 to represent the values zero to nine, and A-F to represent values ten to fifteen.
Link 1>>>https://www.xorbin.com/tools/sha256-hash-calculator
Link 2>>>https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexadecimal

I recently seen that crwth started a threadApplication For Merit Source [Philippines Local Board]. In that thread he is giving away his sMerits for the posts that saying just appreciation of his works. I have no intention to disagree with his merit source application or his contribution to the forum as a senior member. But the point I want to highlight is if any member(specially who willing to become merit source) giving away his/her sMerits for the posts that saying  "I am a supporter of your work, I agreed with your application...." that would be a big issue when we consider the future of Merit distribution. At least it is not ethical and believed it as a Merit abuse.



I think when someone want to be a Merit source,he/she should maintained thier high standard when it comes to the distribution of merit, Merit sources are shouldn't biased, The most importantly he/she should only give Merits which actually deserved. This is only my way of looking at a Merit source. I am more than happy to know what other members thinking about this.

[---- Crypto Trading Strategies ----]

When i was entering to the crypto trading field, i am bit nervous and trust me I've lost so many funds. Then I've found a good guidance video^[1] regarding trading strategies. So i prctised and strict to a plan and able to earn money by covering my previous losses. That's why i feeled to share the content of that video which will be very helpful for new comers to the crypto field.

Disclaimer: This is just few methods that i used, strongly advised to trade at your own risk and DYOR before trading

---- Crypto Trading Strategies ----

Table of contents

Technical Analysis(TA) - I will create a separate thread for that later
HODL
Cost Averaging
Buy the Dip
Lock in Profits
Increase Your Position
Cut Your Losses
Balancing Portfolio
Lock Your Coins Away

HODL

Most straight forward and easiest strategy is HODL. That means buy some coins and don't touch them, forget about them few years. Hopefully if everything goes right, it will be worth pretty penny once you revisit them after waiting for a long time. In that way you don't have to worry about any crashes, don't have to worry about going to the moon, keep on "HODLing".

Cost Averaging

This is something very important to learn for beginners called "Cost Averaging". So if you feeled, like coin is particularly high right now and you still want to buy,but you don't want to start to dropping lot immediately after you bought. Then this is the best strategy. Basically you buy at consistent intervals like everyday, every week, every month, it doesn't matter. Just pick a interval and split your money across that and put in like 10$ to 100$ every once in a while. That way is more conservative. Because lows are less lows and highs are less high, you are just averaging. This is called "Cost Averaging". Rather than putting up your money at a higher high and then dropping down a lot (then you will thought like i just screwed up), this way it protects you from really big drops and big losses.

Buy the Dip

Basically what this means is if some thing goes pretty high and once it starts dropping, you are buying some. Most important thing is "Be Patient". When it starts to dropping you could possibly buy a little bit and don't get too exited like put your all new money in and buy immediately when it starts to dropping. If you do that, once start drop some more later you have feeled like could have saved some money for buy even better price. So be patient but don't be too patient. Basically be ready if it drops even more and if it doesn't drop, you can save your money for next down trend.

Lock in Profits

This is something we really hard to do. Because it goes against human nature. Basically when coins are going up and up(going to the moon), we all are become really greedy and we all feeled like we all can buy lambo, we all are gonna  become millionaires. But instead the smart thing to do is locking some profit every once a while. Because as they really up, also can drop really fast and if you held it all there way up to all there way down, whats the benefit of the ever having gone up. It's not saying sell all of them once, but may be some small percentage at every designated intervals of a rise.

Increasing Your Position

This is an another important strategy. Basically when it goes up and you sell a bit, when it down and you will re buy it. This is defiantly a nerve racking strategy. Because you don't know it's going to hit on point that you are willing to re buy it. It may never hit there and can just go back up and up again. So how to cope up with that is by not selling everything bu in just part of your stack and in also have a mind if it doesn't go back to a price that you are willing to re buy it,just use the profit still like buying an another coin that you can keep eye on. In that way, it's like a win win situation.

Cut Your Losses

It's also hard to do,because it's against the human nature. Every ones might be heard that phrase like "You not at a loss until you sell it". On the problem is if like fundamentals changed, market savior on a particular coin, you might have big losses and not want to sell it. But it might be smarter to sell it and redirect those funds into another coin which will help to recover your losses faster.

Balancing Your Portfolio

This is something very important but hard to manage, because it takes more time. But definitely a good thing to do. So you can split you'r portfolio in a multiple way. You can have part for long term "hodling" and the other part for day trading. You could have a some part from blue chip coins and other part for really risky ICO. The whole point is having a distribution between your funds. In simply "Don't put your all eggs in one basket".

Finally re balance your portfolio if skewed after some times. Always just follow the strategy that you set forth at the first place. In that way you can re balance and getting the proportions more even what they were before. This is similar to like mutual funds. Say if you are an investor and they splits their funds stocks and bonds depending on how risky you want to be and what goals you should achieve.

Lock Your Coins Away

This is a good strategy. Part of this strategy that calls for not touching your coins for a long time. In that case you might then want to put them in a paper wallet or some other place like hardware to access real quick. Since there lot of people gets bored, "Oh i want to trade daily, Oh i want to buy more coins etc..." and then you will go against your predefined strategy and end up regretting  that later.



[1] - video source>>>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omXPt53KIWc

[If a ship had 26 sheeps and 10 goats onboard, how old is the ship's captain?]

This question was asked, 5th grade test paper in China.

 "If a ship had 26 sheeps and 10 goats onboard, how old is the ship's captain?"

So can you guess the answer???

Today I have created a post which I believed to be helpful for new comers to the Bitcointalk. In that thread I shared my experience and I want to interactive with other members in order to gain more ideas for improve my posting abilities while helping newbies. Another thing I am hoping to update my "bookmarked list" in that thread. But suddenly the thread has been locked by mods and I think I owe an explanation since I'm not a spammer or shitposters. Don't know why mods are locked my thread since there are so many redundend threads still out their without any locking( some of them even get their answers  but still not locked). The thing I didn't get is why can't I shared my experience and why can't I update my list of bookmarked threads ?

So I want to the logic behind the locking of threads and is there any way to unlocking the threads which already locked? Am I violated the rules of Bitcointalk? Is there any sudden change of rules?

Link for my thread>>>3days and 19hours of Bitcointalk....

[easy methods]

I have joined this forum recently and I would like to share my experience about "bitcointalk" and new "merit system". When I was joined, I'm only worried about "how to earn merits". Actually I'm looked for easy methods even shortcuts. Then one day I got a nice reply from a senior member regarding what are the things that i can learn from this forum ( actually totally free) and  how to use "search" function. Now I am addicted to learn new things regarding cryto field even other fields too. I feeled this forum like a free version of  encyclopedia. The things I have learned from this short period of time are as follows which I believed helpful for new coming members.

• There are no "easy method" or "shortcuts" to earn merits( Even life). Don't worry about earning merits, gaining merit is a side benefit. You just need to contribute to the forum by helping other members.
• I think this forum is driven by sharing each others knowledge and experience. So always try to help other members while you are learning.
• Try to use "search" function before posting.
• Since this is a international forum, as members we should have some English litaracy in order to better interaction with other members. ( But there are local boards that you can share and learn from your native language too).
• Don't post unnecessarily and clog the threads if you don't have anything to say.
• I think better off from bounty sections( at least few months from joining) which gives you extra time for reading.
• Don't hesitate to use "report to moderator" funtion which helps to make forum at least less spam.( I have reported 32 reports with 100% accuracy)

I further likes to share my bookmarked list of threads which I believed helpful for new comers too.

My bookmarked list

• Guide for forum Search
• Terminology of bitcoin
• Unofficial rules of Bitcointalk
• Your Total bigginers guide for crypto currency and Bitcointalk
• Index to popular bitcointalk threads
• Comprehensive guide for Bitcointalk
• BB code lessons & Tutorials
• Guideline on posting images (with size adjustments)
• How to add image, resize image and make image clickable
• How to Become Signature Master in 12 hours
• Tmans guide
• Report effectively
• Rule breakers
• Overview of services

[forum moderation policy]

I have seen that one of the forum member has all over the forum boards by sharing his refferel links which is really annoying. The thing I want to to get clarified is wether this member violate the forum moderation policy by spreading his/her refferel link since it is shared with original site link too. However check his/her last 15 posts actually same post again and again about some alt coin in different boards( within today only).

Is there any way to identify posting the same post in different boards repeatedly.?

Member profile>>>https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1256877
Repeated post>>>https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4542124.msg40880502#msg40880502