I was remembering the good old times and saw this:



Back then, a lot of people sold their bitcoins, and never came back. These people are of course hating themselves for life. People like this:



This guy saw a huge, unsustainable bubble at $15, the price went as high as $30+ before the correction. These are the type of guys that are perma-bears and hate people that held it and will try to make you dump just to feel better about how wrong they were.

And also realize how the % of volatility has went down a lot, even with the current ups and downs.

Study the price and the perspective that people had back then to get a better picture.

Lately I have (for the first time ever) been putting some time into syncing the testnet blockchain to practice rawtransaction crafting to set up a cold storage bitcoin core installation into an airgapped linux laptop... whatever, my question is.. who the hell bothers mining a blockchain with fake bitcoins? I mean, it's a real blockchain with real blocks and real transactions right? but the tokens are worthless... so who is maintaining a worthless blockchain?

Also, anyone knows the EXACT testnet current blockchain size? where do I look at this?

The latest Bitcoin fork, "Bitcoin God", will be promoted and mined by chinese mining mogul Chandler Guo:

https://bitcoinexchangeguide.com/bitcoin-god-ico-god-token/

We have yet another bitcoin hard fork to announce. It’s called Bitcoin God, or GOD.

The hard fork project is being led by Chinese bitcoin and blockchain angel investor Chandler Guo, who released a message on WeChat stating his intention to fork off from core on December 25.

In a follow-up tweet, Guo explained that he chose December 25 because it was “symbolic of me giving candy to all bitcoin holders.”

Responding to an inquiry on Twitter, Guo confirmed that the project is “real”. Guo explains that GOD will be forked off the main bitcoin chain at block 501,225, which is scheduled to occur on December 25. There’s a total supply of 21 million GOD coins, and there will be no pre-mine.

What’s the difference between Bitcoin God and regular bitcoin? Why do we need yet another hard fork? Guo claims that “the profit from POS mining will be distributed to all Bitcoin God users.”

Guo has not gone into further detail about how that profit sharing scheme will work. However, bitcoin hard forks are quickly becoming the new ICOs. Super Bitcoin, Bitcoin Platinum, Bitcoin Diamond, and Bitcoin Cash Plus are all being released over the next few weeks. Some of these projects have legitimate support from a team of developers. Others are scam projects with no apparent purpose.

Ultimately, there’s virtually no information about Bitcoin God available online at this time – but we’re still a few weeks away from launch. Stay tuned to see if Bitcoin God (GOD) is a real cryptocurrency project or not.

Is anyone bothering to get all these coins? How are you doing it? it is honestly incredibly annoying having to move your cold storage each time a new fork happens. I think im going to wait for all the forks to happen, then move my cold storage just once and access them all. The problem is, by then, most would have crashed...

What a disaster. I took like a week to get a full Bitcoin ABC node synced on my laptop in order to access my Bitcoin Cash after the fork, I enabled prune mode on it, everything was good.

Then I wanted to use testnet on Bitcoin Core also on my laptop, to practice with raw transactions from one computer to another (I would also run testnet on my desktop).

Anyway, I installed the latest Core version on my laptop, opened it, and I got the "reconstructing UTXO" window. I was like "weird.. I renamed the Bitcoin folder on %appdata% so it's not the default "Bitcoin" one and my Bitcoin ABC uses a folder called "Bitcoin ABC". I closed it, opened testnet Core, then realized "testnet3" folder was created on the Bitcoin ABC folder. And then I realized that for some reason, Bitcoin Core was using my "Bitcoin ABC" folder as the default datadir folder... wtf??

Of course, since I opened it without tesnet the first time after the install and saw the "reconstructing UTXO" window, I realized how the Bitcoin ABC blockchain was modified during these minutes I saw that window. I confirmed it when I opened Bitcoin ABC and it gave me a "corrupted blockchain" message and then started from scratch. What a disaster. I will need to sync ABC again from day 1.

Why the hell did Bitcoin Core choose by default the "Bitcoin ABC" folder? that was weird. It should have created a "Bitcoin" folder in %appdata% as usual but it didn't. Also it didn't. I've had to add -datadir=D:\Bitcoin to put the blockchain files on a folder called "Bitcoin", otherwise it kept rewriting block files on "Bitcoin ABC" folder. It must be Bitcoin ABC's fault that confused Bitcoin Core or something. It didn't prompt me where to install the blockchain files or anything during install.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/developers-release-lightning-protocol-10-perform-successful-interoperability-tests/

Blockchain developers ACINQ, Blockstream and Lightning Labs, are announcing the 1.0 release of the Lightning protocol and the world’s first Lightning test payments on the Bitcoin mainnet across all three implementations. These are considered to be important steps toward the standardization of the Lightning Network’s second-level, off-chain payment layer. The three teams, and others in the Bitcoin community, developed the Lightning specification through an open, collaborative process.

Looks like it's happening... but now we will have to wait for proper user friendly implementations. I have seen a lot of cool wallet designs. Normal people isn't going to be using any of the complicated command lines, we need a trusted LN wallet that everyday people can use, and also a way for website developers to implemented LN payments easily with some sort of plugin.

Im trying to do some tests to learn how to use raw transactions and other command lines. Since im scared to do this with real coins, I would like to use the testnet. I've never used it before. It looks like you just have to open the testnet shortcut and it will open. My questions are:

1) Does it keep the data folder separated from the real blockchain I guess? Do I get prompted when I first open it for the first time where to put the testnet blockchain?
2) Is there any way to download this faster from a torrent or something? Since its just testnet coins I don't really care that much about it so I would be willing to download it from somewhere faster that the client then just validate it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdtXu2CmEiI

This is pretty huge news. And yes, this is is not a fake, this is the real footage:

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

It's in spanish, unfortunately there are no subtitles. Someone could add them? Im sure a video with subtitles would get a lot of views in the coming hours.

Apparently, it the cryptocurrency will be backed by their own petrol reserves, thus ditching the "petrodollar" to have their own dollar backed cryptocurrency.

Fascinating times to live in. I wonder how this would develop. If someone has more details post below, including a translated video.

This simple picture explains how we are not anywhere near a bubble, and a lot of people are panic selling due the round number of $10000:



Notice how

1) Dotcom bubble peaked way, way, way higher than peak crypto (as a whole, not only BTC) marketcap.
2) When the dotcom bubble bursted back in 99-2000, the winners like Amazon, make that bubble burst look like a tiny pump in the long run. Bitcoin will do this, and once it's worth millions, a lot of people are going to hate themselves. Just give it a decade or so.


So remember when anyone tells you that "dotcom bubble" nonsense, because Bitcoin will be the Amazon of crypto.

The setup:

2 laptops. One is airgapped, has no wifi card, no ethernet card, no camera, no nothing. A nice Linux distro installed on it with Bitcoin Core, my wallet.dat and all my addresses. This installation has no blockchain files.

The second laptop is an online Bitcoin Core node with the full synced blockchain. Contains watch-only pubkeys from the offline wallet.

Can you please explain, how do I safely make a transaction with this setup?

I figure you must use a raw transaction has seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWKuqP-zTFk

But how does it work in the context of the cold storage 2-laptop setup? I can't seem to find any tutorial on this. It would be cool if bitcoin.org had a section on this. I think everyone should learn how to do this, if you are going to use Bitcoin Core as a wallet.

What I definitely don't understand is, how to properly set the fee? Given that I can't use the GUI for this, I can't use the automatic fee calculator that Bitcoin Core uses.

I think Bitcoin devs should spend some time creating a nice GUI layout for those of us that want to use Bitcoin Core as a cold storage setup to manage and sign keys offline. I don't really trust Armory to do this or anything else.

Can anyone explain the latest events on this and why this is even controversial?

Bitcoin Knots complies with current consensus rules, so do other clients like Libbitcoin or whatever that was called (the by Amir Taaki I think). I don't see a problem with these being hosted there but it should be clear that they are secondary to Bitcoin Core, just list Bitcoin Core first, then list the alternative clients, and aware people that for example Knots contains experimental stuff. As long as they follow current consensus rules (1MB blocks etc) I don't see where the problem is. A node is a node and it strengthens the network (again, as long as it's a Bitcoin node and not some fork).

I would like to do this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9TGkUgekLY

But instead of using 2 Armory installs, with 2 Bitcoin Core installs.

The idea is to have one Bitcoin Core installed in an online computer, this would be my node to broadcast transactions into the blockchain and it would have the full blockchain, but it would have no BTC in it, and another computer with no internet, and no Ethernet or Wifi cards at all, that would have another Bitcoin Core installation, which would contain my private keys, so all of my BTC would sit there. There I would create any receiving or sending addresses and I would sign transactions there, then pass them on the online Bitcoin Core computer.

Could you explain:

1) How do I properly make the transaction and move it from the offline computer to the online computer?
2) How can I set the online wallet to act as a watch only address? (like on Armory does in here)
3) Is there a way to set the offline node as "offline" so it stops trying to sync the blockchain? since I don't have internet on that computer, is there a way to let the program know that it doesn't have to try to connect to the internet at all? Since there would be no blocks to validate as the idea is to use it as a private key container and to sign the transactions, the program would load so fast on even very old computers (I plan to buy some old Thinkpad for this)

I would use Armory itself, but I don't like the seed system (I don't want my wallet to be recoverable with a seed, I feel safer this way, im too used to have my keys sit on the wallet.dat file and just make backups of that). And in general I feel safer using the Core software, both because I trust the developers into doing a good job, and because simply im too used to the simple GUI it has and don't feel like learning any other GUI's or command lines, so I would like to know how to exactly set this up without screwing up in the process.

Roger Ver is now planning some sort of flippening scenario where miners will try to trigger a so called "chaindeath" upon the legacy BTC blockchain in the next couple of days. I see a lot of people shilling this on reddit and other forums. Another cause for "concern" (to FUD newbies into buying BCH and selling BTC) so he can keep pumping his agenda. Remember to not fall for tricks like these. The miners stupid enough to attempt anything stupid (such as this "chaindeath" thing) will pay the price (as always).

To what capacity is it beneficial to use the command console for everything? if I learned bitcoind, would I be lowering the surface attack enough that it is worth the hassle of not using a GUI?

I see a lot of advanced users using bitcoind saying that using the GUI has too many risks for them. They usually use CentOS, Arch, Gentoo or other complicated Linux distro so they are advanced programmers. Is it worth getting up to that level, or is it safe to stay with the regular GUI usage for usual hodling and transaction making?

What I mean is, all these addresses that contain small amounts of BTC, not worth really moving anymore due the fees going up, will be able to be used again?

For example, when I was a noob many years ago, someone sent me a tiny amount of satoshis which back then you could use and move around. Right now that small amount turned into 5 bucks, which I could use to for example pay an extra couple of days of VPN service. Problem is, the current fees make it not worth it. These satoshis are in a wallet that doesn't have any other addresses, so I couldn't join them with bigger amounts. Also it's on legacy format address so I can't really use segwit (and I would like to use even lower fees than segwit for such a small amount)

Will LN allow me to move these funds?

I do not consider SSD as safe when it comes to storing sensitive data (such as your wallet.dat) since in the event that you needed to wipe it out, you couldn't, that I know off. In classic HDD drives, you could delete it easily.

There's also the problem of space obviously, since SSD's are way more expensive.

So my idea was to try to make Bitcoin Core run faster by allocating chainstate files in an SSD, then store wallet.dat and blockchain files in an external HDD.

I was wondering if anyone knows how to do this in Linux. (im not sure how fast it will be with this method, but I heard that the important files to have in the SSD are the chainstate files, so could save a lot of money by not having to store block files inside SSD drives).

Im trying to to get my BCash finally out of my wallet.dat file on my Bitcoin Core so I can dump it while this pump lasts.

The problem is, my laptop is running out of space and im going to be soon not being able to keep running the Bitcoin ABC node which is the only way I can access the coins. It is not fully synced now but im about to finish.

My question is: Can I enable pruned mode and still retrieve the coins? Im just worried that pruned mode will not allow me to access coins that are beyond the last 1 GB or whatever amount a pruned mode saves (never ran in prune mode).

So I can enable Bitcoin ABC in prune mode while it finishes syncing so I don't run out space and still will be able to access the coins once it finishes?

Im not sure if im connecting my full node through Tor properly. From what I understood, with the current Bitcoin Core version you can simply open Tor Browser first, then open Bitcoin Core and your node should be running through Tor anonymously now, but the strange thing is, when I click on "Help -> debug window" and I click on the different nodes on the "peers" tab, it shows that im connecting via my regular IP... so im confused. I understand that im connecting to these nodes with my real IP, but I should be connecting to them through Tor. What's happening?

https://medium.com/@bartjellema/why-i-just-bought-90-b2x-bitcoin-segwit2x-futures-f94d0ee13eb9

Holy hell did anyone see this?

I just spent about $85.000 on buying B2X futures. This just means that once SegWit2x goes live, I’ll already have 90 coins. But why did I spent nearly a $1000/coin for coins that everyone will get for “free”?

This is crazy. One of the worst gambles I've seen. Another lesson for hardforkers... never bet big on a hardfork unless it has 99% consensus. It's a shame we will not see Roger Ver lose his BTC's. Also notice how he and a lot of other guys didn't accept the big bets proposed by Gmaxwell, Adam Back and Trace Mayer of up to 25000 BTC. Adam was looking for ridiculously low ratios lately to do OTC trading and no one accepted. I think a lot of people have been aware of this happening a long time before they cancelled. We saw massive inside trading yesterday.

Roger Ver et al are obviously unloading big amounts of BTC to stop the pump which is exposing that no one wanted bigger blocks. As soon as the segwit2x cancellation hit the news, we saw a big pump. Now I would bet money on Roger Ver dumping big amounts to try to hide the fact that the market has reacted positively to the news of no hardfork. I hope he unloads it all and sticks to BCrash. I can picture Roger rage-quitting Mike Hearn style right now.

Suppose my node is running out of HDD space on my computer, and I have an USB external HDD that I could use to continue downloading the blockchain. How do I do this?

What I mean is, if the latest blk file is "blk01051.dat", how do I point Bitcoin Core to keep downloading from there in the new HDD so I can keep the whole blockchain? (I don't want to use pruned mode)