[Dockerfiles]

A while ago, i built a docker image for those wanting to run bitcoin core v27.1 with the testnet4 patch (which now has been merged into v28.0rc1). For fun, i also compiled the last couple of "actual" releases.
I basically got obsessed with how far back i could go, so i got to the v26.x, then v25.x... And a couple of days later, i was knee-deep into v0.9.x,...

Then, i realised a lot of people actually asked questions about old versions... Either because they had an old wallet they needed to manipulate, because of curiosity, because they wanted to learn, because they wanted to see the size of those binary's, because they wanted to know when a certain feature was implemented (or deprecated).... So i started pushing the docker images to dockerhub.

At this moment, i'm up to version v0.2.0, the oldest version i have was released in 2009.
For transparency, i added all Dockerfiles, bitcoin.conf's, patches, entrypoint.sh's in a git repo. Each branch is a version... So if you checkout the v26.0 branch, you'll see the dockerfile to build bitcoin core v26.0. If you pull the docker image with tag v26.0 from either dockerhub or ghcr.io, you'll get the docker image built by using the Dockerfile you can get from my git repo in branch v26.0.
Around v21, the version scheme was altered... Pre v22.x versions, there was an extra "zero"... So instead of v21.0, they version scheme actually indicated this version as being v0.21.0. For simplicity's sake, i have omitted this... v0.21.0 was branched and tagged as v21.0 (same for all earlier versions aswell)


Now, for the url's:

Dockerfiles
You can get the actual Dockerfiles (so you can build the images yourself) from my git repo:
https://github.com/mocacinno/bitcoin_core_docker/
the repo has loads of branches, each branch contains the Dockerfiles for one specific version...
You can visit the branches directly like this: https://github.com/mocacinno/bitcoin_core_docker/tree/v3.6  => for example, the Dockerfile to build v3.6 (v0.3.6 if you want to be completely correct).

Docker images
https://hub.docker.com/r/mocacinno/btc_core/tags
or
https://github.com/mocacinno/bitcoin_core_docker/pkgs/container/mocacinno%2Fbitcoin_core_docker/versions?filters%5Bversion_type%5D=tagged

the images hosted on github are built using a github action (which is also described right into the branches!!!), each time i push changes, a new image gets built and uploaded. You should be able to verify the process yourself if you want to... Just fork my repo and push any change, and the image should build in your very own namespace!!!

Documentation
https://mocacinno.github.io/bitcoin_core_docker/

Help me
for now, a lot of work is quick and dirty... Basically, i was working backwards from the most recent version (which is very easy to compile) all the way back to 2011 (and digging deeper as we speak). Each time a new problem popped up, i tought about the quickest way to fix the problem at hand... Sometimes it was by actually pulling the "good" dependency into my build process, or by downgrading gcc, but sometimes it was faster just to write a little patch, or quickly modify some lines in the sourcecode with sed... This way, i postponed "problems" untill later on. In time, i might go trough all the dockerfiles again, and try to fix the problems in the "right" way instead of using sed and patches... If you want to help in this process, just fork my repo, fix a certain branch and create a pull request .

In time, i might seek some volunteers that i trust and give them access to my github project, or maybe even my dockerhub project, so they can help clean things up (or help with the documentation). For now, pull requests will do tough...

Help you + disclaimer
More recent versions should be OK to run (even in production), i compiled the actual sourcecode from bitcoin's github repo and put it in a very minimal container, so there should be hardly any vulnerability's. If you're not that technically inclined, it might even be safer to run the image i made vs trying to compile core yourself and run it on a full OS. This being said: if you're actually going to use this node for production (or to actually use the wallet functionality), i implore you to read the Dockerfile, sign off on what i did and build the image yourself. I'm a strong believer in the "don't trust, verify" motto!
If you run the image in production, don't forget to actually map the /root/.bitcoin container folder to a physical folder on your filesystem so you get a persistent setup!!!

Don't run older versions in production tough... I've actually played around with this stuff, and since v0.5.0, it looks like bitcoind actually starts syncing (early) blocks... However, it's a very, very, very bad idear to actually run these old versions!!! if you want to play around with them, i suggest you start the docker container with a "--network none" flag, so they are isolated. Old versions have vulnerability's... Using them, especially in production or by actually funding the wallet will probably end up with loss of your funds!!!

I will not take any responsability for loss of funds, even with new versions!!! Also, i do not commit myself to giving support... I compiled these versions, i did not write the sourcecode... I'm not a specialist on the features included (or removed from) these versions.... If you have a question, feel free to ask. If i know the answer, i'll answer you (but if i don't know the answer, you're on your own)

[Notice for people running the "old" images: don't worry... It's not like the old images are unsafe to run... The vulnerability's found in ubuntu's 24.04 base image are present in allmost all containers you find on the internet. They'll probably be present on your "regular" OS or your webserver aswell. Running the images i previously created doesn't necessarily put you in harms way, you're probably just as secure as ~95% of the people out there... It's just that i want you to be MORE secure, so do consider moving to the new container images]

This topic is replacing the (very cluttered) topic https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5496494


TL;DR; => Jump straight to your usecase
i only want to run a node, maybe a wallet aswell
i want to get involved by running a lightning node on  testnet4
i want to run a solo mining pool on testnet4
eventough it's not a good idear, i want to cpu mine on testnet4


I got interested in testnet4, but at that time it was pretty hard for most people to run a node, let alone mine or open a lightning node on testnet4. That's why i decided to build a couple of containers based on ubuntu 24.04's image.

The problem is/was that the official ubuntu 24.04 image already contains a bunch of vulnerability's, and we need to run the container in privileged mode...
A second problem is/was that i decided to "combine" services into one container: "node + lightning", "node + cpuminer", "node + ckpool", "node + lighting + cpuminer + ckpool". This made the setup really hard to maintain.

Instead of moving foreward in the direction i took, i decided to re-design the containers from the ground up, using the (much safer) minimal Base Container Images provided by SuSe and (if possible) separating the different services making them easyer to maintain. I compile the tools using the BCI-base image, then copy over library's and binary's into the BCI-minimal image... This way the attack vector is allmost completely gone (dockerhub's free scan tool no longer finds a single vulnerability in my new container images, but offcourse, nothing is absolute, so it's well possible undisclosed vulnerability's still exist).

Because i did a complete re-design of the container images, i closed the old (cluttered) thread and started fresh.
Notice for people running the "old" images: don't worry... It's not like the old images are unsafe to run... The vulnerability's found in ubuntu's 24.04 base image are present in allmost all containers you find on the internet. They'll probably be present on your "regular" OS or your webserver aswell. Running the images i previously created doesn't necessarily put you in harms way, you're probably just as secure as ~95% of the people out there... It's just that i want you to be MORE secure, so do consider moving to the new container images

Want to have a visual representation of what i did... Just look here. The tags starting with bci_ are the new containers, the other ones are the "old" containers... You should immediately notice the "new" bci_ containers have the string "None found" under "vulnerability's", whilst the old ones have quite a few. You should also notice the "new" bci_ containers are much smaller (due to the fact only the strictly necessary components are included, making the attact surface as small as possible)

[I decided to completely re-design the containers to make them (even more) safe and to make them easyer to maintain. In order not to clutter this discussion and focus on the new container images, i started a new thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5501093If you have any questions about this old discussion that isn't solved in the new thread, shoot me a PM or switch to the new thread instead!]

I decided to completely re-design the containers to make them (even more) safe and to make them easyer to maintain. In order not to clutter this discussion and focus on the new container images, i started a new thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5501093
If you have any questions about this old discussion that isn't solved in the new thread, shoot me a PM or switch to the new thread instead!

Hi guys, tought i would share my work (in progress)  

I was part of this discussion: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5496329.0
It was about a potential switch to testnet4...

I quickly pointed out how to merge the pull request for testnet4, but last night i started to think: i want to do this in a reproducible way... So i created a docker image you could easily run yourself...

Code:

FROM ubuntu:22.04 AS builder
#start.sh sets proxy for apt, needed for my env...
#COPY start.sh /usr/local/bin/
#RUN chmod +x /usr/local/bin/start.sh
#RUN /usr/local/bin/start.sh

#install all prereqs
RUN apt-get update && DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y tzdata && apt-get -y install git autoconf pkg-config libtool build-essential bsdmainutils libevent-dev  libdb-dev libdb++-dev clang python3 libssl-dev  libboost-system-dev libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-chrono-dev libboost-test-dev libboost-thread-dev libminiupnpc-dev libzmq3-dev libqt5gui5 libqt5core5a libqt5dbus5 qttools5-dev qttools5-dev-tools libprotobuf-dev protobuf-compiler libsqlite3-dev ccache

#pull pr
RUN git clone https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.git /bitcoin
WORKDIR /bitcoin
RUN git fetch origin pull/29775/head:pr-29775 && git checkout pr-29775

#compile
RUN ./autogen.sh
RUN ./configure --with-incompatible-bdb CC=clang CXX=clang++
RUN make -j "$(($(nproc) + 1))"
WORKDIR /bitcoin/src
RUN strip bitcoin-util && strip bitcoind && strip bitcoin-cli && strip bitcoin-tx && strip qt/bitcoin-qt

#multistage
FROM ubuntu:22.04
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y libdb5.3++-dev libminiupnpc-dev libevent-dev libzmq3-dev libsqlite3-dev
COPY --from=builder /bitcoin/src/bitcoin-util /usr/local/bin
COPY --from=builder /bitcoin/src/bitcoin-cli /usr/local/bin
COPY --from=builder /bitcoin/src/bitcoin-tx /usr/local/bin
COPY --from=builder /bitcoin/src/bitcoind /usr/local/bin
COPY --from=builder /bitcoin/src/qt/bitcoin-qt /usr/local/bin

you can either build the image yourself (should be reproducible), or you can use the image i built: https://hub.docker.com/r/mocacinno/btc_testnet4

Afterwards, create a simple docker-compose.yml

Code:

version: '3'
services:
  bitcoind:
    image: mocacinno/btc_testnet4
    privileged: true
    container_name: bitcoind
    volumes:
      - /root/project/run_btc_testnet4/data:/root/.bitcoin/
    command: ["bitcoind", "-testnet4", "-server", "-rpcuser=demo", "-rpcpassword=demo", "-rpcallowip=127.0.0.1"]
    ports:
      - "8333:8333"
      - "48332:48332"

Ofcourse, change the volume path to a path that exists on your host, and change the rpc user and pass

Then it's just a matter of "docker-compose up -d" to pull the image and start bitcoind.

Connect to the running container and create a wallet:

Code:

docker exec -it bitcoind /bin/bash
bitcoin-cli -testnet4 -rpcuser=demo -rpcpassword=demo createwallet mywally

a (testnet4) tipping address: tb1qumlhr8tn9gsdyujy464jkk4c5r488u8kxteyx5  (only send testnet4 tBTC!!!)

In the last decade, quite often i tried to explain bitcoin blockchain basics by pulling quick and dirty sample data out of thin air... Making such posts were always quite timeconsuming, but i usually found them worth my effort to teach newbies some blockchain fundamentals.

The last 2 days, i took some time to write a Mockchain learning tool, in case anybody needs it...
This tool basically generates a fake (but valid) random blockchain in CSV format (so human readable) based on some parameters you can enter when running the tool. The chain is placed in the output/blocks folder and shares some (but not all!!!) basic concepts of the bitcoin blockchain. A LOT of technicality's have been omitted, but a lot of the basics ARE covered...

I hope this tool can be used in the future for learning purposes... If you're explaining the ABSOLUTE BASICS of blockchain technology, feel free to download or build this tool and create your own Mockchain for demo and teaching purposes!

For example:

• How blocks form a chain, using hashing functionality and a header line (but Mockchain hashes the full block, i omitted merkle tree generation due to the higher difficulty)
• How transactions use inputs and create outputs. How outputs remain unspent untill somebody spends them ONCE.
• How the person owning the unspent output has to sign the transaction for it to be valid (but Mockchain uses a pgp keypair to achieve this)

Transactions in Mockchain are very simple, unspent outputs are defined by who received them, in which block, which linenumber in this block and the value of the unspent output. A transaction funds the name of the user (eventough his/her public key is added to add some authenticity).


The tool is open source, and might contain bugs!!! if you find a bug, or if you think a certain feature is needed, feel free to fork the repo, fix whatever is bugging you and submit a pull request afterwards.

The repo:
https://github.com/mocacinno/blockchain_learningtool/

Latest automatic build (*nix):
https://github.com/mocacinno/blockchain_learningtool/actions/runs/8171967162

I quickly compiled the code for windows aswell, here's the first release built for linux or windows on x86 platforms. It's still preferable to actually read the code and build the tool yourself tough...

https://github.com/mocacinno/blockchain_learningtool/releases

I'm looking for some ethical advice about a loan i gave 3,5 years ago.
It was a free (as in 0% intrest) loan with collateral, under the conditions the loan HAD to be repayed within the year and the person taking the loan had to cover all fees. The collateral was sent to me, and i gave him the loan.

The person who took the loan went off the grid for 3,5 years untill about 30 minutes ago. He just sent me a message indicating he was "late" and if i would be willing to give him his collateral back if he repayed the loan (it was a non-btc loan). The collateral was in XMR (2 XMR). At the time he took the loan, 2 XMR was worth 120€, now it's worth 282€. I'm proposing to him to give him 60€ worth of BTC if he gives the principal back. I personally think that's fair since he was 2,5 years late repaying, and i had to sell of the collateral, and now i have to send BTC whilst the mempool is full and the tx fees are high.

I want to send the person who took the loan following reply, but i'm looking for some ethical input: is my offer fair or am i being overly harsh?

Hi <redacted>,

I had to look into my archives to find out what this loan terms were exactly. If my records were correct, it was a loan of <redacted> from july 10th 2020 that had to be repayed before july 10th 2021. I considered this loan defaulted on july the 11th 2021.
I tend to keep collateral a couple of months after the latest repayment date just in case, but this loan was given about 3,5 years ago and it had to be repayed about 2,5 years ago. At that time, i had completely different wallets than i have right now. I don't know what happened to the XMR, but since i only hold BTC it was either sold off when i switched wallets or it's on a wallet i no longer have access to (it probably was sold off tough).

I'm willing to work with you and see if we can find some sort of agreement to give you a partial refund of your collateral after you've returned the <redacted>, but there's no way i'll be able to return 2 XMR, especially since it has more than doubled in value since the loan was given. If I'd have to buy 2 XMR now, it would probably cost me more than i got from selling off the collateral back in 2021, so i would effectively making a loss from giving out a free loan.

I've been looking at coinmarketcap, and it looks the collateral was worth about 120€ when you sent it to me (asking price, not including any fees). I've tought about it, and i think it would be fair if i gave you 50% of the value of the collateral after you sent the <redeacted> back to me. I think 50% is reasonable since you're 2,5 year late with the repayment, and i was in my right to sell the collateral (and by selling it, i had to pay deposit, exchange and withdrawal fees, and it also cost me some time to execute all transactions). I'll also have to cover transaction fees of sending back the collateral to you.
So, that's my offer: i'm willing to send you 60€ worth of BTC after you've returned the <redacted>, either directly in BTC or i can run it trough exch.cx to convert it to Monero, dash, litecoin, eth,... (but in this case, i'll only cover the fees up untill the exchange, the exchange and withdrawal fees are for you). In the end, it would have cost you about 60€ to have <redacted> at your disposal for allmost 3,5 years.

Kind regards,
M

I'm having a bit of spare time lately, and i'm thinking about filling it up by offering some scripting services... I'm not a very big expert, but i do have some experience (i have many more finished projects, but most of my scripts are not on my public repo, since they were written for my employer and they're part of his intellectual property)... Working on a no cure no pay basis...

I can write in

• golang: these are older projects, my programming style did improve lately : demo project 1:my old website, demo project 2:a simple apache CLF logfile parser, demo project 3:a tool to run in your crontab or scheduled tasks to alert you when the optimal tx fee drops under a certain target fee
• python: demo project 1:a tool to check how far a certan tx is from a coinbase reward (written after a discussion with a mixer), demo project 2:my tool to check for unspent outputs on bitcoin forks (like bitcoin cash)
• php: demo project 1:a POC php function to deserialise segwit transactions, demo project 2:a VERY simple php testnet faucet, demo project 3:A site i coded in php/mysql

I'm also proficient in relational database design and my daytime job is being a unix system engineer....

I'm looking for smaller automation projects that i can do for cheap in a couple of hours... Need someone to write a script to parse a webpage and shoot you a mail when a certain event arises? A go program to provide a simple API to your relational database? A script to automate a small repetitive task? A very simple and basic homepage without a nice layout? A small database design? Reply in this thread or shoot me a PM
I prefer writing in golang, but if you really insist on python or php that would work aswell.

I'm currently not looking for bigger projects... If something would take more than a couple of hour of work, i'll probably decline. Sad to say, but most crypto-related programming would require more time than i'm willing to spend right now.

Payment only in "real" crypto, the one with a blockchain behind it and a decent market cap and exchange support (BTC, ETH, LTC,...), payment either upfront (with a guarantee of a refund if i cannot complete your project), using an escrow of your choice (you pay the fee) or after the project finishes (if you have a long and positive bitcointalk reputation).

Just a quick reference thread where i can link to from all my sideprojects.

I've been running a dedicated (bare metal) server hosted in a datacenter in the netherlands for many, many years... Due to some health conditions i can work a little less, combined with the exploding cost of living and the fact that my dedicated hosting provider just announced a price-rise of about €20/month, i started calculating that my hobby costs me about $2000/year. I have some ads for hardware wallets here and there, but in a (very) good year i still make less than $100 from those ads (that's inlcuding every add on every tool and every donation address i ever made).

Bottom line is that i need to cut back, i have to get rid of my dedicated server and more than half of my domain names. I'm going to replace my dedicated box by either a shared hosting plan or a cheap VPS, but what is certain is that i won't be able to run full nodes anymore, nor will i be able to run .net applications or golang (echo) servers i had written myself to power mocacinno.com.

Over the years, i have built tons of services all running on my dedicated server... Including but not limited to my bitcoin tools, my testnet faucet, the scammers bingo, a bitcoin price indicator, an ad management tool, a btcpayserver,... Over the next couple of days/weeks i will be turning off OR MIGRATING those tools one by one. I'll look at whether i can still run them in my future (cheap) environment, whether or not they're still safe to run and whether or not they had sufficient users and then decide if it's worth (or even possible) to let (part of) the service exist.... But i can pretty much say that at least 3/4th of those tools will seize to exist in their current form

Just FYI, this is not a begging thread... I can still feed my family and keep the lights on in my home... I won't be gone from the bitcoin ecosystem... It's just that the ~€150/month spent on hosting and domain names is currently better spent elsewhere. This thread of more of a reference i can post a link to on every tool i want to turn off in the coming days/weeks, so i don't have to explain myself yet again.

List of services gone/replaced with date (DD/MM/YYYY)

• my lightning node, this will not be replaced but i'll use electrum to send/receive lightning payments from this moment foreward (01/02/2023)
• my btcpayserver, this will not be replaced... The people who use this server have been contacted per PM/mail and replied. (01/02/2023)
• my full node on the main net (the testnet node is still running for the testnet faucet for the time being) (01/02/2023)
• my lightning demo store (unblur) will be gone... Resources needed vs visitors served wasn't in equilibrium... I stopped running a lightning node anyways (03/02/2023) [/li
  

A quick resource estimation for the services i've turned off:

• A full node: 0.5 Tb of disksize, at least a couple vCPU's and a couple Gb of ram
• A btcpayserver: A full node
• A lightning node: A full node
• A lightning demo node: A lightning node + 0.5Gb of data... And a LAMP stack

I'm not really accustomed to posting into the trading discussion subforum (I'm more of a technical guy), so i hope i posted this in the correct subforum.

There's a forum that i visit (non crypto related) that organises price draws on a regular basis. Prices are usually distributed in the form of virtual visa cards. At this moment, i have 3 virtual cards loaded with small amounts of euro's (the smallest is about 7 euro). The cards are all in my name.

I wonder if there's any place where i can use such virtual visa cards in order to buy BTC...
I already tried binance, coinbase and (eventough i'm not a fan) bitcoin.com, but no avail... I also found an old thread that advised bitpanda, but for some strange reason i'm not able to supply them with a picture of my identity card (tried several times, they always tell me my picture is to blurry). Paxful starts at 10 euro/card, freewallet is a big no-no...

I already searched the subforum, but i couldn't find any recent information... If there was any, the thread was probably burried under posts explaining where to get virtual cards to spend your crypto, while i want the exact opposite: i have a virtual card, and i want to buy crypto...

[I'm not publicly stating the username of the user i'm talking about, since i have no proof of any real wrong-doing, so i do not want to tarnish his rep. If anybody digs and finds the person i'm talking about, i'd like to request not to post his username here... I'm also going to paraphrase instead of quoting him, for exactly the same purpose.]

I need some input on wether or not i'm being paranoid here... Just to learn from my mistakes.

I'm not publicly stating the username of the user i'm talking about, since i have no proof of any real wrong-doing, so i do not want to tarnish his rep. If anybody digs and finds the person i'm talking about, i'd like to request not to post his username here... I'm also going to paraphrase instead of quoting him, for exactly the same purpose.

So, the story goes as follows
Yesterday, i was browsing a non-bitcoin related subforum and a clickbait title catches my attention. As usual, i open the post to read if my instinct was correct...

The OP said (and i'm paraphrasing to protect the identity of the user i'm talking about)

I'm testing an LN application and i need a $5 LN invoice for my test. The first one that PM's me such an invoice will see it getting payed

At least, that's how i interpreted the post

The topic wasn't closed, nobody posted anything that indicated the $5 invoice was created for this user... So i taught to myself: i get payed about $30/hour (after taxes), $5 is worth 10 minutes of my time... So i opened a connection to my ln node, looked up the exchange rate for $5, created an invoice and sent it to the user.

He immediately payed $5, so i taught his test was succesfull and i helped him out whilst getting a $5 tip for my efforts (which is nice, but not world-changing... It's basically what i make in 10 minutes, which was about the amount of time i spent on the whole process... BUT at least i did something nice for somebody that was in need).

However, the user immediately PM'ed me back, leading me to a thread that can only be described as containing an offer to good to be true... However, if something is to good to be true, it usually is, and this particular offer has a potential to leading to my identity being DOXXED, aswell as a potential of illegal goods being purchased under my name... So i made up a (true) excuse and tought the communication with the OP was over.

Today, however, i receive a PM from him telling me that i should have thanked him for the $5 (wich might be true... IDK) AND that i SHOULD give him some +rep.
I answered that i'd vouch on his thread that he did indeed payed the invoice and did indeed gave me the $5, but that i wasn't going to give him +rep since i didn't give out +rep unless i've dealth with you for a very long time (hence, TRUST you, which is basically the idear behind the trust system)... Moreover, that i tought i was doing him a favour by sending him the invoice, but i thanked him for the $5 anyways.

A couple of hours later, he replies (once again) that his initial thread was a couple of days old already, and he didn't need the invoice i sent him, but he payed it anyways (like i should have guessed this) and that +rep would be appreciated and sent back!

I replied him basically telling him that i didn't like the way this discussion was going, and asked him to create a ln invoice with the same value as the one i initially sent him, so i could refund his $5 and be done with it. I already spent the better part of an hour creating the LN invoice, verifying it, reading and replying to his thread... I really don't want to end up being a suspect in a trust bribery scandal for $5 and i really don't want to spend any more time for a $5 tip...


Now, my main question: am i being paranoid, or was this user just baiting DT members with a small denomination only to guilt them into giving him positive trust?

Finally included in trezor suite I had been waiting for a while to get my hands on this... To bad there aren't a lot of wallet vendors that currently support taproot... Also, my current electrum version doesn't allow me to create a taproot wallet, and last time i checked, the newest electrum version doesn't support taproot yet (either)... But i didn't double-check...

My first taproot address being derived right now...



EDIT: derived a (main net) address... funding it right now... Will try to spend afterwards... So far, everything works as expected

EDIT2: for full tests, i'm switching to the testnet...

Created a testnet taproot address: tb1pmcxv2zswv5dgsvq9nlmx66mx0fmedwpmcz9008zclxeql5a625uqylemk2
Tried funding it using coinomi (which i had on hand and contains a couple tsat's) => Failed, coinomi does not recognize taproot's address format...
Used bitcoin core instead... txid 18f7f687ff97e2f354180ae7e2f65f83bb2e83833c08765169b32e233acbe716 on the testnet

Created a second testnet taproot address: tb1psdtpn7fzyc6e8ueettzffraw24ga6crrhee9kj0pwpqy2qkp5tzqqv35fn
Funded it using bitcoin core... txid d6d66cda612d8f454fe49e77e92f153bf067746045162be3b2957ecd2910aeb3



And my first taproot transaction, using unspent outputs funding taproot addresses creating an unspent output funding a taproot address: 2ae31feab2444704ee9bfe0c47149a38074d43d2eeda3e10265b40490c90f21c

This feature works

I know, I know,... There are better forums for this discussion... But i'm a crypto fan, and i'm only active on this one... So i might aswell ask some input from you lot  

I was fed up watching yet another netflix show that got cancelled on a mayor cliffhanger, so i decided to start looking on the internet for a database of TV shows that got cancelled without any proper ending. I'm not talking about those shows that have an intentional open ending, i'm talking about the ones that leave half a story arc wide open so they can continue next season, but netflix (or hulu, or HBO, or...) just pulls the plug, leaving all fans hanging...

To my dismay, i did not find any *real* database that was sufficient... Sure, there are sites that list all cancelled shows (but they fail to mention wether they stop on a cliffhanger or not), you have blogs that cherrypick single cancelled shows and completely dissect them, you have incomplete lists and incomplete databases,... but nothing that could serve as a reference for the community.

So, i created https://www.showstopped.com

On my current to-do list are:

• Add captcha to signup form
• Fix the point counter: it seems like only one thumbs up (or down) gets counter per voter => votee combo
• Pre-color thumbs up/down on already voted
• admin-script for nuking users (with option to remove all shows/remarks/votes)
• a contact me-form instead of pushing people to e-mail me manually
• show toplist, add badges
• https://www.google.com/webmasters/markup-helper/u/0/?hl=nl uitbreiden
• when adding a pre-existing show, give a proper warning message instead of a white grim page
• make login/logout/... redirect to the last page you were visiting instead of the main page

There's a flimsy bitcoin link, since i accept bitcoin donations, and if this ever becomes popular, i'll accept btc for adds

My main reason for posting: my current test audience is me, my wife and my daughter (and maybe the cat)... If you could spare 10 minutes out of your day, i'd be gratefull if you'd visit the page and give some feedback (preferably things i'm currently missing, and blatant bugs).

Oh, yeah, before i forget: if you also have a hobby site somewhere out there and you're interested in a link exchange, that can also be set up

The main functionality of my website (mocacinno.com) was written back in 2017. IIRC, i was running core version ~0.12~ish (i don't update my node all that often).
Since then, loads has happened in our ecosystem... And my "usefull" tools became outdated and no longer functional.
I've been thinking about rewriting my site, but over the years so many things were "added on".... So i needed a radical new way of working, changing just a little bit won't do, it needs to rewritten completely and all the sub-tools need to be moved manually...

I'm currently in the process of rewriting the TOOLS section of my site in go... I'm thinking about using a small footprint webserver in go next to my main webserver, i'll then redirect all requests going to my tools to said go daemon. That way i can fix my tools while i'm in the process of thinking about how to move all that data without breaking stuff.

Because of the current state of the mempool, i'm releasing the first tool, eventough it's currently in pre-pre-pre-alpha stage.

http://193.70.78.148:8081/page/feechecker => Non-TLS had no added value, so i no longer run a service on this port, use the TLS version instead
TLS version => https://www2.mocacinno.com:8082/page/feechecker

With this tool, you can check wether or not your transaction is in my mempool AND if you added a sufficient fee. You can POST the txid directly to https://www2.mocacinno.com:8082/page/feechecker if you don't want to use the form.

Bug reports are welcome BUT you'll have to realise this is pre-pre-pre alpha...
my immediate TO-DO list:

• I'll defenately add TLS (https)
• input sanitation
• fix the menu... At the moment, clicking any link other than "using the feechecker tool" will send you on a wild goose-chase over one of my many ip's and open ports... Also, images and layout WILL break if you do something else than testing the feechecker
• add more functionality

Also, this is not a linux service (yet). If it crashes, it crashes and it'll only start when I start it again... When i go to a beta phase, i'll make sure the service restarts if it crashes

In case you want to fix bugs yourself (or steal my code) => https://github.com/mocacinno/mocacinno.com

EDIT: just a little sidenote: i'll be gone during the weekend, i'll be back on monday morning to read potential bug reports

Since i started running a testnet faucet, i receive messages asking for bigger amounts of tBTC in my mail, my bitcointalk messages, my twitter account on a daily basis.

Because i was getting tired of keeping track of everything, i decided to open up a tBTC loan thread...  
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5306684
Since i want to keep any discussion seperate of the actual loan thread, i decided to open this "meta" thread instead... If you have arguments pro or contra tbtc loans, you're free to discuss them here...

The first post comes directly from my loan thread:

This sounds a lot like you are trying to profit from your testnet coin. In other words, it sounds like you are trying to assign value to your testnet coin. You should not do this.

tBTC is intended to aid the development of bitcoin and bitcoin services. By requiring transaction fees to be paid, you are effectively receiving value in exchange for your tBTC. You are also creating a market for tBTC.

Most tBTC faucets allow people to receive small amounts of tBTC, and ask that users return unused tBTC once their testing is complete. IMO this is how tBTC should be distributed to devs wanting to build/test bitcoin-related services.

What's the alternative?
I run a testnet faucet, I do my part in distributing tBTC freely... But from time to time i do get valid requests, people that actually make a good case as to why they need more than the tiny fraction of a tBTC that's been distributed by tBTC faucets (including mine).
What should i do with those cases? Just give them 100 tBTC and pray they return the funds eventough it's the first time i've talked to them, and they're using a throwaway email... I don't have an endless supply of tBTC, if i run out i can either close my faucet and stop helping people, or i can setup a mining node and rent a lot of expensive hashrate and pay out of my own pocket. People seem to think it's easy to mine tBTC, let me tell you: it's not... In my loan thread you see my calculation proving the testnet has a combined hashrate of over 1 Petahash, and the block reward is smaller than 0.1 tBTC/block... Mining on the testnet is HARD... It's shouldn't be, but it IS.. It's not fair, but it's a fact...

I've given quite a few tBTC loans over the last year, and allmost all of them return the tBTC BECAUSE i asked for collateral... If you count the hours and effort i put into mining the tBTC in the first place and setting up these loans, i'm defenatly not getting rich by handing out loans...

This topic has nothing to do with bitcoin, but this is about the only forum I frequent, and I know some of you guys are running full nodes on self-assembled small form-factor machines, so you guys might have something to add to this topic

Bottom line: I'm looking for a cheap NAS... I have a zyxel NAS325 at home, but they have a couple of serious vulnerability's and the vendor is no longer pushing out patches for this machine. Initially I tought about buying a zyxel NAS326, or an other low-end (cheap) NAS from WD or synology... However, none of these NAS'es really caught my fancy... They were either missing features, to limited, to expensive, to old, not enough updates, to much power draw, not enough drive bays (do you know they sell NAS's with one drive )....

So, i tought to myself: why not build my own machine, or (even better) buy a cheap pre-built configuration and add one or two extra 2,5" disks. That way i have full controll over the hardware, and i can easily install centos or bsd and have full controll over the os aswell (including regular patches).

The problem isn't that i cannot build a small pc, but rather that i have no clue where to get the best bang for my bucks... I'm used to looking at server configs at work, but i don't have to pay the bill when i pick a suitable config
Also, at work, it's either POWER hardware or i get a list of approved hardware from SAP and i basically have to fill in the very limited amount of gaps...

So far, i had 2 idears:
buy a raspberry... But then i'd have to buy an rpi, a psu (if i want to use 3,5" disks), a NAS HAT, cables, heat sinks, screws, fans, cables....
The end result is rather pricey, looks very "artisanal", and i end up with a Cortex-A72 (which uses very little power, but isn't all that performant in case i want to use my build for other stuff.... like controll my smart plugs, or record my security camera's)

build a small pc... I had something like this in my mind:
GIGABYTE H410M S2, socket 1200 motherboard , µATX
Intel Celeron G5900, 3,4 GHz socket 1200 processor
cpu cooler
Kingston ValueRAM 4 GB DDR4-2666 Mhz
SilentiumPC Elementum E2 350W 80Plus
a case
1x 1Tb Harddisk, 2,5" (for OS)
2x 3Tb Harddisks, 2,5" (maybe add one more for RAID5)
This way i have a small pc that uses relatively little power due to the celeron (which should be relatively efficient) and the 2,5" disks.... But still, prices do add up after a while (about 400-500€).

My main question: am i missing something here? Should i be looking at something completely different? AMD? pre-made machines? Complete rPi kits? Stick to a certain out-of-the-box NAS i missed completely?

[This thread is meant for tBTC loan applications... I know some people disagree to lending out tBTC (especially for collateral), but this is NOT the place to discuss this. It's true that regtest exists, it's true that most tests only require a very small amount of tBTC, it's true there are loads of 1 sat altcoins you can use... But there are still instances where larger amounts of tBTC can be useful for testing purposes, and this is the thread to request a larger amount... If you want to discuss why i'm wrong when giving out loans, open a new thread and send me a PM with the link... I'll be happy to join your discussion]

This thread is meant for tBTC loan applications... I know some people disagree to lending out tBTC (especially for collateral), but this is NOT the place to discuss this. It's true that regtest exists, it's true that most tests only require a very small amount of tBTC, it's true there are loads of 1 sat altcoins you can use... But there are still instances where larger amounts of tBTC can be useful for testing purposes, and this is the thread to request a larger amount... If you want to discuss why i'm wrong when giving out loans, open a new thread and send me a PM with the link... I'll be happy to join your discussion

Since the current bull market, I get more and more PM's from people that want to borrow tBTC.
I have no idear if a bull market sparks innovation, thus the need for tBTC rises, or if these people are scammers that want to scam gullible newbies that enter the market.
I strongly believe that it's quite hard to scam somebody with tBTC compared to all the other scam methods around (and i believe most scammers will take the path of least resistance), so i hope the ratio of scammers vs developers is in favor of the developers...

This being said, I do think that developers of new services are a crucial part of the ecosystem, and since some developments NEED tBTC, I still believe in giving out tBTC loans to those that qualify.

Because i'm tired of individually handle PM's and mails, i'll just point borrowers to this thread instead in the future

So, from now on, the procedure for borrowing tBTC from me is as follows:

• 1) You post in this thread to introduce yourself (especially if you're a member or lower)
• 2) in the same post, you explain what you want to do with the tBTC
• 3) in the same post, you tell me how much you want to borrow and for how long. Tell me which (alt)coin you'll be giving as collateral. Don't offer some unknown coin tough, if the coin you want to use isn't in the top-20 of https://coinmarketcap.com/ the odds of me accepting it are low. If you want to use an escrow: no problem... Find one we both trust... Also: post your tBTC address you want me to fund
• 4) i'll reply by give you a collateral quote or by denying the loan (for example, if no proper explanation as to why you need tBTC is given, or if i'm out of tBTC). Expect the required collateral/tBTC to be higher for long-term loans, higher if you give an altcoin as collateral, higher for people i don't know (people i trust completely won't have to give any collateral for smaller loans),... I'll also post an address for you to send the collateral to (unless an escrow is to be used).
• 5) AFTER i receive the collateral (or AFTER the escrow confirms he/she is holding the collateral), i'll fund the address you posted in step 3
• 6) There are no extensions... This service is 100% interest-free (tips are appreciated tough), i don't want to bother keeping a long list of exceptions and extensions, it's free, just make sure you ask enough time to begin with. You will have to repay me before the loanterm is over. The term starts at the moment i funded your tBTC address, and ends exactly after the agreed upon number of days/weeks stipulated in point 3. I WILL sell your collateral when the time is up... Also, I will probably leave negative trust on loan defaulters...
• 7) The tBTC lost as mining fees has to be replenished by using a faucet... Incomplete repayments are possible, but i'll keep some of the collateral (a share equal to the amount of tBTC you're short + 50%)
• it's a free service, you pay ALL the fees!!! This includes, but is not limited to: the transaction fees to transfer the tBTC to you, the transaction fees associated with the collateral, the escrow fees,... No exceptions, i'm doing this for free, so i won't be paying anything out of my own pocket.

Collateral? Why? Why so much? Is it fair?

Whenever i give a loan to somebody i don't trust 100% i require collateral. Why? Because even-tough tBTC is completely worthless, mining it is far from free... Let me compare it to a real life situation: let's assume my daughter is great at art (she isn't, but let's assume she is). She loves painting oil on canvas, and her masterpieces are used all over my house because i love having paintings to decorate my rooms. These paintings are not worth anything (my daughter is only 12 years old, she isn't famous), but each masterpiece costs 100€ in raw materials.
One day, a complete stranger i have never seen before takes a peek trough my window and sees my daughter's paintings. He knocks on the door and asks to borrow 5 of them. He pinky promises to bring them back in 2 weeks. Mind you: i don't know the stranger, i can't trust him to even carry a valid passport, and i use the paintings to cover my walls... This means that if the stranger doesn't keep his word, my daughter has to paint 5 new "worthless" paintings to fill my walls, and it'll cost me another 500€ in raw materials.
Should i let the stranger walk away with 5 worthless paintings that cost me 500€ out of pocket? I personally wouldn't do this... I'd ask the stranger to give me 600€ for the paintings, and promise him he'll get his money back if he returns them after 2 weeks... And i would expect him to give my daughter a decent tip because she lent him her art...

Same with tBTC... It's worthless, but I do have a use for it (i'm running a faucet). If somebody wants to borrow tBTC, i'm willing to help them out (intrest free), but i'm not willing to let somebody I don't know walk away with tBTC i do need without any form of collateral.

The collateral should be sufficient to cover my "raw materials" + something extra for my troubles in case the borrower runs off without returning my tBTC. The extra collateral should incentivise the borrower to return my tBTC

Now, for the boring stuff:
How much does it cost to mine 1 tBTC??

The current block reward on the testnet is 0.097 tBTC/block
I'll have to mine 11 testnet blocks to earn 1 tBTC
The current difficulty is 157M
The formula's you can find on https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Difficulty
network hashrate = D * 2**32 / 600
time to find one block = difficulty * 2**32 / hashrate

So, in our case
network hashrate = 157.000.000 * 2**32 / 600
network hashrate = 1.123.849.775.786.666 hashes/second
network hashrate = 1.123.849.775.787 kh/second
network hashrate = 1.123.849.776 Mh/second
network hashrate = 1.123.850 Gh/second
network hashrate = 1.124 Th/second
network hashrate = 1 Ph/second

Wow, 1 Ph??? Yup... 1 Peta-hash...
In order to mine a couple of blocks, we'll have to rent a semi-decent rig...
At the moment, a rig like this one comes with a good price/quality ratio:
https://www.miningrigrentals.com/rigs/175758/?currency=BTC
It'll cost 0.00056916 BTC per 12 hours running @ 124 Th/s

with such a machine:
time to find one block = difficulty * 2**32 / hashrate
time to find one block = 157.000.000 * 2**32 / 12400000000
time to find one block = 5438 seconds

But we need 11 blocks...
11*5438 =~60.000 seconds

That's about 17 hours

So, if we rent the rig on miningrigrentals:
0.00056916 => 12 hours
:12
0.00004743 => 1 hour
x17
0.00080631 => 17 hours

Given that I would have to do all the grunt work (setting up a solo mining operation, renting the hashrate,..) and i would have to take all the risks, i'd round this up to 0.001 BTC/tBTC (this is just a ballpark figure, the actual collateral/tBTC will depend on a lot of factors)

Is this amount fair? Well, like i said, tBTC is worthless, but it's not free to mine... If i wouldn't ask for collateral, people would just borrow and forget... or run away... and no, the word of somebody i don't know doesn't count (i'm not that naive)... I'd be left with an empty wallet and no tBTC for my faucet... That doesn't sound fair either doesn't it?

sources:
https://testnet.smartbit.com.au/charts/difficulty
https://www.miningrigrentals.com/rigs/175758/?currency=BTC
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Difficulty

[Since the mempool is filling up nicely the last couple of days and i see loads of new and longtime members struggeling getting their transactions confirmed after paying a fee that's to low for the current status of the mempool, i decided to dedicate a long post to executing a Child Pays For Parent (CPFP).]

Since the mempool is filling up nicely the last couple of days and i see loads of new and longtime members struggeling getting their transactions confirmed after paying a fee that's to low for the current status of the mempool, i decided to dedicate a long post to executing a Child Pays For Parent (CPFP).

What is a CPFP?
Well, if you create a transaction, you use one or more unspent outputs as an input for your new transaction, and your transaction creates one or more new unspent outputs funding an address created by the receiver and USUALLY the leftover funds (the change) funds an address created by your own wallet (the change address).
If the fee (in sat/vbyte) you chose when creating your transaction was to low (sometimes the wallet set a low fee in your place), miners won't have an incentive to add your transaction to the block they're currently trying to solve (yep, the fees go to the miner, NOT to the creator of the wallet), so the odds of getting your transaction confirmed are low.

A CPFP fixes this problem. A CPFP is taking one new unspent output created by your unconfirmed transaction and using it as an input for a new transaction. This new transaction should have a fee that is at least enough to cover the fee of your stuck transaction + the fee of your new transaction (minus the fee already payed for the stuck transaction).

If i miner wants to collect this big fee of the second transaction, he also has to put the stuck transaction into the block he's trying to solve.


A theoretical example
unspent output aaa with a value of 1 BTC funds address 1MyWalletAddress
you use unspent output aaa as an input for a new transaction funding address 1ReceiverAddress with unspent output bbb (value 0.5 BTC) and change address 1ChangeAddress with unspent output ccc (value 0.499999). The fee payed by this transaction is 1 - (0.5+0.499999) => 0.000001 (100 sats). Waaaay to low... This transaction is stuck in the mempool for ages if we don't do something...

Well, luckily both you and the receiver have access to an address that was funded by this stuck transaction:
you have address 1ChangeAddress funded by unspent output ccc
the receiver has address 1ReceiverAddress funded by unspent output bbb

Soooo.... Either you create a new transaction using unspent output ccc as an input or the receiver creates a new transaction using unspent output bbb as an input.
The fee you should pay for this new is:
(the optimal fee of the first transaction) + (the optimal fee of the second transaction) - (the fee already payed for the first transaction => 100 sat) + (something extra since you don't want both transactions to get stuck if there's a sudden influx of tx's in the mempool).

For newbies, it might be usefull to use tools like https://coinb.in/#fees, together with block explorers like blockchair.com to get a hold of the sizes of transactions (yes, it's the size of the transaction that matters, not it's value... It's perfectly possible to transfer $1.000.000 in value and pay a smaller fee than transferring $50 in value... It all depends on the amount of unspent outputs used as an input, the amount of new unspent outputs created, and the type of wallet).

A little boilerplate background info before i start posting screenshots:

• CPFP is NOT the only tool in your toolbox when being faced with stuck transactions. Ideally you should have enabled opt-in RBF so you can just bump the fee.. Or you could pay viabtc or use their free accelerator, or you could just wait it out...
• I'm giving demos on the TESTNET... Yeah, at current feerates i'm not going to do a demo on the main net
• I take no responsability if you follow this walktrough and things go wrong... DYOR before executing following steps
• I'm using electrum... Why electrum? Well, to begin with, electrum is a popular wallet by itself... But, it also allows you to use many popular hardware wallets together with electrum without compromising your xprv. It also allows you restore wallets from many other popular vendors, and last but not least: it allows you to easily import multiple private keys... So many situations can be solved by using electrum, even if the initial problem wasn't "created" using electrum. Oh yeah, electrum runs on linux, windows, mac and android
• Do be carefull when downloading electrum: only download from electrum.org AND verify ThomasV's signature!!!

Now, let's get to it... Creating a CPFP for newbies (the easy version):
Right click on the stuck transaction and see if there's a menu: child pays for parent... Follow the wizard


you'll be presented with a nice gui:


and what do we learn from this gui?

• the sum of the sizes of the stuck tx + the cpfp tx is 417 bytes
• since the testnet only requires 1 sat/byte, the gui proposes a fee of 417 sats...
• since the stuck tx already had a fee of 226 sats, this makes the total fee for child + parent 643 sats

If presented with the following screen, just click on "sign", sometimes you have to enter your password or use your hardware wallet to sign


if presented with the following screen, click on "broadcast"



Now, let's get to it... Creating a CPFP for newbies (the hard version where you'll actually learn what you're doing and have full controll):
i started my electrum client on the testnet... But everything should work the same on the main net!



I "accidentally" created a tx with a fee of 1 sat/byte... For the testnet, that's actually sufficient... But we're going to pretend we're on the main net, and our  sat/byte tx will be stuck for days/weeks


if i copy the tx id and look it up on an explorer like blockstream, or blockchair, or blockchain,...

you can see the following things:

• the status is unconfirmed... that's the big problem isn't it
• the ETA is one block because we're on the testnet... You'll probably see a much larger number, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this walktrough
• you see a fee of 1 sat/vbyte
• you see i opted in RBF... If you see the same for YOUR transaction, there's a much easyer way to solve your stuck transaction... Just increase the fee with electrum's gui... But for this tutorial, i wanted to show a CPFP, so that's what we're going to do (eventough i can get this tx unstuck in an easyer way)
• but the most interesting thing to see on this screenshot is: there are 2 unspent outputs created: one funding address 2MyMu3v5U7P7Ri2gThigxRn9VmandyepBVG with an unspent output with value 0.005 (this is the "payment"), and one funding address mjUxPsHYbn9rrs9c8bqNr4WFKCoeWCatmw with an unspent output with value 0.04499776 (this is the change)... Remember address mjUxPsHYbn9rrs9c8bqNr4WFKCoeWCatmw it's going to come back to haunt us

we want to show our unspent outputs in electrum


go to the "coins" tab, and you'll see a list of unspent outputs funding your addresses:


Do you see the unspent output funding my change address? mjUxPsHYbn9rrs9c8bqNr4WFKCoeWCatmw? That's the one we need!!! You could verify this by looking in the same "coins" tab to the "output point" column. This should be the tx id of the stuck transaction!!!
This tutorial is written from the sender's point of view... HOWEVER, it works exactly the same way if you're the receiver. In this case, you'll also see an unspent output funding the address you gave to the sender, this is the unspent output you want to use

once you've found the unspent output funding the change address created by the stuck transaction, do the following:




go to "preferences"


the transactions tab:

• use replace by fee => check if you never want to create another CPFP
• check advanced preview
• the rest are my personal settings, you can do with them what you want after reading the help info

go to the "addresses" tab (wich you might have to activate by clicking "view" => "show addresses" and pick an unused address (or a used one, i don't care)


copy it


click on the send tab, paste it, click on "max"


since you enabled "advanced preview" in the settings, you'll end up on this page:

As you can see, you can manually set the fee for your CPFP tx... Remember, you need the fee to cover the fee for your stuck transaction AND your cpfp transaction... Calculating an appropriate fee is a completely different discussion... And since this post is already huge i'll skip it... As a rule of thumb, you should at least double the current fee, unless the stuck transaction is big (in that case doubling it won't do the trick).

click on sign


enter your password (or sign using your hardware wallet)


click on "broadcast"


here's the block explorer's view of the address i'm using to receive the change from my CPFP:


Now, this is concludes creating a CPFP... Now let's see on my node what we actually did... This step cannot be executed by you, and it's not something that's necessary to create a CPFP... It's just my way of showing what actually happened:


This is the mempool view of my CPFP tx: do you see the fee? It's much higher than the 1 sat/vbyte fee we used for our stuck transaction isn't it? What's even more important is to see the tx id of the stuck transaction in the section "depends". This actually means that a miner cannot claim the fee of the CPFP tx without also including the stuck transaction... The CPFP tx depends on the stuck transaction.
Once a miner mines a block that includes the CPFP tx, he also has to include the stuck tx, solving your problem

I just noticed a new tab on dx.com:



Does anybody have any info on this? I don't see any bitcoin logo or deposit address anywhere?

I'm writing this topic after responding in this thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5276103

The OP of this thread is giving away merit to newbies that promise to abide by the forum rules and copy/paste their favorite rule in said thread. I can only imagine it takes a newbie less than 30 seconds to rank up this way, 0 effort needed. I quickly noticed two of the recipients were on my ignorelist. These 2 ignored members have now ranked up, and can add a signature and have more lenient posting restrictions in general.

This means they now have an opportunity to partake in sigspamming, or they can now make money by selling the ranked-up account. Neither of these options is very appealing to me.

People that know me a little bit probably know i'm not a big fan of ignoring people. I always try to stay friendly and helpfull. I don't ignore people all that often. I value opinions and try to stay away from drama as much as possible (sure, we're on bitcointalk... 100% drama avoidance is very, very, very hard... If not, impossible). As a matter of fact, i basically have to notice a certain username multiple times when they're actively posting crap before i'm tempted to read their post history. And only if their posthistory shows they continuously post utter garbage they'll end up on my ignorelist. Just to say that today, 2 crapposters got ranked up...

This topic is NOT pointed towards the OP in the linked thread, but merely to discuss the general stance of other members towards merit giveaways. AFAIK, the OP in above thread is trying to do some good for newbies, and others have done merit giveaways long before he started his thread.

I think there's a fine line between merit giveaways that are beneficial, and merit giveaways that are toxic.

I've seen OgNasty give away merit to people that have mastered the technical details of signing a message. I've seen people that allow newbies to highlight merit-worthy posts... I think these forms of merit-giveaway are fine, since they at least require a minimum amount of effort of the participant.
But on the other hand, any giveaway that can be claimed with less than 15 minutes of work might do more harm than good (IMHO).

I'm sure we'll see a lot of different opinions on this subject tough

[What's the price?]

I'm working together with the owner of https://www.merel.mobi to start a group buy of

"custom, hand-made, bitcoin-themed facemasks"!

The masks are made of washable materials bought in the EU, and handmade by the store's owner.

These masks do not exist yet, there is no stock, they'll only be produced if i succeed in getting downpayments for >10 masks. Why? Because obtaining custom-printed, high-quality cotton is quite expensive. If i can't find 10 people that want a bitcoin facemask on Bitcointalk, the owner won't be able to ROI after having to buy the fabric.


The theme used for the masks will be very basic and look like this:


IF you own the rights to an other bitcoin-theme, we could defenately have a look at it, and see if we can get it custom-printed aswell!

This is how the facemasks will look (but using bitcoin-themed fabric)


It's perfectly fine to resell these items, or if you're from a big geographic area you can pool together to save on portage costs.

What's the price?
€12,5 + shipping & handling . Sending from Belgium, either tracked (and insured) or untracked (at receiver's risk)

preffered payment method = Bitcoin (on-chain or via the LN). LTC or ETH are also accepted.

How to get your own bitcoin-themed facemask?

• contact me on this thread, or via PM. Tell me you country (not your address), the coin you'd like to use and the amount of masks you would like to buy
• i'll be in rather close contact with the owner, so you'll get a quote in < 2 working days
• if you accept the quoted amount, i'll send you an address or a lightning invoice (i can provide a signature with an address i staked back in 2016)
• the owner wants a downpayment of at least 40% of the total quoted amount. The downpayment will be kept by me OR by a trusted thirth party bitcointalk escrow (buyer pays the escrow's fee). The downpayment is non-refundable in case you decide to get out of the deal. It is meant to cover part of the costs of the fabric the owner will buy.
• as soon as 10 people have pre-ordered their facemask, the owner will order the custom-printed material and create the facemasks. There is no 100% guarantee the fabric will be 100% the same as the one in the picture (it'll depend on the printing company)
• you'll have to send the rest of the money either to me or to a trusted escrow (exceptions can be made for highly trusted accounts). At this point, you'll also have to give me your address (can be encrypted using my private key, via email, via PM, or via privnote)
• the masks will be shipped to you

If i don't succeed in finding 10 candidates before the end of september, all downpayments will be reimbursed 100%. Make sure i can contact you to exchange reimbursement details (either via PM or via e-mail).

If i do find at least 10 interested candidates, the first masks will probably be shipped around the end of September-first weeks of October.

Een vriend van me is begonnen met een kleine webwinkel. De BTW-nummer is nog in aanvraag.
Er worden mondkapjes verkocht, tassen om mondkapjes hygienisch op te bergen, netjes om wespen uit je bierglas te houden, kinderkledij, sjaaltjes,... (nog niet alles staat online op dit moment).

Ik werd gevraagd om de webshop helpen op te zetten (wordpress en woocommerce).

Omdat ik de eigenaar ken vanuit de crypto-community word crypto natuurlijk geacepteerd (naast paypal, overschrijving en creditcards via paypal). De eigenaar is momenteel aan het aanmelden bij mollie.com om ook andere betalingsmogelijkheden kunnen aan te bieden. We hebben momenteel nog geen goeie plugin voor coins als ETH en dergelijke, maar op simpele aanvraag worden ook deze geacepteerd.

De crypto-payments lopen over mijn btcpay server. De eigenaar heeft me een xpub gegeven dewelke gebruikt zal worden om payment addresses van te deriven, en er worden ook lightning payments geacepteerd (deze gaan naar mijn wallet, en ik betaal dan een gelijkwaardige hoeveelheid aan de eigenaar).

Er is een fallback mechanisme voor crypto-payments indien mijn btcpay server zou timeouten: de "Nomiddleman Crypto Payments" plugin. Je kan deze ook gebruiken om met LTC te betalen.

Dit is een pre-release, dus geef me een gil als je iets ziet mislopen.

Ik ben niet de eigenaar, maar de échte eigenaar wenst niet langer aanwezig te zijn op bitcointalk, dus je kan mij aanzien als het officiële aanspreekpunt. Als ik vragen of problemen doorkrijg zal ik deze zo vlug mogelijk melden aan de eigenaar (meestal in minder dan 48 uur).

Ik ga ook proberen wat kortingscodes vast te krijgen voor deze community. Ik hoop dat ik een akkoord hierover krijg van de eignaar.
Here it is: https://www.merel.mobi