Some time ago I stopped mining cryptocoins and launched SSN@Home (Search for Satoshi Nakamoto) project on the hardware. The bot dug thru different sites related to Bitcoin, crypto, libertanians, etc. Today I got the final result - it's a list of identities - and DeathAndTaxes is #1 in it (less than 50% match though). I can't ask him "Are you Satoshi", well, I can, but I bet he will answer "No" in any case. I'm asking the community, who is he? Do u have any proof that he is what he pretends to be (I mean in RL)? Do u have any info that could prove (or disprove) that he is Satoshi?

@DeathAndTaxes:
Sorry for talking about u in 3rd person form. But it makes no sense to ask u regarding the issue.

I've cashed out all my bitcoins. Now I'm going to get rid of all other cryptocoins. Unfortunatelly, this amount is too low and I can't withdraw it in USD, so I decided to convert the altcoins into bitcoins and give to the 1st newbie who posts here his/her BTC-address. This person must have 5-6 post counts and be registered prior this post. Anyone?

Imagine that the blockchain is pruned. How a lesser (non-full) node can validate unspent outputs in case when other nodes send contradictory data? Will the merkle root of these data be added into blockchain headers?

[ConstCoin]

I'm proud to announce the best coin ever - ConstCoin.
While folks were arguing what is better - inflation or deflation - and launching coins with different inflation/deflation rates, I devised a coin which total supply is constant. No inflation, no deflation, no problems.

This coin has some kewl features:

1. It's 100% premined, but noone will blame me that it's a scam, keep reading and u'll get why.
2. Its total supply is exactly 1 (one) CC (stands for ConstCoin), but it's infinitely divisible. So if u used to think in direction 1 -> [infinity], u should try other direction, 1 -> 1/[infinity]. It's the same as switching from infinity of macrocosm to infinity of microcosm.
3. Lifetime of the coin is limited and controlled by math. When the time comes someone will launch next generation of the coin, this will be the beginning of a new epoch. I can't even imagine features that new coin will have!

Now more details...

The very 1st block will have 1 CC assigned to an address controlled by me. Yes, it's 100% premine. When someone finds a block he will get part of the total supply. This part depends on difficulty of the found block. Difficulty is measured as 2^256 minus generated 256-bit number. If the miner gets 3/4 of 2^256, then he gets 1/4 of the total supply to his address. In our case those who found 2nd block would get 0.25 CC and my balance would become 0.75 CC. Next block must have difficulty LOWER than difficulty of a previous block. Let's imagine that the 3rd block is 1/2 of 2^256. It means that the miner gets 1/2 of the total supply, so we have 0.375 CC on my account, 0.125 CC on the account of someone who mined 2nd block and 0.5 CC on the account of the last miner. I hope u got the idea. When someone finds a block with all zeros ("0" 256 times) - GAME OVER, time to launch next generation of the coin. It's unlikely this will happen during next 100 years but this definitely will happen somewhere in the future.

If u think about economy based on this coin u will notice that it's unprofitable to hoard coins. This is a very neat feature, it means that such an economy will do its best to make money to "work". Looks very promising.

PS: I can't provide the software right now, 1st I'd like to get feedback. Perhaps I'll change something...

Yup, it's a joke.

Hey, whoever is going to launch a new altcoin! Why don't u use Keccak-256? We need something non-archaic (not SHA256 nor Scrypt). SHA-3 will let to bring into mining business new people, who don't own ASICs nor GPU rigs. Could be an interesting experiment. 

[People lost their faith in Bitcoin. The rise of competing altcoins, govt regulation, shutdowns of exchanges, frozen bank accounts, recent crashes called "fluctuations", black PR. More than 4 years have passed since the launch and Bitcoin is still far from world-wide adoption. In our fast-paced world 4 years is too much time. Those who familiar with Bitcoin see other worrying indications - price manipulation, inability of core devs to solve technical issues related to scalability, centralization, successful attempts of some persons to regulate Bitcoin. For me it's obvious now that The End Is Near. Bitcoin failed, time to move on...]

People lost their faith in Bitcoin. The rise of competing altcoins, govt regulation, shutdowns of exchanges, frozen bank accounts, recent crashes called "fluctuations", black PR. More than 4 years have passed since the launch and Bitcoin is still far from world-wide adoption. In our fast-paced world 4 years is too much time. Those who familiar with Bitcoin see other worrying indications - price manipulation, inability of core devs to solve technical issues related to scalability, centralization, successful attempts of some persons to regulate Bitcoin. For me it's obvious now that The End Is Near. Bitcoin failed, time to move on...

[...blood, toil, tears and sweat.]

...blood, toil, tears and sweat.

[just]

There are a lot of threads about taxation and FinCEN regulation on this forum. Now you can pay taxes, register yourself as Money Service Business (MSB) and sleep well, but... The state won't stop and will continue to strangle Bitcoin. One day it will make Bitcoin illegal.

Now the state collects data who uses Bitcoin, so in the future (when Bitcoin becomes illegal) they'll pay very close attention to those who declared that they "touched" bitcoins. It's a well known trick:
1. Pretend you are just going to regulate something.
2. Collect data about users.
3. Make it illegal.
4. Spy the users.
5. Prosecute those who violate the law.

Keep this in mind...

Does anyone audit ASICs made by different companies? Such a hardware can contain logical bombs that can harm Bitcoin when particular conditions are met. For example, starting from 250000th block an ASIC can withhold every 2nd nonce that solves a block. This lowers effectiveness of the hardware by 50% while keeps the same hashrate reported. If everyone mines with such ASICs then 51% attack become 25.5% one.

Some other types of possible bombs can be used too.

1. Declare Bitcoin mining an illegal activity.
2. Launch Bitcoin client.
3. Collect IPs.
4. Ask ISP for physical addresses.
5. Send the police to these addresses.
6. Shutdown mining hardware, arrest the owners.

What can be done to counteract such an attack? TOR seems to be very slow to use it all the time to transfer recently found blocks. Any other technical solutions?

[real]

From http://legalbrainz.blogspot.com/2012/11/regulation-of-virtual-currencies-in.html:

In 2009, China outright banned gold farming out of fear that virtual currency could affect its real world currency.  As a result, virtual currencies cannot be traded for real goods or services in the country.

Well... We shouldn't count these 1350 million people. It's minus 20% of possible Bitcoin userbase.

http://litecoindice.com/

I played for a while and really enjoyed the service. Works with the speed of light(ning). Very good substitute of SD for non-orthodox bitcoiners.

[Fractional Reserve Banking.]

Everyone who thinks that there will be not more than 21,000,000 bitcoins IS WRONG.

1. Fractional Reserve Banking. For example, MtGox, they do FRB. (I'm wrong? They don't do it? C'mon, even small kids know that MtGox loves FRB.)
2. Altcoins. Litecoin, Bytecoin, whatever. (I'm wrong? These are other currencies? C'mon, it's Bitcoin with other names, look at their source code.)

What do these 2 points mean?

Bitcoin is not deflationary  =>  One BTC will never be $1,000,000  =>  When the block reward becomes too low, miners will switch to other currency, because fees won't cover burnt electricity

So, how are we going to secure the blockchain in the future?

Let's set default fee to lower amount. Something like 0.0001 instead of 0.0005. Miners will get less, so they'll try to sell coins a little bit more expensive. Even if this trick won't work we'll get a small bonus.

How to set default fee in the classic client:
1. Go to debug console
2. Type "settxfee 0.0001"
3. Press [ENTER]

Bitcoin was a revolution. Bytecoin is its evolution:

Bitcoin has very few early adopters who hoarded most part of coins. Bytecoin was born when much more people were cryptocoin aware, so bytecoins will be dispersed with much higher degree. It seems to be more fair.

.

[byte]

I'd like to buy 1000 bytecoins, they must be mature. Paying with bitcoins, tell me your price. I'll be back in 5-6 hours.

[Every transaction must contain a nonce so SHA256(SHA256([transaction hash] + [nonce])) < [some target dependent on tx size]. GPU miners could provide service to find tx nonces for small "fee". Spammers will be forced to spend a lot of computing power which better would be used for mining. If someone can't afford to find a nonce s/he could just include old-style fee.]

Only TL;DR version:

Every transaction must contain a nonce so SHA256(SHA256([transaction hash] + [nonce])) < [some target dependent on tx size]. GPU miners could provide service to find tx nonces for small "fee". Spammers will be forced to spend a lot of computing power which better would be used for mining. If someone can't afford to find a nonce s/he could just include old-style fee.

Seems to be a decent solution?

As we all know elliptic curve cryptography is vulnerable to a quantum computer. For a conventional computer difficulty of breaking 256-bit key equals 256/2=128 bits. For a quantum computer it's just sqrt(256)=16 bits.
Bitcoin address is a hashed public key of 256-bit EC. Hashes are resistant to quantum algos, so while someone keeps his public key unknown it's OK. But when he wants to transfer his money he must reveal the key.
Let's assume that an attacker with a quantum computer monitors all transactions. The attacker can pick any key while a transaction awaits to be included into a block. Now imagine that miners choose transactions with higher fees. The attacker can issue other transaction (when he picks the private key) that transfer coins to his address and set a higher fee. Or he could switch his mining rig on and try to find a block himself. With 0.1% of all hashpower he needs only 5 days to solve a block with 50% chance.

Seems Bitcoin is NOT safe. Or am I wrong?

We have moved back to 0.7 chain, but we'll face the same problem again if someone mines a big block and reproduces the bug. 1% of the total hashrate is enough to solve a block within 12 hours with 50% success. Or 5 days with only 0.1% of hashpower. Aren't we going to have a forkfest again?

PS: I may be wrong and the bug can't be reproduced. Could anyone check this plz?