Your first reaction.  Quick click.

Effective the May 31st, 2013 Tangible Cryptography has suspended new purchases of Bitcoins through our service FastCash4Bitcoins.  We take this step in response to a notice received, the same day from the Commonwealth of Virginia, that a complaint has been made that our company is operating as an unlicensed money transmitter.  

The Virginia Corporation Commission did an initial investigation in response to the complaint, and determined that our activity may constitute money transmission under Virginia law. The Commission's initial assessment has factual errors which we intend to address.  The notice indicated that it appears that our company is issuing Bitcoins through the use of the website https://fastcash4bitcoins.com , which may constitute "selling or issuing stored value" under Virginia law.  

As our clients are well aware this is simply an incorrect assessment of our business activity. The site is used to facilitate the purchase of Bitcoins from clients.  Tangible Cryptography is acting as a independent buyers not issuer of virtual currency.  Furthermore there is no obligation for redemption, or holding of customer funds, as would occur in a stored value system.  The view that buying, selling, or even issuing new Bitcoins, would be seen as stored value is at odds with the guidance from FinCEN earlier this year in which they stated that exchangers (and issuers) of virtual currency are not issuers of prepaid access (stored value) under Federal law.

The company has been given thirty days to provide written explanation on why our activity is exempt from licensing under current law. The commission has formally stated that unless exempt from licensing we must stop further activity until such time as we apply for and obtain a Money Transmitter license.  The prudent action is for the company to suspend all new transactions while we respond to the Commission's notice.

We want to reassure our valued clients that all completed transactions have been paid.  At this time there has been no freeze, hold, or closure of our payment accounts.  We are one of the few Bitcoin related enterprises which can definitively say that to date, no client has lost funds as a result of theft, hacking, or fraud through fault or negligence by Tangible Cryptography or the services it provides.  The future and direction of Tangible Cryptography will depend on the outcome of our response to the Virginia Corporation Commission.  While we hope for a timely resolution we recommend our existing clients make alternative arrangements as it is difficult to provide an estimate on how long such a resolution may take.

Staff
Tangible Cryptography, LLC

[What changes will occur with FastCash4Bitcoins?]

Tangible Cryptography LLC has filed with FinCEN for registration as a Money Service Business (MSB).  In light of the guidance from FinCEN released last month we have taken steps to become compliant with the regulations imposed on "virtual currency exchangers".  On the advice of legal counsel, Tangible Cryptography filed for registration as a MSB.  Even prior to FinCEN guidance management at Tangible Cryptography concluded it was a matter of when not if Bitcoin related enterprises would be subject to regulation.  Our policies and procedures put in place over the last year have been designed to make this transition as easy as possible.  

What changes will occur with FastCash4Bitcoins?
At this time there are no changes.  On advice of counsel our existing procedures are sufficient to meet the regulatory requirements of a MSB.  It is important to understand that FC4B has ALWAYS prohibited third party transactions (Bob using FC4B site to pay funds to an account owned by Alice).  Users attempting such third party transactions face financial penalties (per our terms of service), closure of account and now under MSB regulations we may be mandated to report these transactions.  We have no intentions on allowing third party transactions and the overwhelming majority of our users understand and respect this.  We have designed our site, and payment methods to be compliant with FinCEN guidelines.  Third party transactions remain prohibited on FastCash4Bitcoins and in the future once our registration with FinCEN is complete these prohibited transactions are likely to cause further issues for users involved.

What changes will occur with Bitcoins Direct?
We are no longer accepting cash deposits effective immediately.  The MSB regulations that FinCEN has imposed on "virtual currency exchangers" were never intended for this role, and they contain provisions which are nonsensical and at best vague when applied to a "virtual currency exchanger".  The reporting and identification requirements for currency transactions are one such area.  In this case "currency" is defined as the physical money of the United States, and foreign governments (to include certain certified instruments such as cashier's checks and money orders).  We have sought clarification from FinCEN and will avoid these types of transactions until we have better understanding of the requirements.  


As a user of FastCash4Bitcoins or Bitcoins Direct what do I need to do?
Nothing other than continue to use the sites as intended.  We have designed our services to ensure that we don't engage in transactions which require enhanced identification or mandated reporting (except in cases of willful abuse by the user).  If you use our services as intended (your coins sold to Tangible Cryptography for payment into an account in your name) you can continue to use our services as you always have.  We have specifically designed our services to ensure that a user would have to be willfully violating our terms of service to create a transaction (or series of transactions) which result in mandated reporting or enhanced identification requirements.  In the more than five thousand successfully completed transactions there have been less than a dozen which may have mandated reporting if Tangible Cryptography has been an MSB. All of these transactions involve a blatant and willful abuse of the system (and a complete lack of common sense).  Examples include accounts under a false name, single user with multiple accounts (27 to be exact), user sending bitcoins to multiple accounts (and notifying us when the transaction was delayed), user willfully creating accounts under another person's name (a law firm who had no knowledge of the transaction), user unable to complete a transaction because they did not have identification matching name on the check he requested, and user admitting of his own volition (without any prompting by our staff) that the funds in the transaction are the proceeds of criminal activity).  The bar for filing a SAR is generally pretty high and the setup of our service ensure you could not accidentally be reported as a result of a common mistake or misunderstanding.  

Why was bullion removed from FastCash4Bitcoins?
Bullion sales are not considered money transmission.  Given the reduced regulatory burden we will be processing bullion sales in a separate site launching soon.  Same great service and prices but under a new brand dedicated to bullion sales.

Why do you not allow international bank wires on FastCash4Bitcoins?
It is ironic that the reason we prohibit International Transactions is because we do not have the capabilities to ensure the account holder is not an American.  Certain provisions of FACTA require financial institutions to record transactions of Americans made to foreign accounts.  Without the ability to guarantee a client is not an American we have on the advice of counsel decided to limit our outbound transactions to US based banks.  This ensures compliance by default.  It is possible this decision will be changed in the future however there is no plan or ETA on that.

Are you going to report all my transactions to the government?
No.  MSB are only required to file reports under certain conditions.  The two most common scenarios are "suspicious activity" (as defined by FinCEN), and transactions involving more than $10,000 in currency.  In this case "currency" is defined as the physical money of the United States, and foreign governments (to include certain certified instruments such as cashier's checks and money orders).  Neither of our sites involve physical currency and the bar for suspicious activity is rather high.  The nature of our service and limited payment options ensure that the filing of a SAR would require a user to intentionally violate our terms and conditions.

Money transmitters ... that are subject to the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act and its implementing regulations (31 CFR Chapter X are required to file a suspicious activity report (SAR-MSB) with respect to:

a. Any transaction conducted or attempted by, at, or through a money services business involving or aggregating funds or other assets of at least $2,000 when the money services business knows, suspects, or has reason to suspect that:

i. The transaction involves funds derived from illegal activity or is intended or conducted in order to hide or disguise funds or assets derived from illegal activity (including, without limitation, the nature, source, location, ownership or control of such funds or assets) as part of a plan to violate or evade any Federal law or regulation or to avoid any transaction reporting requirement under Federal law or regulation;

ii. The transaction is designed, whether through structuring or other means, to evade any regulations promulgated under the Bank Secrecy Act; or

iii. The transaction has no business or apparent lawful purpose and the money services business knows of no reasonable explanation for the transaction after examining the available facts, including the background and possible purpose of the transaction.

iv. The transaction involves the use of the money services business to facilitate criminal activity.

http://www.fincen.gov/forms/files/fin109_sarmsb.pdf

If you file a SAR will you notify me?
Financial Institutions are prohibited from notifying an entity that a SAR has been filed or that their transaction may result in a SAR.  We have taken steps to ensure that no user using our service as intended could produce a transaction or set of transaction that would give mandate reporting under the definitions of "suspicious activity".  If a user wilfully violates our terms of service and engages in activity such as but not limited to the following we may be mandated to file a SAR:

• create transactions under a false name.
• open an account under the name of third party.
• announce, declare, or otherwise inform the staff that fund are the result of criminal activity.
• use multiple accounts with intentional mispellings of the users name.

Trying to submit a sell order and the site "takes it" no error.  No open order created, no order executed.
I don't want to keep doing this only to have 10,000 BTC worth of sell orders post all at once.

Have a tx with 7 confirms (confirmed by our node, backup node, and blockchain.info) and no indicating on MtGox site.

Also on a related note MtGox can you show pending tx?   Something like

1BITCOINADDRES123456     1000.00 BTC     0 of 6 confirms

[Is there any good way to do that?]

At our last investor meeting the owners of Tangible Cryptography decided we would like to make regular donations to various active developers in the Bitcoin "community".  Not just the core development team but also other important projects like cgminer.

Is there any good way to do that?  Developers join, leave, and the amount of contribution changes over time.  Is there a single compiled list of active developers for not just the core team but also other major open source projects (alternative wallets, cgminer, bitcoin libraries, etc)? 

Maybe it is too early for something like this but an optimal solution would be a sort of "give back" bitcoin address run by a trusted third party which took coins donated there and split them in some community agreed upon manner (maybe evenly or maybe weighted).  Sendmany and the power of the blockchain can make the process completely transparent.  If funds are split and disbursed in realtime it reduces the risk of theft or embezzlement and provides an audit trail.  Most people are generous but they want to make sure the funds go to where they will do some good.  People give to the Red Cross because they trust the Red Cross judgement when it comes to distributing resources.

I know the Bitcoin Foundation is an option and some of our company owners are individual members.  We don't have a corporate membership because at this point the size of our company probably doesn't warrant that kind of investment (hey Bitcoin Foundation how about a small biz price point? ).  Also the Foundation providing a salary to Gavin to support full time development is a good thing but something with broader reach and transparency would be nice.

[Background:]

Tangible Cryptography LLC seeks Line of Credit to expand working capital

Background:
Tangible Cryptography LLC is a manager-managed limited liability company registered in Virginia.  It is privately held with three members (LLC equivalent of shareholders).  Tangible Cryptography has operated the FastCash4Bitcoin service profitably for roughly nine months.  During that time it transitioned from a manual service to provide quicker Dwolla withdrawals for a certain exchange to an independent sales portal which offers same day payouts on bitcoin sales.  The daily volume exceeds many major exchanges.  Our customer feedback continues to be spotless with no unresolved issues.  When we buy a client's coins it is because we can pay them.  Despite nearly quadrupling monthly sales volume in 2012, sales volume in January was 37% higher on a USD basis and 11 higher on a BTC basis compared to the prior month.  
 At the current time the company has ~$190K in cash (and cash equivalents) and ~$260K in total assets.  The company's only debt at this time is Loc C & D which consist of 500 BTC and $50,000 USD.  Loc A & B have been paid in full.  Interest obligations on existing debt is less than 5 BTC and $1,000 USD per month.  Sales volume for the prior 30 days was ~$600,000 and the company collected a gross profit margin of 3.87%.  

Operation:
We purchase bitcoins from clients using our FastCash4Bitcoins service.  These purchases are made at a discount to the "MtGox last price".   The amount of discount used varies base on current volatility, and current fund balances (BTC vs USD).   Since 01/05 we have opted to keep the discount fixed at 2.99%.  The acquired coins are then sold on multiple exchanges, to other bitcoin related companies, or in “direct sales” to large buyers under the brand name Bitcoins Direct.  Bitcoins Direct has helped us convert coin liquidation from a cost to a secondary source of income.   For the prior 30 days coin sales contributed 0.88% of the gross margin of 3.87%.  We have discontinued our CellCoin and escrow services in order to refocus on our core business model.  

Purpose & Scope:
The purpose of the loans hasn't changed since we originally sought the funds in Loc C & D however our daily volume has increased by roughly 71% since we originally secured those notes.  In order to meet the needs of increased working capital we are seeking to double the Loc C from 500 BTC to 1,000 BTC and Loc D from $50,000 USD to $100,000 USD.  The loans are interest only with no defined maturity date.  The note will be repaid in full within 30 days once called by lender.   Tangible Cryptography can repaid part of all of the principal at anytime without penalty.

Notes proposed:

Line of Credit C (LocC)
Current Bid:  150 BTC @ 4.5%, 350 BTC @ 12%
Amount: 500 BTC
Denomination:  Bitcoins
Repayment:  Interest only payment made monthly.  When note is called principal will be repaid within 30 days.
Interest: max of 12% annually - note bidding is a reverse auction which ends 2/6/2012 @ 23:59:59 UTC.


Line of Credit D (LocD)
Current Bid: $50,000 @ 24% annually
Amount: $50,000 USD
Denomination:  USD
Repayment:  Interest only payment made monthly.  When note is called principal will be repaid within 30 days.
Interest:  max of 24% annually - note bidding is a reverse auction which ends 2/6/2012 @ 23:59:59 UTC.
This note is denominated in USD.   The note can be funded with BTC transfer, cash deposit, bank wire, or MtGox USD code.   Repayment of interest is available as BTC transfer, ACH, MtGox USD code, or if a creditor is owed more than $500 by Bank Wire.  If BTC transfer is used for funding or repayment the exchange rate used will be the "MtGox 24 hour volume weighted average price" at the time of the payment.  

Lender risks and mitigation:

Risk: hacking or other bitcoin loss resulting in inability to repay.  We used encrypted offline wallets (commonly called a "cold wallet").   which is kept offline.  Encrypted backups are maintained as well as encrypted paper printouts of private keys.  Both digital and paper backups are stored offsite to provide redundant backups.  All of our exchange, bank and PayPal accounts employ strong passwords and two factor authentication.  Bitcoins are spread out across the cold wallet and exchange accounts minimizing the number of coins that would be affected by any single breach.  We used dedicated server (no VPS accounts with super admin backdoor).  While the risk of a hack can never be eliminated our technology and business processes are used to minimize the risk and compartmentalize any loss that would result from a breach.

Risk: closure of account or freezing of funds by Dwolla or PayPal. Company policy limits either account to no more than 10% of our working capital in accounts with either provider.  We use these accounts "one way".  The accounts are funded by bank transfers and used to payout clients.  We never allow clients to send us funds by PayPal or Dwolla which eliminates the risk of chargeback or disputes that could result in account closure.  We have provided information to Dwolla compliance department on our business procedures however despite multiple inquiries they have no provided us with written approval to operate as a "virtual currency exchange".  The PayPal account is a corporate account in the name of Tangible Cryptography LLC.  We always pay PayPal for using their service and don't attempt unsustainable hacks like marking payments as “gifts”. Since we offer a diversified set of payment options a freeze on one of these accounts would make us less attractive to customers it wouldn't be fatal to the company.  Payment by PayPal and Dwolla represents roughly 11.6% and 7.2% of total volume respectively.  

Risk: lendee has no intention on repaying (aka "scam").  While this is a risk in any loan, Tangible Cryptography LLC is registered with the Virginia Corporation commission.  Our business model provides a high return on invested capital (ROIC) and our "brand" would be destroyed by a default.  Simply put we make a good margin off your money and there is no reason to change that.  We have been doing this for nine months now and are solidly profitable.  

Why not seek traditional funding:
We have a significant amount of goodwill towards the lenders who stepped up when we needing funding in the past.  While other lenders were busy defending the sustainability of 7% per week ponzis some lenders were willing to accept more sensible returns.  They haven't lost their principal and we have paid out consistent interest payments.   The lending forum being filled almost exclusively with HYIP scams and "payday loan" offers 100%+ APR) does the community a disservice.  We hope to offer an alternative.   We feel this can be a win-win for both creditor and debtor.  For a small startup a bank loan is simply not going to happen.  At this point we are not willing to accept the dillution which would come from venture capital.

How to bid:
Send a PM with the LoC, the amount, and the min interest rate you will accept (annually).  In the event our offer is oversubscribed we will take lowest bids (reverse auction).   We will leave the offer open until 2/6/2013 @ 23:59:59 UTC.  If a bid is received within one hour of the auction end the auction end will be extended one hour.  To reduce the processing work the minimum amount per creditor is 100 BTC or $1,000 USD.  Interest rates should be in increments of 0.25%.   These notes are debt only they offer no equity or equity derivatives (options, warrants, revenue sharing contract, etc).  We are not entertaining any offers for equity sale at this time.  

Thank you for your consideration,

Staff
Tangible Cryptography LLC

[redacted]


Blockchain.info can see the above transaction but none of our monitoring wallets can. Never had this happen before.  The only thing I can guess is that the tx isn't being relayed by any of the peers to our nodes (we use multiple redundant wallets w/ a heartbeat transaction).

Any ideas?


On edit:
the tx became visible once it was included in a block (roughly 4 hours later).  My guess is that our node never saw the tx because it violated min fee rules and wasn't relayed by peers.  The tx involves a customer so has been redacted since the issue is now resolved.

[1MY2FpkrDJrJfVZ4gUKKaF2tWk86MYibKi]

Lots of trades going on right now but we are a little short on BTC side to close a deal.  
Don't want to turn the business away though so need a loan of 250 BTC for 24 hours.

Deposit Address: 1MY2FpkrDJrJfVZ4gUKKaF2tWk86MYibKi

http://blockchain.info/address/1MY2FpkrDJrJfVZ4gUKKaF2tWk86MYibKi

PM me a payback bitcoin address and check the above link that it hasn't been funded before sending coins.  If you see 250 BTC @ the link above (confirmed or not) the loan has already been funded.  If you see part of it there then the rest is still available.

Terms: 0.5% for 24 hours.  
In the implausible scenario that it has to be extended it will be an additional 0.5% non-compounding for each 24 hour interval or partial interval after that.

Multiple lenders is fine but min of 25 BTC per lender (want to keep it simple).

We have done this before, never had a problem.  
Tangible Cryptography LLC runs FC4B and our daily "coinflow" is ~1200 BTC.

Thanks

Closed

[thank]

You heard it.   We want to thank our existing clients for making 2012 an awesome year so we are offering 0% over MtGox last on all transactions through the end of the year.  

Friendly reminder:  Most bank branches close around noon local time on Saturdays and many have reduced hours on New Years Eve.   Banks should be open New Years Eve as it isn't a banking holiday.  Bank wires should clear same day up to 5PM EST (but I wouldn't wait till the last minute).

This offer is for existing clients only.  You must have funding instructions and submit a purchase order request by GPG which funds on or before 12/31/2012 to take advantage of this offer.  

Thank You,

Staff
Tangible Cryptography


The not so fine print:
Only valid for existing clients in good terms with current funding instructions.  Order must fund by 12/31/2012 for discounted rate to apply.  Not responsible for banking delays.  No rain checks.  The normal order minimum and maximum limits apply. Does not apply to multi-day transactions, VWAP transactions, or transactions involving custom terms.  

GreenDot has issued a demand for our company to cease and desist offering payments using MoneyPaks and remove all references to GreenDot and MoneyPak trademarks from our website.  They in their shortsightedness simultaneously demand Tangible Cryptography becomes an authorized partner while rejecting our attempts to become an authorized partner.  

Effective immediately we will no longer offer payments by MoneyPaks and all references to their product will be removed from our site.  We will continue to seek alternatives to provide our clients the wide range of payment options they have come to expect.

Staff
Tangible Cryptography LLC

Had a buyer drop out leaving us in a liquidity crunch. Today (12/3/2012) only,  Selling up to 2K BTC at 0.5% over MtGox price.  

Terms:

• 0.5% over MtGox Spot or 24hr VWAP (if not specified at time of funding spot will be used).
• Funding must be by bank wire only.  (Domestic, International wires won't clear for 2-3 days).
• Wire must be received by 5PM EST to get discounted rate (funds received late will be at MtGox last +2%).
• Min: $1,000 USD,  Max: $25,000 USD.

Send PM or email to info@tangiblecryptography.com
Please send email/PM BEFORE sending funds.  Coins likely will go quickly. don't assume they are still available.

Update: 2,000 BTC 1,600 BTC 1,300 BTC 1,120 available.

We have a few of these on bitmit.net and we also offers them as a payment option on FastCash4Bitcoins (support thread).

If you would prefer to buy direct on the forum send a PM.
2012 1 oz Silver Maple Leaf
S&H (for up to 12 coins): Priority Mail ()  Express Mail ()

Hopefully the mods won't mind the cross post but it may be of interest to those outside of currency exchange.  To protect the coins and disguise their shape they are packed into safe-T mailers (corrugated cardboard in third shot) and then packed into a bubble mailer.   Note: the color balance is a little yellowish even after trying to set a custom white balance (I am no photography expert).

Tangible Cryptography LLC seeking short term loan.  
Have an opportunity that would be unfortunate to pass up and right now we are cash "rich" and coin poor.

Total loan: 1,000 BTC.
1000 BTC. 370 BTC remaining.   Funded.
1% for up to 3 days, plus 1% per day after that (penalty interest I can't imagine it being necessary).

I think the company rep speaks for itself and the avg daily volume for FC4B is ~1600 BTC.
It may be a little lower this holiday weekend that is why the loan if for up to 3 days.

Prefer one lender but willing to split it up.

Code:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Tangible Cryptography LLC seeking short term loan.  
Have an opportunity that would be unfortunate to pass up and right now we are cash "rich" and coin poor.

1000 BTC.  
1% for up to 3 days, plus 1% per day after that (penalty interest I can't imagine it being necessary).

I think the company rep speaks for itself and the avg daily volume for FC4B is ~1600 BTC.
It may be a little lower this holiday weekend that is why the loan if for up to 3 days.

Prefer one lender but willing to split it up.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.19 (MingW32)

iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJQrSY4AAoJECi7cV/CbBfNGT0H/jTQsDy0S49l/blhM0tb/n+I
oKtxu/ydOpThXPDQGVgRBViTd514MD3Aqw3OH2Z9YgzBMAu5/cyUNbbuTcN7SuIh
5WyA6h4Cn+VCZZDyGZMNBlQGNQCpTjAWHanKBtHY6VzRfzfnApMngPOCv+T82D+R
nXVgt7ai1zi9lJwG8t8/4hhneAOHBfHwxJzyheSr7jXRmXC48N1Kc1dG7bU6aR2R
jwH4BKxLJ24Q0WCklJW52bAC01CyLysXcTgrMXHmdUlJeJTz0q8gy8fwPlGL4hKQ
lxCFM7oJRNOhUk9NWffBbA8/m68c8qJOjDJur6a/6ly0eF2gcXBL7agg4Vtcw/g=
=LZbF
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

From now till Monday (while supplies last) sales paid out by Dwolla on FastCash4Bitcoins will get a 1% bonus over the normal buying price.

https://fastcash4bitcoins.com

Bonus will show on "Sell Coin" page when Dwolla payment option is selected.  First come, first served.

So I am doing some programming and a minor thing that bugs me is the "weird" naming convention of a minority of the RPC calls.

Code:

bitcoind help

addmultisigaddress <nrequired> <'["key","key"]'> [account]
backupwallet <destination>
createrawtransaction [{"txid":txid,"vout":n},...] {address:amount,...}
decoderawtransaction <hex string>
dumpprivkey <bitcoinaddress>
getaccount <bitcoinaddress>
getaccountaddress <account>
getaddressesbyaccount <account>
getbalance [account] [minconf=1]
getblock <hash>
getblockcount
getblockhash <index>
getblocktemplate [params]
getconnectioncount
getdifficulty
getgenerate
gethashespersec
getinfo
getmininginfo
getnewaddress [account]
getpeerinfo
getrawmempool
getrawtransaction <txid> [verbose=0]
getreceivedbyaccount <account> [minconf=1]
getreceivedbyaddress <bitcoinaddress> [minconf=1]
gettransaction <txid>
getwork [data]
help [command]
importprivkey <bitcoinprivkey> [label]
keypoolrefill
listaccounts [minconf=1]
listaddressgroupings
listreceivedbyaccount [minconf=1] [includeempty=false]
listreceivedbyaddress [minconf=1] [includeempty=false]
listsinceblock [blockhash] [target-confirmations]
listtransactions [account] [count=10] [from=0]
listunspent [minconf=1] [maxconf=9999999]  ["address",...]
move <fromaccount> <toaccount> <amount> [minconf=1] [comment]
sendfrom <fromaccount> <tobitcoinaddress> <amount> [minconf=1] [comment] [comment-to]
sendmany <fromaccount> {address:amount,...} [minconf=1] [comment]
sendrawtransaction <hex string>
sendtoaddress <bitcoinaddress> <amount> [comment] [comment-to]
setaccount <bitcoinaddress> <account>
setgenerate <generate> [genproclimit]
settxfee <amount>
signmessage <bitcoinaddress> <message>
signrawtransaction <hex string> [{"txid":txid,"vout":n,"scriptPubKey":hex},...] [<privatekey1>,...] [sighashtype="ALL"]
stop
submitblock <hex data> [optional-params-obj]
validateaddress <bitcoinaddress>
verifymessage <bitcoinaddress> <signature> <message>
walletlock
walletpassphrase <passphrase> <timeout>
walletpassphrasechange <oldpassphrase> <newpassphrase>

Generally procedure calls have a "verb".  It is a command you are asking the system (any system) to do something.  Getbalance ... instructing the bitcoind to get something, get what?  the balance.  The call getbalance is self documenting.  It is clear that the call will be returning information and the information returned is the balance.  Names which lack a verb are not self describing.  Most of the RPC calls follow this convention, the list above can be summarized as the following verbs

Code:

add
backup
create
decode
dump
get
import
list
move
send
set
sign
stop
submit
validate
verify

There are four calls which break with that convention:

Code:

keypoolrefill
walletlock
walletpassphrase <passphrase> <timeout>
walletpassphrasechange <oldpassphrase> <newpassphrase>

Of the four "walletpassphrase" is the worst.  It lacks any verb and thus the call itself isn't self documenting at all (walletpassphrase what?).  I suggest the four calls be renamed to fit with the standard set by the other RPC calls (verb + object of verb)

Code:

refillkeypool
lockwallet
unlockwallet <passphrase> <timeout>
setpassphrase <oldpassphrase> <newpassphrase>

To avoid breaking compatibility with existing code the current RPC calls can be made deprecated aliases to the newly named ones.  I know it is relatively minor but it just bugs me every time I am doing some bitcoind coding.  I don't have the time to do the modifications and pull request so I am offering a bounty.  2BTC for a completed pull, and 3 BTC more when integrated into the mainline.

[The 100,000th bitcoin purchased.]

FastCash4Bitcoins ( https://fastcash4bitcoins.com/ ) has been providing quick and secure bitcoin sales and is rapidly approaching a milestone.  

The 100,000^th bitcoin purchased.  

To say thank you to all the customers who have made this milestone possible we are going to give away a Casascius Silver 10 BTC Round to one lucky customer.  An impressive looking coin that combines an ounce of fine silver with offline storage of 10 bitcions.  What could be better?  One lucky winner will get the choice of either the gold plated or plain silver coin with shipping to an address of their choice at our cost.  

฿10 SILVER ROUND: One solid troy ounce of .999 fine silver, combined with ten Bitcoins.  Comes in a protective capsule and a hinged presentation box.  39mm diameter. Two versions available: one in plain silver, and one with gold-plated B.

https://www.casascius.com/

Official Contest Rules
NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN.  VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

1. Eligibility
The FastCash4Bitcoins 100,000th Bitcoin Promotion (the Contest) is open to participants who are at least eighteen (18) years old at the time of entry.  Employees of Tangible Cryptography LLC and other companies associated with the promotion of the Contest, and their immediate family members are not eligible.  The Contest is subject to local laws and regulations. Participants residing where contests of chance or the Contest Prize are prohibited by law are not eligible.

2. Sponsor
The Contest is sponsored by Tangible Cryptography LLC, located at 237 Hanbury Rd E, Suite 17-165, Chesapeake, VA 23322.

3. Agreement to Official Rules
Participation in the Sweepstakes constitutes entrants full and unconditional agreement to and acceptance of these Official Rules and the decisions of the Sponsor, which are final and binding.  Winning a prize is contingent upon being compliant with these Official Rules and fulfilling all other requirements set forth herein.

4. Contest Period
The Contest begins on 10/17/2012 at 23:59:59 EST and ends once cumulative sales since the site's launch totaling one hundred thousand bitcoins (100,000 BTC) have been properly funded and confirmed on the FastCash4Bitcoin website ( https://fastcash4bitcoins.com ).

5. How to Enter
Complete a sale of at least one bitcoin (1.0 BTC) on the FastCash4Bitcoin website during the Contest Period. All valid completed sales will receive one entry into the Contest for each whole bitcoin in the sale, with fractional bitcoins discarded.  Canceled or expired sales are ineligible even if later restored by manual verification.   The full amount of the sale which results in the cumulative sales total exceeding 100,000 bitcoins is valid for the purposes of this Contest, including the portion exceeding 100,000 bitcoins.  Sales occuring outside the Contest Period or not on the FastCash4Bitcoin site will not produce an entry into the Contest.

6. No Sale Entry Method
Send a hand written postcard to  Tangible Cryptography LLC 237 Hanbury Rd E, Suite 17-165, Chesapeake, VA 23322.  Include on the postcard your name, mailing address, email address, the current date, and the blockhash from the most recent block added to the longest chain of the bitcoin network at the time of mailing.  Machine produced entries, and photocopies will not be accepted.  No Sale Entries must be received during the Contest Period. Lost, late, unreadable, and entries in violation of Contest rules are void.

7. Drawing
At the termination of the Contest Period all entries from FastCash4Bitcoin sales are arranged in chronological order followed by all "No Sale Entries" arranged in chronological order.  The list of entries are sequentially number to produce a unique entry number for each entry.  The first bitcoin block ("Lucky Block") that remains in the primary chain who's height is an even multiple of 100 (i.e. 203800) that occurs after the termination of the Contest Period will be used to provide the randomness for the drawing.  The last eight ( hexadecimal digits of the blockhash will be converted into a 32bit unsigned integer to produce the number ("Lucky Number") used to determine the Contest winner.

The Winning Entry of the Contest will be determined by the Lucky Number and the following formula:
Winning Entry = Truncate[(Lucky Number) / (4,294,967,295) * (number of valid entries in the Contest)]

The results of the Contest will be official once the Lucky Block has twenty four (24) confirmations.  In the event a reorganization of the network the blockhash at the appropriate height in the longest chain when the longest chain is 24 blocks higher will be Winning Block. If there is a fork or split in the network the blockhash the fork containing the Sponsor's node will be official.

8. Ineligible Winner
The winner will be contacted by email.  To receive the Prize the winner must provide a name and mailing address to send the prize.  If winner is ineligible due to contest rules or fails to provide required information within 10 days the next entry in sequential order after the Winning Entry will become the new winner subject to eligibility and timely response.

9. Prize
One Fine Silver Ten Bitcoin Round by Casascius ( https://www.casascius.com/ ) including shipping and handling costs.  In the event the prize is unavailable the Sponsor reserves the right to substitute an alternate prize of equal or greater value.

Unofficial example to illustrate the method of picking the winner.
Block 203900 is the first block that is an even multiple of 100 after the termination of the Contest Period.
The Blockhash of block 203900 is 00000000000003d6986fa4cc9a5b03314dda0de5712d2da732bb9c9a41da8bb6.
There are 18,283 valid entries for the Contest.

Winning Number = "41da8bb6" = 1,104,841,654
Winning Entry = 4703 (1,104,841,654 / 4,294,967,295 * 18,283)

[Background:]

Tangible Cryptography LLC seeks Line of Credit to expand working capital

Background:
Tangible Cryptography LLC has operated the FastCash4Bitcoin service profitably for roughly six months.  During that time it transitioned from a manual service to provide quicker Dwolla withdrawals for a certain exchange to an independent sales portal which offers same day payouts on bitcoin sales.  It now has daily sales volume which rivals many major exchanges.  Our customer feedback continues to be spotless with no unresolved issues and we have not had any orders which were unfunded for more than twenty four hours.  Despite increasing our fees (to dampen volume without dampening free cashflow) and offering “direct sales” (which have a faster turnaround on capital) we still run into situations where we lack available funds and must halt new sales.  We halt new sales until we have available funds because we never "float" sales.  If we buy a client's coins it is because we can pay them.  Although our working capital has expanded and our "turnaround" (time from USD -> BTC -> USD) has been reduced our volume continues to grow.   Our month over month growth for the prior month was over 27%.  Tangible Cryptography is a manager-managed limited liability company registered in Virginia.  It is privately held with three members (LLC equivalent of shareholders) and a single manager.  The company has ~$120K in cash and cash equivalents, and ~$230K in total assets.  The company's only debt at this time is Loc A & B (see below). If both new LoCs are funded and LoC B is retired total indebtedness would be 1,000 BTC and $50,000 USD.  Interest obligations would be roughly 16 BTC and $800 USD per month.  Our monthly sales volume for the prior 30 days was ~$338,500.  Sales volume was conservatively reduced by $100,000 to $150,000 due to insufficient available funding.

Operation:
We purchase bitcoins from clients using our FastCash4Bitcoins service.  These purchases are made at a discount to the "MtGox last price" which we designate the "margin". Our margin varies depending on current volatility, the difference between the price on MtGox vs other exchanges, and our currently fund balances (BTC vs USD).   Over the last 30 days our margin has a volume weighted average of 4.38% and floated in a range of 3.99% to 4.97%.  We disburse the proceeds of the sale to our clients via the method of their choice.  The acquired coins are then sold on multiple exchanges or by “direct sales” to large bitcoin buyers under the brand name Bitcoins Direct.  Our Bitcoins Direct program is an attempt to shorten the "turnaround" and thus improve the efficiency of our working capital.  Bitcoins Direct sales volume has grown significantly since we introduced it two month ago and now represents roughly 40% of our daily sales volume.  We also acquire bitcoins from our CellCoin service, and our escrow services but so far these property have been underdeveloped.  

Purpose & Scope:
The purpose of the loans is to expand our working capital, reduce the occurrences where we exhausted available funds, and allow the company to handle higher sales volume.  We are seeking two lines of credit.  Both would be open ended (no fixed maturity) with periodic interest only payments. While we use the term Line of credit (LoC) we intend to draw the full amount upon funding, and simply reserve the right to pay down some or all of the principal at any time without penalty.  Interest payments will be made monthly (first of the month).  The creditor has the right to call the note at any time, and for any reason.  Repayment will be made in full (with all accrued and unpaid interest) within 30 days of the note being called.

The company currently have two lines of credit already funded.  LocA is 500 BTC LoC.  Although it is funded at a higher interest rate we intend to keep this line as a thank you to our existing creditors.  LocB is $20,000 USD denominated line (~$18,000 USD outstanding).  It is our intent to pay off this line with the proceeds from this debt sale.  In the event we don't secure new funding we still intend to pay off LocB within 60 days using a portion of our free cashflow.  

Notes proposed:


Line of Credit C (LocC)
Amount: 500 BTC
Current Bid:  500 BTC @ 0.85% per month
Denomination:  Bitcoins
Interest: max of 1% monthly (12.68% APR) - note bidding is a reverse auction which ends 10/5/2012 @ 23:59:59 UTC.
This line of Credit (along with existing LocA) provides a cushion between purchases and sales.  It improves our liquidity and allows us to rapidly resell coins purchased from clients while keeping us hedged against exchange rate changes.  LocA has greatly improved the efficiency of our operation but as our daily sales volume continues to expand we have found our current line to be insufficient to meet daily needs.  This line will provide an expansion to ~1,000 BTC total.

Line of Credit D (LocD)
Amount: $50,000 USD
Denomination:  USD
Current Bids: $50,000 @ 1.6% per month
Interest:  1.6% per month (20.98% APR) - note bidding is a reverse auction which ends 10/5/2012 @ 23:59:59 UTC.
This note is denominated in USD.   Creditors can funds this line with BTC (using current MtGox price at time of funding) and can opt for payments in BTC however the obligation is denominated in USD.  Lenders should consider that they will not be long BTC.  This note may be attractive to lenders who want to maintain an effect short bitcoin position, are seeking to hedge long bitcoin exposure, want to acquire bitcoins over an extended period of time (dollar cost averaging), or need to balance other bitcoin denominated investments.  We are flexible in deposit and repayment options.  Deposit by BTC is an option but so is deposit in USD using any option we allow in Bitcoins Direct.   Interest payments can be paid out in BTC or in USD by company check or ACH.

Lender risks and mitigation:

Risk: hacking or other bitcoin loss resulting in inability to repay.  We employ encrypted cold wallet which is kept offline.  Encrypted backups are maintained as well as encrypted paper printout of private keys stored offsite (failsafe recovery in event of flaw in wallet format).  All of our exchange accounts employ strong passwords and two factor authentication.  Our working bitcoins are spread out across the cold wallet and exchange accounts minimizing the number of coins that would be affected by any single breach.  For example in the bitfloor breach we lost less than 200 BTC (a fraction of a single days volume) and were able to resell that debt for 170 BTC resulting in a net loss of only 30 BTC.  Our bank accounts and PayPal account are also protected by two factor authentication.  We are in the process of transitioning our sites to a dedicated server (no backdoors or super-admin accounts, OS installed remotely by DeathAndTaxes on bare metal).

Risk: closure of account or freezing of funds by Dwolla or PayPal. Company policy limits either account to no more than 10% of our working capital in accounts with either provider.  We accept no PayPal or Dwolla transactions from customers which means we have no risk of chargeback or disputes that could result in account closure.  We have provided information to Dwolla compliance department on our business procedures however they have not as of yet certified us as an approved digital currency merchant.  The PayPal account is a corporate account and we pay a fee to PayPal for every payment sent.  We don’t defraud PayPal by using “gift” or “personal” payments.  The Dwolla and PayPal payment options while popular (in terms of number of sales) tend to have smaller average payouts and as such combined they represent only 22% of total sales (in USD).  While a freeze on one of these accounts would make us less attractive to customers it wouldn't be fatal to the company.

Risk: lendee has no intention on repaying (aka "scam").  While this is a risk in any loan, Tangible Cryptography LLC is registered with the Virginia Corporation commission.  Our business model provides a high return on invested capital (ROIC) and our "brand" would be destroyed by a default.  Simply put we make a good margin off your money and there is no reason to change that.  Supporting docs for the company will be made available (within reason, please provide specifics on type of documentation needed).

Why not seek traditional funding:
We have a significant amount of goodwill towards the lenders who stepped up when we needing funding in the past.  While other lenders were busy defending the sustainability of 7% per week some lenders were willing to accept more sensible returns.  They haven't lost their principal and we have paid out consistent interest payments.   The lending forum being filled almost exclusively with HYIP scams and "payday loan" offers 100%+ APR) does the community a disservice.  We hope to offer an alternative.   We feel this can be a win-win for both creditor and debtor.  For a small startup a bank loan is simply not viable.  We could use a member's credit card at a lower interest rate but that doesn't provide any benefit to the company (improved trust, improved credit).

How to bid:
Send a PM with the LoC, the amount, and the min interest rate you will accept (monthly).  In the event our offer is oversubscribed we will take lowest bids (reverse auction).   We will leave the offer open until 23:59:59 10/05/2012 UTC.   To reduce the processing work the minimum note amount is 100 BTC or $1,000 USD.  Interest rates should be in increments of 0.05%.  

These notes are debt only they offer no equity or equity derivatives (options, warrants, revenue sharing contract, etc).  We are not entertaining any offers for equity sale at this time.  

Thank you for your consideration,

Staff
Tangible Cryptography LLC
 

On edit: fixed some typos & added clarification to some points.  Indicated interest bids should be in 0.05% increments (i.e. 1.00%, 0.95%, 0.90%, etc).

Effective 09/28/2012 Tangible Cryptography will include FastCash4Bitcoins orders with three confirmations in the next batch for payout.  The required confirmations are subject to change, and may change without notice.  This weekend the language on the site will be updated to reflect a dynamic number of confirmations.

The de facto requirement for six confirmations is more a momentum effect of the binary "unconfirmed" vs "confirmed" behavior in the Satoshi client, then based on any analysis of probable attack vectors.  Even after reaching the required number of confirmations our monitoring system continues to look for signs on the network of an attempted double spend up to the point of payout and will flag suspected orders. Since FastCash4Bitcoin pays out in batches, it presents a difficult attack profile to effectively execute a double spend without detection.  We hope other vendors and service providers will adopt individual policies that make sense for their business rather than rely on an excessively conservative and arbitrary six confirmation.

Staff,

Tangible Cryptography