Speaking as someone who genuinely *hopes* to earn their income entirely in BTC in the future, I am wondering something - how does one best use them to live off of?

Obviously, it's easy to meet up and exchange BTC for cash each month. But, unfortunately, it's hard to use cash to pay for many things, for example:

- Health insurance
- Rent
- Various loan repayments ( mortgage etc. )
- Other things that I'm probably missing ( buying plane tickets online, etc. )

I suppose the way to deal with this is to liquidate just the minimum BTC each month to cover living expenses that cannot be paid in cash, and then pay income tax on that money.

What about anonymous debit cards that can be re-filled with BTC to pay off things that cash cannot? The problem is that they're not anonymous if you keep using the same card to pay your rent etc, so you might as well liquidate BTC on gox and pay the income tax.

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Is anyone else experiencing login issues?

I've never had a problem before, and now today I cannot log in. I've tried about 12 times. I know my email, password, and authentication token are correct. I was able to log in just a few hours ago.

I have emailed support but have not heard anything back.

Just got them today for free, some transferred them into my account. So I transferred the free shares into my fund.

What is this? I'm assuming someone gave them out as a marketing ploy.

I need 500 BTC to secure some investments for my fund. Please PM me if you are willing to lend.

The duration is 2 and a half weeks ( due no later than the end of the month ), and I will pay a lump sum at the end of at least 540 BTC ( perhaps a little more ).

PM me if interested, thanks!

I know there are checkout services for the opposite ( i.e. those take take bitcoin and pay the merchant in US dollars ), but what about the other way around? Is there an easy service that would allow me accept credit-cards and paypal for my business, and yet "automagically" receive the payments in the form of bitcoin?

Any info would help, thanks!

Hi BTC community, and in particular the GLBSE creator Nefario!

I have a few ideas/suggestions for the GLBSE that I would like to share publicly to spark conversation. I love the GLBSE and want to see it grow and become more professional so that hedge funds like mine have a chance to really shine.

One problem the GLBSE faces is the fact that it isn't possible to prove the legitimacy of companies on the GLBSE; however, it IS possible prove the 100% legitimacy of funds with some small changes. Specifically, I am proposing a new category of asset to be created: "registered transparent fund".

A registered transparent fund has the following characteristics:

• The fund manager DOES NOT have the ability to withdraw from the fund.
• All assets in the fund must be GLBSE securities (as a side effect of the fact that the manager cannot withdraw), and the fund's holding are posted publicly on the GLBSE with a one-month lag time (to prevent competitors from simply copying your investment strategy).
• The only way a fund manager profits is by receiving a specific % of earnings. This can be hard-coded into the fund when the shares are created, and cannot be modified unless 50%+ of shareholders agree to an increase.

What say you? I think it's a great idea because then investors don't have to blindly trust fund managers - trust can be 100% assured. The only trust necessary is to the integrity of the GLBSE.

I would also be willing to put equity into the GLBSE to help develop these new features. I believe in it strongly; the potential is truly unbelievable.

[The fund is now closing]

The fund is now closing

What am I doing wrong?
 
    import json, urllib.request, os
    url = 'https://www.glbse.com/api/market/assets'
    if not os.path.exists( 'local' ): os.mkdir( 'local' )
    filename = 'local/assets.glb'
    print( 'Debug> updating %s' % filename )
    response = urllib.request.urlopen( url )
    --> crash

  File "C:\Python32\lib\ssl.py", line 268, in __init__
    raise x
  File "C:\Python32\lib\ssl.py", line 264, in __init__
    self.do_handshake()
  File "C:\Python32\lib\ssl.py", line 443, in do_handshake
    self._sslobj.do_handshake()
ssl.SSLError: [Errno 1] _ssl.c:392: error:1411809D:SSL routines:SSL_CHECK_SERVER
HELLO_TLSEXT:tls invalid ecpointformat list