Thanks!

7 BF4, 1 SimCity code left. (1 SimCity code being re-shipped - appears one was already used. Good on Newegg for replacing it, though)

Prices still in effect, despite lower FMV of coins.

ETA: 0 SimCity codes left. All we already redeemed before codes were shipped to me. BF4 codes seem okay.
ETA2: Newegg's replaced the other three codes. Waiting for them to arrive in the mail.

... writing on the wall? Bitcoin's dead. China made up ~80% of total purchase done on exchanges just a few days ago (@~$850). Now it'll be 0%. Fundamentally, the price of a bitcoin should be (and soon will be) $170. Of course, it will sink much lower due to panic-selling.

Chinese government demands complete forfeiture of bitcoins from all citizens, penalty for noncompliance is death.

They're lucky...! Arrived a few hours ago. Awesome stuff, as always!

They've arrived! 7 BF4 codes, 2 SimCity codes left.

Should add: It looks like the BF4 code may not be redeemable directly through Origin (may have to sign up at AMD.com). I'm unsure if you get a redeemable Origin code after that of if it's a standalone game downloaded from AMD's site. Asked a buyer to lemme know what happens.

Don't tell anyone, but I generally post these kinds of threads as a brain trick. Normally, I'd try to do something like this on-the-fly, but pretending it's some big thing helps me believe it's worthwhile to make contingency plans for everything, letting things go on cruise-control once it's time for the actual outing. I would never look into enough details to think I'd need to check in with some Slovakian "Border and Aliens Police" if I were only checking for the three of us, for example.

That said, if someone does go with us, the fees as presented total roughly $5000 per order (in my guesstimates, roughly 50-75% of the "other category" is recycled back to buyers, but for an additional person in the given scheme, the "other" category is multiplied by 1.5, likely resulting in a management fee drop, not per person, but total). Given the uncertainties (for example, if a flight's significantly delayed, I'd pay for travel and room while we wait), it's also possible I'll take a loss, but I've obviously stacked the odds in my favor. There are quite a few benefits to traveling as a group, not the least of which is being more likely to gain an audience with more relevant people. With a 25-person group, it's basically a traveling Bitcoin conference. It helps draw people in rather than needing to seek everyone out.

If you do travel alone, http://travel.state.gov covers just about all the regulations you'd need to know for travel to a different country (they break it down by country - just enter the country's name in the search bar). There are actually quite a good few places online to check for house rentals in foreign countries, too, but they usually won't cover areas outside major cities.

It's very non-standard among the different clients. Armory actually has three different signing schemes, but was unable to read the provided one without dissecting it and entering the different fields myself. Clearsign in Armory:
-----BEGIN BITCOIN SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Comment: Signed by Bitcoin Armory v0.90

I am a potato
-----BEGIN BITCOIN SIGNATURE-----


GyXbhi6tf+VHafadv/OpkJcirRtke8sELbAdwqrUC4JPUi2sx8FdJLCLcj/TJPRK
iB+hr1XwMyILc7hkdMhldaU=
=e99g
-----END BITCOIN SIGNATURE-----

Has a newbie account. Reposted here.

On the plus side, you can make this a positive in your mind by thinking about how much money you've saved from losing by the value of bitcoins decreasing in market value. If you sent @ $800, price is now $626... you've "saved" around $3500 by losing money at an opportune time. Will repost in p2p thread.

Price will remain in effect until/unless BTC price drops below $500 on BSTP.

FedEx bastards are totally eating my caramels. https://www.fedex.com/fedextrack/?tracknumbers=001821115000650&cntry_code=us&language=english

Oops. Forgot about this.

bitcoind's been throttled to .5kB/s since I last posted. Hovering over "Connected (275122 blocks)" shows "Last block received is 19 hours ago." Upon unthrottling bitcoind, Armory ran fine for a while (no updates to block count), then froze up for a few minutes. the next update is "Connected (275179 blocks)" and hover text shows "Last block received is 12 seconds ago." As of this post, current block is 275307. Unlike QT, Armory isn't telling me how far behind bitcoind is. Armory also kept occasionally freezing up for ~10-20 seconds while sync'ing. Emailed you the log just in case the freezing's an unknown issue and there's anything helpful in there.

I'm interested in leaving the US. I want somewhere fairly cheap to stay, with fairly lax laws or poor enforcement of laws, particularly with regards to financial tech services. I was thinking about a two-month stay in the Phillipines to check it out before making more long-term plans, estimating a total cost of around $10k to visit one country. Well - why visit one country when I could visit 12 for dramatically less per country visited? -And if I'm going to look up everything required for that, why not make it a group event and recoup most of my own expenses in exchange for some extra headaches?

This is an interest-check for a year-long globe-trotting expedition for Americans, going from the US to Asia, to East Europe, to SA, and back to the US. After searching for average home-rental costs, bureaucratic nonsense, and flight costs, I have come up with the following rough estimate (it should actually be substantially cheaper, but I need a ton of time to organize, and someone with formal experience would be nice):

That's PER PERSON (you should expect your total trip costs, including what I don't provide, to be around $50-60K for one person, but if you work remotely, this could be a "free" or "near-free" vacation). To upgrade to business class flights, triple flight costs. First class, multiply by seven. For each additional person, multiply flight cost by 2, boarding costs by 1.25, "other" costs by 1.5. To convert your house rental costs to a higher-end hotel, costs will vary quite a bit, but expect anywhere from 4x to 10x the price. I'd strongly prefer not dealing with your Frequent Flier stuff. If you want to try booking your own flights, go ahead, and I'll make sure all your VISA stuff's covered, but you'll have to arrange for transportation to your dwelling by yourself, and I won't be holding your hand during layover. If you're asleep when your flight's called - you'll be in for a world of terror, costs, headaches, and possibly a visit to the Customs & Immigration office.

These numbers obviously aren't firm - everything about them (including layover time) should be significantly improved by the time we leave, though I may be underestimating the "Other" costs. Estimated expedition start date is January, 2018. Yes - it'll take four years to compile all the needed information and get everything lined up. This is all heavily customizable (possibly including countries you want to opt-out of), but the latest I could know about your interest is the beginning of 2017. If you only want to visit South/Central American countries, for instance, and thus only have a 5-month trip, that's definitely doable. Or if you only want to visit the Asian countries, that's also quite possible.

What this includes:
*Hand-holding on all VISA requirements (including layovers in unlisted countries).
*Furnished house rental during stay in country. This house is intended to give a reasonable idea of a house you'd stay in if you lived there, roughly the equivalent to middle class US residencies. I'll take care of all infrastructure bills (water, electric, Internet, trash) except security deposits (which I will charge you upfront and refund each time we leave a country if the landlord has not determined it's forfeit). All dwellings will have an absolute minimum Internet bandwidth capacity of 1mbps with a monthly cap no more severe than 50GB down. Everyone should be within ~30min of each other, but not side-by-side. Location in a minor city or large town, usually within an hour of a financial hub city.
*Coach airfare with WiFi if at all possible.
*Food during layover and "group outings."
*Group tourist outings, at least 2x per week, participation obviously non-mandatory. I'm a boring person, and these will be fairly boring places... cultural sites, historic sites, any major festivals going on, and perhaps some meetings with agents of government for a discussion on why we should consider their area. If you're interested in something and think the group may be, too, just lemme know.
*Books on each country, compiled personally, with a focus on stability issues, regulatory issues, citizenship/residency requirements, and various other issues as they relate to starting a business.
*Visits from least three Bitcoin-using locals to chat up about the country during the stay. (Ideally, we find singles who are open to having a house rented nearby and a stipend in exchange for following us around and telling us if we're doing something terribly stupid [ideally, would be open to following you around for tips on-demand])
*Tickets to at least two virtual currency conferences during the expedition.
*BTC->local currency conversion at low fee (1-5%). If you'd like to convert fiat to the local currency, you'll have to figure that out on your own.
*$1k equivalent short-term lending at no charge. If you're at a market and short on local currency, I'll deliver it to you within a reasonable time-frame... just don't call me every day.
*Pocket language books for free and a 50% subsidy on levels 1&2&3 Rosetta Stone products for languages of countries we stay in (typically ~$250-350 for all three levels).
*The peace of mind knowing you're traveling with a group, with the expedition manager staying in a nearby house, not giving half a damn 5,000 miles away charging $50 per sneeze. All the small details I can think of, from providing outlet converters to giving pamphlets going over local transportation methods to monitoring your water intake, will be covered.
*If there are enough minors going, we can figure out a plan so they don't lag behind in education. (this will probably be on you and anything you can offload onto your school district, though)

The list of countries to be visited will be changed within a month. Visiting both the Czech Republic and Slovakia is ridiculous. Peru may be cut (Ecuador will stay). Certain areas in the Phillipines are dangerous, and may be cut. Germany will probably be stuffed in since they have such an excellent Bitcoin community and relatively defined virtual currency laws. Moldavia may also be worth a visit. The country list is likely to change in the years as tourism conditions change and major event dates are known. Cities to visit will be defined in no more than two years, but also subject to change.

Following people would not be eligible for trip:
*Prone to sickness. You can try to go if you want, but outside of alerting your emergency contacts, calling for emergency services, and getting an outbound flight booked for you at your expense if necessary, I can't do much else for you.
*Unable to obtain a US passport book in time. (they're surprisingly expensive - ~$135 + 4-14 weeks from order date to delivery date)
*High risk of needing to physically leave the trip (funeral, major illness of relative, emergency meeting of some kind). You're still eligible, but the vast majority of expenses can't be refunded once you've started on the trip.
*Refuse to obtain necessary vaccinations and medical checks for travel. (I'll look up everything the various countries demand of tourists).
*Unwilling to waive me of liabilities from your trip. Some areas slated for visit are not particularly safe, though should be safer than inner-city Detroit. You or your family may be raped, murdered, kidnapped, or mugged at gunpoint. Keep that in mind and carefully consider it. Methods to prevent injury to you and your family will be carefully considered, and I won't be exposing you to anymore risk than myself and family, but know this is a high-risk venture and you have more to lose than your money. Any area the USG explicitly suggests staying far away from will be removed from the list of areas to visit.

Other caveats:
*This trip will be pretty screwed up if I die during it. Try not to murder me and I'll try not to die.
*If you have to die for some reason, please don't die right before we're scheduled to exit the country. This would cause significant problems for the rest of us since we can't just pay someone to ship your carcass to the US and continue on our way.
*Cases where the next country on the list is unvisitable for some reason will be taken on a case-by-case basis and may result in more costs and frustrations for you.
*Layovers frequently occur in unlisted countries and may be for a significant amount of time. Moving forward, I'll try to figure out what's required for you to exit the airport (wouldn't want a "Terminal" situation happening) and have activities or hotels booked if possible (at my expense).
*It would be inadvisable to pack or buy much - maybe a week's clothes, a laptop, a phone, and a paper wallet. Most countries will try hitting you with customs as much as possible.

This is incredibly ambitious. I need a minimum of ten other people interested, but no more than twenty-five (more than that, and the opportunity of finding one flight for everyone starts approaching 0%). Once we hit 2016, I'll want a BTC1 deposit (unless that's more than a quarter of the trip cost) which'll be refunded once we're on our way back to the US (non-refundable if you do not eventually fully pay for the trip). Full funding (including security deposits) will be required in mid-2017, payable in BTC or fiat. This will be mostly non-refundable once payment's made (some flights may be refundable, some house rental costs may be refundable, "other costs" should mostly be refundable, but everything will be booked ASAP). Security deposits will be refunded in BTC on the plane ride out of the country assuming the landlord did not insist you forfeited it.

Updates will be given semi-regularly. Email Benjm00@gmail.com with [subscribe] as the title to be added to a mailing list.

1 & 3 mostly relates to the autonomous region, yes? From what I've read, it sounds like a band of rapists and murderous thugs pretending to be legitimate, popular Islamic rebels, while the communist thugs seem more interested in terrorizing locals and operating like a retarded "agricultural mafia."
2 is worrying.... I'd call that the tradeoff for cheaper property, where city properties in PH are about on par with rural property prices in the US. I'm not sure there's much way to deal with that outside of considering houses disposable.
4 isn't much off what I pay now (~$.14-.18 after taxes and fees [progressive pricing, so you pay more per KWh as you use more]), and I could take a picture of our twig-like utility poles literally supported by trees in some cases so you can get an idea on how often our power's out.
5 - I have absolutely no idea how to deal with a volcano. I've never experienced anything like a volcano eruption.
6 - This may be a concern. Are you talking about bribery/"tips" kind of graft, or traitorous officers working on salary for rebel organizations or crime cartels?

At least worth a visit, I think. Could be fun. Maybe starting in a couple years, spend the next 5 years visiting one or two countries each year for a couple months each. At the end of the five year shopping period, pick out a place to live. I'd normally refuse to ever budget that kind of luxury, but if I can call it "country-shopping," could work out in my mind. Airfare's crazy-cheap anymore... $1,600 round-trip per person Detroit-Davao. For three, that's about a $5k expense. Assuming a decent furnished house in Davao @ 50K PHP/mo (factoring in a decent markup for the short contract), that's another $2.2K. Food, visa extension, land travel, and whatnots... That's about a $10k 2-month vacation as I see it, and so long as it has a decent Internet connection, I'd be generating the same income as at home.

It'd be cheaper to do one-month stays so I don't have to go through tourist visa extensions, package them all up into one year-long vacation when daughter's old enough to really appreciate it. Maybe get a group of Bitcoiners together and go patronize the existing BTC-accepting businesses there. For the whole year, I'd guess costs for a year-long potential-expat globe-trot to twelve different countries (excluding most of Westernized Europe) would be around $40k per person if managed well, including coach+ airfare (low-grade airfare for cross-ocean flights would suck), boarding in a "normal" house, a local or few to hang out with, and food. With enough publicity, maybe some towns would even put us up for free for the chance at a basket full of entrepreneurial expats. Go from US to PH, to Taiwan, to Goa, to Greece, to Slovakia, to Czech Republic, to Italy, to Uruguay, to Peru, to Ecuador, to Panama, to Belize, then back to the US to see whose house was looted while gone. I'll go ahead and make some sheets to see retail costs, potential travel hiccups, and how many weeks that involves sitting on a plane. Some of those may need to be dumped just because it's the only country with a particular language (which is good. Maybe we can fit in more tourist-y areas between intercontinental flights). Maybe it could turn into a "thing," though Idunno if having a group of Americans walking around in some of these places is a good idea. We could call it the White Flight!

If Bitcoin ever became widely accepted by that time, international travel would be a frictionless dreamland. Just bring a laminated piece of paper with the QR code of an encrypted wallet... head to place being stayed at, open wallet, send walk-around money to phone app. Traveling with a group, no need to worry about needing a short-notice loan if there's something you find in town.

They really have to stop letting economists write about Bitcoin without knowing what it is. Why do the editors let these run? There are over five factual errors in his Bitcoin explanations, the most ridiculous being the claim that bitcoins aren't "transportable." I don't know how anyone could arrive at that conclusion with even the most hazy understanding of Bitcoin.

There's yet another ATI card shortage, so if you think you're entitled to cheap graphics cards, hire someone at an ATI card manufactory to quietly collect "rejects." (Ironically, you'd be making the shortage more severe) All the Internet is blaming Scryptcoins. The 270s were still reasonably priced last I looked.

That is the case with QT. That doesn't appear to be the case on Armory while it's handling bitcoind. I'll cut off its bandwidth overnight, then unthrottle it in the morning to confirm.

In QT, the client will tell how far out of sync the client is (like "4 days behind"). Could that be added to Armory? I occasionally make mistakes because I look at Armory's "connected" hover text, it reads "last block received 32 seconds ago," and I interpret that as meaning "the last block broadcast to the network was 32 seconds ago," thinking the client's sync'd when it isn't.

Exact same issue here. 0-100kb/s generally, with some days having odd 300-400kb/s times. Luckily, near a highway. 4G is supposed to be coming around fairly soon. Though... I've been hearing that for about a year. I don't think many people realize just how many people in the rural US (which is most of the US) are stuck with dial-up, satellite, or 3G (*maybe* 4G, though it's about as likely there's only "2.5G" or just no mobile data solution) if they're a bit more up-to-date on the whole "technology craze." Dial-up's no longer usable in this media-heavy Internet, and satellite's too expensive for most (on top of being extremely restrictive), so there're tens of millions in the US without Internet at all. Being in a rural area doesn't just make Bitcoin difficult to use, but the whole Internet is slow and frequently returning time-out errors. Most people just aren't going to deal with that. The Internet obviously didn't die from becoming increasingly bandwidth-demanding, but web developers and designers are very conscious about minimizing data required. The increase rate of bandwidth-demand is many factors lower than that of Bitcoin.

I don't think that's a Bitcoin-killing problem on its own, but I think Bitcoin's way ahead of its time, and I seriously doubt infrastructure's ability to catch up (in most places, it's already heavily-strained). FiOS has been around for, what, ten years? It's deployed only in the largest of cities, and many large cities still lack it. Even then, we're talking 300mb/s absolute max. Max speeds actually offered are ~37.5mb/s down. With a 200GB blockchain, we're talking about an absolute minimum download speed of ~1 1/2 hours. By that time, FiOS will probably be available in all major cities. By the time it's available in minor cities, we're probably talking a 20TB blockchain (unless there's a push against increasing the block size limit, instead finally allowing transaction fees to increase). At that point, the absolute minimum download speed is almost a week. A cable connection would be Hellish (>18 days on the fastest of cable connections, which'll probably be more common by that time), and the fastest DSL connections simply couldn't keep up. The only reasonable way to transfer the blockchain would be physically mailing external hard drives.

No matter what % of data can be pruned - unless that's >95% or the % increases with time up to 99.99999%+, full nodes are going to become more centralized, and they're going to be only in major cities, and they'll be extremely expensive to maintain, which isn't something Bitcoin's prepared to deal with. Bitcoin's been exploding in popularity, but the number of nodes isn't keeping up. Proportional to price, the number of full nodes on the network is spiraling downward, though it's still currently in pretty darn good shape (~190K active full nodes, which has slipped from ~250K active full nodes at the end of November). In September (keeping in mind, lite clients were just as well-known back them), price was ~$150 with ~100K full nodes - so ~667 nodes per $ in price. With price at ~$900, we have those 190K full nodes - so ~211 nodes per $ in price.

ETA: I'm not trying to suggest there's currently any immediate threat to the integrity of Bitcoin. Even 10K nodes wouldn't be particularly worrying, unless the trend continues downward from that point. I think the situation's definitely worth monitoring, though.

Incidentally, I think mistriss_magpie is transcribing the episodes she'll be on.