Um... a year and a half ago, the blockchain size was ~1GB. It's currently over 12GB. https://blockchain.info/charts/blocks-size?timespan=all&showDataPoints=false&daysAverageString=1&show_header=true&scale=0&address=

Once max block size is being frequently touched, the limits will be raised again. The blockchain size is already an issue, and running a full node in areas where bandwidth is capped is practically impossible. Satellite ISP, for example, has a ~40GB cap in the US. The blockchain will exceed that size in around a year, possibly less - and that doesn't include the much higher amount of bandwidth consumed relaying transactions and blocks. It's increasingly the case that you can't run a full node unless you live in a city in a country where bandwidth caps aren't allowed by consumers (or maybe the government).

Don't feel bad. I was drinking a lot of bourbon a couple days ago. Right as I was about to pass out in bed, I got a request to release escrow. Normally, I'd just wait until the morning, but I was using caffeinated liquid flavor enhancer and apparently decided I was of sound-enough mind. I sent the BTC.... to the wrong address. I quickly deleted mempool in Armory, which completely fcked it up and was too late to prevent the broadcast. Needing to make up for my mistake, I then re-sent the BTC from personal funds. By this point, Armory was completely confused and hadn't registered the transactions internally. Did a rescan and rebuild overnight, and only in the morning did I realize that for the second time, I sent funds to the same wrong address... again. So I recently had to change USD to BTC on Bitfinex to pay out. Guy I accidentally sent to has been non-responsive.

Absolutely the dumbest way I've ever lost $3k. I'd only just started drinking again because my mood improved and I wasn't worried about it becoming some kind of crutch. Now I'm off alcohol for the rest of my life, I think.

ETA: I remember now I also got a call from Craig from Bees Brothers when I finished sending off $3k to a black hole. I have no idea what I said to him.

The devs say it's a matter of when, not if the block size is increased again. I say "again" because it's been increased multiple times in the past couple years.

There actually doesn't seem to be any point to the max block size (given it's raised as soon as regular volume frequently bumps into it) except perhaps the worry that someone will create a 100GB block for giggles.


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Bitpay and Coinbase are far more tempting options for merchants than running a node themselves (merchants used to run their own nodes as Satoshi seemed to suggest, then lost a lot of coins because they didn't have the know-how and time to secure it). So maybe we'll have ~5 online wallets, ~40 exchanges, and ~10 major merchants/processors running their own node on a giant array of hard drives and a direct connection into "the Internet." There is no subsidy for running a full node. You'll pretty much have to do it out of charity unless you can't afford to trust anyone else. For most of us, though, the problem will be that we can't afford to trust no one, which is kinda what Bitcoin set out to solve. 55 total full nodes operating is a garbage set-up. Even if 90% of the blockchain could be reliably pruned, we're going to be at this same point within a couple years - and then what?

I think the real issue with the blockchain, and I think the first coin to solve this issue is going to be that Bitcoin 2.0, is that unlike providing Internet service, there's no way to charge for blockchain service right now. Paying miners really only solves half the problem, though it's the much more immediate problem.

Credit cards do actually take ~120 days to confirm a transaction. Until that point, a "double-spend" in the form of a chargeback is possible. Of course, for small transactions, nobody gives a damn because people aren't going to commit fraud for so little. In the US, it recently became legal to charge credit card users extra fees for all the risks and fees associated with them, though I think only gas stations currently take advantage of this.

Should a merchant charge significantly more for credit purchases, it may turn into a Paypal situation, where due to the high fees, the number of scammers using it balloons out of control, which leads to more fees leading a higher % of scammers until the businesses simply close their doors. This happened in the Bitcoin community, where Paypal and credit cards are practically banned forms of payment.

If reversible payment mechanisms were more secure, people would be happy to sell BTC for them.

Active resistance was left intentionally vague. The easiest way is to go on welfare. At that point, you are actively preventing rape and murder. The more palatable option is to ensure you never generate enough income to pay an income tax. If you combine welfare with a maximum EITC, you can easily suck more than $20k/yr in funds away from the state. If you have health problems, you can make an even bigger impact. It's all effective and legal, but not effective enough given it's still happening.

And yeah, I'd argue we're partially responsible for every rape and murder which happens. Charities and death squads don't pop up for no reason. Most people feel compelled to prevent those kinds of acts (... I think). I can't imagine any person walking by a rape in progress and just thinking "huh. Sucks to be them. Not my problem. Some camembert sounds good right about now...."

Delivery's set for Tuesday. 7 BF4 codes, 3 SimCity codes left. BTC.05 if you grab a combo-package of BF4 and SimCity.

Thanks. Unpaused in queue. Should have it finished up tomorrow.

Can receive PM emails by going to https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=11671;sa=notification and ticking the "Receive forum announcements and important notifications by email" box.

The Phillipines are getting a lot of mention in the thread and I hadn't previously considered it (I haven't looked at South America at all, though, not because of any particular reservations, but because Africa and eastern Europe seemed most reasonable). I have no interest in women (other than "wife"). The widespread corruption is actually why I was considering South Africa. I'd love to be accepted as a tax-paying person in a foreign country so long as the up-front fees are low. I love the start the US has given me, but I really just don't want to live here. I don't want to have to bribe people to be accepted as an equal citizen in another country, but I'll do it if it gets me out of the major moral dilemma I'm in. All of my reservations toward paying taxes immediately disappear so long as the military is defensive rather than murderous, but most countries have a pretty grim attitude toward potential immigrants.

All I want is a quiet place where I can be eccentric online, earn my money there, not feel ashamed because of where I live, and be a complete recluse "in public." AFAIK, nobody offers citizenship just because a potential emigrant has moral qualms with the government insisting ownership over where they live. Everyone says "well, if you don't like the US, just move," but it's so much harder to do than say.

I'll look into some of the S.American countries you mentioned.

I'm 22. I don't think I'd qualify for a retirement visa quite yet. Is citizenship possible? I'd certainly be happy to fully renounce my US citizenship if I like the place after looking around, but I'm under the belief that that's impossible unless you're a citizen somewhere else. If nothing else, I'd be fine taking a "come and take it" stance, waiting for extradition from a country I don't want to be in so it can demand taxes I'd refuse to pay, anyway. I'd even be fine bribing the official overseeing my case a few thousand $ per year as necessary (Idunno how common corruption/bribes are there).

I can live with the education system. I prepared a decent home-schooling curriculum about a year ago (up to grade 6, I believe) and just need to fill out the actual lesson plans. If anything's missed, it's easy enough for me to fill in. I already have all the grade milestones I expect daughter to achieve.

I wasn't actually expecting much interaction at all with the fake family -- maybe $100 a month to both the husband and wife to leave us alone? A total annual cost for all this being <$5000, I think, would be quite reasonable to not have to support the US government (and be subject to its laws). That VAT seems quite extreme, but I can earn a fair amount without needing supplies (though if there's any kind of skilled worker visa, I certainly wouldn't meet their demands). In the US, I don't actually pay any taxes due to the deductions... Idunno how feasible that'd be in the Phillipines, though so long as they don't have an "adventurous" military force, I have no qualms paying it.

Thanks again for the responses.

ETA: I was thinking it'd be reasonable to just say the fake wife and husband live with us in a two-family room-mate situation?

^ Wow. Thanks for the detailed response. "Maybe if you are lucky a really crappy 3G signal that will be down and drop out driving you crazy."  That's my current situation in the US. DSL doesn't come out here. I think a semi-stable 100kb/s is pretty fuckin' awesome.

Are brides and grooms cheap and relatively safe to "rent"? Know if we get to move children? I think I'll look into the six-month tourist visa and see if someone would be willing to put us up on the cheap.

Any words on the tax situation there?

I was actually thinking about asking on the food, but didn't want to cause question overload. I'm a meats and cheese kind of guy, wife's a raw vegetables kind of person (we've never been legally married, so a marriage sham is relatively favorable to us). I'm not sure I could tolerate a 100% crops kind of place, though so long as raw milk and meats are available, we only eat out maybe four times a year, anyway.

I'm a fairly large and intimidating-looking kind of person, paranoid and without much shyness toward guns, so I'm not too worried about disorder (in fact, though I dislike people, I'm quite comfortable in disorder). Davao sounds quite enjoyable. We never go out except for groceries or if begged to by family. We live quite simply, and I don't imagine that ever changing. Out "silverware" is the cheapest stainless steel and will be no matter how much money we have. I was raised strict baptist, so I have no issues living among the hardcore Christians (or Muslims, really, though Idunno if I'd be nearly as accepted, there).

Paypal's incompatible with Bitcoin whether you use escrow or not unless the funds are held for >90 days.

If you have no income, I'd guess you're expected (required?) to go on Medicaid. (or Medicare - I can never remember which is which)

Could you give some more info? There seems to be a bit of consensus on the Phillipenes. Family and I want out of the US, too, but haven't found much of a solution considering South Africa is high on the move-to list.

Is it difficult to get a residency license (any special restrictions)? Is the Internet infrastructure decent (bandwidth caps common?)? On the political stability issue, are there any significant anti-immigrant factions? How are the taxes? Is rural living comfortable, or is it basically "live in a city or don't expect modern comforts"?

Can look a good bit of this up, but info's usually pretty vague (or flat-out inaccurate), so even if you could only answer a couple questions, would really appreciate it.

I honestly have nothing to complain about today. Earned some money, had a drink, made some food - family around all day and not a single major argument. Nice and relaxed day. As much as I hate Christmas, I've been in a really good mood for about a week.

I'd love to see smart commodities contracts used as money. Imagine a decentralized ledger-based carbon dioxide market. Do you breathe? You're a money transmitter unless you capture your own emissions. That carbon dioxide could float on to terrorists, drug lords, and pedophiles who convert the carbon dioxide into CO2 coins, then exchange the CO2 coins for "real money."

Netlimiter will work well for it. Some other solutions may also work. Once sync'd, QT can still be functional with a limit of ~3kb/s https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=334778

It's an interesting interpretation. Using it, they could probably shut down any company which accepts and transmits BTC. This could include coin mixers (possibly even decentralized solutions if they want to get especially nasty) and any service which credits your account and allows removal of those coins (online wallets). They may actually be able to go after gambling services not for offering gambling, but for being unlicensed money transmitters. 

ETA: I guess people operating full nodes or mining are money transmitters, too. So then, mining pools would also be money transmitters (they may act as some kind of legal shield for individual miners since the pool is actually doing the transaction packaging). Basically, everybody's a money transmitter.

You should be careful about running a full node on the PC once the blockchain's sync'd. Especially if you have high bandwidth, you'll very quickly run into your limit through sharing blocks and relaying transactions.

Trying to figure out what you're suggesting. Credit union CPE routers would bridge their current ISP connection to a wireless radio connecting to the co-op network, sharing CUs private Internet access with the co-op network? You'd then provide the Internet access through a kind of mesh network to consumers (co-op members) for a fee? (with the right management software, this could be a really awesome automated process without bills where you pre-pay for access)

Their ISPs permit subleasing? Which frequencies are available for WISPs to operate on in PR?

Maybe you should try storing it in the RAM.