I look forward to LTC either having horrible scaling problems, or it trailing off to zero as miners say "screw it". Take your pick.

It still beats the living hell out of other methods, but of course you should already know that. How about the typical $40 dollar or more wire transfer fee? Most transfers are international.

Anyway, the whole point is to use BTC and keep it in the system, not transfer out to paper token systems. It will take some time, but we'll get there.

Thanks for self-outing yourself. Filter updated.

So, if one of them does get approached with a gag-order not to discuss it, what would be your brilliant idea?

Oh you silly man.

What I mean is the scenario where you're served a FISA order to comply under penalty of (something grave). If you're not in the jurisdiction of the USA, good for you, but if you are, it would mean you couldn't say anything about it directly. You'd have to pull a "Lavabit" and say -- "Well, nice working with you, have a good one." and we'd all know what was up.

I don't want you to, and frankly, I don't see how anyone can prevent you from working on what you want to - but I am more concerned about bullying by assorted "secret court" crap.

That's all.

Appreciate the quick turnaround, thank you for your efforts.

If they're smart, they'll open a government-sanctioned exchange path. Either adding it to current exchanges or one set up solely to extract revenue off the top for providing the service.

This will happen eventually, just a matter of who it is going to be.

Nice link-quote bot you have there, is it markov chain based? Doesn't seem to include any real logical reasoning though.

Here's a link to chew on - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm_shift

It will come in handy later.

I don't buy this "if they need to break it, they will" bullshit.

Guess what, Silk Road is laughing all the way to the bank, and the DEA hasn't done a goddamned thing about it. Can't they get their NSA buddies to help them out? Every day they operate with their competitors in the onion-space of Tor is absolute proof that they can't do what they're claiming.

Should be easy-peasy, yeah? Just crack the private key and monitor transactions, gather IPs, do some network analysis on the exit/entry nodes...

And yet, millions of dollars are transacted every day without cessation.

So, I call bullshit on the entire idea that ECDSA,RIPE,SHA-2 is vulnerable to the extent that these bullies are implying.

You're completely and utterly wrong.

Privacy is a human right, and sucking up to the "regulators" and government entities is a recipe for disaster. I am glad the Bitcoin Foundation is providing a big fat target for the government - it lets us do what we want while they believe they are in control.

In all seriousness though, I'd like to have a mechanism whereby if a core developer is approached by any gov't to compromise bitcoin, they have to resign - and announce that publicly, signing the message with the same pgp signature used to commit their changes to the Bitcoin codebase.

I know that the devs wouldn't just sit there if such a situation occurred, but I'd feel better knowing there was some kind of notification process to deal with it.

The odd thing is asking for input, and not having comments or any kind of directed way to tell them so? Are they just relying on Facebook/Twitter?

I'd be surprised if they did adopt Bitcoin, but stranger things have happened I guess.

And then began the dark times...

"The Blockchain Wars"

Paul always knew he wanted to be a miner. Now with Bitcoin entering its final years of rewarding those with the dedication and grit to keep their machines running, all racing along the the difficulty curve that rose from the foggy depths of single digits towards the trillions. Just one found block, and he wouldn't have to work for the rest of his life. Not that he minded, there were plenty of places where his skills could be utilized, but it wasn't for him.

Paul dreaded the monotony and slow death that large corporations offered, especially after the special economic zones started running. Wedded to a firm for life, working up the ranks and sucking down the horrible beverages, most designed to "accentuate" your mental skills. Pure chemical blather, he thought.

But nothing like mining. Nothing like tweaking your machine until it was churning just fast enough to produce hashes, but cool enough not to self-combust. Paul was a pro. He had all the latest tech, everything had been through a few test baths of sub-zero coolant, just to get a baseline. He would then start working on the custom enclosures and pressure vessels that would house his hyperactive circuits, keeping them just on the right side of self-destruction.

That's when his jaw buzzed. A dropdown slid into his view, announcing Jerry's insistent hail. Tensing his muscles slightly, he made the scissor-like motion to answer.

"Look -- hey Paul-o, we gotta shift and shift it now, man!"

Jerry's breathing was ragged, and for a moment Paul thought he was running away from something.

"I'm in the shop, what's the deal?"

"Its the chain man - we gotta boost off this chain before we get our asses swamped!"

Satoshi save us, not this shit again...

"Look, I only have 10 PetaHashes and that's all from recycled stuff, and most of that is splintered along some alts that I care about. You want to play chain-war, you get someone else."

"Comon Paul.. look, you gotta back me here - you know if my alt gets swamped then I'm done, right? I've worked on this so LONG..."

Ragged breath, some coughing rattling down the thinband in slight attenuated shifts.

"Alright, fine. I'll see if I can cobble together some of the older shit I have in storage. I'll get back to you, k?"

"Oh THANKS MAN, You and me baby -- we're gonna make 'em wish they never tried!! Woo-"

Paul cut off the call mid whoop, not wanting to subject himself to another aural beating. Great. Another chain war, another series of long feints to defend somebody's idea of the best cryptonomy. Paul shook his head, knowing he'd support his friend, but at what cost? He had his own projects, thank you -- and having to turn most of his capacity over to some other chain... dammit, dammit...

Well, beats working for the corps, and at least you get to stay in this boosted unit on the edge of the zone. Paul put his head in his hands, trying to knead out some of the tiredness from behind his eyes.

I find it very interesting that Bitcoin is getting discussed in some of the highest offices around the world. I'd love to relax and say things are "okay", and be cautiously optimistic, but then again... the other side is waiting for the hammer to come down.

Interesting. Been tracking this for a while, as I'm sure other traders have.

Wonder what made them pick up on the story, some threads here perhaps?

Considering how AT&T has allowed various three-letter-agencies access to network "backbone" peering points, I'd say they've already done that. In addition to the other recently revealed spying programs, I'm sure they're aware of the internet's potential.

The big question is whether cryptography can keep protecting everyone. Bruce Schneier has a good breakdown on how crypto is doing a good job, in the short term we can increase our keylengths for protection. (Brute force has lower limits that are now exceeded by longer keys.)

Even if the agencies got a quantum computer going, we could still use symmetric cryptography based on shared secrets, and use 256-bit keys.

Reference: http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/09/black-budget-what-exactly-are-the-nsas-cryptanalytic-capabilities/

It is the arrogance of the banking system that will be their downfall. I'd love them to think that they're unassailable, invulnerable, etc.. That is where the real weakness lies, the "monsters in the dark", if you will. They are so sure, so absolutely ear-to-ear smiles about their position that they'll miss the fatal blow.

Death comes in many forms, and in business and finance - it is the missed opportunity that hurts most, other than strategic blunders. Their refusal so far to work with Bitcoin fairly will be their end.

Of course, you can turn the tables and say bitcoin collectively is as proud - although I'd say we have the advantage of not depending on systemized corruption to get our business done.

Isn't Dwolla Bitcoin (and I guess by extension, Litecoin) hostile?

How does that mean good news?

Therefore, they should attack as soon as possible, and yet they haven't.

Are you tired yet from running in mental circles?

So at some point, everyone is supposed to sell Bitcoin for whatever they can get in sovereign currency, regardless of what they originally paid for it in the first place.

Sorry, markets don't behave that way, and especially in markets that have appreciated several thousand percent in regard to the US Dollar and other currencies.

We have a massive cost-basis advantage that doesn't just "go away". In fact, as they continue to debase currencies around the world via central-bank chicanery, they only cause people to transfer their devaluing currency into "whatevers" because they're worth more than the paper-token money sloshing around the world.

The whole idea that the bitcoin ecosystem is "fragile" because prices could get "too low" versus other currencies is a bunch of unvarnished bullshit. If that was the case, then we would have all jumped ship when it got down to $2 bucks after hitting the highs near $31.