... introduce junk in blocks ... If it's useful to the sender, the recipient, and the miner, then it's not junk. Bitcoin is supposed to be currency by definition. Anything in it that is not directly currency-related can be classified as "junk". Perhaps separate protocols can be created for sending additional information based on private/public keys that already exist in bitcoin. |
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Just wait until somebody encodes kiddie porn into the chain - it would stay there forever.
It is impossible to completely prevent that kind of abuse unfortunately. For example, someone could encode information in the decimal figures of amount sent, or in a "vanity plate" Bitcoin address. Of course, but that is not my point. The point is that if would possible to store extra data in Bitcoin protocol by design, then government would have the argument like "you can store extra data (including kiddie porn) - protocol is designed that way and default client allows it". Taking this possibility away in the default client takes that argument away and makes Bitcoin much more resistant to kiddie-porn-propaganda-attack. |
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Well I spport Satoshi completely in this matter.
Leaving a possibility to store data in bitcoin chain is an accident waiting to happen. Just wait until somebody encodes kiddie porn into the chain - it would stay there forever. And the governments would have a perfect propaganda possibility for fighting it. "Normal" people won't use bitcoin at all if it is associated with perverts, mafia, and financial scams.
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I wasn't really talking about your circumstances specifically. My point is, and I recognize that we've gone well off topic, that an addict's problem isn't necessarily the addiction itself, but rather the cost of his addiction. Therefore, it's kind of unfair to compare an addiction to a video game to that of a narcotic. I would guess that a decent heroin addiction in the United States might cost an addict at least hundreds of dollars a month just on the drug itself. Now add the cost of neglecting obligations and the risks of consuming tainted product or getting pinched. I can't imagine that any video game addiction would entail similar costs.
/pedant
Yeah you're right - when taking into account all costs of heroin addiction, including non-money costs such as health problems, family problems, social problems, then heroin has waaaay higher costs than anything else (but actually only because it is illegal & unclean/tainted). |
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For me it is called "Minecraft". I have never played a game which would make me more dependant. I could play it for weeks without noticing external world  I suppose heroin addiction cannot be much worse. How much would Minecraft have to cost for you to stop playing it? Now, how much would heroin have to cost? It doesn't have to cost anything. I have recently discovered that i have very strong will if i want to. Especially if i see that an addiction is destroying my body - this is the reason i don't smoke cigarettes even though i stay often in the same rooms with people who smoke and nicotine is present in my blood anyway. The problem with computer-related addictions is that they don't break down your body & mind - especially if you do some sports & care about your physical condition as well. So you don't have necessary incentive to drop such addictions. Also, I'm an IT specialist, so i guess i will be addicted to some game or other computer - related activity forever. that is no big problemthough, as I don't need to do it all the time - I can take longer breaks and it's fine. |
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Maybe such a store will become viable and sustainable once we have electronic digital heroin.
It already exists and it's free. It's called Facebook. For some people it's facebook, for other it's World Of Warcraft. For me it is called "Minecraft". I have never played a game which would make me more dependant. I could play it for weeks without noticing external world I suppose heroin addiction cannot be much worse. |
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I was at the post office yesterday, and nearby there is a little shop that sells prepaid phone cards and money services, mostly to Mexican immigrants. I've bought phone cards there before, and went in to talk to the owner about buying bitcoins. I didn't offer any pitch, just mentioned the website and said that I'd be interested in buying from him if he offered them. He seemed intrigued, and was on the website before I left the shop. If there are going to be local businesses selling bitcoins for a decent markup, it's these businesses that profit by helping immigrants in America send money to families abroad.
I don't even know what these places are called.
Nice, but unless there are bitcoin exchangers in every country, such effort will probably have totally no effect. People need to exchange bitcoins for their local currency and do it locally, otherwise bitcoin is muich worse than western union or moneygram in terms of money transfers worldwide. |
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The original idea was one where all transactions are conducted over a website only accessible via Tor. This part has been viable for years - it's always the money part that makes it risky for both the seller and the buyer.
The parts involving mail and double-sending drugs are ways to make the business scale, and make it work globally. They give plausible deniability to those receiving drugs.
I see lots of comments in this thread that "it would never work" and "the feds will come after you", but nothing detailing a specific way that they would detect who was mailing the drugs or running the business. The closest anyone came was Babylon, who suggested that the police might stake out all mailboxes in the area the packages came from, but that 's easily diffused: Locating the business in New York City, with 100k(?) public mailboxes would do the trick, or using common packaging like business envelopes.
(And to those that don't understand the concept of a thought experiment: No, I'm not actually planning to start a heroin store.)
Bullshit.Contrary to bitcoins, which are virtual and are only information bits, It is quite easy to track any physical evidence. There are millions of possible methods using which any "heroin store" or other drug store can be tracked. Let me just point out a few which came to my mind just now. This is surely only tiny part of what FBI/CIA/Whatever can use to track down location of the drug store. 1. Analysing paper type used in packaging the packages - where it was bought, where was it produced. It can probably narrow down the search to s section of country (state or land). 2. Analysing different residues that exist in the paper due to its previous location. Such residues may include : - Dust from special type of soil existing only in certain territory - Pollens from certain types of plants that exist only in a certain area, or have greatest concentration in certain area - Humidity of the paper -can help narrow the search if the drug store is near water or far from water - Chemicals in the paper (can narrow the search if drug store is located in a city/district with chemical plant, certain type of city etc) 3. Analyse organic residues from the person doing packaging & their DNA 4. Analyse the drugs themselves - repeat everything you have done with paper to the drugs & more. Just the few methods above will probably be enough to narrow down the search to a small district of a city, or just few blocks... If not, then probably some additional, beter methods exist. ---- Of course i realise that if you would be extremely, (or actually: INSANELY) careful, pack all stuff underwater to avoid polluting, buy your paper in another country, work in latex gloves all the time, use mailboxes in a different random city each time etc, then perhaps you could successfully stay anonymous for few years or something... But sooner or later you will make a mistake, because that's how human brain works. It always makes some number of mistakes, doesn't matter how hard you try. And when you make the one fatal mistake, FBI/CIA/CSI will get you. |
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Wasn't somebody on this forum already selling some gold coins for bitcoin, just without the logo ?
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A demostration to protest Julian Assange's arrest is being organized today at 13:30 London time in front of the Westminster Magistrates' Court. Please join if you can! http://wlcentral.org/node/545This may be quite a pointless demonstration, since Assange visit to police was appointed earlier and he let himself be arrested by purpose. |
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Also, while bitcoin is in its infancy, we (bitcoiners) should avoid engaging in drugs, prostitution, weapon selling & other semi-legal activities.
If bitcoin will lift off using money from fraudesters & gangsters, how in world will we ever manage to promote it to be a serious currency ?
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Hi, im new in this comunitty and i first read a lot about bitcoins,and i like it, so im participating in this animation creation "contest" too. Stay tuned, first part i will post on this end of week (i gathered informations and did some kind of script for the animation first)
There is probably nothing to participate in in this thread, because the topic starter probably took the cash and ran off... |
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Basically, bring it on. Let's encourage Wikileaks to use Bitcoins and I'm willing to face any risk or fallout from that act.
No, don't "bring it on". The project needs to grow gradually so the software can be strengthened along the way. I make this appeal to WikiLeaks not to try to use Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a small beta community in its infancy. You would not stand to get more than pocket change, and the heat you would bring would likely destroy us at this stage. This is exactly what I was saying all along, but nobody is listening. Bitcoin is not yet stron enough to take on such a huge task. Pushing bitcoin on wikileaks will kill bitcoin, and still it won't help wikileaks a lot. |
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1. This will never work.
It is quite easy to track down any drug store by conventional means - by tracking the physical sent packages instead of coins themselves.
2. (Yeah, i know, that i can't stop anybody from doing anything, but I'm just stating my opinion) Why do You people try so hard to kill bitcoin so quickly before it has a chance to get more audience ?
I mean if You try to do every possible "dark businesses" such as drugs, prostitution, weapons through bitcoin, then You will quickly kill its mainstream adoption. Bitcoin will never become mainstream this way because governments will use all possible means to destroy it, the same as they are doing with wikileaks.
Why not stay low profile for year or 2, and then hit it will full power ?
For God's sake, at least give it a some time before starting half-legal or illegal buisnesses. Maybe by then we will be strong enough and achieve enough critical mass that we can't be stopped anymore...
But this is all pointless, i don't even know why the hell I am even typing this... Well, at least i have said it.
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if course I'm joking around...ofcourse it is important to have a standardized, commonly agreed-upon and recognized symbol The only standard we can reasonably hope for is a de facto one. Amen, Father McGruder! + 1. Let's just wait and see which one will become most popular and simply use it. |
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Sorry for being too lazy to read all previous posts...
But has anybody actually proposed using bitcoin algorithms to create decentralized DNS to Peter Sunde yet ?
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in the wikileaks case its a great danger.
+1, I agree completely We know that private and government forces are actively tracing, and trying to shut down, sources of wikileaks funding through all available means of pressure. Does it make sense to actively give multiple world governments incentive to shut down bitcoin? If you care about bitcoin's success, the answer is no. That is exactly the issue. I am so worried about the intent behind this wikileaks thread that, if i could, would only want to have "legallysafe" bitcoins in my wallet that are not connected to wikileaks or any other illegal matter. those who want to play this aggressive game against governments can do it, but i dont want to be connected to that. Agreed, i have already spoken about this in some other wikileaks-related topic (or perhaps this one ?). Engaging in wikileaks before Bitcoin has a chance to unfold its wings may kill it. |
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I feel a disturbance in the force...
Is it a revolution coming ?
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Your latest chart is price vs log(difficulty). Can you show price vs difficulty?
Yeah, that (log) difficulty one wasn't particulary useful. Price vs difficulty is another story. |
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We do _not_ have a working self-replicating 3D printer yet. reprap.org is often marketed as one, but you still have to do lots of human labour to replicate one. When the day comes that you can replicate the original in a day without human effort, can use more materials than currently supported, have a lot less variance (this is manufacturing!), that will be the day where you can think about printing cars, etc.
Currently, we have hyped technology that can create plastic items (that cannot even contain all liquids without leaking). It's a great project, but to think it will be "done" in 5-10 years is a mistake. If anything, major advances could come from increases in processing power, but they have to be enormous (kind of like how GPUs have been growing in capability in a limited domain of computations), but I don't see it happening. I used to, but progress has been too slow over the past 5 years in this area.
For example we really should have been able to buy memristor based technology by now.
Was anybody here talking about reprap being finished in few years ? Reprap is probably decades from "completion" meaning when it will be possible to print something complex with it, without the need of any human intervention... |
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