One of the problems with creating an alternative to facebook, without ads and tracking, is that even if you do manage to get the market to move then it creates a huge incentive to introduce ads and tracking, just as facebook did after it gained the market from myspace.

What if there was a peer-to-peer social network instead? Public messages are submitted to it signed with my private key, restricted messages and events are signed with the private keys of the receivers too. Websites which access this stuff for you would be for ease of use, reflecting whats on the network rather than controlling it directly, so any website which imposes too high a cost (such as ads or snoping) will be outed by competition. Competition in websites and clients would also drive innovations in usability, and towards whoever is willing to host data for the minimum cost.

You might guess from my vague wording that I do not have any technical expertise and I have not thought about it much further, that's why I'm asking you guys.

1. Lots of threads on bitcoin discussion are being moved to unrelated boards that no one reads
2. Having a newbie section is derogatory, people should be able to post where they like. Registering an account is inconvenient enough without having to satisfy some random admin.

This is a retarded thread move, I'm not developing a project.

Consider a view of current events which people on the internet generally support, things like "stop internet censorship", "free julian assange", "TSA are thugs", or whatever is currently popular.

Then picture a person performing an elaborate protest which attracts media attention.

But somewhere on his clothes or the placard he is holding, or somewhere else, there is a qt code which links to his bitcoin address-and he ends up collecting donations by people who are happy that he staged the event.

Since popular opinions on the internet are generally good things, anticensorship for example, the result of this idea taking off could be more protests about things the internet supports. "Armchair activists" who do not want to spend their time or risk their career supporting certain causes, could indirectly do so by this method.

That is excellent, some really well designed sites in the comments. Thanks.

I havn't used bitcoin for a while. Is there a simple, smooth, trustworthy escrow system set up by now? Such as  website which says "We received this much money from j180, and will release it to you when you provide X".

There seems to be a market for an escrow, perhaps a deep web one. In addition to removing the cash trail, it serves as a way to build reputation and arbitrate disputes. By building trust with long term customers it could also guarantee payment at 0 confirmations.

Is there a way to filter out development posts? I seem to recall a comment about libertarianism and how he was better at programming then convincing others.

The jobs pay a lot less if your from the UK. I get a feeling people will start using proxies to have a US IP address.

Along that suggestion but different. I'm not talking about having to send you details to apply to be a teacher for a company, more along the lines of anonymous usernames teaching eachother, many of them young people around the world working for less then minimum wage.

I'm not making it. I have none of those skills. I like to post ideas anyway in case clever people see a use for them


Seems to be like yahoo answers but with submitting a small bounty for the best reply. Sounds like a really good idea.

I put in my email, hopefully I'll get invite soon to try it.

I think lectures and teaching will eventually all be free (Khan Academy and Academic Earth being good examples). But there will always be a market for is one-on-one tuition, where you're actively talking to someone over your microphone or attempting to tackle a problem on the sketchpad and getting active feedback on your thought process.


I checked myfreecams and clicked "tip". It requires being a registered member, therefore giving personal details and having the transaction appear on your bank statement. It seems so obvious how much better it would be to donate a couple of cents anonymously instead with bitcoin, and I wonder why it isn't adopted.

If I want to learn russian or chinese it might not be worth my time to pay for classes, let alone a private tutor in the real world. Yet there's probably someone on the internet willing to teach for an hour for a tiny amount, below minimum wage. And perhaps there are some well-off families in Asia wanting to pay a native english person for tuition.

So in my idea I upload bitcoins to a website on which I could find various people willing to teach different things, at different times, at different prices, to suit me. I could also teach someone else and either withdraw the bitcoins or use them purchase lectures in new subjects. There would be a feedback/review system, so someone who wants to start can do so by simply teaching for free, then slowing increasing his/her price through fractions of a dollar, until whatever the market standard is. People particular good at teaching or who have very specialist knowledge could charge a premium.

The teaching would be done via voice communication and a Khanacademy style flash interface (graphics tablet recommended). Every session will be recorded. This could be used for security reasons (from speaking to strangers on the internet) and as a way to build a reputation by releasing past sessions.

Unlike a traditional website which does this (if they exist), you wouldn't have to hire tutors and pay in advance, or pay them minimum wage, or background checks. The peoples teaching would be people you've never heard of. All you do is create a website and take a percentage of transfers. People on the site would not need to donate large amounts of money or give their personal details in order to start, they could try it out by depositing just a few cents anonymously. They do not need to give away their identity beyond a username and a microphone output. The site would be very simple and entirely driven (wages, content, prices, reputation) by the users.

Could someone design a vending machine which just scans or recieves bitcoin from a smart phone? Since the machine would not need a coin mechanism in it, it could be cheaper to produce/maintain then ordinary vending machines.

I would be more likely the buy one if the site contained more information about how the cannon works.

Someone who likes a video could click a button and tip him a fraction of a cent.

It seems to me that for bitcoins, people will eventually use small portable devices whose OS is all ROM based so that Trojans can't be installed on them.

I had another idea, it could be used for academic journals (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/29/academic-publishers-murdoch-socialist)

It did, but there's so many millions of people on either side that I don't think ethical questions will stop it happening. Just like drugs, tax-avoidance and so on.

We should all say prayer together to get bitcoin back on track.

Blessed Rand. May thou raise the value of bitcoins so we may smite the parasites!
N'Gasta! Kvata! Kvakis! ahkstas so
N'Gasta! Kvata! Kvakis! ahkstas sa
N'Gasta! Kvata! Kvakis! ahkstas kvakis!

(Repeat three times)