I think free markets are only free when the parties involved in them understand that it's free. Right now a good majority are still clinging to their old habits of centralization, insurance, backing, reversals, trusting strangers, etc.

I thought about mentioning MtGox, but there are several reasons I didn't that I don't want to start  flame war about here. Suffice to say, all companies grow larger through Bitcoin but some grow artificially and remain unhealthy.

The same does not yet go for Bitcoin, as the difference so far is that large companies become larger, and small companies became large through the internet. That has not happened much in Bitcoin yet.

Amazon was incorporated in 1994, in the state of Washington. In July 1995, the company began service and sold its first book on Amazon.com — Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought.[11] In 1996, it was reincorporated in Delaware.

Finally, someone with half a brain in this thread.

Total Received   1 BTC

Almost there.

I do admire you for addressing the questions and concerns in a constructive manner. That said, I'd like to see this conversation continue, but time may be of the essence, for the island may be sold before ducks are in a row here.

~Bruno~

Hi Kris,

I talked about the need for a PayPal version of Bitcoin in a post/eBook I did called How to Grow Bitcoin. I'll touch on the key points.

A simple person-to-person pay service I think will come about naturally, and is essential. The root network/blockchain is NOT how the majority of transactions should take place. It's too cumbersome, slow, and won't scale to handle the majority of transactions for the world anyway. Transactions should be done by updating the rows of a database somewhere. Simple.

Such a service should look and behave pretty much exactly like PayPal, except be for Bitcoin. Anyone with an email address can send payment to anyone else with an email address. They log in, enter the address to send to, and the transfer happens instantly. Simple.

Depositing money into a user's "BitPal" type account is done by the blockchain, as are withdrawals. Other deposit/withdrawal options such as integration with exchanges like Mt.Gox can exist for convenience too. But withdrawals and deposits won't happen often because the majority of the Bitcoin ecosystem uses "BitPal" for transactions.

Two more crucial points: all transfers are completely free. Profit can instead come from premium services such as merchant features, and or advertising. Also, such a service is NOT a bank, and might limit number of bitcoins stored to say 1,000, simply to keep things simple, secure, and focused on transactions.

I think WalleBit could become this type of service. I'm sure such a system will come about at some point either way. I had even considered the undertaking myself, to ensure it comes about.

Comodo, USER-TRUST, and even Verisign have also been compromised in the past, and there's no chance that they'll be removed from browsers because they're so popular. Lots of governments also have their own probably-insecure CAs which are accepted by all browsers. The CA system is a lost cause.

What do you think? How about new free country/free town/free bitcoin island?

Seasteading is the concept of creating permanent dwellings at sea, called seasteads, outside the territory claimed by the government of any standing nation.

Five acres is very small.  Are we sure it isn't in hectares?

For anyone to tell me that I am not allowed to share that which I've created with anyone else is something that I would consider to be a free speech issue.

For example, this could mean a legislation requiring this sort of agreements to have backdoor for the government.

Let's just buy an old ship. Much cheaper, more convenient, suitable to many different biz at once, and infinitely more amusing.


Pirate Ship Black Raven by Mr. T in DC, on Flickr

That site has been dead for a while.

How about this:

-- anonymous bitcoin donations made to the tip jars BTC drop address can not be auto-converted to USD
-- bitcoin sent through a Propster account can have a configuration setting (allow auto-convert to USD). So only that portion of the donations will be auto-converted.

Would that work to satisfy both policies ?

The first time, yeah. After a few times you'll start wondering who is this Bitcoin fellow who keeps collecting money for you.

To continue the analogy, if that man on the street told you that he's got some bitcoins for you and that it's really easy to collect them, you'd say "ah, ok, you see that mean over there? He'll be happy to hear all about this..."

I have to say, this really is total fail.

Voluntary trade is absolutely not a zero-sum game.  Everyone benefits.  And, in the real economy, efficient and complex trade requires price stability, something that Bitcoin didn't have before Bitcoinica.  Stabilizing the Bitcoin price is a huge accomplishment.  It builds a foundation for the creation of immense value going forward.  I have no doubt that this will become a textbook example of speculation working for the benefit of an entire economy, as it should in a truly free market.  I almost can't even imagine what would make you think otherwise.

It's amazing to me the number of people in this community who joined what Satoshi billed as a "decentralized currency," only to completely fail to understand what that meant.

This isn't an investment.  It isn't a payment processing network.  It isn't a ponzi scheme.  It's an economy.  And, granted, right now it's an economy built on drugs and knick-knacks and web services.  That's okay.  Rome wasn't built in a day.  Tides turn slowly.  There are milestones that must be reached before Bitcoin can become what it was intended to be.  And, granted, Bitcoin is different things to different people.  That's fine too.  But, really, I would expect a much broader view to be expressed by some of the people most responsible for Bitcoin's success.

Because that's what I see in the Bitcoin economy right now, success.  It might not feel like it.  The price isn't shooting up spectacularly.  Mining is more difficult than it used to be.  There is little innovative new software development.  Bitcoin services are under attack.  But believe me, it's there.  It's in the 10,000 BTC loan recently fulfilled.  It's in the solidly stable value despite 30%+ inflation.  It's in the immense network difficulty and the delivery of FPGA mining cards.  It's in the total resiliency of Bitcoin in the face of immense public and government scrutiny, while still challenging an immoral and corrupt fiat currency regime that has failed the world.

Bitcoin is clearly an idea whose time has come.  I know that backlash is growing.  I know that obstacles remain.  But don't give up before seeing it happen.  Every day that Bitcoin exists, it succeeds.