Ok, just was cleared up for me.  That's the same post office address, but different PO boxes.

From the BitFloor thread:


[Edit: Same post office, different PO Box]

TIL: The difference between blackmail and extortion.

 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackmail

Incidentally, the author (Matthew DeBord) gave a talk on Bitcoin this past summer which I had attended (at the Karl Hess supper club/agorism meetup group in L.A.).  Matthew has written previously about bitcoin, including trading it (as experiment):
 - http://www.scpr.org/blogs/economy/tagged/bitcoin/

2012-09-06 TheCLAG.org - Buying Secrets, Buying Time: Mitt Romney’s Tax Returns

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=106125.0

Buying Secrets, Buying Time: Mitt Romney’s Tax Returns and Bitcoin



 - http://theclag.org/buying-secrets-buying-time-mitt-romneys-tax-returns-and-bitcoin/

There was a new bet listing but it is making some assumptions that leaves it unclear.


Statement: Mitt Romney's tax returns will be released before the election day.
Description: Romney's tax returns will be released before election day, November 6th, 2012, regardless of how or why they were released.

 - http://betsofbitco.in/item?id=636

His 2010 returns were released earlier this year:

 - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/romney-2010-tax-return.html

His 2011 returns are the subject of interest.  Neither the bet statement nor the description makes this clear.

Anyone owed even a single satoshi can file a complaint.   Has anyone?

Those with USDs will likely get most / all of their funds back, so them filing a complaint with the police is not probably seen as being necessary.

Those with BTCs were there for a variety of reasons.  Some might have just been using BitFloor as a hosted (shared) EWallet  (there aren't many options for EWallets like BitFloor's which have one-time password protection and no fees)  Others had funds there for doing market timing trades, without ever intending to withdraw USDs.  They may not even be from the U.S.  Filing a complaint with the police would require providing identity, which is not always desirable.  Others had amounts too small to bother trying to recover by going to the police.

So that might explain why no customers might be filing a complaint.  As far as why the operator doesn't?  There's really no upside.  The coins are gone.  Nobody has ever been charged with a crime, even those holding customer's funds that didn't use cold storage. Also, BitFloor's operator is out of the country.

The Bitcoinica lawsuit is the first publicly known lawsuit regarding breach of contract, negligence, etc., and that hasn't been decided or settled yet so there's no great worry about covering your ass by filing a complaint with the police.

[Edit: There may be laws in BitFloor's jurisdiction that could require contacting the police or federal agency in cases of theft of customer funds, I've no idea]

I can't remember the exact statement but it was something like:

The odds of that happening are less than the odds that you will die from being struck by lightning after being hit by a meteor which occurred just after you had been bitten by a shark while you stood underneath the curl of an approaching Tsunami -- and all that happening 1,000 times in a row on the same day.

Ya, those kind of odds before you'ld be successful from putting all the computers in the world to work trying come up with the private key that hashes to an existing address, nonetheless one that has any funds on it,

Well, thanks to being able to run the Bitcoin client yourself, or use BitAddress.org for instance, you don't need to store your coins with anyone else.

InstaWallet isn't made for long term storage of funds, but some people will use it that way.  And yes, others will have wiped their browser history and not have bookmarked Instawallet and they will never get access to those funds again.

Paymium (operator of Instawallet) offered this as a suggestion as to how they might possibly handle things if they were to close.  They have no terms of service on the site, so going that extra "brain wallet" step for those that don't withdraw is an extra service that they don't even need to do. 

You are asserting that they will simply spend the funds then themselves, and there is no reason to come to that conclusion.

They do state: "Please do not store more than some spare change here.".

As does the other instant wallet operator:

 - http://www.Easywallet.org

You can ask to be whitelisted. 

Otherwise, if you have Dwolla and are looking to trade for Mt Gox USDs, I can post a link to this thread in the thread where those requests are frequently shown:

 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=78512.0

There are plenty of exchanges that have BTC/EUR markets.  BitStamp is a BTC/USD marketplace, but allows SEPA withdrawals:

 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Selling_bitcoins


The list above includes a couple:

 - http://www.Bitcoin-24.com
 - http://www.VirwoX.com

There was one vendor, BitVapes, but their site says down for maintenance and the operator hasn't logged in in months.


There is another vendor I saw in the wiki's Trade page, but the site is not in English.  Here's the trade page:

 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade#Electronics


If you aren't sure on a site yourself, you might try just listing some products on Bitmit.net

 - http://www.Bitmit.net


If you do offer them, you can promote it here;

 - http://www.thevapebook.com

There are instances where you want to use your own wallet before sending funds out.

One reason is if there is a chance the party you are sending bitcoins to also uses CAVirtEx.  In that case, they might treat it as an internal transfer, and thus your transaction will never show up on the blockchain.  If you needed to prove that a payment was sent, you'ld need the assistance of the shared EWallet provider (CAVirtEx, in this instance).   Mt. Gox has a checkbox when withdrawing called Open Transaction, where if you mark that checkbox the transaction will always hit the blockchain, even if it is to the Bitcoin address for another Mt. Gox account.

Another reason is to not withdraw from an exchange directly to the party you are sending funds to is for privacy reasons.  By sending to an address in your own wallet and then from there sending a payment, there is then not a direct connection between where you withdrew from (CAVirtEx) and where you sent funds to.

If you are sending from CAVirtEx, they probably have your identity or a link to it (e.g., from a bank account transfer to them).  If that exchange were given a subpoena they might have to provide whatever identifying information they have collected.  There are EWallet services which don't collect any identifying information at all, such as InstaWallet.org       That might be an option which provides better privacy for your transaction than does withdrawing directly to the party you are sending funds to.  

By the way, in the future there's no need to specifically mention where you are sending funds to.  In fact, it it probably in your best interest that you don't.

That's a different case than where you lose your hard drive with wallet.dat and have no backup or something like that.

With a hosted (shared) EWallet, the service still has the funds, just that you never access them.

InstaWallet has said that if they ever were to shut down they would make create brain wallets that used the InstaWallet address for the pass phrase and send the funds for each InstaWallet to its Brain Wallet equivalent.  So that the funds could eventually be spent.

So, if that were to happen, then yes -- those coins would likely never re-enter circulation again.

BitStamp doesn't accommodate UK transfers (unless maybe as international wire transfer which is very expensive.)

Intersango has problems right now serving those in the UK:

 - http://support.intersango.com/status

About the remaining option is Mt. Gox.  You can deposit cash at Barclays for credit to your Mt. Gox account.  A 1.5% fee applies:

 - https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/MtGox#UK_.28GBP.29


There is a site called London Bitcoin Exchange, though there is not much about them yet so if you do trade, perhaps use an escrow.
 - http://londonbitcoinexchange.wordpress.com/

You can send cash (GBP) or check to Bitcoin Nordic, by mail, to purchase bitcoins:
 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_Nordic

You might find a local trader (or place an buy order and see if anyone is selling):
 - http://www.LocalBitcoins.com

There are a number of methods:

 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_bitcoins

You will find someone willing to trade at the London Bitcoin Conference:
 - http://www.bitcoin2012.com
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=67199.0

If you are pretty sure your computer is secure, with no screen-scraping spyware or malware, then here's probably the easiest:

Step 1.) http://BitAddress.org

Step 2.) Wiggle mouse

Step 3.) Hit Print

Step 4.) Using an exchange, like one that accepts cash deposit  ... buy bitcoins.  Then withdraw to the address from the QR code that you printed.

Step 5.) Verify funds made it, by watching the address on Blockchain.info:

Step 6.) After a couple confirmations, close your browser and put the piece of paper in a safe place.

Years later, redeem the private key (from a computer that is secure).  There are many methods to do this today, ... a year from now there should be many many additional options.


If you aren't sure your computer is secure (at least not willing to risk $200 worth on the chance that it isn't, use a bootable LiveOS.  You can get one from Ubuntu for instance.  Boot to that, then go to BitAddress.org.

Sorry for necro-thread, but there was an update to this :


 - http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/honduras-signs-deal-with-investors-to-create-3-private-cities-to-host-new-industries/2012/09/04/c8d43110-f6fb-11e1-a93b-7185e3f88849_story.html
 - http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_HONDURAS_PRIVATE_CITIES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-09-04-21-45-18



This thread had spawned a related thread on Libertarians:

 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=54104.0

There are some topics that I wouldn't normally follow but with a minimum bet of only 0.1 BTC (worth a little over $1) it is easy to put some money on it and then get the e-mail alert on the outcome when the bet ends.

For some bets the odds are just not worth it (e.g., the extra-terrestrials bet, you'll lose money no matter if your bet wins or loses with the current odds on it), [edit: I'm an idiot, winning bets always split 90% of the losing bets, no more no less.]. but others are set up to run right through to the event date, and thus it becomes almost a guaranteed win, just with a really low payout.

This whole predictions market captures my interest in a unique way!

The Difficulty article in the Bitcoin wiki shows:

 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Difficulty#Related_Links

which is the link to this:

 - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmcTCtjBoRWUdHVRMHpqWUJValI1RlZiaEtCT1RrQmc