Hmm.  There is the need for a BTC Relay type of system except where the coins used for inputs in the relay needs to be tied to the funder's account.  Specifically, BitLotto tickets can only be purchased one at a time.  BTC Relay doesn't work for this for two reasons. 

1.) The way BitLotto works is that it will only use for the payout the return address (the bitcoin address used as an input on the winning ticket).   
and
2.) BTC Relay would combine multiple entries in the PayList into a single transaction.    BitLotto needs each ticket to have its own transaction hash as that is what is used to pick the winning entry.

BTC Relay is pretty close.  Would there be any interest in adding options (or offering a similar service) so that people who either use an e-wallet and those multi-ticket buyers could use this service?

There is a person willing to do a 100 BTC wager on BitLotto if there were such a service that solved this problem.
 - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34007.msg803875#msg803875

Which version of the client?  There is now v0.5.3, so make sure you are trying with the most recent release.

Do you have another Win7 x64 computer where you can copy the data over to to see if the problem persists there?  If not, perhaps zip it up (when using only an empty wallet, of course) and see if someone else w/ Win7 x64 would be willing to do some troubleshooting [Update: troubleshooting against your set of data.]

The resolution to that would be to try to close the client, remove the blk*.dat files and launch it again (and wait while it downloads the entire blockchain again).

Additionally, there is a newer client than version 0.5.2 now as well.  Try using the latest ... v0.5.3

Not sure what the problem could be then.  Would you have another computer that you could try running it from then -- that would help to isolate if the problem is with the USB and/or wallet  or if instead the problem is with one particular computer.

Also, there was a new update of the Bitcoin client out today.  I don't think there are significant performance improvements from the previous version, but it never hurts to use the most recent release.

I was able to login just now without any problem.

There was a change made to wallet encryption a few days ago.   Is this your first login since then?
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=40264.msg799527#msg799527

Now having paid for shares in both types of projects (one that took bitcoins, and one that took PayPal), I can say the Bitcoin-powered experience was superior.  I'm not sure if the problem was with PayPal or with PirateMyFilm but I was getting an error page from PayPal.com when I clicked the Pay button.  I tried later using Firefox and it worked fine on the third attempt.

I wasn't the only one getting this error either:
 - http://piratemyfilm.com/blogs

Viva la Bitcoin!

Is the port USB 2.0? (and the cable is rated for 2.0 also, if using one?)

Well, that's only 2^64 submissions your bot would need to make.

For those such as myself who don't follow the sport:

Here are multiple ways to make your bracket picks:
"By Starting Median Salary" and "Proximity to the North Pole" for example.
 - http://www.nerdybracket.com

and
"The Totally Non-Technical Guide to the NCAA Tournament"
 - http://thrillist.tumblr.com/post/19236579702/ncaas

or who would win if it were up to the mascots:
 - http://slate.me/ybkM5n

Want to choose a longshot?  Here are the odds:
 - http://thepowerrank.com/visual/NCAA_Tournament_Predictions

This is awesome!  Entry into the public pool is free.  

100 BTC will be paid out and there will be multiple winners!

Here's the link for the public pool:
 - http://www.bitmadness.com/pool.php?g=RJLCGV4Y

For the public pool, it says 10,000 BTC Grand Prize if you get every pick correct.  

[Update: At the end it asks for the number of points.  What is that for?]

ORLY!


Oh, so Screw Banks, Buy Bitcoins was the first project that took bitcoins?  But that project is donation only as well and will not pay dividends. 

Are there any other projects that accept Bit-Pay ... and of those, any that will pay dividends if there are profits?

This crowdfunding thing where you get equity (which PMF offers, but KickStarter does not) is starting to gain some traction.  

These people are paying a lot of money to learn more about it:
 - http://tslccla.eventbrite.com
  (including talks by U.S. Congressman McHenry, sponsor of the crowdfunding bill that passed in the House last fall, and by others like the co-founder of RocketHub, and from various venture capital and angel investor networks.)

I wonder if PayPal knows that those sending payments to PirateMyFilm are "investing" in shares [Update: see below, when paid for using PayPal these are not equity shares].  That's something I would guess they would put the kibosh on as soon as they notice (or are made aware of, perhaps from a regulator inquiring with them or from a customer who does a chargeback for whatever reason).

Hopefully PMF isn't holding much funds in PayPal because when PayPal puts a freeze on the account, those funds get locked up for six months.

Who is "they"?  When was this?

When the Bitcoin client starts up it will read through the entire blockchain (over 1 GB of data) from the storage device.  That can take several minutes on many computers, especially slower ones.   Over USB rather than from a hard drive that can take even longer.  Even then, once the client launches then it will start to download any blocks that it doesn't already have.  That can take many more more minutes or tens of minutes.  But you can still transact while it is doing that, you just cannot see transactions from blocks that have not yet been received.

Is this what you are describing?  


There are thin clients, such as Electrum that you may wish to consider.   Or there is Javascript, client-side wallets like those from My Wallet ( http://www.blockchain.info/wallet ) and StrongCoin.
 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Category:Clients

What version?

Have you changed anything since the last time you used the client where it worked successfully?

Is it possible there is a tab or other non-printable character in the clipboard contents?  (e.g., try pasting to notepad or editor and then copying contents back from that paste).

The French city of Nantes is planning on introducing their own electronic virtual currency called Nantos.

But the Nanto is no Bitcoin:


What?   So what does Joe Grocer do with the Nantos that customers used to pay for their purchases?


But what if there aren't local sources for the products sold?


So the Nanto is a currency that isn't convertible into the political currency used (Euro) and has an expiry (so it can't be hoarded).

We'll see.  Launch target is Summer of 2013.

 - http://www.worldcrunch.com/micro-currency-french-city-nantes-soon-you-can-pay-nantos/4839

If today's nice little jump in the exchange rate sticks, then mining profitability starts going up again (the price is rising faster than difficulty).
 - http://blockchain.info/charts/miners-operating-profit-margin

But when those operators are buying FPGAs and selling their old GPU hardware that equipment is often going to other miners.  So difficulty will probably start rising at a faster pace from here, regardless of price.  And if the price doesn't continue to rally, GPU miners paying higher electricity rates are going to start dropping out.

If you were running a local wallet then that could be scripted.  But for using My Wallet from http://BlockChain.info/wallet you are stuck when you don't have remaining inputs of at least 0.25 BTC.   Here's a suggestion though.  Create a handful of addresses (e.g., 10) and fund them each with 0.25 BTC (or .2505 if you plan to pay a trx fee also.)

You could use an online ewallet such as that provided with a Mt. Gox account to let you withdraw 0.25 BTC to each of those My Wallet addresses.

One way to do that might be to use BTCRelay.   For example, if you created a Paylist of ten addresses from your My Wallet, and then send to the BTC Relay Deposit address 2.5100 BTC  (0.25 BTC + 0.0005 trx fee plus 0.0005 for the BTC Relay fee = 0.251 then X 10).  After that confirms it will then send out the relayed payments.  After about an hour and a half you will have 0.2505 in each of ten addresses in My Wallet -- that amount being the perfect size for buying BitLotto tickets.

Just to confirm, the "withdrawal" transaction has inputs that are not associated with the Deposit address used in the relay, correct?

i.e., there is no direct association between the funds sent to the relay Deposit address against the funds sent (withdrawn automatically) six confirmations later.  (other than the total being the same minus 0.0005 BTC per Paylist entry).

and in an example:
Alice creates a BTC Relay with two entries in the Paylist and then sends 1.0 BTC from her wallet to the relay's Deposit address.
The relay will, after six confirmations, pay out as a withdrawal 0.4995 to each of the Paylist entries but those funds will likely come from other addresses, such as prior transactions by Bill and Bob.

Additionally, that would mean that should the recipient of the withdraw happen to "return" the funds by sending an amount to one of the inputs of the withdraw, then those funds would go to some lucky person (Bill or Bob, using the example from above), and not likely to the person who funded the payment to the BTC relay Deposit address (Alice, using the example from above).

Correct?

After sending a transaction I get a change transaction that I cannot use for spending in a new transaction until the previous transaction gets a confirmation.  Wouldn't there be a way to let me spend from the output of the change?  Perhaps if, in the original spend, I were to use the mode where I can specify the address for the change to be sent to -- and select the input and change address to be the same address?

Haha, love it.  Bitcoin is now deemed to be known widely enough that it can be used in a comparison like this without Bitcoin itself requiring further definition!  Remember that one year ago Bitcoin had mostly only been known to Slashdot readers and This Week in Tech / Steve Gibson viewers.

I'm just imagining the progress in another twelve months!


Someone must have video of that on their mobile phone.  Classic!

Anyone willing to sell their Blinky Blink?