Seems like most altcoins developers "improve" things by changing stuff that they don't fully understand.

For example: the blocktime. Most altcoins say they are better than bitcoin because they have a 10 second blocktime or whatever and you don't have to wait long for confirmations, its "faster" they say. But the problem is they have NO idea at all why 10 minutes was chosen, it was chosen for a reason! More confirmations alone don't make a transaction more secure, it's a combination of confirmations and TIME. Thats why 6 confirmations is considered safe as 6 confirmations is about an hour. A transaction that has 60x 1 minute altcoin confirmations has more or less the same level of security from double spending as 6 bitcoin confirmations, so it's not faster despite what the devs tell you. Additionally there are other issues that altcoins have seen with low blocktimes such as increased risk of orphan blocks and poor scalability.

Even Dogecoin - which has a market cap in the multi-millions - had an obvious exploit that allowed a miner to earn unfair rewards for months before anyone noticed.

Bitcoin is open source. If you truly have an idea that will improve it you can convince the core devs to implement it. We've survived numerous hardforks already so even if your idea requires a hardfork it can still be implemented so long as the hardfork is well planned out.

If reducing the blocktime was REALLY a good idea bitcoin would do it too, but it's not.

Why have a playground where people risk millions of dollars of real money? It's a ridiculous situation where people do not realize how vulnerable they really are.

Is this address in your Armory wallet?

1C6fJfNmoEc81Uui3wKkCf4unTCXBkiGGS

If so it's a problem with Armory, likely with the database. Has your bitcoin-core fully synced the blockchain?

if it is fully synced, in Armory go to Help > Rebuild and Rescan Databases. It'll take sometime to do this and hopefully it'll work afterwards.

If that fails to work try this:

Backup your Armory wallet
Close Armory
rename your Armory data directory to armory.old
Open Armory
Restore your wallet and wait for the database to rebuild

the Armory data directory location is:
Windows: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Armory
Linux: /home/<username>/.armory
MacOSX: /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Armory


Your BTC is in that address so you don't have anything to worry about. You can always export the private key from Armory and import it to another wallet software if all else fails.

I don't think botany is another one of his alts.


Because he wants to sell his ebook and make ad revenue, and yes he's been trying VERY hard to spread his FUD:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=727145.0

This is Sol Adoni:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=727145.0

It's an elaborate troll/FUD campaign by an annoying guy with a ton of sockpuppet accounts and websites.

He's been banned from other forums unrelated to bitcoin for doing similar things with tons of fake accounts.

Also from the whois of ciaproject.org:

Plenty of people have claimed to be Satoshi. Just because someone says they are doesn't mean they are. There is no evidence watsoever that Dorian is Satoshi, just speculation and opinion of a journalist working for a news agency that recently had a massive relaunch and is no stranger to controversy. Show me PROOF it is him and I'll believe it then.

The idea of a currency similar to bitcoin has been considered the "holy grail" of cryptography since forever. Currencies that are somewhat similar to bitcoin have been used in examples when discussing cryptographic principles and there have been MANY attempts to make something similar. There have been people discussing things similar to bitcoin before that NSA paper - in fact David Chaum launched a centralized cryptocurrency similar to bitcoin around the same time as that. Additionally the NSA paper never talks about a decentralized currency at all.

About the algorithms bit you are CLEARLY confused. Bitcoins are not "encrypted". What I THINK you are referring to is that bitcoin addresses are calculated from the hash of the ECDSA pubkey which mitigates against attacks by quantum computers. Noone has actually built a real working quantum computer yet, they only exist in theory right now, and there was no backdoor in anything. Satoshi accidentally or intentionally made us secure against a theoretical attack is all.

I still don't know why you need to know their installation ID for each ping. Can you come up with a real-life example of a situation where you'd need to know that information when providing announcements? if there were critical issues in Armory that would affect everyone running that version and not specific installations.

For most users privacy is just as important as security.

Annoucements/statistics should be two completely seperate things. I think statistics should happen on first-run ONLY and it should be very obvious it's happening and easy for the user to opt-out. Checking for annoucements should send the bare amount of information you require, the Armory version and platform.

I was under the impression checks for announcements weren't automatic and it seems others were too. Maybe it should be more obvious that they are automatic and easier to disable them (in the GUI) for people who want to check manually instead.

You don't need to send the installation ID when checking for announcements. Why would you need that?

Additionally you could still get a list of all usernames on bitcointalk for example and compute the ID hashes by working out what their home directory would be expected to be if they used the same username on bitcointalk and their PC.

You'd be able to check that hash against your "statistics database" and find their installation along with all of the IP's that gave you the statistics.

What you do is arguably worse than simply collecting IP's.

Why don't you just send the OS version etc without the ID on the first time Armory is run? Much better than what you do.

If that is the case, why do you need to collect statistics every 30 minutes? By doing that you also see what times the installation is running which could allow you to match it up against bitcoin transactions made during those times.

And whether you like it or not the IP is transmitted along with the unique installation ID and we can't know whether you are storing the IP's or not. This bypasses any proxy settings set on bitcoind, such as people using Tor.

Here is where USER_HOME_DIR is set:
https://github.com/etotheipi/BitcoinArmory/blob/master/armoryengine/ArmoryUtils.py#L265

On my Windows machine it gets set to this: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming

It seems to send the first 4 characters of the hash, enough information to distinguish between different Armory installations.

Holy hell. Thats pretty serious if you ask me. Has anyone brought this up before?

It seems to be for getting the announcements on new releases. Why do you need the hash of the home directory for that?

The GUI gave me the impression that I had to press "Check for updates" before it would "dial home", apparently I was wrong. Why would you do that every 30 minutes? It shouldn't do that automatically!

I didn't see the comment where they admit its logged. But if it is why in the hell would they do that? that puts them at unnecessary legal risk of receiving subpoenas for this information.

Update:
The Armory developers are releasing an update that will fix everything we were worried about, see here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=731315.msg8299712#msg8299712

The link always redirects to a html page with my browser (firefox), though I do have an addon that blocks tracking/third party cookies.

Well if you have then you know that drugs do not effect everyone the same way... You can't predict how someone is going to react and you can't know if its had a lasting effect on that persons life.


I think he needs to realize that he doesn't need drugs anymore first and stop taking them. I have no doubt in my mind that Dank wants to pay back the loan (was there more than one?). Giving up the drugs is the first key step, it's important that he does that first before anything else or he won't succeed. If he gets a job first without giving up the drugs any money he earns will line the pockets of drug dealers.

I suggest you read about MKUltra. The CIA have a history of producing LSD and conducting LSD experiments. They even tried to use it for MIND CONTROL:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra

You're friends aren't producing the LSD themselves. LSD doesn't work like that.
You know yourself that you can't efficiently produce LSD on a small scale, you need a lab and the smallest lab you can build could produce almost the entire worlds supply.
Have you ever heard of the Pickard lab? it produced 90% of the worlds supply, a single lab that fitted in a pickup truck:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Leonard_Pickard

LSD has clearly had a resurgence in popularity since the Pickard bust, after that bust it essentially vanished. This suggest somebody out there has built another LSD lab which is producing a large percentage of the worlds supply and that person is getting rich off of you and others. It really doesn't matter if they are the CIA they are just as dangerous and without doubt the CIA are helping them.

You've taken lots of LSD and it's clearly changed your opinion on many things, you've clearly experienced amazing life changing trips. When do you decide that you've taken enough? I think that point has past a long time ago. LSD has hurt your relations with your family, it's hurt your finances and probably many other things that you know about that I don't. You've gained any kind of benefit you could've got from LSD, all you will get from it now is negativity.

You need to put some serious thought into this dude. Don't listen to other people here who troll and make fun of you. I understand you and I actually care about you and I can see what happened to you. I care about every human being on this planet and think that everyone out there should do whatever they can to shape the world in the way they see fit and fight back at anything they feel is wrong to make the world a better place for future generations.

Just do one thing for me. Think about what I wrote carefully.

I'm not entirely sure. I suspect BCX posts here under a couple of different accounts.

BCX, if I am right in my suspicions maybe you should do a "full disclosure" of all the accounts and websites that you own. I doubt I'm the only one who suspects this.

This kind of thing happens way too often:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/05/operation-chokepoint-banks-porn-stars
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/18/targeted-gun-sellers-say-high-risk-label-from-feds/?page=all
http://wikileaks.org/Banking-Blockade.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point

It seems that governments simply tell banks not to provide services to customers that they don't like, for whatever reason. The banks don't even have to give you the reason why they are closing your account, and you usually won't be able to go to another bank because they've put you down on a "no banking services" database. An easy way to punish/supress law-abiding people/businesses just because you don't like them.

I can't be 100% sure on this, but I think he did say "goodbye" in a private email to bitcoin developer Gavin Andressen who took his place as lead developer after he left. I can't for the life of me find where I read that, but from what I remember he said he was going to start "working on other things".

Uh... the early users found out from those posts in the cryptography mailing list. Those posts were the first mention of bitcoin ever. One of the repliers to that initial post was Hal Finney (who is also a famous cryptographer) who in turn was the first person to receive a payment via bitcoin, satoshi sent him 10BTC.

Yes, people still use mailing lists even today. That cryptography mailing list is still popular today. They had been discussing ideas for virtual currencies similar to bitcoin on that mailing list since 1998 hence why it was the perfect place to show it off.

The goodbye post? There really wasn't one. This is the closest thing:


Wikileaks started accepting bitcoin and bitcoin started getting media coverage because of it.

Seems like he didn't like all the attention and decided to leave.

Dank, if you want to change the world, you need to start by changing yourself.

Start by changing your ways, give up the drugs - you don't need them anymore. Do it for yourself, not just because others are telling you to do it.

You are a slave to the drugs.

You are a slave to the drug dealers.

You are a slave to the CIA who supplies the drug dealers.

They are the ones who control YOU.

All that money you borrowed, who has all of it? thats right, the drug dealers. You were their slave, their puppet, and now you carry the scammer tag for them.

Who forced you into treatment? your parents? no, think about it carefully: it was ultimately the drug dealers who put you there.

Deep down you know what I am saying is the truth.

You need to stop taking drugs. You don't need treatment or rehab - you know just as well as I that's just a scam. You need to cut ties with everyone who enslaved you, everyone who is anyway involved in drugs. You do not owe them an explanation, never speak to them again. Break your phone, turn off your laptop. Go somewhere quiet alone for a while, make some music and write inspirational words.

Only when you give up the drugs will you truly be free.

I have received your PM and have funded that address 0.005BTC. Additionally I have sent you a PM with the repayment address.

Please post here once the tx confirms as verification.

Thank you.