...

Very nice, CoinCube!

Perry Marshall might not be thinking big enough though:

1)  Re the atheists he wrote:

If you visit the world’s largest atheist website, Infidels, on the home page you will find the following statement:

“Naturalism is the hypothesis that the natural world is a closed system, which means that nothing that is not part of the natural world affects it.”

If you know Gödel’s theorem, you know that all logical systems must rely on something outside the system. So according to Gödel’s Incompleteness theorem, the Infidels cannot be correct. If the universe is logical, it has an outside cause.

I did note that he wrote "If the universe is logical..."  That might not be a good assumption.  It would also be hard to prove...


2)  I remember in college some of our friends would on occasion discuss "cosmic things".  One of my friends was a very smart electrical engineering student.  He had his own little theory (not fleshed out, but you'll get the idea):

That the universe when (if it) contracts and re-emerges changes various physical constants (Planck's Constant, the speed of light, gravitational force, etc.) might change too.  This would have all kinds of interesting knock-on affects (like life!).  My friend's notion, of course, cannot be proved.

But, can we really prove that the above three examples never change?  Better yet: Can we prove it?

...

I had an idea re using "steganography" (an encryption technique that uses pictures (changed pixels) to hide information there in an image) along with Bitcoin to make the whole BTC process more private.

One example might be to put a Public Key and a Private Key encoded there in the image (say a picture of the Grand Canyon), then send it on to the lucky recipient who could then retrieve the BTC within.

I throw this idea out to the community gratis as it is not even "half-baked", and I am completely unable to advance this idea on my own.  I get some of my most interesting ideas in the shower, where this one was born.

I'd be interested in the general topic of using steganography to hide information as well.

...

I have been interested in finding ways to make the whole Bitcoin Ecosystem™ more private.  Today in the shower (where most of my creative ideas occur to me), I had an idea: (somehow) using steganograpy to hide ways of moving Bitcoin around.  Steganography is the encryption technique of hiding information in a picture, say, transmitting it to the recipient who would then decrypt it.

My idea is not even half-baked.  Nor am I able to capitalize at all on this, so I just toss this out to the community here for discussion.  If this idea has any merit, feel free to run with it at no cost.

A possible example might be to send a Public Key and Private Key tucked away there in a picture of the Grand Canyon.  Email the photo to someone who then can get the BTC.

...

My biggest regret is one of those you can only get with 20-20 hindsight.

I bought gold with BTC when BTC was at some $450, then some $550 and again at around $700.  It had seemed to me that BTC had had it's run (or at least had gone up and seemed vulnerable to a big downdraft).


Lesson learned: I will buy gold in the future with CA$H and leave my BTC in storage.

At least I still have a decent amount of BTC to enjoy the price rally.

...

1)  I read (elsewhere, not here at BTCtalk) that were there to be a hard fork that what would happen to us users is that each would get the same amount of BTC in each branch of the fork.  So, if the main blockchain had a fork, we would all get our BTC on whichever chain "won" and yet still have "BTC" of lesser value on the losing branch.  Meaning, I suppose, that we apparently don't lose out...

Is this (more-or-less) true?

2)  I have noted various discussions of Hard Fork vs. Soft Fork.  What would be the practical difference to just the casual users (like me)?

* * *

While I am in the mood to ask questions, I also read (elsewhere) that "the core developers" are now more concerned about their own status, pet ideas, etc. than the "general good of the Bitcoin Community".  Comments?

Finally, what is the current status of the general upgrades to Bitcoin (larger blocks, higher capacity, etc.)?


I do understand that many of these topics are addressed elsewhere, but a new thread on these issues might be of interest to our community.  And thank you for helping me and others increase our understanding of Bitcoin.

...

r0ach

LOL the big honkin' noses.  But, have you spent time in France & Italy?  There are PLENTY of non-Jewish people there with (Rev. Wright's long Roman) noses.

The main problem I have with "The Jews are responsible for..." is that they are but 1% - 2% (figure approximate) of Western people.  How do some 1% - 2% have the wherewithal to so dominate the 98%+

Sure, Jews are more clannish than most white goyim.  They are apparently a little bit smarter as well (I read somewhere they have an average IQ of around 115 of).  But, they are family-oriented, believe in studying hard in school (I've seen that) and in traditional values.  Belief in traditional values seems to correlate with success...

I have seen no credible evidence of ANY of the wilder conspiracy theories out there, none as well that "The Jews control it all".

...

Things may be beginning to change there in INDIA!   

"Bitcoin India" just won a block (446511), it may be their first one:

https://blockchain.info/block/00000000000000000010900e720a97c1ae15033dd84f9653abb148efaaba6f26

Readers of this thread may want to keep an eye on Bitcoin India.

(blue emphasis mine)

That's right!  Take your time!  A smart man once told me, "The twenties are for YOU to live, the thirties are for getting married."  I don't know how true that is, but as a general rule there should be no rush to get married.

I got married at 29, still am at 60.   

...

Interesting ideas here deisik!

Since BTC passed $950, I have not bought either, have been tempted to buy gold, but I managed to shake that off.  Been hodling.  I *might* buy some more this week, but it would be a small purchase.

I have a hunch that Bitcoin will not be around for too many years (say 20 or so).  Something else will come along IMO.  Then I suppose BTC would die a Big Rip...

...

I've been watching fiatleak.com and the HUGE movements in BTC traded at the exchanges.  So far, some 95,000 BTC have traded in 45 minutes (as of about 10:33 PM US ET).

About 93,000 was CHINA.  I noticed a trx go by of a cool BTC1000, the most I have ever seen go by "live".  That's $1,000,000...

US total was about 1200. All others were more than an order of magnitude lower.

Yeah, I know that fiatleak has its "issues" (double counting in many cases, etc.), but it's fun to watch.

...

There appears to be more to the Ten Commandments than just the superficial meaning of the words (which are clear enough and a great set of rules, sufficient...).  The Bible was written in symbolic language, meant to be understood down through the ages.  The below book by Emmet Fox (who wrote the bestseller The Sermon on the Mount, itself a fantastic book highly recommended):

Emmet Fox
The Ten Commandments

There is more, much more, to the Commandments that is there for those willing to look.

...

From Zero Hedge (in 2013) when BTC started its big move up.    

Last night my son-in-law asked me how to set up a BTC wallet, today a friend did.  <--- Peak BTC price for a while?

It's interesting that new people come in after a big price run up.  That's what happened to me in 2013 (my first BTC purchase was around $700 IIRC).

...

I have a blockchain.info wallet on my iPhone, but I cannot get my remaining BTC out, it gives me a an error message "high p-value" (even when I try to send out tiny amounts, sending tiny amounts worked for a while, but not now).  Which of course is bad as I cannot get out my +/- BTC0.05 that is stranded there.

My wife just gave me an iPad for Xmas (it uses iPhone's OS).

Can anyone recommend a dependable & easy-to-use app for Apple mobile?

Thank you!

I'm not sure re manipulation (etc.) as what GATA (etc.) have long maintained.  My *guess* is that gold is *somewhat* manipulated, but that is just a guess.  And I have been a buyer of gold for decades...

Even if there has been manipulation to the downside, that has been OK with me, allowing me to build my stack to about where I want it.  If additional income does come my way, OK, I may buy a little more, but feel under no pressure to do so, I have "arrived".

If the COMEX breaks (or similar), and gold is revalued WAY UP, that's more than OK too -- as long as society stays intact.  And my *guess* is that there will indeed be a BIG RESET up in gold price in due course.

...

My main intention for 2017 will be to gradually buy more BTC on a rough dollar-cost-averaging basis.  If BTC price continues to go up sharply, I will likely spend some BTC on gold.  But, I jumped the gun on that (bought gold when BTC was ~$500), so I will take my time on spending anymore BTC for gold.

*  *  *

I really like some of franky1's list, especially making hardware wallets better.

...

deisik wrote:

I still don't see many vendors and merchants accepting Bitcoin.

And that is a key observation.  Many of us forget that it is not just we who buy & use Bitcoin who will ultimately determine how successful BTC will be.  Yes, growing the number of people (like us) who buy & use BTC is important, but if merchants will not start taking BTC en masse, then it will ultimately fail IMO.

*  *  *

Halving should help BTC price move up (on the average through time).  Certainly The Halving likely contributed some to BTC's nice trajectory up in 2016.

...

When I started this thread, I had noted my own experience in India as a tourist, talking with some people there and our guide.  We were there, of course, well before Modi's decision to ban their two "large" denomination" bank notes (500 and 1000 rupees).

I am interested to watch India's evolution in their thinking and adoption of Bitcoin.  Yes, they have BOTH a huge population ignorant of Bitcoin (in the villages and rural areas) as well as their interesting High Tech sector.

Perhaps the same dynamics of Bitcoin acceptance in India might track the rest of the world's: that Bitcoin will grow only if there are more people who buy & use it AND merchant acceptance of BTC as payment.  The latter (those who will accept BTC as payment) may be the more critical factor.


More comments from resident users of BTC from India are extremely welcome!

...

Jim Rickards is a smart man who has written a few books in recent years re gold and what The Elite may be up to.  He suggests that anyone with savings devote up to 10% to owning physical gold.

Re "the right time" to buy gold, my view is that almost NO ONE can predict the future with any accuracy, so anytime is a good time to buy some gold.  Buy some gold.  There is no need (in fact unwise) to be at or go All Inn (buying or holding only gold), one can purchase gold in small amounts through time.

Gold and Bitcoin are two smart and diverse ways to hold some wealth.

...

Thank you, Hazir.  My blockchain.info is an older pre-HD one, I was able to import my (Opendime) private key.  

But, I now have another blockchain.info wallet that is HD.  I have not tried to import a private key yet, but I read elsewhere here that the HD wallets do not allow importing a PK.

Meaning, I suppose, that my "old wallet" is worth more (to me).

...

I wrote an article for our local paper (town/suburb in the USA of about 9000 people).  Only a few people that I know even noticed.  The Editor of the paper had a hard time even trying to just understand what I wrote, I kept it very simple.

There is no retail business in town that I know of here that accepts BTC, and apparently very few who dabble in BTC as I presume some reader who did would have contacted me.