...

When you get time, TPTB (I know, LOL...), let me know and I will send you my new Public Key (GnuPG) if emailing me via PGP encryption is of interest to you.

Same for you trollercoaster.  Anyone else, PM me, and we'll see.  Maybe I'll invite CoinCube to join in as well, maybe AFTER I get better at using this...

I have a new website that I  am working on, my first one.  Right now there is nothing at the Home Page, in the next week or two or three I will start adding material for public enjoyment (a GnuPG tutorial (!), gold information (coin sizes, etc.), Peru photos, some basic Bitcoin info, etc.).

I will also (likely) have a "club" for those interested in "alternative investment", privacy ("for Dummies"), Bitcoin, and related topics.  NO, I will not ask for money, smile,,,

And, I will fairly soon set up a mySQL database with our company sales info (private of course).  Maybe other databases too should I go off in THAT direction...

So, there is nothing there now, that will slowly change.

Once I have an acceptable Home Page, I will announce my website.

...

Dabs has a message, or will soon.  Thank you, Dabs, it looks like your suggestion worked great re GPG.

Pretty soon I hope to master this version of PGP (GPG is from Germany, see my post just above for Dabs's link for Windows computers).

You can find my email at my Profile here at bitcointalk.  If interested in email encryption, PM me or send me an email.

Thanks to everyone who has responded!

FAZ?!  Danger, Will Robinson!  I lost a fair amount of money in that, even though (later) in time I was right.  Those leveraged ETFs, as you hint at, are terrible ideas if you expect something to move sharply, but you don't know when...

The trouble with holding the "FAZs" for just a day or so, is that you are day trading.  Which I already know I would be terrible at.

Also, I wonder if in the event of a BIGGER crash than 2008 whether or not the FAZs and other derivatives would pay off...  They might just take your money and run...  

Corzined!  

...

Two things I will be watching for:

1)  More merchants accepting BTC.  That is the key indicator (IMO) of how successful Bitcoin will become.

2)  Price...  We now have a "Starting 2016 price": $434.  So we're off to the races to see what happens...

Maybe we hit critical mass this year!

Well, if Hillary wins, then who knows WHEN "peak government" would hit. 

Until I have a better handle on Armstrong's predictions (and I have been just too lazy to dig in), I will just follow him rather than make any investments decisions based on his writings...

But, I think that caution and prudence is proper with our national debt(s) so high.  2016 might be a year to be cautious.*



* Having written that, watch the S&P 500 go up 25%...

Thank you, Dabs.  My evening's work (um, after the New Year's celebrations) yielded only a GPG/email working withing my new website's boundaries only.

I run windows, so I will try that http://gpg4win.org/download.html for windows.

Then:

Saturn643's comment: The simplest way to encrypt emails with GPG/PGP is to just write the email in another text editor, encrypt that text using whatever GPG software you are using, and then copy and paste the encrypted text into the email as the message.

So, I will do some homework and be back...

Well, whoa, ho!  Here is someone who is likely to have a Happy New Year!  Nice purchase, perhaps a collector's item if Bitcoin grows as most of us hope.

Gold and Bitcoin, a great combination.  Especially in ONE place.

...

saturn643 wrote:

If you are on linux you should be able to just install GPG through the package manager. The site I linked has the docs and man pages so you can use the command line. If you are on windows I recommend you actually use GPG4USB. It can be portable and it works well and is simple to use.

Looks fairly simple I suppose, I will check up on it soon (emphasis mine, on Windows).  Thanks!

*   *   *

VPNs may be a tad complicated, Denker, but thank you too, I will look into that as well.

...

There's no doubt that Venezuela is in deep...  As mentioned above, if there is now way to get good work (for good money, enough bolivares to either get dollars or WAY enough to get rationed food), then most ARE stuck there with no good way to make their lives better.

Two thoughts though:

1)  Yes, Venezuela has a very high crime rate, but if you are young & speak Spanish (and tough & wary), you may be able to enjoy a vacation there for cheap.  Venezuela has good steak (or did when I was there over 15 years ago).  The women are pretty, and may be more friendly to "gringos" now, they kind of disdained Americans when I was there (too many chasing them?).

2)  Any Venezuelans here at bitcointalk can earn pretty good BTC with a Signature Campaign!  Even the less than or equal of BTC0.035 per week by bitmixer means MORE to a Venezuelan than to an American...  OK, it may be hard to "cash in" BTC there, but many in Venezuela know someone in Miami.......

...

Thank you, Saturn643, I have looked at the site for GPG's version, at that site it is not really clear for me what to do.  But, that's just me.

I will keep digging around to learn more about BTC beyond the basics I guess I already have.

*   *   *

There may be another way for me.  With the help of my son-in-law, I just bought an opened my own ".com" (actually a ".io").  There is nothing there yet, as I work to acquire the skills to put some content into it.  One of my social media contacts has filled me in with a link to be able to hook it into BITCOIN.  Details later if interested.

Also, my new website (web host) will allow not only email, but apparently ENCRYPTED email, by that same group offering GPG, and it may be dirt-simple for me to encrypt emails once I learn how.  That would be great, I would acquire one of the skills I seek pretty quickly if so.

I'll post up my website when there is something there.  This is all brand new for me, and I do realize that opening, creating and running a website means little for most of the highly competent computer people here, but it is a nice step for me.  A step into the "Knowledge Age"...

*   *   *

I also would like to thank commentators (at this thread and another) for comments about the the Darknet.  It looks like a huge part of it involves really sleazy stuff like scammers, spammers, child porn, drug sales and many other dirty activity while offering little in the way of skills acquisition or legitimate business, etc.

Maybe I will learn TOR just for my own "personal privacy jiujitsu", but unless I become convinced otherwise it looks like the Darknet ain't for me.

I enjoy working with the bitcointalk community, thank you all.  And, Happy New Year to the lot of you!

Yes, it's always the same solution with governments: as they go broke they raise taxes.

They don't consider (or else reject) cutting spending.  Living within one's means works best, whether at the family level or for nations as a whole.

But politicians only think short-term, the next (re-)election.  "Let the next guy clean up the mess."  THIS is why we must look after ourselves, why we must plan for government to not be there, or more likely, be there to take away our assets.  So, they don't cut spending, and they can get away with it.

Well, yes, I understand that the Darknet is dark for many reasons.  But, not all of it is illegal stuff (?).

Still, I would hope that SOME discussion might be open enough to encourage others interested to learn about it, and jump in if they would like.  I am very curious about it, but have no wish to buy illegal things, scam people, etc.  I do know there is a lot of bad shit there, but if it is SO BIG, there is likely lots of interesting stuff that is of little harm as well.*

* But I would not KNOW that.

franky1

That's an interesting little suggestion, thanks.  Alas, few of my friends and email correspondents are into BTC, I just kind of got here on my own.  I guess I could give everyone a blockchain.info wallet (or tell them I will give them $5 in BTC if they start one) to implement your idea.

I am also interested in PGP for securing email correspondence, something I was able to do all those years ago, but have not yet found a easy and free way to do that now.  


[Sidebar: 15 - 18 years ago I was able to use all of this cool software like OLAP, SPSS and PGP for free or cheap, it was all EASY!  Now I have not been able to find any of those three for cheap & easy...  Software availability is going BACKWARDS in many cases, grr...]

OK, I will go for that: We are sons of Satoshi!

I agree with most above that it does not really matter who Satoshi really is, although were he to be able to safely reveal himself (themselves) that would be of great interest to our community.  He/they would likely have interesting things to say, having stayed hidden so long (hence, able to watch and think about BTC's evolution and prospects).

But, as has been mentioned above, WE are the ones moving BTC forward.  Buying BTC, spending BTC, hodling BTC, and (especially) those bright people DEVELOPING BTC and new applications.  The next steps in BTC's evolution is in our hands.

We are the sons of Satoshi.  Kind of awesome if you think about it...

Hoarding has acquired a bad rap over the decades (centuries). 

But, I see nothing wrong with hoarding of one's assets if there are no better choices out there!  It's part of freedom, and essential to those who value saving "just in case" (of a rainy day).  Savers should be rewarded IMO!

I buy and HODL gold and BTC.  I do spend some BTC as I use it for gold (my only purchases w/ BTC), but the rest I keep.  For several reasons (easy to transport, another class of asset, etc.).

...

This whole topic of these guys "Human Resources" is fascinating, and not just the Signature Campaign.  I will be watching as an interested outside observer (I do not know enough about TOR, secrecy and related subjects well enough to take a crack at getting "work" there).

If anyone gets such work there such that you can openly discuss it, I am sure we all would be interested to hear a little bit about it.

I read recently that the Darknet is MUCH bigger than the Internet accessible with Google searches, etc.  Despite all that interesting stuff there, it looks difficult to approach as a non-tekkie like me.

I still have not made up my mind about Armstrong and his prediction record (though I have not investigated his track record thoroughly).  He may very well be onto something (with his huge databases and time series).  His ideas are interesting.  And some swear by him ("our" TPTB for example).

But, his predictions, at least at his blog, are confusing to me.  Not clear at all.

I mostly am interested in his IDEAS which I see discussed in few (or in some cases no) other places.

...

Thank you all for your suggestions.  

I will wait on possibly some more, and then see what is out there vs. how much time it would take.  It looks like BTC may very well take off (price and usage), if so, it will likely be time well spent picking one or more topics to learn more about.

Is there an easy to use (and, hopefully, free) site offering PGP?  15 - 18 years ago I used Phil Zimmerman's PGP site (but I had no friends interested -- few of my friends know much about computers or have my interests), it was easy to use, but apparently he now charges for it.

*   *   *

(And I will be watching the whole Human Resources thing that just popped up here, WHY would they be seeking so much help.....?)

...

My take is that the problem for most BTC users is that Bitcoin is pretty anonymous assuming the below re most users:

1)  You take some care to hide your tracks (mixing coins, using wallets only once for receiving (and then sending))

2)  You are not a BIG FISH (using large amounts of BTC)

3)  You stay away from illegal activity like Darknet drug purchases, etc.  Maybe DON'T become an loud activist either...

Governments have plenty of other things to worry about (and "Tax Donkeys" to go after) to worry about most of us.

...

I have made no secret here that I am not a pro at anything re BTC.  I had to learn most of what I know (and think I know) myself, although I did get some help along the way from people by email (also PeterR here at bitcointalk).

I may have more time in 2016 to learn some technology, but all of this is hard for me.  I did very poorly in my computer programming in college decades ago.  My only real quantitative skills are SQL and statistics.  

So, I am curious to learn what some of you think would be good skills to start learning (basic level!).  Here is a short list of possibilities that I am looking at:

• Encryption and computer encryption, this would probably include learning about hashing functions (and YES, I already understand that encryption is very math-heavy and difficult for other reasons).  PGP would be a good example of something of interest, maybe an approachable elliptical curve program (if such exists).
• TOR and related technologies, I certainly feel concerned about .gov snooping as much as the next guy...
• Is there such a thing as Bitcoin courses?  I would like to learn more about how BTC works.
• I am always curious to learn more about BTC mixing.

Are there good books on some or all of the above?

Any suggestions, or additions, are appreciated, as well as comments re suitability for those 95% of us who are not technologically adept.  

Thanks, and Happy New Year to all here!