Bitcoin - a Means for Redistribution of Wealth

Rüdiger Koch
2012-09-27

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/koch20120927

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Amazing things would happen if a large percentage of transhumanists were financially independent. How can this be done?
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There is a way…
We need to redistribute wealth!
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Should 1 Billion people use Bitcoin in the future, the price will have to rise 5 orders of magnitude to compensate. In other words, if you buy a Bitcoin today, you have $12 to lose, should the project fail entirely. But you have $100,000 or more to gain should it succeed.

This already suggests how redistribution of wealth works in favor of early adopters. Early adopters are able to acquire Bitcoins cheaply.
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Cryonicists will find the option of a brain wallet interesting: As a private key is simply a very large (256 bit) number, it can be deterministically created from a pass phrase. This is a string of words that have meaning to you, possibly salted with things like your social security number. Since you can remember the string now, you should be able to remember it after your reanimation. So as long as you keep your memory, you can access your funds even if everything else has been taken from you during your time in the dewar.

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Transhumanists tend to be freethinkers, which means they usually can’t agree on anything. This is both the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of the H+ movement. But if we can agree for once to use Bitcoin and use our personal networks to spread it, there are enough of us to make Bitcoin’s success and hence, rising prices, a self fulfilling prophecy.
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Rüdiger Koch is CTO and founder of the first African Bitcoin exchange, Fikisha Africoin in Lagos/Nigeria. Previously, he worked as an IT Consultant in the banking and IT industry in Germany, Switzerland, Thailand and Singapore.
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Rüdiger serves as head of the Business & Bitcoin department of ZeroState and has previously served as vice chairman of De: Trans.

The IEET's mission is to be a center for voices arguing for a responsible, constructive, ethical approach to the most powerful emerging technologies. We believe that technological progress can be a catalyst for positive human development so long as we ensure that technologies are safe and equitably distributed. We call this a "technoprogressive" orientation.
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Bitcoin exchange Bitfloor attempts comeback after $250,000 heist
Founder hopes to earn enough profits to repay stolen client funds.

Timothy B. Lee
2012-09-27


http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/09/bitcoin-exchange-bitfloor-attempts-comeback-after-250000-heist/

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Bitfloor, a fast-growing Bitcoin exchange that was felled by a security breach earlier this month, has resumed operations. Founder Roman Shtylman announced the site's revival on Google Plus.

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Disclosure: The author owns some Bitcoins.

Bitcoin Savings and Trust Facing SEC Investigation Over 'Ponzi Scheme'

Alistair Charlton
2012-09-27


http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/388782/20120927/bitcoin-savings-trust-sec-investigation-pirate-ponzi.htm

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Founded in 2008, and with honourable intentions from its creators and many users, the BitCoin currency is almost immune to money-laundering and hard to track, making it ideal for users looking to make illegal purchases online.
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Bitcoin Savings and Trust has now caught the SEC's attention, according to Willard Foxton at the Telegraph, who claims to have seen an email sent by SEC investigator Philip Moustakis to many of those who invested in Pirate's scheme
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...the SEC investigation will no doubt lower the value of Bitcoins and possibly scare investors away from the currency altogether.

Gavin Andresen Launches Non-Profit Bitcoin Foundation to ‘Standardize, Protect and Promote’ Bitcoin
Can it legitimize the currency in the eyes of the mainstream?

Jessica Roy
2012-09-27


http://betabeat.com/2012/09/gavin-andresen-launches-non-profit-bitcoin-foundation-to-standardize-protect-and-promote-bitcoin/

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The Bitcoin Foundation has stacked its board with well-known, high-profile people active in the Bitcoin community so that users feel safe donating. Still, as Mr. Perry points out, “according to the dissenting voices, it’s representative only of the ‘big business’ side of Bitcoin, not the actual users.” Indeed, some users have expressed dissent on the boards, but for the most part they seem supportive of a unified effort to legitimize Bitcoin.
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host: So British cybercop Mick Jamieson specializes in internet fraud, and he cites *numerous* examples of dodgy people using Bitcoins to hide their dodgy activities

M Jamieson: It's filed under an account number and the account number is obviously then referenced to your registration details.
Of course registering for a bank, you would be... Mr Jamieson.. you would give your address.. something like that.
*This*; you give your email address and you give them your IP address.. and any other details they wish you to volunteer.. whether they be true or false.. but of course, they don't require the person to go in with a passport or a driving license or proof of identification or financial history.

host: So basically, you're saying criminals are all using it.

M Jamieson: I think when it comes to the really high level drug traffickers - they trust cash. But yes, any transfer or any transaction which takes place in an environment where people are using details to keep them anonymous, makes it harder for law enforcement.  It's obvious.

host: But are digital currencies really such a bad thing? ...

host: There's about 10 Billion dollars of Bitcoin in circulation at the moment

host: Theoretically, I suppose, the dreamers have.. have imagined we could one day develop currencies that somehow bypass central banks in the same way that the the internet itself seems to revolutionize commerce. That that an online currency could could bypass the men, the men in grey suits who've controlled everything up til now.

crap, just realized i'm a bit too late on this. :/

Download, print, fire: gun rights initiative harnesses 3D technology
Project aims to let anyone print a gun in their own home, raising new concerns about the legality of homemade firearms

Alexander Hotz
2012-09-26

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/26/3d-printing-guns-legal-issues-us-law?newsfeed=true


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Indiegogo asserted that the group violated company policy, claiming that the project is related to the sale of firearms. But, as Wilson is quick to point out, Wiki Weapon isn't a for-profit venture and doesn't intend to ever sell tangible firearms. The group's aim is simply to publish a schematic, which would be available online for anyone free of charge.

Despite this hiccup, Defense Distributed still managed to raise the money it needed from donors by using the direct deposit platform Bitcoin.
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Second Bitcoin Hack Highlights Challenges, Resilience of Anarchic E-Currency
Hack occurred due to exchange operator leaving his keys unencrypted

Jason Mick
2012-09-25

http://www.dailytech.com/Second+Bitcoin+Hack+Highlights+Challenges+Resilience+of+Anarchic+ECurrency/article27776.htm

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London-based BitFloor founder Roman Shtylman reported the theft to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (despite their anarchic nature, Bitcoins can be considered personal property and are arguably "illegal" to seize via hacking).  He's also reopened the exchange, though his volume is down substantially placing his site as the thirteenth largest exchange globally.
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For now, though, some more folks have lost their hard earned cash to the world of Bitcoin.  The lesson is that as grim as today's corruption prone offline economy is, digital anarchy isn't entirely danger free either. 
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Vermont State Senate Candidate Accepts Bitcoin Contributions

2012-09-24

http://vermontelection.org/2012/09/24/bitcoin/

Jeremy Hansen of Berlin, Vermont, a professor of computer science and independent candidate for Vermont’s State Senate representing Washington County announced today that he would accept campaign contributions in the form of Bitcoin, a digital currency.
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BitCoins: Money in the 21st century is digital

2012-09-25

http://www.iefimerida.gr/news/69288/%CE%B2itcoins-%CF%84%CE%BF-%CF%87%CF%81%CE%AE%CE%BC%CE%B1-%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%85-21%CE%BF%CF%85-%CE%B1%CE%B9%CF%8E%CE%BD%CE%B1-%CE%B5%CE%AF%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%B9-%CF%88%CE%B7%CF%86%CE%B9%CE%B1%CE%BA%CF%8C


A new kind of "currency" circulating on the internet and facilitate transactions of users worldwide, it ensures complete anonymity and unaffected by banks, moneylenders and currency rates. But what is really bitcoin and where it all started?
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The emergence of digital money is making a utopia dreamed of many people and now at the peak of the global financial crisis more and more embracing digital financial system, which for many makes bitcoin the "money" of the 21st century

After hack, Bitcoin exchange comes back online
BitFloor's founder said he intends to pay back victims, but it will take time


Jeremy Kirk (IDG News Service)
2012-09-25

http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/article/437395/after_hack_bitcoin_exchange_comes_back_online/
http://www.cso.com.au/article/437395/after_hack_bitcoin_exchange_comes_back_online/
http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/437395/after_hack_bitcoin_exchange_comes_back_online/?fp=4&fpid=1382389953
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/437395/after_hack_bitcoin_exchange_comes_back_online/
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/437395/after_hack_bitcoin_exchange_comes_back_online/?fp=4&fpid=1398720840


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Roman Shtylman, founder of BitFloor, said by phone from London on Monday he reported the theft to the FBI and that he intends to pay back victims whose Bitcoins were stolen.
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Bitcoins: sex, drugs and contract killers

Michael Leitner
2012-09-25

http://futurezone.at/digitallife/11181-bitcoins-sex-drogen-und-auftragsmoerder.php

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The alternative currency Bitcoin has been praised by many experts to be a fair and transparent alternative to the current monetary system. But now more and more pitfalls are being revealed that could prevent the currency and its concept from being a far-reaching success.

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Within a few months the value of a Bitcoin at the largest Bitcoin exchange Mt Gox,  shot from one to almost 30 U.S. dollars. The rally, however, on the 16th of June came to an abrupt end. A hacker was able to steal nearly 500,000 Bitcoins and threw more than 100,000 of them on the market. This broke the price massively, at times it was even at 0.01 USD per Bitcoin.
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Sex, drugs and weapons - the currency of the darknet
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According to Kay Hamacher, an IT Expert from the Technical University of Darmstadt, the Bitcoin model is in any case, doomed.
The problem: Because Bitcoins are limited to 21 million units, and these, like real money, can be lost, it will eventually result in a bottleneck. "You can talk about the probabilities, but finally Bitcoin will disappear one day."
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Royal Canadian Mint Reveals Winners of MintChip Challenge

Knowlton Thomas
2012-09-24

http://www.techvibes.com/blog/royal-canadian-mint-reveals-winners-of-mintchip-challenge-2012-09-24

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The digital payments space has been booming recently. Canadian-born companies like PayFirma and NetSecure are already active in the mobile payments industry, not to mention American counterparts such as Square, as well as some failed ideas such as the Bitcoin.

Better security for the internet currency Bitcoin

Felix Würsten
2012-09-24


Paper 'Two Bitcoins at the Price of One? Double-Spending Attacks on
Fast Payments in Bitcoin'

Elli Androulaki
Ghassan O. Karame
Srdjan Capkun
http://people.scs.carleton.ca/~clark/biblio/bitcoin/Karame%202012.pdf


The internet currency Bitcoin was created in 2009. It should offer the same advantages as cash. The new electronic currency has an increasing number of supporters. But ETH-researchers found out, that there is a securitiy problem. They also have a suggestion, how this problem could be solved.
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Together with Ghassan Karame and Srdjan Capkun, Elli Androulaki, a postdoc at the Institute of Information Security, managed to demon­strate that there is actually a security loophole here, even if it has never been exploited in concrete daily life. With an elaborate configuration, the buyer can actually spend his electronic coins twice: first, he buys the goods he desires; then he transfers the same amount to his own account.

Our experiments in Section 4.4 show that the average
time for a peer to receive both TRA and TRV is approximately 3.354 seconds

there is a red and striking " buy it now" button at http://avalon-asic.com/ home page...