I was thinking of using social media sites and general chat systems to bootstrap a F2F darknet.

One of the problems with Tor or I2P (and bitcoin) is that they must contact a central source in order to be able to connect to the network(they need to get the IP of another network node). Once connected a list of other network nodes can be given.

It is often these centralised components that are targeted and blocked first, the next targets are the entry nodes to the network(as is the case with Tor bridge nodes in China and Iran).

So my I have 2 ideas

1) Piggyback the social media sites in these countries to bootstrap.
Use services like QQ or RenRen(Chinese Facebook) to post node information such as ip address, allowing you to connect to that node. Once you have your connection you can run whatever encrypted services you like between nodes. It also means that it will instantly become a F2F network. Allowing users to converse in total privacy, and removing one method the government use spy on their citizens.

One problem with this that I see is how to post such information without the government being able to filter such messages and then kick the users off? It is assumed that they use baysian filtering so how could we get around this?

2)A distributed forum-Grapevine
Forums are popular in China, and often can be a source of activism, which is why they are so heavily moderated and censored by the government. I am thinking of a distributed forum.
Combining ideas from Usenet, bitcoin(hashing, Proof of work),git and some other technologies. Everytime you connect to a node you download the latest posts to the forum, anyone that connects to you will download the latest you have. Any post you make is automatically forwarded to other nodes you're connected to.

Each post will require a certain amount of hashing, a POW to prevent spammers from overloading the system. New user id's will also require a POW to prevent new id's from being created en-mass by spammers. Users will also be able to hide posts by users they don't like, that is posts from those users are not downloaded from their peer nodes.

The whole system could update in the same manner, so there is no central update site. Downloading the latest changes from their peers, signed by the developer.

Of course all communication between peers would be encrypted, and the system itself could be stored in an encrypted directory.

Combine this distributed forum with the piggyback system and you have a distributed, encrypted, censor-proof, social media system.

This could also be used for Facebook or twitter.

Comments?Ideas? Holes in my logic or problems with the idea?
Feedback on this would be most welcome, I don't want to waste my time on something unworkable.

In terms of money entering and leaving an economy its only a major thing if everyone tries to spend all their savings at the same time, that is use their savings to consume. This would result in a price spike. The same would be said if everyone stopped spending at the same time, prices drop very quickly.

Purse?

I read that article, its mostly on the money except for a few points, I will have a follow on to what you wrote in the next few days.

Posting here just to make it easier for me to find.

I'm with Kiba on this, if a business needs money to get started or do something it's capital, and that capital should buy a portion of the business (shares?).

The only way you could "safely" lend bitcoin is with roughly equivalent value of collateral. Of course in the bitcoin world people cant use their cars or home so some other asset must be used.

The kind of assets would be digital, things like domain names, shares of a bitcoin company on the soon to be bitcoin stock market are what come to my mind (any others?).

The ownership of these would be transfered to a third party organisation, a kind of asset escrow. if the loan defaults then the borrower loses their collateral.

With this method, you reeally could have pseudo-anonymous lending/borrowing, although there are other risks to be considered.

As are all forms of money, government "backed" or not.

I wasn't expecting it. Personal black swan 

It's th new slashdot article http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/03/23/0210207/Google-Engineer-Releases-Open-Source-Bitcoin-Client

Yes I was talking about the black swan theory.

Essentially, I had my plan for speculating, and providing no big events came along then it would work, but this slashdot article has become something of a blackswan event for me, causing the market to rally, and for my sell order to be fullfilled before I could react, and now have to wait for btc to fall if ever to break even.

Oh, well then I stand corrected.

I think he meant essays in English.

I have a few bitcoins on mtgox, and for the last few weeks have been playing it to reasonable success, in total I had made a profit of some 5 bitcoins until today.

I had expected the drop in btc price to continue until something had changed the market, a new service with bitocoin or some bit piece of news.

Last night I set a sell at a little over $0.80, and a buy at $0.76. On arriving today I see that I did indeed have that sell order filled, only to find the price has jumped through $0.84

Why oh why???

And then I see it, my Black Swan, the slashdot article.

But I ask "wait a second, slashdotters can't have gotten funds into mtgox that quick" and realised that it was those evil speculators who are responsible for this rise 

Anyway, I'm holding on to my cash until the price drops down to at least $0.80, no sir I'm no solidifying my losses.

In the short term, unless there is a huge influx of new users(buyers) into bitcion or the market has something that seriously changes things then I expect the price to continue to fall.

Want to prove me wrong? Offer some more goods or services for bitcoin to grow the economy!

By the way, when are you at that conference?

Actually the interest by Chinese at the moment is because I am making it a requirement to pass my course, they are my students.What will be interesting is how many continue tro stay interested after they complete the term.

My comment is meant if you are looking for a supplier, not to ward off potential investors.

From what I know you can get pairs of spectacles in China for about 5-10 usd, Of course I have no idea on custom specs.

Congradulations, you have your simple interface, real nice.

You might import some of the older articles from the previus site over, that will fill things out a bit.

I must say you've really kept up with this.

Isnt that the problem with tests in general? that students can study specifically to pass them?

And besides, Chinese students are such cheaters, even when they're not being graded they cheat. So it's hard to cheat with bitcoins.

I suppose you could make me a temporary mod, and I'll go through market getting all the posts and putting them into Chinese market. In the future though, when the students come back(1-2 weeks) they should be much less....spammy.

Doesnt need one yet, I think a "Chinese market"subforum would be good.