Android was OS

RND function weakened.

but a good crypto collects randomness from many places so it only effected code that relied too much on rnd function.

I am wondering about the same - it happened couple of time in the last days. Perhaps Chinese coins being dumped?

1W MACD bout to cross

First, let me say that I was just reacting to that "pure incorruptible mathematics" bullshit by the reporter.  I am not arguing that the lack of mathematical proof iis a flaw of bitcoin.  My skepticism does not come from that "flaw" (or from any other strictly technical issue), but from political/social/practical problems, for which my probabilities are obviously different from those of most people in this thread.

As for the P != NP conjecture, I do not need to tell you that it makes sense only if the problem instance size n is allowed to go to infinity, since the difference between polynomial and superpolynomial appears only in the limit, when n is "just about to get there".  The two classes are indistinguishable if one assums that n is bounded, say n < 10^500.  But the bitcoin mining problem and the signature forging problem have a fixed n, threfore only a finite number of instances; in that case, complexity theory says that both problems are trivial and can be solved in constant time (e.g. by a simple table lookup).  Obviously this theoretical conclusion is irrelevant to the practical question. 

The sad fact is that theoretical computer science does not have any tools yet that can provide useful lower bounds for problems of fixed size.   Even assuming P != NP, there is no way to prove that the current protocol, with specific key and hash sizes, is safe.  It may even be the case that forging a bitcoin transaction signature is easier than checking it, or that finding the right nonce for a block is easier than computing SHA256 twice -- independently of whether P = NP or not.  We simply do not know.

If someday one were to find fast solutions for  those puzzles, then complexity theory indeed says that there must exist safe replacements for them -- assuming P != NP, of course.  But the theory cannot identify those replacements, not even tell how many bits one needs to use in keys and hashes to ensure that inverting those functions is hard enough.  Conversely, even if P = NP, the current protocol may be safe, or there may exist safe alternatives for those two puzzles.  (As you surely know, "polynomial" does not mean "computable in practice", and "superpolynomial" does not mean "impossible to compute in practice".)

The difficulty of those two puzzles, for the currently chosen key and hash sizes, has been verified only experimentally, by tests that have ruled out some weaknesses that people have thought of checking.   (For a trivial example, someone surely must have checked that the leading bits of the block hash are not linear functions of the nonce bits, not even approximately.)   However, a thorough check would require testing all possible algorithms (or boolean circuits) up to some large size, for all possible inputs -- which is totally outside the realm of practicality.

With no known shortcuts, exhaustive enumeration is pretty much the best way we now have to solve those puzzles.  That is all one can say about the issue.

no Fundz - 0.00150771 already gone

damn, 1 second late

pre-paid drinks are super cool idea now powered by bitcoin

But some of us are afraid of getting out & never getting the chance to get back in

Look out for free beers on the Wall Observer Thread


I will be sending out free beers like this at random times (11am - 11pm EST)

read this thread with a device ready to scan and spend a private key fast and you'll undoubtedly get really dunk of all those bits!

PM me if you would like to contribute the free beer fund, all funds collected will be past out as free beers.


1. log in to your blockchain.info account  (there is a  page to import private keys )
2. in a new tab goto: http://zxing.org/w/decode.jspx
3. when a beer shows up, copy the image url and decode
4. copy the decoded private key and paste it in blockchain.info. Click "sweep key"
5. order a cold beer Wink

(By the way, until the 1980s many people were quite certain that the linear programming problem could not be solved in polynomial time, because many bright people etc. etc..  Some even had started to build a theory of "LP-complete problems".  Then a Russian mathematician found a polynomial algorithm, by thinking out of the box.)

Actually I do have some spare, but I have spread them out from 450 - 550.

Always helps to keep a bit of fiat for the sharp drops.

I agree.  I had the opportunity to buy BTC at $11 back in 2011 BUT I wasn't ready and didn't know the fundamentals why it's so great.  I probably would've sold at the $18 or $30 peaks.

Years later I'm ready, I understand the fractional reserve system and how the central banks have their dirty hands in all recent major historical events.  Now I understand it's a long term hold and with any hope, there will be no need to convert to FIAT.

here is the chart with the line you suggest.



only time will tell...

Hashrate always sometimes drops after every difficulty increase. Nothing unusual

Have you noticed the drop in hashrate lately. 

IMO we are at a point where we have a lot of high net worth, major corps, and invesent funds investing in Bitcoin. The days of huge swings, massive outbreaks, and downward spirals are over. I think we will see peaks and valleys in the range of 2-3% possibly at a faster pace than traditional stocks rise and fall but like I said to many major players now have too much to lose not to control the price. Not only that but if more retailers are to enter the "accepting" bitcoin game then the price has to show signs of long term stability and I think that's what we are seeing here. Long term investment growth, price stability for retailers to enter bitcoin, wider acceptance by the general public who don't have the knowledge or skills to enter a highly volatile market.

That's just my guess, he'll we could be at $1,000 on Monday. Who the hell knows.

You need to understand that whatever lines of support/resistance is used by the most money becomes the most valid.  Most financial markets are keen on drawing lines connecting 3 or more highs or lows.  Anything less than 3 is an arbitrary line.  If 3 line up, it's much more rare.

The recent low candle he wasn't including before has more volume than one of the lows he was using.

Your bottom line is wrong.  Connect the 3 bottom spikes.  That's a much stronger line of support, and it's also much more bullish.