I have been trying out different hosts/registrars, and I haven't had a lot of luck. I've had bad experiences with Bitcoin-Hosting and Implitech. The absolute worst experience I've had, however, is with Kalyhost.

The Kalyhost site explicitly states that you can get your money back for any reason, within 30 days. I decided to give them a try, and found their services to be extremely lacking:

- Horrible control panel
- Extremely difficult (or impossible) to install CMSes (I never got WordPress to install)
- Impossible to manipulate add and ESPECIALLY delete databases, using PHPMyAdmin.
- No ability to change MX records.

After beating my head against a wall for about two days, I finally decided to call it quits. I very politely (and repeatedly) asked them for a full refund, and almost a month later, I have had nothing but evasion, stalling, and extremely vague responses.

This is the trouble with Bitcoin -- it will never catch on if the people promoting are also abusing it.

Here is the thread between me and Kalyhost:


Me , Dec-31 2011 01:03 (JST):

Hello,

Two days ago, I purchased hosting and domain name registration from you,
but I can't seem to configure the database correctly. The domain is
xxxxxxx.com. The total for the transaction was:

Bitcoins 11.61
Bitcoins 2.42

I sent a request for help, but I haven't received a response.

Your guarantee states that you will refund my money within 30 days, no
questions asked. Can you please do so? You can send the funds to this
bitcoin address:

14dbmdXGLsLQWhBdCGwLTsNapv6ofRYNBd

Thank you in advance!

----

On Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:35:33 -0600, Nat
<notifications-support@kalyhost.com> wrote:

Nat, Dec-31 2011 12:35 (JST):
Hello,

Thank you for your inquiry. We will try to assist you to configure the database correctly and will notify you of any updates regarding this issue. Please be advised that our office is closed from December 23rd to January 3rd and it may take some time for our developer to address your issue. We would like to thank you for your patience in this process.

---

Me, Dec-31 2011 12:42 (JST):

Thanks for getting back to me. I think at this point, I'd just like a
refund. Is that okay?

---

NO RESPONSE FROM KALYHOST

--

From: "me" <xxxxx@xxxxxx.com>
To: KalyHost <support@kalyhost.com>
Cc:
Subject: Re: [KalyHost] Re: Refund (ticket #125)
Date: Sun, 08 Jan 2012 11:24:20 -0600

Hi, I wrote to you almost two weeks ago regarding getting a full refund
(see thread). I had some trouble accessing some critical features of
your control panel (they don't exist), and without them, the service won't
work for me.

I had one response, then nothing.

I paid:

11.61 bitcoins for domain registration
2.42 bitcoins for hosting.

Can I please have a full refund of 14.03 bitcoins? Your website says I can
get a full refund within 30 days, for any reason. Can you please send the
amount of 14.03 bitcoins to this address:

14dbmdXGLsLQWhBdCGwLTsNapv6ofRYNBd

Thank you very much in advance.

---

NO RESPONSE FROM KALYHOST

----

The Me, Jan-10 11:27 (JST):

Hey guys... this is my last attempt to get my money back -- per your
guarantee.

My next (and really only) course of action is to go on the
BitCoin forums and post the thread below as a warning to other people who
might be inclined to use your site.

I really don't want to do that. Can you just refund my money please? I'd
love to be able to say KalyHost is a great company. I really would.

Thanks.

---

Jasmine, Jan-10 13:12 (JST):

Hello,
We apologize for the delayed response. We are currently inquiring our management group regarding the refund and will notify you as soon as we can. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

---

Nat, Jan-10 16:23 (JST):
Hello,
Could you please let us know which critical features are not working for you and we will try to get our developer to address it?

---

Me, Jan-10 22:24 (JST):

Sure. There is no access to MX records. I can't delete databases.

Installing WordPress is unintuitive -- I was never able to get a full
install.

I appreciate the stall tactic, but again, your website clearly guarantees
that I can get a full refund for ANY REASON within 30 days.

Please refund my money!

14.03 bitcoins.

Please send to: 14dbmdXGLsLQWhBdCGwLTsNapv6ofRYNBd

Again, if you can't honor your own guarantee, I'll post this thread on
some BitCoin-oriented sites. There's no reason for other people to have to
endure this.

Thank you.

----


Jasmine, Jan-12 11:42 (JST):
Hello,
Thank you for letting us know. We will speak with our management group regarding this issue and process the refunds. As soon as it is completed, we will notify you.

---

NO FURTHER COMMUNICATION FROM KALYHOST

Paco's book is totally worth reading. In fact, I think it's one of the best books I've ever read. I've noticed that it got some bad press here and there (although most of it is really good). But I've also noticed that bitcoin has gotten a lot of bad press. So has Ayn Rand (and look how many books she's sold). People seem to hate good ideas, and they seem to be passionate about it. I think it's because most people  are afraid of change and ditching the status quo.

In my life, I've noticed that usually the best, most radical ideas are the ones that get blistered by the general population before they get accepted by the main stream. Newton was laughed at by his colleagues, as was Einstein. I'm not saying Paco Ahlgren is the best writer ever, but the way he brings together so many ideas is new and exciting.

For my money, I think if he's not Nakamoto, then he's in with him. Most likely, I think Paco and some other people probably did this together, and that they all planned this from the beginning. I hadn't read about Nick Szabo before, and that really makes things more interesting. What would help this whole discussion a lot is if Paco and/or Nick showed up here and clarified things a bit! :-) But I guess their probably not going to do that! But I'd bet my bottom bitcoin the two of them know each other, and probably quite well.

Now it says Ahlgren's site is down for maintenance. So let me make sure I have this right. A published author pulls down his entire presence on the internet just to fool a bunch of geeks. I'm not buying it. Paco Ahlgren is definitely Satoshi Nakamoto. Or else he's connected to him/them/whatever.

My guess is that he's confident enough that he's not worried about what people are saying. I'd bet all my bitcoins that nobody's ever going to be able to prove that Alhgren is Satoshi.

Here's another thing to think about . . . he has a lot to gain if bitcoins go up. Writing that article makes alot of sense. But then when people started saying he was Satoshi, maybe he just thought better of it.

Anyway I doubt he's really all that worried. I still think there's no chance we'll ever know for sure. Ahlgren's book is like a blow by blow of bitcoin. The coincidences are too much for me to ignore. It would be one thing if the book appeared after bitcoin. But it didn't.

That's my theory, and I'm sticking with it. (But I still wonder why he hasn't returned my emails.)

There was one thing that has been bugging me ever since I read Ahlgren's book. BTC is a completely digital currency, not backed by gold or anything. But in the book, the currency is backed by assets, and its actually a paper currency you can carry in your wallet. Also, Ahlgren doesn't talk much about encryption or anything like that.

But today I remembered a part in the book where it says that the author changed the details to protect the people involved. That gave me a shiver, so I did some more research. I already knew that Ahlgren finished the book in 2000 or 2001. But it wasn't published until 2007. But BTC wasn't created until 2009.

So here's my guess. Ahlgren started working on this before he even wrote the book -- back in the late 90s. Then he wrote the book and the description of his currency was flawed on purpose. Then after the book had been out a while, he (and whoever helped him) created the real thing.

This story gets stranger every day. I still haven't gotten a response from Ahlgren. Has anybody else tried to contact him?

Mack

Right. Because Satoshi wouldn't hide his IP address. Why would he want to do that?

If Paco Ahlgren is Satoshi Nakamoto (and personally I think he is), then I don't think he really cares if people get close to the truth. First of all, he probably wrote the article about bitcoin, and then when people started saying he was Satoshi, he probably just pulled it to be safe. I guess he didn't think people would have saved copies.

But think about it . . . if you've read Ahlgren's book, you know he's a master chess player. If he's Satoshi, then he planned out every move well in advance. Just because a couple of us geeks on a forum think we've figured out a connection probably isn't going to affect him too much. In reality, he's probably having a good laugh about it!

If there is a connection, I'm pretty sure that he's hidden his assets good enough that nobody's going to be able to find any evidence linking him directly. So he's probably just sitting back and enjoying the show.

I may have missed part of the conversation, but it seems like you guys are making this too complicated. All you need to use BTC to make stock trades (or any securities for that matter_) is a bank that accepts BTC, offers numbered accounts, and will let you trade securities on any exchange. Once the BTC are in the account, you're off to the races. You don't need to worry about counter-parties -- the BTC would be converted to the local currency, and then you go long or short at will.

Mack

What is to stop anyone in the world from creating alternatives to Bitcoin? Clearly, it doesn't require asset-backing. So why is it special?

Personally, I think competition is coming, and it's coming hard. But I also think this is going to be great for the *concept* of BTC. The biggest threat to private currencies is government intervention. The more private currencies that compete globally, the more difficulty governments will have shutting them down. Once private currencies become established, governments will have to become competitive [sic].

So what would stop anyone from starting his own version of BTC?

Mack

I'm pretty sure that Satoshi Nakamoto is actually the author and financier Paco Ahlgren. If you read his book Discipline, it lays out a private currency after the fall of the world's economies. That would be great history, except Ahlgren wrote the book in 2000. He predicted that the U.S. would fall apart because of the economic problems.

The details of his currency and Bitcoin are too similar, so I can't really believe Ahlgren doesn't have something to do with BC. There are some differences. For instance, Ahlgren's currency is gold backed. But the overall big picture is scary in its similarity. I read the book in 2007 when it was published, but I picked it up again in 2009, after the s*** hit the fan. He hit the nail on the head.

Mack

There's nothing "ethical" or "unthical" about BC. It's an algorithm that allows for only a finite amount of currency to be created. As such, its price can only fluctuate because of supply and demand -- rather than printing or destruction.

Mack

I'm a currency trader... new to Bitcoin. There are some threads on other boards I'd like to participate in, but I can wait a few more hours if I don't get whitelisted immediately. This will be my sixth post.

Mack

It is actually not illegal to transact commerce in the U.S., using foreign denominations. It is illegal to print dollars, or to print a competing currency here -- that's probably one of the points they'll use to go after BC.

Mack

I heard that Mt. Gox has had trouble. I started an account at Ruxum, but I haven't traded yet. One problem with Ruxum is it charges a wire fee to put funds in. $10 I think.

Mack

People hate anything that challenges the status quo. The American Revolution was extremely unpopular... until the revolutionaries won! :-)

Mack

It's not a scam, but whether or not it can hold up against inevitable governmental retaliation is another story. If major currency issuers go after it, the price could plummet.

I've run Simple Machines forums before, and I know how bad spam can get, so I completely understand this move.

Mack