just a reminder to keep a very small amount on online exhanges
whether bitcoin or alts
keep most offline in qt wallets (encrypted) with pw
and thumbdrives etc.
many exchanges come and go without warning, get hacked etc.
The reason that some people keep so much money on exchanges is because they want to use it to trade the market. If they have a winning trade then the more money they have on the exchange the bigger the trade they can make and the more money they will make. It is fueled by greed |
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"I decided to fact-check myself and I (found) that Bitcoin was actually larger than some national currencies ... We've been moving up the list, if you look at the total value of all the bitcoins in circulation versus the total value of other currencies, we're up to 20 or 40 national currencies that are smaller than Bitcoin. As Bitcoin gets bigger and we move up that list, we're on the path to Bitcoin being a serious world currency." - Gavin Andresen
There are many very small currencies that are controlled by very small countries. I wouldn't say that it would be a very big feat to be larger then these currencies. What would be a meaningful feat would be to grow enough so that bitcoin is larger then more major economies and currencies. |
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You can always lose your password, most people don't lose their thumb or eyes.
Actually some people do lose their thumb or eyes. One can just write the password on the outside of the phone in order to not lose it. This is the essence of the CCC hack over a year ago. http://www.ccc.de/en/updates/2013/ccc-breaks-apple-touchid. Yes Apple is that reckless when it comes to the security of their customer's information. Um... Ok. Then show me statistics of how many people in the world lose both their eyes and thumbs, I'm assuming not much? If it's not much, I think you're proving a good point for this type of security. Someone had to recreate someone's thumb! That's a hell of a lot harder to do than stealing someone's credit card or being apart of other illegal schemes. You are right, this does not happen very often, but it does happen. Most of the effort spent in protecting private keys is protecting against the very unlikely. Additionally, generally speaking most of these kinds of services are not going to capture all of your biometric data; they will likely only capture a very limited amount (for example only x of your digits/fingers). Apple for example has a limit of recording 5 of your fingerprints |
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Anyone else having major issues with blockchain.info today?
It is displaying incorrect balances and causing double spends on my addresses due to being out of date information. Seems to be a pretty major issue with them today.
No, although I did see someone else create a thread with a similar problem of transactions not displaying properly. If you are unsure about the accuracy of the 'balance' of a particular address of yours, I would suggest that you check the address on a different block explorer or on a full client (node) |
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There was an 80 million dollar transaction recently, and the transaction fee was around 4 cents. Had a lot of people grinning.
As others have said, the individual sending the coins sets how much of a fee they want to set. You can set 0 transaction fee, however most miners require the "standard" 0.0001 BTC fee to place your transaction into a block. So if you cheap it up and don't include a fee, you could be waiting some time to find a miner willing to confirm your transaction.
The transaction you are referring to likely could have included no fee and would probably have gotten confirmed just as quickly (due to enough bitcoin days were destroyed). I would say that they included such a fee because many people include the "standard" fee of .0001 on every transaction, regardless of if it is actually needed |
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Well if there was any value at all to it I am sure the US government would at least try to ruin the coin. Anything to ruin ISIS most contries would try. If I had the power I would as well.
Obama has actually been very friendly towards ISIS. To the point where some might speculate that he wants them to prosper (he does share their religion). It was only recently that he even started airstrikes. Not only that but it is very difficult to attack a network with any level of effect without first buying/holding some level of the coin, this would essentially force the US to buy ISIScoin which would help finance ISIS |
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A fair point. Why do retailers accept USD, but not Euros or Yen? This is likely because most of their customers want to pay in USD. This is correct. It is also because the US dollar is a world reserve currency that is generally the most stable. But if they were to accept Euros or Yen, they would convert to USD likely if they are based in the US for two reasons:
1) their books are tracked in USD
2) their bills will be paid (including tax bills) in USD Also correct. So until their books are tracked in bitcoin, or their bills can be paid in bitcoin, it makes sense to avoid any risk in volatility, and they won't have the business case for keeping the bitcoins on the books. It is more because their bills are paid in US dollars then the fact that their books are in dollars. There are plenty of companies that hold large amounts of foreign currency in order to pay their bills in that currency and then account for the exchange rate in their books This will be solved as bitcoin adoption grows, and we start allowing businesses to pay their bills in bitcoin. Bitpay, however, is a victim of their own success making transactions 0% - tough to beat that exchange fee. bitpay is helping companies start to accept bitcoin. As more companies start to do the same we will probably see more business to business transactions which will not need to involve companies like bitpay and coinbase It will be exciting to see how the future evolves! Cheers to 2015!
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3. I can also do escrow, but prefer not because I'm not sure how much longer it takes. you'd better use escrow that will be more safe guy I really don't think escrow is honestly going to help very much. If the gift card was purchased with a stolen credit card then amazon can reverse the payment/transaction months after you have redeemed the gift card. Even if you have never attached a credit card to your account they will know who you are via the fact that you logged in with your IP address and the fact that you (most likely) had goods shipped to your house I understand where you're coming from, but this was not purchased using a stolen credit card. Christmas was a couple days ago, and that's when I received it. There's not really a way to prove it was a gift because I don't think it's polite to ask for a receipt for a gift you got. If this was the case and you are only asking for 80% of the gift card's value, I would suggest visiting purse.io and using your gift card to purchase bitcoin (likely receiving more then $40 worth of bitcoin). This should be especially concerning because you are a brand new member (who apparently created your account for the sole purpose of selling your gift card) and as a result you have zero reputation. |
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I can tell you for certain that blockchain.info is not causing any double spends. It is possible that certain transactions are not showing up right away, however this is not due to a double spend (that they are causing).
A double spend is when you (think) receive a transaction but then a malicious person gets the miners to confirm a separate transaction that spends at least one of the same inputs. It is my understanding that blockchain.info's node is not relied upon by any major mining pools.
I would suggest that you try clicking the refresh button and to close your browser and open it back up, if neither of these work, but you can see transactions to addresses that your wallet controls in other block explorers then I would suggest contacting their zen desk support
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IRS mistakenly penalizes Christine O’Donnell a second time, placed levy on bank accountsAdding to the long-running saga of IRS dealings with conservatives, former Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell says the tax agency punished her mistakenly for the second time in five years by imposing an erroneous levy on her bank accounts. Ms. O’Donnell told The Washington Times that she discovered the levy when she couldn’t access her checking account as she was preparing to visit relatives over Thanksgiving. “The day before I was heading out of town for the Thanksgiving weekend, my bank told me the IRS had frozen my accounts. They didn’t give me a reason why, just a phone number to call,” Ms. O’Donnell said in an interview this week. She said she called the Internal Revenue Service and was told the agency had concluded she owed $30,000 in taxes from a 2008 house transaction, which was long ago accounted for on her federal returns. She said she implored the agency to check her tax records and eventually was told the levy was generated in error and her accounts would be freed up.Although IRS officials removed the levy, they first withdrew all the funds from her account. They said that, too, was in error and the funds would be returned to her. The funds have not been replaced, Ms. O’Donnell said.Ms. O’Donnell, who writes a column for the online Washington Times Communities, says her only current matter pending with the IRS is that she filed for an extension to pay her 2013 taxes but that the levy had nothing to do with that filing. “They said it was a mistake, and they removed the levy. I’m grateful, but I also wonder what someone with less government experience might do when they find themselves frozen from their money because the IRS got its paperwork mixed up. It can be scary. You feel helpless if you can’t even buy gas for your car,” she said. Asked where she thought her latest IRS run-in fit into the bigger controversy over the agency’s dealings with conservatives, she answered cautiously. “While I don’t believe in coincidences, it’s possible that this was just bureaucratic bungling. But either way, the IRS has to be held accountable. It needs to do its job right and not target or inconvenience taxpayers unfairly,” she said. IRS officials said federal tax privacy laws prohibit them from commenting on individual taxpayer matters. Ms. O’Donnell, a tea party favorite who burst onto the national stage in 2010 when she upset a longtime incumbent and won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Delaware, has been one of several high-profile conservatives to claim mistreatment from the IRS and other federal authorities. Senate investigators continue to probe why Delaware state authorities accessed Ms. O’Donnell’s IRS tax file on a Saturday morning in spring 2010, right around the time she announced her candidacy and a story was leaked alleging that she owed back taxes to the IRS, which was later proved to be false. Delaware authorities claim the records check was routine but that the computer records detailing what was searched have since been destroyed. Lawmakers in both parties have cited the episode in raising concerns about possible lax access for state agencies to sensitive federal tax records. The first tax lien was placed on a house she had sold more than two years earlier, and it created headaches for her finances and her campaign. The lien was highly publicized and used to discredit Ms. O’Donnell’s candidacy just as it was getting off the ground, even though she no longer owned the home in question. The IRS eventually removed the lien, blaming it on a computer error. Ms. O’Donnell sold the home in 2008, and financial documents from her lender show that her back payments were satisfied in July 2008, long before the IRS initiated the bogus lien. Ms. O’Donnell also battled a three-year audit of her personal finances that ultimately ended with her repaying $1,100 to the federal government. She said friends and family also were subjected to intrusive audits, though they were cleared. She believes the first round of IRS intrusions were political and malicious, and she has called on Congress to rein in the tax agency. The second erroneous tax lien was revealed the same week that House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa, California Republican, released a report highlighting emails he said showed a clear anti-conservative bias inside the IRS. It was also the same week that the House Ways and Means and Senate Judiciary committees confirmed they were still investigating the 2010 breach of Ms. O’Donnell’s tax records. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/25/christine-odonnell-tea-party-figure-says-irs-mista/ For some reason I don't think this was a true mistake. It was probably a political move to both discredit her as well as make it difficult for her to speak out against Obama |
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3. I can also do escrow, but prefer not because I'm not sure how much longer it takes. you'd better use escrow that will be more safe guy I really don't think escrow is honestly going to help very much. If the gift card was purchased with a stolen credit card then amazon can reverse the payment/transaction months after you have redeemed the gift card. Even if you have never attached a credit card to your account they will know who you are via the fact that you logged in with your IP address and the fact that you (most likely) had goods shipped to your house |
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I should have more time to post during the holiday season is here. I have spent a lot of time trying to get end of year stuff finished at work.
Posts: 172
Addy: 1N9kf7KMD8iihwRXXFqg5ugT7oE1XvPFyD
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I would say that a coinbase 'wallet' is in fact one for all intents and purposes for those new to bitcoin and wanting an easy method to buy, sell or hold bitcoin. From there and as one becomes more savvy should they choose, they can then send their balance to another real wallet of their choosing. Even for the bitcoin pros, having one's bank account hooked up to their coinbase account allows for easy selling of bitcoin for FRNs in the event of another bubble should they choose. Finally, it's services like coinbase and others around the world that will allow easy access to the market when the price makes a move and people start panic buying via the eventual media hype.
There are some situations when it would be more appropriate to store your bitcoin at a service like coinbase (that you trust) instead of controlling your private keys directly. One example of this is if you have a non-government attacker (or potential attacker) who has close contact with you - one example of this would be if you have roommates that you do not trust, who may be able to access an encrypted wallet file. |
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This will hopefully happen over time. Most companies factor in the cost of processing payments in their pricing. When companies realize how much they are saving on bitcoin transactions they will start to give consumers an incentive to use bitcoin by offering a discount that is a portion of the savings
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well coinrocka
bitcoin never asks for your birthname, home address or social security numbers. so bitcoin is about as anonymous as bank notes.
but when people do silly things like putting their bitcoin address in the footnote of their posts
EG 1JzEpKnB5ZYJoetBQF85Tjbqp9Fjorhe4v
it then becomes searchable to link coinrocka to 1JzEpKnB5ZYJoetBQF85Tjbqp9Fjorhe4v. and then using NSA tools and ISP data, to search internet users who have the pseudonym coinrocka.
and thus NSA/ your ISP establishes a link between your real life and a bitcoin address..
bitcoin is only as anonymous as the information PEOPLE stupidly give out on the internet. and even without NSA tools its easy to link coinrocka to other names.. isnt that right bitwhisky
Well you really only are leaking your identity for that specific address. If you use bitcoin in a way to maximize your privacy (to never reuse an address) then any attacker will not know which address is your change address and which one is going to whereever you are spending your money |
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Good to see Bitcoin get more mainstream mentions in movies, TV, news, and media. Now if we can somehow get a huge blockbuster Marvel movie, James Bond movie, or dedicated episode on like The Big Bang Theory...that would be even better.
That could be interesting. I agree that the more exposure the better, but I think better results could come from targeting a more willing audience. Anyone want to phone the guys of the big bang theory and pitch an episode plot? I think this is just an example that bitcoin is becoming something something that most people will recognize when mentioned in pop culture. Horrible Bosses 2 does shine somewhat of a negative light on bitcoin so I don't see this being particularly positive for bitcoin (although not particularly negative either) |
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You cannot legitimately claim self defense if you start an encounter by violating civil rights under color of authority and implicit threat of death or great bodily harm. It's like charging your innocent victim with assault for bleeding on you as you tried to beat them to death - something only LEOs have ever been able to do without any real consequences. Neither this incident nor the Michael Brown incident has anything to do with the police violating anyone's rights. In this case the police were called because someone was waiving what appeared to be a gun around. The child was acting in a threatening way. IMO if a private citizen has shot the kid instead of a police officer the private citizen would not have been charged People like TBZ have a preexisting anti-police agenda, which they spew the moment an opportunity arises, even/especially if created by a tragedy like the death of a child. That's why such people are called "cranks." The trenchcoat wearing Infowars kids make the rest of the liberty movement look bad, which is part of the reason they are encouraged by TPTB. We should be protesting not because of dead thugs like Brown, but rather over events like this: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/cops-kill-georgia-grandpa-in-no-knock-raid-triggered-by-burglary-suspects-tip/I am no fan of law enforcement, however you need to use the rule of law, just like they do. IMO law enforcement needs to be held to certain standards, but I don't think this is an example of them acting improperly |
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I don't see how you would need two sites to be compromised in order for a MITM attack to be successful. If for example someone is sending payment information you could change the payment address.
The most commonly reason for people to encrypt messages is because they are sending sensitive information (things like private keys, passwords, ect). You would not need any context or to know either of the parties speaking to each-other in order to do damage.
I also think your price is somewhat high, but I guess the appropriate price for this kind of service is up to the free market.
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When you send bitcoin from your coinbase account the inputs will almost certainly not come from any of the addresses that coinbase displays. All of your addresses are only receiving addresses, not spending addresses.
Coinbase is not going to give you the private keys to your receiving address(es). If you want to control your bitcoin 100% then you will need to create a new address that you control the private keys of and withdraw your bitcoin to that address
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I wonder if the speculators have just determined a fair price of about $350? Speculation is trying to guess future value and generally it rallies past the best price then crashes down to a sensible valuation. Maybe $350 is about right for the scale and use cases that are part of the present BTC economy.
As far as MS not hoarding their coins, well I hope not. They would be exposing MS investors to the volatility of the naked BTC market and would be acting in a financially irresponsible way. Bitcoin is the best currency and payment network, but a very risky speculative instrument. MS did not get rich placing casino bets, they got rich cashing your checks and BTC is just another extension of that model.
Microsoft is using bitpay to process transactions which means they are converting their bitcoin to fiat immediately. There is no real reason for microsoft (or any other company) to hoard bitcoin until we start to see businesses that deal with other business start to accept bitcoin (eg see B2B transactions) |
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