Recently someone has taken to using 5000+ IPs to bypass rate-limits and try many passwords. Therefore, it is now required to solve a captcha when logging in. JavaScript is required for this. I know that several forum users like to use NoScript, but I am not aware of any high-quality (ie. not OCR-able) captcha services/libraries which don't require JavaScript. You can maybe enable JS just for the login page, and then disable it again afterward.

There are a few people who use automated bots which need to login. Contact me with a description of your bot, and if it seems reasonable, I will give you a key which will allow you to bypass the captcha.

Let me know if you see any bugs.

Some people seem to have misunderstood: I'm not trying to recruit people here for something that I would manage; I want you to set this up, on your own and independently. Then if you do a good job, I would require that advertisers receive your certification (or a similar one).


Usually these team pages say stuff like "XYZ team member has worked in the field for 100 years, and is recognized across the universe as the #1 expert." They should prove those qualifications to the certifier.

Most people leave traces that you can find. If there are one or two who can't be linked to anything, then that's probably fine. Also, it's fine if the people are pseudonymous but have a good pseudonymous history (eg. they've written a lot of code, etc.). But if the whole team is full of ghosts with no verifiable achievements, then that's awfully suspicious.


That'd probably be too restrictive.

I'm getting a bunch of ICOs wanting to advertise on the forum, but I don't have time to do more than a very cursory review of each. Somebody trustworthy needs to set up a certification service that will work like this:

An ICO will pay you to apply for a certification. You will then spend many hours thoroughly reviewing everything about them in order to determine that they're at least basically sane. Some things that you should maybe check:

 - If they're planning on creating software, require that they have the software already 5% done, preferably with a working proof-of-concept that you can play around with. Check that they haven't just filled a github repo with copy-pasted garbage code from elsewhere which doesn't actually do anything relevant.
 - If they're planning on operating a real-world business (solar, mining, etc.), check that they have a registered business somewhere. Do a background check on all involved individuals. Require that they have some of the necessary assets (property, etc.) already purchased, and verify this using public records, etc.
 - Check that there are no reasonable open scam accusations against anyone involved.
 - If smart contracts are used, verify that the English terms match the smart contract terms. If there's any way for the smart contract terms to be changed, make sure that this is specified in the English terms.
 - After reading all of their public info, ensure that there is no deception or any glaring holes.
 - Check their website for copy-pasted text, photoshopped images, and fake people.

If they fail your criteria, then you should not certify them. That's important. If you just give a certification to everyone who pays you, you're useless. You should keep the application fee even if they fail, though in some cases you could allow them to reapply for certification after failing with a reduced fee. Your goal should be to eventually be able to publish a statistic like, "99% of ICOs I certified did not turn out to be scams." You should not attempt to certify that ICOs will actually appreciate in value or anything -- that'd be far too difficult --, but just that the collected money will be used as advertised.

Once I notice that a good, trustworthy certification service like this exists, I will require that ICOs wanting to advertise on the forum receive such a certification. (If/when there are multiple good certification services, I will publish a list of ones I consider acceptable.) So you'll get a built-in market from this, and even if an ICO has no interest in advertising on the forum, acquiring a widely-trusted certification has significant value in itself.

The forum sells ad space in the area beneath the first post of every topic page. This income is used primarily to cover hosting costs and to pay moderators for their work (there are many moderators, so each moderator gets only a small amount -- moderators should be seen as volunteers, not employees). Any leftover amount is typically either saved for future expenses or otherwise reinvested into the forum or the ecosystem.

Ads are allowed to contain any non-annoying HTML/CSS style. No images, JavaScript, or animation. Ads must appear 3 or fewer lines tall in my browser (Firefox, 900px wide). Ad text may not contain lies, misrepresentation, or inappropriate language. Ads may not link directly to any NSFW page. Ads may be rejected for other reasons, and I may remove ads even after they are accepted.

There are 10 total ad slots which are randomly rotated. So one ad slot has a one in ten chance of appearing. Nine of the slots are for sale here. Ads appear only on topic pages with more than one post, and only for people using the default theme.

Duration

- Your ads are guaranteed to be up for at least 7 days.
- I usually try to keep ads up for no more than 8 or 9 days.
- Sometimes ads might be up for longer, but hopefully no longer than 12 days. Even if past rounds sometimes lasted for long periods of time, you should not rely on this for your ads.

Stats

Exact historical impression counts per slot:
https://bitcointalk.org/adrotate.php?adstats

Info about the current ad slots:
https://bitcointalk.org/adrotate.php?adinfo

Ad blocking

Hero/Legendary members, Donators, VIPs, and moderators have the ability to disable ads. I don't expect many people to use this option. These people don't increase the impression stats for your ads.

I try to bypass Adblock Plus filters as much as possible, though this is not guaranteed. It is difficult or impossible for ABP filters to block the ad space itself without blocking posts. However, filters can match against the URLs in your links, your CSS classes and style attributes, and the HTML structure of your ads.

To prevent matches against URLs: I have some JavaScript which fixes links blocked by ABP. You must tell me if you want this for your ads. When someone with ABP and JavaScript enabled views your ads, your links are changed to a special randomized bitcointalk.org URL which redirects to your site when visited. People without ABP are unaffected, even if they don't have JavaScript enabled. The downsides are:
- ABP users will see the redirection link when they hover over the link, even if they disable ABP for the forum.
- Getting referral stats might become even more difficult.
- Some users might get a warning when redirecting from https to http.

To prevent matching on CSS classes/styles: Don't use inline CSS. I can give your ad a CSS class that is randomized on each pageload, but you must request this.

To prevent matching against your HTML structure: Use only one <a> and no other tags if possible. If your ads get blocked because of matching done on something inside of your ad, you are responsible for noticing this and giving me new ad HTML.

Designing ads

Make sure that your ads look good when you download and edit this test page:
https://bitcointalk.org/ad_test.html
Also read the comments in that file.

Images are not allowed no matter how they are created (CSS, SVG, or data URI). Occasionally I will make an exception for small logos and such, but you must get pre-approval from me first.

The maximum size of any one ad is 51200 bytes.

I will send you more detailed styling rules if you win slots in this auction (or upon request).

Auction rules

You must be at least a Jr Member to bid. If you are not a Jr Member and you really want to bid, you should PM me first. Tell me in the PM what you're going to advertise. You might be required to pay some amount in advance. Everyone else: Please quickly PM newbies who try to bid here to warn them against impersonation scammers.

If you have never purchased forum ad space before, and it is not blatantly obvious what you're going to advertise, say what you're going to advertise in your first bid, or tell me in a PM.

Post your bids in this thread. Prices must be stated in BTC per slot. You must state the maximum number of slots you want. When the auction ends, the highest bidders will have their slots filled until all nine slots are filled.

So if someone bids for 9 slots @ 5 BTC and this is the highest bid, then he'll get all 9 slots. If the two highest bids are 9 slots @ 4 BTC and 1 slot @ 5 BTC, then the first person will get 8 slots and the second person will get 1 slot.

The notation "2 @ 5" means 2 slots for 5 BTC each. Not 2 slots for 5 BTC total.

- When you post a bid, the bids in your previous posts are considered to be automatically canceled. You can put multiple bids in one post, however.
- All bid prices must be evenly divisible by 0.05.
- The bidding starts at 0.1.
- I will end the auction at an arbitrary time. Unless I say otherwise, I typically try to end auctions within a few days of 10 days from the time of this post, but unexpected circumstances may sometimes force me to end the auction anytime between 4 and 22 days from the start.
- If two people bid at the same price, the person who bid first will have his slots filled first.
- Bids are considered invalid and will be ignored if they do not specify both a price and a max quantity, or if they could not possibly win any slots

If these rules are confusing, look at some of the past forum ad auctions to see how it's done.

I reserve the right to reject bids, even days after the bid is made.

You must pay for your slots within 24 hours of receiving the payment address. Otherwise your slots may be sold to someone else, and I might even give you a negative trust rating. I will send you the payment information via forum PM from this account ("theymos", user ID 35) after announcing the auction results in this thread. You might receive false payment information from scammers pretending to be me. They might even have somewhat similar usernames. Be careful.

Your ICO strikes me as too risky, so I won't accept your bid this time.


I am noticing now that your email and password changed just before bidding, which is suspicious, and you never PMed me to tell me what you were advertising as required by the rules. Therefore, I won't accept your bid this time. PM me more info about what you're advertising if you want to bid in the future. I apologize for not catching this in my status update earlier.

Auction ended, final result:
Slots BTC/Slot Person
3 0.90 Kickico Bounty Hunter
1 0.90 Gunthar
2 0.85 Bdstar
1 0.85 gritter
1 0.85 coinmixer.se
1 0.85 melissa_sapmaz

Google Translate is very poor at Japanese (and I'm not perfect). I said, "I love Japan, but I hardly ever see Japanese here, so a new section isn't necessary."

For now, a few of the topics are on-topic enough for Bitcoin sections. But mostly they belong in the altcoin sections, and this will increasingly become true as time goes on. There's nothing special about Bcash which warrants a new section.

日本が大好きだけど、ここで日本語があまり見られないから、新しい区分は必要じゃない。

It'll be moved to Archival after a few months.

If someone wants to post something, I can sticky it.

You have negative trust for me, so I won't accept your bids.

melissa_sapmaz is cleared for up to 1 slot -- bids for more slots should be considered tentative.

atbcoincom PMed me canceling his bid.

Current auction status:

Slots BTC/Slot Person
4 0.65 ChipMixer
1 0.65 gritter
2 0.65 jamieebotwin
1 0.65 ATB Coin
1 0.65 Gunthar

The auction continues.

That sounds plausible, but I don't know enough about how the nano S works to say for sure.

The point of that is to avoid giving private keys full of BTC to hosted wallets or largely-untested BCH software.

blockchain.info removed the ability to export private keys. You need to regenerate them from scratch using the deterministic wallet stuff.

It should be possible to claim your BCH, but it may be difficult. You'll probably have to wait for someone to figure it out over the course of the next few weeks.


I haven't tried any of them. The first thing I'd try would be ElectrumCash. But you have to be really careful, since now would be a perfect time for someone to put wallet-stealing malware in one of these pieces of software. That's why I recommended using a completely separate computer.

That's not necessary in any technical sense AFAICT. I can't predict prices, though.


If you actually want to hold BCH for any length of time, I'd use a software wallet in which you control the private keys.

Some e-wallets (eg. Coinbase) will have just destroyed or taken for themselves the BCH that you should've been entitled to. That's partly why we've been warning people to exit hosted wallets. Some others might still credit you your BCH later.


They will be the same addresses. On the Bitcoin network and in a Bitcoin wallet, they will be empty. On the Bcash network and for Bcash wallets, they will still have the same balance that they had around 14:00 UTC.


Yes, you should in that case open the wallet in Bitcoin wallet software again. A Bcash wallet won't see those transactions.

I recommend phasing out your old addresses, since I don't trust the security of Bcash wallets that you'll be giving your private keys to. If it would be difficult to phase out your old addresses, then I don't particularly recommend using this method of claiming your BCH. Other methods that don't involve giving your private keys to a Bcash wallet will become available in the coming weeks.


The exact moment of the split was not 12:20 or 14:00, but sometime between those. I haven't figured out yet when the exact split time was, though. I think that 12:22 was probably pre-split.

Bcash has now mined a few blocks without any unexpected issues, and a lot of time has passed since BIP148 activated, so I am at this point comfortable calling the all clear. See my summary topic here for more info: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2059111.0

Executive summary

Bitcoin is working fine and you can use it as you were before, possibly with slightly more reorg risk for a while.

The BIP91/BIP148 split didn't occur

As had been expected for the last week or so, the big potential split which caused all of the Aug 1 hubbub didn't happen, due to BIP91/BIP148 succeeding. There's a small chance that this split could still happen sometime between now and around Aug 10, but it looks very unlikely at this point.

Bcash split, creating an altcoin

If you had some number of BTC as of approximately 14:00 UTC, and if these bitcoins were secured by private keys controlled by you or in a Bcash-supporting online wallet, it is now possible for you to claim the same number of Bcash coins (BCH/BCC). Bcash is an altcoin based on Bitcoin; since it split, it is now 100% independent from Bitcoin other than the carried-over balances.

Bcash claims to have replay protection, but this is only a Bcash miner policy. Any Bcash miner could still replay transactions. Therefore, you can't safely rely on it.

Instructions for safely splitting your BCH from your BTC

Here are general split instructions. If your wallet software gives different instructions, use those instead.

These are the best instructions I could come up with quickly. Maybe someone will eventually come up with a more convenient way of doing it. Note that while I believe these instructions to be safe and reasonable, you are solely responsible for your safety here.

 1. Decide whether you want to bother splitting your coins at all. Is it actually worthwhile to remove your coins from cold storage (or whatever)? If you take no particular action and continue using Bitcoin as normal, then your BCH is likely (but not guaranteed) to remain associated with the current private keys due to BCH's pseudo-replay-protection; you could therefore maybe claim your BCH later on if you want. If you want to claim your BCH now, continue to the next steps.
 2. Create a totally new logical wallet with a new mnemonic, etc. Just creating new addresses is not sufficient: the new wallet needs to be completely separate from the old one. The new wallet's private keys should be under your personal control just in case your transaction is replayed or something else goes wrong. Make sure you have backups of the new wallet.
 3. Send all of the BTC in your old wallet to your new wallet, and wait until this transaction has 30 confirmations. (If you are really itching to get your BCH, it would not be totally crazy to wait for as few as 3 confirmations, but there is some risk with that.) Note that sending all of your BTC in a single transaction is likely to be harmful to your privacy; if you care about this, you might want to send it in several smaller transactions to several different addresses on the new wallet.
 4. On a separate computer that you wouldn't too much mind being compromised, install a BCash wallet such as one of the ones listed on bitcoincash.org. (Warning: some Bcash wallets are known to overwrite important files belonging to their Bitcoin counterparts.) Or use a Web-based exchange/wallet supporting Bcash. Import the private keys from your old, now-empty Bitcoin wallet into this Bcash wallet. Now you have BCH which you can handle as you wish. Note that BCH transactions may be very slow to confirm for a couple of days.

Continuing risks

Although I am giving a general "all clear" at this point because the risk of serious issues has dropped substantially, some turbulence is still possible due to BIP91/BIP148 and the rollout of SegWit:

 - If you are using a full-node wallet (eg. Bitcoin Core), you should require 30 confirmations for high-value, untrusted incoming transactions until SegWit locks in around Aug 10. Although seemingly quite unlikely at this point, it is possible that miners could fail to enforce BIP91/BIP148, which could cause very long reorgs (ie. confirmations could disappear, allowing double-spending). This seems unlikely enough that I probably wouldn't require extra confirmations for "normal" transactions, but if you absolutely cannot tolerate any particular transaction being reversed, then waiting for 30 confirmations would be most prudent.
 - If you are using a lightweight wallet, you should require 30 confirmations for all untrusted incoming transactions until SegWit locks in around Aug 10, and again for a couple of weeks after SegWit finally activates around Aug 24. Long reorgs or even persistent splits are possible if miners fail to properly enforce the rules of BIP91, BIP148, or SegWit, and lightweight wallets are particularly poor at handling such things because they will blindly accept invalid, probably-soon-to-be-orphaned blocks.
 - I don't recommend putting much BTC on hosted wallets / exchanges generally. Exactly how the above risks would be translated to these services will vary depending on how each service handles deposits, reorgs, and double-spends.

How BCH works is that if no blocks are produced in some (6?) hours, then the difficulty gets reduced by 25%. So it can't die from lack of miners, though it may be very slow for a few days.


That's always their excuse...

Someone did spin up like 4000 AWS BCH nodes (or at least 4000 IPs -- maybe they're all pointing to a few nodes), possibly as a DoS attack against them, or possibly as a publicity stunt ("OMG look at this incredible BCH adoption!"). They're not listening on the correct port, so I don't think that it'd be an effective DoS; nodes won't normally connect to them.

There are problems with how BCH's P2P network works in general, as well.

They have one pool on Bitcoin and one on Bcash.