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481  Other / Meta / Re: Congratulation and A big thank you @Theymos on: November 26, 2019, 04:18:30 AM
I was really thrilled to see so much good art, but remind me never to do this again... It took me probably 20+ hours to sort through everything.

I'd like to give a bit of an honorable mention to these two pieces:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53114791#msg53114791
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52811173#msg52811173
Because they had no clear relation to the forum, they didn't make the top 100, but they're both very high-quality pieces. I especially like the concept & execution of the first one.
482  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Billionaire vs Billionaire in the US 2020 Presidential Elections. on: November 26, 2019, 04:08:10 AM
He's a terrible candidate. Leftists hate him due to stuff like stop&frisk, his history with women, and the mere fact that he's a billionaire. Conservatives hate him due to stuff like confiscatory gun control, fixation on climate change, pro-choice policies, and weak-borders policies. He was super supportive of the Iraq war. The defining characteristic of Bloomberg's politics is that he's an authoritarian: he wants government to control every aspect of everyone's life. He's probably an even worse candidate than Hillary Clinton, both from a "good for the world" perspective and a political perspective.

Normally I'd write him off completely, but he does have an insane amount of money. He makes Trump look middle class. If he wins the primary or especially the presidency, it'll be 100% because of his money.

His campaign is totally unprecedented because of how late he's entered the race and because nobody's ever tried to run a campaign fueled by nothing but massive piles of cash like this before. (In 2016, Trump was significantly outfunded by Clinton.) So it's difficult to predict. But I tend to think that it'll fail completely, and he'll win zero delegates.
483  Other / Meta / Re: 10th anniversary art contest badge voting on: November 26, 2019, 03:35:24 AM
"5 art-contest-winner badges will be assigned to the winners of this voting" I never build thread for voting, there is any setting for max nvote ? isn't cool if set up as max 5 vote?

The number of votes allowed is unrelated to the number of winners. There could be 5 winners even if everyone was allowed only 1 vote.

I chose to allow any number of votes so that you can vote however you want: vote for just 1 person to give them the best chance of winning (but also the best chance of you completely wasting your vote), vote for your top half, vote for all but one that you especially dislike, etc.
484  Other / Meta / Re: 10th anniversary art contest on: November 26, 2019, 03:32:38 AM
BTC awards are sent!

There were so many good submissions. I easily could've listed 150 that I thought were quite good. (Which explains why I sent 9991 total merit rather than the 500 promised.) But I didn't want to split the award too much, so I limited it to 100 award-winners. In light of the quality and number of submissions, I also increased the total award to 1.07 BTC.

In judging these, it was a major detractor if the art didn't have much/any clear conceptual connection to the forum, and especially if someone looking at it wouldn't have any hope of guessing that it might've been created with the forum in mind. It pained me to exclude or significantly reduce the award-ranking of several excellent pieces of art due to this. Other than that, the ranking was basically down to my personal subjective opinion. In choosing winners, I am not saying that x art is definitively better than y art. There's room for everyone to be disappointed, including the highest-ranked BTC winners, who might've wanted less splitting of the award. But this competition was done just for fun, and I hope that everyone can be positive about the result.

The contest is over, thank you very much to everyone who participated! I was blown away at the number and quality of submissions.

I distributed a total of 9991 merit. Voting on badge-winners is underway. BTC winners are as follows:
Award tier 1
dannybrown: 0.07562500
1Dq: 0.07366071
summonerrk[1][2]: 0.07169643
Karmakid[1][2]: 0.06973214
nc50lc: 0.06776786
Meddzs: 0.06580357
RiseX: 0.06383929
horagames: 0.06187500
Award tier 2
mikhael: 0.01148529
sirazimuth: 0.01142201
crossabdd: 0.01135873
likehiro: 0.01129545
aoluain: 0.01123217
meliodas: 0.01116889
one21gals: 0.01110561
sujonali1819[1][2][3]: 0.01104234
goaldigger[1][2]: 0.01097906
kaicrypzen: 0.01091578
creep_o: 0.01085250
Icygreen: 0.01078922
cryptobaboon: 0.01072594
carlfebz2: 0.01066266
akhjob: 0.01059938
Mamaecrypto[1][2][3]: 0.01053610
Lucasgabd: 0.01047282
tweetious: 0.01040954
Oasisman[1][2]: 0.01034626
bharal07: 0.01028298
Quidat: 0.01021970
fiulpro: 0.01015642
axicron: 0.01009314
Kalemder: 0.01002986
Aleksey77: 0.00996658
GazetaBitcoin[1][2]: 0.00990330
ecnalubma: 0.00984002
rhomelmabini: 0.00977674
Debonaire217: 0.00971346
makrospex: 0.00965018
KTChampions: 0.00958690
rare_designer: 0.00952362
spike420211[1][2][3]: 0.00946034
geophphreigh: 0.00939706
Award tier 3
Foxpup: 0.00312931
hugeblack: 0.00311933
taufik123: 0.00310935
ZipReg: 0.00309936
Twentyonepaylots[1][2]: 0.00308938
DireWolfM14: 0.00307940
start the art[1][2]: 0.00306942
1btcdream: 0.00305944
Valjdek: 0.00304946
ice098: 0.00303947
cabalism13[1][2]: 0.00302949
DomingoX6: 0.00301951
cuo[1][2][3]: 0.00300953
rat03gopoh: 0.00299955
Bloodie44: 0.00298956
ibminer[1][2]: 0.00297958
Raja_MBZ: 0.00296960
yazher: 0.00295962
Darker45[1][2]: 0.00294964
C.R.Y.P.T.O: 0.00293966
sompitonov: 0.00292967
MissGrey: 0.00291969
yarelydiaz: 0.00290971
quest_777: 0.00289973
nomteck1: 0.00288975
sheenshane: 0.00287976
terizla[1][2]: 0.00286978
sashapan: 0.00285980
Corrosive: 0.00284982
TheShock: 0.00283984
alegotardo: 0.00282985
sedactoo+04: 0.00281987
ESG: 0.00280989
Kupid002: 0.00279991
manusiakarton[1][2]: 0.00278993
Pepelangelo: 0.00277995
Asterxylon: 0.00276996
DragonDance[1][2]: 0.00275998
dwyane36: 0.00275000
tyKiwanuka: 0.00274002
iwantapony: 0.00273004
yehestielsiburian: 0.00272005
ritaconscience[1][2]: 0.00271007
Ryker1: 0.00270009
akirasendo17: 0.00269011
Russlenat: 0.00268013
samcrypto: 0.00267015
Yatsan: 0.00266016
noorman0[1][2][3]: 0.00265018
zxs: 0.00264020
mosdesign: 0.00263022
lucky80: 0.00262024
madnessteat: 0.00261025
cryptoaddictchie[1][2]: 0.00260027
AicecreaME: 0.00259029
shodik007: 0.00258031
maxreish: 0.00257033
Husna QA: 0.00256034

Congrats to the winners, and thanks again to all participants!
485  Other / Meta / 10th anniversary art contest badge voting on: November 26, 2019, 01:56:06 AM
5 art-contest-winner badges will be assigned to the winners of this voting. The choices are the top 53 (50+3 due to a multi-way tie) users who received the most total merit in the art contest thread as of when I pulled these stats earlier today. Although this thread's poll will allow votes normally, I will in the end adjust the result in the following two ways: 1) only Member+ votes will count, where copper membership does not on its own count as Member; and 2) users who haven't made a post in the year between the time of this post and 1 year ago will not be counted. I'll post the adjusted results at the end. In case of a tie in the end, the candidate who at that time has more total merit in the art contest thread will win. In case of a tie there, I will assign an additional badge.

Below I have linked to the submissions of all of the choices. In general, the submission links are listed in order of most merit to least, though sometimes I separate submissions having a different "flavor" with a dash. Ideally, you should view them all and vote for those who you believe are worthy. You can vote for as many as you like, and you can change your vote.

Purely for aid of keeping track of who is who as you go through these, I gave each person a few words which quickly describes their highest-merited submission(s). Several people submitted things that I didn't describe and are very good.

Having gone through all of the submissions (often multiple times...), I'd say that the total merit received is only a rough guide on how good the submission is. So don't assume that only the first half of this list are any good, for example.

Corrosive - 402 merit - corrosion art
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52800357#msg52800357
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52816357#msg52816357
dannybrown - 358 merit - bitcointalk flash game
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53059246#msg53059246
Yatsan - 298 merit - oil paintings
Caveat: neither painting in the first link below is original to the contest.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52803489#msg52803489
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53135406#msg53135406
Kalemder - 274 merit - interactive gallery & videos
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53002575#msg53002575
-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52807263#msg52807263
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52916555#msg52916555
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52839997#msg52839997
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52818634#msg52818634
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52843477#msg52843477
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52865068#msg52865068
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52807783#msg52807783
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52826570#msg52826570
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52907710#msg52907710
sirazimuth - 255 merit - commemorative round
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53005794#msg53005794
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52877703#msg52877703
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52813048#msg52813048
1Dq - 245 merit - intricate cityscape
Caveat: the second link below is not original to the contest.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53137723#msg53137723
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52919244#msg52919244
likehiro - 231 merit - moon block chain
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53064307#msg53064307
taufik123 - 221 merit - madura carving
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53134266#msg53134266
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53115743#msg53115743
-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53071079#msg53071079
terizla - 221 merit - "squidward's art" & doodles
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52846255#msg52846255
-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53056135#msg53056135
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53137607#msg53137607
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53109137#msg53109137
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53073845#msg53073845
-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52978754#msg52978754
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53044894#msg53044894
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52795723#msg52795723
ZipReg - 212 merit - dash game
Caveat: the second link below is not original to the contest.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53144771#msg53144771
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52795174#msg52795174
Basorexia - 193 merit - pokemon cards
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52927448#msg52927448
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52977879#msg52977879
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53144671#msg53144671
-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52849796#msg52849796
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52829485#msg52829485
geophphreigh - 188 merit - folded bolivar design
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53095690#msg53095690
sujonali1819 - 188 merit - dot art
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52809530#msg52809530
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52864291#msg52864291
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52830488#msg52830488
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52851570#msg52851570
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52836411#msg52836411
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52873657#msg52873657
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52933437#msg52933437
-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53147814#msg53147814
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52884706#msg52884706
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52894085#msg52894085
-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52973560#msg52973560
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52880586#msg52880586
LoyceV - 182 merit - avatar collage & daughter's art
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52811642#msg52811642
-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52952133#msg52952133
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53023028#msg53023028
summonerrk - 177 merit - watercolors
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52977514#msg52977514
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53039184#msg53039184
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52912891#msg52912891
Foxpup - 167 merit - NSFW fox
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52894190#msg52894190
Mamaecrypto - 167 merit - watercolor at conference
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52833703#msg52833703
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52952339#msg52952339
-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53140557#msg53140557
sedactoo+04 - 166 merit - BTC logo on canvas
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53008639#msg53008639
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52855166#msg52855166
-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53137160#msg53137160
noorman0 - 163 merit - carvings
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53031541#msg53031541
-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53090432#msg53090432
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53111199#msg53111199
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53134434#msg53134434
-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53149988#msg53149988
Rikafip - 160 merit - pizza
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52807587#msg52807587
-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52916677#msg52916677
rare_designer - 156 merit - blockchain eden
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53059918#msg53059918
-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53061719#msg53061719
Twentyonepaylots - 156 merit - god satoshi
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53133494#msg53133494
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52838794#msg52838794
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53138118#msg53138118
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53140833#msg53140833
ADAMA_NOW - 150 merit - educational video
Caveat: this is not original to the contest.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53004703#msg53004703
ecnalubma - 145 merit - bull/bear & various
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53135921#msg53135921
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53145452#msg53145452
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53139371#msg53139371
-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52807562#msg52807562
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52853110#msg52853110
sashapan - 143 merit - dress
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53132868#msg53132868
-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52882464#msg52882464
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52897865#msg52897865
Karmakid - 141 merit - satoshi with leaf hand
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52969611#msg52969611
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53048981#msg53048981
Michail1 - 136 merit - nixie tubes
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53143508#msg53143508
cryptoaddictchie - 135 merit - intricate sketch
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53136873#msg53136873
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52923197#msg52923197
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52827690#msg52827690
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53145067#msg53145067
Oasisman - 133 merit - bull sketch
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52806862#msg52806862
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52890777#msg52890777
mosdesign - 130 merit - carved trophy
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52930461#msg52930461
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52803286#msg52803286
nomteck1 - 128 merit - 3D bitcointalk room
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53141162#msg53141162
Darker45 - 127 merit - bubbles & sketches
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52861506#msg52861506
-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52814214#msg52814214
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52805286#msg52805286
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52824254#msg52824254
ibminer - 124 merit - trophy & ship
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52815373#msg52815373
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52957306#msg52957306
webtricks - 122 merit - bitcointalk card creator
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53105718#msg53105718
-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52811848#msg52811848
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52832607#msg52832607
GreatArkansas - 121 merit - printout collage
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52805482#msg52805482
Netto - 121 merit - lighter
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53139345#msg53139345
Maus0728 - 120 merit - Dorian portrait
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52870979#msg52870979
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52926744#msg52926744
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52998104#msg52998104
sheenshane - 120 merit - cake in hand drawing
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52861560#msg52861560
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52804040#msg52804040
start the art - 118 merit - abstract art & song
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52841610#msg52841610
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52909964#msg52909964
crossabdd - 116 merit - string art
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52862171#msg52862171
goaldigger - 116 merit - doodles
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52828796#msg52828796
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53134948#msg53134948
otto_diesel - 115 merit - cake
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53139286#msg53139286
Debonaire217 - 114 merit - arduino house
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52956146#msg52956146
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53040421#msg53040421
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53049492#msg53049492
DireWolfM14 - 110 merit - coin design
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53068771#msg53068771
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52868112#msg52868112
Altcoinlog - 109 merit - paintings
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53092433#msg53092433
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53126558#msg53126558
axicron - 108 merit - night cityscape
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53117923#msg53117923
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53141911#msg53141911
creep_o - 108 merit - bowling
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53058368#msg53058368
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53139681#msg53139681
Laskoo - 108 merit - last supper caption
Caveat: this image was taken from elsewhere and then text added to it. The underlying image is not made by Laskoo or original to the contest.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52805675#msg52805675
rhomelmabini - 108 merit - superhero shadow
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53001540#msg53001540
cabalism13 - 106 merit - bitcointalk city model
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53150387#msg53150387
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52851257#msg52851257
Cryptocables - 106 merit - rocket ticker
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53052455#msg53052455
saiga31 - 106 merit - bull & pizza drawings
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52919232#msg52919232
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53094666#msg53094666
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg53109312#msg53109312
Yabes - 106 merit - sand drawing
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5193860.msg52817111#msg52817111
486  Other / Meta / Re: Use of TOR Browser for Bitcointalk on: November 24, 2019, 10:38:58 PM
Is there any alternative to navigate anonymously as good as TOR?

Not really, Tor's the best there is currently. Someone could definitely make something much better, though.
487  Other / Meta / Re: Use of TOR Browser for Bitcointalk on: November 24, 2019, 09:56:14 PM
If you are worried about a three letter agency having the resources to be able to set up and maintain enough Tor entry guards that you are likely to use one (and enough Tor exit nodes to be able to deanonymize your traffic), then said agency is not going to be stopped by a $5 a month VPN provider.

That's not an assumption I'd necessarily make. With Tor, you're getting a "random" Tor node, weighted to favor high-bandwidth nodes and by other factors.  If you choose a VPN in a trustworthy country, with a trustworthy record, then that's potentially safer. Attacks to covertly fill Tor with attacker nodes have been done in the past (see section 5.1 for the most interesting info). Attackers don't need to get anywhere near filling Tor 50% with their nodes, since you pick random nodes all the time: just 2 attacker nodes can be enough, though with low probability.

Also, Tor is fundamentally a centralized network: you can't be a Tor node on the mainnet Tor network without the approval of the Tor directory authorities. The authorities are run by people associated with, and using rules largely set by, the Tor Project. I don't know if I really believe this, but considering how weak Tor is compared to the state-of-the-art research and how poorly-thought-out the Tor Project's overall strategy has tended to be, I've thought that Tor could be an incredibly subtle "controlled opposition" operation. It wouldn't be necessary to control every single person in the Project, just influence things enough to make progress in less important rather than more important directions, slightly bias directory authorities in sane-looking ways which actually help attackers, etc. (I admit that this is quite the conspiracy theory.)
488  Other / Politics & Society / Re: People are burning the banks in Iran right now on: November 24, 2019, 09:01:35 PM
they will just have to assassinate top level members of the Iran government and put people in place who are Pro US.

What're they going to do, drone-strike a few people, airdrop in some replacements from Washington, and expect those people to actually be able to lead? Iran has institutions. If the top 100 people in government are all killed on a single day (which won't happen...), there are thousands of people in the Iranian government who currently aspire to someday have those jobs, and who will at that point have the chance to take them.

In order to install a puppet government, the US would need massive popular support. The US hasn't even been able to install its puppet leader in Venezuela, which has much weaker institutions than Iran and a much more anti-government population.
489  Other / Meta / Re: Use of TOR Browser for Bitcointalk on: November 24, 2019, 08:09:22 PM

You -> VPN -> Dest is often better than nothing, but definitely can't be relied upon if you need actual anonymity. The VPN can see everything you do, the destinations can see that you always come from the same VPN, and you're probably leaving tons of other traces because you're not using Tor Browser. Note that this might in some cases be worse than nothing if you trust your VPN less than your ISP; for example, IMO Cloudflare's VPN is more likely to have its traffic analyzed en masse by the NSA than your native ISP's traffic.

You -> Tor -> Dest is better than just a VPN, but there are many known attacks which can be used against Tor, plus possible 0-days against the browser, so you can never feel 100% anonymous. Also, even if you treat Tor as perfect, it's really difficult to remain consistently anonymous; for example, you might via Tor use the same email address to order something shipped to you as you use to speak out against your oppressive government, and that's a link that can be exploited. Even though Tor is pretty flawed, being far behind state-of-the-art research, it's these non-Tor anonymity failures which almost always get people. This was the case for Ross Ulbricht, for example. As I always say: if you think that you're perfectly anonymous, then you're wrong. Think of even the best anonymity tech as a light bulletproof vest which will increase your survivability a bit, not as an impenetrable wall.

You -> VPN -> Tor -> Dest protects against certain attacks where Tor nodes are considered evil, but can totally screw you if your VPN is evil. It might make sense if you trust your VPN more than a random Tor node. The VPN acts similar to a Tor guard node in this case. In fact, it'd be most efficient if the VPN actually allowed you to use it as a fixed Tor guard node so that you don't have a useless extra node in the Tor circuit, but nobody does this.

You -> Tor -> VPN -> Dest is much worse than Tor alone because the VPN can link all of your traffic together, whereas with Tor you change your exit node constantly. (It's also difficult to actually accomplish because VPN software isn't usually set up to support this, and VPNs are often- & best-done over UDP, which Tor doesn't support.) What would be useful would be if you could pay via blinded bearer certificates for access to a whole constellation of exclusive paying-only Tor exit nodes, but nobody does this, either... Anonymity research is pretty immature, but actually-implemented anonymity tech is far behind even what is known to be possible.
490  Other / Politics & Society / Re: People are burning the banks in Iran right now on: November 23, 2019, 10:58:02 PM
IIRC, US has x4 the military manpower [apart from other military technologies] of Iran but a war between these two is going to be ugly for both.

Currently, the US population doesn't care about Iran one way or the other. The average American wouldn't be able to find Iran on a map, and most think due to the similar name that it's basically like Iraq. They're OK with attacks against Iran that don't have immediate consequences for the US. But once American soldiers start dying and/or military costs become truly ridiculous, the US population will demand an end to the war. Certainly the US wouldn't be able to draft its population to fight in Iran.

If a military objective can be accomplished in weeks, then the US could do it, since that'll be over before the American population notices. If a lot of Americans die, though, there will be significant political fallout for whoever orders the attack.

The only way a multi-year campaign could be done is if Iran perpetrates an attack against the US similar to Pearl Harbor (or if the US population is led to believe this). In this case, the US could conquer some territory, but it still doesn't have enough resources to take and hold large sections of Iran. And after a few years, the costs in lives and materials would pile up to the point where it'd lose any public support that it once had.

A US vs Iran war would be like Vietnam, but much worse for the US because Iran is a much stronger target. If the US's goal is to destroy a few cities or assassinate a few specific targets, it can definitely be done, but the US cannot conquer Iran without a lot of support from either allied countries or a substantial percentage of the Iranian population.
491  Other / Politics & Society / Re: PURE CRONYISM: .ORG Registry value pillaged by ICANN ex-CEO on: November 23, 2019, 10:27:40 PM
With Mozilla & Google now moving toward DNS over HTTPS, they could switch to a non-ICANN root zone, though that'd be pretty messy, sort of like a contentious hardfork of the DNS. I wonder if they've considered this, though.

I doubt that the .org registry will actually change anything except increasing prices.
492  Other / Meta / Re: 10th anniversary art contest on: November 22, 2019, 09:37:48 PM
Thanks to everyone who submitted art! I was blown away by both the number of submissions and the number of really good submissions!

I'm not sure that I'll be able to decide on winners today as I'd planned, though I'll try to do it within days. I want to carefully review about 300 of the best submissions. My current expectation is that as many as 100 people will receive some BTC, but a few will receive much more than the others.

For the badges, I think that I'm going to collect the top ~50 most-merited submissions and let the community vote on the winners from among them. But I'm not going to think much about the exact framework of this until I've determined the BTC winners.

Thanks again!
493  Other / Meta / The Bitcoin Forum is 10 years old! on: November 22, 2019, 06:04:28 PM
The Bitcoin Forum is 10 years old today! The forum, originally a part of bitcoin.org, was created by Satoshi and Sirius in 2009, Bitcoin's infancy. In the first few years, the Bitcoin community was both incredibly small and concentrated almost entirely to this forum; by the end of 2010, there were only 995 users with any posts, and this was the Bitcoin ecosystem. I have fond memories of reading every single post anyone made in these early days: IIRC, it was only sometime in 2011 when I was forced to give this up due to the volume of posts. Over the course of 10 years, Bitcoin exploded, altcoins appeared, the community expanded beyond just this forum to a large degree, and an awful lot happened here on the forum. But we're still operated with much the same moderation philosophy as our first admins Satoshi and Sirius 10 years ago: create a "territory of freedom", and let humanity happen.

I'm honored to be your head administrator, but I'm only a tiny part of the forum. The forum is and has been a collaboration between thousands of people, including:
 - Posters, who make the forum a forum
 - Reporters, merit-givers, and scam-fighters, who make the forum (somewhat) sane
 - Moderators and admins of the past & present, who keep things running smoothly
 - Donors, sponsors, and advertisers of the past & present, who fund our operations
 
Thank you, everyone, for your continuing contributions to this legendary forum! Let's try to somehow make the next 10 years even more interesting than the last.



Also check out:
 - The community-generated list of notable posts over the forum's 10 years.
 - The 10th anniversary art contest, which received many incredible submissions. LoyceV created a page with the top-merited submissions. Thanks to everyone who participated! I'll create a separate post collecting the winning submissions once that's all figured out.
 - dannybrown's Bitcointalk game, an awesome interactive submission to the art contest.
 - 10th anniversary Coldkey.
494  Other / Meta / Re: [BCT FACT] Bitcointalk was originally on Bitcoin.org but ... drama on: November 22, 2019, 06:01:28 PM
@theymos What is Respect BTW  Huh

It was an SMF mod used here for only a short time as an experiment. IIRC, you could upvote/downvote users, but there were no effective limits/controls, so it was kind of meaningless.
495  Other / Meta / Re: Merit spree is underway. on: November 22, 2019, 05:54:12 PM
For anyone doing analysis: When someone makes multiple submissions, I consider the merit I've already given them when deciding how much merit to give later submissions. So if someone posts two submissions to which I'd normally give 50 merit, the second one will get less. Therefore, it'd be most accurate to consider my merit awards in terms of total per-person rather than per-submission.
496  Other / Meta / Re: [BCT FACT] Bitcointalk was originally on Bitcoin.org but ... drama on: November 22, 2019, 05:42:37 PM
Do we have any archive or something of the forum when it was running as bitcoin.org/smf/ or forums.bitcoin.org?

You're on it. Nothing was changed except the URL/domain.
497  Other / Meta / Re: [BCT FACT] Bitcointalk was originally on Bitcoin.org but ... drama on: November 22, 2019, 02:24:01 PM
Smiley That makes me nostalgic for when I was quite that naïvely revolutionary. The forum was pretty crazy back then...

What an awesome thread!  You guys have a ton of great ideas.  Has anyone seen Silk Road yet?  It's kind of like an anonymous amazon.com.  I don't think they have heroin on there, but they are selling other stuff.  They basically use bitcoin and tor to broker anonymous transactions.  It's at http://tydgccykixpbu6uz.onion.  Those not familiar with Tor can go to silkroad420.wordpress.com for instructions on how to access the .onion site.

This has big publicity potential and could increase the user base. It's just a bit difficult for them to build reputation as most people don't want to publicly admit they bought from there. Maybe private recommendations will do. Or people can say "I know somebody who successfully bought from them".

Or was jgarzik the one to suggest that domain?

He came up with it.
498  Other / Meta / Re: 10th anniversary art contest on: November 22, 2019, 06:36:27 AM
Please merit good submissions, especially any underrated ones.
499  Other / Meta / Re: Merit spree is underway. on: November 21, 2019, 06:21:05 AM
Sincerely worried for Theymos.
Contest is ending on Nov 22nd, a little bit thant 48 more hours from now.

500  Economy / Auctions / Advertise on this forum - Round 292 on: November 20, 2019, 06:45:37 PM
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, custom fonts, 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. No ICOs[1], loggable mixers[2], banks, funds, or anything that a person can be said to "invest" in; I may very rarely make exceptions if you convince me that you are ultra legit, but don't count on it. 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 11 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 0.01.
- The bidding starts at 0.01.
- 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. I have a small bias toward ending auctions on Fridays, Sundays, and Mondays.
- 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.

Price flattening

At the end of the auction, after the winning bids are all determined, I will do a "price flattening" operation. This has no effect on which bids actually win. For each bid, in order of lowest to greatest price/slot, I will reduce each bid's price/slot to the highest value which is equal to or only the minimum increment greater than the next-lower bid. This allows you to bid higher prices without worrying so much, but you still mustn't bid more than you're willing to pay. Example:

Code:
This:
Slots  BTC/Slot  Person
    6      0.20       A
    1      0.16       B
    1      0.08       C
    1      0.08       D

Becomes:
Slots  BTC/Slot  Person
    6      0.10       A [step 4: reduced to 0.09+0.01=0.10]
    1      0.09       B [step 3: reduced to 0.08+0.01=0.09]
    1      0.08       C [step 2: same as the next-lowest, unchanged]
    1      0.08       D [step 1: the lowest bid is always unchanged]

Payment, etc.

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.

[1]: For the purposes of forum ads, an ICO is any token, altcoin, or other altcoin-like thing which meets any of the following criteria: it is primarily run/backed by a company; it is substantially, fundamentally centralized in either operation or coin distribution; or it is not yet possible for two unprivileged users of the system to send coins directly to each other in a P2P way. The intention here is to allow community efforts to advertise things like Litecoin, but not to allow ICO funding, even when the ICO is disguised in various ways.
[2]: A loggable mixer is a service marketed primarily for improving transaction privacy which accepts full custody of cryptocurrency for a time and has the technical ability to log where the cryptocurrency comes from and goes to (even if they promise not to log).

I expect this auction to end between Monday and Wednesday next week.
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