5
Not because I'm not properly excited.
But because I'm in a perpetual state of zen-like confidence in the decentralized future of currency.

I'm not in love with the design, but it's alright.

As for the other ones, I don't see why the flag needs to have anything like a map of the earth or of the solar system. It's a flag. Most flags just use symbolism that represents the history of the country, its values, the people that live there, a stylized representation of some aspect of the countries geography, etc.

Unless we're really afraid that the aliens won't find us.

There's always the hopeful possibility that Bitcoin becomes entrenched in developing countries, even though it doesn't get widely adopted in the more developed ones. The Age of Cryptocurrency (http://theageofcryptocurrency.com/) talks a bit about people without access to banks. I think it was 5 billion people including kids. Many of these people already use alternative monetary systems. The difficulty in moving money in those regions and the high costs and risks associated to it provides the necessity for them... and for the Bitcoin system.

It'll be tough to reach all those people and install the infrastructure but since many of them are used to alternative systems it's not such a stretch. Plus, they have the incentive.

It'd be cool to have Bitcoin quietly helping the less fortunate while the rest of the world worries and debates about ponzi schemes and drug money.

I tend to be a technological optimist. As far as the energy cost, I have no doubt that there will eventually be a technology available allowing for competitive mining with less power consumption. (I'm also not an expert in such things and so could be full of crap)

But the solution doesn't exist yet, and this will be something that will need to be addressed. If this guy brings it up, others might also. To encourage adoption, we need to consider even the potential faults in the system.

That said, the article - especially its title - does seem a tad unnecessarily aggressive towards Bitcoin.

Wasn't that two questions instead of one?

Distance by Lyttet. Very chill.

http://www.lyttet.com/listen/

There isn't really much left to contribute to a thread like this.

I'm fairly certain all the points and opinions expressed here only served to enflame each person's pre-existing convictions. They did nothing to promote a constructive and balanced exchange.

Wouldn't be useful to point fingers either. Probably just better for anyone seeing this thread to let it go, maybe get up and go for a jog.

Can't argue with jogging.

Careful what you say about hackers. They might be watching 

I for one have no doubt that they are all very sexy, well-dressed, and have the coolest secret lairs.

Anyway, can't wait for the season to start.

Mettons qu'on a atteint la limite de 21M, les frais de transactions devraient donc monter, non? Pensez-vous que ce sera une grosse augmentation? Assez pour décourager des utilisateurs? Ou est-ce qu'on suppose que le volume de transactions sera suffisamment élevé pour être profitable sans augmenter les frais?

I for one choose to believe that within a few years we will all have learned from the mistakes of history and band together for the greater good of humanity.

That said, stay away from my stockpile of weapons, food and medicine and the land I purchased deep in the boreal forest.

Just saw the pilot. Can't wait for the series to get going.

What did you guys think? Does it accurately depict the world of hackers and network security today?

And what do you think about the main character's desire to fight for people's right to freedom and privacy, while himself spying on those close to him and influencing their lives with the information he gathers? Is this a common trait in the hacking community? Would you say that breach of privacy up to a certain level can be justifiable, depending on the circumstances? Or is this behavior as morally reprehensible as the bigwigs up top who would try to control our lives?

Guys, guys, guys... Among all you tech-savvy computer-smoochers, not one (NOT ONE!... as far as I can tell from my search...) of you mentioned REBOOT! Action, drama, giggles, geeky computer/gamer references... Now that was a show.

I only started learning about it about a year ago.

I was mostly taken by the romantics of the Bitcoin story and wanted to get involved in whatever minor fashion I could. I feel like I spent way too much of my adult life with my eyes glued to my feet, not paying attention to the emerging technologies that may soon affect our lives in both subtle and ginormous ways.

When my friend and I decided we wanted to play our (less-than-technically-adept) part in encouraging adoption and started making promotional tees for Bitcoin, we figured Bitcointalk was the best place to learn all we could and meet the community of people we wanted to serve.

My impression was that the Bitcoin processing system was mostly a means to avoid the need for a central bank like the Federal Reserve. This way, control of money creation is taken away from any one specific entity.

The role of a regular bank in offering a service for protecting people's money and giving interest in exchange for offering others the possibility of taking loans stimulates the economy. The problem is when the loans go out of control, if I understand correctly.

Sure, Bitcoin allows us to do transactions directly wit each other all over the world without the need for banks and credit card companies. But this doesn't give me a practical means of borrowing money for interest so that I can buy a car or a house or start a business, unless I am lucky enough to find people willing to lend it to me. Also, if I wanted to invest my money, I don't necessarily know how to go about it on my own. Even though a lot peeps don't like the idea, these are services that banks seemed pretty useful for.

If people are worried about out of control loans and speculation, then I suppose they would just have to be careful to put their money with a company that guarantees a fixed percentage/amount of liquidity.

I actually just learned about the pizza story a couple weeks ago. I had no idea the anniversary was so close or even that it was celebrated.

Guess now I have to find a pizza place in my town that takes BTC...

I tend to align more with this thinking. Bitcoin is still in it's baby years. Planning too far ahead will only create high expectations. We should adapt the system as we go according to what works at the present time and foreseeable future. For now let's just concern ourselves with encouraging adoption.

There is no known etymological origin to the word "dog". It just appeared at one point and stuck.

Don't banks fill an important role by allowing people to take out loans and so increasing people's capacity to invest in their businesses, buy houses, etc? How will Bitcoin replace that role if there's no third-party to store people's money, deal out loans and charge and distribute interest?

I'm sure this has already been covered somewhere but I haven't come across the answer yet.

I also wouldn't neglect the power of word-of-mouth. I've done some street-campaigning for charities like Doctors Without Borders. When this type of solicitation first began, many people had no idea what some of these charities were, even though they're pretty big. Now, I stop people on the street and most of them know what I'm talking about and had even learned about it from another person like me.

It might be difficult to apply that strategy to Bitcoin but I feel like combining media exposure with person to person interaction with informed people would make a big difference.

Do The Right Thing - Matthew Dear

It's a gem of a song.