This forum is a wealth of information regarding the future hilarity that would be widespread Bitcoin acceptance.

Scammers run rampant.  No one trusts anyone else.  Commerce grinds to a halt.  Corporate towns re-emerge.  California is renamed "Apple".

Paranoid people store Bitcoins in chips in their heads so they won't get hacked.  They get hacked anyways.

The latest wallet app has replaced Bitcoin private keys with a series of verbal grunts, for convenience.

A shadowy cabal controls most of the Bitcoins, using them to buy up anything even remotely resembling valuable capital.
Most people struggle to save up a few millies by fashioning crude imitations of diamonds and racehorses to sell shares of to the easily-fooled Bitcoin elite.
Which they use to buy drugs in lieu of food (which contains drugs also)

People have tattooed Bitcoin donation addresses on their foreheads.

Everyone you meet is from Portland.

Anonymous announces their newest campaign targeting people who don't use drugs as environmentally irresponsible.

New Yorkers adopt the idiom "The FED will rise again!"

Mollison, why don't you take a break from mis-quoting me for a few minutes and come up with a succinct statement of what your actual concern is.
I've read your posts a few times and can't really get anything new out of them other than that you don't like me.
And you think condos are a bad idea.  Maybe you could expand on that.

Though I do find it ironic that the most frequent suggestion so far is that I "haven't thought this idea through."
Even though most of us are here because we know that central planning doesn't work.
Lots of people criticizing me for not doing enough of it.

So, the reason I mentioned "a dozen people" and seasteading and skyscrapers earlier was exactly this.  I'd guess that most people would want that as well.  And a dozen people could do this on a 5 acre island.  And that's great.  But, a thousand people can't.

I'm kind of hoping that the number of Bitcoiners interested in this is closer to a thousand than a dozen.  Because, with a thousand people, we can eventually all have our own islands, or at least our own flats, and an extremely diverse economy.  But with only a dozen people, we can just have something more akin to a sleepy country club.

If, let's say we divide the island up right off-the-bat and parcel it out to a dozen people.  They each invest a bunch of time and resources into their little lot.  And then things slow down and eventually nothing changes.  It will be generations before our island could have a thousand people on it, let alone produce a seastead or a skyscraper.  And those dozen people would live perfectly boring lives, while the rest of the Bitcoin community gets nothing out of it.

But if, instead, we take the island as a blank slate, and say "what would you do with a little lot?" to thirty-thousand people, perhaps a thousand of them would want to live in a skyscraper on an island, rather than build their own house.  Perhaps they would bring with them an untold wealth of skills and resources.  Perhaps they would want to build seasteads for a living, and expand into the oceans.  Then, I'd say, we might have something worth doing.


Believe me, that would just be the beginning.  I have enough land already.  What I don't have enough of is lobster, coconuts and skyscrapers.

I know the fee seems excessive, but it's based on a cursory estimate of worst-case transaction fees.  Since I would have to refund on a per-address basis, it could end up being a lot of transactions.  Perhaps it could be less, something like 0.2% instead.  I haven't had a chance to make a more realistic estimate.


Yep.  I'm not too thrilled about dealing with shareholders, and I'm certainly not interested in dealing with regulators.  I can justify donations towards a common goal.  I'm not sure I can justify anything like GLBSE or the legal complications of shared ownership.  And I see no point in tracking profits and issuing dividends on a bunch of 5 BTC "investments".  If there are huge profits, those who contribute will be adequately compensated.  If not, oh well.  Don't send your life savings.

Besides, the point isn't for a dozen people to buy an island as an investment.  The point is for the entire Bitcoin community to buy an island because it's awesome.

FAQ Update:


"Current owners are American and have owned the island for 6 years.  There are no restrictions for foreigners in owning the island, and the Nicaraguan Government fully recognizes foreign ownership."

And, yes, I'm willing to relocate in order to oversee development.


The nearest city of Bluefields (15 miles away) has a fiber link.  I'm sure wireless can be arranged.


Yes, there is a reserve.  I have a guess as to what it is.  And I think a target of 40,000 BTC will get us close enough.  No guarantees on this obviously, since we can always be outbid.


This is the reason I've chosen a market-based approach to development rather than a corporate model.  With Bitcoin, I'm sure the community can find a way to make the best use of the available resources.


The plan is to buy the island, rent out the current facilities for Bitcoins, and go from there.  If that means attracting a developer to break ground on a skyscraper, great.  If it means building a small fishing village and exporting lobster and coconuts, that's fine too.  I think there is lots of potential either way.

Personally, I'm open to just about anything as long as a reasonable balance between development and the natural surroundings can be maintained.  I foresee a development process that is open, transparent and inclusive of the entire Bitcoin community, but aimed toward the economic needs of the market and neither democratic nor directed.

I know that's not very detailed, but that's intentional.  I see many different ways this could end up being a boon to the Bitcoin community.  Which way it goes has more to do with you than with me.  Pitch in a few Bitcoins and we'll find out together.


Most beaches dredge or import sand anyways.  That's not a big issue.

Blockchain.info tells me that my firstbits are 1sland.  Firstbits.com tells me that they are 1slan.

Doesn't this present a problem?  I see the potential for conflict here.  Which is authoritative?

Related:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=66508.0

Bitcoin has always been exciting to me for the crowdfunding opportunities it enables.  With all the talk about seasteading and charter cities around here over the last year, I ran across this interesting opportunity, and decided to throw together a little project to see if the Bitcoin community is interested in taking a small step in that direction.

http://bitcoinisland.org




This property is currently bidding at around $125,000 with less than a week to go.  So I think 40,000 BTC is a reasonable goal.  If most Bitcoin users contribute, that's just a few Bitcoins per person.  And we get an island!  I can't say whether this will be possible or worthwhile, but it's worth a shot.  If we can get close, I have an investor who may be able to put us over the top.


FAQ:

Is the island in international waters?
 Unfortunately, no.

Where is it located?
 http://maps.google.com/maps?q=11.802401%2C-83.661222

What plans do you have for development?
 No specific plans.  Perhaps a block of condos, or a self-sufficient eco-resort?  Maybe something more unorthodox, like a test facility for seastead development.
 The island will go wherever the market takes it.

What does this have to do with Bitcoin?
 Bitcoin will be used on the island, the property will be rented for Bitcoins, and the island will help to further Bitcoin economic development.

Where can I contribute?
 1SLAND4JQt2mhypA6cR7TSh2UunW4NU4y

What reason do we have to believe that you won't take the Bitcoins and run?
 I would need an island to run to before doing that.

FAQ Update 1
FAQ Update 2

I can confirm that upgrading (on Linux) from SDK 2.1 and driver 11.4 to SDK 2.5 and driver 11.9 solved this issue and increased speed of a 5870 from ~2Mkey/s to ~20Mkey/s.

Ding-ding.

http://betabeat.com/2012/05/14/fbi-that-bitcoin-report-was-authentic-but-it-wasnt-leaked-by-us/


LulzSec leader works for FBI
US intelligence uses private mercenary hackers to bypass "policy restrictions" and target activists


http://charlotte.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel11/ce031811.htm

Look, the people in charge of the US government are total criminals, with about a 12% approval rating.  When they aren't running drugs and guns and engaging in torture and murder all over the world, they're running hackers and other false flag attacks on anyone who attempts to insulate themselves from their ineptitude.  This has been well documented going back generations, and it's always the same incestuous group of drug kingpins from both sides of the political spectrum running the intelligence agencies, big banks, and military-industrial complex to traffick illicit goods, launder money and abuse governmental power in order to shut down their competition and rake in obscene profits.

And at this point, due to their "creative destruction" of trillions of dollars in real wealth in failed wars and various ponzi schemes, they have access to a ready army of millions of welfare zombies and middle-class soccer-moms with napoleon complexes ready to turn on anyone who refuses to march lockstep with them towards their global fascist nightmare.

I can.  First you need to become a FED Primary Dealer.  This gives you access to the discount window and the FED's various swap lines and other money at 0% interest.  With this oligopoly position, you can then obtain dollars and bonds at a discount, to sell to others at guaranteed profit.

Then the great thing is that this profit goes up during crises, when the Federal Reserve prints money in order to "bail out" the economy.  So all you need to do is create an artificial crisis via risky gambling with this free money, and you will get more free money and a huge salary.


It is a tax.  But the tax is imposed by the Federal Reserve via inflation of the money supply, not the "speculators" at large banks who benefit from it.  The Federal Reserve is a quasi-government agency, and absolutely does wield government powers.  Without special legal exceptions, nearly everything they do would be considered fraud.

But this certainly has nothing to do with small speculators who don't have access to the Federal Reserve, Bitcoin speculators for instance.

I'm just here to buy stuff, man.  A loan is, like, responsibility.

How do they expect interest rates to remain at 0%?  It seems like the way to win this game is to borrow as many occcus as possible to invest in the most valuable capital available, and then to just repay the loan with your BIG payments.  So, what is the most valuable capital available?  That's the catch, isn't it?  There is no capital is there...  I bet there are some pot growers reading this right now who could completely own the entire occcu economy...  You could borrow occcus to pay hippies to build... something... like... a pyramid?  Eh, I got nothin'.  This is epic fail. 

Just in case anyone is curious, this is Don Harrold.

Yeah, this guy is probably going to argue that currency requires a counterparty (government).  That's wrong, but whatever.  It's a commodity.  It's a commodity-currency.  The counterparty is the market.  That's more reliable than a government anyways.  Fuck him.  We don't need Bloomberg or whatever this guy does.  He's just talking his book.

I have to say, this really is total fail.

Voluntary trade is absolutely not a zero-sum game.  Everyone benefits.  And, in the real economy, efficient and complex trade requires price stability, something that Bitcoin didn't have before Bitcoinica.  Stabilizing the Bitcoin price is a huge accomplishment.  It builds a foundation for the creation of immense value going forward.  I have no doubt that this will become a textbook example of speculation working for the benefit of an entire economy, as it should in a truly free market.  I almost can't even imagine what would make you think otherwise.

It's amazing to me the number of people in this community who joined what Satoshi billed as a "decentralized currency," only to completely fail to understand what that meant.

This isn't an investment.  It isn't a payment processing network.  It isn't a ponzi scheme.  It's an economy.  And, granted, right now it's an economy built on drugs and knick-knacks and web services.  That's okay.  Rome wasn't built in a day.  Tides turn slowly.  There are milestones that must be reached before Bitcoin can become what it was intended to be.  And, granted, Bitcoin is different things to different people.  That's fine too.  But, really, I would expect a much broader view to be expressed by some of the people most responsible for Bitcoin's success.

Because that's what I see in the Bitcoin economy right now, success.  It might not feel like it.  The price isn't shooting up spectacularly.  Mining is more difficult than it used to be.  There is little innovative new software development.  Bitcoin services are under attack.  But believe me, it's there.  It's in the 10,000 BTC loan recently fulfilled.  It's in the solidly stable value despite 30%+ inflation.  It's in the immense network difficulty and the delivery of FPGA mining cards.  It's in the total resiliency of Bitcoin in the face of immense public and government scrutiny, while still challenging an immoral and corrupt fiat currency regime that has failed the world.

Bitcoin is clearly an idea whose time has come.  I know that backlash is growing.  I know that obstacles remain.  But don't give up before seeing it happen.  Every day that Bitcoin exists, it succeeds.

Competing to create the most efficient bomb gave us nuclear energy, the safest and cheapest power source mankind has ever harnessed.

Regardless, your point is correct.  Here's Tim Geithner making the Treasury more "efficient" by debasing US coins:

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/03/28/treasury-to-cut-costs-by-remaking-coins-replacing-paper/

There is only one universal measure of virtue.  It's not "efficiency," but it's not too far off.

Did you put old testament quotes on the cover?  It's not really a DoD report if it doesn't include quotes about smiting one's enemies.   

Well, crap.

Here I've been investing all this time in carrots, when it's Bitcorn that people want.

No it won't.  The limiting factor will be some obscure micronutrient like Flerovium that you didn't even know existed.  And by the time you learn about it, it will be too late.  There are already issues with the nutritional content (or lack thereof) of GM foods.  It doesn't matter how big or how cheap your grapefruits are if they don't provide the same nutrition as the organic version.  You will end up obese and unhealthy trying to eat enough to be satiated.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/9181#comment-892265

Does the irony of this statement completely elude you?  Private ownership isn't the problem.  Overpopulation is the problem.  And overpopulation is caused by incompetent governments that encourage population growth by forcibly re-distributing property to the irresponsible.

I guess you're under the impression that the US is a democracy?