Well calling your elders "naive" is just a form of insult - and as you are younger then I'll just say: "screw you" (I feel no reason to be polite to you as you bring no intellectual interest to anything whatsoever).

In that case you should of course have worked out that the Core Devs do not all work for Blockstream (not even half of them do).

So what about the other half of them?

Also corrupted because "you think so"?

(personally I am beginning to think whatever you think is just rubbish)

So - why don't you stop with the rubbish posts thinking that you have some sort of authority here to say who is corrupt or not?

You even talking to me ?

I am not sure, because you are completely not on topic.
[/quote]

Is that some sort of "smartass reply"?

If so then I'll just ignore it.

(I thought we were trying to discuss some serious issues here)

Then why not educate the community about SegWit?

Oh - that is too hard - it easier to say "do 2MB rather than 1MB" - so much for your "education speal".

(people like you are the antithesis of wanting to educate people - you have no intention to do that at all - you just want to brainwash those that are stupid into following what will kill the very point of Bitcoin)

Well - it seems we have another group of people that do not understand how things work in China.

You can move money instantly for basically zero fees here (and have been able to do that for years).

So Bitcoin simply cannot compete with that - why do you think it can?

(do you not bother to check on these things or you just think China is the same as the US?)

The only thing that Bitcoin offers Chinese (apart from perhaps a store of value if they care to gamble on it) is the ability to move funds overseas which their government would very much like to stop.

I would like to know why that is perceived to be an issue (especially in China when you have payment networks that work instantly with almost no fees already)?

(such as Alipay, QQ, etc.)

So if we had a vote that said to "the community" you have the following two choices:

1. An increase in the block size.
2. An increase in the block size and a free beer.

Which do you think would be more popular?

(and perhaps if Gavin starts giving out free beers he might actually succeed)

I vote for free beer (with or without a increase in block size). Who's with me?

How about we start a "free beer" political party (who knows if we are successful we might be able to get free beer happening all around the world).

And sure enough - I had screwed up the endian so using: 02ff00 works as expected.

I think it was @gmaxwell who in an interview I watched said something like "I believe we only have one shot at getting this right" (meaning the Bitcoin experiment) and I tend to agree with that.

Although I am sure I am going to be shot down in flames for this opinion I think that Bitcoin could be one of the biggest opportunities to change the world for the better (starting with the financial system).

Perhaps the US might complain about the majority of mining power being inside China but if they (yes I mean the US government) just decides to buy say 10% of BTC then they are going to be the beneficiaries of all that work being done in China.

I also tend to think that countries like Iceland (where power is almost free and about as green as it gets) will be where the next "gold rush" will take place (and that is already starting) so it doesn't just benefit one or two major countries.

Well - I guess they are being very discrete about it then (would love to read my dossier).

As I don't support any particular government or have any political agenda I very much doubt that I would be of much interest to them at all (if anything I might be of interest to them for discussing crypto-currency technology but I think the Chinese do not think that they need any help with this).

In any case - the point of this topic is more about whether or not a government (I brought up the Chinese one because of the PBOC announcement but feel free to insert any other one if you prefer) might issue a "digital gold asset" and threaten the very point of Bitcoin (if it is still undecided about whether it is supposed to be digital gold or an inferior replacement for PayPal which is what I think the block size issue really is about).

Seriously?

You are paranoid - I live here and have done so for over 9 years - surely the secret police should have found me by now should have they not?

It is the corrupt rich rather than the rich in general (but perhaps you can't tell the difference).

Hey - if you want to support corrupt Chinese coming to your country then go ahead and roll out the red carpet for them (I hope you don't expect them to actually do anything useful for your own country as corrupt officials don't tend to be the kind of people that do).

Seriously if you actually wanted to understand China then maybe come over here to live for a few years rather than just spouting the propaganda about it that you have been fed (no different to them spouting the same stuff about your country really).

The reason is that they got their money corruptly - and are worried that they will get caught and prosecuted (i.e. they are criminals).

If you think that supporting criminal Chinese is such a good thing then go ahead and let them move into your country.

The "oppression" that you keep on going on about is actually in your imagination - how about you come over here to China and sit down and have a few beers to discuss?

(unless you are too afraid to come here because of the oppression)

Nothing - but you were talking about "the easiest way to move money" being BTC - it simply is not true in China.

(the easiest way is actually to move physical suitcases of RMB from Shenzhen into Hong Kong which people are paid to do everyday)

Back in 2013 (after the all-time high prices) the PBOC stepped in and made it impossible to put RMB into any Bitcoin exchange from a bank.

They could easily do that again tomorrow.

Also - most Chinese don't know about Bitcoin so I very much doubt it is actually being used much to move funds overseas at this stage (suitcases full of cash being carried over the border between Shenzhen and Hong Kong is the main way this happens now - once your cash is put into a Hong Kong bank you can TT the funds anywhere in the world).

I think if it is supposed to be a replacement for the RMB then it won't be a blockchain at all (so that is probably good news for Bitcoin).

There might be some possibility of it being backed by precious metals as China has been purchasing them like crazy (but I wonder what on earth they are going to do with all the USD that they have).

Hmm... maybe this is the plan - buy gold from the US (with the US dollars that China has bought as US debt) and then release the new currency backed by gold!

(destroying the American economy)

Also - where is all this oppression happening?

(forgetting Xinjiang and Tibet as the vast majority of Chinese do not live in those two provinces)

It wasn't happening in Beijing when I lived there for five years and I have not experienced it in other cities that I've lived in China.

Seriously - in summer I can walk down the street with a beer in my hand and no policeman would even look at me oddly (in Australia if you did that you'd be likely to be charged).

I have actually met people that were in Tiananmen Square in 1989 (I doubt many other forum members here have) and I don't back away from saying that what happened then was very wrong but it isn't what is going on in most of the country today.

You have completed missed the point (not surprisingly) probably because you are too restricted in your thinking (perhaps due to exposure to "western propaganda").

Understand that the problem China is facing at the moment is corrupt officials taking RMB out of the country - but you think that should be supported (that is not supporting "freedom" but actually supporting "corruption")?

Understand also that it not only allows but encourages its population to buy gold and silver (which you can from the major banks) so they don't try and enforce everyone into investing in fiat or property (neither of which have done very well in recent years).

Also compared to the west things are much more anonymous and done with cash in China (e.g. you don't even need to show any ID to buy a SIM card).

Well - this is where software comes into it.

You could create it just like Bitcoin but simply restrict the mining to certain IPs (controlled by the government).

This would actually be a government controlled asset that is externally audit-able by anyone running the software (I am assuming it is made open source).