I made another thread about doing just that.  I'm on a phone, otherwise Id link it, but check my post history and weigh in there.

This is more what I was going for.  Explain where the 21 limit comes from, why it was chosen, and what positive effects this has.  Explain and demonstrate the rich and vibrant selection of products that is cropping up around bitcoins, etc.

So, with the influx of new people, it occurred to me that a new video (ala weusebitcoins.org) would be very helpful to new members and image as a community, explaining many of the common misconceptions in a visual and digestible format.  I've begun to think about a narration for said video, and my roommate has expressed interest in helping out (he's a full time graphics designer).  I figured I'd help motivate him to spend his free time on the project by gauging community interest in the project.  So the question is: If released on a purely donation basis for the good of the community, would you donate?  If so, how much?

Likewise, what topics would the community like to see addressed in this video?  Below is the things I've managed to brainstorm (by no means will everything here be included, just the things that come to mind):

• The 21 million cap: How, Why, implications, and myths
• A more in depth look at the way mining works, and why the blockchain makes the transactions secure
• Legality issues ("Legal Tender", etc.)
• Addresses, and common procedures for how to treat your wallet (past mistakes that have cost huge fortunes to be lost)
• Uses of bitcoins, and why it's not "A vehicle for illegal drugs"

Let me know what you think, and maybe I'll be able to kick my roommate into gear in helping me get this developed at a professional quality.

[citation needed]

If the prices are fair, I'd be interested in this.

"Newbie" subforum then?  Unrestricted posting, and allows other members to "vouch" for them and pay their membership fees?

Hot chicks?  IN MY BITCOIN?  BLASPHEMOUS!

Might be interesting to see a Small btc registration fee (or subscription fee?), combined with a small return when you post something that the community sees as worthwhile, tweaked so that the "average" user makes his money back, and a strongly contributing user can actually make money off well thought out, constructive posts.

Noone is making any promises.  Noone is "issuing" currency.  It simply exists as a form of exchange, which satisfies the bill for currency.

cur·ren·cy/ˈkərənsē/Noun
1. A system of money in general use in a particular country.
2. The fact or quality of being generally accepted or in use.

3 days?  I can't see past 3 minutes.  And even that runs me out of Mana pretty quickly.  You must be a pretty high level...

It all makes sense, considering your profile picture...  YOU ARE JOHN TITOR!

December 10, 2000 11:32

What type of money do you use in 2036?
(56) Its not very different than it is now. Yes, we have money and credit cards. However, like everything else, the monetary system is decentralized.

(57) Banking is based mostly around the community structure. There are no multinational banking or computerized economic systems. There are also no income taxes.

Where are you located?  My mom just offered to make the wedding cake in bitcoins, if you're somewhere she can transport it to easily.  She's been doing cake decorating since 2008, and Pasty in general for 12 years.  She graduated from the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu (before they sold out to the US We lived in London at the time).  If you're interested, she can send a portfolio, and if you can provide travel accommodations she's more than willing to travel to be a part of this.  She's been increasingly excited about the bitcoin phenomenon since I started with it last year, and wants to do anything she can to help the bitcoin economy grow (and secure some for herself).  I mentioned this in a conversation with her in the context of "look how the bitcoin economy is growing", and she leapt on the idea to do the wedding cake.

Trade had some confusion, some fishiness with the tracking number, but got the product when he said I would.  The video card worked great, but the motherboard was the wrong product, kind of pissed me off at first.  He was very accomodating and admitted to his mistake.  Then the clearcoin exchange went down with a bit of miscommunication, but in the end we ended up settling on an exchange that worked for both of us.  I'd trade again for smaller sums to build up trust first.  If you're super paranoid, don't trade, because the complications will give you a heart attack, but you'll most likely get your product in the end.

I just spent 50.

Dividing a bitcoin does not inflate it's value artificially.  If the value of .5 btc goes up to what 1btc used to be, then it's because of natural market forces.

Exchanging a dollar for 4 quarters doesn't inflate the money supply, but arbitrarily minting new dollar bills does.

Coins can ALSO be merged in a transaction.  A transaction can take many inputs (100x 0.01 transactions, etc.) and have a single output (1 btc).

I pointed this out in another thread (or maybe this one, can't remember), and it doesn't just apply to bankers.  It also applies to financial investment firms, because they can choose to accept their OWN transactions into the block without a fee, thus significantly reducing their cost overhead for investing in stocks and other such things that I don't have a head for.

You are claiming that the hashing rate has to increase forever.  The bitcoin economy is doomed anyway, under that logic, since there is a finite limit to the processing power of the network, and one day that will be reached.  Stagnation does not equate to a decrease in security.

Similarly, a decease in payout doesn't mean that all miners will stop mining.  Just as WE have no proof that what you say is true, YOU have no proof that miners will quit because of a minor drop in profitability.  In fact, we have more evidence than you do, since the profitability of mining has been decreasing for some time now (difficulty rate increase), and us miners are still here.  The fees, however, ARE there, and ARE providing a profit for miners, and ARE increasing over time, and WILL be there based on the current rules.  And, if bitcoin has enough miners that it can't be compromised, it stands to reckon that it has enough USERS to produce a high volume of transactions, such that the tiny amount of fee with each will accumulate to large payouts.  We've provided sample math for you, and you've chosen to ignore it.

We welcome noobs whole heartedly.  How would we expect bitcoin to become a global economy if we didn't want as many new people as we could get?

The issue WE as a community are having, however, is twofold:

1) The lack of research that goes into a post like this.  MANY MANY of these posts are about issues that have been discussed ad nauseam before.
2) The posts are worded from a condescending stance, in which the original poster KNOWS the flaw is there, and the entire community of people who have been here for two years is too stupid to have seen it.  It's also accompanied by ad hominem attacks on the people ("only an idiot couldn't see this", etc.)

Compounding both of these issues is a general pattern of poor communication skills, both in portraying their opinion (this thread, for example) and in comprehending the rebuttles that the community has offered.  THIS is the kind of new community member that we find frustrating, because some of us have been dealing with it for 2 years now.

For comparison, see how the original post of this thread could have been worded:


The community would have reacted MUCH better to this kind of post, pointing out that there's no inherent competition between miners for transactions:  A transaction can be worked on by multiple miners at once, and as a miner, lowering your transaction fee doesn't bring you any benefit:  It doesn't "bring you more customers" than other miners, and it doesn't make the block easier to solve.  Instead, we saw someone with very little understanding of the bitcoin system approaching us with an arrogant, flippant attitude (either intentionally or unintentionally).  The same kind of reaction happens in mathematics, a well known one being the problem of trisecting the angle, the millenium problems, or perpetual motion.  Many people who are introduced to the problem automatically assume they have a clever way of circumventing it, not realizing that for thousands of years people who are very likely much smarter than them have worked tirelessly on these problems, and it'll take a bit more effort on their part to make any true progress (if any progress at all is possible).