|
I voted 0.25 USD a day since this is a reasonable cost of a VPN. Nevertheless one needs to be convinced that is setup provides a level of anonymity at least equal to that of TOR with much better performance. Essentially a paid version of TOR. By the way I hold XMR as an investment and no DRK so this is strictly from the point of view of a comparison with TOR.
|
|
|
|
|
It makes a lot of sense for them to not accept fiat simply because of the risk of chargebacks and payment reversals alone. The precious metals bullion market is very high value with very low margin so the chargeback / payment reversal risk with fiat over the Internet is to say the least extreme. Add to this the marketing value of not accepting fiat when targeting the gold bug / libertarian market, and their move makes a lot of sense from a business point of view.
|
|
|
|
...
I don't use old hardware. I use a virtual machine for my wallets and XP is clean by default.
If you must run Windows XP as the host, and install the wallets in a VM, then I suggest running GNU/Linux 64bit in a VM. Oracle Virtualbox still supports XP. Give the VM running Monero as much memory as possible. I believe one can run 64bit GNU/Linux in a VM with 32bit Windows XP as the host, using Virtualbox. https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=46904. One must however enable CPU virtualization support in the BIOS. If your hardware is fairly recent then this should be possible. My experience is mostly the other way around running Microsoft Windows guests on a GNU/Linux host. In fact I still run XP, 2000 and even NT4 with this setup. The biggest concern I do have with a GNU/Linux guest on a Microsoft Windows host is key-logging malware on the host intercepting wallet passwords and / or private keys. Granted this may be safer than running Monero directly on Microsoft Windows but some of the risk still remains. For this reason I have to strongly advise against giving any Microsoft operating system access to XBT or XMR wallet passwords and / or private keys and would recommend the Windows guest on GNU/Linux host approach instead. |
|
|
|
Proof of cold can be used to at least mitigate if not eliminate the environmental cost and in fact to increase decentralization in a POW system. In a POW system if a use is found for the "waste" heat, and that use is only of value if decentralized, then the security of the network is still maintained. Proof of cold means putting the waste heat from proof of work to good use by displacing the energy otherwise used for space heating in cold climates. So for example a transaction in Melbourne, Australia where it is say 30C in January gets secured in Winnipeg, Canada where it is -30C in January.
Industrial mining appears to be concentrating in locations with the least expensive power and passive cooling. Increasingly, ASIC manufacturers are vertically integrating with industrial miners. The fact that mining equipment rapidly becomes obsolete means that an ASIC space heater will offset electrical heating costs for one season at most. Then the rig is simply not worth running at all, e.g. too noisy. I have three GPU mining rigs ready to heat my Colorado mountain home should GPU-algorithm coins ever again be profitable to mine, but I doubt that I will ever take them out of storage. PoW secures a blockchain that only needs securing because anonymous, possibly malicious, peers compete. Conventional financial networks are secured at much less expense, and the block rewards of PoW coins should be better spent elsewhere. It does not need to offset 100% of the heating cost even if it only offsets say 10% of the heating cost the the effective energy cost of securing the network is still actually zero. Furthermore the industrial miners have the same problem of obsolescence, and more importantly are still treating the heat produced as waste. This is frame of mind question. Rather than think of an ASIC that produces waste heat we think of a space heater that uses crypto-currency mining to offset part of its operational cost. As for the noise that is a design question. There are also many conventional space heaters that are noisy. |
|
|
|
Powerful Silverlight Platform(FRONT) To Manage Coins I hate to rain on someone else’s parade, but this sounds to me like a tool to mass produce scam coins that requires Microsoft Windows in order for it to work. First yuck for the scam coins, second yuck for the Microsoft Windows requirement. Edit: If it requires Microsoft Windows it is most certainly not free for everyone since a license fee, for Windows, has to be paid to Microsoft in order to use the tool. |
|
|
|
...
i find it also interesting about the circumstances of your scammer debacle. you borrowed Bitcoin. and in 2013 before the huge run up. someone who truly understands Bitcoin would never do such a foolish thing. those of us who do understand it know that it's a deflationary currency that's likely to ramp in value. part of that understanding is that it's a secure technology. no wonder you got trapped in a debt you couldn't pay back. now stop and think for a moment; a rational person would try to learn from a major error like that. it doesn't sound like you have.
The fate of the naked XBT shorts and when, if ever, will they learn? There are some spectacular lessons here: Pirateat40 comes to mind was it 500,000 XBT or 700,000 XBT? Then more recently there is MTGox something in the neighbourhood of 600,000 XBT? |
|
|
|
It will turn out that PoW is absolutely essential. Everyone will go "a ha" and that will be the end of the debate.
(I might be a bit too optimistic...we'll see...)
This is not optimistic, this is very pessimistic. PoW requires unbounded use of resources, which can and will scale up very much, even over the point of "no profit". I'm not only talking about the energy used, but also about the old miners produced and thrown away. We might end up realising PoW is the one and only "way to do that" (though I hope not), but that would be a very grim discovery. PoS is environmentally safe. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, maybe it will improve. Maybe something else entirely will come (Proof of Burn anyone?). In the end, if any safer method wins, it's better for everyone. Proof of cold can be used to at least mitigate if not eliminate the environmental cost and in fact to increase decentralization in a POW system. In a POW system if a use is found for the "waste" heat, and that use is only of value if decentralized, then the security of the network is still maintained. Proof of cold means putting the waste heat from proof of work to good use by displacing the energy otherwise used for space heating in cold climates. So for example a transaction in Melbourne, Australia where it is say 30C in January gets secured in Winnipeg, Canada where it is -30C in January. |
|
|
|
...
As someone said, bitcoin doesn't have to be perfect, all it needs is to be 'good enough'.
This is very true; however if Bitcoin does not address the 1MB blocksize limit via a hard fork, it will not be "good enough" once we reach this limit likely within 12 months. |
|
|
|
I very much doubt marketing will do the trick, but fundamentals can. I doubt a POS coin will do this but another POW coin that improves on XBT can. It makes sense that someday another "better" coin could come. Speaking for myself, I would not even consider using another system unless it....
1. Is open source.
2. Is a distributed, decentralized network.
3. Has no pre-mine option.
4. Has an unchangeable and limited supply.
5. Is accepted more widely than bitcoin.
6. Is based on stronger encryption than bitcoin.
XMR (Monero) meets all of these requirements except for 5. If XBT hits the 1 MB blocklimit wall before something is done then 5 can also fall. Add to this built in privacy, fast 1 min blocks, etc., and we have a potential winner here. |
|
|
|
The first question that comes to mind is how does one prevent the transfer of the bergstake? its not a currency, its locked onto the original address, so only way to transfer is to share the private-key. So what happens when the original bergstake holders die? I can see an attack here. Sell heavily discounted mining equipment to people with very low life expectancy, wait for them to die and then launch the attack. |
|
|
|
The first question that comes to mind is how does one prevent the transfer of the bergstake? |
|
|
|
AnonyMint seems abosolutely convinced that PoS cannot work.
If he says so, it has to be true. PoS should shut down all operations within 24 hours and go home. My understanding is that PoS has attack vectors that are not present in PoW, giving the attacker a cheaper way to totally control/destroy the network. On the other hand, even credit cards "work", in a way. Nothing is perfect, even PoW. One way to attack a POS coin is to hedge a 51% attack using derivatives. In this scenario the attacker purchases the coin and hedges the position by selling short in the derivatives market. The net effect is that attacker's stake does not equal the attacker's exposure. The main reason this kind of attack has not happened is that none of the POS coins have developed to the point where a strong and liquid derivatives markets has developed. |
|
|
|
|
The most critical in my opinion: Address the 1 MB blocksize limit to allow Bitcoin to scale.
|
|
|
|
I cant wait till people start fucking them up, RARRRGHHHHH CNTS!!!!!
Bro...
Have a read of my post above yours, and all the examples they put forward, this is from the ATO.
Does this mean that a normal NON-business Non GST registered person.. wanting to buy a Bitcoin from an exchange which are GST registered, need to actually pay GST on the bitcoin he purchases of the exchange?
You must read my post which was copied from the ATO to see what I mean.
PS -- -FoR those who don't know GST = 10%
Yes the way I read this if a "consumer" namely non GST registered person were to purchase XBT from an exchange in Australia they would be subject to GST. This is the bait for the government. The trap in which the government falls is when the "consumer" sells XBT in Australia either for AUD or even better still in exchange for goods or services subject to GST. My point is that this consumer now has a very strong incentive to 1) Register for the GST or 2) purchase XBT outside of Australia or 3) both in order to avoid and / or evade the GST. By the way I have been following this GST/VAT issue with XBT for well over two years. Here a post in early 2012 on the situation in Canada: First the disclaimer: I am not a lawyer The question here is whether Bitcoin is subject to the Good and Services Tax (GST) in Canada. The GST is the Canadian version of a value added tax. The relevant legislation is the Excise Tax Act http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/E-15/page-94.html#h-71. It may come down to whether Bitocin is considered "money" which is defined in the act as follows: “money”
« argent »
“money” includes any currency, cheque, promissory note, letter of credit, draft, traveller’s cheque, bill of exchange, postal note, money order, postal remittance and other similar instrument, whether Canadian or foreign, but does not include currency the fair market value of which exceeds its stated value as legal tender in the country of issuance or currency that is supplied or held for its numismatic value; There is probably a good case here under "and other similar instrument" for the position that Bitcoin is "money" and therefore not subject to the GST, given that its purpose is its use a medium of exchange in trade. and my comments in 2012 regarding VAT in Sweden (Another government that apparently has swallowed the bait) I have tried to sort out what applies regarding Bitcoin and VAT in Sweden and since some of the rules regarding VAT are harmonized within EU I thought that I'd share this in order to get some feedback from other EU citizens. These are my conclusions (I'm not an expert in this field so feel free to point out any errors or terms that I use incorrectly): * Finansinspektionen ("Financial Services Authority"?) in Sweden tell me that they do not consider Bitcoin a currency. * The Swedish Tax Agency tell me that I should treat Bitcoin as an "electronic service". Everything that is delivered electronically is considered a "service" instead of a "commodity", there are a few differences in taxation but I don't think that's what's important here. What's important is that since Bitcoin is not considered a currency a purchase with bitcoins will be considered barter. In barter, one should look each transaction separately so that if e.g. a customer (private individual) buys a table from a company and pays with bitcoins these 2 transactions should be considered: 1. The customer bought a table from the company 2. The company bought some bitcoins from the customer I the first transaction VAT is added by the company and recorded as output VAT. In the second transaction there is no VAT since the purchase is from a private individual. Later when the company wants to get rid of the bitcoins this will be considered a sale of bitcoins (regardless of whether they are exchanged for some currency or if something is bought using them) and then VAT should be added to the sale and recorded as output VAT. From what I can understand this is a bit problematic. It will be hard for the company to exchange the bitcoins since they must add VAT (in Sweden this is 25%) to the "sale". No private individual will buy at that price since they can buy from eachother with no VAT. Some other company could possibly buy them since they can deduct the VAT but at some point some company will have to return the bitcoins to an individual. Have other people in the EU reached similar conclusions? If my conclusions are correct it is a pretty big obstacle in getting merchants to start accepting Bitcoin. For Swedish readers, I have started a similar topic in Swedish at bitcoin.se. There is a very critical flaw in this argument especially in the case of Sweden. The "private individual" is no longer a consumer but is in fact a business that is selling Bitcoin and has to register for VAT. Sweden has in fact one of the lowest minimum thresholds for VAT/GST registration in the OECD http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/12/12/34674438.xls at 30000 SEK or approx 840 BTC at current rates! In a Bitcoin only economy every transaction would have equally compensating input and output VAT credits and equal amounts of VAT charged by each party effectively negating the VAT. The bottom line if that if the tax authorities choose to treat Bitcoin as a "digital service" they have essentially created a huge loophole for VAT avoidance simply by registering for VAT and then using Bitcoin for every transaction. I made my case that trying to collect GST or VAT on XBT or other crypto-currencies will lead to rampant GST/VAT avoidance and / or evasion back in early 2012. Canada has not to this point fallen into this trap (I believe thanks to the broad definition of money see my quote above), the United Kingdom fell into the trap and escaped, Sweden is trying to push the whole of the EU into this trap http://www.coindesk.com/europe-inches-towards-decision-bitcoin-vat/ and Australia has swallowed the bait. The point is that GST/VAT are by design consumption taxes and trying to collect them on something that is not consumed simply does not work. |
|
|
|
|
No it is not the end of XBT in AUS, but XBT and other crypto-currencies may have been turned into the perfect instrument to avoid and / or evade the GST is Australia. My take is that the Australian Tax Office officials are either extremely naive and do not understand how the GST actually works or what is more likely the case have their hands tied by a very narrow definition of money written into existing legislation. GST/VAT work precisely because barter transactions are very rare and they do not apply to the medium of exchange itself otherwise known as money.
What happens now when a business accepts XBT as payment for goods or services subject to the GST. They have to pay GST on the XBT, but to whom? To the seller of the XBT, formally a "consumer" and now a new GST registrant. The net result is that in this transaction no additional GST is collected since the GST on the XBT offsets the GST on the goods and services. The business now has an GST input credit which they can use to offset the GST they collect on AUD sales or even get a credit back from the government if they "export" the XBT out of Australia. Now what happens to our new GST registrant formally a consumer. Well since theoretically they are now responsible to remit the collected GST on the XBT to the Australian Tax Office, but wait they are now in the business of selling XBT! So they have expenses subject to GST they can claim (legal avoidance) and if they obtain XBT without paying GST (try collecting GST when XBT "crosses the border") tremendous opportunities for evasion. The net result of this will be the rise in GST registrations increasing GST collection costs and a reduction in actual GST collected. Initially it will be a trickle but once Aussies figure out how XBT and other crypto-currencies can be used to avoid and evade the GST, by turning consumers into GST registered businesses, it will become a flood.
Sooner or later the Australian government will come to its senses and follow the lead of the United Kingdom on this. G'day
|
|
|
|
|
Paying credit card rewards in XBT make a lot of sense and can also be very cost effective for the card issuer. There is also a market for this. I have a 1% cash back credit card and have for the last 3 years made the point of purchasing XBT with the credit card reward money. If a credit card issuer were to pay directly in XBT deposited directly into my XBT wallet. I would have a great incentive to switch just for the convenience of not having to 1) Cash the cheque from the credit card company, 2) Deposit the funds into an exchange, 3) Purchase the XBT, and 4) withdraw XBT to my XBT wallet.
By the way I do have a SEARS Mastercard but I hardly ever use it.
Edit: I would also accept payment in XMR but I doubt I would at this point accept another alt-coin.
|
|
|
|
... One interesting side effect of this is that it can also also be beneficial, depending on the jurisdiction and individual circumstances, from a tax planning point of view.
I always enjoy your well thought out posts. I'm curious what you mean by this. It comes down minimizing the upfront realized and therefore taxable capital gains on the sale of the XBT in order to purchase XMR. I am going to use Canada as an example since this is the jurisdiction I am taxable on; however this principle will likely apply to other jurisdictions. A purchase of XMR with XBT is treated by the Canada Revenue Agency as a sale of XBT for CAD followed immediately by a purchase of XMR with CAD. The deemed amount of CAD is determined by the fair market value of the XBT in terms of CAD at the time of the purchase of XMR with XBT. For a given XMR/XBT exchange rate it is advantageous from a tax point of view if the XBT/CAD rate is low. Granted this leads to a lower cost basis of the XMR and consequently a higher capital gain when the XMR are sold; however if the XMR are held for the medium to long term there can be real value in the tax deferral. I have recently being purchasing XMR with XBT; however I also had to sell some XBT for CAD in order to cover the tax liability mentioned above and factor in this additional cost in terms of XBT, in order to determine the risk to potential reward of the XMR purchase. This is particularly an issue for medium to long term holders as opposed to day traders. I must emphasize that it is never a good idea to enter into a trade or business deal with the objective of generating a tax loss, since more often than not this is equivalent to entering into a trade or business deal with the objective of loosing money! In this case however it makes business sense to purchase XMR with XBT when XBT/CAD is low since this can lead to a lower XMR/XBT rate. |
|
|
|
Chart is poised to repeat the July 13th type of turnaround. More and more, the buzz I am starting to hear is about XMR displacing DRK and even LTC. Even some skeptics seem to be commenting on the fundamentals, and in light of the CN controversy and how that is shaking out I am personally putting a bit of money where my mouth is right now.
I'm not an investment guru, but things just look twitchy right here... in a good way.
Obviously, there is far to go (messy code, database, gui, etc) , and the emission is still aggressive, but I feel like we are at a sort of critical tipping point possibly.
If DRK/XMR stays below 1, this is going to get very interesting. https://bitcoinwisdom.com/ |
|
|
|
|
Show Posts
