One of the reasons why Bitcoin is so brilliant is that FRB (Fractional Reserve Banking) is actually much more difficult than with any other monetary system. Even with gold it's very much possible even though the base money (gold) can't be expanded. In a fiat money system even the base money can be expanded forever and ever, which is exactly what the central banks do.

With Bitcoin there is a radical difference. The base money is essentially as fixed as gold but the big difference is that it's independent of centralized institutions. With Bitcoin there is a very limited need or advantage to deposit your money anywhere. This is why a large portion of Bitcoin transactions will always move outside the banks and this will make it impossible to practise fractional reserve lending in any major capacity.

It will of course be possible and even likely, but instead of banks having 10% reserves, Bitcoin banks will have much larger reserves. This is of course a VERY GOOD thing, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Tell that "economist" to read something else for a change. Recommend Schlichter's "Paper Money Collapse".

Bitcoin can be lent, but cannot create credit in the way that fiat currencies can.  Currently, large economies are making up (creating from thin air) huge amounts of currency to buy debt and other assets, manipulating the economy.  This is not possible with BTC which is one of the major advantages of it.  However, this is not the way the economy currently works.  BTC will give users a guarentee that it will not be devalued by a central bank printing more BTC, BUT it does make it less flexible for those central banks and will therefore never be adopted by them.  This is a currency of the people for the poeple!

Ehh, firstly, it's the easiest thing in the world to create bitcoin-denominated credit. This is being done all the time on this forum. Of course because of the limited nature of the resource, no sane person wants to owe anyone huge amounts of bitcoins.

Bitcoin is not even supposed to replace inflationary currencies, but complement them. It is not clear if bitcoin can ever be technically scaled up enough to be the sole exchange medium in the world. On the other hand, sovereign nations need to be able to issue their own inflationary currencies through their central banks just to continue functioning, at least in the current environment.

I could see Bitcoin eventually replacing some "specialty" pseudocurrencies, like the SDR, if it really takes off. It won't ever replace fiat.

The unpayable debts will be defaulted, either outright via repudiation and/or dissolution of governments, or via inflation. The consequences of these defaults are not avoidable but Bitcoin represents a way to prevent the situation from happening again.

This is a great idea! As you mentioned, Dooglus did write a python script which verifies the secret and outputs the final shuffle of the deck given the Hash(secret), secret and the client_seed. Additionally, we have a javascript hand verifier located at https://bitzino.com/about/fair. If you are inclined to take a deeper look at the code for our verifier, you can view the source of that page and see the javascript verifier - it's just 100 lines of well-commented code.

However, I understand that you may want to verify on your own without relying on having coding expertise or relying on code that is hosted on our own website. To that end, I've outlined the steps to do this below: (unfortunately, there will be just a little bit of "coding", but it's really just copying and pasting certain commands into a javascript console. This is necessary because there isn't an online implementation that I could find of the Fisher-Yates shuffle algorithm)

Step 1: Verify the Hash(secret) is derived from the secret

After playing a hand of any game at bitzino, go to http://www.movable-type.co.uk/scripts/sha256.html, and copy and paste the Secret in to the box. Click on the "Generate Hash" button, and verify that the hash generated on that website matches the Hash(secret) you see on bitzino.

Step 2: Generate the seed from the client_seed and the server_seed

While still on the same website, copy and paste the client_seed into the box, followed directly by the server_seed (the server_seed is part of the Secret). E.g, if the client_seed is "ABC", and the server seed is "123", the box should have "ABC123" in it. (Also, make sure you're copying the client_seed from "Last hand" on bitZino, not from the "Next hand"). Click on the "Generate Hash" button. Now, keep this page open, because we will be using this Hash later.

Step 3: Set up a javascript console with the Mersenne Twister function

Go to http://jsconsole.com. This is a javascript console, and it's where we'll be completing all of the following steps.

Copy and paste all of the code from https://bitzino.com/static/MersenneTwister19937.js into the javascript console. This will initialize the Mersenne Twister function which will be used later on.

If you'd like to verify that the above code is indeed a pristine copy of the Mersenne Twister, you can download the original zip file from http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/VERSIONS/JAVASCRIPT/java-script.html

Step 4: Seed the random number generator

Type the following commands into the jsconsole:


Note that the first line of code isn't actually <hash value from step 2>, you should replace that part with the value you got from step 2.

Step 5: Set up the initial_shuffle

Create a variable in the jsconsole that is equal to the initial_shuffle from bitzino. (The initial_shuffle is part of the Secret).


Step 6: Reshuffle the deck using the Mersenne Twister RNG, and the Fisher-Yates shuffling algorithm

Copy this code into the jsconsole:


At this point, the jsconsole will spit out a value that should be identical to bitZino's final_shuffle.

Final thoughts

I really wish there were an online Fisher-Yates/Mersenne Twister card shuffler, so that every step in this process would be as easy as step 1. If anyone

does know of one, please let me know so that I can make this process easier! I also recognize that you are still depending on a lot of code that is just copied directly from me, but I think the fact that it
's posted here publicly should show that it is honest, and does what it says it does.

I hope this helps!

I can't see these.

I am not qualified to judge what outcome would be best for Bitcoin.  Perhaps it's best to ask ourselves what outcome would be most desirable for those who oppose it?

There are prior examples of informal opinions from the government agencies - here is one:


source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028155.600-future-of-money-virtual-cash-gets-real.html

TYDIRocks messaged me that when he restarts GUIminer, the window is again off of the screen.  Here's a couple solutions:

• After using the above method to get your window back on the screen, menu File -> Save settings
• Modify the .ini file:
  Close your GUIminer (make sure you close the one in the tray also, don't know how many times I've had two or three instances running before I remembered to close those, too).
  
  Look here:
  C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\poclbm\
  
  and double-click: poclbm.ini
  
  towards the end of that file I found this:
      "window_position": [
          250,
          250,
          448,
          279
      ]
  
  
  I'm guessing yours are such that it appears off of the screen.  Change yours, save it, and re-start GUIminer.  Hopefully it will be on your screen now.
  

It's nice to see live Bruce's chat with people you know by reputation. Great stuff.