Dan - free to create new identities with bitcoin.  Not too anonymous but VERY deniable.  Mixing services, but tracking stolen coins is still easy.  Taint %

Alan - blacklisting is centralized by its nature. one bitcoin is not one bitcoin if blacklisting is prevalent.

Peter - Some coins are worth more than others right now

Alan - You would have know about them being stolen for them to have a lower value

Dan - "Fools gold"

Peter - you could accidentally end up with stolen coins

Victor - talking about blacklisting stolen things (coins)

Dan - taint "just is", he is getting philosophical about ownership.  Talking about lojack for cars.  Cell phone theft.  Taggons in explosive.  De-anonymization of stolen items.  Almost no stolen bitcoins have been spent.  EVERYONE is hording.  Dan is very excited and animated and its awesome.

Peter - who in room can safely store $1 Million of coins?  About 1/3 the room - 80 people, raise hands.

people agreeing that central infrastructure will exist, but people will always be able to take personal control

Dan - can the mom and pop store offload security  to centralized firms without having the centralized power abuse that trust

Dan - I tried to brake bitcoin for four months and failed.

Alan - lots of theory about security - I am trying to implement it.

Victor - Risk passed to individuals, who are least capable of understanding crypto and security

Dan Kaminsky, Bennett Hoffman, Peter Vessenes, Alan Reiner, Victor Chapela

My first live blog.  Enjoy (or not).

I'll second that.  The host at the tech museum told me it was the most energetic, riveted crowd they could remember hosting.  They were having a lot of trouble kicking us out even one hour past the scheduled ending time.  Looking forwards to the rest of the conference where the discussion can reach a higher level.

Just got of the phone with Dwolla - no hoax people.  Call them yourselves.  I asked about a warrant number or court order number and the rep. told me she didn't have any of that info.  But she did say that Dwolla has been asked to not do business with Mt.Gox and for the moment they are complying.

I'll be there, arriving Thursday afternoon, and I'll stop by the Marriot bar first.  I'll stand out, I'm gonna be the only person without a smartphone.

Of course they have reserves of USD, but not large reserves.  Maybe some millions, but that's not enough to protect against a crash.  When the Winklevii twins are giving there keynote(s) - maybe that is the moment for the bears to attack.  Satoshi having $100M worth more bitcoins is not the same as having $100M he can buy bitcoins with.  All Satoshi could do is stop the price from going higher.  All Bill Gates could do is stop the price from going down.  At this moment in bitcoin history with the market cap the size it is, there are very few people, if anyone, who has enough BTC and USD to control BOTH up AND down of the price.

Maybe they are 'ddos-ing' themselves, trying to induce some panic volume.  Gox is the only real loser when it comes to these low volumes.

I think the conference will have a positive effect on price.  BTC really started to take off after the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas where there was a bitcoin booth and a few announcements were made.  It wasn't much, but people always wonder what 'backs' bitcoin.  Here on this forum we tend to understand the true nature of what backs it, but for most people out there, seeing hundreds of smart tech people and venture capitalists gather in the name of bitcoin may help boost their confidence.  Even just that people are willing to show their faces in public may help take some of the dark mystery out of it all.

Bitcoin can be thought of like a company, but most employees have never met each other, or just one or two.  A little face time can inspire people even more than they are now.

The large players you speak of, they all have lots of BTC, not lots of USD.  So the main way they could swing the price would be down, with a large sells.  I don't see how it would be an ideal time for someone to dump BTC in an attempt to cause  price crash.  That would be when all of the USD are tied up in a conference.

Well of course I don't know, but I would guess they stay under $200.  I wonder what effect the conference might have on the price.

I will be driving to the conference from Olympia, WA, leaving on May 15th.  I'll have plenty of room in the car if anyone wants a ride and can chip in a few mBTC for gas.  It would be best to contact me through the craigslist posting.

Here is my craigslist posting: http://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/rid/3790916855.html

I will be driving to the conference from Olympia, WA, leaving on May 15th.  I'll have plenty of room in the car if anyone wants a ride and can chip in a few mBTC for gas.

Here is my craigslist posting: http://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/rid/3790916855.html

Nice job Cameron.  I'd guess about 60% of the time was spent on bitcoin.

As others have said, it is most certainly possible.  And for large amounts of USD, $50,000 and over, it would be easy to find a someone with the knowledge and verified accounts to help you facilitate such a transaction.  I personally would be willing to help any large investor set up a secure offline system and help them convert *any* quantity of USD into bitcoin.  If you want to pay me, I'll even fly to your location and we could work on the details in person.

Cause he lost 70%?

I sold 4.8% of my holdings at $239.  I was able to reduce my initial USD investment by 1/3 in doing so, and dang, it feels dirty.  Of course I opened up an equivalent USD value of buy orders at various points in the $100 - $200 range.  If my holdings grow another 5x, I'll probably drop another 10% into some metals.

I like AdamstgBit's perspective, except I don't have a wife and kids.

Yep.  Maybe if we all go in on a big order of safes we can negotiate a discount.