Currently there is no need for 9 billion people to open a single Lightning Network channel. When the need arises, the protocol will evolve and scale as necessary, and in ways smarter than a mere change of a constant in a piece of code.

There's no need for this:

$18930 (USD).

No reason, just a number that popped out of my head...

Imagine an alien watching us humans as we develop ASICs and set up huge computer farms for mining Bitcoin.

"Why do they expend so much time and resources to solve these cryptographic puzzles? Is this vital to their survival? Do they need it for food or to reproduce?"

"No, they just gather the products of these solutions and hide them away in little electronic devices so that other humans don't take them."

PS: becoin beat me to it...

Guys 'n' gals...

Looks like we're going Carolina soon.

About time!

via Imgflip Meme Generator

$3996

Many thanks to micgoossens for all the games!

Quoted from above article:

"Both U.S. astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts initially used pencils on space flights, but those writing instruments were not ideal: pencil tips can flake and break off, and having such objects floating around space capsules in near-zero gravity posed a potential harm to astronauts and equipment. (As well, after the fatal Apollo 1 fire in 1967, NASA was anxious to avoid having astronauts carry flammable objects such as pencils onboard with them.)

When the solution of providing astronauts with a ballpoint pen that would work under weightless conditions and extreme temperatures came about, though, it wasn’t because NASA had thrown hundreds of thousands of dollars (inflated to $12 billion in the latest iterations of this tale) in research and development money at the problem. The “space pen” that has since become famous through its use by astronauts was developed independently by Paul C. Fisher of the Fisher Pen Co., who spent his own money on the project and, once he perfected his AG-7 “Anti-Gravity” Space Pen, offered it to NASA. After that agency tested and approved the pen’s suitability for use in space flights, they purchased a number of the instruments from Fisher for a modest price [$2.95 each]."

Carolina is lonely... 
No fun any more... 
No choo-choo... 

When moon? 

Guys 'n' gals... Carolina is coming...

Good things come to those who HoDL!

LOL, interesting!!!

Here's where "Carolina" started:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.msg22459616#msg22459616

NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Institute_of_Standards_and_Technology

Windows adjusts the PC's real-time clock using their servers (if you select them).

Edit: They seem to have corrected the Bcash misinformation, which is a good thing and shows that the erroneous info wasn't intentional after all.

Vanity...

If you have your coins in a TREZOR/Ledger (which you should), then you don't even need to move your coins or change seed, they provide user-friendly coin-splitting tools for BTG (and BCH). Can't get easier and safer than this.

Fortunately, I don't have any BTC in Kraken... But I do have 12000 € worth of altcoins... Let's hope we won't get Gox'ed!

It sure looks like a mammoth upgrade. Not normal. Not a good sign.

Of course it doesn't end. The "it" in my "Where does it end?" rhetorical question refers to the endless hard-forking, not to progress in general.

I don't think there's any point in analysing it any further. Some of us are conservative and choose the slow, scientific approach. Others are more impatient and want a solution "right here, right now". We can agree to disagree.

It's not a sophism. The key word here is "liberty". Are you willing to compromise Bitcoin's decentralization by HARD-FORKING it to a bigger block size, so that you can buy your coffee at Starbucks and keep a permanent record of it in the blockchain? Bitcoin's enemies will still exist, and will still spam the network. Then what? Increase the block size even more, to accumulate more garbage? Another hard fork? Where does it end?

What's needed is a solution that is inherently scalable by design, such as the Lightning Network (or better ones that will surely come). It just doesn't make sense to do a hard fork that merely alleviates the problem temporarily while compromising decentralization, when a much more elegant solution does exist, has already been tested and is almost ready to implement. After LN is implemented, there may be a need for a moderate increase in block size. That's the "valid reason" you are asking. A reason that comes from scientific method, not from a thoughtless "bigger is better" mentality.

The blockchain simply cannot hold every little insignificant transaction that is ever made. It is a waste of resources and totally inefficient. Back in the days when transaction volume was low/moderate, this could be tolerated. Not anymore. Have you kept every little note you've ever made in every little piece of paper since you were born? Do you keep all the shopping lists you make every time you go to the supermarket in a log book for future reference? Should every blackboard on every classroom be made to permanently preserve everything that's written on it?

There has to be a garbage collection mechanism in Bitcoin. We've reached a point where the garbage has become too much for the network to keep storing. The solution is NOT to make more room for even more garbage, but to find a way to destroy them and keep them out of the network. That's what LN does. Thousands of "coffee-sized" transactions aggregated to a single transaction that only takes a small fraction of a block instead of flooding the network. No loss of significance of information, because such information is not significant. No hard fork needed! Want to do an important transaction on-chain? You can, just like today. And you will pay much less fees than today, because LN will free the network from all those millions of petty cash transactions that would otherwise flood it.

Sorry for the long post. It just infuriates me when people fail to see the moon and keep staring at the finger pointing to it...

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." -- Benjamin Franklin

Just replace Safety with Throughput.

Be patient, people! The scaling problem will be solved, and it will be solved in the right way, and for the long term. Nobody wants a temporary "patch" that requires a hard fork and compromises decentralization. When there are valid reasons to increase the block size, it will be done.

It reminded me of a documentary I once watched, which showed that small mice are a delicacy in certain regions of China, and are often eaten alive without cooking! Yuck!

I like your explanation. That little mouse is a true HoDLer!

What a cute little thing!

I want to eat it alive!

Fair enough, and congrats on your gains, which, after reading your long reply to JJG, I'm sure are well-deserved.

I'm jealous!

That's what I thought too, and didn't swap... But was that the smartest choice? After watching my friend's Kraken account balance going from 2000 € to 30000 € in a matter of weeks, I can't help but wonder, what if...

But, let's keep the spirit positive!

Something tells me I'll be the winner of micgoossens' game this time. Which means we're going to reach $24777 on the 10th of February. Which makes us all winners I guess!

Go BTC go!


Edit:


I'm guessing the above post by Dabs is very much related to the first paragraph of my comment above...