2013-02-01 CalvinAyre.com - Why Bitcoin Can No Longer Be Ignored

[evoorhees]

Quite favorable, I wonder who wrote it? 

http://calvinayre.com/2013/02/01/business/why-bitcoin-can-no-longer-be-ignored/

[evoorhees]

[wormbog]

Great piece! I wonder what the next SatoshiDICE will be.

[Gabi]

Wow, a great article. I read it all and it kept surprising me for how well it is written. It explains everything so well!

[n8rwJeTt8TrrLKPa55eU]

Quite favorable, I wonder who wrote it? 

A tremendously lucid and actionable piece of writing.  Thank you.

[dree12]

Quite favorable, I wonder who wrote it? 

We all know. Just use your name; "BitCoin Fan" sounds weird.

[Fizzgig]

Very well written article, very exciting for SDice, Bitcoin, and everyone involved!

[matonis]

Quite favorable, I wonder who wrote it? 

http://calvinayre.com/2013/02/01/business/why-bitcoin-can-no-longer-be-ignored/

Excellent article in a gambling pub, Erik. Thanks for "finding" it.

When I pumped Bitcoin at the 2011 annual KPMG online-casino-fest in Gibraltar, I started to learn the reasons why they feel the way they do about Bitcoin, the ideal digital casino chip.  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5266

Gibraltar is home to 22 of the top 28 online gaming companies in the world. The jurisdiction welcomed them with open arms unlike the US. I meet with these guys and also hang out with them. The bottom line is that online mega-casinos do not seem to perceive the payment method as a "competitive advantage" so they happily receive the other fee-based payment alternatives.  They tend to focus more on the competition for eyeballs and affiliates feeding them traffic so in many ways it resembles the economics of online porn. Also, more than one CEO said to me privately that their business has regulators up the ass on a daily basis about money laundering. So, in that context, Bitcoin is the last thing they wanted to entertain.

FYI, for your enjoyment, Ruth started the "SatoshiDice" of her day:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Parasol
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/54/biz_06rich400_Ruth-Parasol_TX20.html

[tjohej]

[Quoting a bit of the article]

without studying up on such esoteric topics as public key encryption

It is Public key Cryptography and only digital signatures, NO ENCRYPTION.
MYTH WARNING-->"Bitcoins are encrypted"
Then the technology behind the blockchain which is Proof of Work, or cryptographic checksums which are closely related. Proof of Work is just the use of cryptographic checksums to brute-force a specific checksum which will then be included in the blockchain(the next block that is). Sorry this is not so much an explanation but more a comment to the article. The problem I see is if people start searching for encryption in the technology public key cryptography, they won't understand BTC better and that's because there is no encryption used in Bitcoin. Only digital signatures are used

The positive side is that you can learn how Bitcoin works while you are here(bitcointalk rulez!), so that's a good thing.  

[damnek]

It is Public key Cryptography and only digital signatures, NO ENCRYPTION.

Isn't a digitally signed message the message encrypted with the private key?

[herzmeister]

nice that the "Bitcoin Fan" is accepted in the club and not seen as unwelcome competition.

[tjohej]

It is Public key Cryptography and only digital signatures, NO ENCRYPTION.

Isn't a digitally signed message the message encrypted with the private key?

No, encrypted messages are only created by using someone else's public key.
Your Bitcoin address is your public key.(speaking in pure practical terms)

Just a short example: You have a public key and a private key. Your public key can be shared on the internet so that people can send you Bitcoins. Your private key is kept your personal property(and you should keep it that way, otherwise people can spend your BTC) and is used by you to digitally sign bitcoin transactions which you want to make.

Everyone else, actually the Bitcoin software, verify that your Bitcoin transaction is valid by checking your public key against the transaction that you signed with your private key.

I hope I didn't confuse you any, please ask more questions. It took me quite some time myself to get used to the general idea with private and public keys.

[Roger_Murdock]

Great article! I think this part was spot-on:

Perhaps it’s a pattern of history, that people tend to adopt marginal improvements eagerly, yet remain wary of foundational change until they see others confidently diving in.

[allthingsluxury]

Very nice, thanks for sharing.