Éire

[elvizzzzzzz]

Regards to all, and thanks for the chance to meet - we covered a lot of ground in a couple of hours.

That link about Blazr - bizzare - there has to be something seriously wrong about that.

[1715397595]

1715397595

[1715397595]

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[1715397595]

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[elvizzzzzzz]

*facepalm* *facepalm* *facepalm* *facepalm* *facepalm*

There I was on the train north out of Dublin, listening to a girl about the age of my youngest complaining about not being able to change her Euros to Sterling on a Sunday night, and thinking how much easier these things would be if *everyone* used bitcoin, and thinking about how after Saturdays' meetup everything in the bitcoin world seemed to be in a good place. I didn't take the opportunity to talk to those kids about bitcoin because I'd offered to put bitcoin on my daughter's smartphone and her reaction was to wonder why her dad would want *any* connection with drugs. *sigh*

So last night when I read up on the various posts and read the Blazr link I was fuming. I've calmed down overnight, and had a think about whether I should post anything about what is *potentially* a major PR disaster for bitcoin, for the cops, for Ireland's exporting SME's, and for Ireland's tourist trade. ( these two threads have 6000+ reads potentially world-wide so it may be only a matter of time )

I can't speak for the Guards, or even for the local cops, but I would expect that there would be some who are into bitcoin and I'd guess their reaction will be *facepalm* ... FWIW I had some involvement with bulletin boards way back when, and cops were involved in that community. If you knew, you kept *schtum* for obvious reasons. The real issue here seems to be a  Judge who has never heard of Die Antwoord ... JIK ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uee_mcxvrw

I have other interests besides bitcoin, hence while I was in Dublin I bought a 100g high precision LCD scale. So check that. Carries bitcoin and fiat monies around. Check there too. Mining rig pushes up electricity intake and the heat signature of the house. Check there also.

I'm *entirely* legit, and no, the idea that I have nothing to hide and therefore would be content to have a body cavity search carried out on my person is a non-starter. I've had that done by an attractive young lady on the national health and ... for the curious I might explain everything at our next meeting.

 *sigh* I'll say it again. The cops I've met are decent hardworking guys and girls trying to do their best for their communities. I'd read that the Bitcoin Foundation would be supportive of local chapters. Until now I thought that layer of bureaucracy was more trouble than it was worth.

*facepalm* *facepalm* *facepalm*

[fergalish]

Likewise ... Nice to meet you all too ... @Fergalish .. my address... 1MDTjhp8rVTM3bMNnCH77hEXWnGGpZBNLg

My Bitcoin address: 1MAHKULzqZb4evFFg9157LvnJhJQQbeYo7

Hey! 14x999VDuEd48ykqYrg8K6a1kto45a3BHf is me - cheers man! It was good to meet you!

Hey, I just realised this is the first time I've paid for dinner, or any food, with bitcoins! Thanks to all, great meeting. I'm gonna think some more about the ideas we spoke about. http://blockchain.info/tx/a1c25ceceee7b4eaf47bc3395d7f08024f8c3423d96975175ad65a48596927dd

Curious about that blazr link. Nothing illicit changed hands so it's a bit bizarre that the police would manage to get a warrant. I expect you need a warrant to intercept post too. I wonder would it be clever to pre-print a receipt in two copies before meeting someone, with a declaration along the lines of "The bitcoins being exchanged for €XXX at exchange rate €YYY/BTC to be sent to address 1ADDRESS, will not be utilised for any illicit activity and the buyer indemnifies the seller of any responsibility thereof." Then ask the buyer for ID which you photograph and fill in on the receipt before accepting any money, both parties sign and take a copy. At least then you have a written record to show a judge, just in case.

edit: I wonder will blazr be getting letters from the revenue authorities. €500 in cash is probably enough to raise a flag. Actually, anybody using this forum, or localbitcoins or similar, and has left a meatspace trail, has probably been flagged by now.

[DublinBrian]

I wonder would it be clever to pre-print a receipt in two copies before meeting someone, with a declaration along the lines of "The bitcoins being exchanged for €XXX at exchange rate €YYY/BTC to be sent to address 1ADDRESS, will not be utilised for any illicit activity and the buyer indemnifies the seller of any responsibility thereof." Then ask the buyer for ID which you photograph and fill in on the receipt before accepting any money, both parties sign and take a copy. At least then you have a written record to show a judge, just in case.

Thats a good idea. It probably wouldnt do any good. I dont believe the authorities are that interested in the drugs side. This is about protecting banks monopoly on issuance of money. They are using the drugs war as a excuse.

[jimdriftwood]

Hey guys
just signed up for this forum - just thought I'd say hi!! now to read up on more bitcoin info :-)

[Mahkul]

Don't know why I actually didn't mention it earlier, but:

http://visiconnex.com/

accept bitcoin in exchange for CCTV and Alarm monitoring services. As far as I know it was the very first business in Ireland to accept BTC (from early 2011).

[simplydt]

I tried buying a cable worth 5 euros at GSM today with bitcoins, but they told me id have to wait 3 hours for it to confirm. Really disappointed. I know some shops in Berlin sell you coffee for bitcoins, i doubt they will ask you to wait 3 hours to have your coffee, its only 5 euros! C'mon! In the end, i ended up using FIAT for the transaction

[Mahkul]

I tried buying a cable worth 5 euros at GSM today with bitcoins, but they told me id have to wait 3 hours for it to confirm. Really disappointed. I know some shops in Berlin sell you coffee for bitcoins, i doubt they will ask you to wait 3 hours to have your coffee, its only 5 euros! C'mon! In the end, i ended up using FIAT for the transaction

Lol... wtf, I can understand if you were buying a TV for 1000€, but come on!

[mathiastao]

Hi,

I'm looking for Irish miners for a short documentary on mining - anybody here mining or know anyone who is mining in or around Dublin?

If so, please reach me at bitcoinfilm.org@gmail.com

Best,
Mathias
Bitcoinfilm.org

[notoccupanther]

Feelgood story of the day:  Don't know if you guys will recall .. but this was the cool story of the shelter I was on about that was (and still is) funded by BTC ... https://www.smore.com/t3y6 ... stories like this help reinforce BTC's credibility methinks ... would it be worth it proposing the same concept to an Irish charity to raise BTC's awareness and support a worthwhile cause to boot? 

[fergalish]

During our meeting I mentioned deniably encrypted filesystems with multiple hidden volumes and complicated block analysis thwarting: rubberhosefs and phonebookfs. I can't find a link to phonebookfs anymore, though I do have the source code somewhere. I remember I tried compiling and using them as an academic exercise without success.

Rubberhose filesystem

More info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deniable_encryption

edit: found it: phonebookfs

also, Bruce Schneier says a bit about rubberhosefs

another edit: forgot to say, these systems are obsolete, unmaintained and probably insecure.

[DublinBrian]

I tried buying a cable worth 5 euros at GSM today with bitcoins, but they told me id have to wait 3 hours for it to confirm. Really disappointed. I know some shops in Berlin sell you coffee for bitcoins, i doubt they will ask you to wait 3 hours to have your coffee, its only 5 euros! C'mon! In the end, i ended up using FIAT for the transaction

Id be happy to insure any bricks and mortar shop like GSMSolutions against a "double spend" fraud by donating €100 or 100mBTC to an escrow account controlled by both myself and the shop.

The escrow could be done with the multisig feature of bitcoin but Im having difficulty getting multisig transactions to work. So if someone more technically proficient would like to assist, Id be grateful.

To be clear, this would be a donation on my part in order to promote bitcoin adoption by shops and demonstrate the security of bitcoin transactions.

[FinShaggy]

I'm not "from" Ireland directly, but I am Irish-Mexican born in America. I REALLY want to go to Ireland one day, especially for the Global Gallagher Gathering

[fergalish]

I tried buying a cable worth 5 euros at GSM today with bitcoins, but they told me id have to wait 3 hours for it to confirm. Really disappointed. I know some shops in Berlin sell you coffee for bitcoins, i doubt they will ask you to wait 3 hours to have your coffee, its only 5 euros! C'mon! In the end, i ended up using FIAT for the transaction

Id be happy to insure any bricks and mortar shop like GSMSolutions against a "double spend" fraud by donating €100 or 100mBTC to an escrow account controlled by both myself and the shop.

The escrow could be done with the multisig feature of bitcoin but Im having difficulty getting multisig transactions to work. So if someone more technically proficient would like to assist, Id be grateful.

To be clear, this would be a donation on my part in order to promote bitcoin adoption by shops and demonstrate the security of bitcoin transactions.

I found these two sister sites through reddit. Escrow is handled very easily for you. http://www.bitescrow.org/  http://www.bit2factor.org/  Here is the thread on reddit introducing them. They seem very well done.

I have neither tried nor studied them. Presumably they run in browser javascript. If only BFL would accept this for payment for a jalapeño!

[DublinBrian]

I found these two sister sites through reddit. Escrow is handled very easily for you. http://www.bitescrow.org/  http://www.bit2factor.org/  Here is the thread on reddit introducing them. They seem very well done.

Thanks for that. The bit2factor.org is pretty neat.

[fergalish]

I feel confident offering this because in 2 years of using bitcoin Ive never heard of a successful double spend fraud on a shop.

There was a accidental but successful double spend during the recent hard fork (sorry, can't remember reference but it's on this forum).

[k]

Don't know any of the people involved but saw this promoted on Twitter.
http://3dcamp.barcamp.ie/2013/05/bitcoin-panel-discussion/

It's a Bitcoin panel discussion at the 3dCamp (some sort of informal tech conference it seems) at the University of Limerick on Sat May 25th. Won't be going myself but might be of interest to some others here.

[Conba]

Thanks for posting that K - it's James here from @3Dcamp. We don't have an official tagline for our 'barcamp' (informal conference) which has been running in UL for the last 5 years, but if we did it would be something like - "Where the virtual meets the real" - as 3Dcamp explores the intersection of digital and physical tech.

For example, virtual reality, 3D printing, location based gaming, augmented reality and so on. Obviously Bitcoin fits perfectly into the theme and it's something I've been interested in for about 2 years but never really took time to investigate properly until this year. So I set up a wallet on Blockchain to accept tips (payment for 3Dcamp tickets is optional) this year and it's been a blast! I'm very grateful to @DublinBrian and @BitcoinIRL for being two early tippers. And helping me to figure out how to get started.

BTW, I just read the Blazr story and... wow..... can we expect a raid on the conference?!?! 

[DublinBrian]

BTW, I just read the Blazr story and... wow..... can we expect a raid on the conference?!?! 

Guys like Blazr are not typical bitcoin users.  The results of a survey of over 1000 bitcoin users showed that 90% have nothing to do with drugs

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Avvn4_NlztWedDh0bDEwbXFFOHBTOXhLZlNpVmhKWWc#gid=6

The sensationalist media reports of bitcoins use in black markets is not representative of the reality.

[Theraty]

Thanks for posting that K - it's James here from @3Dcamp. We don't have an official tagline for our 'barcamp' (informal conference) which has been running in UL for the last 5 years, but if we did it would be something like - "Where the virtual meets the real" - as 3Dcamp explores the intersection of digital and physical tech.

For example, virtual reality, 3D printing, location based gaming, augmented reality and so on. Obviously Bitcoin fits perfectly into the theme and it's something I've been interested in for about 2 years but never really took time to investigate properly until this year. So I set up a wallet on Blockchain to accept tips (payment for 3Dcamp tickets is optional) this year and it's been a blast! I'm very grateful to @DublinBrian and @BitcoinIRL for being two early tippers. And helping me to figure out how to get started.

BTW, I just read the Blazr story and... wow..... can we expect a raid on the conference?!?! 

Hi, when are you planning on having this conference and where exactly is it?