No bitcoin in Iran

[giszmo]

Hi

I'm traveling in Iran at the moment and there is a good reason for using bitcoin here:
Due to embargo there is no international credit card you could use in Iran. Business men told me that their transaction costs are 8% when dealing with the USA as they have to send the money via Dubai.

Unfortunately using bitcoin is not possible for several reasons:
"High speed internet" is available to every Iranian in cities. Unfortunately high speed internet is limited to 128kb/s wich is a problem when downloading the block chain.
The bigger problem arises from the embargo though: many sites block Iranian requests including the sourceforge downloads for the client, google code for the source etc.
I could not find a link to download the bitcoin client here. Could you please add trustworthy mirrors for Iran, Cuba, etc. or just straight stop using pages that block the spreading of FOSS to such countries??

Regards,

giszmo

[matsh]

Could you please add trustworthy mirrors for Iran, Cuba, etc. or just straight stop using pages that block the spreading of FOSS to such countries??

I don't think you'll find "trustworthy" links, since SourceForge probably are prohibited by some kind of laws from doing that. If it isn't from SourceForge, then I wouldn't call it trustworthy.

Another option could be for someone trustworthy (such as Gavin) to host such files and post links here, but I would not expect him to risk getting angry calls from the authorities for this.

There are known ways to become anonymous on the net. I bet you can find solutions if you look a bit more.

[memvola]

How about Bittorrent? Signed packages, including the source code and blockchain can be easily distributed that way. Though, I guess if there is a way to mind people to check the signatures, I suppose it could be distributed using any other channel as well... Bitcoin Bittorrent is especially useful since the blockchain is getting rather big.

[N.Z.]

many sites block Iranian requests including the sourceforge downloads for the client, google code for the source etc.

I don`t think it is websites` policies, it is likely due to restrictions of datacenters or Iranian government itself. Otherwise it is just stupid. Good practice will be using Tor (with bridges, as public Tor nodes are blocked in Iran as I know).

Also you don`t need mirrors to be trustworthy - just verify signature or hash-sum, that`s all you need.

[gopher]

Wait a minute, is not SHA-256 algorithm property of the US Government?

Then soliciting to send bitcoins to Iran would be a violation of the embargo US imposes to that country.

The discussion about distributing software purse is thus purely academical.

[giszmo]

gah, guys!

this is not only about if and how could i get hands on bitcoin now but also generally about how will it ever be successful in iran and cuba where there would definitely be a need for bitcoin.

and no, the bitcoin download is not blocked by the iranians but by sourceforge and google code. they point me to these documents:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/sitelegal/wiki/Terms_of_Use#ProhibitedPersons
... oh, actually the desktop client is on github which is accessible but due to limited bandwidth there is little point in getting it up and running for me now anyway ...

and no, it has nothing to do with sha256 as all of sourceforge and google code is blocked here. sorry but that is a reason for me to use other hosters. too general embargoes are always evil.

[deslok]

gah, guys!

this is not only about if and how could i get hands on bitcoin now but also generally about how will it ever be successful in iran and cuba where there would definitely be a need for bitcoin.

and no, the bitcoin download is not blocked by the iranians but by sourceforge and google code. they point me to these documents:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/sitelegal/wiki/Terms_of_Use#ProhibitedPersons
... oh, actually the desktop client is on github which is accessible but due to limited bandwidth there is little point in getting it up and running for me now anyway ...

and no, it has nothing to do with sha256 as all of sourceforge and google code is blocked here. sorry but that is a reason for me to use other hosters. too general embargoes are always evil.

Someone could upload the client to rapidshare but why would the blockchain take "so long" even over 128k you should be able to at worst download it overnight

[memvola]

Someone could upload the client to rapidshare but why would the blockchain take "so long" even over 128k you should be able to at worst download it overnight

Because the client is inefficient? The best way to do this IMO is distributing a signed version of the mature blockchain with the signed version of the client in regular intervals. Checksums would be OK too. It's just hard to tell people to verify the executables and blockchain, otherwise it would be a major security risk for the users.

[Raoul Duke]

Well, if sourceforge is such a puppet in the U.S. government hands, i say take the client out of there, because it doesn't seem the right place to be hosting it.

[Valalvax]

You realize you only need to download the blockchain once, right?

[Nesetalis]

source forge blocks countries such as iran out of their own sense of right and wrong. not due to the US laws.

[Raoul Duke]

source forge blocks countries such as iran out of their own sense of right and wrong. not due to the US laws.

Read first, talk later...

Prohibited Persons

You represent you are not a person on a list barring you from receiving services under U.S. laws or other applicable jurisdiction, including without limitations, the Denied Persons List and the Entity List, and other lists issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security, detailed at http://www.bis.doc.gov/complianceandenforcement/ListsToCheck.htm (or successor sites thereto). Users residing in countries on the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control sanction list, including Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria, may not post Content to, or access Content available through, SourceForge.net.

http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/sitelegal/wiki/Terms_of_Use#ProhibitedPersons

I would agree with you if you said they do it because they fear what might happen to them as US based company/service, but punishing the people that live under oppressive regimes doesn't seem very open to me.
So maybe we should boycot Sourceforge out of our own sense of right and wrong...  

Now I'll never download any other software from there. Imagine they start giving US government access to the source code repositories so they can put backdoors in softwares, for instance bitcoin, would that be a good thing?  

I think this deserves a thread of its own, but I'm not eloquent enough to start it myself probably

[Nesetalis]

hmm, thats news to me. Interesting.

[Jack of Diamonds]

Well, if sourceforge is such a puppet in the U.S. government hands, i say take the client out of there, because it doesn't seem the right place to be hosting it.

This.
People in Iran are not "bad". They are normal people who want to live their lives.

No reason why they should suffer because of the things their government does.
I don't think it sits well with the concept of bitcoin to host the client on a site, which blocks certain people in the world from downloading it.

Every single person in the world should have equal access to the client and blockchain regardless of their location.

[Raoul Duke]

Well, if sourceforge is such a puppet in the U.S. government hands, i say take the client out of there, because it doesn't seem the right place to be hosting it.

This.
People in Iran are not "bad". They are normal people who want to live their lives.

No reason why they should suffer because of the things their government does.
I don't think it sits well with the concept of bitcoin to host the client on a site, which blocks certain people in the world from downloading it.

Every single person in the world should have equal access to the client and blockchain regardless of their location.

And even worse is that they also host the website... Can be seen in http://whois.domaintools.com/bitcoin.org on the "Server Stats" tab.

[Xenland]

Idk if this has been posted but maybe you can find this thread helpful?
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=37864.0

[defxor]

Well, if sourceforge is such a puppet in the U.S. government hands, i say take the client out of there, because it doesn't seem the right place to be hosting it.

To anyone who wants to make Bitcoin a bit more global I'd suggest approaching http://prq.se/ for hosting.

[max in montreal]

use open vpn, rent a server for 10 bucks a month and use its ip address. if you need help setting this up let me know.

[ThiagoCMC]

Hi!

 I'm already seeding the Bitcoin binaries, look:

 Bitcoin downloads via BitTorrent:
 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28689.0

 It have the MD5 files, so you can compare it with the others mirrors before actually open it.

Best,
Thiago

[ThiagoCMC]

Well, if sourceforge is such a puppet in the U.S. government hands, i say take the client out of there, because it doesn't seem the right place to be hosting it.

AGREE!