[ANN][NOTE]DNotes - Celebrating DNotes 3rd Birthday - Forum Now Open

[TeeGee]

If I were still well enough, Dnotes, I'd like to write some theory on how increases in technology make a case for (evil, sneaky, incremental, ever-so-seemingly-reasonable) increases in government power. If you study anarchist and anarcho-capitalist and libertarian value-systems, you can see how The Bare Minimum has incrementally increased.

To take any sort of line-in-the-sand stance drives you to a sorta: "strong allegiance to one's own ethnic group anti-tech tribe rather than to society as a whole."*


*http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/communalism

Your theory on this is sound IMZ. Technology always improves faster than government can keep up. This leads to increases in government power by two mechanisms: by ensuring the technology doesn't threaten the establishment, and by using the technology themselves to entrench their power.

Whether you look at any potential danger: climate science, terrorism, crime rates, foreign governments, economic - the local government always moves to increase their power, and reduce the rights of the individual - whether the threat exists or not.

I see cryptocurrency as a vehicle that could begin to reverse this trend.

[1715661819]

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[CryptoBroker79]

Safe Cash Speeds up Blockchain to 25,000 Transactions per Second
Private, Permissioned Blockchain Can Process 3,000 Times as Many Transactions as Bitcoin, 10x Current Visa Average

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/safe-cash-speeds-blockchain-25-125600045.html

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Feb 24, 2016) - Safe Cash (www.safe.cash), a digital payment technology for banks, merchants, and consumers, has announced that it is able to handle up to 25,000 transactions per second on its blockchain -- more than 3,000 times as many as Bitcoin. The time to complete and final settlement is under five seconds. This makes Safe Cash the fastest private blockchain, orders of magnitude ahead of competing private blockchains that are simple forks of bitcoin or litecoin.

"Because of its slow consensus time, uncertain governance, and price volatility, Bitcoin is not a reasonable solution for banks, and it's not built to scale for massive adoption of instant e-commerce," said Chris Kitze, founder and CEO of Safe Cash Payment Technologies. "No open-source software can touch this performance. Our development team worked for the past eighteen months to solve a number of critical technical problems. It is not trivial. We also have a clear technical path to increase this speed to 100,000 transactions per second later this year, well in advance of that kind of global demand."

In an era of permissioned blockchains gaining favor with financial institutions over decentralized, freely trading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Ripple, Safe Cash is one of the first blockchains to be commercially viable that can meet the transaction processing speed and throughput requirements of today's market. Safe Cash employs instant settlement in under five seconds, improved security, and controlled consensus that does not rely on miners or any intermediary coin that must be purchased. It allows banks to wean themselves off the high-priced, inefficient SWIFT network that can take days to transfer money. Banks can have their own "white label" blockchain that they control and manage. Inter-bank settlement can be achieved with multi-currency wallets, a separate bank settlement blockchain, or a combination thereof, depending on bank requirements and legal compliance.

A demonstration of this technology is freely available at https://safe.cash, where the public is invited to get a free account to test out Safe Cash's loyalty token. Banks are invited to internally proof-of-concept test Safe Cash.

[DNotes]

http://dcebrief.com/bitlox-hardware-wallet-enters-bitcoin-mobile-security-market/

[DNotes]

Safe Cash Speeds up Blockchain to 25,000 Transactions per Second
Private, Permissioned Blockchain Can Process 3,000 Times as Many Transactions as Bitcoin, 10x Current Visa Average

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/safe-cash-speeds-blockchain-25-125600045.html

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Feb 24, 2016) - Safe Cash (www.safe.cash), a digital payment technology for banks, merchants, and consumers, has announced that it is able to handle up to 25,000 transactions per second on its blockchain -- more than 3,000 times as many as Bitcoin. The time to complete and final settlement is under five seconds. This makes Safe Cash the fastest private blockchain, orders of magnitude ahead of competing private blockchains that are simple forks of bitcoin or litecoin.

"Because of its slow consensus time, uncertain governance, and price volatility, Bitcoin is not a reasonable solution for banks, and it's not built to scale for massive adoption of instant e-commerce," said Chris Kitze, founder and CEO of Safe Cash Payment Technologies. "No open-source software can touch this performance. Our development team worked for the past eighteen months to solve a number of critical technical problems. It is not trivial. We also have a clear technical path to increase this speed to 100,000 transactions per second later this year, well in advance of that kind of global demand."

In an era of permissioned blockchains gaining favor with financial institutions over decentralized, freely trading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Ripple, Safe Cash is one of the first blockchains to be commercially viable that can meet the transaction processing speed and throughput requirements of today's market. Safe Cash employs instant settlement in under five seconds, improved security, and controlled consensus that does not rely on miners or any intermediary coin that must be purchased. It allows banks to wean themselves off the high-priced, inefficient SWIFT network that can take days to transfer money. Banks can have their own "white label" blockchain that they control and manage. Inter-bank settlement can be achieved with multi-currency wallets, a separate bank settlement blockchain, or a combination thereof, depending on bank requirements and legal compliance.

A demonstration of this technology is freely available at https://safe.cash, where the public is invited to get a free account to test out Safe Cash's loyalty token. Banks are invited to internally proof-of-concept test Safe Cash.

Pretty interesting, though I'm not finding any information regarding how it fundamentally works. I suspect it may be a centralized closed system, and likely similar to some of the other closed token systems on the market.

[RJF19]

Nice IMZ,

I saw that image on Facebook yesterday and considered sharing it here.

Obviously, as you were saying earlier.

2013, Bitcoin = drugs.
2016, Bitcoin = terrorism.

This is despite how all the evidence is to the contrary.

There are holes on apple Iphone AES chips that are large enough to walk right through. Mac's are a little safer because you can disable document saving to the Icloud. This being the case, I'm surprise they talk as though they can't get in - I postulated that it was to convince society at large to continue using apple products as though they were safe. Problem with that is a whole bunch of conservative professors from NIU started calling me crazy (yawn). For the record, these academics are the type who publicly say that supporting encryption is supporting terrorism etc etc - I'm amazed they're allowed to teach.

That said, John McAfee has offered to get into the phone for the FBI, but has not had a response. It is not this phone that they care about, but encryption full stop. Apparently the FBI changed the password and locked themselves out... lol.

Kind of throws a spanner into some of those wild conspiracy theories - if they manage to lock themselves out of a phone haha.

Couple quick observations:

1. You can turn iCloud off on the iPhone as well, not required to use it. I don't.

2. John McAfee eh? Same John running around Belize in his under ware with a gun? Hummm, doubt old John could break into anything these days. Perhaps back when I met him, but not now...

Everything is safe and nothing is safe. Totally depends on the skills of the burglar...

[kanus1113]

http://dcebrief.com/bitlox-hardware-wallet-enters-bitcoin-mobile-security-market/

Cool. They are adding coins other than bitcoin. Maybe we can get them to add DNotes.

[Dyna]

Safe Cash Speeds up Blockchain to 25,000 Transactions per Second
Private, Permissioned Blockchain Can Process 3,000 Times as Many Transactions as Bitcoin, 10x Current Visa Average

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/safe-cash-speeds-blockchain-25-125600045.html

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Feb 24, 2016) - Safe Cash (www.safe.cash), a digital payment technology for banks, merchants, and consumers, has announced that it is able to handle up to 25,000 transactions per second on its blockchain -- more than 3,000 times as many as Bitcoin. The time to complete and final settlement is under five seconds. This makes Safe Cash the fastest private blockchain, orders of magnitude ahead of competing private blockchains that are simple forks of bitcoin or litecoin.

"Because of its slow consensus time, uncertain governance, and price volatility, Bitcoin is not a reasonable solution for banks, and it's not built to scale for massive adoption of instant e-commerce," said Chris Kitze, founder and CEO of Safe Cash Payment Technologies. "No open-source software can touch this performance. Our development team worked for the past eighteen months to solve a number of critical technical problems. It is not trivial. We also have a clear technical path to increase this speed to 100,000 transactions per second later this year, well in advance of that kind of global demand."

In an era of permissioned blockchains gaining favor with financial institutions over decentralized, freely trading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Ripple, Safe Cash is one of the first blockchains to be commercially viable that can meet the transaction processing speed and throughput requirements of today's market. Safe Cash employs instant settlement in under five seconds, improved security, and controlled consensus that does not rely on miners or any intermediary coin that must be purchased. It allows banks to wean themselves off the high-priced, inefficient SWIFT network that can take days to transfer money. Banks can have their own "white label" blockchain that they control and manage. Inter-bank settlement can be achieved with multi-currency wallets, a separate bank settlement blockchain, or a combination thereof, depending on bank requirements and legal compliance.

A demonstration of this technology is freely available at https://safe.cash, where the public is invited to get a free account to test out Safe Cash's loyalty token. Banks are invited to internally proof-of-concept test Safe Cash.

Sounds great but a few key phrases caught my attention:

"Private, Permissioned Blockchain"  "Because of its slow consensus time"  "controlled consensus that does not rely on miners"

[DNotes]

http://dcebrief.com/bitlox-hardware-wallet-enters-bitcoin-mobile-security-market/

Cool. They are adding coins other than bitcoin. Maybe we can get them to add DNotes.

Thanks for pointing that out, I would like to see DNotes on a good and safe hardware device to give users another safe option.

[IMZ]

'Bitt’s version of the Barbadian dollar is therefore able to act as a digital asset, with its value honored 1:1 with the country’s government-backed currency.'

http://www.coindesk.com/bitt-launches-barbados-dollar-on-the-blockchain-calls-for-bitcoin-unity/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CoinDesk+%28CoinDesk+-+The+Voice+of+Digital+Currency%29

Reading as we speak: hmmm . . . one-for-one with the fiat, but not government-backed? (We've met with an entrepreneur considering a v. similar system: tokenising currency deposits, rather like a gold etf.)

[Chase]

A quick read in favor of a public blockchain.


US CFTC Advisor Chou Calls Blockchain Without Bitcoin Efforts Misguided

Paul Chou, CEO of LedgerX and the bitcoin advisor to the U.S. Commodities and Future Trading Commission (CFTC), says companies trying to use the blockchain without bitcoin are seriously misguided, and so far the concept is unproven, according to New York Business Journal.

Chou says bitcoin and blockchain are inextricably linked and must remain as such for blockchain technology to become widely adopted. Chou’s LegderX is working to establish a regulated bitcoin derivatives market.

Chou and other bitcoin advocates say without an incentive to compensate a wide network, blockchain will lose its effectiveness.

full article: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/us-cftc-advisor-chou-calls-blockchain-without-bitcoin-efforts-misguided/

[Dyna]

A quick read in favor of a public blockchain.


US CFTC Advisor Chou Calls Blockchain Without Bitcoin Efforts Misguided

Paul Chou, CEO of LedgerX and the bitcoin advisor to the U.S. Commodities and Future Trading Commission (CFTC), says companies trying to use the blockchain without bitcoin are seriously misguided, and so far the concept is unproven, according to New York Business Journal.

Chou says bitcoin and blockchain are inextricably linked and must remain as such for blockchain technology to become widely adopted. Chou’s LegderX is working to establish a regulated bitcoin derivatives market.

Chou and other bitcoin advocates say without an incentive to compensate a wide network, blockchain will lose its effectiveness.

full article: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/us-cftc-advisor-chou-calls-blockchain-without-bitcoin-efforts-misguided/

I agree with Paul Chou's position, "Chou said these are speculative proposals that take out one element in a complex system and have all the advantages of that system. “I don’t think are really correct,” he said. “I think the second you separate bitcoin from some of the other elements the use-cases of the individual elements are unlikely to be proven, in my view.”

There is now way too much "mad money" chasing after the wrong goose. It is becoming a very noisy and confused industry. Five years from now, a lot of that noise will be gone and there will be clarity. Keep it simple and focus on improving the strength of blockchain with a trusted digital currency that everyone worldwide can participate. As an early stage revolutionary technology Bitcoin certainly has room for improvement. We are taking good notes on how a new version DNotes one day can overcome many of the current limitations with a little extra.

[DNotes]

'Bitt’s version of the Barbadian dollar is therefore able to act as a digital asset, with its value honored 1:1 with the country’s government-backed currency.'

http://www.coindesk.com/bitt-launches-barbados-dollar-on-the-blockchain-calls-for-bitcoin-unity/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CoinDesk+%28CoinDesk+-+The+Voice+of+Digital+Currency%29

Reading as we speak: hmmm . . . one-for-one with the fiat, but not government-backed? (We've met with an entrepreneur considering a v. similar system: tokenising currency deposits, rather like a gold etf.)

Short story: Company created a Colored Bitcoin, which is essentially a fraction of a Bitcoin as a coin, as a representation of the Barbadian Dollars, to help local economy and the local unbanked.

Reminds me of the Bitpesa and Mpesa projects, with the added benefit of being a less centralized, in the sense that it operates on the Bitcoin network. Quite interesting possibilities.

[DNotes]

http://dcebrief.com/op-ed-when-the-fiat-hits-the-fan-should-you-have-gold-or-bitcoin/

[Chase]

This is a great article!!


Op-Ed When The Fiat Hits The Fan, Should You Have Gold or Bitcoin?

http://dcebrief.com/op-ed-when-the-fiat-hits-the-fan-should-you-have-gold-or-bitcoin/

[kanus1113]

This is a great article!!


Op-Ed When The Fiat Hits The Fan, Should You Have Gold or Bitcoin?

http://dcebrief.com/op-ed-when-the-fiat-hits-the-fan-should-you-have-gold-or-bitcoin/

Like the article as well. Very well done.

DNotes price is creeping up slowly, jumped again last night.

[DNotes]

Everyone here should give this a read through, because it does happen, and it's part of the culture and community that we have not only had to overcome in the past but will face again in the future. "Do not engage" may sound familiar as you read through, simple words with profound meaning.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/i-m-a-former-green-beret-here-s-how-i-would-bring-down-bitcoin-1456165726

[CryptoBroker79]

Everyone here should give this a read through, because it does happen, and it's part of the culture and community that we have not only had to overcome in the past but will face again in the future. "Do not engage" may sound familiar as you read through, simple words with profound meaning.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/i-m-a-former-green-beret-here-s-how-i-would-bring-down-bitcoin-1456165726

Very interesting, much of what he discussed is already happening. We should be able to learn a lot from sabotage attempts on Bitcoin, and as this style of attack becomes more prevelant, it will be much less effective.

You're right, "do not engage" is a great piece of advice.

[IMZ]

'Bitt’s version of the Barbadian dollar is therefore able to act as a digital asset, with its value honored 1:1 with the country’s government-backed currency.'

http://www.coindesk.com/bitt-launches-barbados-dollar-on-the-blockchain-calls-for-bitcoin-unity/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CoinDesk+%28CoinDesk+-+The+Voice+of+Digital+Currency%29

Reading as we speak: hmmm . . . one-for-one with the fiat, but not government-backed? (We've met with an entrepreneur considering a v. similar system: tokenising currency deposits, rather like a gold etf.)

Short story: Company created a Colored Bitcoin, which is essentially a fraction of a Bitcoin as a coin, as a representation of the Barbadian Dollars, to help local economy and the local unbanked.

Reminds me of the Bitpesa and Mpesa projects, with the added benefit of being a less centralized, in the sense that it operates on the Bitcoin network. Quite interesting possibilities.

Correct, Dnotes; but what intrigued me -- I hope I have untangled the basic details -- is that the currency they're tokenising is itself already the currency of an alliance of nations -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Caribbean_dollar

That is, a 'currency-alliance fiat' crypto -- !?

[DNotes]

Bitcoin Weekly Recap 2-26-2016

CTFC Bitcoin Advisor Chou: Blockchain without Bitcoin Concept ‘Misguided’.
Confronting Bitcoin Challenges at MIT-Hosted bitcoin Expo in March.
E-Coin to be integrated into Wirex Service.
Hong Kong Meeting Produces Some Agreement on Bitcoin Challenges.
Former Green Beret Explains How He Could Disrupt Bitcoin.

http://dcebrief.com/bitcoin-weekly-recap-2-26-2016/

[Dyna]

Thanks to Mark for providing this link, I found the following article rather thought probing.  

But frankly, I do not know for sure what to expect when it comes to each nation around the world issuing their version of digital currency individually. There is so much potential for mishaps, it would likely ended up with serious unintended consequences. 

The warning signs for the future of cash
FEBRUARY 25, 201612:27PM

REMEMBER when cash was king? Now cash is more like a minor duke whose stately home is badly in need of repairs. Cheques are nearly forgotten and now Aussies are giving up on the lobster ($20 note), the pineapple ($50 note), and all the rest of them as well. The decline of cash is accelerating.

The number of ATM withdrawals has also been falling fast since 2010, according to banks. Cash lasts a lot longer when you can PayPass your way through each day. Sometimes these days, I find a $20 note in my wallet and I can’t remember when I got it. Probably weeks ago.

While we don’t have as much actual use for cash any more, we still really like it.

On Wednesday, the RBA started talking about issuing digital cash, which would have some similarities with Bitcoin.

“The digital currency would presumably circulate in parallel (and at par) with banknotes and other existing forms of the national currency,” said the RBA’s head of payments policy. He emphasised the RBA “has not reached a stage where it is actively considering this.”

The central banks of England, Canada and China are also looking into digital currencies. They would let you transact using an electronic system, more anonymous and quite separate to your bank account.

But still, the rise of a digital currency instead of cold hard cash frightens a lot of people.

But it could make sense for governments to dump cash.
Cash gives government problems. They have to make it, watch out for counterfeits,recycle the old notes and coins and make sure nobody is stealing them.

Cash also undermines monetary policy, used to boost the economy. If the RBA need to cut interest rates to give the economy a boost, but if interest rates are already at zero, the government has a problem. If they cut interest rates to negative interest rates, we could just withdraw our money and keep it as cash. But without cash, you can’t withdraw your cash and negative interest rates become possible, giving monetary policy makers more options.

And there are more everyday problems — cash lets many dodgy things happen without the government knowing.

Just this week, a woman was arrested on the Hume Highway with $920,000 in the boot of her car. Sure, maybe she was just heading to Sydney to buy the median price house. But those amounts of cash are mainly the preserve of criminals.

In fact, criminal activity probably explains the mystery of the missing hundreds. The RBA keeps printing hundred dollar bills, but nobody seems to spend them, and we’re not sure where they end up.
The reason criminals love cash is however also the reason to be nervous about losing it. Cash is anonymous. If there is no cash, the government can see every little thing you do.

Whether privacy becomes the big issue of the next century is not yet clear. Maybe governments and businesses will know our every move and leave us alone. If they don’t, privacy could become our biggest headache. Until that is clear, there is a very strong argument for keeping cash.

Jason Murphy is an economist. He publishes the blog Thomas The Thinkengine.
Source: http://www.news.com.au/finance/money/wealth/the-warning-signs-for-the-future-of-cash/news-story/2a5607982ba7bbbb679cf058135bbc0e