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

[Dyna]

Bitcoin Weekly Recap 3-11-2016

BitQuick Now Using BitGo Instant
BitAccess Announces Bitcoin Purchase Option across Canada
Coinbase Announces Debit Card Bitcoin Purchase Feature
BitPay Report Shows Rising Bitcoin Business to Business Payments
Consensus Escapes Satoshi Roundtable

http://dcebrief.com/bitcoin-weekly-recap-3-11-2016/

Excellent recap. "Consensus Escapes Satoshi Roundtable" is an important read you should not miss. This is a serious pitfall of Bitcoin that could lead to very costly consequences. It is very concerning. Any major setback will affect the entire industry.

Consensus Escapes Satoshi Roundtable
http://dcebrief.com/bitcoin-weekly-recap-3-11-2016/

More than seventy members of the Bitcoin community participated in the Satoshi Roundtable event in Florida last weekend, including miners, Bitcoin core developers, and representatives from Bitcoin firms. As might be expected, much of the conference focused on the issue of blockchain scaling. Anyone who showed up at the event expecting the participants to develop any sort of consensus, however, would have left sorely disappointed.

Two of the participants, Gavin Andresen and Brian Armstrong, walked away from the conference with markedly different perspectives. In separate blog postings this week, each man offered his own unique take on the conference, while also providing a glimpse into preferred paths forward.
Both men’s accounts of the proceedings seem to reflect a similar sense of frustration that there are still so many people resisting any serious effort at resolving the block size issue. Their blog accounts, however, do reveal that even they have some obvious differences when it comes to identifying why these divisions remain so hard to overcome.

Armstrong identified the Bitcoin core team’s inability to accept a good solution as a major roadblock to progress, noting that they are resisting a helpful solution now due to their concerns that unhelpful decisions might be made at some unknown point in the future. Not content to simply identify perceived problems, Armstrong also offered his own thoughts on a possible solution that includes an immediate block size increase to 2 MB, an increased effort to communicate the benefits to Chinese miners, and a commitment to building a new protocol team.

Andresen’s post expressed pessimism about the whole process, and focused on the mining community’s reluctance to wield veto power, confusion about the current process, and the apparent unwillingness of some in the development community to support any on-chain solution at this point. In the end, Andresen concluded that these are all signs that the Bitcoin network is in an extremely unhealthy state – and likely to remain so until wiser and cooler heads prevail.

Great Recap Ken!

Not being able to reach a consensus, and even worse, having every disagreement or discussion publicized worldwide, it very damaging for the industry. The people involved may be using public infighting to garner support for their side, but it isn't helping their cause.

Good news - all the new ways to make Bitcoin purchasing easier!

We are watching all these Bitcoin infighting very attentively, least we fall into the same trap when DNotes reach a certain scale. We must continue to keep things simple. When we are finally ready to upgrade the DNotes blockchain, we must be able to leap-from the industry and resolve all the known problems and limitations. We are committed to the long term and in no hurry to just do something. We may appear to be slow and quiet at times. Behind the scene, it quite a different story.

[1715687402]

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[1715687402]

1715687402

[Chase]

This is an awesome article from the CEO and co-founder of The BitFury Group:


The Missing Piece of the Internet is Here: 5 Fundamental Facts Everyone Needs to Know About The Bitcoin Blockchain

#4 "...without the security provided by the computing power of the Bitcoin Blockchain, the property prized most — immutability — is no longer a given and is just one hack away from someone corrupting not just identity information, but real value as well."

#5 "Everyone who cares about making opportunities available to anyone in the world, who believes in democracy and the power of the people to have a voice and say in their future, should be interested in and enthusiastic about the Bitcoin Blockchain."

"I grew up in Latvia during the fall of the Soviet Union. I saw people lose their pensions, their entire savings, their lives’ work, their dreams. I promised myself that if I could help it, I would work to ensure this never happens again. Billions of people all around the globe do not have the rights to transfer assets and many who do are forced to go through corrupt or dysfunctional emissaries and governments. If we could record and move assets in a way that protects individual citizens, then democracy, rule of law and capitalism will all be strengthened. With this missing part of the internet finally in place, we don’t have to wonder “what if” anymore — the future is here, and we can make a difference."

https://medium.com/@BitFuryGroup/the-missing-piece-of-the-internet-is-here-5-fundamental-facts-everyone-needs-to-know-about-the-6ed5fc6d57a#.mqnr8225h

[IMZ]

“ . . . the mining community’s reluctance to wield veto power . . . ‘

“Not being able to reach a consensus, and even worse, having every disagreement or discussion publicized worldwide . . .  ‘

Warning: this essay is shockingly simplistic:

those unfamiliar with practical and theoretical anarchist politics – which is pretty much what ‘open source’ is – are spooked by the messiness of its processes. They are used to social governance models in which the bickering is done quietly and out of sight. The point, though, is: does the squabbling produce results that justify the squabbling?

Nuh.

Why the squabbling? Because anarchism rejects all forms of ‘standing’ authority, which I consider a 'hyper-correction.'

And in ‘real world’ anarchist milieus, the squabbles often end up in the group splitting, and new groups forming as a consequence, and it's not seen so much as failure as process.

However, you can’t do that with crypto-currency development. The dissenting parties can’t hack the blockchain into lengths, and go their separate ways.

So crypto enthusiasts should look to governance models akin to the libertarian ‘night-watchmen state’ in which (carefully carefully monitored) ‘minor centralisations’ occur. These allow both for better decision-making and for that decision-making to be undertaken with a little decorum, which never hurt the marketing of a product.

Dnotes interests me precisely because its community/’management’ seems to be ably walking that fine line between (a) adhering to the anti-authoritarian ethos of the crypto movement, but (b) doing it without bouts of community chaos.

[Dyna]

“ . . . the mining community’s reluctance to wield veto power . . . ‘

“Not being able to reach a consensus, and even worse, having every disagreement or discussion publicized worldwide . . .  ‘

Warning: this essay is shockingly simplistic:

those unfamiliar with practical and theoretical anarchist politics – which is pretty much what ‘open source’ is – are spooked by the messiness of its processes. They are used to social governance models in which the bickering is done quietly and out of sight. The point, though, is: does the squabbling produce results that justify the squabbling?

Nuh.

Why the squabbling? Because anarchism rejects all forms of ‘standing’ authority, which I consider a 'hyper-correction.'

And in ‘real world’ anarchist milieus, the squabbles often end up in the group splitting, and new groups forming as a consequence, and it's not seen so much as failure as process.

However, you can’t do that with crypto-currency development. The dissenting parties can’t hack the blockchain into lengths, and go their separate ways.

So crypto enthusiasts should look to governance models akin to the libertarian ‘night-watchmen state’ in which (carefully carefully monitored) ‘minor centralisations’ occur. These allow both for better decision-making and for that decision-making to be undertaken with a little decorum, which never hurt the marketing of a product.

Dnotes interests me precisely because its community/’management’ seems to be ably walking that fine line between (a) adhering to the anti-authoritarian ethos of the crypto movement, but (b) doing it without bouts of community chaos.

Very impressive post, Mark; exceedingly thoughtful.

"Why the squabbling? Because anarchism rejects all forms of ‘standing’ authority, which I consider a 'hyper-correction.'

And in ‘real world’ anarchist milieus, the squabbles often end up in the group splitting, and new groups forming as a consequence, and it's not seen so much as failure as process.”  This could very well happen in the “Bitcoin world" in which case the likelihood of mass acceptance will be remote. Essentially, the squabbles will continue in an unproductive environment of “build and destroy” Not a very good business model in my mind. But that is the price of a purely decentralized model.

Yet Bitcoin must remain decentralized or it will be a poor choice over fiat or national currency.

We recognized the pitfalls and challenges before DNotes was launched on February 18, 2014. We decided that DNotes must follow the pure decentralized model. What we have been doing differently is to offer leadership, direction and guidance with a long term plan to own and commercial its ecosystem. This bridges the gap between the decentralized DNotes the digital currency and the centralized ecosystem. By walking this fine line we have the opportunity to help manage DNotes as a business as long as it is not controlled as a business.

So I agree with your conclusion that:
“Dnotes interests me precisely because its community/’management’ seems to be ably walking that fine line between (a) adhering to the anti-authoritarian ethos of the crypto movement, but (b) doing it without bouts of community chaos.”

[infovortice2013]

Should be good make another pool for DNotes ?

I was mining for a long time in DNotespool, is sad, but just now pool not have enought hash to run profitable. long long time between blocks found

im having issues of loosing hash, i conect 7 mhash 2 days pass i have 6 mhash two days pass i have 5 mhash 1 week i have little bit moar than 4.3 mhash, maybe i just a sucker blowing my internet just to know if this happen to other miners in pool or is just my problem.

Good weekend 4all

[DNotes]

Should be good make another pool for DNotes ?

I was mining for a long time in DNotespool, is sad, but just now pool not have enought hash to run profitable. long long time between blocks found

im having issues of loosing hash, i conect 7 mhash 2 days pass i have 6 mhash two days pass i have 5 mhash 1 week i have little bit moar than 4.3 mhash, maybe i just a sucker blowing my internet just to know if this happen to other miners in pool or is just my problem.

Good weekend 4all

I encourage everyone to support the individual pools. But I do understand the problem, it's tough to compete with the multipools and such, and they make it difficult to make a good profit when they have the moajority of the hashing power. It is a self perpetuating problem, the more hash power they have, the more attractive it is to switch. As we grow it will become less of a problem, in the meantime I can only ask for your support. Thanks!

[DNotes]

Blockchain Weekly Recap 3-12-2016

German Regulators Begin to Examine Blockchain
Germany’s RWE Examining Blockchain Tech for Charging Stations
TMX Hires Ethereum Founder as Exchange Moves to Explore Blockchain
Deloitte Report Suggests Blockchain Could Surpass ACH Network in Nine Years
Blockchain Sneaker Authentication Startup Chronicled Reports $3.4 Million Funding
Guardtime Blockchain System to Secure 1 Million Estonian Healthcare Records

http://dcebrief.com/blockchain-weekly-recap-3-12-2016/

[RJF19]

Should be good make another pool for DNotes ?

I was mining for a long time in DNotespool, is sad, but just now pool not have enought hash to run profitable. long long time between blocks found

im having issues of loosing hash, i conect 7 mhash 2 days pass i have 6 mhash two days pass i have 5 mhash 1 week i have little bit moar than 4.3 mhash, maybe i just a sucker blowing my internet just to know if this happen to other miners in pool or is just my problem.

Good weekend 4all

VERY interesting! I've experienced the exact same thing. Start with around 80 MH/s and watch it slowly drop over a period of several days until it's down to 4 to 5 MH/S. This happens AFTER the DIFF settles. If I reset the miners and reconnect, it goes back to normal and repeats the cycle. I thought it was my end for while but don't seem to have the issue on most other pools although a couple do the same thing but over a much longer time period.

Any ideas would be welcome...

[DNotes]

Should be good make another pool for DNotes ?

I was mining for a long time in DNotespool, is sad, but just now pool not have enought hash to run profitable. long long time between blocks found

im having issues of loosing hash, i conect 7 mhash 2 days pass i have 6 mhash two days pass i have 5 mhash 1 week i have little bit moar than 4.3 mhash, maybe i just a sucker blowing my internet just to know if this happen to other miners in pool or is just my problem.

Good weekend 4all

VERY interesting! I've experienced the exact same thing. Start with around 80 MH/s and watch it slowly drop over a period of several days until it's down to 4 to 5 MH/S. This happens AFTER the DIFF settles. If I reset the miners and reconnect, it goes back to normal and repeats the cycle. I thought it was my end for while but don't seem to have the issue on most other pools although a couple do the same thing but over a much longer time period.

Any ideas would be welcome...

I can't say with certainty, but I believe that is because the way vardiff is setup on DNotesPool. Maybe you can give me a few examples of ones that do not do it so I can see what the difference might be?

Also, for DNotes supporters who wish support DNotes by mining at a dedicated pool, send me a PM and I will setup an additional reward structure if you want to dedicate some of your hashing power to a DNotes dedicated pool over the next 6-12 months.

[Chase]

This is the person that I vote for Prime Minister of Canada - 12 year old Victoria Grant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx5Sc3vWefE

                             

[DNotes]

This is the person that I vote for Prime Minister of Canada - 12 year old Victoria Grant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx5Sc3vWefE

                             

She has my vote! At 12 I doubt even gave a second thought to where money came, she is one smart cookie.

[Dyna]

This is the person that I vote for Prime Minister of Canada - 12 year old Victoria Grant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx5Sc3vWefE

                             

She has my vote! At 12 I doubt even gave a second thought to where money came, she is one smart cookie.

Impressive!

[DNotes]

Digital Currency Weekly Recap 3-13-2016

Coinfest UK Begins April 8th in Manchester
Vietnam Issues Digital Currency Warning
Russian Ministry Calls for Jailing Digital Currency Issuers
RSCoin: A Centralized Bitcoin Knock-off for Central Banks Everywhere
Crypto Charting Platform Coinigy Takes New Venture Top Prize
Satori Coin Introduced in Japan

http://dcebrief.com/digital-currency-weekly-recap-3-13-2016/

[kanus1113]

Digital Currency Weekly Recap 3-13-2016

Coinfest UK Begins April 8th in Manchester
Vietnam Issues Digital Currency Warning
Russian Ministry Calls for Jailing Digital Currency Issuers
RSCoin: A Centralized Bitcoin Knock-off for Central Banks Everywhere
Crypto Charting Platform Coinigy Takes New Venture Top Prize
Satori Coin Introduced in Japan

http://dcebrief.com/digital-currency-weekly-recap-3-13-2016/

Wish I was in the UK, Coinfest looks like something I would like to attend. What day is Chris speaking?

[DNotes]

Digital Currency Weekly Recap 3-13-2016

Coinfest UK Begins April 8th in Manchester
Vietnam Issues Digital Currency Warning
Russian Ministry Calls for Jailing Digital Currency Issuers
RSCoin: A Centralized Bitcoin Knock-off for Central Banks Everywhere
Crypto Charting Platform Coinigy Takes New Venture Top Prize
Satori Coin Introduced in Japan

http://dcebrief.com/digital-currency-weekly-recap-3-13-2016/

Wish I was in the UK, Coinfest looks like something I would like to attend. What day is Chris speaking?

Chris will be presenting at 3PM on the 9th. It sounds great, I would like to attend as well.

[RJF19]

Should be good make another pool for DNotes ?

I was mining for a long time in DNotespool, is sad, but just now pool not have enought hash to run profitable. long long time between blocks found

im having issues of loosing hash, i conect 7 mhash 2 days pass i have 6 mhash two days pass i have 5 mhash 1 week i have little bit moar than 4.3 mhash, maybe i just a sucker blowing my internet just to know if this happen to other miners in pool or is just my problem.

Good weekend 4all

VERY interesting! I've experienced the exact same thing. Start with around 80 MH/s and watch it slowly drop over a period of several days until it's down to 4 to 5 MH/S. This happens AFTER the DIFF settles. If I reset the miners and reconnect, it goes back to normal and repeats the cycle. I thought it was my end for while but don't seem to have the issue on most other pools although a couple do the same thing but over a much longer time period.

Any ideas would be welcome...

I can't say with certainty, but I believe that is because the way vardiff is setup on DNotesPool. Maybe you can give me a few examples of ones that do not do it so I can see what the difference might be?

Also, for DNotes supporters who wish support DNotes by mining at a dedicated pool, send me a PM and I will setup an additional reward structure if you want to dedicate some of your hashing power to a DNotes dedicated pool over the next 6-12 months.

One example of a pool that remains quite steady is the Gulden pool at:

http://nlg.hardcoreminers.com

[DNotes]

Should be good make another pool for DNotes ?

I was mining for a long time in DNotespool, is sad, but just now pool not have enought hash to run profitable. long long time between blocks found

im having issues of loosing hash, i conect 7 mhash 2 days pass i have 6 mhash two days pass i have 5 mhash 1 week i have little bit moar than 4.3 mhash, maybe i just a sucker blowing my internet just to know if this happen to other miners in pool or is just my problem.

Good weekend 4all

VERY interesting! I've experienced the exact same thing. Start with around 80 MH/s and watch it slowly drop over a period of several days until it's down to 4 to 5 MH/S. This happens AFTER the DIFF settles. If I reset the miners and reconnect, it goes back to normal and repeats the cycle. I thought it was my end for while but don't seem to have the issue on most other pools although a couple do the same thing but over a much longer time period.

Any ideas would be welcome...

I can't say with certainty, but I believe that is because the way vardiff is setup on DNotesPool. Maybe you can give me a few examples of ones that do not do it so I can see what the difference might be?

Also, for DNotes supporters who wish support DNotes by mining at a dedicated pool, send me a PM and I will setup an additional reward structure if you want to dedicate some of your hashing power to a DNotes dedicated pool over the next 6-12 months.

One example of a pool that remains quite steady is the Gulden pool at:

http://nlg.hardcoreminers.com

Ahh, do you use the static difficulty ports?

[DNotes]

Found this interesting piece on coindesk. Bitcoin and Public Blockchains Will Power the Smart Contracts Revolution

[...]  

Target market

But who needs this service? Why would someone seek an environment where such un-alterable settlement would offer any efficiency? Well, like all things blockchain, these features will find their efficiency through any agency that stands to gain from the regulatory benefits of not having custody of funds.

Or, better still, these features would offer efficiencies in the world of the underserviced, where custodians for these funds are either unavailable – or worse still, to be found amongst the company of problematic institutions without insurance or verified holdings.

At the moment, two distinct classes of 'blockchains' are tackling this market: public blockchains such as bitcoin, and distributed ledgers (sometimes labelled "private blockchains").

However, both systems have shortcomings in their current forms that are impacting their ability to find widespread adoption.

Private blockchains miss the efficiencies of smart contracts in a number of obvious ways.

Chiefly, bearer assets are not supported, and thus value of any kind is not escrowed. This means that despite the outcomes in which a "distributed ledger" or "private blockchain" determines how funds should be routed, moderation and regulatory hurdles will nonetheless be present at the time funds are delivered through an incumbent network.

This begs the question as to why the custodian of the funds doesn't just execute a user's code on their own servers, perhaps with a cryptographically verifiable receipt. Thus far, users haven't needed such features on registered assets, and the jury's out as to whether there will be any efficiency here going forward.

If you believe that the 'blockchain' was the invention of digital bearer assets by Satoshi Nakamoto, then public blockchains are necessarily where all smart contract efficiencies will manifest. However, these systems are also encumbered with non-trivial technical hurdles.

Primarily, the notion of "fungibility" is still the source of a large part of the burden for these systems, as it would be assumed that securities for which a bearer could be reversibly determined will still enable regulators and moderators to exercise roadblocks in a smart contract's execution.

Thus far, only the bitcoin blockchain is tackling this hurdle, with promising developments in the form of "confidential transactions" and even "coin joining".

Another hurdle that still remains the source of much debate in the public blockchain space is that of the "Hash Strength" of a public blockchain. Put simply, this strength represents the amount of energy burned to secure a blockchain.

As the financial gains for those executing contracts in a public blockchain increases, so too does the incentive for an attacker to disrupt that blockchain. In the case of bitcoin, the cost to disrupt the blockchain is approximately $1m US dollars per day, which is formidable, though still a bit too small for the aspirations of many large institutions.

And for comparison, the next largest public smart contract platform, Ethereum, is trivially dismissable at a current "hashrate" of about $25,000 usd per day.

[...]

One note I wanted to make on "cost to disrupt the blockchain" being 1m US per day, or Ethereum being 25k per day. I feel this statement trivializes what it would actually take. That figure might be close to accurate, assuming you could actually rent or purchase that much hashrate on a daily basis, and the owners who rented it to you would allow it to be used for such a purpose. The initial investment required for that kind of equipment would be more like 300 million, assuming you could find enough manufacturers who could produce that kind of output in a reasonable timeframe. Never mind the cost and limitations of running that kind of equipment.

Otherwise a pretty good article.

[Dyna]

That is quite surprising.


Microsoft reverses course, says 'no thanks' to Bitcoin payments

The company's change in policy comes after accepting the cryptocurrency to pay for goods on the Windows Store for over a year.

Nick Mediati | @dtnick
PCWorld Mar 13, 2016 11:22 AM

Bitcoin’s day in the sun at Microsoft appears to be over, at least for now. According to a report on Softpedia published Friday, the purveyor of all things Windows has decided to stop taking the cryptocurrency after accepting it as a form of payment on the WIndows Store since late 2014.

Sure enough, Microsoft published a short help doc to its website that confirms the chance in policy.

The reasoning behind the change isn’t exactly clear—Microsoft has yet to openly explain why it will no longer accept Bitcoin—but for its part, Softpedia speculates that it just didn’t catch on as a way to pay for goods on the Windows Store, and that “Microsoft had no reason to continue keeping it as a supported digital currency.”

The story behind the story: Microsoft first announced that it would accept Bitcoin in the U.S. Windows Store back in December 2014, and at the time, it was kind of a big deal. Bitcoin enthusiasts had long hoped that the cryptocurrency would become a widely accepted alternative to traditional currencies, but so for that hasn’t happened, for a variety of reasons.

Existing Bitcoin balances honored
If you have unused Bitcoin credited to your Microsoft account, you need not worry about losing it. Although Microsoft isn’t accepting new Bitcoin payments, you can still use any remaining Bitcoin balance credited to your Microsoft account to make purchases on the store, but Microsoft will not refund your remaining balance.

Source:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3043657/data-center-cloud/microsoft-reverses-course-says-no-thanks-to-bitcoin-payments.html

[RJF19]

Should be good make another pool for DNotes ?

I was mining for a long time in DNotespool, is sad, but just now pool not have enought hash to run profitable. long long time between blocks found

im having issues of loosing hash, i conect 7 mhash 2 days pass i have 6 mhash two days pass i have 5 mhash 1 week i have little bit moar than 4.3 mhash, maybe i just a sucker blowing my internet just to know if this happen to other miners in pool or is just my problem.

Good weekend 4all

VERY interesting! I've experienced the exact same thing. Start with around 80 MH/s and watch it slowly drop over a period of several days until it's down to 4 to 5 MH/S. This happens AFTER the DIFF settles. If I reset the miners and reconnect, it goes back to normal and repeats the cycle. I thought it was my end for while but don't seem to have the issue on most other pools although a couple do the same thing but over a much longer time period.

Any ideas would be welcome...

I can't say with certainty, but I believe that is because the way vardiff is setup on DNotesPool. Maybe you can give me a few examples of ones that do not do it so I can see what the difference might be?

Also, for DNotes supporters who wish support DNotes by mining at a dedicated pool, send me a PM and I will setup an additional reward structure if you want to dedicate some of your hashing power to a DNotes dedicated pool over the next 6-12 months.

One example of a pool that remains quite steady is the Gulden pool at:

http://nlg.hardcoreminers.com

Ahh, do you use the static difficulty ports?

Nope. On NLG I use Var Diff port 3026. Use 8333 on DnotesPool