theymos! sMerit please!!

[AB de Royse777]

Finally I have decided to ask for it :-P

I spend good amount of time in the forum especially in the Gambling discussion, Bitcoin Technical Support, Development & Technical Discussion, Electrum, Hardware wallets and not the last, Reputation section. I may not post in other boards frequently but I do have activities on other boards too. I stumble upon good posts every day but I can not reward them because most of the time, I am out of sMerits.

I like to inspire users with merit when I see good posts. When I see them active and are trying hard to give something to the community, I go extra miles and try sending more merits so that they can rank up. I believe forum needs active users who love the community and unconditionally (sig pays a bit whoever is wearing) is giving their time. Not everyone is good poster but that does not mean a bad poster (who try to improve their posting skills) do not deserve recognition? So, sometimes I even give merits to those bad posters too when I see them giving their best to give something to the community. I think it's just me. Different people have different point of view when they send out sMerits.


Back to the beginning, @theymos - Can I be a merit source?

Here are 10 posts I think worth giving merit as the requirements (I may change them time to time):

1. Replaced#3

Scripts are being evaluated/run so that we can verify the validity of the given transaction. Depending on the script itself and the implementation, this evaluation could take a much longer time than normally expected.
As a challenge, try to come up with such scripts that could take longer than normal (could be 10 second, minute or hour!). There are also some rare examples out there on the internet from old days that you can find and post here.

• The script doesn't have to be standard but it has to be valid (eg. no disabled OPs).
• It doesn't have to be in a full transaction. It could be as scriptPub, scriptSig and if available redeemScript or witnesses. Or simply 1 script from start to end.
• It should also include the expected time that it takes to evaluate.

This topic is self-moderated to prevent it from going off-topic.

2. Replaced #3

I definitely love the idea of a forum coin. Back when Satori was still making chips/coins, Hhampuz who had done several group buys for the collectibles board/community had been in touch with them about producing a custom chip/coin for the community. Unfortunately right as we started to get serious about making it happen, Satori closed shop. However we came up with some ideas for it that I think could be applied here..such as having a design competition.

I would absolutely love it if Casascius, Smoothie (Lealana), or Kialara would be interested in taking on this project, however I can tell you the likelihood of that happening is slim to none. I think having either an active maker or someone who’s willing to take on the project (with a strong background in crypto coins or coins in general) as well as winning a design competition would be a cool and fair way to chose whom is to make the coin.

As for whether the coin is loaded or not..I would highly recommend we try and make it a loaded piece. There are ways around producing and selling a loaded coin in which you’re not breaking any laws or acting as a money transaction service without a license  (breaking FinCEN regulation like what Casascius ran in to).

I voted for 300 coins. I know there’s likely 100 of us in the collectibles sub who’d want a coin, and it would sure be a shame if the hardcore collectors like us would not get a chance at grabbing one. If the forum paid for it that would obviously be amazing. I wouldn’t mind paying for a coin however ( plus this might be more feasible   ).

If we do end up running a competition I’d like to throw my hat in the ring..however I’d much prefer if Casacius, Lealana or Kialara took the reigns, but again, HIGHLY unlikely imo.

Thanks for brining this to life!

3. Replaced #3

Couple of news from Women ODI

World record!
Austraila Women team sets a new World Record of 18 consecutive wins in ODI, previous record was 17 ODI wins, Which also belonged to Australia. In Men's ODI longest winning streak is 21, Again its belongs to Australia.

Mithali Raj First Woman to Complete 20 Years in ODI Cricket
She started playing for India when she was 16 yo and scored a ton on a very first game, she's also the only Women Cricketer who played the 200 ODI. When talking about Men cricket. there are only 3 players who played the game for 20 years.

S. Tendulkar : 22 years and 91 days
S. Jayasuriya: 21 years and 184 days
J. Miandad    : 20 years and 272 days

4. Replaced #3

Rust is a new-er programming language, and has a reasonably good reputation:

• liked for being more difficult to make mistakes with than C/C++ (although not impossible, of course)
• for being sufficiently powerful in expressiveness, yet relative simplicity compared to C/C++
• disliked because compiling the actual Rust compiler was until recently not possible (we have gnu's guix system to thank for that)

So, there's been a Rust implementation of Bitcoin around for a while, and some good programmers actually preferred to spend their time re-implementing the existing Bitcoin client in Rust than to work on the reference C++ implementation. Which is a good plan in and of itself, as a proof of concept if nothing else.


There are now plans to implement Rust code into the main Bitcoin implementation: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/17090

speaking as a non-expert on either language, but as a Bitcoin user who does understand something about coding and computer science, I'm unenthusiastic about this.


I understand the rationale:

• Rust code has lower review burden
• The plan is to duplicate non-consensus C++ code, to add redundancy to network consistency/reliability
• Rust is proven these days, compiler can be bootstrapped

that's all ok.

however, one plan is not to use a Rust compiler that is bootstrapped from a trustworthy source (Canonical's Rust compiler). Call me nuts if you so choose, but that seems like a very cavalier decision to make with software that should be putting security first. You can say "trusting Canonical is subjective", in which case, it should be ruled out altogether in such a critical piece of software as Bitcoin

my other concern would be the "thin end of the wedge" argument.

The rationale for putting the specific Rust code into the Bitcoin codebase is sound; if headers fetching code fails in some unknown circumstance, maybe only the C++ implementation of the headers fetching code will fail, and the Rust headers fetching will continue to function without incident. Hell of a supposition to make, but it's somewhat reasonable, as there is some acceptance that Rust can be written in such a way that certain types of bug are less likely (but not impossible)

But this would make it too easy to say "let's just re-write the main implementation in Rust, piece by piece! After all, failover Rust code is working great so far!"


In the end, such a radical change (I'm sure that statement will be a point of contention, but it's essentially self-proving by the virtue of the fact that this is a contorversial change of direction) was always bound to be divisive.

The developers who are keen to send Bitcoin in this direction should realise that there's no real practical difference between doing something divisive for good reasons, or doing something divisive to cause problems in the project.


usual thread rules, + 1 extra:

• no trolling
• no trolls
• discussing personalities or intentions or politics of those debating is not allowed, and will be removed, e.g. "Bjarne Sostroup says x about Rust" is disallowed, everything must be provable in it's own right, here in the thread, written by you

the technical merits and the consequences to how the Bitcoin project is managed are the focus of this thread

5. Replaced #3

We can use automatically connect to a server or we can manually connect to a server from the given list.
I am a little bit confused-
Who own the servers? There are a lot of servers. Is all these from Electrum?

Difference between automatic connection and manual connection?

6. Replaced

I don't think they can trace IP address.
--snip--

I just wanted to confirm your toughts... Ip's are not stored in the blockchain... If you create a transaction and initially broadcast it to one or more nodes, these nodes could theoretically store your ip. However, these nodes simply do not know if you broadcasted a new transaction, or just rebroadcast a transaction you yourself received from somebody else.
It's a little different for SPV wallets, for example electrum. Theoretically, an SPV wallet does not rebroadcast transactions. So if an electrum wallet user is connected to an electrum node and sends a new tx to this node, the node operator could potentially store the ip together with the tx, so he'll be able to identify you (that's where tor might come in handy)

--snip--
However if you ask a person to send BTC in an empty address nobody could theoretically know that is your address.

That's true, untill you decide to spend those unspent outputs. If you spend multiple unspent outputs funding several addresses, everybody will be able to link those addresses together. And with some clever analysis of the receiving address, the amount of outputs (change),... one could potentially start to trace you (like you said before, as soon as you filled in KYC info for a service and somebody is able to link you to this service, you are no longer anonymous).

A big exception to all this is the people that were ignorant enough to use a web wallet, exchange wallet, casino wallet. Next to making their clients vulnerable to loads of other attack vectors, the online wallet operator could link every address to a user.

7. Replaced #3

If you are a newbie here or even 1 more 2 years old but newbie in trading in this forum, it's very important for you to justify the feedback before you go upfront.

I will share some forms of positive feedback which doesn't mean that you can go upfront.

- The person is very helpful.
- The person is very knowledgeable.
- Purchased something, he went upfront. Good communication.

etc.

Now, going straight to an user's positive feedback-
User- Zerbis

3 positive feedback-
- Paid upfront for items won at auction. Great communication throughout. Thank you!
- This member won a couple physical coins from me and paid right away, smooth transaction and great communication. Thanks
- won my auction, paid directly. Smooth transaction. Thanks

This positive feedback doesn't mean Zerbis is trusted and you can go upfront, from this feedback, it's understandable that feedback provider risked much, in fact, nothing at all.

Depending on this feedback, BitSat19 had sent 0.03 BTC upfront for a deal and Zerbis didn't pay yet. In fact, no communication after that.
Here is the scam accusation- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5200663.0

So, if you are going to do any trade here-
- Don't rely on the feedback.
- Always check users post history and if they have any outstanding loan.
- Use Escrow.

I have created this topic here to create awareness among the newbie because newbie are the persons who don't understand the trading system here.

8. Replaced #3 coming ( previous: Refer to the next post)

9. Replaced #3 coming ( previous: Refer to the next post)

10. Replaced #3 coming ( previous: Refer to the next post)

I hope theymos considers the request and thank you everyone in advance for your support.

Cheers :-)

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[AB de Royse777]

Change log (latest one at the top):


9. Merit was sent to in case you didn't know what hashrate is and how it is calculated New post in progress
8. Merit was sent to ToS, do you read it before using new platforms? New post in progress
7. Merit was sent to Re: 0 sat/byte fee ? New post in progress
6. Merit was sent to Re: Why would someone keep sending 546 Satoshi to themselves? New post in progress
5. Merit was sent to Bitcoin Core doesn't sign with Sighash_Single if index is smaller than outcount New post in progress
4. Merit was sent to Re: 3.3.8 downloaded, coins missing? New post in progress
3. Merit was sent to Re: Electrum wallet on tails New post in progress
2. Merit was sent to Active users, top posters and most active topics in the past 1h, 24h and 7d New post in progress
1. Merit was sent to theymos suggestion for permaban New post in progress
10. Merit was sent to Newbies - Read before using exchanges or investing New post in progress
9. Re: Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod] replaced by in case you didn't know what hashrate is and how it is calculated
9 and 10 goal achieved and will be replaced with new quotes soon.
8. Re: Need help to send my btcs from electrum with no SEED and no 2FA replaced by ToS, do you read it before using new platforms?
7. Re: Need help to send my btcs from electrum with no SEED and no 2FA replaced by Re: 0 sat/byte fee ?
6. Re: Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod] replaced by Re: Why would someone keep sending 546 Satoshi to themselves?
5. Don't put your full trust on exchanges regarding scam projects. replaced by Bitcoin Core doesn't sign with Sighash_Single if index is smaller than outcount
4. Goal achieved and replaced by Re: 3.3.8 downloaded, coins missing?
4. Sent 1 merit however I would love to send two more merits.
3. Bitcoin challenge transaction: ~100 BTC total bounty to solvers! replaced by Re: Electrum wallet on tails
2. Re: What could someone do with the private keys of empty Bitcoin addresses? replaced by Active users and top posters in the past 1h, 24h and 7d
1. Re: I created a wallet Electrum, but the blockchain Explorer doesn't see its address replaced by theymos suggestion for permaban
Goal achieved for 10. (Compilation of all "Scam Accusations" threads related to exchanges) and replaced by Newbies - Read before using exchanges or investing
10. Soon will be replaced:

10. (Edit: Sent 4 merits however I would love to send one more merit before replacing it by a new one.)

9. Sent 2 merits to Re: Legendster - The Case of Calcutta's Confused Carpet Muncher and replaced by Re: Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]
8. Sent 1 merit to Re: Hardware wallets OLED Display Vulnerability[Trezor One, Ledger Nano S/X, etc.] and replaced by Re: Need help to send my btcs from electrum with no SEED and no 2FA
7. Re: Where is exe in Electrum Windows Installer package replaced by Re: Need help to send my btcs from electrum with no SEED and no 2FA
6. Re: Updating from Electrum 3.3.6 to 3.3.8 replaced by Re: Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]
5. Post 👏 Review 👏 (Be Better, Beginner!) replaced by Don't put your full trust on exchanges regarding scam projects.
4. Re: Any way to import private key of a MultiSig wallet? replaced by Electrum wallet - How to update safely and avoid phising wallets?
Goal achieved for 4 (sending 4 merits in total), 6, 7. Will be replacing with new posts soon.
3. Re: bitcoin stolen zesterday replaced by Bitcoin challenge transaction: ~100 BTC total bounty to solvers!
2. Re: What could someone do with the private keys of empty Bitcoin addresses? replaced by Re: What could someone do with the private keys of empty Bitcoin addresses?
1. Re: Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod] replaced by Re: I created a wallet Electrum, but the blockchain Explorer doesn't see its address
4. Sent 2 and would like to send 2 more before removing it from OP
Goal achieved for 1, 2, 3, and 5. I will be replacing them soon with new ones.
1. Edited with:

(edit: Sent 2 more. One more to go then I will replace this with something else. Thanks The Pharmacist)

5. Re: Help me to understand bitcoin mixing replaced by Post 👏 Review 👏 (Be Better, Beginner!)

Awaiting to be added in the OP:
...

[bill gator]

I find it very amusing that a post I made less than 2-minutes before your merit-source application made it into your submission within 10-minutes Good luck with your application. I haven't taken an extensive dive into your merit, or posting history, but I've seen you around and can't imagine you'd be a bad merit-source. You have my endorsement, but I don't know if that's worth much.

I've been out of merit for awhile too, and I always told myself I wanted to earn legendary before applying to be a merit-source; that way nobody could try to attribute my rank-up to being a source.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

I definitely support your application, and I'm pretty sure the forum could use more merit sources at the moment--especially ones who want the job.  I haven't seen many merit source applications lately, and I also don't think there's been a lot of ranking up among the lower ranks (unless I'm mistaken).  

When was the last time Theymos tapped any new sources?  I recall last September as when he last made a bunch of new ones, myself included, and some of those hadn't even applied.  It's possible some dropped out since then or lost interest, so now's probably a good time for Theymos to take a good look at the situation and make sure there's enough merits being circulated.

Edit:

Thanks for your support and the merit you sent. I immediately used the 2 sMerits LOL

Good, that's kind of why I gave them to you.

[AB de Royse777]

I find it very amusing that a post I made less than 2-minutes before your merit-source application made it into your submission within 10-minutes Good luck with your application.

It was in fact immediately spotted after I made the topic. I have notification active for B&H section. It took me a minute or half to read the topic and decided it worth adding. So I replaced it with an old one. Updates will have logs in my 2nd post, just underneath the OP.

And thanks for the endorsement.

Cheers bud.

When was the last time Theymos tapped any new sources?

I have not much idea since I am not too regular in the Meta section but I assume it was long ago he approved few applications.

I definitely support your application

Thanks for your support and the merit you sent. I immediately used the 2 sMerits LOL

[hd49728]

When was the last time Theymos tapped any new sources?  I recall last September as when he last made a bunch of new ones, myself included, and some of those hadn't even applied.

In May this year, when Vod removed as a merit source, 9 new merit sources added, that made total merit sources is 131

If I remember correctly, there were 123 Merit sources yesterday. One dropped out:

Theymos has responded to my request to be removed as a merit source.  No more working for free.  

I think theymos took the opportunity to process new Merit source applications, there are now 130 merit sources with a total merit generation of up to 20605 sMerit per 30 days.
One of them is Coolcryptovator.

There are 131 merit sources with a total merit generation of up to 21045 sMerit per 30 days

Around 400 more merits per 30 days for 8 new merit sources, so each new source likely have 50 merits per 30 days.
Previous stats before that wave of new merit sources in May

There are 123 merit sources with a total merit generation of up to 20735 sMerit per 30 days

[The Cryptovator]

Supporting your merit source application. I think admin should add few more merit sources since airdrop merit decaying day by day. It was almost eight months when my merit source application was pending. So I should wait with patience and hope eventually you will be a merit source.

I am little bit confused about current smerit distribution for merit sources. I am not receiving my smerit at once. Some time 5 sometime 14 and so on. But yes, seems monthly receiving total 50 smerit as a merit sources. But I am not aware about current algorithms if there is any, or it is just happening with me only. That's the reason I am out of smerit now, don't know when I will receive once again.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I am little bit confused about current smerit distribution for merit sources. I am not receiving my smerit at once. Some time 5 sometime 14 and so on.

You source sMerit replenishes exactly 30 days after you spend it.

So 30 days ago was July 25th. You didn't send any merit, so you will not get any replenished today. On July 26th you sent 3 merit, so you could potentially get 3 sMerits replenished tomorrow, but it would depend on whether those 3 that you sent on July 26th were from your source sMerits or your personal sMerits. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell other than waiting to see how many you get tomorrow.

I could also really use an increase in sMerit allocation. I am regularly having to skip over good posts which are deserving of merit because I'm either out or down to my last 2 or 3, and I always like to keep a couple in the bag to rank up a good newbie.

[Coyster]

You've got my endorsement to carry on the "ranking up" job, and it's one thing that keeps the community growing and lively for good users and posters. I believe theymos would act on this request, it's been long anyone showed interest in taking up the honorable "job".

I've seen a couple of users ranking up in the past months,(i stand to be corrected) and in my opinion the quality of posts on the forum has actually increased, that's why there are more users ranking up and more merits being distributed/in circulation.
The more merit sources we have, the less bad posters have any reason to complain about their incapability to earn merits to rank themselves up; so goodluck on your application.

[AB de Royse777]

Guys,
Thanks for all the supports and love I am receiving from the community. Whatever merit I received, I have already spent the corresponding sMerits and I have updated OP now with new posts, since some original ones are outdated now. It's a continuous process and I am updating very often (several times. even in an hour). Whenever I am receiving any merit I am sending out sMeirts to the posts and updating the list in the OP. The change log is here.

I see some of the users are receiving merits from the list which I appreciate a lot. Feel free to send your merits directly to new ones if you want to.

Cheers

[mindrust]

Ack.

This guy is the only one who got 50 merits from me in 1 swoop. (Source) Helped me and saved me from trouble big time. Turned out it wasn't really a big problem later but I didn't know that at that time.

[philipma1957]

Guys,
Thanks for all the supports and love I am receiving from the community. Whatever merit I received, I have already spent the corresponding sMerits and I have updated OP now with new posts, since some original ones are outdated now. It's a continuous process and I am updating very often (several times. even in an hour). Whenever I am receiving any merit I am sending out sMeirts to the posts and updating the list in the OP. The change log is here.

I see some of the users are receiving merits from the list which I appreciate a lot. Feel free to send your merits directly to new ones if you want to.

Cheers

Here are six points spend them well.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

Just an advice buddy, timing is everything in getting accepted as a merit source. With numerous qualified application this days, you just have to know when to bump your thread hopefully at the right time to get theymos attention. The fact some application are taking months/years without getting accepted doesn't mean they're not qualified but bad timing is actually the cause.

During my time of application their was numerous qualified applicants but I took advantage of @Vod drama to bump my thread at the right time and got accepted with 7 others weeks after application. All I'm saying, if you don't get choosen right away don't get discourage you're a quality net positive user of the forum and deserve to be a source. Wish you the best of luck. I support your application, I'm also lacking smerits lately too while they're numerous merit worthy posts all around us.

[JSRAW]

Finally your application!! I have been saying this for ages that you should apply for merit source, Better late than never.

I remember you helped at least 3 users to rank up in Gambling discussion( including me in Cricket discussion). And I have a feeling that you are hesitant to advertise your MS's application in Cricket community so will take the liberty to spread the word there. I am sure some regular going to stop by to support you despite not many visit or post in Meta Section often.

Cheers Brother

[Haunebu]

I have known Royse for quite sometime now through the Cricket fraternity here in Bitcointalk and he is a positive guy in my opinion who deserves the merit source tag.

Reasons:

- Positive mindset(Almost always)
- Organizes sports betting tournaments(Using his own money) regularly
- Has a lot of knowledge related to sports(Especially Cricket)
- Helped several quality posters rank up(Ex: JSRAW etc)

These are just a couple of reasons of the top of my head. All the best Royse!

[erikalui]

Thanks JSRAW for linking this post. Always will support Royse777 as he has been very helpful for the community with merits and with his knowledge. Also, he is very active in the gambling section and has made his threads spam free by moderating them.

Hope Theymos considers your application. Good luck

[UmerIdrees]

Thanks JSRAW for linking this post. Always will support Royse777 as he has been very helpful for the community with merits and with his knowledge. Also, he is very active in the gambling section and has made his threads spam free by moderating them.

Hope Theymos considers your application. Good luck

Royse777 is a great person and is very helpful to the community. I will also recommend him to become the merit source.  Although i am not sure what is the procedure for becoming a merit source but my best wishes are with Royse.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Royse is one of the most helpful users I have ever come across on this forum. I always found him unbiased and cool. His contributions are much appreciated, especially in the gambling section. I am not sure about the requirements for becoming a merit source, but I should say that whatever the requirements be, it will be very difficult to find someone more deserving than Royse.

[AB de Royse777]

Okay, I see my cricketing community buddies (we are not many there: JSRAW, Haunebu, erikalui, UmerIdrees, Vishnu.Reang, Pffrt, Little Mouse, Indymoney, Raja_MBZ and few others) and I gotta say that I am so much blessed having you guys around. The kind words made my day. Thank you all. Yes, I was hesitating to talk about it there and wanted the things to happen normally without any extra exposure :-) Again thank you for the blessing.

@mindrust, yeah old days, we all learn as we go :-)
@philipma1957, I gave my best bud. Thank you.
@CryptopreneurBrainboss, your wise observations were noted bud and thanks for the kind words. Appreciate it very much.

[FIFA worldcup]

Okay, I see my cricketing community buddies (we are not many there: JSRAW, Haunebu, erikalui, UmerIdrees, Vishnu.Reang, Pffrt, Little Mouse, Indymoney, Raja_MBZ and few others) and I gotta say that I am so much blessed having you guys around. The kind words made my day. Thank you all. Yes, I was hesitating to talk about it there and wanted the things to happen normally without any extra exposure :-) Again thank you for the blessing.

@mindrust, yeah old days, we all learn as we go :-)
@philipma1957, I gave my best bud. Thank you.
@CryptopreneurBrainboss, your wise observations were noted bud and thanks for the kind words. Appreciate it very much.

I also support that you become a merit source but it seems there is no progress on this. There has been no response on whether your application for a merit source has been selected or not ?   
Also that our cricketing community is the best one.