2020 Merit Source Application - TheBeardedBaby. [reopened2022]

[TheBeardedBaby]

Please don't merit this application, better send the merit to the posts below, there are many more who deserve to rank up. I already reached the top Thank you!
Finally I feel more comfortable to apply for a Merit Source, of course if the forum needs an extra hand.
I entered the Legendary competition (congrats to o_e_l_e_o for achieving the L. rank) and I think is a proper time to do so.

Little info :

• I'm an active member of the community - Total time logged in: 109 days, 4 hours and 32 minutes..
• I have already shared more than 700 merit to the community.
• In the begging of the merit system I tried to help those who needed a bit to rank up.
• I can be in help in a few local boars/threads as well > Scandinavian, Bulgarian none of those have any merit source that I know, and not much of activity ether.  
• Been fighting the spam for some time You have reported 4828 posts with 100% accuracy.
• I don't like the political games here and I'm trying to be neutral

10 Good posts deserving more merit >

One

I discovered bitcoin while studying about how to protect my privacy on the internet.

Crytpocurrencies and privacy and closely related. This way many people here care about privacy, however I still see many users in this forum who are not using basic privacy tools, like an ad block.

This simple guide is for those people.

Usually people who think they don't care about privacy say: "I don't worry about  privacy because I have nothing to hide."
When you go to the bathroom you close the door, even if you have nothing to hide.

While surfing on the internet here are a few tools that will help you protect yourself against tracking and privacy invasion.

• Avoid any Google product. They are not to be trusted as Google will track your data to ad services.
  
  
• Browser recommendation:
  Firefox / Brave browser / Tor Browser
  
  
• Browser Extensions: (works even on Firefox Mobile)
  UBlock (an adblocker) - An AdBlock is also an important method to avoid phishing sites.
  Decentraleyes (blocks content delivery)
  HTTPS Everywhere
  
  
• E-mail provider:
  Consider changing to a encrypted e-mail service, not U.S based
  ProtonMail / Tutanota
  
  
• Search engines:
  I know how it's hard to not use Google. The best private alternative is Duckduckgo .
  If you find very hard to stop using Google, consider using Encrypted Google  (I really don't know if it is truly encrypted)
  
  
• Encrypt your Android Device - Protect your music, photos, personal data that can only be read with a password.
  
  
• Fix Windows 10 privacy configuration, to avoid Microsoft data collection.
  
  
• Some good VPN (protects your traffic data and enables geo-restricted content):
  Proton VPN - Free version available.
  Tunnel Bear Free version available.
  Nord VPN - Free version available.
  To use full time you will need a paid plan on a good VPN service.
  
  
• Private cryptocurrencies:
  Monero (the most popular), PIVX, Dash, Zcash, Particl, among many others.
  

• Open Source and privacy focused Operation Systems (OS) based on Android mobile.
  LineageOS, Replicant and Copperhead.
  

• Privacy focused notes manager.
  Standard Notes.
  This application allows you to sync notes in web, android app, windows, mac and linux. Very nice. Simple and respect your privacy.
  

- Drive alternative

• ownCloud: Open source, self-hosted cloud platform, available for enterprise
• Syncthing: Open source, P2P
• Nextcloud: Open source, self-hosted

- Calendar alternative

• Etar: Open source
• Fruux: Open source

- Google Docs / Sheets / Slides alternative

• CryptPad: Zero Knowledge Cloud
• Etherpad: Open source

Important note: Privacy is a never ending task, as you can always do something more. Start doing what is easier for you. There are also many other useful add-ons, programs, etc. This is just a very basic guide, as I see many people who don't even use an adblocker

If you want more information about privacy, go to https://www.privacytools.io/


Edit: Added Https everywhere extension and encrypt mobile device.
Edit2: Added VPNs and private cryptocurrencies.

Edit3: An AdBlock is also an important method to avoid phishing sites. So you really should be using one, as it will increase your security.
Many phishing sites promote their scams through paid ads. If you can't see them, you can't click them.[/list]

Edit4: Added  Standard Notes, drive, calendar and docs.[/list]

Two

Hoping I'm not the only one in here feeling this way or I assume S.W.A.T. will be at my door in a few minutes.  

I see most of the forum members in here thinking we need the government to step in to regulate crypto.  I see others flocking to KYC to make sure they get the latest airdrop all the while losing the precious commodity of privacy.  I even see others hoping and praying we get the ETF approval so prices will really skyrocket and we can all get rich.  The ETF is going to steal control away form us and give it to the paper pushers.  Everything the majority of the forum is doing and hoping for is giving the movement away to the same power structure which is screwing us all over.  

We need no regulations.  We need no KYC.  We need no ETF's.  What we need to do is show the world why Bitcoin is better than government FIAT and let Bitcoin take over that way.  We have a real shot at gaining freedom of finances however it seems most are tripping over themselves to give all that away to the government as quickly as possible.

Please consider government interference in crypto for the future generations sake.  They will not have the amazing earning potential we have.  They will just get a shit sandwich of every transaction they make begin on a public ledger.  Perfect tax slaves.  Are we handing our kids over to the system by allowing the governments to just step in like this?  

Three

In this post, I will explain the basic about Bitcoin Blockchain and Proof of Work, an algorithm that validate transactions and create new blocks (mining), as detailed in Bitcoin whitepaper, by Satoshi Nakamoto. This apply also for Ethereum and other similar blockchains that use Proof of Work (PoW).

Please feel free to point out any mistakes, as I had some technical and English doubts while writing it

First, we need to understand the concept of hashing, only then we can analyze how blockchain works.

What is a Hash?

A hash is a cryptographic function that receive an input of any length and generate an output of a fixed length , an alphanumerical sequence. Simply put, it is a bunch of random numbers and letters.
This is a great website, it shows how hashing and mining works. You can enter some text there to see how it works.
https://anders.com/blockchain/hash.html
It is important to note that a hash has a fixed size, no matter how big or small the input is. Any small change in one letter in the input will generate a completely different hash (output). This is important if you have a big data, because all this data can be converted to a small hash, which will work as a fingerprint of that data.

Blockchain

The idea proposed by Satoshi is to register transactions on a block. When the proof of work solution for that block is found, it is hashed. Each block includes the previous block’s hash, forming a chain of blocks (blockchain), and each additional block reinforcing the ones before it.



Because of that process, if any transaction in a past block is changed the output hash will be different.
When you make a Bitcoin transaction and you see that you have 5 confirmations, that means that 5 blocks were mined after that transaction. A transaction with 6 confirmations is considered irreversible.

Proof of Work

In the Blockchain, all transactions are publicly announced to all nodes, as there is no central authority who validate transactions.

Proof of Work is an algorithm that rewards participants who solve a cryptographic puzzle in order to validate transactions and create new blocks (this process in known as mining).
This puzzle consists in scanning for a value (called Nonce) that when hashed together with thr block data, the hash begins with a number of zeros.



In this website you can see how this process works. You can try to find a Nonce that when hashed generates a hash that start with 0000 on your own. You will see that it is hard, unless you are very lucky. And you are going to be lucky twice in row, if you do go to a casino or something like that lol.

The difficult in finding that nonce increases exponentially as more zeros are required by the block. Difficult is adjusted every 2016 blocks, based on the average hashrate of those past 2016 blocks, so that 2016 blocks are mined every two weeks. (So a block is mined every 10 minutes)

Miners only get their reward if they are mining the longest chain, as it has the greatest processing power invested. If the honest nodes control the majority processing power, the honest chain will always be the longest and will outpace attacker’s chain.

To modify a past transaction the attacker would have to redo the PoW of the block and all subsequent blocks, and outpace the honest chain. For this to happen, the attacker’s would need more processing power than the honest chain, also known as 51% attack.

The longest chain not only serves as proof of the sequence of events witnessed, but proof that it came from the largest pool of CPU power.  

Source: bitcoin whitepaper. Images from: https://nakamotoinstitute.org/bitcoin/

Topic also available in Portuguese (short version) and Arabic (by Zwei)

Four

Since the original thread can no longer be updated in the OP because the user hasnt logged on in 6 months, and with new items gone missing, I think it is better that I create this new thread so we can keep all of the missing items in the OP. I copied and pasted most of the stuff posted here from the old thread I made this self moderated in order to delete posts that could harm the future value of a coin? and because the last one was self moderated.

Coin	Public key	Missing since	Reference	Contact Buyer
BitPiece 111111111111111111111111111	1Eym83S	22-2-2017	Here	Here
XMR	#439 #470 #475	22-2-2017	Here	Here
Casascius St. Petersburg Bowl 2014		11-1-2017		Here
Bitcoin wallet card	1DfSuMNe3imGhy5VMLhMvYFdUTmhazFua9	11-1-2017		Here
Lealana 1 Litecoin	5962	11-1-2017		Here
Lealana 10 Litecoin	LbfjDGNmEdf6R7VyS49PaiTpXn268Mz6BW	11-1-2017		Here
RavenBit 2014 MS 68	Serial Number: 4701063 / 19pnCXex	February 23, 2018 RECOVERED THANKS TO THE OLD THREAD	Here	Here
BTCC Titanium 0.1 BTC 2018 MS67	1AELXBrB  #W00294 Serial 513727-01-01	June 24th , 2019		Here
Casascius Silver 0.5 BTC 2013 MS69	1AgbCTCC Serial 513727-02-01	June 24th , 2019		Here
Casascius Brass  0.5 BTC 2013 MS67	12DcCova Serial 513727-03-01	June 24th , 2019		Here
Lealana Brass 5 XMR MS68	#549 Serial 513727-04-01	June 24th , 2019		Here
Bitcoin Penny Gold 2018 MS69	Serial 513727-05-01	June 24th , 2019		Here
Bitcoin Penny Gold 2019 LFE MS67	Serial 513727-06-01	June 24th , 2019		Here
Bitcoin Penny Platinum 2018 MS68	Serial 513727-07-01	June 24th  2019		Here
Bitcoin Penny Platinum 2018 MS65	Serial 513727-08-01	June 24th , 2019		Here
Kialara Moon bar set #87		May 25, 2018	Here	Here
2013 Casascius Gilt/Silver	1Ag4iRiK	May 25, 2018	Here	Here

Five

I got it!! It worked!! ahhh!!!!!!!!!!!

I was so close, yes I had put together my own custom lists first using excel, then I used the mask function and mask processor.  I created a few hundred million possibilities and they didn't work.  I see my password now, I was extremely close.  For reference, it's not an easy password, it's a long complex password hardcoded in my brain.  I knew there had to be something small that I possibly changed when I created it, but it turns out it wasn't the type of change I was thinking, it was something else.  I created a custom rule set this morning that would have taken a few days to exhaust and still not have found it, now that I see what it is.  It's possible I eventually would have added this variable into the rules, but it wasn't in my mind for the past few days.  So, I was searching online for more info and I found this custom rule set below and it cracked the password within 11 seconds on my 1080ti and all I did was use it in combination with a small master wordlist of what I thought it should be.  Perfect timing too as I was about to order more cards today.

Thanks a ton everyone.  Hashcat is awesome!!

Here is the ruleset I used.  And thank you to the people who created this ruleset.
https://www.notsosecure.com/one-rule-to-rule-them-all/

Just a note to anyone who reads this too, I got the GPU to work in btcrecover as well and it was also fast.  GPU is disabled by default, I didn't realize that.  But hashcat still went through the lists faster.  Both are great.  

I couldn't believe it when 11 seconds later it stopped and said status "Cracked".  

Session..........: hashcat
Status...........: Cracked
Hash.Name........: Bitcoin/Litecoin wallet.dat
Hash.Target......: $bitcoin$64$~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Time.Started.....: Sun Dec 22 05:01:32 2019 (11 secs)
Time.Estimated...: Sun Dec 22 05:01:43 2019 (0 secs)
Guess.Base.......: Pipe
Speed.#1.........:     5793 H/s (11.04ms) @ Accel:16 Loops:512 Thr:64 Vec:1
Recovered........: 1/1 (100.00%) Digests

For any other newbs reading this, to get full speed using rules, you are going to need to pipe it.  Read here: https://hashcat.net/wiki/doku.php?id=frequently_asked_questions#how_to_create_more_work_for_full_speed

I used windows and this is the line I entered into cmd as an example:
hashcat.exe --stdout wordlist0.txt -r rules/OneRuleToRuleThemAll.rule | hashcat.exe -m 11300 hash.txt

hash.txt being your extracted wallet hash, of course. make sure there are no spaces in the file.

Shred your wordlists and anything with your info of any part of your pass on it of course in a file shredder program when you are done.

Six

Table of contents

      1. General Information
      2. Running a node
      3. Concerns

General Information

How are bitcoins on the Lightning Network different from on-chain bitcoins?

They are exactly the same coins. There are no Lightning Network tokens. The only difference is that bitcoins are stored in multi-signature addresses and transactions are settled between two parties without broadcasting anything to the blockchain (except when opening and closing the channel).


When will merchants start accepting Lightning Network payments?

More and more merchants start accepting Lightning Network payments. The most popular payment gateaway - BitPay does not accept Lightning Network payments and is very unlike to introduce them anytime soon. Here you can find a list of merchants who accept LN payments.


How many times can we expect to be able to use a payment channel?

Every channel has a minimum amount of coins which has to stay unspent. Channels can be used as long as both parties continue to cooperate with each other.


How fast and reliable are Lightning Network payments?

Depending on the route, Lightning Network payments can be instant. Every wallet tries to find the cheapest and the shortest route once you send your transaction. You can open a channel directly to a person who you are going to often trade with or depend on other channels which might route your payment for a small fee. Lightning Network is still in its early state so payments fail from time to time.


What are the upcoming features?

Dual funded channels - both parties will be able to fund a channel.

Watchtowers - they will be responsible for taking care of people attempting to cheat while the other party is offline. Added in LND v0.7.0

Muilti-path payments - currently, the payment can't be divided into smaller ones which sometimes results in failed payments due to not enough funds in the channels.

Sphinx - users will be able to send payments without having to ask the other person to generate an invoice.

You can find more here.


Where can I find the latest news regarding the Lightning Network?

Telegram channel - a whole group of knowledgeable people ready to talk about the Lightning Network. Great source of information.

Bitcoin Lightning - a website strictly focused only on the Lightning Network.

Cointelegraph - nothing to add here.


Which wallet is the best one?

There are multiple implementations of the Lightning Network and most wallets have similar features. However, some mobile wallets can't receive payments. Eclair Mobile is the most popular wallet for Android but it is also available on Windows. The most popular implementations are: c-lightning, LND and eclair mentioned earlier.


Running a node

How much money can you make on running a Lightning Network node?

In order to start making money on running a node, you have to open a few channels. Keep in mind that built-in autopilot might not guarantee you the best connections. Don’t expect to make a lot of money. Everything depends on the number of connections and your fee policy. The less you charge, the higher your chances to route a payment. Don’t set the fee too low. You have to save up money for future channel re-balancing. User Xian01 opened almost 200 channels and earned barely 15 satoshis after 2 weeks (Reference).


How do channel owners get paid for routing payments?

Fees earned from routing payments are added to the balance of the channel. The total fee charged is basefee + (amount * feerate / 1000000), where amount is the forwarded amount. If you set both of these values too high, you won't route any payments.


Is running a Lightning Network node demanding?

You can run a Lightning Network node on both Linux and Windows. If you choose any other implementation than LND then you have to run a Bitcoin full node which uses the biggest part of available resources. Even Raspberry Pi 3 B+ is capable of running a Lightning Network node. Check out RaspiBlitz for fast setup.


Is there any risk in running a Lightning Network node?

Yes, due to many factors. Lightning Network implementations are still in beta and might contain critical bugs which could be used to steal funds locked up in channels. Keep in mind that if you won't keep your node online 24/7, someone can attempt to cheat you by broadcasting an old state of your channel. An online node would normally broadcast a penalty transaction.


Does opening new channels help to increase the earnings?

No, it doesn't. There are many other things that you should take into account. Your fee policy, channels' capacity, connection to different sized nodes. Here you can find an interesting comparison between Andreas Brekken's and Alex Bosworth's nodes. The node which had lower principal, made higher profit.


Do I have to run a full Bitcoin node?

As long as you decide to use LND which supports neutrino, you don't have to run a full node. It allows user to run a lightweight node instead of a full one. It is a good solution for devices with low processing power and storage (Raspberry Pi). Other implementations do not support that feature at the moment.


How do I set up a Lightning Network node?

The setup process varies for each implementation. Fortunately, detailed documentation makes it easy for inexperienced users to start their own Lightning Network node even on Linux. If you don't feel confident with any other operating system than Windows then take a look at this tutorial which will help to set up your own node.


What is the purpose of setting alias and color?

This information is often used by Lightning Network visualisers and explorers. It is not very important and has no impact on how the node works.


Do I have to generate an invoice every time I want someone to send me coins over the Lightning Network?

Currently, in order to receive a payment over the Lightning Network, a single-use invoice has to be generated. However, Sphinx will allow users to send payments without having to request the invoice from the other person. Sphinx can be already used if both nodes update to the test branch.


Can I refill my channel?

Currently, there is no way to refill channels without using third party services such as Lightning Conductor. Splicing will allow users to either top-up their channels or drain funds from them without having to reopen the channel. Channel balance will be updated once the transaction gets enough confirmations.


Why can't I receive coins?

In order to receive Lightning payments, some conditions must be met:

1. Nothing can be received immediately after creating a new payment channel, as ‘room’ for incoming funds has to be made by spending some funds first. A payment channel can be thought of as a full bottle of water: in order to pour something in one first has to pour something out.

2. Each channel implicitly contains a reserve which is unspendable and typically takes about 2% of the channel’s capacity. You must spend an amount matching that reserve to make receiving possible. Unspendable channel reserve is the reason you see a negative receive limit when a new channel is full. It indicates how much you need to spend before anything can be received through the channel.

3. Every payment request is disposable, they can’t be fulfilled twice. So you will need to issue a new individual payment request for every incoming payment you wish to receive.

4. Wallet needs to be online in order to receive off-chain funds.

Note that not every mobile wallet supports receiving coins because of the fourth point. There are some exceptions such as Bitcoin Lightning Wallet (Android), Eclair Mobile (Android).


What happens if a funding transaction doesn't confirm in time?



Concerns

Is Lightning Network centralized? Is it more centralized than Bitcoin? Does it make Bitcoin more centralized?

This topic has been brought up many times. The Lightning Network is a second layer scaling solution which has no impact on the Bitcoin network. It works independently and no one is forced to use it. The problem of large nodes should solve itself once network continues to grow.


Will casual users be able to accept payments and donations without having to run their own full node 24/7?

Both OpenNode (payment gateway) and Bitlum.io allow users to receive Lightning Network payments without having to run a full node. However, these wallets are custodial which means that they have a full control of one's funds.


What are the new limitations of scalability once lightning is fully functional?

Opening and closing a channel requires broadcasting a Bitcoin on-chain transaction. Increasing the blocksize might be necessary in the future; however, solutions like SegWit, Schnorr signatures can help to decrease the size of transactions. Lightning Network is a second layer protocol, it is possible to build more user-friendly layers on top of it.


What would happen if a large node disappeared from the network?

Recently, we were able to observe Andreas Brekken’s experiment (shitcoin.com node). He was in charge of a node whose capacity was around 43 BTC (more than 50% of the whole network’s capacity!). After its closure, some people started to experience routing problems.


Is Lightning Network more anonymous than on-chain transactions?

Lightning Network increases the level of privacy. The next node doesn’t know if the previous one initiated the transaction. Every node which routes the payment doesn’t know the details of the transaction (final destination, sender).


What happens if some nodes go temporarily offline?

The problem of "zombie nodes" hasn't been solved yet. Offline channels are still considered as capable of routing payments which in some cases cause the payment to fail because channels are unavailable. It is a matter of making a few changes to how channels signalize their state. More information can be found here.

This problem has been addressed in the v0.5 release of LND. When a channel is being closed or a peer node has gone offline, the rest of the network is informed that they are incapable of routing payments. It is also possible to create unadvertised channels which won't route payments.

This thread is now self-moderated. Old thread got derailed. Please, don't discuss here whether or not the Lightning Network is a good scaling solution.

Seven

First of all, a very Happy New Year to all of you. Thank you for visiting this thread.

I am making this post on 1st January 2020 and I want to take advantage of the opportunity to wish 2020 brings the best for all of you, all of your families and all of your loved ones too. I am wishing you and them the best in health, finances, happiness and success in everything wished and strived for.

On a personal level, I would like to thank each and every one of you that has contributed to our forum in a positive light. This forum is a great environment, it belongs to all of us and it is a place that is special to those who appreciate all that is has become over the years.

With the exceptions of the trolls, scams, scammers and those who are generally condescending and deliberately provocative - there is not much negative to say. I hope Bitcointalk Forum has a bright future ahead of it  

A SNIPPET OF MY CRYPTO & BITCOINTALK FORUM JOURNEY:
I first registered here in 2013 as Bitcoin was a word being used more and more in mainstream. I was an active member of what was then a growing community. I had a nice tidy portfolio of Bitcoin and many other crypto which was worth a lot of USD$. I sat and watched the value of my portfolio rocket to double figures over what I invested initially because more and more people were beginning to invest in crypto but sadly became one of the many Cryptsy Exchange victims and lost everything I built up as it was stored in Cryptsy and they scammed everybody: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1173703.0

It was only thanks to some good fortune I had some crypto on wallets I held elsewhere but I left them as they were not valued much and then tried forget all about crypto because I did not want to build up another portfolio only to see it possibly stolen again at another exchange. Years later as Bitcoin was making huge waves in mainstream media again, I decided to start looking in to it again. I managed to retrieve my crypto which was not stored at (and thankfully not stolen by) Cryptsy only to find myself to sitting on a small fortune which was much bigger than the loss of original portfolio that Cryptsy stole from me.

After I noticed crypto prices going up I wanted to start trading again and found myself back at this forum for obvious reasons. I tried logging in to this forum after a long time away but it flagged up as me being locked out because of suspicious activity which was understandable because of the time period between the previous time logging in. I tried resetting the email address but nothing worked so I created a new account and registered on 31st May 2017 as JollyGood and have engaged with all sorts of users here.

BITCOINTALK FORUM SCAMS & SCAMMERS:
I think it was a few weeks in to my journey here that I took an interest in betking (and its owner/operator serial scammer Dean Nolan). I saw the number of betking promotions and signatures that so many campaign participants were displaying and read the posts being made in their ICO thread as well as the ICO deal - it was probably serial scammer Dean Nolan and his betking ICO scam in 2017 that first alerted me to how easy it was to portray to be reputable and honest but at the same time how easy it was to effectively steal millions of USD$ from gullible investors. Until then I had heard of the acronym "ICO" in passing but never understood what it actually was. After some research, I knew exactly what it was...

I noticed scams in the forum before then but none had the alleged positive reputation that serial scammer Dean Nolan had because of his previous action of returning thousands of Bitcoin back to their rightful owners (bankroll investors). To me the whole betking ICO thing was a super scam so I asked some questions, that was when serial scammer Dean Nolan threw toys out of his pram before spitting out his dummy and throwing a tantrum of colossus proportions without answering simple questions I put forward.

As time went by, somewhere along the line I took far more interest in exposing scams or participating in those types of threads rather than just post about non-scam related issues and created several scam threads asking users to avoid falling in their trap. At some later stage I also created my own Scam Alert thread to list all the ones I was participating in exposing: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5146438.0

I think it was less than 3 months ago I found myself as DT1 and that adds more responsibility on how to tag and leave appropriate feedback. I am extremely thankful for those members that trust me and advise me, thanks to their guidance, goodwill and support I have been able to continue to contribute to this forum.

NEWBIES & LOW RANKED USERS:
For all those who are new to this forum or those that have been around for some time and are hoping to increase in rank, please be patient and please continue on your path here of discovery trying to be as helpful and as courteous as possible. All of us will have an off-day or two and it might reflect in our posts but that does not make us bad or untrustworthy but it is important to be yourself and always try your best to be as genuine as you can and that is a quality the members of this forum will see shine through. Sooner or later your ranking will go up, just be patient and enjoy the ride....

SENIOR EXPERIENCED USERS:
For all those that have been around here in the forum far longer than me and have contributed far more than I have, I hope you continue to protect the integrity of this forum and continue to contribute positively towards its ever growing member base. Without all of what you have given to this forum over the years and without all of what you have contributed to this forum over the years it would never have achieved the status it has today therefore a very big and heart-felt thank you to each and every one of you for all you have given to help everybody here.

We all have a duty to protect the reputation of this forum so I humbly request that we always try to protect newbies and gullible people from being victims of scams so I hope we always come together to fight to expose scams and scammers wherever we see them.

SCAMMER OWNED BOUNTY CAMPAIGNS:
Recently, towards the last quarter of 2019 unfortunately some scams have tried to use bounty campaigns as indirect bribes just to divide our community with those on one side that actively promoted the scams and those on the opposite side categorically refused to accept money from scammers and never retracted their scam accusations. The sad part was reading posts from members who had previously good reputation now trying to justify their association with scammers but there was no justification ever provided that was ever genuine, they simply became greedy and wanted money.

Let us hope those members that surrendered their morals and values for the sake of pennies from scammers in 2019 never ever allow themselves to stoop so low again because our forum is much stronger when we stand together and it is definitely much weaker when we are divided. I implore those members to wipe the slate clean for 2020 and ask them to stop associating with scammers either directly or indirectly as promoters, signature promoters, affiliates or associates.

We all should also hope 2020 will be the year the forum owners/operators will clamp down on the scammers that are using this forum as a vehicle to carry out their scams and modern day thefts by using Announcement threads and signature campaigns and promotions to spread the lies and propaganda to carry out their scams.

MERIT ABUSERS & FAKE TRUST:
Merit abuse and fake Trust exchanging between small circles of alt-accounts or like-for-like minded bullies/scammers is taking its toll too because several users that clearly pass merit between each and leave positive Trust for each other have gained DT1 and have even sent PMs threatening other users to retract various comments otherwise they will receive negative feedback.

As an example of merit abuse it was mentioned in the following OP by LoyceV about how user wolwoo had "earned" and then abused his DT1 ranking (which has subsequently just recently been revoked because too many DT1 users distrust him probably because of his condescending conduct) and how he had abused that DT1 ranking with retaliatory feedback: Reference topic: Why are these members excluded on trust lists?

In a spectacular turn of events, the user wolwoo requested to be given Merit Source status even though he was outed as being part of a small circle of merit abuse and Trust collusion team: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5205906.0

I hope 2020 is the year this practice of merit abuse circles and fake trust circles stop or the owners/operators of the forum forcibly take action to put a stop to it.




Finally on a slightly different note, until 31st December 2019 (New Years Eve) my rank was Senior Member but just a few hours in to 1st January 2020 (New Years Day) I was ranked a Hero member. What a day to get there. Thank you all for being part of my journey here in the forum as I headed towards becoming a Hero member on New Years Day of all days. I hope to be able to contribute positively towards our forum for a long time to come and hope you all will be able to do the same too.

Thank you dear Bitcointalk Forum

Eight

Bitcoin wiki has a pretty good step-by-step explanation of how to go from a public key to a base58_encoded address which contains the values for each step of the way[1]. But unfortunately I could not find anything similar for Bech32_encoding. Additionally I found the reference implementations a bit confusing[2]! The information is out there[3] but I feel like having it step-by-step like "[1]" can make it a lot easier specially for developers. For example during unit testing I was getting a different address (bc1qp63uahgrxged4z5jswyt5dn5v3lzsem6c0qqhg8) for below public key and I wasn't sure where the bug was coming from, this visualization helped me [4] realize I was appending the version byte before converting the bits instead of after. So hopefully these steps can help someone like me looking for them.

How to create a Bech32 address from a public key:

1. Having a compressed[5] public key (0x02 or 0x03 followed by 32 byte X coordinate):

Code:

0279be667ef9dcbbac55a06295ce870b07029bfcdb2dce28d959f2815b16f81798

2. Perform SHA-256 hashing on the public key:

Code:

0f715baf5d4c2ed329785cef29e562f73488c8a2bb9dbc5700b361d54b9b0554

3. Perform RIPEMD-160 hashing on the result of SHA-256:

Code:

751e76e8199196d454941c45d1b3a323f1433bd6

4. The result of step 3 is an array of 8-bit unsigned integers (base 2^8=256) and Bech32 encoding converts this to an array of 5-bit unsigned integers (base 2^5=32) so we "squash" the bytes to get:
in hex:

Code:

0e140f070d1a001912060b0d081504140311021d030c1d03040f1814060e1e16

in numbers:

Code:

14 20 15 07 13 26 00 25 18 06 11 13 08 21 04 20 03 17 02 29 03 12 29 03 04 15 24 20 06 14 30 22

5 bits binary:

Code:

01110 10100 01111 00111 01101 11010 00000 11001 10010 00110 01011 01101 01000 10101 00100 10100 00011 10001 00010 11101 00011 01100 11101 00011 00100 01111 11000 10100 00110 01110 11110 10110

5. Add the witness version byte in front of the step 4 result (current version is 0):

Code:

000e140f070d1a001912060b0d081504140311021d030c1d03040f1814060e1e16

6. Compute the checksum by using the data from step 5 and the H.R.P (bc for MainNet and tb for TestNet)

Code:

0c0709110b15

7. Append the checksum to result of step 5 (we now have an array of 5-bit integers):

Code:

000e140f070d1a001912060b0d081504140311021d030c1d03040f1814060e1e160c0709110b15

8. Map each value to its corresponding character in Bech32Chars (qpzry9x8gf2tvdw0s3jn54khce6mua7l) 00 -> q, 0e -> w,...

Code:

qw508d6qejxtdg4y5r3zarvary0c5xw7kv8f3t4

9. A Bech32_encoded address consists of 3 parts: HRP + Separator + Data:

Code:

bc1qw508d6qejxtdg4y5r3zarvary0c5xw7kv8f3t4

The final result from step 9 is the same as example in BIP173[6]

References:
[1] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Technical_background_of_version_1_Bitcoin_addresses
[2] https://github.com/sipa/bech32
[3] https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0173.mediawiki
[4] https://en.bitcoin.it/w/images/en/4/48/Address_map.jpg
[5] Only compressed public keys are allowed: https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0143.mediawiki#restrictions-on-public-key-type
[6] https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0173.mediawiki#examples

Nine(from the local boards ):

Дoкaтo тpae зимaтa, пoнe зaгyбa нямa.
Aкo вaлyтaтa, кoятo cи кoпaл нe изчeзнe, цeнaтa и в бъдeщe caмo щe ce вдигa.
 Hoмepa e дa нe cпиpaш дa я дoбивaш. Билo чpeз кoпaeнe,
нaeмaнe нa xaшpeйт oт MRR или тъpгyвaнe.

Дpyги нaчини ca:

Дa имaш пyyл oт кoйтo дa взимaш %
Дa нaпpaвиш мaйнъp oт кoйтo дa взимaш %
Дa нaпpaвиш бopca oт кoятo дa взимaш %
Дa инcтaлиpaш мaйнъp нa caйтa cи и cъc cъглacиeтo
нa пoceтитeлитe ти дa кoпaят вмecтo дa зяпaт peклaми:
JSEcoin
Webchain

Moжeш дa пpaвиш клипчeтa кaтo I Mine Blocks и дa пoпyляpизиpaш мoнeти.

Блoкчeйн дeвeлoпъp e нaй-тъpceнaтa пpoфecия в мoмeнтa. Aкo имaш пoзнaния,
нaй-виcoкитe зaплaти в IT в мoмeнтa ca тaм.

Aкo имaш бeзплaтeн тoк, нaкyпyвaш eвтини S9-ки и къpтиш диpeктнo биткoини
Или пpeз Haйcxaш или пpeз някoй пyyл.

Aкo cи aдмин в дeйтaцeнтъp и шeфa ти нe мy дpeмe кaквo пpaвиш, кoпaeш мoнepo,
UPX (кoйтo зa yлecнeниe нa бългapитe личнo cъм пpeвeл нa бългapcки oт caйтa дo yaйтпeйпъpa) или нeщo дpyгo c пpoцecopитe.

Aкo имaш пoвeчe тepaбaйти, мoжeш дa ги шepнeш пpeз Storj
oщe нe e дoxoднo кoй-знae кoлкo, нo вce някoгa щe cтaнe.

Moжeш дa пpoдaвaш cтoкaтa/ycлyгитe cи зa кpиптo нa днeшни цeни
и дa cпeчeлиш oт eвeнтyaлнoтo пoкaчвaнe нa кypca cлeд вpeмe.

мoжeш дa пpeвeждaш тeми, пopтфeйли, caйтoвe и дa изпълнявaш бayнтитa
cpeщy мoнeти нa нoви вaлyти.

Moжeш дa cи кyпиш мacтъpнoд.

Ктo глeдaм кoлкo Mepит имaш тyк, cпoкoйнo мoжeш дa cи oтдaвaш
пoд нaeм пoдпиc мяcтoтo.

Aкo пък Чипмикcepa e твoй, пycни eднa referal кaмпaния.

Кaктo виждaш, възмoжнocти бoл.

Ten

Du trenger ikke å betale merverdiavgift. Tolletaten har uttalt at det ikke skal beregnes merverdiavgift ved innførsel av enhver form for gyldige betalingsmidler som kan brukes for å kjøpe tjenester/varer.

Det står dog også at mynten må være/har vært et godkjent betalingsmiddel i landet det blir sendt fra, så litt selvmotsigende.

Kilde: https://www.toll.no/no/varer/frimerker-sedler-og-mynter/

Additional posts that deserve more merit (updating):

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5162189.msg52422324#msg52422324
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=56593.msg31974485#msg31974485
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5213552.0

[1714143992]

1714143992

[1714143992]

1714143992

[hacker1001101001]

• I don't like the political games here and I'm trying to be neutral

Let alone this get my vote on you. I support this application.

[NeuroticFish]

Finally I feel more comfortable to apply for a Merit Source

I simply don't know why it took you so long to make this step 

I support the application.

[Kunnu]

It's really brilliant work to post this application and very useful as well it's very difficult to find some good posts because of huge amounts of posts but you did an effective work here to post some amount of excellent posts.

[The Cryptovator]

Ah, I was wrong. I thought you are already in merit source list. You well deserve it, and hope you will get in. Seems you have chosen some very recent post & some posts are already got enough merits. You should choose some orders posts those have not got enough merit accordingly.

2. Collect TEN posts written in the last couple of months by other people that have not received nearly enough merit for how good they are, and post quotes for them all in a new Meta thread.

I think admin mean to submit some old post those have posted couple of month ago but haven't received.

However, best wishes for your merit source application,

[TheBeardedBaby]

Ah, I was wrong. I thought you are already in merit source list. You well deserve it, and hope you will get in. Seems you have chosen some very recent post & some posts are already got enough merits. You should choose some orders posts those have not got enough merit accordingly.

2. Collect TEN posts written in the last couple of months by other people that have not received nearly enough merit for how good they are, and post quotes for them all in a new Meta thread.

I think admin mean to submit some old post those have posted couple of month ago but haven't received.

However, best wishes for your merit source application,

I agree with you in a way. Normally I track the good posts when I merit them and have them in my merit history. Sometimes I'm out of smeirt miss those posts and then I forget about them. I know I should bookmark them but I never do it, i'm most of the time on my phone.

Sure,I'll add more posts in the OP.

Instead of posts there should be a list of users deserving to rank up, I can pick a few for sure, that's why I included some good old ones of not so popular boards.

Edit: THe OP is too long now, I'll add links only...

[wolwoo]

I wish you would treat everyone at equal distance without the hypocrisy!
----------
İasenko, good luck

[TheBeardedBaby]

I wish you would treat everyone at equal distance without the hypocrisy!
----------
İasenko, good luck

Well I think I've proven that til now, If I made any mistakes I've already apologized for them and corrected them as best as I could.
As I said before, I don't want to take any sides in useless online wars, it's just waste of energy and time reading all those walls of text repeating the same tings all over and over... I would like to use my time for something more useful and beneficial for the community.

From the personal wars, the only outcome is negative for the forum and the bitcoin ecosystem in general. No one wins anyway... just creating fear and the funny thing is people even fighting hidden behind alts... this is so pathetic and I don't want to be involved at all.

[davis196]

I'm an active member of the community - Total time logged in: 109 days, 4 hours and 32 minutes..

Damn,my total time logged in is only 25 days,4 hours and 52 minutes(and my account is created December 2015).
Get a life,bruh...
I can't reach that level of dedication.

[tranthidung]

You are more than deserved to be a source, iasenko. I support your application.

I remembered that you emphasize this one, not too long ago

No, I'm not a merit source, I actually manage to have enough earned merit to be able to distribute them almost without interruption, of course when I'm not that active there were a few times I ran out of smerit for week or two but again, all it's up to how active you are on the forum.
Regarding the Merit Source application, if I run out complete out of sMerit then I'll probably apply for one, if they don't implement the Report to Merit source button before that.

Maybe, it's the new year and I already finished my challenge to collect enough merits to be a Legendary. Sooner or later, I will be. Now, maybe I will spend some days to consider that I should apply to be a source or not. Your application nearly affects my mind.

[forumalacali]

Please don't merit this application, better send the merit to the posts below, there are many more who deserve to rank up. I already reached the top Thank you!

I wish you wrote this before you got 30 merits    There are local members who do not receive this merit in 1-2 months. You received this when you wrote the topic (30 minutes)

I am waiting for you to encourage the Turkish community.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5214507.0

thanks

[cryptoaddictchie]

I saw you on our Local thread joining a contest at first I thought youre also a Filipino but knowing that youre from a different country makes me believe how active you are in forum and that's what we need here those can watch every bit of a corner of this forum.

I dont have a say in this vote but surely many will agree that youre qualified for the application.  Goodluck and advance in congrats. Judgement on good posts isnt easy but having you as MS for deserving users is quite a reassurance.

[TheBeardedBaby]

I saw you on our Local thread joining a contest at first I thought youre also a Filipino but knowing that youre from a different country makes me believe how active you are in forum and that's what we need here those can watch every bit of a corner of this forum.

I dont have a say in this vote but surely many will agree that youre qualified for the application.  Goodluck and advance in congrats. Judgement on good posts isnt easy but having you as MS for deserving users is quite a reassurance.

That was a bit of mistake, i have to explain. I was patrolling as usual and read that post regarding the giveaway, it was in English, at least the beginning so i didn't bother to check the comments and took the chance later I saw the rest of the comments and found out my mistake. Luckily I wasn't included in the list of participants.
I thought to delete my post but somebody quoted it already and I thought it was a stupid move to delete it. So I ended up a bit embarrassed...

[1miau]

I'm also surprised that you aren't a Merit source yet, so it's about time to get this done. 

Little info :

• In the begging of the merit system I tried to help those who needed a bit to rank up.

I guess you meant beginning but yeah, there was also a lot of begging for Merits. 


Definitely supported.

[Vispilio]

Excellent choice for a merit source, the OP is famous for his helpful and well-disposed tone in general,

and would be a great source if he also diversifies a bit into local sections as he is suggesting, good luck.

[Daniel91]

I also support this merit source application 100 %.
In fact,  I think that OP is one of the most qualified candidate for the merit source, based on hiscontribution and work in this forum until now.
I'm also suprice that you waited so long to officially apply for this position.
I'm sure that theymos will accept your application but not right now because recently he accepted some new merit source candidates and increased number of available merits.

[El duderino_]

definitely support, I have read some post of him and as I see it he's a bit similar style as myself, try to talk in a polite approach to other members, only he's better with English and words as myself and way more handy with computers and stuff  (though I do my best as well)

Probably one of the most qualified members to be in source-team

Very kind person for as far as I have seen, merited a lot him self, so that means many people will appreciate his style etc

[LogitechMouse]

I still remember the time that I accused you of something and in the end, I'm the one who is wrong .
It happened long time ago already so probably you forgot it but anyway, supported and 100% sure that you will be a merit source .
Spread your merits in different local sections if you will be a merit source .

[fillippone]

Totally support this application.
Iasenko has been a valuable member of the forum and was able to find good post.
He demonstrated a good use of his merits, so I think he’ll be a good merit source.

[kawetsriyanto]

Please don't merit this application, better send the merit to the posts below,

Your request is totally rejected by forum members, even TMAN gave you (20). I don't know why they are not friendly today?

Finally I feel more comfortable to apply for a Merit Source, of course if the forum needs an extra hand.

I am sure the forum should need your help as a Merit source. There are more than 136k active members currently, another Merit source will be very helpful to cover them. And it seems no reason to ignore your application.

- I have already shared more than 700 merit to the community.
- In the begging of the merit system I tried to help those who needed a bit to rank up.

No doubt if you know very well how to treat sMerit. Forum must support someone like you. Good luck!!