Goodbye, world!

[jamyr]

. ..  Not a small part of me wishes Lauda, Vod, TMAN, and probably a few other members that aren't coming to mind would return simultaneously.  That would be a trip. 

Hell, even if they staggered their reappearances, it'd be amazing.

Those three (Lauda Vod TMAN), were/are pillars of the community.

That is fair of you.  Many people who got the red cat-scratch only bear a grudge about it, regardless of how much it was deserved.  I see that she neutralized yours in May 2020, about five months before she left.

I was disappointed at first when I got those scratches, but that feeling of disappointment became feeling of respect towards that dedicated kitty. She did not respond when I first ask her to consider making her feedback neutral,(sometime 2018), fast forward May 2020, I asked her again, and she did turn it to neutral.

Some longtime forum regulars are almost sure that he was a man.  I think that she was probably a woman.  I pestered her endlessly about this question; all that she would tell me was, “I’m a cat.”  Flip a coin, pick a pronoun, and stick to it.  Whatever the correct guess may have been, she/he was never offended by wrong guesses.

With a 50/50 chance, I'll stick with Lauda being a she.

[1714017883]

1714017883

[1714017883]

1714017883

[uchegod-21]

What a thread?

When I joined this forum newly, I was impressed by Lauda's pinned posts in Beginners and Help board. I couldn't think of it much because I believed Lauda should be among the moderators or even a global moderator. Since these moderators don't post often, I might not see Lauda post. This was my believe.

But when Cyrus launched Bitcointalk YouTube channel, I was following the channel until he did Bitcointalk quiz. One of the questions was. Who among the following users cannot return to the forum?

There was couple of names which include Lauda, Vod and others. Cyrus said the correct answer was Lauda, that after leaving the forum he/she was banned. Today I stumbled of the last post of Lauda.

With the tune of OP, I am sure Lauda was under an attack (siege), or something of that nature. That decision wasn't taken naturally.

[nullius]

000000000fdf0c619cd8e0d512c7e2c0da5a5808e60f12f1e0d01522d2986a51
The nonexistent cat wants me to learn more about GANs, mentioned below,
so that I can generate for myself an unbounded supply of nonexistent kitties. 😺

Free images of Lauda!

jamyr and uchegod-21, thanks for your kind words.  A clarification for those now joining us:

But when Cyrus launched Bitcointalk YouTube channel, I was following the channel until he did Bitcointalk quiz. One of the questions was. Who among the following users cannot return to the forum?

There was couple of names which include Lauda, Vod and others. Cyrus said the correct answer was Lauda, that after leaving the forum he/she was banned. Today I stumbled of the last post of Lauda.

Super-hyper-ultra-banned, not with an ordinary account ban.  Lauda got the same ban as Satoshi, whose account is totally disabled to help protect against potential security compromises.  From earlier in this thread:

I will request that theymos ban the "Lauda" account (u=101872)

Done. Lauda is banned in the same way as satoshi, such that it isn't possible to even log into the account anymore.

Continuing discussion of the Lauda Memorial Crypto-Puzzle:

Any new ideas for how to solve the puzzle?

That's the problem: there are too many options.

In honour of Lauda’s thread, it is my pleasure to introduce even in a very informal way some thoughts that I have had on what I call Kolmogorov v. Kerckhoff.

My ideas about this are handwavy, not rigorous—and I know the difference.  Nonetheless, I have observed that in practice, the set of all programs with relatively low Kolmogorov complexity is, itself, a keyspace.  It is an ill-defined keyspace, which would make many cryptographers and security wonks shudder with horror; but it is a type of keyspace, or rather, I conjecture (*waves hands*) that it could be made one.

Sets of programs have been more rigorously turned into keyspaces of sorts.  For instance, Monero’s RandomX POW mining algorithm meets this description in a different way.

From another perspective, I think of it as a crypto-key version of naming the biggest number.  Since I specified that I used only standard things, and the solution can be quite easily programmed with readily available tools, the upper bound on the set of possible solutions (= “keys”) is expanded by adding new primitives, new standards, new tools.  By an analogy that is to me more philosophical than mathematical, I see that like inventing new notations for expressing bigger numbers.

Anyway, I am using a blackbox program as the secret quasi-key.  The program has publicly known inputs.  The entire security of the system relies on keeping the program secret.  But this, in turn, seems like the nullification of Kerckhoffs’s principle.  That is, of course, a security doctrine, not a mathematical rule.

Lest I discourage anyone from attempting the puzzle, I emphasize that I laid out sufficient clues.  At least, I think I did.  So...

Every time when there are some 32 bytes, then you can put there any hash, so the whole process can be unsafe, but the whole security comes from the algorithm.

...I would not be so cruel!  Hashing some data in weird ways with no hint of the inputs would give others an exercise in frustration, not a fun puzzle.

I probably used hashes, and some other things.  Hints were dropped about what and how—subtle hints, but sufficient to get me on the right track if I myself ever forget how to reconstruct the private key.  Of course, that would simply be jogging my memory.  Will others find the hints?

So, I have many ideas, [...]

Good luck. 😼

Also, when it comes to mining transactions, it can be just some kind of timelock: https://www.gwern.net/Self-decrypting-files

Thanks.  That’s a good page; I have seen it before, so I guess we read some similar things.

It does not mention that Solana uses a hash-based timelock in its consensus algorithm; they call it a VDF (Verifiable Delay Function), even though it is not a real VDF.  It should probably not be discussed here, for risk of ghostly hisses and scratches.

Gwern also has information and experimental writeups on GANs, including StyleGAN.  The thiscatdoesnotexist.com site that I have been using as an official source of Lauda images is run by the authors of StyleGAN2.  I have been thinking to use Gwern’s info as a general guide to setting up my own Lauda image generator, but I lack the hardware for this type of project (GPUs, etc.).  Someday...

GANs for creating nonexistent cats are discussed earlier in this thread, with references.  It is my way of inducing people to read the thread, so that they fall under the witch’s spell.  ;-)

[garlonicon]

Hashing some data in weird ways with no hint of the inputs would give others an exercise in frustration, not a fun puzzle.

I probably used hashes, and some other things.  Hints were dropped about what and how—subtle hints, but sufficient to get me on the right track if I myself ever forget how to reconstruct the private key.

Guess what, a combination of those two things is possible. So, zero bits are needed, just to be on the right track. Because it is possible to mine something, then mine something else, and so on, and so on. It can be like a "Matryoshka": a hash in a hash in a hash... So, you can start with one field, hash it to reach 36 zero bits, then choose another field, and grind it again, to reach another hash with 36 zero bits, and so on, and so on. So, in this way if going backwards will lead to reaching some hash with many zero bits in a fast way, then it means we are on the right track. And that's why mining is needed: to be on-track all the time, just to leave some traces for the future. But so far, I didn't find any, so it means my method is probably wrong. I expect for example things like grinding one byte to go directly from one 36-bit hash to another 36-bit hash. And if that pattern would repeat, then it could mean those parts were really mined. And that would explain, why making this challenge took so long, but why also getting things back is fast enough to be practical, just grinding one byte and going from one low hash to another low hash is easy enough to verify, but hard enough to guess and to prepare upfront, because many things can be grinded in many ways.

I see that like inventing new notations for expressing bigger numbers

That makes things even more complicated, because you could use numbers that behave like cbrt(1), but in practice they could be random enough to not be guessed instantly. For example, cbrt(1) is unsafe, it is simple, but in practice it is 5363ad4cc05c30e0a5261c028812645a122e22ea20816678df02967c1b23bd72, so it is not so obvious that it allows getting identical y-values for public keys. And there could be another simple relation, like sqrt(17), e, pi, or something similar, and even if it is mathematically quite simple and unsafe, the whole thing could be just something like a volume of a ball, because why not. There were some brainwallets with some special numbers, so maybe it is some combination of them. But still, there is no guarantee, that the address is even spendable at all, and is not something like RIPEMD-160("I am sorry, your coins are burned.").

[Agbe]

It is only those who understands Politics understand what Lauda said in this thread. In politics, there are two category of people in the parliament. Conformist and non conformist characters.

Conformist characters are those characters (people) that always support bad things in the law making house. They are there to under-develop the system. They are there to make money but not for Development, and those were the people in the forum that against Lauda for good work because she was stepping on their toes. They had to fight her and killed her career in the forum. This is normal even in real life. That is why most countries (mostly African countries) can never be Developed. The old forum users should compare the forum activities by then and now. Igehhh is complaining that the forum is full with spams. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5403475.0

Non conformist characters, these are people in the parliament that doesn't support bad things. They are not there to make money but the Development of the system, so they are even against the conformist characters for the activities. I know many users that are in this category in this forum and Lauda was in this category. Remember anyone that belongs to this group, the conformist group would call you a mad mad man, scape goat, stupid, fool, all sort of names all because you did not allow them to do their bad activities. So what they (conformist) will do to you is to impeached ( banned, removed, blocked) or killed you from their present for them to have access to do whatever they want.

Really. The mood and tone used by the OP (Lauda) was not a favorable one. She used a lot of figures of speech in the thread. In the process of reading I have empathy, she was not really happy in the thread. She used words like die, kill, and soul, immaterial etc. These words show that she was not happy. This thread touch my heart even though I didn't meet the OP in the forum. Let me stop here, I have a lot in my brain to write. I wish you all the best wherever you are. Your metonymys, euphemisms, apostrophes in the thread touch my heart.

[GazetaBitcoin]

I wanted to write something here for a long time now but, sadly, my free time does not allow me to do everything I want to do... Anyway, here I am

Lauda is "he" and anyone thinking otherwise is just fooling themselves. [...]

All those that understand Croatian/Serbian shouldn't have any doubt whether Lauda is a male or female. Among other things, we have  genders for verbs in past tense and adjectives. In his posts made in Croatian board,  Lauda always used masculine gender.

I read Rikafip's quoted comment since he published it first time. And, at first sight, I tended to agree that Lauda could have been male. Then I thought again. Could have Lauda done such a mistake? Could Lauda try to avoid exposing their gender by all means and forget what they were doing inside Croatian board?

By knowing Lauda and the way they acted here all the time regarding privacy, I came to the conclusion that it's possible that what Lauda did in Croatian board was yet another step to mislead people about their gender, in order to better protect their privacy (and, if it is so, then it's a brilliant idea!). Somehow (although Lauda never admitted that), in international boards, some perceived Lauda as female. Then "she" wrote, on purpose, as male in Croatian board. Why? One reason could be exactly this: to have people even more confused about Lauda's gender and trigger even more question marks.

I don't think that Lauda would do such mistake and not realize that someone from Croatian board would come, at some point and say - "Hey, look! Lauda is writing like he is a male!".

After all, it's possible (and, pay attention, I said possible, not probable) that she could kindly ask some users here to even maintain the confusion. For example, she could have talked to Rikafip and nullius, asking one to state that Lauda is male and the other to say that Lauda is female I am not saying that she did it, only that it's possible.

Think about me: I wrote with several occasions that I am the father of a young boy. But does that make me a man? Does that ensure any reader that I actually have a son? In fact, I do but it's also possible that I don't have any son and it's also possible that I am not a man at all. It's not probable, but it is possible.

Having all these in mind, I ceased thinking, after a while, about Lauda's gender. It does not even matter for me. All that matter is that the user Lauda brought great contributions to this forum. And, if Lauda said they're a cat, then cat it is Voilà!

[examplens]

Think about me: I wrote with several occasions that I am the father of a young boy. But does that make me a man? Does that ensure any reader that I actually have a son? In fact, I do but it's also possible that I don't have any son and it's also possible that I am not a man at all. It's not probable, but it is possible.

If I remember correctly, you are oppressed by the wife's father to glorify his wine from a plastic bottle. it could cast a serious shadow on your image as a man 

now serious, does Lauda's gender really matter?
Also, he/she officially leaves this forum, why are we discussing this topic two years later?

[garlonicon]

Also, he/she officially leaves this forum, why are we discussing this topic two years later?

There are two reasons, why this topic was bumped:
1) the prize in 000000000fdf0c619cd8e0d512c7e2c0da5a5808e60f12f1e0d01522d2986a51 was doubled: https://mempool.space/address/bc1qt2mdkehmphggajer3ur3g8l754scj4fdrmw3rn
2) silent payments are discussed again: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/silent-payments-make-bitcoin-more-private

[GazetaBitcoin]

If I remember correctly, you are oppressed by the wife's father to glorify his wine from a plastic bottle. it could cast a serious shadow on your image as a man 

My dear examplens, you remember something, but you are a bit confused here... I am not oppressed at all by my father in-law to glorify his wine -- but the opposite: he is happy to see his wine being glorified! I was (and still am) oppressed by fillippone from glorifying my father in-law's wine!!! fillippone is the one not believing in the extraordinary taste of my wine And, although I invited me many times to taste it, he always dodges, as he is afraid that he will just love that wine and he'll ask for more. Ask him

now serious, does Lauda's gender really matter?

Not for me. This is why I wrote this part in my previous post:

It does not even matter for me. All that matter is that the user Lauda brought great contributions to this forum. And, if Lauda said they're a cat, then cat it is Voilà!

[fillippone]

fillippone is the one not believing in the extraordinary taste of my wine And, although I invited me many times to taste it, he always dodges, as he is afraid that he will just love that wine and he'll ask for more. Ask him

No way.
I have few(very few) rules in my life. The first one is never indulge in shitcoinery, the second is never drink from plastic bottles.
Sorry Gazeta, we will meet one day maybe, but this is not going to happen.

[icopress]

There was couple of names which include Lauda, Vod and others. Cyrus said the correct answer was Lauda, that after leaving the forum he/she was banned. Today I stumbled of the last post of Lauda.

I think you're talking about this quiz. 

• Link: https://app.involve.me/bitcointalk/test-your-bitcointalk-know-how
• Answer 22 questions and find out how well you know the history of the forum.
  
• Four answer options, but only one correct answer ➥ Note.

[GazetaBitcoin]

I have few(very few) rules in my life. The first one is never indulge in shitcoinery, the second is never drink from plastic bottles.

Awww, this is so cute! fillippone, you look very nice & funny, like a child when he is caught lying

Sorry Gazeta, we will meet one day maybe, but this is not going to happen.

Now I hoped it was not needed to get to this but, for the sake of truth ( ) I will have to expose you: when were you going to admit that you started saving money for a long while now, in order to buy a house just next to my father in-law's wine cellar? 

[PrimeNumber7]

I read Rikafip's quoted comment since he published it first time. And, at first sight, I tended to agree that Lauda could have been male. Then I thought again. Could have Lauda done such a mistake? Could Lauda try to avoid exposing their gender by all means and forget what they were doing inside Croatian board?

By knowing Lauda and the way they acted here all the time regarding privacy, I came to the conclusion that it's possible that what Lauda did in Croatian board was yet another step to mislead people about their gender, in order to better protect their privacy (and, if it is so, then it's a brilliant idea!). Somehow (although Lauda never admitted that), in international boards, some perceived Lauda as female. Then "she" wrote, on purpose, as male in Croatian board. Why? One reason could be exactly this: to have people even more confused about Lauda's gender and trigger even more question marks.

From what I can tell, Lauda cared more about her privacy as she became more well-known. I think part of this was due to her being disliked by so many people because she called them out as scammers, and she did not want to be harassed IRL.

I have the impression that Lauda did not care as much about her privacy in her early days on the forum. That is not to say that there may not be other reasons for her to mislead others about her gender (if that is what she is doing).

[fillippone]

Now I hoped it was not needed to get to this but, for the sake of truth ( ) I will have to expose you: when were you going to admit that you started saving money for a long while now, in order to buy a house just next to my father in-law's wine cellar? 

Gazeta, what if I am actually your father-in-law and I despise your habit of putting my wine in those cheap plastic bottles?

[GazetaBitcoin]

Gazeta, what if I am actually your father-in-law and I despise your habit of putting my wine in those cheap plastic bottles?

Looooooool!

fillippone, if you were my father in-law I think that we would have been drunk everyday (or, at least most part of the day, everyday) And, most likely, the wine cellar would be emptied by us, instead of customers =)))

But, who knows? Maybe at some point in time we'll have together a wine cellar and we'll be able to empty it as we please 

[icopress]

If I'm not confusing anything, then the balance on Lauda's account has changed. 

[nullius]

UASF or a POW change is coming, whether you like it or not. The miners do not, and have never been in, control of the network. You can create your BTU coin that is completely controlled by Jihan and China for all you like, but the ecosystem will not be a part of it.

(Topic: “Re: SegWit dying off in spite of all your efforts”.  Lolz, Segwit is dead like “Bitcoin is dead”.)

😻


Re: [ANN] Bitcoin Cash - Fork 1:1 of Bitcoin - Pro on-chain scaling

This thread is full of idiots who wants to lose money. [...] This altcoin will be dumped to the ground.

🎆 😼

Happy Bitcoin Independence Day.

If I'm not confusing anything, then the balance on Lauda's account has changed. 

Thanks to some anonymous donor for remembering Kitty:
2f6aa55b7ca3cc15df84491efe184a8ba15ce71221ff6253572ee4231de4809a
Block height 744423, block timestamp 2022-07-10 12:12:59 UTC.

Observing the prize at 0.00333333 BTC.

Prediction:  Lauda’s goodbye thread will segue into speculation on the memorial puzzle’s BTC value.  Why speculate on the so-called “Bitcoin price”?  Bitcoin’s price is constant:  1 BTC = 1 BTC.  But the BTC balance of the puzzle has been changing!  Ironically, perhaps these observations may even grow to be longer than the Wall Observer! 😸


Last month, the interest in the puzzle both in this thread and on the blockchain inspired me to attempt setting up something else puzzle-related.  It turned out not to be feasible to me at this time.  Unfortunately, pending that, I delayed replying here, then got absorbed in other matters.  New month—Bitcoin holiday—time to stop falling behind.  A few brief notes for now:

garlonicon, I am not sure what to say to that, without giving further hints.  ;-)

Agbe, thanks for the kind words.  You described the situation overall quite astutely.  And yes, Lauda was unhappy at the time she left.  But I doubt that was why.  Too abrupt; and the comprehensiveness which she cut all contacts indicates to me some dire necessity.

Gazeta, I think that’s not unlikely that for disinformation, Lauda may have intentionally given a “male” impression in some discussions, and “female” in others.  Indeed, I indicated above that I suspect so.  But I will say affirmatively, Lauda never asked me to take one side or the other on that question.  Of my own accord, I am >95% sure that Lauda must have been a woman—but then every once in awhile, I wake up and say, oh, my:  I could have accidentally spent years pining away in unrequited love for a man.  Did I just say that aloud?  Damn it, you can’t delete anything on the Internet.    What I meant was:  I could be totally wrong about this.

PrimeNumber7, I think that Lauda probably cared about her privacy from the beginning.  But assuming the contrary arguendo, there are various other reasons besides cypherpunk-anonymity why someone may obfuscate his or her identity online.  For instance, I know that some women with high technical skills masquerade as men, to avoid unwanted sexual attention that is oft crude and gratuitous in anonymous Internet environments.  I think that’s unfortunate, but it is has been a reality for decades—perhaps somewhat less so now.  Who knows?  I myself explicitly claim to be a man; but you have no proof that I am not just putting on a sometimes aggressive display of overt masculinity so I can fit in with the fellows in WO.  Anyway, it is nobody’s business.

I can easily think of a dozen such arguments on both sides of the question.

now serious, does Lauda's gender really matter?

It’s a fun discussion, Lauda never minded that speculation when she (he?) was here; to the contrary, she seemed tacitly to encourage it.  Thus, of course, it really matters.  Why, it is the third most-important subject that has ever been discussed on this forum since Satoshi left!

Also, he/she officially leaves this forum, why are we discussing this topic two years later?

Need I ask once per page if the Reputation forum is only for attacking and denouncing people?  “Reputation” has a bad reputation.  There is no “we”—for my part, I appreciate a positive, happy thread celebrating the years of contributions by someone who was deeply devoted to the Bitcoin Forum community.  If you don’t, please feel free not to participate.

I have sometimes thought about making a Lauda website—aye, a stereotypical Internet shrine.  I almost did, back in 2020.  I didn’t (yet?), for I have some doubts about whether or not Lauda would want such a thing.  But she spent much time on this forum.  Why begrudge her thread?  Lauda’s friends and admirers will never forget her.

Kitty forever!  😺😺😺😺😺😺😺😺😺

[JollyGood]

On first look at your post I was under the impression that Lauda had returned and there was movement on her account. Then I realised it was something else. If you mean merits, I see 15 merits added to Lauda since the previous month. Which balance are you referring to?

If I'm not confusing anything, then the balance on Lauda's account has changed. 

[NeuroticFish]

On first look at your post I was under the impression that Lauda had returned and there was movement on her account. Then I realised it was something else. If you mean merits, I see 15 merits added to Lauda since the previous month. Which balance are you referring to?

If I'm not confusing anything, then the balance on Lauda's account has changed. 

He may be referring to the balance of bc1qt2mdkehmphggajer3ur3g8l754scj4fdrmw3rn (the address for Lauda related puzzle). From the original 0.001 BTC now it has 0.00333333 BTC. Some more coins were sent there less than one month ago.
.. Just that's not Lauda's wallet, from what I know.

[JollyGood]

Thank you for the clarification.

Yes it seems strange that a small deposit was made there but the reason behind it remains unknown. Even if the address was under control of Lauda there is nothing stopping her from moving her funds after she departed this forum.

Out of curiosity, if not Lauda then who could be controlling the wallet? Maybe the person controlling it made the deposit.

On first look at your post I was under the impression that Lauda had returned and there was movement on her account. Then I realised it was something else. If you mean merits, I see 15 merits added to Lauda since the previous month. Which balance are you referring to?

If I'm not confusing anything, then the balance on Lauda's account has changed. 

He may be referring to the balance of bc1qt2mdkehmphggajer3ur3g8l754scj4fdrmw3rn (the address for Lauda related puzzle). From the original 0.001 BTC now it has 0.00333333 BTC. Some more coins were sent there less than one month ago.
.. Just that's not Lauda's wallet, from what I know.