I made a search engine for .bit websites. Hope everyone stop talking about price and try to explore .bit websites.
http://liddle.bithttp://liddle-bit.com (if you can't resolve .bit domains try this)
That is a cool idea even though I haven't tried it yet.
The point about cost vs use is important.
When crypto started, if you read posts from the early days, all of the people were tech people. The big barrier between coins and the public is the tech side, not the "new idea" side. Most people will try anything if its easy and won't even try something major if its hard.
Namecoin is an extremely important project, it has the potential to rapidly change a lot of political landscape as long as it is easy and secure.
Right now it really is not easy. A browser extension and search engine for Namecoin at this point are "developer tools", not a mainstream bridge.
When a person can seamlessly transition between the "govt" web and the Namecoin web with absolutely no effort, then it will be mainstream. I am not smart with tech, in fact well below even most non tech people, but I have some websites and will send an email to my hosting provider if somebody who knows something more than me can rephrase the writing so it is useful.
Here is an outline of an email, if somebody can make suggestions.
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Sirs,
I have hosted sites with you for a number of years and am trying to figure out if there is a way to use the Namecoin system to serve .bit websites on my sites the same way that www sites are served so that I could put links to both icann tld's and .bit sites, and as long as the browser is compatible both / either would be served.
Thanks etx
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Obviously I might be overlooking something basic about how .bit sites work, so if somebody who knows can rephrase the email I'll send it.
Once Namecoin has basic functionality as a domain system that is accessible and secure to anybody who can access the 'centralized' internet, other features could be added according to local needs. But first it really has to be accessible.
Google is by far the most popular search engine, and there is one difference between google and others that is probably why. The Google search page is completely simple. An empty page with a box to type in your search and maybe an image on the page. Look at the Yahoo page and it is like a page full of spaghetti.
Functionality and simplicity are all that is really needed to start.
I don't think I have ever seen Namecoin this cheap on the exchanges.
True. Relative to Bitcoin, the price of Namecoin is at its historical low.
Coinmarketcap does not use WEX anymore for determining the Namecoin-price. And the price at WEX ($) is still increasing, whereas the price on the other exchanges seems stable.
Maybe, every Namecoin, which is bought at WEX, is sold on some other exchange. Decreasing the supply and increasing the price at WEX, whereas on the other exchanges, the coins are immediately bought for the current price so that the non-WEX price is in an equilibrium.
It becomes really interesting, when WEX's Namecoin supply collapses (and with it maybe the whole exchange), since the supply there cannot be infinite (which is already reflected by the increasing price). That is, pay attention to WEX's Namecoin price excess. I think 8$ for Namecoin at WEX without at general crypto bull market, and WEX is history.
I had heard vaguely of btce being closed for criminal reasons, and knew that wex was the successor of them, but did not know the details. I just spent half an hour or so researching it and here is a summary. It is important because coins are sometimes portrayed as having a 'criminal' motive rather than being one tool that can be used by anybody including criminals.
BTCE apparently was simply an exchange that did not require registration. Whether it was actually run for the purpose of facilitating anything illegal is not clear, but the fact that it seems to have been associated with Russian spy types suggests that any crimes involved were probably on the political side rather than 'objectively criminal'.
The big issue with Alexander Vinnick, who was supposedly a top person in some conspiracy, appears to be his involvement with things relating to Robert Mueller's investigation. Mueller is investigating Trump's election, and so far negative things have surfaced on both sides. Some people on Trump's team were involved in secret business with Russians, and some FBI agents investigating that were fabricating evidence and involved in misconduct. Nevertheless, it is known for sure that 'somebody' hacked Hillary Clinton's emails, and it does look like Vinnick was probably connected to that.
So the bottom line there seems to be that a top person probably associated with BTCE was probably involved in doing something illegal in the U.S. The problem is that, on the basis of that semi political crime it looks like U.S. authorities tred to pile on charges, like saying he was responsible for $4 billion worth of money taken from Mt Gox being laundered. Many countries, including the U.S. and probably Russia and China and any others, allow a lot of fictional charges to be added when a person is involved in one crime. Whether Vinnick was actually involved in anything beyond hacking Hillary's emails and being part of a Russian hacking group is not clear. Was he actually involved in any way with a $4 billion Mt Gox theft? Doubtful.
Does the U.S. also have people who hack into other country's secrets, dump emails etc, harass enemies etc? Who knows. Maybe Russia is the only country that does that. But more likely every country has its groups of young tech types who are too smart for the school or the military so they engage in mischief under the umbrella of spy agencies.
Bottom line, I am not able to find any actual criminal history, aside from operating an exchange without verification, associated with wex or btce. Even though it seems to be a huge criminal issue, the core of it seems to do with Mueller's investigation of spooks in Russia vs spooks in the U.S.
If somebody knows of some actual crime associated with wex or btce they should mention it or post a link, but it seems to be mostly 'crime fiction', along the lines of Ross Ullbricht's arrest. Many people believed and still believe that Ullbricht was a violent gangster promoting various crimes. In fact he was surrounded from the start by government agents who used all of their resources to coax him into appearing to commit crimes, then they fabricated evidence, stole thousands of bicoin from him and, finally, sentenced him to two life terms. He was widely known in his circle as a nonviolent libertarian, a pacifist.
Nobody should support crime, things that harm others. Some people might oppose a decentralized internet on the grounds that there must be 'government control' of the web. Even many supposed 'free speech' types try to maintain government control of things like the internet. If there is an 'unregulated' internet will everybody suddenly start commiting crimes? If a person is opposed to something, whether an ideology or something as mundane as drug selling, isn't it better to have what you are opposed to be visible? If somebody uses a decentralized internet to sell drugs then you can post on their site that you don't like drugs, you can even argue about it, maybe convince some drug user. Last year more than 50,000 Americans died of drug overdoses. These are mostly young people secretively buying synthetic opiates. What would happen if they were able to buy real opium online? About zero people die per year from smoking opium, so why not let people make 'illegal' opium websites. And if you have some ideology that is threatened by free speech, if you think a free internet would threaten your beliefs, then maybe it would be better to allow opponents to make antigovernment websites so your beliefs can be tested against nature. In the United States there is, in some places, the belief that "intellectual property" is a criminal matter. That is the big roadblock to a decentralized internet in the U.S. Other countries may have other reasons for their leaders to feel threatened by a decentralized internet.
