help! Bitcoin Article to be published, please review

[Insti]

Initial Issuance
The answer has to do with construction of the block chain. Earlier it was mentioned that users earn transaction fees for helping build the chain – however, what is really going on is that each user individually attempts repeatedly to add a block, but it only works with a certain low probability. The first user that successfully adds the block includes a special transaction inside that block which credits them with the transaction fee. The fee is subtracted from the other transactions inside the block.

To bring “coins” into circulation, for the first certain number of blocks, instead of a transaction fee, the user receives newly issued Bitcoins. This mechanism is policed in the same manner as everything in Bitcoin: via the consensus mechanism. Even though individual Bitcoin users may wish to counterfeit, no user would desire others to counterfeit, and so they reject a block chain that includes new Bitcoins past a certain limit, which is agreed to be 21 million Bitcoins. The fear of non-recognition by other auditors means that no individual would ever accept as payment a coin that is known to be counterfeit.

s/instead of/in addition to/

In general:

You're getting complicated again..

[Anonymous]

Initial Issuance
The answer has to do with construction of the block chain. Earlier it was mentioned that users earn transaction fees for helping build the chain – however, what is really going on is that each user individually attempts repeatedly to add a block, but it only works with a certain low probability. The first user that successfully adds the block includes a special transaction inside that block which credits them with the transaction fee. The fee is subtracted from the other transactions inside the block.

To bring “coins” into circulation, for the first certain number of blocks, instead of a transaction fee, the user receives newly issued Bitcoins. This mechanism is policed in the same manner as everything in Bitcoin: via the consensus mechanism. Even though individual Bitcoin users may wish to counterfeit, no user would desire others to counterfeit, and so they reject a block chain that includes new Bitcoins past a certain limit, which is agreed to be 21 million Bitcoins. The fear of non-recognition by other auditors means that no individual would ever accept as payment a coin that is known to be counterfeit.

s/instead of/in addition to/

In general:

You're getting complicated again..

True... but I need to answer the vandalism question and the issuance / 21 million limit question. But you're right, I can probably make it simpler than it is presented here, I will try to re-word.

[Anonymous]

Alrighty, I cut it down to size, it now reads:

Protection from Vandalism
We’ve talked a lot about what information in Bitcoin is public knowledge, but what exactly needs to be kept private? Each user must keep secret the information that allows them to render digital signatures for their accounts – otherwise a thief could announce transactions to remove money from their accounts. This information is kept inside of each user’s “wallet”, which is stored as a file on their computer. It is highly recommended that you encrypt your wallet and make periodic backups.

Initial Issuance
To bring “coins” into circulation, the first certain number of blocks in the block chain represent newly issued Bitcoins, which are used to pay those who help build the chain (rather than transaction fees). This mechanism is policed in the same manner as everything in Bitcoin: via the consensus mechanism. Even though individual Bitcoin users may wish to counterfeit, no user would desire others to counterfeit, and so they reject a block chain that includes new Bitcoins past a certain limit, which is agreed to be 21 million Bitcoins. The fear of non-recognition by other auditors means that no individual would ever accept as payment a coin that is known to be counterfeit.

[FreeMoney]

Are you aware of this?

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=782.0

Backups need to be continual (after every transaction) or they will not have all the required keys to get your coins. Imo, keeping your savings in a secure wallet used infrequently is best. Use a different wallet for everyday spending.

I don't know if any of this should go into the article.

Maybe just "The file wallet.dat holds the keys that allow you to spend your coins. If that file is compromised so is your balance."

It isn't a paragraph, so I guess you should find somewhere else to stick it.

Let me think about the second part for a bit.

[Insti]

Protection from Vandalism
We’ve talked a lot about what information in Bitcoin is public knowledge, but what exactly needs to be kept private? Each user must keep secret the information that allows them to render digital signatures for their accounts – otherwise a thief could announce transactions to remove money from their accounts. This information is kept inside of each user’s “wallet”, which is stored as a file on their computer. It is highly recommended that you encrypt your wallet and make periodic backups.

This is better.

Initial Issuance
To bring “coins” into circulation, the first certain number of blocks in the block chain represent newly issued Bitcoins, which are used to pay those who help build the chain (rather than transaction fees). This mechanism is policed in the same manner as everything in Bitcoin: via the consensus mechanism. Even though individual Bitcoin users may wish to counterfeit, no user would desire others to counterfeit, and so they reject a block chain that includes new Bitcoins past a certain limit, which is agreed to be 21 million Bitcoins. The fear of non-recognition by other auditors means that no individual would ever accept as payment a coin that is known to be counterfeit.

This is worse.


Initial Issuance
To bring “coins” into circulation, those who generate a new block are rewarded with newly issued Bitcoins in addition to any transaction fees. The amount of new coins awarded will decrease over time eventually reaching zero when there are 21 million total Bitcoins.

[Anonymous]

Good points... mentioning backups is probably not a good idea since the rules around backups are actually complex. Also, my expectation is that backup capability will improve in future versions of Bitcoin.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, here is the current version:

Protection from Vandalism
Each user must keep secret the information that allows them to render digital signatures for their accounts – otherwise a thief could announce transactions to remove money from their accounts. This information is kept inside of each user’s “wallet” file. Please refer to the FAQ at bitcoin.org for information on how to encrypt and backup your wallet.

Initial Issuance
To bring “coins” into circulation, those who construct the block chain are rewarded with newly issued Bitcoins in addition to any transaction fees. The amount of new coins awarded will decrease over time eventually reaching zero when there are 21 million total Bitcoins.

[FreeMoney]

Good.

Slightly off topic since it should not go in the article.

Insti, how does the halving of the reward work exactly? Is it rounded down if there isn't enough precision? In about 10*4 years there will be a reward of 0.048828125 BTC will it be rounded down to .04882812 BTC? Will this result in a limit strictly less than 21 million?

[theymos]

Good.

Slightly off topic since it should not go in the article.

Insti, how does the halving of the reward work exactly? Is it rounded down if there isn't enough precision? In about 10*4 years there will be a reward of 0.048828125 BTC will it be rounded down to .04882812 BTC? Will this result in a limit strictly less than 21 million?

It's done as a right bitwise shift (of a 64-bit integer). The reward will go from 0.00000001 to 0. Then no more coins will be created. The maximum number of coins is 20,999,999.9769.

[FreeMoney]

Good.

Slightly off topic since it should not go in the article.

Insti, how does the halving of the reward work exactly? Is it rounded down if there isn't enough precision? In about 10*4 years there will be a reward of 0.048828125 BTC will it be rounded down to .04882812 BTC? Will this result in a limit strictly less than 21 million?

It's done as a right bitwise shift (of a 64-bit integer). The reward will go from 0.00000001 to 0. Then no more coins will be created. The maximum number of coins is 20,999,999.9769.

Cool. I also want to confirm that the 4 years is just an estimate, it is actually tied to block generation, correct? Block 210001 will be worth 25BTC regardless of when it is found.

[Insti]

Cool. I also want to confirm that the 4 years is just an estimate, it is actually tied to block generation, correct? Block 210001 will be worth 25BTC regardless of when it is found.

Correct.

[kiba]

So is this article going to get published? Can you reveal to us who's publishing it?

[fresno]

Sorry I'm coming in a little late with this, but do we want to expose Bitcoin to the liability of being a "currency"? In another thread, I've posited that we should be careful not to claim that Bitcoin is useful for any particular purpose, especially as a currency or money. That could leave us open for charges of fraud.

[MoonShadow]

Sorry I'm coming in a little late with this, but do we want to expose Bitcoin to the liability of being a "currency"? In another thread, I've posited that we should be careful not to claim that Bitcoin is useful for any particular purpose, especially as a currency or money. That could leave us open for charges of fraud.

Sorry, but bitcoins are a currency by definition and design.  You can avoid the term as much as you like, but a currency is what they were intended to be, and there will always be people to will refer to them as such, no matter what we few here choose to do.

[kiba]

Sorry I'm coming in a little late with this, but do we want to expose Bitcoin to the liability of being a "currency"? In another thread, I've posited that we should be careful not to claim that Bitcoin is useful for any particular purpose, especially as a currency or money. That could leave us open for charges of fraud.

Sorry, but bitcoins are a currency by definition and design.  You can avoid the term as much as you like, but a currency is what they were intended to be, and there will always be people to will refer to them as such, no matter what we few here choose to do.

I prefer that the government believe in their own legal fiction and regard us as "toy money".

[Anonymous]

So is this article going to get published? Can you reveal to us who's publishing it?

Let me ask them first before I get back to you.

[Anonymous]

So is this article going to get published? Can you reveal to us who's publishing it?

Let me ask them first before I get back to you.

I can and will post this information the moment it is published. I don't know yet when that will be. I'm hoping within approximately one month from now.

[RHorning]

Good.

Slightly off topic since it should not go in the article.

Insti, how does the halving of the reward work exactly? Is it rounded down if there isn't enough precision? In about 10*4 years there will be a reward of 0.048828125 BTC will it be rounded down to .04882812 BTC? Will this result in a limit strictly less than 21 million?

It's done as a right bitwise shift (of a 64-bit integer). The reward will go from 0.00000001 to 0. Then no more coins will be created. The maximum number of coins is 20,999,999.9769.

This is presuming that no kind of extended precision value for Bitcoins is established, although with the current behavior that is certainly the case.

It should be noted that the roughly estimated time before the "final" bitcoin block will be generated even with the current software is about 120 years into the future (roughly the year 2130).  I have no doubt that the specification of Bitcoins will change drastically over the next century and there is no real certainty as to what the behavior will be, but with the current reference client/servers the eventual exhaustion of Bitcoins will happen.

If Bitcoins makes it to the 100th anniversary of the first block being created, it will certainly be an interesting experience to say the least, and new blocks will still be created at that time.

[Anonymous]

This article was published about one year ago today in the Elliott Wave Theorist.  That's where I first heard about bitcoin and had my world rocked.  I think that is when S3052 came on board as well.

Bitcoin was trading in the 6 to 8 cent range.  If I'd only known then what I know now.

BTW Elliott Wave International highlighted bitcoin again today by making 'what is bitcoin?' their feature in the Q&A section.

thanks

lots of help from the forums though

[Phinnaeus Gage]

As distrust in central banks continue to increase...

Now how the hell did the author know about OWS over a year ago?