Local exchange and stabilization

[Red]

I'm not sure it effects your point significantly, but I'm pretty confident I remember Betamax coming before VHS. Other formats came before both but were never successful with consumers.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videotape_format_war
http://www.mediacollege.com/video/format/compare/betamax-vhs.html

[breandan81]

OK, well on the arduino thing, you need to think about what exactly you want it to do.  If it's a simple app I'd be happy to try to code it, at least on the firmware side, in exchange for some bitcoins. But I anticipate it may have to rely on some server side software to run bitcoind.  I don't think arduino will be able to run a full bitcoin client, there's only a couple k of ram, no FPU, and 32kB of program memory.  Requesting info on a balance from some server somewhere should be doable, but arduino doesn't have networking. There is an ethernet shield, but it's not that cheap, and then one would have to wonder why not just put a 65 dollar foxconn mini itx board in the vending machine and run linux, for about the same price.  So elaborate exactly what the library would do and how please?

[cryptofo]

Thank you for your response.  I don't think it has to be all that complicated.  Here is a link
http://infinityexists.com/videos/arduino-arp-cop/
to a project that runs a python script to listen to an arp poison monitor.  When it recognizes the event it sends a character to the arduino.  The arduino then blinks an led. 

If a script could be written to poll the bitcoin client/server looking for payment and then send the number of bitcoins to the arduino.  The arduino could then trigger (insert anything you can think of here).  I wanting to have it turn a stepper motor proportionately in relation to how many bitcoins it recognizes.  A candy dispensor for starters.

The arduino wouldn't be running the client, it would only be listening for a number.  The arduino is important because I think it is in the spirit of experimentation and open source and widely available.  There would have to be a computer attached, possibly an embedded linux system, but at this point any computer for experimentation.  Thank you so much for any help. 

[MoonShadow]

I'm not sure it effects your point significantly, but I'm pretty confident I remember Betamax coming before VHS. Other formats came before both but were never successful with consumers.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videotape_format_war
http://www.mediacollege.com/video/format/compare/betamax-vhs.html

Betamax was a professional recording standard before VHS, but VHS was in the mass market first.

[breandan81]

I'll look into how to do the python script.  As it happens I'm working on a project for someone else that on the arduino side is almost identical to what you are talking about (a silent alarm for a storeowner I know, where he would click on a systemtray icon and it would alert people in the backroom). So it's probably pretty easy, I have no idea how to do the python side, and I haven't done any python for a few years, but I'll let you know as soon as I have something. 

On a sidenote I have a gpg key on the keys.gnupg.net server now if anyone cares to use it.  I was thinking about cryptography today, and I'm sure it's been pointed out, but ideally all emails should be encrypted with very strong cryptography, especially the stuff that isn't interesting.  The main security hole as I see it now is that people will instantly know that the contents of a message are important if it is encrypted, and may resort to the beating people with a wrench method.  If all communications are strongly encrypted the signal to noise ratio makes that impossible.