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Re: JC business accepting bitcoin
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The Face Behind Bitcoin
 By Leah McGrath Goodman Newsweek March 6, 2014? Stoshi Nakamoto stands at the end of his sunbaked driveway looking timorous. And annoyed. He's wearing a rumpled T-shirt, old blue jeans and white gym socks, without shoes, like he has left the house in a hurry. His hair is unkempt, and he has the thousand-mile stare of someone who has gone weeks without sleep. He stands not with defiance, but with the slackness of a person who has waged battle for a long time and now faces a grave loss. Two police officers from the Temple City, Calif., sheriff's department flank him, looking puzzled. "So, what is it you want to ask this man about?" one of them asks me. "He thinks if he talks to you he's going to get into trouble." "I don't think he's in any trouble," I say. "I would like to ask him about Bitcoin. This man is Satoshi Nakamoto." "What?" The police officer balks. "This is the guy who created Bitcoin? It looks like he's living a pretty humble life." I'd come here to try to find out more about Nakamoto and his humble life. It seemed ludicrous that the man credited with inventing Bitcoin - the world's most wildly successful digital currency, with transactions of nearly $500 million a day at its peak - would retreat to Los Angeles's San Gabriel foothills, hole up in the family home and leave his estimated $400 million of Bitcoin riches untouched. It seemed similarly implausible that Nakamoto's first response to my knocking at his door would be to call the cops. Now face to face, with two police officers as witnesses, Nakamoto's responses to my questions about Bitcoin were careful but revealing. Tacitly acknowledging his role in the Bitcoin project, he looks down, staring at the pavement and categorically refuses to answer questions. "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it," he says, dismissing all further queries with a swat of his left hand. "It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection." Nakamoto refused to say any more, and the police made it clear our conversation was over. But a two-month investigation and interviews with those closest to Nakamoto and the developers who worked most frequently with him on the out-of-nowhere global phenomenon that is Bitcoin reveal the myths surrounding the world's most famous crypto-currency are largely just that - myths - and the facts are much stranger than the well-established fiction. More: http://mag.newsweek.com/2014/03/14/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto.html
Posted on: 2014/3/7 2:44
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Quoth the Raven- "No More"
Posted on: 2014/3/6 2:08
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This is just another Ponzi scheme that's unraveling.
Posted on: 2014/3/5 17:26
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Posted on: 2014/3/5 17:20
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Re: JC business accepting bitcoin
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 I couldn't resist :)
Posted on: 2014/3/5 17:20
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Bitcoin bank Flexcoin closes after hack attack
Alex Hern The Guardian 4 March 2014 A bitcoin bank has been forced to close after hackers stole 896 bitcoin, worth ?365,000, in an attack on Sunday. The company shut its website and posted a statement on Tuesday morning detailing the loss. ?On March 2nd 2014 Flexcoin was attacked and robbed of all coins in the hot wallet,? the statement read. ?As Flexcoin does not have the resources, assets, or otherwise to come back from this loss, we are closing our doors immediately.? Not all of the company?s assets were stolen. In line with best practices for running a bitcoin financial service, Flexcoin held some bitcoins in ?cold storage?, keeping them on devices not connected to the internet. Those bitcoins are safe, but only users who explicitly requested their bitcoins be held in cold storage (and paid a 0.5% fee) benefit. More: http://www.theguardian.com/technology ... -closes-after-hack-attack
Posted on: 2014/3/5 2:12
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I described it as masturbatory fantasy for nerds that are arrogant enough to think they are always the brightest person in the room.
Posted on: 2014/2/27 0:43
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Quote:
"There are two novels that can transform a bookish 14-year-kid?s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish daydream that can lead to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood in which large chunks of the day are spent inventing ways to make real life more like a fantasy novel. The other is a book about orcs."
Posted on: 2014/2/26 15:15
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I was about to ask if I can pay in Tulip Bulbs as well.
Posted on: 2014/2/26 14:41
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The All Knowing and All Powerful Joe Has Spoken!
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Bitcoin is about as relevant as Pokemon cards, tulip bulbs and Beanie Babies.
An unregulated speculative playing field that only has the notoriety it has because some techies have strange libertarian streaks and read Ayn Rand and masturbate to the blather.
Posted on: 2014/2/25 22:06
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bit coin bit coin
coin coin bit bit bit currency bit currency currency currency bit bit
Posted on: 2014/2/25 17:05
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I am against our corrupt and rigged financial system as much as anyone but I fail to see how Bitcoin changes that.
I hear all this talk about how it will be the future of currency and can around the greedy bankers, etc, but I've yet to see any of these lofty ideals show any potential of coming close to reality. Do you think if Bitcoin becomes mainstream that there won't be shady corrupt interests at the top that tremendously profit at the expense of everyone else? That there won't be insider trading, market fixing, and other corruption? As Dolomiti said, one guy alone controls 30% of Bitcoin. And even if it were to become mainstream, in order for that to happen, all the big governments will get their hands in the pot. I guess i look at these constant negative stories about Bitcoin, and rampant theft and think what's the point?
Posted on: 2014/2/25 16:17
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Well, like anything else, one should do due diligence before transferring large sums of money to someone else. Again, a few quick Google searches would show that Gox has some major liquidity red flags. If one didn't even do that level of a search, I think they need to be more careful. Quote:
If they don't want to learn how to secure their currency, but wish to accept btc, there are services that will instantly convert your btc to fiat currencies. Quote:
They are thriving in terms of growing users and market cap and have no liquidity issues. If I request btc back from Coinbase, bitstamp, etc. I get my btc back in seconds. (Unlike Gox). Quote:
Evidence like..? Quote:
It takes some research/due diligence to make sure your btc are secure, sure. If you're not willing to protect coins then you shouldn't get into it. But that's not that fault of bitcoin. Just like if I leave my wallet at a bar and someone steals it, it's not the USD's fault. Quote:
We shall see. It's not set in stone that btc will be the alt.currency leader. If another one merges (doge, litecoin, etc.) and is more attractive to everyone involved than btc, then that's great.
Posted on: 2014/2/25 15:56
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Apparently, it's still a surprise to a lot of people, especially those who kept their BTC at Mt Gox. Quote: How is it a blow to bitcoin and shows that it was not ready? An unregulated exchange has apparently melted down. It shows how vulnerable this system is, it shows how BTC are not a good store of value, and if you go into the trenches (e.g. Reddit) you see how complicated it actually is to keep your BTC secure. Here's a typical piece of advice: " "Don't ever use brainwallets" is popular advice but based on a profound misconception. "Don't ever generate brainwallets using your own seeds" is good advice, but using electrum seed phrases as brainwallets is arguably quite a good method (all the more so because of deterministic wallets), and an extremely powerful technique when combined with the air-gapped machine for generating private keys." How is the owner of a pizza place supposed to decipher any of that? Quote: If bitcoin was not ready, why are other exchanges thriving? How do we actually know whether or not any of the other exchanges and services are actually "thriving?" We may know that their volume is up or down, but that doesn't actually tell us anything about the health and/or security of those entities. Quote: Gox being insolvent is clearly not a flaw in bitcoin. It may not be a flaw in the programming involved in Bitcoin, but it is clearly linked to flaws in the underlying financial and economic structure and mission of Bitcoin. As far as I know, no one can actually control the supply of BTC, and as noted this will continue to cause deflationary and speculative cycles. There is some evidence that less than 50 people own 30% of currently existing Bitcoins, including -- surprise! -- the unidentified creator of the currency. If any one entity is responsible for mining too much Bitcoin, that entity can wreak havoc with the currency, and the only fix is to beg such entities to slow down their mining efforts. Keeping your Bitcoins secure is undoubtedly beyond the abilities of the average non-techie. And of course, when disaster strikes, the evangelists refuse to acknowledge that anything's wrong. Some of these issues can be fixed; others cannot. Also, some are BTC-specific, others are not. Dogecoin, which is basically a joke, is actually a better currency in some respects. It's good for digital tipping and micropayments, it's fun, it's unlikely to incur any major security risks, and it's your own fault if you take it too seriously. But the idea that "unregulated unbacked non-government digital currencies will save the world, so retailers should get into the game now!" just really does not make sense. At least, not today. ;)
Posted on: 2014/2/25 13:34
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Well, I think it'd be a little tough to not know about Gox's issues over the past few years unless you're a casual observer. If you googled Gox over this time, you'd find several instances where they halted withdrawals, indicating they had liquidity issues. Quote:
No, it means Gox was incompetent and/or corrupt. How is it bitcoin's problem that Gox mismanaged their funds? Again, if it was a bitcoin problem, the other exchanges would have the same issue. 
Posted on: 2014/2/25 12:07
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Dude, I'm sorry but if a huge bank like Bank of America just suddenly shut their doors one day and all account holders lost everything they had, people would be going crazy.
I am reading forum posts where people say they have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars because they had their bitcoins in Mt. Gox, so obviously not everyone knew it was nearing insolvency. What this shows is bitcoin is several years away from being able to join the major leagues. It is complete amateur hour for the world's biggest exchange to suddenly delete their website and cause everyone to lose all their money.
Posted on: 2014/2/25 5:46
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Yup. Not a surprise to anyone who has been following Gox over the past year or so. Quote:
Prices have been dropping much more so at Gox than at other exchanges but even then.. so? Quote:
How is it a blow to bitcoin and shows that it was not ready? If bitcoin was not ready, why are other exchanges thriving? Gox being insolvent is clearly not a flaw in bitcoin.. it's a flaw in Gox's management. Crappy exchanges should go bust.
Posted on: 2014/2/25 4:49
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Yup. Not a surprise to anyone who has been following Gox over the past year or so. Quote:
So? Quote:
How is it a blow to bitcoin and shows that it was not ready? If bitcoin was not ready, why are other exchanges thriving? Gox being insolvent is clearly not a flaw in bitcoin.. it's a flaw in Gox's management. Crappy exchanges should go bust.
Posted on: 2014/2/25 4:49
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I very clearly said that Gox halted trading, might be insolvent. Their website is supposedly now offline. Prices are dropping at all exchanges. Feel free to spin the news like a top. The simple reality is that this is a major blow to Bitcoin, and shows that this wholly unregulated digital currency is not ready, and as such JC retailers will be just fine without it.
Posted on: 2014/2/25 4:36
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You mean Gox, not bitcoin right? Because exchanges like Coinbase, cryptsy, BTC-e, etc. are thriving. Gox had severe incompetency issues, including possible insolvency, which is not bitcoin's problem. Gox should pay the price, unlike incompetent banks that were "too big to fail"
Posted on: 2014/2/25 3:59
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Trading halted at Mt Gox; heavy hitters believe Gox is insolvent.
http://www.businessinsider.com/report ... -halts-all-trading-2014-2 Hopefully, the halt is temporary. Either way, I still say "not ready for prime time."
Posted on: 2014/2/25 3:44
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It's very interesting that Overstock.com is now accepting bitcoin (along with TigerDirect, VirginGalactic, OKCupid and 22,000 other merchants... with Amazon, Visa, Paypal and Apple looking to build mobile bitcoin payment apps).
"Since early January, Overstock has passed the $500,000 mark in revenue from Bitcoin, he said, with more than 2,500 orders, and a large percentage of those orders came from valuable first-time customers. Bagley estimated that 1-2 percent of purchases on Overstock would be made in Bitcoin over the next year." http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_ten ... e_bitcoin_mainstream.html http://www.overstock.com/bitcoin
Posted on: 2014/2/23 3:27
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Simply untrue. Hell, an entire Forex industry exists simply because currencies are volatile. Look at the Argentinian dollar, the BRL, Polish zlotych, Russian Ruble, Ukranian karbovantsi, Yugoslavian dinars, the Zaire, the Zimbabwe dollar. These things happen in currency. Again, Bitcoin is young and as such, doesn't have the market cap of a major currency yet. As adoption grows, and it is, the volatility will decrease. Quote:
Clearly, this is counterfeiting. Someone is trying to pass off a duplicate transaction as the original transaction so a transaction can get paid twice, instead of once. Quote:
Incorrect. Exchanges like Coinbase can tell which transactions are legitimate or not. On the other hand, exchanges like Mt. Gox, which verified hashes instead of the actual transactions, are subject to being fooled. But that's because they were taking shortcuts, not because transactions can't be verified. Quote: They are identical, and undermines the value of "actual" BTC since it shortcuts the creation algorithm. Sorry, no. Again, if the exchange only checks the hash, they will run into issues, but that's not the only way to verify a transaction. Quote:
Simply incorrect. Again, there are exchanges like Coinbase which can transact in seconds, which prove that it's an exchange problem, not a BTC problem. Quote:
Who is pumping and dumping? Quote: And what?
Posted on: 2014/2/21 4:38
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Volatility is a feature of commodity speculation, not a currency.
And no, this is not counterfeit. Counterfeit currency is fake, and demonstrably so. With this weakness, you cannot tell which BTC are the ones generated through the exploit. They are identical, and undermines the value of "actual" BTC since it shortcuts the creation algorithm. And no.. this is a BTC problem. They are just the target du jour. It happened to Bitstamp as well. The only way to validate a transaction is to check the entire hash chain, which takes hours. If they do that, then it's useless as money. Besides, what good is money that is worth less at some banks? That points to it as little more than a vehicle for pump and dump speculation. Oh, and.. http://www.reddit.com/r/actualmoney/c ... nd_my_actualmoney_wallet/
Posted on: 2014/2/21 1:55
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The "broader" CoinDesk index.. you realize that only includes two exchanges, right? By the way, Mt. Gox is still the exchange leader by volume but bitstamp is nipping at their heels. Given that Mt. Gox has severe operational/liquidity issues and incompetent management to boot, I'd expect them to not be the leader soon. In fact, if people could even get their money out like they should be able to, I bet they wouldn't be the leader today. Regardless, yes the price has dropped, but if you're concerned with speculators, this should remove some of the people who can't handle the swings, right? Bitcoin is young and volatility should be expected. Quote:
Right, so if the currency can be duplicated/spent more than once, then it's being counterfeited. Fiat currency deals with counterfeit money too and has controls to limit it as much as possible. Quote:
Let's be clear, this is an exchange problem, not a BTC problem. Specifically, this is a Mt. Gox problem, since they never developed the necessary processes to quickly validate transactions, even though "transaction malleability" has been around for years. In fact, it's funny the media is calling "transaction malleability" a BTC bug, when it's actually an intentional, core functionality of BTC and can be managed by competent exchanges. For example, the Coinbase exchange can validate transactions seamlessly and process transactions in seconds. Hopefully Mt. Gox get this done too since it is possible. Even if they do, I don't know why people are still funding Gox - perhaps it's the name recognition, but they are way too risky for me relative to other exchanges.
Posted on: 2014/2/20 18:18
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Thanks for the correction about the Mt. Gox price decline. But the broader index, CoinDesk has still seen a 30% reduction in the value of BTC over the past two and a half weeks since the hacks have been publicized. And this is with them removing Gox from the index, despite it being the largest exchange/repository.
AS for characterizing this issue as "counterfeiting", it is more of a replay attach. A transaction can be duplicated, creating new BTC out of thin air. The produced BTC are indistinguishable from real ones since they are just computer data. The way to combat it is to not transfer BTC until the entire validation chain is checked, but that destroys its utility as a currency. A currency needs to be convenient, with low friction. A multi-hour clearance period makes it useless for consumer transactions.
Posted on: 2014/2/18 1:33
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Sorry, no. Bitcoin prices dropped by half on the Mt. Gox exchange (an exchange that has major liquidity issues itself). They did not drop in half overall. Feel free to post your source though. Quote:
Actually, the bug in the system allows one to change the transaction details to make it seem like a previously sent payment didn't occur. In effect, this is the ability to duplicate a payment - in other words, this is counterfeiting the currency. Quote:
How so? Quote:
Do you have any sources to back this up? Even if it was true, bitcoin/altcoins are clearly still in a young stage - expecting them to have act like mature currencies so soon is pretty unrealistic. What we do know is that adoption by vendors is growing every day, which is definitely a good sign.
Posted on: 2014/2/17 18:34
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Nope.. the value of all bitcoins in the world dropped by half because of the Mt. Gox hack. All Bitcoins are worth half of what they were last week.
And this is not a case of counterfeit. It is a case of an insecure payment system. And not of one Bitcoin repositories, but all of them. It is a weakness in the technology. Fixing it would remove the ability to use it as currency. As for using it as currency.. Meh.. the vast majority is held for speculation, and the little that is spent is used for black markets. Something like 90% of Bitcoin transactions are for narcotics and money laundering.
Posted on: 2014/2/17 5:53
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I know. Just like every single dollar (or unit of fiat currency) is vulnerable to being counterfeited. And again, the beauty of bitcoin is that this weakness can be fixed. Quote:
First of all, a hack didn't kill half of the value of bitcoin. It killed half of the value at Mt. Gox (one exchange of bitcoin). Quote:
It's clearly more than just a speculative investment, as people and companies have been using it as currency already.
Posted on: 2014/2/17 4:31
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The Mt. Gox hack was later, and attacked the same exact weakness in the validation chain. Bitcoins dropped half their value overnight... literally overnight. All of them. Worldwide.
It makes people talking about fiat currency hilarious. Next we'll be given 4th grader economics lectures about chartalism, or the virtues of gold buggery. Hmm.. I know the family that owns Helen's. I should email them the story.
Posted on: 2014/2/17 4:20
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