Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

[Renegade]

Oooo! Rick Falkvinge!

Rick gets into some history of information and properties of information going back to the times when monks transcribed books and acted as the gatekeepers of information/culture, Martin Luther, etc.

Jan. 13, 1535 - Punishment for using a printing press in France is DEATH! 

The origins of copyright! (1557)

Red flag act of 1865?!? Pushed by who?

Information war! (cued at 10:30)

15:55 - "...information wars..."

Ice boxes? Largest industry? Huh?!?

Snail mail. Hmmm...

[Renegade]

A keynote speach by Patrick Byrne - CEO of Overstock.com. Cued up:

#Bitcoin2014 - Keynote Address, "500 Years of Liberalism" by Dr. Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com

http://youtu.be/l--zHVO3Cik?t=14m50s - Intro
http://youtu.be/l--zHVO3Cik?t=16m - Direct to keynote.

Interesting as he goes over the background, history and philosophy behind Bitcoin.

He also goes over why he was the subject of 6 federal investigations. (Yep - He tried to expose criminality on Wall St., etc.)

[Renegade]

This could be in the humour thread...

Yeah... Something like that.

[Renegade]

This is pretty good. Christopher Cantwell talking about "how to tell people about bitcoin". He boils it down pretty simply, but his presentation is, well, just him. Or, maybe not completely "him". This is SFW whereas a lot of his stuff is NSFW. (He speaks pretty fast - it's entertaining.)

[Stoic Joker]

And this is what happens when you completely lose you freaking mind:

Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

The 2 S3 440 GH/s machines are turned to pull cold air out of the room, and - yes that is Dryer Vent Hose - then push the hot exhaust air out through the attic. The other S1 180 GH/s machine only has one fan and no outer housing (rather odd I thought), so it's still dumping a ton of hot air into the room ... But it's at least half assed tolerable in here now.

If these are the "Quiet Ones" (and they are), I'd hate like hell to hear the noisy ones ... Let's just say the wife is not thrilled with this latest development..

[Renegade]

And this is what happens when you completely lose you freaking mind:
 (see attachment in previous post)
The 2 S3 440 GH/s machines are turned to pull cold air out of the room, and - yes that is Dryer Vent Hose - then push the hot exhaust air out through the attic. The other S1 180 GH/s machine only has one fan and no outer housing (rather odd I thought), so it's still dumping a ton of hot air into the room ... But it's at least half assed tolerable in here now.

If these are the "Quiet Ones" (and they are), I'd hate like hell to hear the noisy ones ... Let's just say the wife is not thrilled with this latest development..

-Stoic Joker (August 17, 2014, 10:39 AM)

Like living on a tarmac, eh?

[Renegade]

Gold dealers are dropping fiat:

http://techcrunch.co...ayments-for-bitcoin/

The world of gold bullion sales is often peopled by the odd and interesting. Joseph Castillo is one of the latter. The owner of Agora Commodities, his company now only accepts Bitcoin for online sales, a move that has reduced fraud and improved his service.

Castillo talked to Coindesk about his decision, saying that “What we had to do to protect ourselves against card fraud, we no longer have to do with bitcoin – and that saves us on costs.”

The company has done $10 million in revenue through bitcoin since he moved to cryptocurrencies in the beginning of 2014. Customers understood the move and have been working with him to transfer assets via the blockchain rather than the Visa card. Castillo is also planning on building a BTC exchange for his customers. The goal is to create a one-stop-shop for all your goldbug tendencies, including fiat to BTC conversions.

“Bitcoin fits perfectly with gold and silver, right? So if people come to the site and want to buy gold and silver, why wouldn’t they want to buy bitcoin from us as well?” he told Coindesk.

Amagimetals has also announced that they are dropping fiat and only accepting Bitcoin.

[Stoic Joker]

And this is what happens when you completely lose you freaking mind:
 (see attachment in previous post)
The 2 S3 440 GH/s machines are turned to pull cold air out of the room, and - yes that is Dryer Vent Hose - then push the hot exhaust air out through the attic. The other S1 180 GH/s machine only has one fan and no outer housing (rather odd I thought), so it's still dumping a ton of hot air into the room ... But it's at least half assed tolerable in here now.

If these are the "Quiet Ones" (and they are), I'd hate like hell to hear the noisy ones ... Let's just say the wife is not thrilled with this latest development..

-Stoic Joker (August 17, 2014, 10:39 AM)

Like living on a tarmac, eh?

-Renegade (August 25, 2014, 09:31 PM)

hehe not quite that bad. Actually after the temperature stabilized with the exhaust pipes it isn't too bad in here now. A bit warm...yes. But I can turn off the two extra fans I had initially put in the room to keep the system temps down.

I brought two 1TH/s AntMiner S2's online at the office today. The boss got them on eBay for $2300, and we're splitting the take. Plan is to kit both of them with the 1.8TH/s upgrade in September when it comes out.

So now that I've got 1.2TH/s here, 2 headed for 4TH/s at the office, and that friend of mine pushing 6TH/s+ there is a whole string of little monsters you've created...

Actually I think there is a 500GH/s upgrade for the S1 we're running available..

[Tuxman]

Seems like Bitcoin (and other) mining is artificially crippled so the miner devs make higher profits:
http://da-data.blogs...-monero-and-cpu.html

[tomos]

^very interesting

Seems like Bitcoin [Bitmonero/Monero] (and [possibly] other) mining is artificially crippled so the miner devs make higher profits:
http://da-data.blogs...-monero-and-cpu.html

-Tuxman (August 29, 2014, 07:55 AM)

FTFY (just trying to be objective)

[Renegade]

Seems like Bitcoin (and other) mining is artificially crippled so the miner devs make higher profits:
http://da-data.blogs...-monero-and-cpu.html

-Tuxman (August 29, 2014, 07:55 AM)

Too much to drink, so that's too much to read...

My gut reaction is that it's just another alt being mined to convert into BTC. Most are.

Am I off? Got a tl;dr?

[Tuxman]

TL;DR: Miner coders cripple their public versions so they can mine faster themselves. I doubt that's a Monero-centric thing.

[Renegade]

Here:

http://www.reddit.co...rrent_bounty_21_btc/

2.1 BTC puzzle:



From here in a comment:

http://bitcoinmagazi...le-32-page-solution/

@40hz - As I know you share with me a fondness for a certain author, I think you'll like that.

[Renegade]

Here's an excellent, simple explanation of elliptic curve point addition, which is used in elliptic curved cryptography like Bitcoin uses:

[Renegade]

This is funny... but way too esoteric for the silly humour thread:

You have to watch it to the end though.

[tomos]

This is funny... but way too esoteric for the silly humour thread:
[...]
You have to watch it to the end though.

-Renegade (September 08, 2014, 09:55 AM)

[Renegade]

PayPal to accept Bitcoin:

http://www.bloomberg...itcoin-payments.html

EBay’s PayPal Unit to Start Accepting Bitcoin Payments

EBay Inc. (EBAY)’s PayPal service will start accepting bitcoins, opening up the world’s second-biggest Internet payment network to virtual currency transactions.

“We’re announcing PayPal’s first foray into bitcoin,” Bill Ready, the chief of EBay’s Braintree unit, said at Techcrunch’s Disrupt SF conference yesterday. “Over the coming months we’ll allow our merchants to accept bitcoin. On the consumer side it will be a sleek experience.”

EBay, as the world’s biggest Web marketplace and operator of a global payments service, is the most significant business to date that’s embraced bitcoin. The move could potentially enable PayPal’s 152 million registered accounts to transact using the virtual currency, spurring wider use and acceptance of bitcoin, according to Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Securities Inc.

“PayPal integrating bitcoin into Braintree is a very substantial development,” Luria said. “Not only will it make it possible for some of the fastest-growing apps to integrate bitcoin seamlessly, it opens the door for PayPal to integrate bitcoin into its main wallet functionality. If that happens millions of retailers will de facto be accepting bitcoin overnight.”

More at the link.

[Renegade]

Remember the Nude News?

http://www.reddit.co...y_bitcoin_news_show/

NSFW

Naughty Bits - Sexy Bitcoin "News" Show

Hello everyone! I just posted the first episode of my new bitcoin "news" show where I talk about things that I think are sexy in the world of bitcoin!

The show isn't really intended to be informative or educational, just fun! Hopefully the show will get people excited about bitcoin!

So I did 2 versions of the show, an uncensored version for my Pornhub channel, and a comically-censored version for YouTube! Both are pretty NSFW:

Pornhub: http://www.pornhub.c...p?viewkey=1683533477

YouTube: https://www.youtube..../watch?v=CwTCgvCAz80

Here are the things that I thought were sexy in this episode:

PayPal Accepting Bitcoin through Braintree: http://www.theguardi...ree-overstock-reddit

CoinKite's new Nym service: http://blog.coinkite...ayment-pages-for-all

The OpenBazaar Beta: /r/OpenBazaar

Bazaar Markets : /r/BazaarMarkets

I'd love to hear what you guys think is sexy in the world of bitcoin so I can talk about it next time!

The show is free and always will be, but donations are always appreciated!

XO-Saffron

[Renegade]

This is a pretty epic and funny "fun fact":

Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

[40hz]

 This may be of interest to Bitcoiners.  It's called BitKey. It's by the folks that brought us Turnkey GNU/Linux. It's a bootable Linux distro running from a USB key that allows you to perform highly secure "air-gapped" Bitcoin transactions.

No opinion since I don't trade in Bitcoinage nor do I have the expertise to comment on the effectiveness of the build. That said, I have found Turnkey GNU/Linux targeted solutions worked very well for me in the past.

Worth a look at any rate.

[Renegade]

Andreas Antonopolous is signing copies of his book "Mastering Bitcoin" for everyone that buys it AND donates a small amount to 1 of 3 charities.

https://www.bitcoinb...charitable-donation/

In other news, Andreas NAILED IT at the Canadian Senate hearing on cryptocurrencies:

It's long, but very worth it. Canada seems to have a very positive attitude, unlike NY or Australia. This bodes well for jobs and innovation happening in Canada.

On that note... phew... FINALLY... something involving government that doesn't make me purely ashamed to be Canadian. I saw a glimmer of hope there.

[mwb1100]

Andreas Antonopolous is signing copies of his book "Mastering Bitcoin"...

-Renegade (October 09, 2014, 11:22 AM)

I got a kick out of this disclaimer:

The author wants you to know that his handwriting is that of someone who has typed almost everything (including grocery lists) for the past 20 years. This means your message might be as legible as a prescription note from a doctor (not at all). Near illegibility serves as proof of authenticity!

-https://www.bitcoinbook.info/shop/author-signing-and-10-charitable-donation/

[Renegade]

For anyone interested in the math of Bitcoin, this is really good:

http://blog.chain.co...-math-behind-bitcoin

The Math Behind Bitcoin

One reason Bitcoin can be confusing for beginners is that the technology behind it redefines the concept of ownership.

To own something in the traditional sense, be it a house or a sum of money, means either having personal custody of the thing or granting custody to a trusted entity such as a bank.

With Bitcoin the case is different. Bitcoins themselves are not stored either centrally or locally and so no one entity is their custodian. They exist as records on a distributed ledger called the block chain, copies of which are shared by a volunteer network of connected computers. To “own” a bitcoin simply means having the ability to transfer control of it to someone else by creating a record of the transfer in the block chain. What grants this ability? Access to an ECDSA private and public key pair. What does that mean and how does that secure Bitcoin?

Let’s have a look under the hood.

...SNIP...

Conclusion

For those of you who saw all the equations and skipped to the bottom, what have we just learned?

We have developed some intuition about the deep mathematical relationship that exists between public and private keys. We have seen how even in the simplest examples the math behind signatures and verification quickly gets complicated, and we can appreciate the enormous complexity which must be involved when the parameters involved are 256-bit numbers. We have seen how the clever application of the simplest mathematical procedures can create the one-way “trap door” functions necessary to preserve the information asymmetry which defines ownership of a bitcoin. And we have newfound confidence in the robustness of the system, provided that we carefully safeguard the knowledge of our private keys.

In other words, this is why it is commonly said that Bitcoin is “backed by math.”

If you hung in through the complicated bits, we hope it gave you the confidence to take the next step and try out the math on your own (a modular arithmetic calculator makes the finite field math much easier). We found that going through the steps of signing and verifying data by hand provides a deeper understanding of the cryptography that enables Bitcoin’s unique form of ownership.

The math is snipped out there, but very much worth reading through if you find math or cryptography interesting.

It's certainly one of the best, if not THE best explanation out there. At least that I've seen.

[Renegade]

If you are in Melbourne (or Victoria), THIS is THE event of the year to come out for!

http://www.meetup.co...ne/events/217722162/

The Bitcoin Address with Andreas M. Antonopoulos

Monday, November 24, 2014
6:30 PM to 9:00 PM

1/41 Stewart Street, Richmond (edit map)

Join us for the highlight event of the year and hear from the brightest minds in the bitcoin community. It’s free, it’s open to the public and it’s catered.

CoinJar is proud to present The Bitcoin Address in Melbourne and Sydney in conjunction with partners College Cryptocurrency Network and Bitcoin Association of Australia. The event is a free, open-to-public bitcoin meetup featuring international speakers from the bitcoin community, including crypto expert Andreas M. Antonopoulos and entrepreneur Tatiana Moroz.

Whether you’re completely new to bitcoin or you’re a bit of a bitcoin enthusiast, this event will educate and inspire you about the currency of the future. Our speaker lineup is well-known by the bitcoin community worldwide, and they’ll give you valuable insights on using bitcoin for the everyday and the extraordinary.

“I’ve been looking forward to visiting Australia, as it has a vibrant and active bitcoin community. Australia’s high tech and entrepreneurial culture combined with its young population make it fertile ground for bitcoin.”
- Andreas M. Antonopoulos

"I have always dreamed of visiting Australia. It represents this raw adventurous spirit... I know that bitcoin has some really solid support and interest in the community, but I also know that just like in the states, there will be plenty of people who don't know about it yet! In between hiking, swimming, and checking out the sites, I hope to have many opportunities to share how bitcoin has improved so many lives around the wall and is a truly international phenomena."
- Tatiana Moroz

About the event
World-renowned crypto-currency expert Andreas M. Antonopoulos will cover current issues and emerging trends of bitcoin in his keynote address.

You’ll hear from Bitcoin law expert Pamela Morgan, who will discuss how bitcoin is being used globally in innovative ways. Entrepreneur and musician Tatiana Moroz joins our speaker lineup to share her experience of spreading the use of bitcoin amongst the artistic community.

We’re expecting a big crowd, with limited places, so invite your friends and RSVP now.

Andreas is a mind-blowing speaker. Off the hook. Crazy amazing.

There is NOTHING that will prevent me from going, short of death.

If you are thinking about it, you MUST RSVP NOW! The RSVP list is ballooning very quickly, and space will likely run out very quickly.

I've RSVP'd +1 for a friend, so if he can't go, I've got 1 space reserved for a DC'er if you couldn't RSVP in time.

[Renegade]

Get $0.10 of BTC to learn some Java:

http://www.reddit.co...0_to_learn_computer/

I decided to give out $0.10 USD worth of Bitcoin to anybody who uses ktbyte.com:

• (Optional) Try our free intro CS class on a desktop / laptop
• Make an account and login
• Click the check button after listening to any lecture (or solve a problem). The shortest lecture is the intro. Should take you less than 10 seconds.
• Go to https://www.ktbyte.c.../progress#freegoodie and send me the redirected url (or paste it below), and I'll send you your bits using changetip!

The second two steps are there so that we don't get ddosed by bots.[/size]