Gold collapsing. Bitcoin UP.

[cypherdoc]

where is Greg these days?

@sickpig have you seen him on the ML or IRC?

is he still steering BS?

 

[sickpig]

@cypherdoc

from what I can see there's no trace of gmax on btc dev ml, nor in github issue/PR sections.

he merged a corallo's PR on December the 5th, after that there's no other gmax's commit on bitcoin master branch.

wrt IRC I don't follow btc channels (dev and wizards). ditto for reddit.

from time to time I look to his profile page on BCT, he logged in quite frequently, still he made his last post on the 13th of December.

 

[bracek]

imo, this comment needs more visibility, it is about the real usecase for RBF
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The cashier says excuse me sir you have paid with an RBF transaction and we do not accept RBF transactions.

OK says the man refund me and I'll pay with cash. Sorry says the cashier but I can not refund you. You'll have to send another transaction but make it non-RBF and then send another transaction to bump up the fee on the first transaction and change the destination to yourself thus refunding yourself.

How do I do that says the man shaking his head in disbelief. Well says the cashier it depends on which wallet you are using and as I am not familiar with your wallet I can't really help you.

I'll just pay in cash says the man this bitcoin stuff is just to complicated. The cashier says OK but your first transaction will go through as well if you don't bump the fee and change the outputs. So if it is going to go through says the man why don't you just accept it.

Well says the cashier if I did that you could leave the shop and then do a double spend and the boss would be mad at me because we would lose out. I have another idea though, you could wait for the transaction to confirm in 10 minutes or so and then I can accept it because it will be too late by then for you to so a double spend.

OK says the man, this is crazy but I'll wait 10 minutes to keep the peace.

Ten minutes pass . . . . . . .

OK, says the man, I am going now. Sorry sir, says the cashier but your transaction has not confirmed yet. Because bitcoin is limited in how many transactions can fit in a block, you transaction did not make it this time. You will have to wait another 10 minutes.

Look, says the man, I have played this game enough I have to go now. OK says the cashier but you need to pay me in cash. If you come back later I'll check to see if your transaction has confirmed and I will refund you.

F*&&# hell says the man. This bitcoin shit is really weird and f'd up. You can be sure I won't be using it again.

Man exits and tells all his friends that unless they are computer scientist with hours of free time they should forget about bitcoin.

Cashier talks to boss and tells him another pissed off customer just abused her over bitcoin and asks why the hell they accept this crappy payment method that no one can understands and which pisses off their customers.

Boss says OK then we will stop accepting it, I don't need more strife in my life.

Rinse and repeat enough times and we will never have to increase the blocksize because nobody will be using bitcoin.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/3zju81/rbf_optin_a_man_walk_in_a_bar_order_a_coffe_drink/

 

[Justus Ranvier]

Sound like anything you've heard of recently?

http://hintjens.com/blog:28

 

[Mengerian]

Interesting news about BitPesa: http://themerkle.com/news/bitpesa-resumes-services-in-kenya-after-partnering-with-airtel-money/

We heard a month or two ago that they were booted off the Safaricom network, so could not connect to MPesa, the dominant mobile money in Kenya. Now they have entered a deal with Airtel money. Airtel is an upstart mobile phone company that operated across several countries with its own mobile money.

This is a typical pattern with the spread of disruptive technology. Often the entrenched incumbent (Safaricon) fights the disruption to protect their turf, but smaller nimble challengers will embrace the disruptive technology, and use open standards to undermine the incumbent's dominance.

I expect this pattern to be repeated in many markets. Bitcoin will likely often be rejected by big dominant players, but will be embraced by up-and-coming competitors as a disruptive competitive edge. This is how Bitcoin can win.

 

[rocks]

Andreas Schildbach:

“The Lightning Network and similar proposals will cause a complexity explosion on Bitcoin as a whole,” Schildbach said. “It will take quite a while to implement, test, fix and roll out the protocol. I'm talking of years, rather than months. I'm aware Blockstream is working on the core implementation. But work on necessary infrastructure, like wallets and the payment protocol hasn't even started, as far as I know.

”https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoinj-developer-andreas-schildbach-i-will-not-invest-my-time-in-lightning-networks-1452005206

We can add multibit to the list of wallets against LN.

https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/3znyap/multibit_wallet_developer_gary_rowe_let_the/

 

[Zarathustra]

The Blockstream core strategy is silly...

https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/3zoxrw/the_blockstream_core_strategy_is_silly_you_cant/

 

[freetrader]

On the topic of speeding up block propagation in the face of current problems like the Great Firewall, I have opened a thread to judge interest in a 'blocktorrent'-like alternative scheme here:

https://bitco.in/forum/threads/towards-faster-block-propagation-jtoomims-blocktorrent-proposal.742/

If there is sufficient interest I could start a BUIP for it.

 

[cypherdoc]

Oh heavens.

Dow futures -271

 

[_mr_e]

On the topic of speeding up block propagation in the face of current problems like the Great Firewall, I have opened a thread to judge interest in a 'blocktorrent'-like alternative scheme here:

https://bitco.in/forum/threads/towards-faster-block-propagation-jtoomims-blocktorrent-proposal.742/

If there is sufficient interest I could start a BUIP for it.

Given that core is very unlikely to accept such a change into their codebase, this could be a big boom for BU if we can get implemented and enabled for BU users instead. Such a network could ask its peer if its running BU and would like to exchange blocks this way, miners could then push their blocks out faster and would increase the likelihood of them adopting BU. We should welcome jtoomim with open arms.

 

[Bagatell]

@_mr_e Tell him yourself.

https://bitcoin.consider.it/bitcoin-unlimited?results=true&selected=/point/8626

 

[Erdogan]

In 2014 I had a very eloquent chinese correspondent for my blog. His articles may teach a lot about the mentality of the chinese bitcoin scene.

http://bitcoinblog.de/tag/zhangweiwuengl/

It's a long time we have been in touch and he lives in australia by now, and I don't know if he's still in bitcoin ...

Interesting article. A desperate search for valuable things.

Apparently the chinese do not care about the yuan fall, maybe they don't know that bitcoin is a protection, or maybe they believe that yuan can not fall more or is back up next week. Te PBOC has full control, you know.
[doublepost=1452098453][/doublepost]

Interesting news about BitPesa: http://themerkle.com/news/bitpesa-resumes-services-in-kenya-after-partnering-with-airtel-money/

We heard a month or two ago that they were booted off the Safaricom network, so could not connect to MPesa, the dominant mobile money in Kenya. Now they have entered a deal with Airtel money. Airtel is an upstart mobile phone company that operated across several countries with its own mobile money.

This is a typical pattern with the spread of disruptive technology. Often the entrenched incumbent (Safaricon) fights the disruption to protect their turf, but smaller nimble challengers will embrace the disruptive technology, and use open standards to undermine the incumbent's dominance.

I expect this pattern to be repeated in many markets. Bitcoin will likely often be rejected by big dominant players, but will be embraced by up-and-coming competitors as a disruptive competitive edge. This is how Bitcoin can win.

According to the article, the kenyans are not particularly interested in bitcoin (and not interested in westerners coming in saving them). It is not easy to find the use case that takes us to the next level. I thought marihuana business was an obvious case - a legal business deprived of bank payments. Apparently not. And I thought ATMs were impossible, still they exist and I have even used them in two different countries.

Good we have entrepreneurs who try everything, risking not mine but their own money.

 

[cypherdoc]

brutal:

 

[Peter R]

Stephen Pair from BitPay on hard forks, the block size limit, and the transaction fee market (he sounds like a contributor to this thread):

https://medium.com/@spair/scalability-hard-forks-and-markets-faf80350c3ff#.ooi6agpla

 

[cypherdoc]

@Peter R

yes he does.

and we should listen to him, as one of the very first true business operators in the space.
[doublepost=1452100688][/doublepost]homebuilders suffering; that's really not good:

and our buddies, the squid, who issued a bullish report just yesterday:

 

[Justus Ranvier]

According to the article, the kenyans are not particularly interested in bitcoin (and not interested in westerners coming in saving them). It is not easy to find the use case that takes us to the next level. I thought marihuana business was an obvious case - a legal business deprived of bank payments. Apparently not. And I thought ATMs were impossible, still they exist and I have even used them in two different countries.

Part of the problem is that a lot of the people building user-facing software in Bitcoin come from a web/smartphone app development background and are approaching it from that mindset.

That's not what Bitcoin needs right now, however.

The "killer app" is going to be very boring: accounting tools that are Bitcoin aware. Business tools for professionals that never go "viral" but do gain wide acceptance and a profitable customer base. Basically, a better QuickBooks, the kind of application that's the opposite of what typical Silicon Valley hipster developers want to work on.

 

[cypherdoc]

Interesting article. A desperate search for valuable things.

Apparently the chinese do not care about the yuan fall, maybe they don't know that bitcoin is a protection, or maybe they believe that yuan can not fall more or is back up next week. Te PBOC has full control, you know.
[doublepost=1452098453][/doublepost]

According to the article, the kenyans are not particularly interested in bitcoin (and not interested in westerners coming in saving them). It is not easy to find the use case that takes us to the next level. I thought marihuana business was an obvious case - a legal business deprived of bank payments. Apparently not. And I thought ATMs were impossible, still they exist and I have even used them in two different countries.

Good we have entrepreneurs who try everything, risking not mine but their own money.

the Kenyans are probably just frustrated by the same thing ordinary Bitcoiners are frustrated with; delayed confs and high fees due to the 1MB. until we deprecate Core and BS, the adoption rate will be muted.

 

[cypherdoc]

such jokes:

"China's stock market regulator said it would extend a six-month ban on stock sales by large shareholders."

http://www.businessinsider.com/ban-on-selling-wont-help-china-pick-up-its-stock-market-2015-8
[doublepost=1452103117][/doublepost]rules, rules, rules. until they're inconvenient:

"The US, along with most of the world, tried a short-selling ban in 2008, when the stock market was melting down. Europe followed with a short ban on some credit derivatives and bank shares as its sovereign-debt crisis exploded in 2010 and 2011."
[doublepost=1452103313][/doublepost]oh geezuz. yet another very early adopter dev-type bashing core dev's strategy of LN complexity vs simply scaling by increasing a constant. yeah, i know you posted it above already but i needed to embed this comment by Rowe:

 

[freetrader]

The "killer app" is going to be very boring: accounting tools that are Bitcoin aware.

I would love Bitcoin support in Gnucash. Not a killer app, but would be very useful.

 

[Justus Ranvier]

I would love Bitcoin support in Gnucash. Not a killer app, but would be very useful.

The question becomes: is it better to add Bitcoin support to Gnucash, or is it better to extend the capabilities of a wallet application to support Gnucash workflows and allow importing of existing Gnucash data?

What I envision is a hybrid wallet/accounting application that fully support legacy paradigms (you enter all accounting information to represent invoices and payments to balance your own books), but if your customer/supplier is using the same application, then a lot of things you'd normally have to do manually happen automatically, and include added bonuses like cryptographic proof of correctness.