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There you are, Smiles - because you know I care
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http://andolfatto.blogspot.com/2015/11/ ... nking.html
There you are, Smiles - because you know I care
:-o
I just discovered this thread. I'm almost speechless.... I never thought in a million years that I'd hear this topic discussed here... Yea, this is probably the wrong crowd to discuss anything as "futuristic" as.... cellular phones.... laptops... internet.... etc... LOL It's like hearing your great *great* grandparents (who used crank and rotary phones) debating about which is the best smartphone.... the iPhone6sтАО or the Note5.... Kinda like hearing horses talk. ha ha I've heard that some people say that that "internet thing" is really going to become popular one day. ;)
Bitcoin is money. It's electronic cash. And it's also its own currency. There is no safer money in the world. There's also no safer and easier and cheaper way to transmit money in the world -- no matter whether you are sending $6 to your friend you're having lunch with... or sending $60 million half way around the planet. It's as fast and easy as sending a text message.
Remember the first time you ever heard of Facebook....? And you thought, "That sounds so silly. Who would ever want that? It'll never catch on." Then... a couple years later, it was as if it had been there since the beginning of time. From the oldest to the youngest people, all over the world, everyone suddenly knew about Facebook. Well, the same thing is happening with Bitcoin now. Bitcoin is definitely the future of money.
By the way, the truth is... *cash* is the currency of choice for drug dealers and crime..... not bitcoin. Just because *cash* is used for crime more than any other form of money... Does that mean you should avoid using cash...? No. That's very flawed logic, and just silly.
Also, when you hear about bitcoin heists.... they are talking about the *theft* of bitcoin. Yes, obviously, since bitcoin is essentially "electronic cash"... It's untraceable. So.... just like cash... or gold bars.... It's bound to be a target of robbery. Now, logically, if the bank that holds your money or gold.... steals it from you... You don't blame the *money*. You don't blame the *gold*. You blame the bank. Or..... Blame yourself for being so irresponsible to have not checked out the bank to know if they were trustworthy or not. Or..... Blame yourself for trusting any bank at all.
It is for these reasons that new software has been created which are the most advanced sophisticated security systems ever invented. Bitcoin software is setting the standard for cutting edge security systems of the future.
Also... Bitcoin isn't really new any more. It's tried and true and becoming more adopted every day. The Pattaya Beer Garden accepts bitcoin. The 5 star gay-owned restaurant called, Eat Me, in Bangkok... accepts bitcoin. Several gay sex massage shops in Bangkok accept bitcoin.... including Ban Tewa, and The Prince. There's already at least one bitcoin ATM in Bangkok. It's spreading fast. See http://coinmap.org
Another important point is: If you're using bitcoin to send money from one place to another.... Or if you're using bitcoin and spending it.... You don't need to worry about the changing value. Just (1) Buy the Bitcoin, (2) Send or Spend the Bitcoin, and (3) Sell the Bitcoin. If you do all of these things within one day.... or a few days... the value won't likely change.... so you don't have to worry about that. If you're curious, you can always check the value here: http://preev.com/btc/thb/source:bitfinex
Bitcoin transactions are free. ( Well, technically, the suggested optional "donation for processing the transaction" is approximately $0.03 no matter whether you are sending $1 or $100,000,000 dollars. )
It's crazy easy to get into Bitcoin.... and to use it. All you have to do is install one free app on your phone. It's called Airbitz. It is the best bitcoin wallet by far. I don't recommend any others. I can elaborate on all the reasons, if anyone is interested. You can install it from here: https://airbitz.co/bitcoin-wallet/
For anyone who would like to play with it.... or to learn more about it.... or just for fun.... let me know. Any member of this forum who asks me to, and who installs the Airbitz app... will send them $20 via bitcoin.
You can go buy yourself some lunch or dinner or beers or whatever at Pattaya Beer Garden using your bitcoin. Just bring your phone with you. ..... or a massage at Ban Tewa massage spa.... or dinner at Eat Me restaurant.
I forgot to mention why businesses love to accept bitcoin.
The transaction fees are practically zero. ( As I said, it's an "optional donation" of about US$0.03 to instantly send a transaction whether it's for $1 or $100,000,000 or more. )
There's no 3% or 4% bank credit card extortion fees. And before you say, "But I don't pay those. The merchant does." Give it a rest. Where do the merchants get that money? They raise their prices. And YOU pay it. Wake up. Every merchant owner can tell you that what I'm saying is true. It's just like if the mafia were extorting a 5% cut out of every business in town. YOU would be the one paying it.
The other major benefit for businesses is... Transactions are absolutely irreversible. There is no such thing as a "charge back". A charge back is when the bank reverses the transaction, effectively *stealing* the money back away from the merchant. You can think of it as basically the same thing as shoplifting. And believe me, whether they even realize it or not, those charge backs typically cost a business another 9-12% of their revenue.
Bitcoin has no charge backs. It's absolutely impossible to do one. For businesses, this is huge. This means a total of about 12% or 13% more profit for them... when you eliminate their costs for credit card fees *and* lost revenue from charge backs. Not to mention... saving them countess labor hours of having to deal with the paperwork of trying to constantly be fighting those charge backs.
For customers, it just needs to be thought of as, "the same as cash". This means... You must try to always deal with reputable firms. ( Or use an escrow service if needed for very large purchases. ) The same as you would if you were using cash.
Businesses can still issue a full refund, of course. It just can't be forced or extorted out of them in the fraudulent manner that most charge backs happen.
With bitcoin, if you send $300 to a hotel for booking a room.... ( via the app on your phone while you're riding in a taxi in the UK... and the hotel is in Pattaya..... It's just the same as if you dropped off $300 in cash at the front desk of that hotel. You're not going to ever get that money back.... unless the hotel sends a new transaction to refund it. Same as with cash.
Businesses and all sorts of People love cash.
Businesses and all sorts of People love bitcoin.
By the way, businesses who are concerned about the changing value of bitcoin can "cash out" by converting their bitcoin into Dollars or Euros or Thai Baht or whatever their local fiat currency is...... instantly with the click of a button. For example, There are three major Bitcoin <--> Thai Baht exchange companies in Bangkok alone. They are very reputable and excellent. They serve the entire country of Thailand via their web sites and by Thai bank account transfers... or the Thai ATM networks. For example, I can send them $1 or $100,000 or whatever amount.... in bitcoin.... and instantly ( within about 60 minutes ), the money will either be in my Thai bank account as Thai Baht... or available for anonymous pickup at any ATM in Thailand. So using the "cardless transaction" button and a special code number the site gives you... you can withdraw the bitcoin --- now as thai baht --- anonymously... without any ATM card..... from any ATM anywhere in Thailand. I think their fee the company charges is 30 or 35 baht. By the way, you can buy *or* sell.... get bitcoin for baht ( or get baht for bitcoin ) with any of these companies. Also, there are tons of bitcoin exchanges ( as such companies are called ) in nearly every country in the world.... especially in the US, UK, EU, and all the Asian countries too. The largest one in the world is now a company based in Hong Kong called Bitfinex.
Welcome to the 21st century.
The company in Bangkok I recommend most is: http://coins.co.th
Another great one is: http://bx.in.th
But yeah..... If you're paying a total of more than about 30 baht TOTAL.... to send money to/from any two points on this planet.... You're getting ripped off big time. Western Union fees are typically in the 9% - 10% range. ( Famously, the poorer the country, the more they extort. So in Africa, for example, Western Union fees average about 12%. Yeah. The banksters are evil criminal thieves. But you already knew that. :) )
Feel free to ask me any questions about any of this.... here or by PM.
I can also happily change just about any amount of cash you'd need to change into or out of bitcoin at any time.... between thai baht, us $, euros, or whatever. Zero fees. Just cause I'm a nice guy. :) ( and because I can touch one button to use coins.co.th faster than ordering a starbucks )
If anyone would like to get their business set up to accept bitcoin, no matter what type of business it is, I can also do that for you free too. It takes about 5 minutes to talk you through getting that all set up and working. You don't need any banking or applications or forms. It's a simple free app. ( I've also seen many money boys advertising that they accept bitcoin.... as well as many sex massage shops. )
My offer stands that.... I'll send $20 to anyone who asks me to. Just install this free app and let me know... http://airbitz.co
Quick word of caution as to what bruce says. To each their own, but personally, I would never trust a web wallet with my funds like bruce is recommending. Sure, use them to exchange to/from bitcoin, but I would never actually leave funds there.
I also don't like client-side signing, to the point I refuse to implement it for my clients. I know it's touted as some awesome security measure, but that's a little misleading. The reasoning for it is because site owners kept running off with everyone's money, so the community came up with client-side signing which prevents that. However, it also passes the security aspect to the end-user. All it takes is opening one wrong e-mail or visiting one wrong site, and your funds will be gone shortly.
Again, I can recommend https://electrum.org/ (no, I didn't develop that one -- I do more commercial software).
Sorry, Matt. I disagree with much of what you just said. There's a lot of confusion and misunderstanding.
First, I agree. Never trust or use a web wallet. I strongly recommend *against* using any type of web wallet. I never recommend a web wallet under any circumstances.
The wallet I recommend is a phone/tablet app called Airbitz ( http://airbitz.co). In short, it is light years ahead of Electrum, Mycelium, Blockchain-dot-info, or any of the others. ( The lead developers of all four of these wallets are friends of mine, by the way. We chat in specialized forums every day. ) Anyway, the security of Airbitz truly is phenomenal. It's so far advanced that it has left all the others in the dust. Truly, please don't try to discuss it until you've researched it enough to understand how Airbitz security works... and why it is light years ahead of anything else. I'd be happy to supply you with lots of great material to read and videos to watch that are specifically about Airbitz technology, what it does, and how it works. WARNING though: This topic will become extremely technical very quickly.
I have no idea what you mean by "client side signing". I've never heard that term used. All transaction signing must be client-side, by definition. Otherwise, you are using a web wallet.
Perhaps you meant, "multi-signature transactions". That *is* something that has been touted as some great security feature. But I disagree with it. ( For those who don't know, the analogy is..... it's like having a checking account where each check requires two or more signatures. ) I disagree with it being touted as a general security feature because --- although it's true that the "banker" can't run away with your money. It's also true that the "banker" *can* prevent you from accessing your money. Screw that! Anyway, this is all applicable only to web site wallets anyway. And, as I said, I strongly recommend that nobody use a web wallet.
Airbitz is not a web wallet.
Nobody, including the publisher of the Airbitz app, gets any information whatsoever.
No name or information about you is ever asked for, nor needed to create a wallet.
When a wallet is created, you select a username and a password.
Even your username and password are never sent to Airbitz.
The app then creates a wallet on your phone.
The wallet is immediately strongly encrypted.
Only an *encrypted* copy of your wallet is sent to a network of distributed p2p servers ( not to Airbitz ).... as an automatic automated backup.
Again, it's strongly encrypted first, so nobody ever has access to it.... ever ever.
And they are not Airbitz servers. They are a huge network of independent decentralized distributed p2p servers.... for a backup. It's impossible that they could all go down. They don't have the same owners and they're located all over the globe.
If Airbitz company disappeared, and all of Airbitz servers disappeared, your Airbitz Wallet would work exactly as it does now. In fact, users would never notice Airbitz company was gone.
Airbitz servers are not used by Airbitz app for any wallet functionality.
( This can *not* be said of *any* of the other wallets, by the way. )
You can, at any time, install Airbitz on other phones or tablets. You can even "log in" with the same username and password and access the same wallet.
How is this magic possible?
A hash is created of your username and password you entered. An encrypted copy of it is sent to request that your wallet be "restored" to the device your now using. That encrypted copy of it is summoned and brought in to your device. And your username and password are used ( only locally ) to unencrypt your wallet. Now, for example, you have full access to your wallet on *all three* your Samsung Note5, your old iPhone, and your new iPad.
Meanwhile, this all happens instantly and magically. All you did was enter your username and password.
In fact, Airbitz *invented* "One Touch 2FA" technology. ( one touch 2 factor authentication)
I assure you that every possible attack vector or loss scenario has been thought through and analyzed extremely intensely and addressed. There is nothing connected to the Internet that is safer. Your wallet, private keys, transaction history, everything is always encrypted and never leaves your phone unencrypted.
The app even protects the users from themselves.... in a hundred ways.
You can create a wallet. Receive some money. And then have your phone stolen. All within minutes. And you won't have lost a penny. ( except the cost of your stolen phone itself, naturally )
I just went to install AirBitz on my tablet, and it wanted access to -- Identity, Contacts, Location, Photo/Media/Files, Camera, Bluetooth connection information.
Another turn off. Why would it possibly need access to my photos, location, and identity? heh, get real. You might want to ask your friends to change that, considering on their site they preach about privacy and security so much. I can understand the camera to send to a QR code, but that should be about it. They don't need access to anything else for a bitcoin wallet, unless they're doing data collection, and selling that data to marketing companies, which I'm assuming is where their profits are.
Maybe they mean something different by "client side encryption", but generally that means Javascript based signing of transactions, which mean web wallet. And Javascript based signing is inherently insecure for multiple reasons. I know everyone loves to preach about it, but again, it's misleading. i'll admit, it does prevent site owners from stealing user's funds, which is the entire reason it became so popular. However, it's not secure, and again, to the point I refuse to implement it upon client request. All it takes is one client to have funds stolen, they blast me publicly, it ranks high in Google, and I'm fucked for landing new contracts, so I only ever use the best security measures available.
And they're passing private keys around on a P2P network? I don't care if they're encrypted or not, you don't do that. I don't want my private keys floating around on dozens of different servers, even if they are encrypted.
Trust me bruce, unless you happen to be on the core dev team, I can pretty much promise I know the bitcoin protocol better than you.
I just realized that you might have been referring to the Currency Exchange Companies I recommend.... They are currency exchanges *only*. Use them *only* to exchange currency. Although it is possible to leave money on deposit in your account there...... Matt's correct. DON'T DO THAT. Don't Ever Leave Money on Deposit in a Currency Exchange Site.
They might call it a wallet feature. Or just a balance on deposit. In either case, never keep any money ( be it bitcoin, dollars, baht, or whatever ) on deposit with *any* web site.
Using a currency exchange is fine. But don't leave your money there one minute longer than you need to..... Do your exchanging and take your money out of there.
When you go to the big yellow Krungsri Currency Exchange window at the top of Boyztown.... After you do your currency exchange, you don't leave your money there with the window teller..... You don't ask them to hold onto your money for you. Do you?
Think of bitcoin exchanges the same way. It's a currency exchange. Change your money and get it out of there.
ALWAYS KEEP YOUR BITCOIN SAFELY IN YOUR BITCOIN WALLET
That's Airbitz http://airbitz.co
EXCHANGE YOUR BITCOIN FOR $ тВм ┬г ┬е тВй AND BACK AT A BITCOIN EXCHANGE
That's Coins http://coins.co.th
or BX http://bx.in.th
or contact me and I'll do it for you free
or do a Google search and find the most reputable bitcoin exchange in your country
Ask me if you need help finding a great bitcoin exchange in your country.
Here's one list to start your search: http://www.cryptocoincharts.info/markets/info
In the USA, for example, there are some huge bitcoin exchange services..... like:
Coinbase https://coinbase.com/?r=4ff3c74e3518490 ... erral-link
( referral link, we both make a little money )
Circle https://www.circle.com/en
But again, buy or sell bitcoin there.... then immediately get your bitcoin and dollars out.... and send them TO your own Airbitz wallet on your phone or tablet.
The more I think about it, the worse of a wallet AirBitz is. I'm assuming they're using HD BIP32 wallets, correct? That's a good thing, but also means all your funds are available with a piece of text like this:
Someone gets that piece of text, and your funds are gone. Granted, that private key can't be brute forced, so as long as you keep it safe, nobody can ever touch your funds. So you're saying they encrypt this private key using the user's password, then fire it off it a P2P network. Has to be two-way encryption, so I'm assuming AES256 or AES512 maybe?Quote:
xprv9s21ZrQH143K2JF8RafpqtKiTbsbaxEeUaMnNHsm5o6wCW 3z8ySyH4UxFVSfZ8n7ESu7fgir8imbZKLYVBxFPND1pniTZ81v Kfd45EHKX73
That's a very stupid and dangerous thing to do, and more than likely, many people will have their funds stolen. One of the nodes on that P2P network is going to be an intelligent Russian hacker. They're going to brute-force the keys, and sometimes people do things like use "password" for their password, which means their funds will be gone. Majority of people don't use strong passwords.
Matt, Matt, Matt.... I've been racking my brain for a few minutes trying to come up with the most polite, respectful, loving way to say this.... And I just don't know any other way to say it...
Your knowledge about bitcoin, the bitcoin network, bitcoin protocol, bitcoin security, and internet security in general ....is *extremely* limited.
I honestly don't mean that to to sound arrogant. I absolutely love helping people learn, I love people asking questions, and helping us all get to the bottom of things and get the correct answers.... But, I do have a problem with people presenting themselves as "experts".... or "I know more than you do"..... when they clearly DO NOT.... and then giving the public bad advice.... or at least, incomplete advice, misleading advice, or contradicting the correct advice. That's when I am forced to speak up.
With all due respect..... Everyone else... Please ignore what Matt is saying.
Matt, I am the creator and organizer of more than 140 IRC-like chat channels. About half of them are dedicated to bitcoin technology. Members of my chat channels include: world renowned cryptography experts, bitcoin network and protocol experts, bitcoin security experts, and internet security experts, as well as.... the founders, the lead devs, and the *entire* dev teams, and even the support teams, of all 4 wallets mentioned above, for example... as well as bitcoin exchange owners, and hundreds of bitcoin startup CEOs... ALL are members. The chat channels are extremely active 24 hours a day. Members are all over the world. Most are also my personal friends.
If you are sincere about wanting to learn about this stuff, I'd be willing to add you to one group. I *guarantee* that you'll learn a *lot*. If on the other hand, you're just too lazy to do a google search and/or are just trolling us... then nevermind.
First, about the app'a permission requirements... Come on. You must know that there are major issues with ALL apps.... in that the *descriptions* of app permissions very often dont match the actual reason why they are needed. This is plaguing the entire smartphone world. I think that very soon Google (Android) and Apple (iPhone) will fix this problem. All they need to do is.... Give all app developers a new field to fill in for the app store, called, "Why we need this permission".
In the meantime, we must either do a google search to find out why, or ask the developers themselves why. Most app publishers have a web page or blog entry specifically to answer that question: "Why does your app need these permissions?"
You have yet to give any type of technical response, so I'll go under the assumption your knowledge is quite limited. Have you ever written your own wallet software? Your own node software? Have you ever had to deal with Russian hackers on a near hourly basis? I have.Quote:
Originally Posted by bruce_nyc
Sorry, but I'm pretty confident I know what I'm talking about.
I've been using bitcoin for about 2.5 years, and never had a dollar stolen. My clients have never had a dollar stolen for about 18 months now. Trust me though, the hackers are ruthless in this market, and extremely skilled. You quite obviously don't know what you're in for, especially considering you actually posted the AirBitz web site URL here, which means it's going to get ranked in Google. I'm sure your friends will appreciate being associated with SGT.
If you don't want to believe me, I really don't care. Ok, I do, because I want to see bitcoin succeed. However, you quite obviously don't have a clue what you're talking about. You're just a marketing machine spitting out punch lines like "most advanced sophisticated security systems ever invented", which is quite obviously totally fucken false. You don't actually understand cryptography, encryption protocols, server security, the bitcoin protocol, or anything of that nature. However, I do.
I'm done with this thread. I have work to do.
Matt, the only thing that is "stupid and dangerous" are your comments. You make off the wall comments bashing something that you've never bothered to even google.... much less install it.
I wanted to make sure I am being 100% accurate, so I just messaged the lead developer. Here's his reply:
Airbitz App Permissions
Identity - entails some needed details of the device i.e. screen size, etc
Contacts - to load names and photos for optional transaction meta data **
Location - for the merchant directory ( the app has a directory of local bitcoin-accepting businesses everywhere and uses your gps to show them to you )
Photo/Media/Files - for loading photos containing qr codes ( this is an amazingly slick feature )
Camera - for scanning qr codes, obviously
Bluetooth - to send/receive transactions, obviously
NFC - to send/receive transactions, obviously
** ( Optionally, when you send/receive bitcoin to/from a contact of yours, it will autoload your friend's name and photo... to be stored with that transaction. You can select Send, then simply start typing k o m m.... and "John Kommentariat" will autocomplete. If you select him, his full name and photo will appear and be stored in your transaction history ledger along with all the other details of that transaction. You can even select the income or expense categories -- just like Quicken or Quickbooks. ie. "Expenses / Food / Dining Out / Fast Food" .....or..... "Income / Misc Consulting Fees" received FROM "John Kommentariat" )
If you thought it through for a few moments, you should be able to figure these things out yourself. If not, there's always google.com
By the way, I'd like to remind everyone that the Airbitz app is an "open source" app. That means that YOU, and *everyone* on earth, can read and carefully study every line of code of the program. It's totally open and transparent. Even though you might not have the skills to be able to understand the programming code, you can feel assured that thousands, if not millions, of expert programmers all around the world are studying it carefully. They are looking for flaws in it. They are looking for any shady actions it may perform. They would be the first to broadcast loudly if they found anything wrong in it. Nobody has every found any flaws. The code has also been independently audited for security. It passes with flying colors.
This is a face-palm... ( when I slap my forehead with the palm of my hand... because I can't believe the stupidity of what I've just heard )Quote:
Originally Posted by cdnmatt
There are at least 12 things wrong with this statement. OMG. Where to start? No offense but... You speak random nonsensical jargon words.
First, Javascript is a programming language that is web-based. The code ( program ) gets downloaded into your browser from a web page and runs inside your browser tab. This has about as much to do with bitcoin as "the efficiency of bicycle propulsion in a rain storm in rural China". Use of Javascript is generally a bad idea.... for anything other than the most trivial web page layout and update use cases.
Airbitz is an app. It does not use the web. It does not use a browser at all. And it most certainly does not use Javascript.
Signing of transactions is a cryptographic event. It can *only* happen locally ( or as you call it, "client side" ). There is no other way to do it. Other than not doing it at all... and someone else doing it. ( The classic case of allowing "someone else doing it" for you, is a web wallet.... where you're basically just giving your money to some other guy to hold for you. Then, naturally, *he* will be signing all transactions... not you. )
Again, Airbitz is not a web wallet. Airbitz does NOT even use the web.
OMG. Can I face-palm twice in the same message? Ouch! That hurt! #-oQuote:
Originally Posted by cdnmatt
What do you think Bitcoin is....? The Bitcoin Network *is* exactly that. The Bitcoin Network *itself* "...takes private keys and passes them around on a p2p network." omg. omg.
If you think that's dangerous.... then don't use bitcoin. And certainly don't use banks. And don't use the internet. And... omg Don't use phones. And.... omg. Don't even use electricity.
Holy Sh*t. That's another slam in my face with both hands !Quote:
Originally Posted by cdnmatt
You obviously know absolutely *nothing* about Bitcoin..... or even about cryptography.
Sorry. I'm really trying not to get upset. But what you are saying is *total* BS...
Ask your Mom if she can explain to you how private key cryptography works, and how a private key can protect your money. Oh lord.
As for your fears of Airbitz being associated with SGT... That's also nonsense. The founder and CEO is a very close friend. He knows *all* about my life and my gay thailand sexcapades. He'd probably buy ad space on SGT if I asked him to. Again, no offense, but you are soooooo full of it.
People talk so much ignorant shit..... spewing out of their mouths like verbal vomit.... all over everyone.... :ymsick:
Ironically.....
I am always very happy to teach novices about all of this stuff... But please don't act like you "know more than you" when you don't even know the most *basic* bits of it.
Anyone have any questions about Bitcoin? I'm happy to answer....
The CEO of Airbitz just replied to me. ...even tho I guess it's 1:09AM, his time, in California.
He added this....
Quote:
Identity includes the users info like phone number and email address. This is only used locally to auto complete phone number fields for registration for things like buy/sell.
The misconception that many people have is that an app's access to device data means that the company has that access too. It doesn't have to be the case. With Airbitz, only the local app accesses that data for your convenience. It never leaves your phone unencrypted.
Ok, this conversation is obviously quite useless. The reason I got defensive is because you're fucking with people's money. Don't do that unless you know what you're doing, which you quite obviously don't. I could write about a 2 page essay on the inaccuracies in your above post, but I'm not going to bother, because you're quite obviously going to go ahead with the AirBitz project anyway.
Have fun with your project.
Ok, I'm bored, so let's give it a crack.
- Yes, Javascript is a client-side programming language (ie. it runs in your browser). Server side programming languages generally include things such as Perl, PHP, Python, etc. Again, when a bitcoin wallet advertises "client side encryption", most people are going to assume that means Javascript based signing. That doesn't appear to be the case here, so that point is moot.
- Yes, you can sign transactions on the server, not just client, assuming the server has access to the private key, even if it's only for a few milliseconds. Yes, there are ways to do this securely.
- The example private key I showed above is exactly all you need to wipe someone's wallet. That's how HD BIP32 wallets work, which I'm assuming they use as it's the standard now (thankfully). Again, this is a good thing. That means you can generate just over 2.1 billion payment addresses with just the public key (starts with "xpub", not "xprv"), hence the private key never has to be online.
- No, private keys are not shared across the P2P network. Only ECC signatures are, which are generated with the private key. The private key itself NEVER touches the P2P network. That would be REALLY fucken stupid, and apparently AirBitz has decided that's a good idea. It's the equivalent of having your credit card number shared across dozens of servers on a P2P network. Even if encrypted, you just don't do that.
- Preaching privacy, then requiring access to basically my entire tablet is a little hypocritical. Sorry, but access to my dick pics aren't required for a bitcoin wallet. Ok, I don't have any dick pics, but if I did, their app doesn't need access to them.
- I'm glad the CEO doesn't mind you're gay. You better hope for your sake this thread doesn't rank highly in Google, because there will be discussions on Reddit and other forums about what I've said if it does. Well, that and the association to a bunch of older guys who like to fuck gay Thai hookers might not be the marketing ploy he was hoping for. heh.
And one final thing.
http://wickedlilpixie.com/wp-content...et-272x300.jpg
haha... ok, I'm going to go have sex again. That sounds a little more fun than sitting here, typing and explaining to you the very basics of bitcoin. If you don't believe anything I've written, feel free to copy & paste it to say bitcointalk.org or anywhere else. Anyone knowledgeable will confirm everything I said is true.
You can argue about the security of Bitcoin's systems till the cows come home. The issue is what is a currency for, and against that backdrop, is Bitcoin a good or bad currency?
A currency is a storage vehicle for wealth, and in general terms, the greater the stability of the buying power of that wealth, the greater the security it affords to the owner. A good currency is therefore one that presents good stability of buying power.
The value of Bitcoin in terms of its buying power has proved deeply unstable to date, and against those fluctuations (speculation aside) it is very hard to argue that it presents a wise means of storing one's wealth.
But then, given its very short life, is there reason to expect that with time it will achieve the stability needed to become a serious global currency?
That will only happen if many countries start to use Bitcoin as their national currency, loosely attaching its value to commodities as they do so. However, countries will only do that when Bitcoin affords sufficient stability of value to make it a realistic alternative to the Greenback - Catch 22..
Bitcoin's lack of attachment to the value of tangible goods is its fundamental design flaw IMO. Whilst the desire to have a currency that is free from political manipulation is attractive, there are other routes that would deliver the desired outcome with far greater inherent stability. For example, a currency based on a kilo of rice for delivery in five years time, might well achieve greater value stability than any major currency.
Bitcoin is not, of necessity, unique. If an alternate stateless currency with greater stability was launched and gained traction, the value of Bitcoin would almost certainly plummet. As the fashionable new kid on the block, Bitcoin has some allure, but can it survive into boring middle age? - I'm doubtful..
I'm pretty sure security is quite important. People tend to not like getting their money stolen. :) That's the main reason I got so defensive in this thread. Majority of SGT members won't have any knowledge of bitcoin, so when someone like bruce shows up giving shitty advice, I'm going to speak up. Like I said previously in this thread, bitcoin in and of itself is extremely secure, but many of the applications built on top of it are complete garbage.Quote:
Originally Posted by Old git
Actually, volatility isn't too bad these days. It's been fairly stable for a good year now, but you are right, definitely don't put your life savings into bitcoin. I'm a bit of an oddity, as I invoice in USD, get paid in BTC, and am in it for the long-term as I have no problem seeing the price at $1500+ in the future, so for me flucuations don't matter. For everyone else though, it would definitely be a concern.Quote:
Originally Posted by Old git
Governments aren't ever going to fully endorse bitcoin. It'll continue to gain traction during economic crises such as Cyprus and Greece. People don't like capital controls, and only being allowed to take out 60 Euro/day, and they also don't like massive devaluation of their currency. You can expect those types of crises to continue in the future, and that's what will give bitcoin more traction.Quote:
Originally Posted by Old git
There's thousands of "alt-coins" already, and basically none have gained any traction whatsoever. If there ever was one that was going to gain traction, it would have been Stellar. It was started in part by Stripe, and had an amazing team of people from places like MIT, Stanford, Yale, CMU, Columbia, etc. Stellar failed miserably, so I'm pretty confident bitcoin is here to stay. It's too large of an industry now for it to just disappear.Quote:
Originally Posted by Old git
... thus coining a brand new English phrase: 'Bitcoin-Angst'.Quote:
Originally Posted by cndmatt
But you are quite right ... (1) hardly anyone knows really what Bitcoin is all about. (2) A portion of the population would like to know more I'm sure. (3) A good deal of the population don't give a shit. (4) Another portion think it's a bubbling scam (I'm vaguely in that room). (5) A tiny portion think it's the cats ass and generally the savior of the world and if one gets in the early stages they will ~ absolutely and guaranteed ~ make 20 billion dollars profit "sometime in the future".
I hesitate to get involved with yourself or Bruce mainly because of number 1 and number 4 ... my annoyance with Bruce is that he's a raging right wing lunatic (with Bitcoin being only a part of his delusions). But you are a Canadian, and I forgive you the Bitcoinism, knowing full well that Canadians are never lunatics nor fanatics, on any subject.
,
For me the question of who to believe about Bitcoin and security comes down to weighing up the probabilities. How likely is it that someone who chooses to live in the back-blocks of Thailand, away from the water-coolers of Silicon Valley or Cambridge, a one-man-band programmer who, by his own admission canтАЩt make a living in his own country is more of an expert than a former Fortune 500 CIO with extensive contacts in Silicon Valley but who has proved over and over again in his posts that he inhabits some sort of parallel universe? That is, whose fantasy would you be prepared to buy?
Then thereтАЩs the mystery of who invented Bitcoin and what his motives are. A recent article in Wired magazine speculates that itтАЩs a very clever Australian (ie. not a447 or lonelywombat) whoтАЩs of the libertarian persuasion politically.
Apparently he's also a tax-dodger; his home was raided by the Australian Tax Office today. I must add that to my list of common users of Bitcoin - child molesters, drug dealers and now tax evadersQuote:
an almost obsessive autodidact and double-PhD who once boasted of obtaining new graduate degrees at a rate of about one a year. HeтАЩs a climate-change denier, a serial entrepreneur who started companies ranging from security consultancies to a bitcoin bank, and an eccentric who wrote on his blog that he once accepted a challenge to create a pencil from scratch and spent years on the problem, going so far as to make his own bricks to build his own kiln in which to mix the pencilтАЩs graphite.
As an aside the most interesting comment in the article was a rant by the Australian on Twitter:As a definition itтАЩs pretty much what having a Forum posting identity means. Remember, on the Internet no-one knows youтАЩre a dogQuote:
тАШIdentityтАЩ is not your name. Where people go wrong is that they do not see it to be the set of shared experiences with other individuals.
Nobody knows who invented bitcoin, but my personal opinion is the most likely scenario is the NSA. They released a white paper regarding crypto-currency well before bitcoin showed up on the scene. For another example, the US Navy developed Tor. Both, bitcoin and Tor ended up in the hands of the open source community, so the point of who invented it is rather moot.
Fairfax has posted an update with photos on the arrest today
http://www.theage.com.au/business/bitco ... ljc73.html
Bitcoin's mysterious creator could be Australian Craig Steven Wright
video and photos have been deleted
Police and tax investigators have raided the Sydney home of a man members of the Australian bitcoin community say might be the mastermind behind controversial cryptocurrency, just hours after reports that he may be its secretive creator surfaced in the United States.
However, Fairfax Media has been told the raid at the property of Craig Steven Wright relates to an "individual taxation matter" involving Mr Wright, rather than his apparent role in creating the encrypted currency.
The Australian Federal Police attended Mr Wright's home in Gordon, on Sydney's north shore, on Wednesday afternoon to assist the Australian Taxation Office in carrying out a search.
US report
In a report published on Wednesday morning, US tech publication Wired said it had uncovered enough evidence to suggest that bitcoin's mysterious founder, who operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, was actually 44-year-old Mr Wright.
Wired acknowledged that its report was based on "unverified leaked documents" that it admitted "could be faked in whole or in part".
Fairfax Media attempted to contact Mr Wright for comment but received no response. The Australian Federal Police referred matters to the ATO. The ATO declined to comment.
Mr Wright is listed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission as a director of Hotwire and another company, Panopticrypt, which are both registered at a residential address on Sydney's North Shore. He has been a shareholder and director in a range of other enterprises, the ASIC database shows.
He is also listed as chief executive on the website of a company called DeMorgan, which describes itself "a pre-IPO Australian listed company focused on alternative currency, next generation banking and reputational and educational products." Calls to this company went straight to voicemail.
'He was a bit weird'
At about 4.15pm, the real estate agent managing the Gordon home leased by Mr Wright entered the house after being told by a neighbour, who knew the owners, that it was being searched.
Federal Police and the ATO officers were then later seen leaving the property, at 4.50pm. Asked why the federal police were at the house, they offered "no comment".
Neighbours, who didn't wish to named, said Mr Wright was an elusive man who had two children and a partner. He had expensive taste in cars, owning Toyota Land Cruiser, a Lexus, and a Jaguar, they said.
Mr Wright, his partner and children were not seen within the vicinity of the house.
Apart from owning a dog, which one neighbour described as "noisy", he also owned hens, which could be seen out the back of his house.
"I thought he did something with insurance or was an entrepreneur or something," said one neighbour, who described Wright as a "daggy dad" often seen exercising in his garage gym. "He was a bit weird."
Another neighbour said Mr Wright apparently had three-phase, 450-volt power - normally used for industrial applications - installed at the home.
The same neighbour said he recently heard that Wright had packed up the house as he was apparently off to go live in London. None of the neighbours interviewed said that Wright had told them he was the creator of Bitcoin.
Plausible candidate
Chris Guzowski, founder of ABA Technologies and regular on the Bitcoin circuit, says Wired has uncovered enough circumstantial evidence for Mr Wright to be a plausible candidate.
"It certainly makes sense," says Mr Guzowski. "He's definitely been in Bitcoin from the very start and has accumulated a really big stash of Bitcoin. He's also been in this huge stoush with the ATO for a long time."
Andrew Sommer, a partner at Clayton Utz and who testified at last year's Senate Inquiry into digital currency, is reputedly Mr White's lawyer.
But Mr Sommer said he couldn't comment on any client when contacted by Fairfax.
Zhenya Tsvetnenko, founder of bitcoin remittancy company Digital BTC, has discussed business with Mr Wright previously and was struck by his understanding of Bitcoin and his long history with the protocol.
"It could definitely be him, I remember thinking this guy could be Satoshi at the time," Mr Tsvetnenko said
"I asked him how many Bitcoin he had and he said enough to buy a pizza. Which is a joke because it's well known in the Bitcoin community the first thing bought with the very first Bitcoin was a pizza."
The Wired story was not the first time a media outlet has claimed to reveal the true identity of bitcoin's founder.
Last year, US magazine Newsweek said it had found the mysterious person behind the cryptocurrency t. However the man it named, Dorien Nakamoto, unconditionally denied Newsweek's claim, and subsequently sued the publication.
The Wired report cites archived blog posts from as far back as 2008, purportedly written by Mr Wright, which discuss aspects of the distributed ledger that is a key element of bitcoin, as well as leaked emails and a liquidation report by Australian corporate recovery firm McGrath Nicol involving one of Mr Wright's companies.
McGrath Nicol confirmed the veracity of the liquidation report, which states that the company, called Hotwire Preemptive Intelligence, was backed by $30 million in capital that was "injected via bitcoins".
Potential hoax
Wired acknowledged that the trail of evidence leading to Mr Wright could be part of an elaborate hoax.
Asher Tan of CoinJar, Australia's largest bitcoin exchange, said he was skeptical of Wired's claim, pointing out the bitcoin community relies on mathematical proof.
Solid technical proof should be given more weight than speculation, he said.
"There are some methods of doing this," Mr Tan said. These would include "moving bitcoin attributed to Satoshi's personal stash or utilising his personal encryption key (PGP) to communicate.
"These aren't foolproof methods of identifying him, but anyone who publicly stakes a claim to being Satoshi would be expected to demonstrate either of these methods."
The New York Times, which conducted an inconclusive investigation of its own into the matter, has described Mr Nakamoto's identity as "one of the great mysteries of the digital age".
But many in the bitcoin community believe that the identity of the person (or people) behind Nakamoto is irrelevant, since the virtual currency is an open source and community driven technology. It sure is a fun story though.
Do you know you Satoshi Nakamoto? Email our reporters.
;) Matt, I regret getting into a "debate"(?) with you about technology... for several reasons. (1) These things are not matters of debate. They are facts which anyone who cares can google and learn or even take online classes to learn. It's totally pointless to "debate" them. (2) Nobody here understands what we're talking about... and even if they did, they definitely don't care about it. This is not the right audience.
If you would really like to learn about this stuff, please contact the founder/ceo of Airbitz. He will be happy to answer all of your questions and explain everything. By the way, no, Airbitz is not *my* project. I have nothing to do with it. I'm just a huge fan of it because of it's cutting edge technology, especially with regard to security, decentralization, privacy, but also in the area of ease of use.
Seriously, if you care at all about the truth, then watch each of these first two videos several times until you really understand what they're saying... They are a good starting point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkTyxnhZ16w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFoEdKxH1fQ
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... z+security
You have yet to give any semblance of a technical response, whereas I have, so yeah, I don't blame you for regretting it.Quote:
Originally Posted by bruce_nyc
I know the protocol inside and out, and am also quite well versed in online security these days, so thanks, but no thanks. I started this journey about 2.5 years ago when a long-term client hit me up, and asked me to develop a bitcoin site for him. I accepted, and the next year of my life was definitely a strong learning curve, waking up nearly every monrning to e-mails with subjects such as "URGENT! Hackers again!". Go through that for a year, and you'll quickly hone your online security skills.Quote:
Originally Posted by bruce_nyc
Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. If AirBitz is actually passing keys around on a P2P network encrypted with just the user's password, then again, that's a very stupid and dangerous thing to do. My assumption is they got a little carried away with the concept of decentralization, and made some fundamental flaws during development. That's just one of those things you don't do. Ask any online security expert, and they'll agree with me.
My apologies for getting so defensive, but again, you're fucking with people's money by giving bad advice. Don't do that unless you know what you're talking about.
I first got into IT consulting about 37 years ago. As I may have mentioned, I worked my way up to Director of IT R&D for a Fortune 400 company. Later, I launched my own IT consulting firm... and had one of the largest banks in the US as a major client. I ran that for several years. I got out of that just a year or so before the tech bubble burst.
I first discovered bitcoin in November 2010, less than 2 years after Satoshi created it and launched the blockchain. I immersed myself in understanding everything about the network, the protocol, and how it all works.... I practically didn't eat or sleep for 2 weeks... just studying it 24 hours a day.... just because I recognized that it was pure genius, and I wanted to understand everything about it. One bitcoin was selling for about $0.20 at that time. ( The price had just climbed suddenly. It had been at about $0.06 per bitcoin for most of 2010. Today the price is $415 per bitcoin. ) I used to chat with Satoshi himself directly on the bitcoin forum ( the predecessor of what later became the wasteland called bitcointalk ). The lead developer of bitcoin, who Satoshi appointed to take over running the project, is a close friend of mine as well.
Also, I am fanatical about bitcoin security and safety.
These days I spend my time educating people about bitcoin, and enjoying life in Thailand with my bf. ;)
haha, you're friends with Gavin? Ok... :) He's not too well liked any more, for obvious reasons.
Or maybe Greg Maxwell you're talking about? He's still very well respected.
Quite obviously not, because you're under the assumption private keys are passed around the blockchain. You have no idea about BIP32, and don't understand the basics.Quote:
Originally Posted by bruce_nyc
Let's just agree to disagree. That's easier.
Gavin. He was the 2nd in charge technical lead of the Bitcoin project when he and Satoshi were working on it together. Then, just before Satoshi decided to disappear, he appointed Gavin to be the 1st lead of the project..... which he has remained..... until recently. Anyone who doesn't have the highest praise for Gavin, is ignorant of things.
Nowadays, I'd say about 99% of the "bitcoin community" ( if you could call it that ) is totally ignorant of how bitcoin really works, the history of the network, everything.
It's very much like the Internet itself. In the earliest days of the Internet, it was the creators of the Internet themselves who were the users. Nowadays, 99.9% of Internet users don't have the first clue about how it works.
I was among the first early users of what was the predecessor of the Internet. ....of the first Mac. ....of the first Windows. Of many things. And I was among the very few who were the first ones into, and using, bitcoin. I could go on and on. But this is the wrong forum for this topic.
Again, everything in this statement is incorrect. But I'm not going to get into it here.Quote:
Originally Posted by cdnmatt
Gavin's commit access to the Github repository has been revoked, because him and Mike Hearn tried to hijack bitcoin with XT. However, XT failed miserably, which is good -- Gavin and Mike can go fuck themselves with their blacklists, centralization, denying Tor nodes, etc.
You don't know either. You thought the BIP32 private key I posted previously was wrong, and it's not.Quote:
Nowadays, I'd say about 99% of the "bitcoin community" ( if you could call it that ) is totally ignorant of how bitcoin really works
Yes, the difference being we're fucking with people's money now. Don't do that unless you know what you're talking about, and trust me, you don't.Quote:
It's very much like the Internet itself.
Then explain to me Mr. IT consulatant who's been in the business for 37 years, how is it incorrect?Quote:
Again, everything in this statement is incorrect. But I'm not going to get into it here.
( I'm not going to reply to any more nonsense posts. )
But back to the OP's original topic....
Yes, Bitcoin is *the* free and instant alternative to using Western Union.
If anyone would like simple step by step instructions for sending money internationally for free..... using bitcoin, send me a PM..... or ask here. I'm happy to help.
__
One side note, I am surprised that more businesses in Pattaya aren't accepting bitcoin yet. The Pattaya Beer Garden at the foot of Walking Street has been accepting bitcoin for a long time now.... and they love it, obviously. And we have many gay businesses here in Bangkok who are already accepting Bitcoin. But I don't know why more other gay and non-gay businesses in Pattaya are not accepting bitcoin yet.
To get your business set up to accept bitcoin, it's as easy as setting up a free email account. And there are zero fees. Zero charge backs. Let me know if anyone would like (free) help with this as well.
https://youtu.be/kkTyxnhZ16w?t=25m57s
About half way into this video, Paul starts talking about Airbitz. It's a real eye opener.
And right out of the gate he begins discussing how they pass private keys around on a P2P network they developed. Again, even if encrypted, you don't do that. It has to be two-way encryption, which makes the concept even worse. I'm a little uncertain what their end goal was, but they made some very fundamental flaws during development. Even just mnemonic passwords would have been better than that, and I dislike those as well to the point I refuse to integrate them either.Quote:
Originally Posted by bruce_nyc
He also mentioned quite a few inaccuracies in that video. I'm assuming he knows what he's talking about though, and is just dumbing it down for the audience. He seems like an intelligent guy, so all the best to AirBitz, but I think they need to revisit the drawing board on a few crucial aspects. I promise you, if and when this thing gains traction, people are going to get their money stolen.
Utter nonsense.
There is no such thing as a modern bitcoin wallet that *doesn't* encrypt the wallet ( including, most importantly, the private keys ), and then send it somewhere as a backup. To *not* do so would be a major flaw in the design of a bitcoin wallet.
Also, you're making loads of false assumptions because you're apparently too lazy to do the research... or even watch a few videos.... and try to understand them.
Airbitz does not encrypt the private keys using only the password. See quote below.
Airbitz did not create the p2p network. It's an industry standard architecture for securely backing up in a distributed way.
That video was done Sept 2014. By now, Airbitz is already taking the lead in the bitcoin wallet space. Nobody has ever lost any bitcoin using Airbitz. Many users store $50,000 to $100,000 in their Airbitz Wallet on their phone. It's actually quite common. It's pretty much *impossible* to lose bitcoin by any means.... if you use Airbitz.
It's already automatically backed up.... by the time the wallet is able to receive money.
You could install the app, then I send you $100, then you immediately drop your phone into the ocean..... and you wouldn't lose a cent.
From https://airbitz.co/go/faq/
If you watch this video starting at 11m 30s ..... This guy actually gives a very good whiteboard overview of the unique security and architecture features of Airbitz. No other wallet comes close to this level of security and loss-prevention.Quote:
AirBitz uses AES256 for encryption and the keys are generated from the userтАЩs login + password. The login & password are combined then hashed using Scrypt with a minimum set of (N,r,p) parameters of (16384,1,1) which is many orders of magnitude stronger than most other wallets, especially web wallets which typically only use a SHA hash with a few thousand rounds. Scrypt is way more memory and CPU intensive per round.
The minimum parameters of (16384,8,1) are only on slow iPhone 4 or old Android devices. On faster phones the parameters can go as high as (128000,8,1) which are extremely difficult to brute force.
Also note that no Scrypt ASIC miners can hash Airbitz passwords as ASIC miners only use parameters (1024,1,1).
Random number generation is a critical aspect to cryptography, and Airbitz utilizes several sources of entropy to provide randomness. First is the operating system random number generator. Airbitz calls directly into the core of the OS, bypassing potential issues with libraries such as those present in an earlier version of the Java library. Entropy is also added from various system sources such as free memory, time/date, and file system info. This combination protects from a compromise of any one of the entropy sources.
https://youtu.be/eFoEdKxH1fQ
That's because you can't, because you don't know what you're talking about.
You're just a bitcoin enthusiast / marketing piece, but don't actually understand the underlying technology behind it. You might think you do, but you've already proven to me you don't.
Again, anyone wanting to get into bitcoin, I can recommend https://electrum.org/ for a wallet. That's not my software, and I have absolutely no affiliation with it whatsoever. Just Google it, you can read the reviews, and see it's a time tested, secure wallet. I don't use it myself, but majority of my clients do.
I develop more commercial based applications, which quite obviously is of absolutely no use to anyone here. However, end-user wallets might be. Prostitutes throughout North America love bitcoin these days, so there's no reason that won't spread to Thailand, hence within a year or two you can expect your favorite bar boy in white briefs to accept bitcoin as payment, if they don't already.
Well Pattaya aside I can tell you that one reason that I wouldn't consider using Bitcoin in my business anytime soon is that assuming for the sake of good manners that neither of you two gentlemen are setting out to intentionally fleece the membership of the board etc, then if YOU TWO apparently knowledgable "experts" ( or one expert and one bluffer or both of you somewhere in between perhaps, I really can't tell ) can't even agree on what is safe working proceedures and what is not then how the hell are we, the ordinary Joes out there, meant to know or trust Bitcoin and or the software and people behind it all !!Quote:
Originally Posted by bruce_nyc
I think to me THAT is one of Bitcoins biggest weakness as I see it - that plus the seemingly very high probability of one getting their money stolen by hackers ( or Bitcoin App writers even ?) if you DON'T know what you're doing as THAT from what I've read above seems to be the only one thing on which you DO both agree ! :-(
First, I want to mention that I do *not* recommend using Electrum. There are many reasons for that. One of the most obvious reasons is that it's not a bitcoin wallet. It cannot even run on a smartphone..... so good luck carrying your entire PC in your pocket to the bar or restaurant or gay sex massage shop. Also, it does not make an automatic encrypted off-site backup of your wallet. So, you step away from your laptop and your laptop gets stolen.... and you can say bye bye to all your money. :-* Also, as everyone knows, computers are very highly prone to malware ( aka viruses ) that *will* steal your bitcoins. Smartphones are exponentially more secure than computers are.
Also, by the way, Airbitz is the *only* smartphone bitcoin wallet that does not rely on the app publisher's servers to process transactions in any way. In other words, if Airbitz company were to vanish overnight, along with all of their servers.... app users wouldn't even notice. Everything would work just as normal. And, of course, Airbitz never has access to the users' bitcoin or account data. NO OTHER SMARTPHONE BITCOIN WALLET can make that statement.
I hear ya. I understand exactly what you're saying and I can empathize with your feeling about it. Bitcoin is cash.... in an electronic form.... so, by definition, it will always be an ideal target for thieves. Gold, silver, diamonds, and.... cash.... are all equally a big target for thieves. That's why, as with all of these commodities, it's extremely important that you handle them, and store them, with great care.... taking the advice of "experts" that *you* trust.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nirish guy
I am fanatical about bitcoin security, and I am a true expert in the field. ( However, I think I've never actually uttered those words before.... because everyone in the bitcoin world already knows me and knows that I am. )
Matt, in your egocentric quest to make yourself seem "smart" by putting others down... you are really doing damage to bitcoin..... as you can see.... Confusing people is not helpful to anyone...... and definitely not helpful to bitcoin.
In the old days, we really had very limited options to really provide true hardened security for people in protecting their bitcoins. But I always knew that the software and systems would continue to evolve and improve very quickly. Now, we have the extreme security we need..... *and* it's easier to use than any banking app. It's called Airbitz. There is no more secure hot wallet in the world.
And for offline cold storage, ( for very large investment amounts; i.e. more than $100,000 ) we all now have excellent new options as well.
Bitcoin is really ready for prime time now. That might have something to do with its value going from $354 to $415 in only the past 7 days. The value just keeps going up.... year after year.... as I've been predicting for years.
For some other opinions about accepting bitcoin in your business, I'd recommend calling on the phone and speaking with the owners of Pattaya Beer Garden in Pattaya, and Eat Me Restaurant in Bangkok. I'm sure they'd be happy to speak with you and explain why they love accepting bitcoin in their businesses. Also, PaleoRobbie.com which is the number one healthy gourmet meal home delivery service in Bangkok, has been accepting bitcoin for a long time now. I've also just convinced the largest local Bangkok pizza delivery business to accept bitcoin. They'll be implementing it soon.
Again without getting into who's right or wrong in general here, one quick question - so Mr Airbitz and Mr Electrum have both it seems designed and released some form of bit coin wallet - why ? Whats in it for them ? I'm assuming it's free to use these wallets ??? and if so as it's free to do money transfers etc again what do they ( or any developer) get from working on improving the Bitcoin industry ?
Oh and Bruce just to be clear it's not that Matt's posts that confuse the issue and make me not trust Bitcoin as for all I know he could well be 100% correct, my point is and was that theres even the room for such fully opposing positions between yourselves in the first place, THAT'S what would make me avoid Bitcoin. People can argue about which bank gives the best rates and what's the fastest way to send money via your bank etc but no one is arguing that generally speaking it will get there without being scammed off you before you even send it ( with normal robbing bastard bank scams excepted of course) but THAT to be is the difference as with Bitcoin I've no confidence of that ACTUALLY happening risk free every time I might use the service.
That's why I suggest that you talk with people who are actually *using* bitcoin every single day..... to do tons of transactions... from $10 to $100,000 each.... or whatever amounts. They'll tell you.
About the bad information posted here, it's not that we can't agree. It's that only one of us has any idea what he's talking about. So don't listen to either of us. Just go to the meetup.com Bitcoin Meetup in your city and ask them. The Bangkok Bitcoin meetup is very large now. They meet every week on Mondays. Mostly they're all bitcoin users, and there are a few bitcoin accepting merchants there, and a few real experts. Of course, they all know me.
To your excellent question of, Why do these developers create bitcoin wallets? What's in it for them?
Bitcoin Wallets are just software / programs / apps..... and like all software, it can be either published by passionate volunteers and made available to the whole world for free for the benefit of all mankind..... or it can be made proprietary and closed in order to make a profit. The first type is called FOSS, Free Open Source Software. Examples of some great FOSS software include: Linux (which is the brains inside everything from your Tivo to your elevators to the Mars Rovers), Firefox, VLC, Bitcoin (the network itself), OpenOffice, phpBB (this forum), and millions of others. Examples of some proprietary software include: everything published by Apple, Microsoft, and most apps in an Apple App Store.
Electrum is not a real wallet, in the sense that it doesn't run on a portable device. It's a desktop app. It is FOSS and developed by volunteers.
Airbitz is a private for-profit company. They publish Airbitz as a FOSS app though. The app is completely open source. The way Airbitz will make money is.... Within the app, you have the ability to buy or sell bitcoin for your local currency. Airbitz company will get a tiny cut of the fees charged by that outside company that handles the buying / selling of bitcoin.
So if I'd bought bitcoin at up to $1250 at the end of 2013, early 2014, would I be in profit at $416 today?Quote:
Bitcoin is really ready for prime time now. That might have something to do with its value going from $354 to $415 in only the past 7 days. The value just keeps going up.... year after year.... as I've been predicting for years.
Money. I'm unsure of how Electrum makes money, but I'm assuming it's the same as me. I have both, open source and commercial wallets that I've developed, and the open source one is bascally used as my resume. It lets potential clients check out my work before they hire me, and is a great marketing tool. I'm assuming others like Electrum and AirBitz do the same -- take on commercial clients. It's the same way for example, how Oracle and RedHat make money. They both other free open source software that's widely popular, but also have commercial based products / services they sell.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nirish guy
If I was a general purpose software developer, due to globalization I'd probably be struggling to land $40/hour contracts. Being a developer that specializes in bitcoin though allows me to charge about 3x that amount plus licensing fees, and I get my choice of contracts. I don't even have to look for clients -- they come to me, and I have far more work than I can handle.
heh, this is getting comical now. So only mobile apps are considered "wallets" in your eyes?Quote:
One of the most obvious reasons is that it's not a bitcoin wallet. It cannot even run on a smartphone
Right, because that would be a really fucken stupid and dangerous thing to do. If a client ever requested I developed that, I would try to talk them out of it, and if I couldn't, would refuse the project.Quote:
Also, it does not make an automatic encrypted off-site backup of your wallet
No. You can backup your BIP32 private key on things like a USB card, or even just a piece of paper. That private key is all you need to access your funds. Again, it looks like this:Quote:
So, you step away from your laptop and your laptop gets stolen.... and you can say bye bye to all your money.
xprv9s21ZrQH143K2JF8RafpqtKiTbsbaxEeUaMnNHsm5o6wCW 3z8ySyH4UxFVSfZ8n7ESu7fgir8imbZKLYVBxFPND1pniTZ81v Kfd45EHKX73
You can see here -- http://bip32.org/
What do you think a smartphone is? It's a computer that's connected to the internet. It's just as prone to viruses and hacking than a desktop / laptop is.Quote:
Smartphones are exponentially more secure than computers are.
No, you are by pushing a newer app that has yet to stand the test of time. Especially considering you have yet to give any semblance of a technical response. Give it some time -- let the people who actually know about bitcoin go through AirBitz, plus the hackers, before you start pushing it to people with no knowledge of bitcoin.Quote:
Matt, in your egocentric quest to make yourself seem "smart" by putting others down... you are really doing damage to bitcoin..... as you can see.... Confusing people is not helpful to anyone...... and definitely not helpful to bitcoin.
Bitcoin goes up and down all the time. Wouldn't get too excited, because it'll probably be back to $350 in short order. Again, mid-2016 when the block rewards halve is when you can expect a permanent price increase.Quote:
Bitcoin is really ready for prime time now. That might have something to do with its value going from $354 to $415 in only the past 7 days.
Exactly. The original handful of early birds to Bitcoin could have made a killing .... buying in at 6 cents and selling out at $1200. Happens all time with new startups in the penny stock markets.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mancs