Today social media spamming service Changetip in a bid to generate revenue from users is set to begin charging a one percent withdrawal fee. For Bitcoin withdrawals the fee is on top of any transaction fee required to commit the withdrawal transaction to the blockchain. Changetip has struggled to maintain its early momentum in light of the general human aversion to spam, and they have even gone so far as to employ a /r/Bitcoin moderator in an effort to avoid complete shunning.
Monthly Archives: December 2015
Third Of Americans Not Opposed To Political Violence
A recent piece in the Washington Post offers that up to a third of Americans living in the United States are willing to report to a survey taker that they either support or are indifferent to political violence (archived). As a point of contrast Muslims compose only 0.9% of the United States population. The piece's author Nathan Kalmoe mentions that maybe some people are politically disaffected, but spins the narrative that the likely driver for these results in his estimation is political rhetoric. Unmentioned was the materially declining quality of life in the United States driving political disaffection or the historical role political violence had in establishing the United States. Continue reading
Guardian Malware Article Redirects To Malware
Reports are emerging that an article at the Guardian titled "Cybercrime: is it out of control?" exposes readers to malware (archived). Continue reading
Miners Enforcing BIP 65: Plan for SPV Miner Forks
A few hours ago BIP 65's OP_HODL achieved its threshold to begin triggering miner enforcement. Bitcoin users should plan to accommodate blockchain forks of the kind that happened 5 months ago when BIP 66 was triggered. A maddening amount of hashpower remains directed to at least two pools that are confirmed to not completely verify the blocks they mine before building on top of them.
Third Of Americans Not Opposed To Political Violence
A recent piece in the Washington Post offers that up to a third of Americans living in the United States are willing to report to a survey taker that they either support or are indifferent to political violence (archived). As a point of contrast Muslims compose only 0.9% of the United States population. The piece's author Nathan Kalmoe mentions that maybe some people are politically disaffected, but spins the narrative that the likely driver for these results in his estimation is political rhetoric. Unmentioned was the materially declining quality of life in the United States driving political disaffection or the historical role political violence had in establishing the United States. Continue reading
Guardian Malware Article Redirects To Malware
Reports are emerging that an article at the Guardian titled "Cybercrime: is it out of control?" exposes readers to malware (archived). Continue reading
The MIT Administration Infiltrates Bitcoin Projects
The assorted fiat pretenders claiming to be the MIT Administration have set up systems aiming to control discussions on campus regarding Bitcoin. After appointing Brian Forde, a known USG agent, (archived) to be the leader of an alleged "Digital Currency Initiative" the institution has done nothing but actively attack the Bitcoin project from a position of ignorance. MIT has long standing relationships with many of the powerful groups in the fiat currency empire, and it stands to reason that these same groups that provide funding to MIT are likely to have massive incentives to see the Bitcoin project crippled. Continue reading
Bitcoin Foundation Co-Chairs Issue Statement On Signatures In Blockchain
Bitcoin Foundation co-chairs ben_vulpes and mod6 today posted signed statements affirming that the Bitcoin blockchain as an immutable cryptographic record and the foundation's commitment to continue maintaining a reference Bitcoin client. They make a specify point of emphasizing that actual Bitcoin clients can verify the entire blockchain including transaction signatures during initial sync. The emphasis on verifying transaction signatures in the blockchain comes as a few troublemakers have proposed a "soft" fork which would replace transaction signatures in blocks with links to the signatures which would be held in a separate data structure off of the blockchain. The controversial fork proposal received a swift condemnation from MPEx proprietor Mircea Popescu. While Popescu's condemnation received some degree of social media attention it has so far been ignored by most news outlets in favor of Hoaxtoshi.
The complete statements with GPG signatures are available below: Continue reading
Gizmodo And Wired End Week Waffling On #Hoaxtoshi
Last week on Tuesday Gizmodo and Wired speculated to much derision a new candidate to correspond in meatspace to the ephemeral Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. Both outlets ended the week by each publishing their own pieces resembling admissions of doubt about their initial reports in varying degrees. Wired came closer to doing the right thing by admitting (archived) they were in all likelihood attention scammed by Hoaxtoshi. Gizmodo on the other hand, lacking in humility and journalistic sobriety, in their piece work to salvage the narrative they presented with an appeal to mystery (archived). Continue reading
Generally Upward Price Volatility At fiat/Bitcoin Interfaces Continues
After the reported exchange rate offered on fiat/Bitcoin spiked last month, they have spiked again this past week hitting approximately 450 United States dollars per Bitcoin. Following last months spike prices have settled in to a band between 300 and 400 United States dollars before climbing again to this latest apex. Earlier in 2015 Bitcoin as reported by fiat/Bitcoin interfaces had been holding in a boring and steady band between 200 and 300 United States dollars for nearly the entire year. Increased buying pressure is leading some exchanges to criminally reckless coping mechanisms as their thin order book sell sides are exposed. Continued caution in dealing with all fiat/Bitcoin interfaces is advised as noise about particular exchanges being "Big" is no reliable indicator of their safety.