Category Archives: Commentary
2015 In Bitcoin
The False Dilemma of XT Versus Blockstream
Since the beginning of the XTCoin affair a substantial amount of social engineering has been directed into framing the Bitcoin blocksize as a polarized dispute between exactly two camps. Continue reading
CoinBase Bug Bonanza
In late 2012 Coinbase was cultured by startup incubator, YCombinator on a plate of Thayer-Martin agar with the "mission" of "Becoming the Paypal of Bitcoin." The company seems to have had some success on the surveillance side of their mission by tracing user transactions and a slew of ex-customers who claim to have been banned with minimal explanation – a problem Coinbase seems to have despite their penitent userbase. Of special note here is Coinbase's security outsourcing that frequently results in vulnerabilities. Continue reading
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
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
Qntra (S.QNTR) November 2015 Report
Recent "SigOp" "Attack" On The Blockchain Or Advanced Power Rangering
Signature operations or "SigOps" in Bitcoin transaction scripts requires checking ECDSA signatures to assure a Bitcoin transaction is valid. This is computationally expensive work making it an avenue of potential disruption on the Bitcoin network. The possibility was known for months (archived). Yet little attention was paid until yesterday's events caused ineffective block filling. The mining side was amply discussed there, and can be easily fixed by miners who know their stuff. I rather wish to shed some light on network propagation of these transactions, as the burden of signature checking rests on full nodes, too. Continue reading
Venture Capital Fuels Stupidity In Bitcoin Not Innovation
Venture Capitalists have been flocking to Bitcoin recently in what seems to be a poorly orchestrated fiat invasion. They intend to bring the problems of too much money to Bitcoin and its related "businesses". A very small fraction of the VC capital is hitting the market for Bitcoin, which may be an attempt to assert some sort of fiat control over Bitcoin through price suppression. Continue reading