For demonstrating the absolute insecurity offered by unconfirmed Bitcoin transactions, Peter Todd was suspended from Reddit. Peter Todd, without using any script hash shenanigans mundanely sent a transaction with a low fee which was followed by a transaction with a higher fee using the same inputs. Miners opted to mine the transaction with higher fees as they often tend to. While many try to use unconfirmed Bitcoin transactions as a part of various pseudo business practices, actual uses demanding Bitcoin also demand the commitment of complete transactions to the blockchain.
Category Archives: Fiat/BTC interfaces
2015 In Bitcoin
Paxful Gets Desperate, Priced Out Of Bitcoin
Paxful, a website that claims to do "peer to peer" matching of Bitcoin buyers and sellers, issued a desperate plea on their blog (archived) threatening to move to an altcoin as they get priced out of Bitcoin. Because Paxful specializes in facilitating very small trades any pricing of transaction fees in an actual market obliterates their market niche, and Bitcoin is definitely moving towards a healthy market for block inclusion fees. Paxful claims to: Continue reading
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
US DO"J" Stops Sharing Bounty Of Theft With Locals
Today it was declared that the United States Department of "Justice" would cease to share value acquired through asset forfeiture and other forms of theft with local "law enforcement" agencies under the Equitable Sharing Program (archived). The program allowed local gangs incorporated as "law enforcement" agencies choose to partner with the DO"J" and receive federal assistance in seizing assets alleged to be connected with drug activity, even in spite of the demonstrable criminal innocence of parties from whom the assets were stolen. Through the Equitable Sharing Program local partners could receive up to 80% of the proceeds of their joint larceny. The Do"J" blames budget cuts for forcing its hand in suspending the program and insists the suspension will be temporary. It is unknown how many other perks presently enjoyed by local "law enforcement" gangs for cooperating with federal agencies will find themselves eroded in the near future.
Dark Horse Brian Forde Tops CoinDesk's 2015 Influencer List
In the CoinDesk ranking of "most influential" people "in Bitcoin and Blockchain" allegedly determined through a reader vote, dark horse candidate Brian Forde won by coming in second only to obligatory first place winner Satoshi Nakamoto (archived). Forde is the director of MIT's Digital Currency Initiative, the Ford Edsel (archived) of organizations orbiting and trying to subvert Bitcoin.
Forde's tenure at the MIT Digital Currency Initiative precedes that of Gavin Andresen by only a week with Forde arriving on April 15th while Gavin joined up a week later. Prior to arriving in this corner of the MIT Media lab Forde worked in the White House for the Hussein Bahamas administration where as per his MIT biography: Continue reading
Corpse of Vessenes' Fundnation Expels Janssens From Board
Oliver Janssens reported on Social media today that his fellow board members at the Vessenes' Fundnation expelled him from the board (archived). The circumstances leading to the expulsion followed a failed vote to disband the Vessenes' Fundnation in light of their breakneck march to insolvency. While this drama plagues the Vessenes' Foundation, the actual Bitcoin Foundation's work continues in providing stewardship over a reference Bitcoin codebase. Meanwhile other fiat backed groups incorporating words like "Digital Currency", "Council", "Blockchain", "R3", and "Chamber of Commerce" in their names have emerged trying to fill the void left by the late Vessenes' Fundnation in promoting scams and trying to subvert Bitcoin to fiat.
Withdrawal Fees For Changetip Starting
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.
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