skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Coinbase guys: if you'd like, we're happy to offer you a free 3 months of website vulnerability scanning to hopefully help you find and squash any vulnerabilities like this. Just email me at borski@tinfoilsecurity.com.
But how do we do that on the more and more locked-down computing appliances consumers gravitate towards?

One does not simply unload/delete kernel module on an iPad...
There's a big difference here, and that's that there isn't a bunch of pro-cocaine conferences or cocaine start-ups getting funded by venture capital firms...

But much like the coke heads I've known through out the years, you all have an overblown sense of self and can't seem to shut the fuck up and listen for a second... so maybe that's where you're coming from?
Harvest Automation Robots
Harvest Automation Robots in action.
As far as regulations is concerned, it's actually too much and too little.

Too little in that overnight exchange operations are prone to shutdowns due to hacking, but too much in that regulations put up needless barrier to entry such that more exchanges exist outside the US than exist inside.
It's medicine if it makes you better. It's a currency if you can exchange it for goods and services.
I don't understand why you think a person with experience in the banking and software industries who wrote a detailed post sharing thoughts on Bitcoin and surrounding culture, with links to reference material that he believes supports his argument, is 'disconnected from reality'. All I see in your post is a really weak generalization of the themes of his post in an attempt to undermine them.
I wouldn't say you need to be special to receive it, but resorting to threatening to expose them to the media seems desperate and childish.
It's interested that he talks about the unbanked, but doesn't mention what I see as the biggest problem with the unbanked or people in poverty using Bitcoin. If you don't have much money, you can't afford any volatility. I see people on here making or losing thousands and yet someone in poverty might be screwed by losing 20 bucks.

If you are living in a country where the currency is already going crazy, then maybe Bitcoin gives you a good option. Otherwise, you need for your currency to be somewhat stable.
In my case, the buy was initiated on Dec 7, 2013, ACH cleared on Dec 11, 2013, bitcoin credited today Dec 18, 2013.
I wonder what the trade-off is. I mean, business income taxes are generally a bad idea anyway, and it's great to see a state make a move toward eliminating them, but they would also need a way to offset lost revenue. Higher taxes on 10+ year businesses?
Alternately, the regulation is just distributed to the wrong places. Certainly there's a ton of regulation to go around, and a lot of it is insufferable, but somehow we didn't have enough regulation to stop the rampant greed and stupidity that caused our most recent financial crisis.
I understand that you guys have a ton of work going on, but if you are charging for a service you need to deliver and respond to your customers on time before they feel the need to go public.

I started my career as a "customer service superhero" at ZeroCater and was the only employee for a while. There was a staggering amount of work to be done at times, most of it non-customer service related. I'd never leave without making sure every customer email was addressed - and this was a much more trivial issue (lunches). This is not just human decency, but its good business practice. I wanted to speculate (yeah it's speculation :P) on bitcoin using your service, but no longer will, and will no longer refer your service to others (unless something changes, of course). It is not a question of ethics, but a question of me making a good decision - why would I trust my money with a business that doesn't feel the need to address customers on time (especially those who trust them with significant sums of money)

This issue would have cost you a maximum of 2 hours of free time/sleep to fix - now its costing you a customer (I'm sure the cost is actually far greater, judging by the exposure of this thread). Was it worth it?
I think it's justifiable derision on the basis the box is pretty as well.

The market side is interesting because the case depicted is probably a more relevant release. It'll see it's way into many more OEM and home built computers than the Mac Pro.
This is probably better implemented as a system tray icon.
That's really insightful. Well put.
> After the Great Depression, a number of laws were put in place, in particular the Glass-Steagall act ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Legislat.... ) that led to 50 years of relative financial stability.

That's a post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy.
The calculations get more or less likely to produce a correct result, depending on how many calculations are done per second.

In the end, on average, 1 correct result is found every 10 minutes.
This kind of trite comment adds little to the discussion.

I have some people that work with me on oDesk that I've found over the past few years. I don't pay them a lot by US standards, but they're good people. I've sent them various hardware, like Kindles and a new laptop to help them do their work better, and it has worked out well, although I was kind of nervous about it at the time.
Chris Norstrom isn't experssing an opinion, he's analyzing the talent of NY in attracting startups and making sure they stay there.

HN isn't a tribune for opinions but a tribune for learning and deconstructing how the (tech) world evolves. Unfortunately on the internet, everyone thinks everyone is interested in sharing layman opinions or political POVs, but we already have Facebook for that.
OP here. Lemme know if there's other topics on OpenSCAD that you'd like to see and read about.
I don't think it's accurate to characterize the OP as criticizing (or being terrified by, for that matter) the freedom offered by Bitcoin as if freedom is a bad thing. Rather, he argues (somewhat convincingly) that the freedom offered by Bitcoin is of most value to the people who are already rich enough (either in time, resources, or USD) to profit from speculation, asic mining, and other aspects of the Bitcoin market.

The freedom provided by this new financial system does nothing to enrich the people who are imperiled by the existing financial system; quite the opposite, the lack of regulations endangers them because they are not highly educated, rational financiers so they have increased exposure to risk/fraud.
Hmm, yeah, maybe I was thinking of the "how do I find an idea" threads and one about sharing side projects people were working on. My bad.

I'd love to see a thread by people with budgets for digital products describing pain points they want fixed. Everybody loves the enterprise space these days no?
Agreed.

There are a number of BTC Enthusiasts who I find agreeable. Anyone who is working for the sake of innovation, anyone who is willing to partake in this grand experiment...

But I constantly am surrounded not by technology enthusiasts, but instead by greedy techies who are obsessed with only the PRICE of BTC. Where are the articles about BTC adoption? Where are the articles about "stress testing" BTC services?

When the biggest "news item" of BTC is its price, you KNOW it is driven by greedy bastards who just want to strike it rich. No offense to the true believers out there (and I know the "true" BTC fans out there exist...)... but you guys are in bad company.

Far too many people are speculators... not enthusiasts. I'm hearing less and less about "buying things with BTC", and more and more about "how much money I made using BTC". It is disgusting.
Tor User Identified by FBI
Bravo Brian re edit#2 - there may be hope for some customer service after all! Is it too much to assume that you will be pushing through the bitcoin credit at today's price instead of the original buy price for all those affected by your "mistake" (your words). I too have had the same problem - albeit on a smaller scale.
All the recent politically oriented attacks on Bitcoin are completely devoid of logical analysis and steeped in establishment dogma. They use name calling tactics like "play money" and "beenie babies fad" and scare tactics like "bubble" and "cesspool of criminal activity".

What none of these arguments ever address is the massive gains in economic efficiency that Bitcoin can clearly provide. It cuts out parasitic elements of the financial system that have grown like a giant parasite over the entire society.

The author claims that Bitcoin is steeped in nerd paternalism, but what about the epic paternalism of banks and regulators? Paternalism is their entire argument against Bitcoin, which basically amounts to "if people gain economic freedom, they will hurt themselves".
So it's a chicken and the egg problem...Bitcoin provides a platform of trust, but you don't trust anyone enough to explain it to you.

Edit: I hear you below! :) I should have clarified that Bitcoin will GIVE WAY to a way to trust people through their monetary transactions. Think credit agencies and lobbyists.
I think it's a great experiment, and it's been fun to watch, but when I hear non-tech friends talk about "investing in Bitcoin" it makes me cringe.

Agreed. I've been following bitcoin for a couple of years, and this year when my friends/family started talking like that I was a bit disheartened. To be fair, If I heard something along the lines of "using bitcoin to obtain resources that are hard/ more insecure using traditional means/trust models", my eyes would have lit up.

It seems like all the voices around speculating price points in fiat have been drowning out those of utility (of course, this is not limited to just bitcoins), though those who find it's utility still trudge on.

Right now, I'm interested in the interactions around the exchange process because I think that's where the trust model applauded by many (myself included), is at its weakest. It would be pretty cool if there were some kind of platform built into/on top of a bitcoin client that allowed for a peer to peer exchange where maybe using the current banking system in some way, users could escrow/deposit/withdraw fiat into the network (using the network as a ledger that associates fiat amounts with addresses maybe with something like prepaid debit cards). I guess if I were to simplify that rambling a bit, I would like to see the exchange process built into a protocol and not a service it is today.
To qualify you need to start your business in the janitors closet at one of the amazing SUNY universities, which are conveniently located in the middle of nowhere.
What's your problem? I'd be pissed too. He probably worked his ass off to make all that money.

Looks like he works hard, plays hard...
The author is working for Simple which is "Worry free alternative for traditional banking".

:)
Don't start your startup in New York or San Francisco. Rents here are twice what they are in more reasonable parts of the country, and you get absolutely nothing in exchange except maybe a slightly-less-shallow talent pool. (Oh, and cockroaches. Lots of cockroaches.) Your employees will be paid twice as well, and your offices will be twice as nice... for free... if you locate yourself outside the expensive parts of the country.
Exactly the same way the die connects to the pins on the package (usually fine wire). Then they cap it all.
Case in point.

>>> I did. That's why I was wise enough to buy bitcoins very early on.

You take a post complaining about greed, and then RUB IT INTO HIS FACE that you made more money than other people in this venture.

BTC is a grand experiment, no matter what its price. The true enthusiast wants BTC for what it represents, not to use it to make a quick buck.
> If Bitcoin’s strength comes from decentralization, why pour millions into a single company?

Just like git and GitHub. One of the useful features of git is that it is decentralized; GitHub lowers the barrier to entry to nearly 0. One of the useful features of bitcoin is that it is decentralized; coinbase lowers the barrier to entry to nearly 0.
Better the tax breaks go to startups and new businesses than to bureaucracies and large corps.
There's definitely a chance of that, but I think the repeal of those laws then being immediately followed by a return to damaging volatility is indicative that it was more than just coincidence.
If you're going to write a long, highly critical rant about a post containing dozens of outbound links to sources, you probably shouldn't end it with 'tl;dr; citation needed'. It implies that you didn't read the whole post before ranting about it, which isn't exactly an appropriate approach to discourse on Hacker News.

When did he ever even claim that Bitcoin will never succeed? It's certainly not in the article.

'clearly removed from reality' is strong criticism to direct at the author of a piece you seem not to have read to completion.
Do you have any non-anecdotal numbers? I had a quick search and couldn't find any.

I wouldn't class a professional who builds her own PC as obsessive, I would just classify her as someone for whom the time/money divide is biased towards available time. When I used to home build in the 90s I was in the same bracket. Nowadays it would make no more sense to me than doing my own plumbing.
Spring has dropped quite dramatically in most of the tests, I wonder what changed.
You're not thinking too deeply.

I think a company could use an intra-blockchain to run a micro-economy within it. Transactions take place that enable it to function. Also, there is an interface between intra and public blockchains. If your department wants pens, it must buy it internally from the Supplies department. At some point Supplies converts its intracoins to public cash or coins (with management approval^) to buy more pens. You work for intra-coins, and at some point you convert it to cash or public coins. Not sure if the overhead of these micro-transactions are worth it, on the other hand, conglomerates of companies could exist. But the intra-coins have real value, because management will convert them to proper cash or public cryptocoins. The key is making sure an employee can't just cash out with intra-coins somewhere else and quit.

^ the key here is that things can be monitored and controlled on a sped-up blockchain, while still allowing a market mechanism to take place. Perhaps pens isn't the best example, more like certain factors of production.

The more I think about it, the more useful this seems to be. Especially attaching notes to transactions, and mining all coins instantly, and management dishing them out as needed. Perhaps creating more if needed. If the company is running low on cash, it can adjust the exchange rate, so the coins are worth less. If the company is doing well, the value of the coins goes up. This also gives the firm incentive to do well and be efficient, especially if staff are paid in intra-coins.

Companies have intranets, why not intracoins?
The author is no longer involved with Simple, and he notes this in the article, so you would have known that if you had read the article.
While this is huge news there's a lot to be done in this space, and it has only recently started to gain momentum.

For the past couple of years we've been busy building Socialance, sort of like a hybrid if oDesk & LinkedIn. A site where you can hire people recommended by your network.

I know building a marketplace is an extremely challenging task, but we've come this far, we're going to see it through.

It seems plenty of you are heavy users of either site, or have strong opinions about the sector. If you want to help out my email is guillermo@socialance.com (we're bootstrapped, took part in Startup Chile and are based in London).

If it sounds like something might be interested in using, please drop your mail at http://Socialance.com
You respond to the author's uncited claims and rhetorical flourishes with much of the same.

To pick at a few things:
* I'm not sure about you, but I'd think that a bittorrent-like outcome is not a successful one. Bittorrent is certainly ubiquitous but its major use is still an illegal one; the analogous outcome for bitcoin would be one where its primary transactional value is on SilkRoad-like sites. Can you elaborate more on your analogy?

* You strongly imply that you have some sort of argument (and maybe evidence?) about how cryptocurrency will/could impact the unbanked in a positive way. Can you elaborate?

* Your last point seems to take it as a foregone conclusion that bitcoin is going to a high valuation and is here to stay. Do you really believe it's an inevitability at this point?
Make taxes higher, I say. I hope to one day have a New York City entirely funded by its full-time residents, so we can stop pretending to care about tourists.
We're only hurting ourselves and our community. I'm really disappointed that this is the case.

Maybe it's time for a sociological analysis of our tech population.
I think the Justin Beiber analogy is probably pretty good. Certainly there are adults that get rather upset over what children like to listen to.. but should they? I am not a Justin Beiber fan, but why in the world would anyone waste their time being upset that other people are?

The fact that there are adults who get upset that children like Justin Beiber probably suggests that irrational negative reactions do not necessarily suggest that there is an element of feeling as though your political ideology is being threatened (as others and myself have already suggested in this discussion).
Unfortunately, this is precisely the only thing PHP was invented for. It is a templating engine planned to be used exactly how you quoted.

Everything else is just accidental complexity.
No, I would expect the resolution most favorable to the customer in either situation. If Coinbase had a public policy about what will happen in situations like this, I would expect them to follow their policy. Since they do not, it is reasonable to assume that any time they resolve a situation like this in their own favor they were using the customer's order as a free options contract.
Tongue Tip Technology Drives Quadriplegic Independence
If the two options available are 'post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy' and 'more catastrophic financial crises', I'll take the fallacy, thanks.
Appreciate the heads up. I'll get in there and make it 100% legit. But yeah, I'm not going to come after anybody for making a calendar app...shame we live in a world where that happens from time to time (opportunistic frivolous lawsuits).
http://www.openbsd.org/zaurus.html
These weren't the BTC he was looking for...
There are also locations listed at CUNY (City University of New York) in NYC.
Or someone else will hurt them.

I could get into my house faster at night if I didn't go through the trouble of locking and unlocking, too. Every security measure has overhead. "Massive gains in economic efficiency"? What's the tradeoff for this? If it's reduced security, then most people will say, "No thank you".
The 'full coercive power of the state' part of your comment seems invented out of thin air. Where does he advocate a military crackdown on Bitcoin?
If there's anyone more irrational and emotional that a Bitcoin fan, it's someone who dislikes Bitcoin. I'm not sure where all the vitriol comes from, and I'm not sure where the straw man arguments come from.
Got excited, then saw that your business must operate from university-affiliated property. Those of us already established in NYC and working from shared spaces, home, etc. are ineligible. Might still be worth it (I don't have the experience to say) but it's not for everyone.

http://startup-ny.com/faq/#b-9
Boeing builds spy satellites for the US gov and their "Boeing Defense, Space & Security" division is deeply embedded in the intelligence community.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/washington/11satellite.htm...

http://ctovision.com/2010/09/new-boeing-intelligence-collabo...
Right on. I made a blaming statement myself, and for that I apologize. Happens all the time! :) Also, I used the word coy incorrectly. Meh.
This reads like a big rant against libertarians. Also, the myth that the 2008 crash was caused by a lack of regulations is tiring. What lead to the 2008 crash was that the government kept printing money and lending it for close to nothing to banks and many financial institutions that knew they'd just be bailed out in case things would go wrong as they'd be too big to fail. This is one of the reasons why these financials institutions behaved irresponsibly (an other reason was that they were forced by law to give loans to people who couldn't afford to pay them back), not because of the lack of regulation (or at least not only) but because they didn't have any responsibilities as they knew if push came to shove, they'd just be bailed out.
If you don't work hard, don't build great products, and don't build a great business, you aren't giving luck much of a chance to help you.
Of all the software branches out there in the world, crypto's are by far the coolest and scariest in my opinion. They wield obscure knowledge, have long beards, a white van full of tech, communicate in some obscure protocol with each other - oh man. :)

I'm really excited to see if this is cracked!
This is basically a political article, and as such I would flag it.

Beyond that, as someone who does not set much stock by bitcoin, I do wonder about “roughly a 2.5% tax on all transactions” cited. That's maybe right for CC transactions or something like that in western countries, but when you start moving money around between countries, possibly including some less developed places, that % climbs quickly. I'm not much of a bitcoin fan, but perhaps some niche (and it's not a small niche - look at Western Union) like that would be a good place for it, and I'm willing to keep an open mind even if I wouldn't spend a cent of real money on the things until they calm the hell down.
Came in here to make this exact comment -- the amount of things looked into as ways to leak secrets was insane, even going as far as detecting screen radiation IIRC.
> What can I do to make sure I stay productive?

This is a horrible question, especially based upon your description. I'm sorry that society has convinced you that productivity is the most important metric to evaluate.

It sounds like productivity is the root of your problem. You need to instead evaluate your humanism.

I would recommend going on a long hike (AT, PCT?), find an inclusive group of peers (punks, burners?) and experience life instead of this comfy treadmill you've constructed.
Bitcoin doesn't provide a platform of trust for explaining concepts. It provides a platform of trust for monetary transactions.

It's like a preacher once told me. God is good because the Bible says so. The Bible is right because God says so. At no point is there anyone qualified to say, "Look. This is God and this is what he's doing. Come to your own conclusion."

Edited to add:

> I should have clarified that Bitcoin will GIVE WAY to a way to trust people through their monetary transactions. Think credit agencies and lobbyists.

That's still a different problem. If I give someone a million dollars, that doesn't make me trust them to teach me truthful information; it makes me trust them to teach me the truth as they know it. A preacher will tell me God is good whether or not I've given them a million dollars. That doesn't actually verify that God is, in fact, good.
Germans 'cut HIV out of infected cells'