Digital Money | End the War on Freedom

Bitcoin

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:31:24 GMT <== Digital Money ==>

In March of 2012, somebody donated 12.922 BTC to me. Was worth less than $20 at the time, IIRC. Imagine my surprise to go to MtGox and discover a price of $160/BTC, making my little donation worth over $2,000. And the price is rising rapidly today, last sale at $191. Gee, if I hold it another year do you suppose it will be worth $200,000? Naw. Couldn't be.

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We Need To Drastically Simplify Payments Online

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:51:26 GMT <== Digital Money ==>

Thomas Baekdal - great idea for simplifying online payments, while increasing security. The only thing he missed was a unique symbol from the payment processor that you choose and that allows you to recognize that you're really seeing the payment processor's embedded web site, and not a forgery.

I'm definitely going to investigate doing something like this for Truledger.

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MintChip

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:19:26 GMT <== Digital Money ==>

MintChip is a new digital currency from the Royal Canadian Mint. It relies on tamper-resistant hardware to store value and do the crypto. They're sponsoring a challenge to developers, with prizes for the best applications in a number of different categories. A possibly useful digital cash implementation.

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My Wallet - Bitcoins Made Easy

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:42:04 GMT <== Digital Money ==>

BlockChain.info - an online Bitcoin wallet that claims to do all the crypto in JavaScript in your browser. I was able to create an account on my PC, and access it both there and on my iPhone. I saw evidence of crypto in the JavaScript code, but it would take lots of analysis to convince myself that no unencrypted private keys are ever sent to their server. Nice to have the blockchain on their server instead of needing to download over a gigabyte to my phone, so could be useful for small transactions. Also nice that transactions go out from their server, making it harder to track them back to me. My big worry is that I see no evidence of a business plan. Free service. Only a handful of possibly paid external links. Where does their money come from?

Their code is posted at github.com/zootreeves/blockchain.info, and they have a JavaScript Verifier plugin for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari that compares the running code against GitHub to ensure that their server has not been compromised with code that will steal your wallet passphrase.

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MyBitCoin RIP

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 11:25:24 GMT <== Digital Money ==> <== Webmaster stuff ==>

MyBitCoin was robbed, due to a misunderstanding of how Bitcoins works. They are passing out what's left to their creditors. So I am not currently taking Bitcoin donations. Didn't get any anyway, sigh... I AM still taking Paypal and Pecunix donations, via the "Donate" and "pecunix" buttons near the top of the left column. Please help me keep this ad-free site online.

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Monetary Reform: The Beginning Of The Beginning

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:46:32 GMT <== Digital Money ==>

Charles Kadlec at Community of Liberty (A Forbes blog) - Switzerland may be adopting the Global Settlement Foundation's Gold Global standard, with another name.

Now, in Switzerland, efforts are underway to create an official Gold Swiss franc (GSF) with a set of coins, each with a fixed content of gold. The proposed constitutional change would permit private institutions to issue an unlimited number of coins whose appearance, content and weight of gold, and definition would be under the supervision of the Swiss government.

For example, the smallest coin would have a face value of 1 GSF and have 0.1 grams of gold in its center, similar to today’s bi-metallic euro coins, and be worth—at today’s price of gold, about $4.00.

Five, 10, 20 and 50 GSF coins would have 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 5.0 grams of gold and today would be worth approximately $20, $40, $80 and $200 respectively. Gold Swiss franc bank notes are conceivable, as are GSF bank deposits, but they would have to be 100% backed by gold held by the issuing institution. Credit transactions would be legal, but fractional reserve credit would be forbidden under Swiss law.

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An Efficient and Practical Distributed Currency

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Tue, 26 Jul 2011 20:25:43 GMT <== Digital Money ==>

Ben Laurie doesn't like Bitcoin. Here he proposes an efficient mechanism for a digital currency with a distributed root. Interesting idea. The link discusses the big problem he sees with Bitcoin and links to his proposal PDF (74K).

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Bitcoin, the Darknet Economy, and the Low Over-Head Revolution

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 04 Jul 2011 20:34:21 GMT <== Digital Money ==>

Kevin Carson at The Bitcoin Sun - Mr. Carson is very optimistic about Bitcoin, or something similar, very soon making it impossible to control the economy by force. I hope he's right.

Bitcoin's importance can't be exaggerated. Encrypted currency has been at the Altair stage of development. If Bitcoin isn't actually the Apple II - and it may not be - we're very close to it. If Bitcoin isn't the Messiah of the darknet economy, at the very least it's John the Baptist preaching its immanent arrival.

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Bitcoin Experiment

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 16 Jun 2011 19:53:59 GMT <== Digital Money ==>

I've decided to start playing with Bitcoin, in the small. So I've registered at mybitcoin.com, and set up a page you can use to send some Bitcoins my way. Click on the "bitcoin" logo at the top of the left column to get there from any page.

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Bits and bob

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 15 Jun 2011 23:50:24 GMT <== Digital Money ==>

J.P. and G.T. at The Economist - a high-level description of how Bitcoin works. I haven't grokked the spec yet, to be able to judge how good a job this does, but it seems about right. One day, I'll write my own Bitcoin client, just to be sure I understand it, but for now, Lisplog is my top priority personal project.

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Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair