Topic: Bitcoin Feasibility and it's future (Read 1936 times)

You could have searched the forum for 10 minutes and found you can download nightly versions of the whole blockchain here:
http://eu1.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/

Close bitcoin, put the blockchain files in %APPDATA%/bitcoin, restart, and you only have to download the newest ~1000 blocks or so.

That's funny, Dale whatever he said. If it were true I would have given you your 10 bitcoins. Thank you for playing. So lets suppose I sell all of my bitcoin information to Captain Joe Schmuck for touchable tender and he headed off to some cyber cafe and loaded the information on the computer there momentarily to make a few transactions. Who out there is going to be able to trace that? Come on people I'm not a total retard.

It was Beaverdam. LOL.

I wonder why he disappeared as soon as I posted this.  I'd really like my 10 BTC.

An alternate method of retrieving the blockchain (and substantially faster) is to download the most recent nightly from tcatm (core dev) at http://eu1.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/.

Myself, I would trust a blockchain download from tcatm or other core developers but I would strongly recommend against downloading an arbitrary blockchain elsewhere.

1) Extract the tarball into your bitcoin directory
2) Run bitcoin (or bitcoin.exe) with the -rescan flag

Should help you get up to current block count much sooner.

Yes there is software that can aid in finding out your ip and thus your name, address, etc from your Bitcoin address and activity. One of them is called BlitCoin, but there are others which have not been publicly disclosed. If you have convinced yourself that you are completely anonymous using Bitcoin then you probably believe you are anonymous on the Internet as well. Good luck with that.

Dale Weber, Beaverton, Oregon

Great, with your address I can now examine every transaction you have ever made. And every transaction you will ever make in the future. It's simply a matter of following the chain of transactions until I can find an address I do recognise, then working backwards from there. Maybe you've used MtGox or similar exchange in the past? One subpoena and your bank details are mine.

@ Trentzb. I still can't believe I have to argue this with you guys. Did you ever use your bitcoin client? Did you have to type in your name and address to use your bitcoin client? NO? NO? and still somehow magically your bitcoin client can tell you who I am? What's my name? My bitcoin address is 1KnRCRAUYKjjbVsAgWNFWdXGwtuFZCfxNe. I'll give you 10 bitcoins if there's a software out there that will tell you my name. Oh? You don't know my name? How about my mailing address and phone number did you get that information too? What do you mean you can't tell that information from my bitcoin address? Do you mean I could be anonymous? Give your head a shake.

The main feature about Bitcoins has over Credit Cards is massively lower fees (even 0 fees if you want, but will take a while to process) and not having the government involved.

Bitcoin is NOT anonymous regardless of whether you use an online wallet/service or the Bitcoin client itself. Whoever told you it was is misinformed themselves.

Thank-you NothinG. I feel as though I've been heard by someone. As for you other guys I'm only going to say it one more time and then I quit. Using another service or client to track my bitcoins for me sacarafices one of the key values of bitcoin,.. ANONYMITY. If you disagree with my statement then the only other statement I can make is this. Why in tarnation would I jump through fiery rings to own an online currency that offers no ANONYMITY when I could simply use my frikin credit card?

Exactly.

Did you turn on the UPNP option?

He's saying for the first time, it takes too long to download the blocks.
So, I suggest he use a client (web-client) that already has all the blocks while he downloads the blocks on his PC.

c:\program files\bitcoin\bitcoin -rescan

BitcoinJ only uses the latest blocks which is a bit faster.
If "Joe Schmoe" doesn't care about being 100% safe (at least for messing around, or while his blocks are downloading), he can setup an online wallet.
https://walletbit.com/
http://www.flexcoin.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRMBxnxWiNQ

You're apparently also missing the point. Who wants to run a second computer to keep up with blocks? You do for your love of bitcoin, but I Joe Schmuck do not. The point is convenience. Convenience convenience convenience convenience. Jumping through hoops is not convenient. I'll say it a thousand times "I love the idea of BITCOIN!" The idea. I want, for all intents and purposes, for bitcoin to work. The block created tomorrow will be more complex than the block created today. It's been almost ten hours since my original post and my bitcoin wallet is still trying to catch up to todays created blocks. I just started bitcoin, I just purchased bitcoins, I have already seen the value of my bitcoins drop, and I still cannot use my bitcoins. THIS IS NOT CONVENIENT! THIS IS 2011!! Once again I must direct your attention to MR. Joe Schmuck of 2088. MR. Joe Schmuck just bought a computer (2088) with a 2ghz processor, an ATI rage graphics card, and has a 5 megabit per second internet connection. For poor old MR. Joe Schmuck this is all he can afford. After the block difficulty has increased retardedly over the course of the following 77 years, poor old MR. Joe Schmuck will have to wait 34 weeks for his freshly downloaded Bitcoin software to catch up to his modern day transactions. INCONVENIENT!!! INCONVENIENT!!! INCONVENIENT!!! INCONVENIENT!!! INCONVENIENT!!! INCONVENIENT!!!INCONVENIENT!!! INCONVENIENT!!! INCONVENIENT!!!INCONVENIENT!!! INCONVENIENT!!! INCONVENIENT!!! How many times must I type it before you get it? Bitcoin will die. Hopefully the next e-money creator will take all of Bitcoin's failures into consideration. The concept of everybody contributing to the Bitcoin existance is fantastic. The idea of an anonymous online currency is ideal. Bitcoin has filled the gap that was much needed, but already in 2011 I am experiencing annoyances. It is annoying for me to have to wait two days plus for my bitcoin wallet to update. Sure I COULD use one of the many bitcoin account holders online to keep track of my bitcoins for me but that totally defeats the purpose of Bitcoin. As I explained earlier if every dollar bill were to be tracked by it's serial number eventually your wife would find out that you tucked it into Sally Stripper's G-string one night while you were out with the boys. I really hope you guys aren't senior business execs, because you're missing the blatantly obvious. CONVENIENCE!!

Bitcoin isn't anonymous...
It's possible for difficulty to decrease.
Transaction times are fairly instant (10-60min) depending on when the next block is found.
I find running a wallet for day-to-day use on a second computer keeps the blocks up-to-date.

Yes, it's simple.

 You're still missing the point. Bitcoin is designed to run anonymously on everyone's computer. There is no central standard, there is no central processor. There will never be any central governing financial institution if bitcoin is to remain truly anonymous. What would be the benefit of a dollar bill if the banks knew who owned which serial number anybody owned at any given point? The idea of bitcoin rocks! The method of bitcoin sucks balls. My bitcoins have already dropped in value since I purchased them and my bitcoin wallet is still updating blocks. I still don't see bitcoins credited to my account. This sucks balls. This is my point. Who in their right frikin' mind would want to participate in such an inconvenient means of trade? I truly wish I had done my homework before getting involved in all of this. I have already recommended bitcoin to some of my friends, now I have to get in touch with them and hope the damage isn't already done. There will eventually be an online commerce that falls in the tracks of the oriinal bitcoin but bitcoin will die. If bitcoin is inconvenient for me now it will eventually be inconvenient for everyone. Block difficulty increases, tranaction times increase, convenience decreases. Simple. Bye Bye Bitcoin.