majugi

Just in case you missed it, that ad can be closed by clicking the X in the upper-right corner. If you were aware of that, I don't see what's unacceptable about being shown an ad before reading a free (and interesting) article.

Without the use of a third party? Bitcoin transactions need to be confirmed in the blockchain which requires third-party miners to exist. Mining costs are relatively high considering the value provided. The blockchain is not at all (and was never intended to be) an efficient way to transfer digital funds. It was created to be decentralized and it serves that purpose, but using it to back a centralized system would be self-defeating, hence this comment thread.

Transferring value in the form of maintaining electronic accounts isn't comparable to wire transfers of fiat where the funds are made available in local currency. Banks don't just track numbers in accounts: providing liquidity and ensuring those numbers actually mean something is not trivial. If bitcoins were globally accepted it would be a more competitive service, but even then there would be the issues of fraud protection and compliance with money laundering legislation that bitcoin doesn't handle well.

Where do these massive increase in security, speed, and cost reductions come from in a banking system built on bitcoin?

From what I can tell, Joel Arvidsson is a co-founder of Durated, not one of the people asking to be paid.

This level was driving me crazy (mostly because of the character limit). The solution that I found is kind of silly: it turns out the removeItem function is dumber than you probably think it is.

It's really quite unbelievable. I was expecting the article to at least be about how the author actually helped someone learn to code. Even then, the title and presentation would seem smug and self-serving to me, but I could overlook that for the feel-good story. However, what's actually written is far worse: this post is being written without the author having approached the man or knowing anything about him at all aside from a superficial judgement of "drive". Then there's the straight-from-a-reality-show choice of $100 versus books and a laptop; but it's okay, because this choice will be offered "without disrespecting him".

I'm all for philanthropy, and it's always great that someone's willing to put their time and money into helping others, but this really comes across as more of an art performance than genuine help. Isn't it basic courtesy to talk to someone before writing a blog post about how you're going to reform their sorry life with your programming teaching skill?