unix-dude

Interesting concept. A year or two ago I was pretty interested in the various dark/mesh-net projects that kept popping up, but there were a few problems. Namely the fact that they were somewhat difficult to set up, and the fact that they were somewhat like TOR in the sense that accessing the "regular" internet required someone to tunnel traffic through.

Packaging this up into an app pretty much solves any difficulty of setup, making it accessible nearly to anyone.

I have no idea about how secure/sound current implementations are, but this looks like a cool first step.

Combined with something like TOR to bridge local communities, it certainly has the potential to become a truly useful technology.

This and similar ideas are often passed around. There are a few cryptocurrencies which try to implement something like this (finding series of primes, for example).

There are a few problems with actually implementing your suggestions. You call hashing "pointless", but it is anything but that. Hashing, specifically SHA256 in bitcoin's case, has a well understood and possibly proven (?) level of difficulty. There is no known way to gain an advantage, other than simply throwing more computational power at the problem. Thus, because the problem being solved is arbitrary, random, and difficult, it takes a huge amount of computational power to make an invalid transaction.

Not only do you have to find initial "acceptable" hashes for your faked block, you have to create hashes of all the following blocks up until the present time, and push this version of the blockchain as legitimate until a majority of the network adopts it as the correct branch. The absolutely ridiculous computational power required to do this is what keeps transactions of cryptocurrencies safe. You don't just have to fake one hash, you have to find and fake an entire chain of them!

Many scientific problems don't have the same kind of guarantees about difficulty. And even if they are really, really hard, what happens when you find the answer? You'd essentially have to hard-fork all the clients. SHA256 and other hash functions used have a search space that is astronomically high, and is guaranteed never to be "completed".

Hashing is a way to make transactions safe, permanent, and unmodifiable because of the cryptographic properties which come with the field. There's very little chance of someone stumbling upon sequential solutions, and essentially impossible for someone to "derail" the blockchain due to those properties. The value that hashing provides are those guarantees.

Someone should implement this in Go :)

Very cool, doubt I'll look into it too much considering its tons of Assembly in pdf form, but still super neat.

Damn, made me cringe and lol at the same time.

Certainly an appropriate gesture, though "Pardon" could be taken the wrong way by some.

I've only ever used BitInstant, granted, it was back a few months ago when you could buy several for under $100, but the convenience of paying in cash at WalMart was pretty cool.

My MTGox account ended up being funded quickly as well. I'd definitely recommend them.

Pretty sad, considering quite a few popular smartphones are re-branded ZTE and Huawei phones.

Botnets dont really infect their victims. A botnet is just a network of compromised computers (Bots).

The malware that forces your computer to participate in the botnet can be delivered by any avenue imaginable. Drive-By Downloads, crapware, embedded into pirated software, etc. Not sure how chameleon specifically did it.

Different premise. The inside of my home is private, and you are not allowed to look or be inside without my permission. Not to mention, you are trespassing.

Absolutely ridiculous. From what I've read about "weev", he wasn't really the nicest guy on the 'net. I don't know specifics, but really, I don't think they matter.

Here we have a person accessing publicly available data on a public server. Its analogous to ATT posting customer information in a public alleyway (maybe not intended for public viewing, but within the legal possibility of the public to view), and having someone take a picture of the information.

No violence, no trespassing. Disseminating information left sitting around == Jail. This kind of crap needs to stop.

Really interesting stuff. I was expecting a crash or at least "return to normal" in that period where the price jumped to around $25 (before a mini-crash to like $16, and then the subsequent takeoff to the 40s).

Personally, I dont think they're worth $50, but heck, thats a horrible reason for you not to buy them. A more objective reason not to buy now is that there are people holding thousands of bitcoins. If a few of them (or maybe even one big player) sells tons of them, it could cause a crash like last time, when the price fell from $33ish to almost 0.

Interesting times for bitcoin either way.

Maybe, but Im not sure it started off like that.

I think the author has definetly started to see real business potential, especially after all the exposure (both here on HN, and in general). That being said, he's probably not a legal expert, and is probably treading carefully (gathering data slowly, not immediately selling the mixture, etc).

Personally, I wish him and his future (potenial) business well. Its definetly a product Id buy. Eating healthy (especially when your choices are very restricted, eg school), can be a pain in the ass. Quick, very healthy, potential food replacement (Though, id probably only totally replace meals with it occasionally) sounds really, really great.

Im not thinking about the FDA specifically here. I'm thinking about general wrongful injury (possibly death) lawsuits where someone becomes seriously ill from consuming nothing but their "magic soylentesque shake".

Marketing it as a food replacement would be very difficult because of subtle differences between people's bodies. I think they stick with supplements/protein powder because it reduces the possibility of wrongful death lawsuits (and similar) while still allowing leeway with federal regulations.