The bitcoin network has been running without interruption for seven years now; a feat no banking system can claim.

http://bit.ly/1MFZqmu via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1X1NpIv

My account has been suspended with 35k euros in it (x-post from /kraken)

Hi. A little bit of context : i am a bitcoin trader in my country for some time and 2 months ago i decided to register on kraken because of their low fees and good security. Everything good, i got verified to tier 4 account and kept exchanging bitcoins, untill this morning when i receive a e-mail from kraken :"Your account is on hold because we've identified irregularities in the account that require further investigation. The investigation may take several weeks. We're very sorry for the inconvenience, but we cannot release account funds during the investigation. Thanks for your patience."What do they mean by irregularities ? I was just doing what everybody does and what i was doing from the start : trading bitcoins. The biggest problem is not that they closed my account, but that they did it with funds in it. I have about 30 btc in it and 30k euros that i cant trade or withdraw. From what i read on similar cases the "investigation" doesn't usually actually end. Does that mean the money is lost forever ? A friend of mine who works in the finance system told me i should lawyer up, but that will take time and i need the funds right now.TL;DR : Kraken suspended my tier 4 verified account with almost 38k euros in it.UPDATE : From what i see they removed my post from their subreddit. It seems they dont like this kind of attention. http://bit.ly/25zSTjC via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1ZPwSJr

Reddit Kills it's Warrant Canary - It must have gotten a National Security Letter

http://bit.ly/25zSTjB via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1ZPwSJn

Emerging Big Brother trends are now targeting domestic US Citizens with Bitcoin. Better Yet, It's one of the dirtiest federal agencies doing it

http://bit.ly/1RQyClO via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1PJdoyG

'someone' posted what looks like the missing 18.5 minutes from the Nixon recordings...

http://bit.ly/1RPCkZQ via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1Rt5fUq

Mozilla founder unveils Brave Ledger, a Bitcoin-based micropayments system for users and publishers

http://bit.ly/1ROWGCr

Submitted April 01, 2016 at 08:49AM by finalhedge http://bit.ly/1qlCyia

BIP9: versionbits In a Nutshell

http://bit.ly/1PJ2Sr0 via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1VWUj3m

A Shot in the Dark: Any Bitcoin Companies Offering Scholarships?

Hey everyone, earlier today, I got accepted to the Economics program at NYU. This is a huge honor, as it is a top 10 economics program in the US. NYU is involved with Bitcoin, as am I. They currently offer classes on Bitcoin. If I attend NYU, I plan to take my Bitcoin involvement to the next level by founding a Bitcoin group at the school.Unfortunately, NYU is not the most affordable school, and this is where my dilemma comes in. I come from an average, middle class family. Despite this, my tuition is going to cost 70k, yearly. It's a feasible amount by no means, and without significant outside aid, there is 0 likelihood that I will be able to attend.If there are any current Bitcoin companies that offer scholarships to incoming college students who are involved with Bitcoin, please let me know. In addition, are there any companies that would be worth my time to reach out to for such an offer?Again, I know this is a long shot, but I really want to attend this school. If anyone wants more information on who I am as a person and Bitcoiner, feel free to pm me or comment below. Thank you so much. via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1MFI0X4

Bovada now taking bitcoin

http://bit.ly/1ZOF7W4

Submitted April 01, 2016 at 04:40AM by scags23 http://bit.ly/1M4dtSR

MS Excel 2016 Will Have Native Support for Bitcoin Currency Format

http://bit.ly/1MFedh9

Submitted April 01, 2016 at 06:28AM by edugarbizu http://bit.ly/1Y2Oikq

Blockchain startup Eris Industries partners with GCHQ, raises £50 million

http://bit.ly/1M4FKZx via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1RAVlwN

Mozilla founder unveils Brave Ledger, a Bitcoin-based micropayments system for users and publishers

http://bit.ly/1ROWGCr via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1qlCyia

Segregated witness: When and how does it activate or when will this be decided?

Currently BIP141 says

This BIP is to be deployed by version-bits BIP9. Exact details TDB.

From what I can see the reference code still refers to BIP65 and not BIP9.

Is my understanding correct? I'm asking as there are posts which say segwit 'Enters Final Testnet Stage' and am not sure how this could be final without the activation details confirmed.

Submitted March 31, 2016 at 07:23PM by redditchampsys http://bit.ly/1MVSj46

“A couple big-name partnerships will signal that Bitcoin is really a legitimate, paradigm-shifting technology that’s not going to go away.”

Adam White (VP of business development at Coinbase) says. “From the outside in, these large financial institutions have great insight into what Bitcoin and blockchain are doing, but are not so in the weeds that they’re tracking the block size debate and scaling issues.” Many of them continue to see potential in the technology and the currency. White says, “A couple big-name partnerships — without giving away too much — will signal that Bitcoin is really a legitimate, paradigm-shifting technology that’s not going to go away.”

Sauce: http://onforb.es/1MEtrmN

What are these big name partnerships?

Submitted April 01, 2016 at 01:40AM by schism1 http://bit.ly/1M3Fmud

MS Excel 2016 Will Have Native Support for Bitcoin Currency Format

http://bit.ly/1MFedh9 via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1Y2Oikq

BREAKING: Genesis coins moved!!

april fool

Please leave a comment with the colour of your toothbrush.

Submitted April 01, 2016 at 05:25AM by braid_guy http://bit.ly/1M4dupY

Bitbonkers a mesmerising webGL bitcoin transaction visualisation. Works best in Chrome.

http://bit.ly/1pO6yTl

Submitted March 31, 2016 at 08:54PM by _-pigloo-_ http://bit.ly/1M3FnOO

We interviewed the 1st crypto-company sponsored fighter,World Series of Fighting Welter Weight contender, Jon Fitch. He's also the first fighter to be fully paid in bitcoin.

http://bit.ly/1PHSjoe

Submitted March 31, 2016 at 10:26PM by Fergulati http://bit.ly/1UWL97v

Plutus Whitepaper is out - Use Bitcoin with any merchant with a Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled checkout terminal, regardless if the "accept" Bitcoin directly

http://bit.ly/1Y2sOnz

Submitted April 01, 2016 at 02:10AM by -bawb405- http://bit.ly/1MEDwjA

Bovada now taking bitcoin

http://bit.ly/1ZOF7W4 via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1M4dtSR

BREAKING: Genesis coins moved!!

april foolPlease leave a comment with the colour of your toothbrush. via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1M4dupY

Financial Times: Craig Wright’s upcoming big reveal

http://on.ft.com/1X0C3EP via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1RsxuCU

Jim Rickards keeps mentioning bitcoin as money in every interview I hear lately

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=2m20s&v=y2EA1j-QKeo

Submitted March 31, 2016 at 01:57PM by FMTY http://bit.ly/1ZMSnuq

Question with unlimited power usage in apartment.

I have an incredibly expensive apartment, I barely use (Mostly stay at my GF'S) That comes with 100% unlimited utilities, I've read the lease and there is no way to remove these unlimited utilities from me. I'm having a lot of trouble paying the rent, and thought, hell, I may be able to rent out space to some bitcoin miners for the unlimited electricity. It's 700 square feet and I have 0 problem packing 400 of those with bitcoin mining equipment, if it can help me (or completely pay) my rent. Do you guys know if this is viable? Let me know, this would be an amazing solution to my money problems at the moment if possible.

Edit: Also have unlimited 50mbps up and down internet.

Submitted April 01, 2016 at 02:34AM by WalriePie http://bit.ly/1pOcJXE

Plutus Whitepaper is out - Use Bitcoin with any merchant with a Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled checkout terminal, regardless if the "accept" Bitcoin directly

http://bit.ly/1Y2sOnz via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1MEDwjA

CFTC Commissioner: The private sector must lead the growth of blockchain technology

http://bit.ly/235tMD6 via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1UvpEuB

Single fan S7. Less noise?

http://bit.ly/1VVTQi0

Submitted April 01, 2016 at 02:02AM by bitcanuck http://bit.ly/235qpMw

Bitbonkers a mesmerising webGL bitcoin transaction visualisation. Works best in Chrome.

http://bit.ly/1pO6yTl via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1M3FnOO

“A couple big-name partnerships will signal that Bitcoin is really a legitimate, paradigm-shifting technology that’s not going to go away.”

Adam White (VP of business development at Coinbase) says. “From the outside in, these large financial institutions have great insight into what Bitcoin and blockchain are doing, but are not so in the weeds that they’re tracking the block size debate and scaling issues.” Many of them continue to see potential in the technology and the currency. White says, “A couple big-name partnerships — without giving away too much — will signal that Bitcoin is really a legitimate, paradigm-shifting technology that’s not going to go away.”Sauce: http://onforb.es/1pO6zGR are these big name partnerships? via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1M3Fmud

I was about to use Paypal to pay for a subscription to the ad-free Gmail-alternative Fastmail... then I noticed a small ฿ sign in their payment options...

http://bit.ly/1MDJJMK

Submitted March 31, 2016 at 07:07PM by EconHacker http://bit.ly/1RzKD9D

We interviewed the 1st crypto-company sponsored fighter,World Series of Fighting Welter Weight contender, Jon Fitch. He's also the first fighter to be fully paid in bitcoin.

http://bit.ly/1PHSjoe via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1UWL97v

Cornell Study Recommends 4MB Blocksize for Bitcoin

http://bit.ly/1SBGtAI

Submitted March 31, 2016 at 10:47PM by ImmortanSteve http://bit.ly/1VVrGUf

Global Regulators Move Closer to Regulating Fintech

By REUTERS via NYT Business Day http://nyti.ms/1X011Uz

Cornell Study Recommends 4MB Blocksize for Bitcoin

http://bit.ly/1SBGtAI via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1VVrGUf

How Bitcoin Comes to Rescue of Oppressed Afghani Women

http://bit.ly/1Tl3070 via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1Y237Dz

Portland, Oregon Community College is offering a course on Bitcoin, blockchain, and cryptocurrency. Yay legitimacy!

Bitcoin has come a long way, but it is no way guaranteed to succeed or even survive. Things like this make it seem more real to people and help change the perception of illicit drug money.

Please share knowledge of this course to anyone you know in the Portland, OR area, it still needs a few people to sign up.

Link to the course page.

Submitted March 31, 2016 at 08:37AM by MarkjoinGwar http://bit.ly/25xIWDd

Segregated witness: When and how does it activate or when will this be decided?

Currently BIP141 saysThis BIP is to be deployed by version-bits BIP9. Exact details TDB.From what I can see the reference code still refers to BIP65 and not BIP9.Is my understanding correct? I'm asking as there are posts which say segwit 'Enters Final Testnet Stage' and am not sure how this could be final without the activation details confirmed. via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1MVSj46

Wirex app is now live for iPhone and Android.

http://bit.ly/1MVSiNy via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1q5qIJf

Bitcoin Core Project on Twitter: "CHECKSEQUENCEVERIFY (CSV) soft fork has been merged! Preparing for relative lock-time transactions! http://bit.ly/1RMZkWh"

https://twitter.com/bitcoincoreorg/status/715482664443052032

Submitted March 31, 2016 at 06:47PM by BitcoinHR http://bit.ly/1TkCMBH

I was about to use Paypal to pay for a subscription to the ad-free Gmail-alternative Fastmail... then I noticed a small ฿ sign in their payment options...

http://bit.ly/1MDJJMK via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1RzKD9D

Russian Presidential Advisor: Bitcoin Is A Virus

http://bit.ly/1MVIAuy via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1q5eZdG

Hivemind - Bitcoin Peer-to-Peer Oracle Protocol and Prediction Marketplace

http://bit.ly/1UpVyZt

Submitted March 31, 2016 at 03:17PM by Kupsi http://bit.ly/1ql7Qps

Bitcoin Core Project on Twitter: "CHECKSEQUENCEVERIFY (CSV) soft fork has been merged! Preparing for relative lock-time transactions! http://bit.ly/1RMZkWh"

https://twitter.com/bitcoincoreorg/status/715482664443052032 via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1TkCMBH

Jim Rickards keeps mentioning bitcoin as money in every interview I hear lately

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=2m20s&v=y2EA1j-QKeo via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1ZMSnuq

Bitcoin Marketplace Purse Takes Page From Etsy in Expansion

http://bit.ly/1Y1a4ou

Submitted March 30, 2016 at 09:49PM by werwiewas http://bit.ly/1qk3aQC

War on Cash, Negative Interest Rates...Bitcoin Can Protect You - Trace Mayer Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ypi4fnwcBGc via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1RMNV8F

Hivemind - Bitcoin Peer-to-Peer Oracle Protocol and Prediction Marketplace

http://bit.ly/1UpVyZt via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1ql7Qps

DTCC and Digital Asset Holdings to Test Blockchain Solutions for the $2.6 Trillion Repo Market

http://bit.ly/1RMDZMy via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1UEiuEJ

git bumped to 0.12.1

http://bit.ly/1WZbZtH via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1M2e47C

UNAOIL: THE COMPANY THAT BRIBED THE WORLD - Oil corruption exposed

http://bit.ly/1SoktXp via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1MCZF1y

CloudFlare Proposes Adding Proof of Work to TOR Browser

http://bit.ly/1pLWz0O

Submitted March 31, 2016 at 08:59AM by pb1x http://bit.ly/1UVvy8g

Kraken is asking whether to release MtGox data, PLEASE VOTE, this is important

http://bit.ly/2333y48

Submitted March 31, 2016 at 06:01AM by -Mahn http://bit.ly/1Tjyqus

Where will I store my 5000 bitcoins now that Coinkite is gone?

I know a bunch of you have accused /u/rnvk of being a Coinkite shill, but obviously you don't know he's their !(#<3ing CEO and a very standup guy at that.Anywho, just to wonder, while we're discussing this, where the #*$@ am I gonna store my bitcoin now?Edit: slightly inebriated via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1pMfw3w

Portland, Oregon Community College is offering a course on Bitcoin, blockchain, and cryptocurrency. Yay legitimacy!

Bitcoin has come a long way, but it is no way guaranteed to succeed or even survive. Things like this make it seem more real to people and help change the perception of illicit drug money.Please share knowledge of this course to anyone you know in the Portland, OR area, it still needs a few people to sign up.Link to the course page. via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/25xIWDd

Bitcoin ATMs Plotted Over NYC Census Data

http://bit.ly/1M1WKiW via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/233ubGe

CloudFlare Proposes Adding Proof of Work to TOR Browser

http://bit.ly/1pLWz0O via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1UVvy8g

Smart Contracts: Blockchain's Solution for the Underserved

http://bit.ly/1VTOIeb

Submitted March 31, 2016 at 02:03AM by brighton36 http://bit.ly/1SxPniH

CSV softfork is merged to Bitcoin Core

http://bit.ly/21UdtX9

Submitted March 31, 2016 at 05:02AM by djpnewton http://bit.ly/1TjlwN3

Kraken is asking whether to release MtGox data, PLEASE VOTE, this is important

http://bit.ly/2333y48 via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1Tjyqus

OpenDime - World's First Zero-Trust Physical Bitcoin Wallet

http://bit.ly/1RLBkCT

Submitted March 31, 2016 at 04:20AM by tothemoonsands http://bit.ly/1VU36Dh

Meetup in Santa Barbara, California

With our city being such a cool hub for travelers around California we should have a great meetup crew. All bitcoiners in Santa Barbara lets meet, promote and debate the values of bitcoin.I know your out there. via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1M1oOTN

Public launch of Purse Merchants - Sell your goods today with lowest fees on the World’s Largest Marketplace for Bitcoin.

http://bit.ly/21TZNLL

Submitted March 31, 2016 at 02:09AM by TicToxic http://bit.ly/1q2PUQK

CSV softfork is merged to Bitcoin Core

http://bit.ly/21UdtX9 via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1TjlwN3

OpenDime - World's First Zero-Trust Physical Bitcoin Wallet

http://bit.ly/1RLBkCT via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1VU36Dh

Bitcoin Marketplace Purse Takes Page From Etsy in Expansion

http://bit.ly/1Y1a4ou via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1qk3aQC

Zooko Warns Bitcoin Community About Overconfidence

http://bit.ly/1MSQQLZ

Submitted March 30, 2016 at 07:34PM by olivercarding http://bit.ly/1UClSzU

Segregated Witness Enters Final Testnet Stage, Includes Lightning Network Support

http://bit.ly/1pKZXZW

Submitted March 31, 2016 at 01:10AM by tylev http://bit.ly/1qjwFlH

Public launch of Purse Merchants - Sell your goods today with lowest fees on the World’s Largest Marketplace for Bitcoin.

http://bit.ly/21TZNLL via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1q2PUQK

Smart Contracts: Blockchain's Solution for the Underserved

http://bit.ly/1VTOIeb via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1SxPniH

My roommate and I have free power in our college dorm should we invest in some miners?

So I'm really on the fence whether to drop 200 bucks for a used spondoolies sp20 and some power supplies and was wondering if some pros think it would be worth our time to start with this and get a few more later since we have free power while in school? Also would a used sp20 be a good choice or would there be something better, it seems for the price/GH's this one would be the best but im a little worried about a used product.

Submitted March 31, 2016 at 01:20AM by Frost9096 http://bit.ly/1V5CNZX

BU interviews "Billy", the gay escort who *needs* Bitcoin every day in order to eat.

http://bit.ly/1RL27za

Submitted March 30, 2016 at 09:26PM by brighton36 http://bit.ly/25wGhcW

Segregated Witness Enters Final Testnet Stage, Includes Lightning Network Support

http://bit.ly/1pKZXZW via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1qjwFlH

Is it a coincidence or a deliberate attack?

As you probably know, several days ago Bitcoin price shoot up to $420. While it's not a big move by Bitcoin standards, it's still highest in the last 4 weeks. A lot of people became optimistic...

And today several things happened:

• price went back to $415, with a week-high volume on bitfinex (massive dump)
• people are reporting that a spam attack is back: https://twitter.com/WhalePanda/status/714791337711763456
• we see blocks are full posts again; skeptical comments are massively downvoted

More about spam attack, as you can see here, for the last week there was no "fee market", many transactions paying only 5000 satoshi per kilobyte were confirmed (red line on the upper graph). Then suddenly mempool size shoots up...

So... is it just a coincidence, or is there a coordinated effort to keep Bitcoin price artificially low?

This idea was formulated before, but today I was able to see it having a predictive power, so to speak: I checked Bitcoin price today only after I saw "blocks are full" article on reddit, and my prediction that massive dump is coming was right.

Of course, this could be just a coincidence. Or there might be a different causal relationship, e.g. there's elevated traffic due to a dump on exchanges.

But these alternative explanations do not look plausible, as both spam and dump are intentional rather than random.

BTW there was another event recently: a day ago we had an NYT article praising Ethereum and trashing Bitcoin (well, kinda). I don't think that NYT is on it, but it might be just a good time for a dump after this article is read.

Submitted March 30, 2016 at 03:50AM by killerstorm http://bit.ly/1RxxJJw

Need some help with restarting miners remotely.

Hello, maybe someone is using some kind of software or hardware to restart the miner remotely when for example: 1. Miner is working but not hashing in the pool ( internet is on, electricity is on) In this case i have to physically pull out the electricity plug and put it back in. 2. The router gets stuck, no internet. In this case i have to physically restart the router, there is no internet to restart remotely. I found a GMS information system, which allows you to restart the electricity via SMS message, it cost about 80Eur and if you use it on very miner it is quite a sum. Maybe someone is using some remote solutions and could help a fellow miner out :) Thanks in advance.

Submitted March 31, 2016 at 01:02AM by Wanotojas http://bit.ly/1M0EDtQ

New trillion dollar market for Blythe Masters' Digital Asset Holdings, tackling the repurchase agreement market with DTCC

http://bit.ly/1Sn5oFi via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1qjq76y

BU interviews "Billy", the gay escort who *needs* Bitcoin every day in order to eat.

http://bit.ly/1RL27za via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/25wGhcW

Blockstream Among 10 New Firms to Join Hyperledger Blockchain Project

http://bit.ly/1VSfnZ1

Submitted March 30, 2016 at 03:34AM by edugarbizu http://bit.ly/1Sl2zEK

Bitdefender Labs release a Crypto-Ransomware Vaccine

http://bit.ly/1LZDxP7

Submitted March 30, 2016 at 06:31PM by Aussiehash http://bit.ly/1RKfSxV

Research into instantaneous vote behavior in bitcoin subreddits

Back in January I started looking into some strange voting patterns affecting several users who noticed their comments were routinely downvoted within a minute of posting. Some of these users had already reported the issue to reddit admins to no avail, so I wrote a little script to continuously refresh the latest comments and measure how long it takes for each comment's vote score to change from the default '1 point'. Some users reported being affected when posting in /r/btc, so I included that sub as well. I finally started logging on January 30th. With the recent downvote attack against /r/Bitcoin, I figure now is as good a time as any to share this information.MethodStream reddit comments and record how long it takes for the vote score to change.If the vote score changes within three minutes, record whether it was an upvote or downvote.If the vote score changes within roughly one minute, consider it potentially anomalous.Tally data to isolate which accounts are most frequently affected by anomalous changes to vote score.ResultsWhat I found was rather alarming. It didn't take long to see that virtually all the comments by several dozen regular contributors appeared to be getting downvoted to '0 points' within about about a minute, regardless of what they said or how old the thread was. And since I wasn't only measuring downvotes, I also found that a number of accounts had their comments change to '2 points' within the same time frame.You can view the results in this Google Spreadsheet. Please note that one sheet contains the data, while the other 3 sheets contain charts of the data. At least one chart didn't import from Excel correctly.Since January 30th, /r/Bitcoin has received over 10,000 'instant' votes:For 12,451 comments, the vote scores were changed within 180 seconds10,309 comments had their vote scores changed within 60-80 seconds2,137 of those 10,309 comment vote scores were changed to "2 points"8,123 of those 10,309 comment vote scores were changed to "0 points"It's important to note that this activity is observable at all hours of day and without any noticable interruption, except when affected users are not commenting. This even occurs when commenting in very old threads with simple test comments.ChartsChart 1: FrequencyThis histogram shows the number of comments where a vote score change was detected (y-axis) within n seconds of the comment being made (x-axis). The anomaly is the massive spike in vote score changes under ~80 seconds. As the anomaly dissipates, vote score changes appear to be much more organic. Regretfully I didn't save any data logged from comparison subreddits, but they just look like this graph minus the huge bubble.Chart 2: Targeted UsersHere's a histogram based on frequency of specific users affected. Blue bars indicate the number of comments a user made whose vote scores changed to "0 points" within 80 seconds, whereas Orange bars indicate the number of comments a user made whose vote scores changed to "2 points" within 80 seconds. Bars which are more evenly split between blue and orange can be ignored as inconclusive. Longer bars of unform color are more indicative of something weird.Chart 3: ActivityThis shows the number of comments affected within a given hour per day over the course of logging. It shows that this activity has gone on around the clock as long as people are online and commenting.User targetingThe most alarming thing about this data to me is that specific users are being targeted, apparently based solely on their political views. I have not monitored how this might effect comment sorting, but it's certainly plausible that a comment with '2 points' will have an advantage over a comment with '0 points', potentially distorting reader perception.I want to stress that a user having their comments instantly changed to '2 points' is not conclusive evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of that user. It's admittedly strange, but could be explained by an obsessive fan upvoting all their comments as soon as they post something, or perhaps some unknown reddit mechanism.False positivesFalse positives can occur during fast-paced threads where readers are frequently refreshing for threads for the latest comments and replies. It's not uncommon to open a thread and see a comment posted within the last few minutes, then cast a vote. However, given the amount of data accrued and patterns observed, it's seems pretty clear that false positives don't weigh heavily on the results.Vote fuzzingVote fuzzing is one of reddit's anti-vote cheating mechanisms which causes vote scores to fluctuate randomly within a narrow range in an attempt to obscure the actual vote score. This can be observed by refreshing a comment with around 5 votes or more, and watching the score randomly change plus or minus a few points.However, to the best of my knowledge, comments with a default vote score of '1 point' do not get fuzzed until after it receives a few votes. Sometimes you might see vote fuzzing on controversial comments, as indicated by the little red dagger† (if enabled in prefs). You can verify that default vote scores aren't fuzzed by commenting in your own private sub (or a very quiet old thread in the boonies somewhere) and see that the vote score does not change when you refresh.I have no reason to believe that vote fuzzing applies to the data I've collected because I'm only logging the first change to the vote score. That said, it does not rule out the possibility these anomalies could be explained by some proprietary anti-vote cheating measure which reddit does not wish to disclose.Admin responseReddit admins are generally pretty responsive when it comes to isolated cases, but this issue took a few weeks to address, presumeably due to the bulk of users affected and investigation required. They have confirmed that they've dealt with multiple accounts targeting these users with downvotes, but have also caution against drawing firm conclusions from this method due to various anti-vote cheating measures in use. Reddit admins have neither confirmed nor denied whether automated voting is taking place. It appears to still be happening, but the frequency has abated somewhat.Other subredditsI looked at a few other subreddits of comparible size and found that votes occuring within 1 minute are rare by comparison. In fact, I extended the scope from 3 minutes to 15 minutes, and still did not find any anomalous voting patterns. Fast votes do happen, but I have yet to find any sub where they happen as fast as on /r/Bitcoin, nor have I found a sub where it appears specific individuals are targeted. I also looked at some much larger subs whose scores are not hidden (GetMotivated+mildlyinteresting+DIY+television+food) and found that while votes do roll in a bit faster, they still do not occur within seconds of commenting, and still do not appear to target specific individuals. There's room for more research in that area.Edit: I've asked the mod team if they'd object to disabling the temporary hiding of vote scores for a few days in case anyone wants to run the script for themselves. No objections, so comment vote scores are now visible for the time being. The script requires Python 2.7 and PRAW. Provide your own login credentials.Edit 2: We've seen a couple attempts to claim responsibility. This is the most compelling so far. Here's the data he posted. A very quick glance reveals that it's very similar to mine, but I need to look into it. Most compelling is that his earliest logs were before I started recording. I'm now even more convinced by the multiple bot theory than before. Everyone doing this should knock it off because you're only hurting your cause. via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1U5IXdS

Coin Center Opens Nominations for the 2016 Blockchain Awards

http://bit.ly/1pKGh8x via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1MBtQq5

Andreas Antonopoulos' opinion on "the block-size debate"

Today at Blockchain Meetup Berlin, someone asked Andreas his opinion on the recent block-size debate. I thought you guys might be interested in his answer. The sound seems to be off-sync, but here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0hxWC7sP2k&feature=youtu.be&t=1h23m35s

Submitted March 30, 2016 at 06:38AM by battbot http://bit.ly/1WXR1eF

Zooko Warns Bitcoin Community About Overconfidence

http://bit.ly/1MSQQLZ via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1UClSzU

A bribe attack is ongoing

First of all, I should note it's not a big deal and there are no reasons to panic or anything, but it's just remarkable that the thing we knew is theoretically possible is happening now.To provide background on this kind of attack I need to start from fundamentals. Here's the security assumption from the Bitcoin paper:The system is secure as long as honest nodes collectively control more CPU power than any cooperating group of attacker nodes.Originally mining was done by users themselves, it was a part of node/wallet software. However, later it became more specialized.Hashing, running nodes and using Bitcoin are completely separate things nowadays when pooled mining is commonplace. That is, somebody can "mine" bitcoins using his hashing hardware without running a node. (And, perhaps, without even being a Bitcoin user, as a "miner" can auto-convert his revenue to dollars.)Calling this "mining" isn't quite accurate. More precisely it can be described as renting (that is, mining pools rent hashing hardware of so-called "miners") or paying for a service (mining pools pays a "miner" for the efforts he's performed).Some "miners" believe that they receive bitcoins they created, but it's not true in a general case. One thing is that more often then not, individual miners fail to solve the block, but are still compensated for their efforts (not for results). Also pools generally have reserves which they use to smooth out reward payments, thus rewards miners receive do not necessarily come from freshly mined bitcoins.Now let's recall that hashpower is intimately linked to the security of the network. Attacker who controls a significant portion of total hashpower might be able to perform double-spend attacks (e.g. see Meni Rosenfeld's Analysis of Hashrate-Based Double Spending) or denial-of-service attacks (he might mine empty blocks).It is usually understood that these attacks are practically unfeasible, as overpowering the honest network would require enormous amounts of hardware, energy, etc. However, there are several different attack model.The most primitive one was relevant back when mining was done on CPUs: an attacker could rent CPU power from a cloud provider such as Amazon and try to do a double-spend reorganization or a 51% attack. It's fairly easy to do calculations within this model as the cost of an attack is known (for a certain difficulty) and one just needs to compare it to potential profits attacker might get.But CPU mining is irrelevant now, attacker would need specialized hardware to have a chance. This makes attack much more complex, as attacker needs to buy hardware, deploy it, start mining... And once attack is complete, he needs to do something with that hardware. It's generally understood that parties who own hashing hardware will be reluctant to perform attack because a successful attack can drastically decrease the value of the hardware they own. Thus it can be said that ASICs made Bitcoin much more secure due to this stickiness.But wait... what if an attacker rents hardware instead of buying it? It's much simpler than buying hardware: no complex logistics, little overhead, no concerns about how an attack would affect hardware price. Attacker would need to pay slightly above the market price to make sure he gets more than a half of total hashpower to make sure that it's statistically certain his attack can succeed.This can be describe as a sort of a bribe. Normally miners get block rewards (subsidy + fees). Attacker adds a bribe to it, making it subsidy + fees + bribe. This is attractive to miners as it pays more. Once attack is successful, attacker receives subsidy + fees + attack profit. Thus his cost is(subsidy + fees + attack profit) - (subsidy + fees + bribe) = attack profit - bribe Note that bribe can be arbitrarily small, it should be just enough to get miners interested. It can be 1% of a subsidy, for example. E.g. suppose attacker wants to earn 1000 BTC by double-spending, he gives a 10 BTC bribe to miners to orphan some of the recent blocks and pockets 990 BTC.The cost of this attack can be arbitrarily small, but it requires a lot of a capital and is also quite risky. And also it's not possible right now because miners do not just rent their hashpower to the highest bidder, they use mining pools they trust. Thus there's no way for the attacker go get more than 50% of total hashpower to be successful with this attack.There are, however, pools which allow people to rent hashpower. For example, NiceHash. It currently has 16 PH/s of SHA256 hashpower (according to the stats they publish), thus controlling around 1% of total hashpower. NiceHash allocates hashpower to highest bidder, and thus it can be potentially used for attacks I described above. But currently it's too small to have any effect.So this is just something to keep in mind. Pools like NiceHash are evil, they can potentially destabilize Bitcoin if more than a half of total Bitcoin's hashpower will be rented out on pools like this. It is important for miners to choose legitimate pools.So until now I thought that a bribe attack is just a curiosity in context of Bitcoin (it might be more relevant for alt-coins with much weaker hashpower), but today I was surprised with the fact that somebody tries to pull it off right now.There's a post on /r/btc: Someone just donated 16 BTC towards Classic Hashpower. We are now at 2 Petahash/sec on Slush pool. Thank you, donator. The fund is at 30 BTC and recycling the mining rewards over and over..This is exactly the bribe attack, but they aren't using for double-spending or DoS, but on an attempt to hard-fork Bitcoin. Basically it's an attempt to artificially prop up Classic hashpower a little, and is good only for PR. But still it's something we should be aware of, I think.NodeCounter site the link points to is absolutely hilarious, BTW, totally recommend:Bitcoin development has been bought out by a private company called "Blockstream". Blockstream has directed the crippling of Bitcoin in order to provide the solution, for their own future, financial gain.(I hope moderators won't remove my post. /r/btc is currently being advertised in the sidebar of this subreddit, so every visitor is already one click away from learning information about "Classic Hashpower". I see absolutely no point in censoring this information.) via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1pKt1Rd