2014-11-05 22:51:44

Hi all,

Does anyone know an accessible btc client for Windows?

2014-11-06 00:55:05

Hi.
I d think that exists. It would be nice if it did though.

I'm gone for real :)

2014-11-06 13:11:40

Isn't the official client already accessible? It's just QT. If not, then of course there's always the command-line interface using RPC, which all clients should support.

Just myself, as usual.

2014-11-06 17:47:48

I thought that stuff with qt-based guis were for the most part completely unusable (such as calibre, but it has an awesome command-line interface so its ok).

2014-11-07 14:42:09

Isn't bitcoin bankrupt?

be a hero and stop Coppa now!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dkm … DkWZ8/edit
-id software, 1995

2014-11-07 22:24:25

One of the bitcoin exchange sites went under, that's like a bank collapsing. It was bad if you dealt with them but it didn't destroy the currency, it just caused a big drop in confidence. Unless there's something else that happened I haven't heard about.

cx2
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To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.

2014-11-07 22:34:21

On LocalBitcoins.com, right now, 1 BTC is £221. So not at all bad.

Just myself, as usual.

2014-11-08 09:36:37

Of course the questions are how many places you deal with accept BTC, how often and how much do you spend with them, and is there any improvement in pricing or convenience by using BTC over a conventional currency?

Given that BTC is more vulnerable to instability and/or collapses than traditional currency I'd need a compelling reason to use it.

cx2
-----
To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.

2014-11-08 09:45:38

I jumped on the BTC bandwagon at various points, including trading both ways for currency.

Given that I don't have much BTC now, I'd say you're right--whether or not I'd given thought to the reasons, fiat currency is alive and well, and BTC hasn't even nearly begun to make a dent in that particular trend.

But …

The civil libertarian in me likes BTC. I'm not suggesting we all stop paying taxes or live in a corporatist, survival-of-the-fittest society, but BTC brings back a lot of the accountability we now don't have. If we think in terms of median of exchange, BTC is much more realistic than any fiat (or, let's be honest, completely fabricated) currency of any government. The problem is that as it now stands we keep exchanging BTC for fiat currency so this isn't happening. Then all the technical advantages of BTC--its relative anonymity, its proof-of-work method of synthesis, its speed and cross-border universality--are all gradually being rubbed away by various equivalent contrivances of the financial services sector and/or tech product vendors, all of whom get a nice chunk a change out of whatever it is, and all of whom are pretty much guaranteed to succeed purely based on the barrier to entry that they are uniquely positioned to lower for the vast majority of people.

So yes, I love the currency. But I dislike some of the politics both for and against, and I do feel that while it is probably the right answer, it will probably be beaten out by more rational and easier-to-understand alternatives. What I think we can hope is that BTC is the beginning of the revolution, and not the end.

Just myself, as usual.

2014-11-08 23:04:54 (edited by cx2 2014-11-08 23:05:35)

I suppose the anonymity would be of similar desirability for some people as convenience, though I'm not sure if I'm terribly concerned about the government finding out how much I spend with Tesco. I may have used sites that accept BTC but I'm just not aware of which ones might.

Now there may be certain, ahem, personal items someone may wish to buy without it appearing on their statement but again I don't know of any relevant sites which accept BTC. For many people there's also the traditional fall back of physical cash, or if you're really determined to be anonymous for distance purchases postal orders.

cx2
-----
To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.

2014-11-08 23:34:47 (edited by Sebby 2014-11-08 23:37:13)

Mmm, Silk Road's (so, that's the illegal drug market, for those not aware) currency (before it was mercifully shut down by the authorities) was, of course, BitCoin.

Cash can be used for evil dealings in back alleys, too. I consider it unfortunate but inevitable that currency will be used to pay for stuff we don't approve of; that's just life. Tor, the anonymity network, likewise facilitates the hosting of extremely horrible stuff, and the best you can really do is avert your gaze from such horribleness.

I know of at least one commercial VPN provider and one large computer reseller who are now taking BTC and are proud of it; the EFF likewise accepts donations by this method. Anonymity can be just the ticket if you're living in an oppressive part of the world; hence, WordPress also take BTC. That's the counterpoint.

Just myself, as usual.

2014-11-09 18:11:14

Well by personal items I meant the kind which are perfectly legitimate but potentially embarrassing, perhaps items related to  certain health needs or of an adult nature.

The biggest problem is most places still require you to provide a physical address, especially for non digital items which require delivery. That seriously limits the potential anonymity, though the lack of a link to your bank account can make tracing your purchase from that end impossible. Of course it's always possible that it could reach a point where certain authorities and/or law enforcement groups might see the appearance of bitcoin purchases on one's bank statement as a cause for suspicion. Naturally we don't need to worry about this in the UK because we all trust the police to treat us fairly without unwarranted intrusions into our personal dealings, right? Right?

cx2
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To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.

2014-11-10 11:38:08

Of course we trust the plods and government. They're all good people. They would never spy on us, or lock us up for concealing anything at all using encryption, or telling anybody that a government demand for encrypted data is in progress. And the conspiracy by the companies to give us tools to thwart their efforts are merely aids to terrorism, organised crime, drug dealings and child abuse. Why, only recently that superb illustration of blind intellect and stand-up political integrity David Blunkett was saying that very thing. big_smile

Which is why BitCoin is probably still useful to some especially motivated people. We now know, for example, that the Intel agencies assist the government to win human rights trials by actually spying on client-lawyer communication. Truly horrible. I can't imagine any particular article in such a situation, but I can well imagine that the gov would be entirely willing to freeze assets or otherwise make it difficult to operate within the usual establishment. As you said the problem being that the trail always starts with some exchange of fiat currency, and you just don't know what that data is good for.

Just myself, as usual.

2014-11-10 16:55:05

@Sebby

You are from the UK, so you are already free to enjoy all the police state you want.

I am from Scandinavia, and we have not yet progressed to locking people up for forgetting their passwords, but I am sure our police would like to have that power.

Try Multibit for Windows.

It's mostly accessible, and I have successfully transferred and received bitcoins.

I have never got any luck with the official Bitcoin client.
If you only need a bitcoin address for sending and receiving bitcoins, try blockchain.info or another online wallet.

Remember that bitcoin contrary to popular beliefs isn't anonymous, all transactions including IP addresses of sender and receiver are stored in the blockchain.

m

2014-11-10 18:55:30

Thus meaning authorities could see the bitfcoin purchases on your bank statement and search the block chain for transactions referencing your IP address? I had been aware of that factor in the lack of full anonymity but the full implication hadn't occurred to me until now.

There are of course ways to obfuscate this information however you're relying on a third party service whose discretion you can't be entirely certain of.

cx2
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To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.

2014-11-10 22:40:26

@cx2

If you are only transferring bitcoins from address to another, you can take steps to increase your anonymity.

However, it's really difficult if not impossible to retain any anonymity when you need to convert bitcoins to fiat currency, or when you want to pay for a physical shipment.

I would also be very hesitant doing that, because such an act is difficult to anonymize and may, depending on your nation's laws, constitute money laundering.

m

2014-11-20 00:18:34

@gellman: I know multibit.
I have already tried to install this client, but the Installer is not accessible.
I currently use the official btc-client.