This cracked me up. I'm also not a murderer. Does that help my case?

Okay, so I guess I'm supposed to prove that I know more about Bitcoin than a spammer — that I'm actually interested in Bitcoin rather than just another venue for advertising.

Well, heck, yeah! This whole Bitcoin system is amazingly amazing, if only because it's compelling me to learn more about things like fiat currency and so on. The whole weirdness of the money supply has intrigued me from the time I was a kid. Most of it seems like magic. Stage magic, that is — based on belief and fakery!

I mean, how else can I understand things like bidding on futures, and margins, and currency trading? Are these supposed to be real things that real people do that add real value to the real world? Or am I watching parasites feeding off the excess energy of the system? Guess which version of the story I find more compelling?

But Bitcoin ... wow, this is different. I am gradually coming to understand how it all ties together. I keep thinking I've spotted a flaw but then it turns out somebody has already dealt with the issue (mostly because a zillion other people have already spotted that supposed flaw).

I'm not sure that exploring the Bitcoin community will help me understand regular money any better. But I do feel like I'm on the border of a vast alien continent with all kinds of exciting things to see. So a lesson in economics isn't the only thing I can find here.  I'm intrigued and eager to learn more. And I will ... as soon as my new wallet finally sync's up.  (It has been grinding away for 19 hours and now has only 288 blocks left to sync. Woo-hoo!)

Update: About an hour has passed since I first posted and the number of blocks has reduced from 288 blocks to a mere ... 10931!? That's quite a jump back upward. Oh, wait, it's now at 10921. I may have this thing working before the U.S. Election. No, no, not the one a few days from now. The next one.

It might not be completely insignificant that my wife is watching Netflix on the same connection. Did I forget to mention that? Yeah, I guess I really should have mentioned that.

Anyway ... if somebody would whitelist me that would be nifty. I am not a spammer. I'm also not a spanner, which is the British word for a wrench. There are lots of things that I'm not but one BIG thing that I am, and that's curious about stuff like Bitcoin.