Although not perfect I think the new merit system could become a viable tool to improve post quality in the forum. I'm interested in contributing to support quality posts as a merit source.

Below I've compiled ten posts which are worthy of merit in my opinion but did not receive adequate amounts yet. Actually it's much harder to explicitly search for quality posts than to "naturally" find them in the reading process.

Therefore I have an idea: What about a "Hall of Fame"-Archive in each section that is automatically generated from posts that have received significant merit?

Quote from: dado7 on February 01, 2018, 03:23:39 PM

Centralisation vs. decentralisation in society and the role of the blockchain

Ever since Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker had swept away the world with their service Napster, popularising the peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing protocol, they showed us the true power of decentralization. They caught the music industry totally unprepared (luckily for the movie industry, they had more time to prepare as the most of home internet connections at those days were not broadband and not fast enough for easy downloading of movies) and it suffered huge losses.

The big downside of this was that many artists and those rare non-greedy managers suffered along the big players too. However, if better prepared, they could have utilized this technology for their own benefit. Also, the artists could have found a formula to better realize their talent and hard work. Who could have known though, right?

This phenomenon showed a way for more future decentralized technologies and one of them is blockchain. The idea of blockchain came from a totally different story. Many people were growing dissatisfied with the current financial system, the way money is created, controlled, and also allocated.

[...]

^ Great opening post for discussion.

Quote from: dektox on January 25, 2018, 11:12:21 PM

"Guess 2/3 of the average" game results [conducted among CC-related people]
The experiment we conducted is inspired by the Keynesian beauty contest which was devoted to explain the price fluctuations in equity markets. Keynes described the action of rational agents in a market using an analogy based on a fictional newspaper contest, in which entrants are asked to choose the six most attractive faces from a hundred photographs. Those who picked the most popular faces are then eligible for a prize.

A naive strategy would be to choose the face that, in the opinion of the entrant, is the most handsome. A more sophisticated contest entrant, wishing to maximize the chances of winning a prize, would think about what the majority perception of attractive is, and then make a selection based on some inference from his knowledge of public perceptions.

Keynes believed that similar behavior was at work within the stock market. This would have people pricing shares not based on what they think their fundamental value is, but rather on what they think everyone else thinks their value is, or what everybody else would predict the average assessment of value to be.

[...]

^ Interesting research.

Quote from: Hydrogen on October 30, 2017, 11:10:16 PM

Re: Benefits of Bitcoin (Deregulated economy)

To answer OP's question, we might first answer a question of how regulation is implemented. Is regulation a system which functions on equality and objectivity, or is it a system which exists to maintain a precedent of privilege and favortism to some groups while keeping others on a lower scale of value?

There is also a question of how efficiently regulation functions. Is regulation imposed on citizens in the form of taxes, tariffs, fees and regulation in the form of regulatory bodies which oversee environmental protection, welfare, space exploration, certification of drivers license, mail delivery and so on function in a way that is cost effective? Efficient regulation might be described as a system which produces manageable levels of deficit and debt, while inefficient regulation could describe a system of high deficit and debt. The implications and consequences of either polar opposite can be extreme. An example of this is the USSR post economic collapse where every russian lost their state pension and death tolls climbed spectacularly as a result.

Suffice it to say there are many who claim the system (regulation) is broken. That it only exists to make the rich richer while ensuring the poor get poorer under a system of wealth redistribution. Bitcoin being unregulated may not be prone to these faults. A person could make a case for crypto being more fair and unbiased towards the poor than other financial platforms. Such might represent its main benefit.

^ Nice differentiation on the regulation topic

Quote from: Slow death on January 08, 2018, 06:47:50 PM

Re: Why African millennials can't get enough of Bitcoin
Bitcoin is a currency of refuge, if Africa has poor people these people will eventually invest in bitcoin, I believe that in a few years all countries will be allowing the use of bitcoin. I always say that the biggest obstacle that we Africans have faced is the corruption on a large scale, Africans have a very retarded way of thinking... If an African becomes president of a country, this African takes the government as if it were property of him, this African enriches his entire family with the hard-earned money of the people.
The African is poor, but he lives in luxury. All members of that president's political party live in the greatest joy and wealth.

Quote

Bitcoin is seeing increasing popularity in Africa. It's not just those hoping to get rich quick who are getting in on the action, but more as a store of value, as a medium to transfer cash across borders, possibly as an exist out of poverty in the current political and economical uncertainty.

power and money blind people and Africans for having suffered with colonialism and liberate their countries have put in their heads that they are owners of the country because they sacrificed themselves for the country.

^ Novel insights into the "typical" African ruler's mindset

Quote from: BitHodler on February 03, 2018, 08:26:58 PM

Re: [2018-02-02] Report: Bank of America, JP Morgan Ban Credit Crypto Purchases

Quote from: darkangel11 on February 03, 2018, 08:02:42 PM

Prevent from harming? What are you talking about? Would you like someone to follow you in every step, telling you what you are supposed to do and stopping you from doing dangerous things? Don't drive fast! Don't do extreme sports! Don't buy cryptocurrency! At some point it's fair to ask if we're adults or not? Being of age used to mean that you're able to decide for yourself and don't need mommy and daddy anymore.

If you gamble with money you don't have, you are mentally challenged, and for that reason it's better to have banks cut people off, than no one doing anything to prevent these people from harming themselves.

I don't need anyone to tell me anything because I'm not making stupid mistakes like that. You have to accept that it's not your money that you are gambling with, but the money these banks are willing to loan you.

Being of age doesn't mean anything when you as person can't think and act like anyone of age.

^ Providing another view regarding the handling of Crypto purchases via Credit Card by banks

Quote from: xdrpx on February 02, 2018, 04:31:44 PM

Re: Bitcoin's earliest developers

From the github contributors list I noticed that on selecting a range between 2009-2010 I can see few developers https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/graphs/contributors?from=2009-08-30&to=2010-12-31&type=c and https://github.com/non-github-bitcoin (an account created for commits before the bitcoin-core code was probably migrated to github from sourceforge)

1) Satoshi Nakamoto
2) sirius-m (Martti Malmi)
3) laszloh - based on some commits made here https://sourceforge.net/p/bitcoin/code/252/log/?path= (go to older and you'll find them all here) https://sourceforge.net/p/bitcoin/code/123/
4) Gavin Andresen

Leaving this video here for fun too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjYbsq3FXfM (It shows a visualization from 2008 - 2018 all the developers involved based on commits made)

^ Valuable insight into the early history of Bitcoin with sources

Quote from: Soulforged on February 02, 2018, 12:01:16 PM

Building on the Lightning Network - Pull Payments

Hello all,

I'm looking for any feedback on whether the community sees any benifit in introducing regular 'pull' payment functional to the Lightning Network. Pull payments would replicate functionality similar to what we find in traditional banking such as Bacs Direct Debits (UK), SEPA Direct Debits (EU) and Reoccuring Card Payments (Visa/MC).

The full explanation can be found here:
https://medium.com/@nc_clelland/transitioning-to-the-blockchain-direct-debits-and-lightning-51918959b835

Let me know what you think.

Cheers,
Ross

^ As a newbie bringing up the controversial but interesting topic of pull payment functionality for Lightning

From the German subforum:

Quote from: rico666 on June 07, 2017, 06:18:52 AM

Die Macht des Unwahrscheinlichen

[Eine Rezension aus Spektrum der Wissenschaft. Ich habe mir erlaubt die wichtigen
Passagen hervorzuheben]

David J.Hand
Die Macht des
Unwahrscheinlichen
Aus dem Englischen
von Werner Roller
Verlag: C.H.Beck, München 2015
ISBN: 9783406675942
21,95

Es gibt Menschen, die erzielen zweimal einen Lotto-Hauptgewinn oder werden mehrfach
vom Blitz getroffen. Und waren Sie im Urlaub schon einmal auf einem fernen Kontinent
in menschenleerer, abgelegener Gegend, und trafen dort zufällig Ihren Nachbarn? So
etwas erscheint uns als praktisch unmöglich und doch passiert es. Wie kann das sein?
Hat nicht der berühmte französische Mathematiker Émile Borel (1871-1956) gesagt,
dass wir mit hinreichend unwahrscheinlichen Ereignissen im Alltag nicht rechnen müssen?

[...]

^ Great book tip on probability theory (law of great numbers)

Quote from: callmehappy on January 27, 2018, 11:59:25 AM

Legalität - Wie lange noch???

Also: Ich bin kurz davor meine erste Investition im Krypto-Bereich zu tätigen und mich quält eine Frage

Vielleicht wurde sie schon öfter gestellt, vielleicht kann sie auch ganz schnell beantwortet werden.
Ich sage direkt mal dazu, dass ich kein riesiges Tech-Knowhow habe.
Aber mich treibt ständig die Frage wie lange Mining noch legal bleiben wird und ob es sich überhaupt noch für jemanden der jetzt erst investiert lohnt in irgendeiner Art und Weise auf den Proof-of-Work Mechanismus zu setzen - Vor allem weil man doch mit PoS offensichtlich eine effizientere Lösung gefunden hat!?

Wenn ich das ganze aus politischer Perspektive in Hinblick auf die Eindämmung der Klimaerwärmung betrachte, ist es dann nicht nur eine Frage der Zeit und ein logischer Schritt in der internationalen Politik bis Mining "gedrosselt", wenn nicht sogar komplett verboten wird?

Wie gesagt, vielleicht fehlt mir auch einfach das technische Hintergrundwissen und der Gedanke ist zu naiv, ich weiß auch, dass mir niemand zu 100% beantworten kann ob oder wann. Aber ist es nicht einfach logisch sinnvoller auf einen "überholten" Mechanismus zu verzichten?

^ Convincing and elaborate question of a Newbie on the potential risks of outlawing mining

Quote from: mezzomix on January 24, 2018, 11:45:21 PM

Re: Der Aktuelle Kursverlauf

Quote from: murrayrothbard on January 24, 2018, 09:36:16 PM

Die non-mining nodes haben keinen stabilisierenden Einfluss weil nur die miner Blöcke schreiben können.

Nur für diejenigen, die Dich noch nicht kennen:

Das wurde letztes Jahr bereits praktisch wiederlegt. Ansonsten wäre Bitcoin nämlich jetzt von einigen grossen Minern auf BU geforkt worden und wir hätten nun einen Bitcoin Präsidenten namens Jihan Wu. Der Mechanismus ist, wie von mir unzählige Male erklärt und nun auch empirisch bewiesen, dass die Miner nur Blöcke erzeugen, die von den restlichen Nutzern aktzeptiert werden. Alles andere würde ihr Einkommen massiv beschneiden. Das halten die Miner durch die hohen Kosten nicht lange aus. Letztes Jahr sind sie daher eingeknickt, noch bevor es zur Kraftprobe gekommen ist. Selbst der BU Präsident und Führer des Bcash Forks macht sein Geld zu einem guten Teil mit Bitcoin Mining. Bei Bcash hat er sich erst mal zurückgehalten und die Idioten die riskante Drecksarbeit machen lassen.

Tja liebe Kindern, aber zum Glück gab es letztes Jahr mehrere grosse Dramen und nun ist klar, dass die oben zitierte Behauptung nicht zutreffend (Klartext: blödsinn) ist. Was von den anderen Behauptungen zu halten ist, kann sich dann jeder selbst denken.

^ Great clarifying argument on the stabilizing influence (and hence importance) of non-mining full nodes