Hi nickkilla,

I've put the phone number validation code in place.  Thanks for pointing this out!

Hello, btcPhone needs some testers to make a free phone call to a land-line anywhere in the U.S.

Here's the site:  http://phone.bitcoincommons.org

The site is currently operating on testnet.  You will need to configure your bitcoin client to operate on the testnet in order to participate in the testing.  Here is a working testnet faucet if you need some testnet bitcoin.

During the testing phase, any amount of testnet bitcoin sent to the bitcoin address presented at the top of the web page will give you a 3 minute call credit.  Have you called your mother recently?  The minimum call duration is one minute.

Please post your comments/feedback to this thread or email to: phone AT bitcoincommons.org

$tuData = '{"Last Trade":"140.21","Best Bid":"137.50","Best Ask":"140.00"}';
$obj = json_decode($tuData);
$lastTrade = $obj->{"Last Trade"};
echo "Last Trade: ".$lastTrade."\n";
?>

Hello, btcPhone needs some testers to make a free phone call to a land-line anywhere in the U.S.

Here's the site:  http://phone.bitcoincommons.org

The site is currently operating on testnet.  You will need to configure your bitcoin client to operate on the testnet in order to participate in the testing.  Here is a working testnet faucet if you need some testnet bitcoin.

During the testing phase, any amount of testnet bitcoin sent to the bitcoin address presented at the top of the web page will give you a 3 minute call credit.  Have you called your mother recently?  The minimum call duration is one minute.

Please post your comments/feedback to this thread or email to: phone AT bitcoincommons.org

Hello All,

Today I'm interested in using a testnet URI with Bitcoin-QT

I found this post: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/2301
That indicates that Gavin was experimenting with some code that would automatically detect a testnet address and launch the client in the appropriate mode.

My testing would indicate that this feature has not made it into 0.8.1.  Anybody know the latest on this topic?

Hello all,

I'll be resurrecting this site soon, but right now I have this to offer:
http://web.archive.org/web/20120211095520/http://bitcoinvm.bitcoincommons.org/?q=node/3

you'll find instructions for setting up an encrypted file system.  Keep in mind that all of that was written before encrypted wallets.

A virtual machine mainly provides "security through obscurity" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_through_obscurity)

I can tell you that one of the frustrating things about maintaining a VM like this is the amount of disk space required if you're going to use Bitcoin-QT.  At this point there are other clients to choose from that I believe would consume fewer resources.

Speaking of Bitcoin-QT, I don't know that library dependencies it has vs the old 3.x bitcoin client, so additional tinycore libs may need to be added.

Hello All,

Just installed 0.8.1 on a Windows 7 64bit.  I'm running on testnet by adding the -testnet command line parameter.

The client synced initially, then I noticed some time later that it was out of sync and was needing to download approximately 38K blocks.

The first time I was going to write it off as a fluke, but it has happened several times in the past few hours.

What information can I provide to troubleshoot further?

I am using testnet on Bitcoin version v0.8.1-beta and I found I had to connect to the daemon on port 18332 instead of port 18333.

I only figured that out because I found this:  https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/1862

Here's the forum topic about the torrent:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=145386.0

You can download bootstrap.dat via http here:

http://eu2.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/

"Version 0.7.1 (when released) will automatically validate and import a file in the bitcoin data directory named "bootstrap.dat". Version 0.7 or later will also import this file by passing the command line argument "-loadblock=/path/to/bootstrap.dat" to bitcoin-qt or bitcoind."

Here's a version with the v2 API

Evidently the information on https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Testnet regarding the testnet ports is outdated.  Can someone in the know update this?

Thanks!

Matt

EDIT:
Faucet is closed?
https://testnet.freebitcoins.appspot.com/

And digital certificate issue make the https connection to this site painful.  Is https desirable for the testnet faucet?
https://testnet.freebitcoins.appspot.com/

Hello All,

I can confirm that it is possible to copy the block chain from a Windows v0.8.1-beta installation to a linux v0.8.1-beta by copying only the contents (including subdirectories) of 'blocks' and 'chainstate' folders.

Matt

How does strongcoin.com make money or at least cover operating costs?

Great ideas here.  The Kindle angle is fantastic.

The fact that the private keys are encrypted before sending to the server is of little value if a weak password is used.  You or anyone in possession of the encrypted data could brute force the password, it would only be a matter of time.

Could you make your Javascript work with something like the yubikey for the purpose of generating a strong password?

According to their website, CampBX is just waiting to get their trade volume/liquidity up before enabling short selling

https://campbx.com/faq.php#trading

Class 2 digital certificates can be used to identify individuals in a similar fashion.

http://www.globalsign.com/authentication-secure-email/digital-id/index.html#tab2

Can you say more about compressing the data?  How could this be accomplished in a transparent way?

I understand that there is a maximum number of transactions that can be included in a single block.  Do we know how much disk space a maxed-out block like this will consume?

You state that 16 gigs should should be good for 2 years worth of block chain data.  Is this a wild-ass guess or based on some reasonable assumptions?  If the estimate is based on some assumptions, would you please share the data you used in your calculations?

Just finished reading some of the topics relating to concerns about the present and eventual size of the block chain.

Presently, the .bitcoin directory which contains the block chain is in excess of 600MB.  In my opinion, this is a non-trivial amount of disk space.  I among others have developed environments designed to assist with client security that involve running the client from a USB memory stick or other devices with resource limitations.

I read in one post, that it not necessary for every client to download/save the entire block chain in order to send/receive bitcoin.  Is a bitcoin client with this feature somewhere on the horizon?

Thanks for considering this issue and all your excellent work!

Matt

http://bitcoinvm.bitcoincommons.org/

The instructions here will help you build an environment using TinyCore Linux.  Instructions are for building a VM, you may adapt as required.

Let's not forget to put the site on a secure server in a secure data center.  Here is an example: http://www.gsihosting.com/services/infrastructure/datacenters/

GSI hosting packages start at $700/month.

I am looking for partners to go in on a hosting plan of this caliber.  I'm not committed to using GSI.

Please PM me if you're interested in getting involved.