Thank you all very much. All responses have been very useful.

From what I see,  although the network is decentralized, the initial list of nodes has to come from somewhere. From the code, I gather it has a list of initial seed nodes to download updated lists from. I assume that it is important for the integrity of the network that these hardcoded seed nodes are not compromised or can't easily become subject to persecution from hostile goverments / agents.

The link to the Satoshi Client Node Discovery also gives very good ideas. Thanks.


Yes.

I'm looking into developing a javascript client p2p network. Most P2P networks I've looked into need to communicate with a connection broker in order to discover what other clients are in the network. Even bittorrent clients, need tracker servers.

How is it that the bitcoin network resolves this?

How does a client know what IPs to download the blockchain from?

How do miners know the IPs of other miners in the network?


If you can point me in the right direction to look up this information I would be most thankful

I think I have to agree with a comment on the youtube vid of the interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oRq7e8GMII

"That's not me, I never communicated with bitcoins." Well, that's all the proof we need.

So what of a p2p generated composite Consumer Price Index to help determine the real value of a bitcoin or equivalent?

Maybe its best if some other crypto currency determine their value that way. Sad to say that having bitcoins today feels like I'm playing stock or casino. Doesn't help me build commerce or save assets.

We should make it so that it cant be abused, satoshi took the first steps, but I think we have to finish the job

I don't think its survival is at stake, just its utility to people like me that want it to be able to save and trade with it, without developing an ulcer in the process.

Added

How about an added layer? An index that computes the price in local fiat of anything you can buy and the price of the fiats themselves, with algorithms to weed out statistical anomalies, comodity price manipulations, etc.

Then you can pay whatever you want for a bitcoin, but you should know first that the suggested price in your fiat currency (taking into account this index) is: X.

Is bitcoin headed in the direction we all want? What is need is the most important to you? Let us know.

Do you know if they have even figured out how they are going to distribute Ripples? Or even how one can purchase one?

This is finally the conversation I wanted to see here at bitcointalk.

Help me figure this out: So what if you peg BTC to an index? Call it BTC/Sht, that is, pegged to the price of all the sh*t you can buy with it.

You take the price of gold, the price of gold, food, gasoline, potatoes, dollars, yen, everything.. and take into account fluctuations, so that if one item starts varying, it has less influence on the index, to avoid manipulation.

Then you make the process of entering data and participating in the calculation of this index a new way to mine (that way ASICs miners aren't the only ones who get to participate in the process of generation of new bitcoins).

This way
a) You make a stable foundation that people can use to trade and save in
b) You provide a way for more people to participate in the generation of new coins, possibly letting new players in. In third world countries with strong currency control, its just as hard to get your hands on bitcoins as it is to get your hands on any other currency, because who wants your fiat, right?
c) You protect bitcoin and users from manipulation

Yeah, sadly currently it would appear OpenCoin, inc is practically the government that hands out their ripples (XRP) like charity and saves a bunch for themselves. I haven't even been able to figure out how to get my hands on a ripple without begging for it from someone who has some (like the dude at the park in the movie Falling Down http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwP2vV6Wm1Y )

I would put forward that we approach each others points of view in an open way. We get used to shooting down each others ideas without thinking them through.

I can understand that if you have a bunch of bitcoins now, you are all excited because you are making a lot of money (not talking to nuggets, i address us all). I think there many reasons why people approach bitcoin:

1. Because they need a way to transfer something valuable to another party, and love the anonymity of it all.
2. Because they are tired of government manipulation, and love unregulated market dynamics.
3. Because they are tired of manipulation in general (this is where most of my interest in btc is).
4. Because its a cool experiment.

If you believe like me that people and/or groups of people are manipulating people's greed and driving the price of the bitcoin up and down to sucker them out of their fiat money, it is in fact ruining bitcoin for some of us. Mainly its reducing the value of bitcoin for people who are interested in 1. and 3.

I wish that bitcoin would evolve to serve better the needs of users interested in 1 and 3. Id like to be able to use my fiat currency to buy a crypto-currency, and know that if I left it alone a year, I could still purchase roughly the same products. That is if I could buy my weekly groceries with 10 btc today, I'd like to be able to buy roughly the same value in groceries 1, 5 years in the future. Free from bankster/power group and government manipulation. If It could also be transfered anonymously I think a lot of people would be happy.

I have come to realize this can not be achieve with bitcoin as it stands today.

Of course, for those who want to make money out of nothing by just sitting in front of their computers, and playing btc lottery, it would be no fun, and I understand that. Also it would be no fun for people who want to see pure market dynamics working, untainted by any kind of self-regulation.

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I might be totally wrong, please be kind when pointing it out, and I will understand your point of view a lot better.

I could use some testing Ripples too! 

I live in a country with strict currency exchange laws. Right now, the only way to obtain bitcoins is mining or if you have a bank account with foreign currency outside the country. Hardly the grounds for any kind of popular adoption. Potentially this could happen in any country, a couple of laws here and there and you are cut off from Bitcoin economy.

Im seeing that this might be the same case for Ripple. If there would be a way to generate value for the Ripple network in exchange for Ripples regardless of the country and its local laws and the technical know how of the users, it would be great!

Yes, its also a good option. The USB Linux option gives you the added peace of mind that what you don't have any keyloggers or spyware taking note of your passwords, etc.

Firefox is installed by default, I found it was faster / more responsive than Chromium.
Re:office "Libreoffice is a full-featured office productivity suite that provides a near drop-in replacement for microsoft(r) office."

By the way, if what you want is to play with Linux, I would suggest you do a Windows Install, instead of installing to USB since it will run much faster. A Windows Install (one of the options if you mount the Mint Image using something like Daemon Tools) is that it installs Linux as a program in windows, creating a virtual partition of sorts that doesn't mess up your hard disk, then when you re-boot, you finish the installation into this virtual partition and you are set. I've done this and it is great.

The advantage of installing it to USB for security purposes, is that you can stash your bitcoins in the USB linux and throw it in a safer, bury it, or whatever, hehe.

The guide is Windows specific. Wont work on Mac that I know of.

Ive created the guide to install Mint Linux in a USB drive and Bitcoin-QT as a client in the following post: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=170756.0

Hi,
I was asked to post step by step instructions on how to safely maintain and access your wallet from a bootable USB drive. It is really quite simple for the mildly cumputer literate:

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Download & Install LiLi
1. Get a USB with +2GB, I've tested with 4GB. Make sure you have a USB 2.0 drive at least.
2. Go to http://www.linuxliveusb.com/ and click on "Download", then "Download Lili" and save it to your computer (not the USB).
3. Execute the install file, and follow the screens to install on your computer.

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Install Mint Linux to the USB Drive
5. Open Linux Live USB Creator.
6. From the main screen choose the drive letter for the USB Drive you are going to install to.
7. In Step 2: Choose a Source
* Choose "Linux Mint {version here} (MATE)" from the drop down. Linux mint is nice alternative to Ubuntu, easy on the eyes and on resources.
* Go to http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=119 and download the latest Linux Mint from the list of mirrors (Its about a 966MB download, sit back and relax)
* Click on ISO / IMG / ZIP and specify the location where you downloaded the Linux Mint image to. It will start a process to check the file.

8. In Step 3: Persistence (The persistence allows you to keep your preferences and data even after reboot) after you download the linux, it should show you an interface to enter how many MB to set aside for persistence. I entered 1024 MB in the text field, which might be overkill.
9. In Step 4: Options, make sure all three checkboxes are marked.
10. In Step 5: Click on the Lighting Bolt! When it's done it will say "Your Linux Live key is now up and ready".

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Boot into you USB Linux and Install Bitcoin-QT
11. Reboot your machine with the USB drive still connected.
12. Go into your BIOS setup, this varies from computer to computer, usually you have to press the F12 or Delete key just after you reboot to enter the BIOS setup. Usually it will say which one it is in the first message it displays after it restarts. Configure the boot sequence to check the USB before the hard disk.
Expect the first boot to take around 15 minutes. Be patient, you are booting a whole operating system off a fregging USB drive!

13. The first time you run you will be prompted a user name and password. Enter a combination you will use to enter next time you log on. Set up your network by clicking on the icon to the right of the volume icon in the bottom right.
* If you use an online client like Blockchain.info you are set! Mint comes with Firefox pre-installed.

14. If you want to install a bitcoin client follow the instruction on this page: http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/903

Happy BTC!


* If you feel Mint is too sluggish for you, there are lighter versions of linux you can put your hands on, like DSL (Damn Small Linux). But hey, Using a Linux called "Mint" for managing "coins" is pretty cool in and of itself!

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