Thus Share Discussion Threads

[springhead] 26/1/2018 18:40

Nay lad!
Morning all from a cool PD.

[jonjonck] 26/1/2018 17:49

Oh yes, an she is looking forward to me going for my check up in May or whenever it is due.

[ignoble] 26/1/2018 17:17

Try a Cornetto
See if the ice cream sets it off.

Was the lovely Mary pleased to see you all suited and booted ...bet she was impressed

[ffp] 26/1/2018 17:03

Carbareto, albereto, cornereto, supereto....

[jonjonck] 26/1/2018 16:30

My crown is tweeked and now perfecto.

[ignoble] 26/1/2018 13:00

That' s lunch done
Bowl of Pasta , chopped cheese into it and seasoned with salt and pepper plus a few drops of Tabasco
5 Minutes and job done

[ignoble] 26/1/2018 12:54

Ta for the Bitcoin thingy
Think I will pop up to Nat West this afternoon ...and open an account
In my dreams

[jonjonck] 26/1/2018 12:23

Give Mary some jaffa cakes -- what a good idea. I wonder if she keeps a secret stash in her violin. I will ask her.

[jonjonck] 26/1/2018 12:21

Bitcoin is a form of digital currency, created and held electronically. No one controls it. Bitcoins aren’t printed, like dollars or euros – they’re produced by people, and increasingly businesses, running computers all around the world, using software that solves mathematical problems.

It’s the first example of a growing category of money known as cryptocurrency.



What makes it different from normal currencies?
Bitcoin can be used to buy things electronically. In that sense, it’s like conventional dollars, euros, or yen, which are also traded digitally.

However, bitcoin’s most important characteristic, and the thing that makes it different to conventional money, is that it is decentralized. No single institution controls the bitcoin network. This puts some people at ease, because it means that a large bank can’t control their money.

Who created it?
A software developer called Satoshi Nakamoto proposed bitcoin, which was an electronic payment system based on mathematical proof. The idea was to produce a currency independent of any central authority, transferable electronically, more or less instantly, with very low transaction fees.

Who prints it?


No one. This currency isn’t physically printed in the shadows by a central bank, unaccountable to the population, and making its own rules. Those banks can simply produce more money to cover the national debt, thus devaluing their currency.

Instead, bitcoin is created digitally, by a community of people that anyone can join. Bitcoins are ‘mined’, using computing power in a distributed network.

This network also processes transactions made with the virtual currency, effectively making bitcoin its own payment network.

So you can’t churn out unlimited bitcoins?
That’s right. The bitcoin protocol – the rules that make bitcoin work – say that only 21 million bitcoins can ever be created by miners. However, these coins can be divided into smaller parts (the smallest divisible amount is one hundred millionth of a bitcoin and is called a ‘Satoshi’;, after the founder of bitcoin).

What is bitcoin based on?
Conventional currency has been based on gold or silver. Theoretically, you knew that if you handed over a dollar at the bank, you could get some gold back (although this didn’t actually work in practice). But bitcoin isn’t based on gold; it’s based on mathematics.

Around the world, people are using software programs that follow a mathematical formula to produce bitcoins. The mathematical formula is freely available, so that anyone can check it.

The software is also open source, meaning that anyone can look at it to make sure that it does what it is supposed to.

What are its characteristics?
Bitcoin has several important features that set it apart from government-backed currencies.

1. It's decentralized
The bitcoin network isn’t controlled by one central authority. Every machine that mines bitcoin and processes transactions makes up a part of the network, and the machines work together. That means that, in theory, one central authority can’t tinker with monetary policy and cause a meltdown – or simply decide to take people’s bitcoins away from them, as the Central European Bank decided to do in Cyprus in early 2013. And if some part of the network goes offline for some reason, the money keeps on flowing.

2. It's easy to set up
Conventional banks make you jump through hoops simply to open a bank account. Setting up merchant accounts for payment is another Kafkaesque task, beset by bureaucracy. However, you can set up a bitcoin address in seconds, no questions asked, and with no fees payable.

3. It's anonymous
Well, kind of. Users can hold multiple bitcoin addresses, and they aren’t linked to names, addresses, or other personally identifying information. However…

4. It's completely transparent
…bitcoin stores details of every single transaction that ever happened in the network in a huge version of a general ledger, called the blockchain. The blockchain tells all.

If you have a publicly used bitcoin address, anyone can tell how many bitcoins are stored at that address. They just don’t know that it’s yours.

There are measures that people can take to make their activities more opaque on the bitcoin network, though, such as not using the same bitcoin addresses consistently, and not transferring lots of bitcoin to a single address.

5. Transaction fees are miniscule
Your bank may charge you a £10 fee for international transfers. Bitcoin doesn’t.

6. It’s fast
You can send money anywhere and it will arrive minutes later, as soon as the bitcoin network processes the payment.

7. It’s non-repudiable
When your bitcoins are sent, there’s no getting them back, unless the recipient returns them to you. They’re gone forever.

So, bitcoin has a lot going for it, in theory. But how does it work, in practice? Read more to find out how bitcoins are mined, what happens when a bitcoin transaction occurs, and how the network keeps track of everything.

[ignoble] 26/1/2018 12:17

The hard part of life is keeping it simple

[ignoble] 26/1/2018 12:16

You wait until we ship over Jaffa Cakes
Don't think that I have ever tasted Nutella .... French obviously like it

Maybe Mary would like a packet of Jaffa's as a little thank you

[jonjonck] 26/1/2018 12:16

Ermmm, have I said the above right....Oh I do not know, too complicated for me.

[jonjonck] 26/1/2018 12:15

No ig, often what seems very simple is actually very complicated and vica versa what appears complicated is actually very simple.

[jonjonck] 26/1/2018 12:13

Clearly the French like their hazelnut spreads.........



A discount on Nutella has led to violent scenes in a chain of French supermarkets, as shoppers jostled to grab a bargain on the sweet spread.

Intermarché supermarkets offered a 70% discount on Nutella, bringing the price down from €4.50 (£3.90) to €1.40.

But police were called when people began fighting and pushing one another.

"They are like animals. A woman had her hair pulled, an elderly lady took a box on her head, another had a bloody hand," one customer told French media.

A member of staff at one Intermarché shop in central France told the regional newspaper Le Progrès: "We were trying to get in between the customers but they were pushing us."

All of its stock was snapped up within 15 minutes and one customer was given a black eye, the report adds.

[ignoble] 26/1/2018 12:07

Still reading about cryptocurrencies and blockchain .
I am probably more confused than ever or am I making something very simple , complicated
Grrrrr ...

[jonjonck] 26/1/2018 11:53

I wonder if it was a sneeze or a maybe just a wee coffee.

[ignoble] 26/1/2018 11:30

I would have been advised that if I knew that I was going to sneeze, why didn't I move the coffee cup.
Even better sneezing with the cup in your hand

[ignoble] 26/1/2018 11:28

Rofl ...
Sorry JJ but having a good old giggle at your expense
I bet that you did not even mutter a swear word

[jonjonck] 26/1/2018 11:25

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]#'[;plokijuhygtfrds azcvbnytgvhberzsdxfcgbvhjgvghbnjmk

me wiping my keyboard keys!

[ignoble] 26/1/2018 11:16

Wonder if the fact of a shower is making Mrs JJ suspicious that you are up to something

[ignoble] 26/1/2018 11:13

Probably a good idea ...
Will impress Mary plus a splash of Brut and she will be putty in your hands

[jonjonck] 26/1/2018 11:05

Still frosty here but temp is beginning to rise so should be better this afternoon for going to the Good Fiddler Mary. Even had a shower to spruce myself up, but need to decide if I should give my teeth their monthly brush or not.

[ignoble] 26/1/2018 09:42

Not too bad down here
No frost last evening ...sun trying it's
best to put Ig in better humour and 6 degrees or so