As I continue to explore -BitCoin, I've starting to wonder -what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws -and regulations here in Norway. Here are some random notes.
- -One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are -verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction -is known to everyone. This means that if a BitCoin address has been -published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is -possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to -that address. There is even a web service to look at the details for -all transactions. There I can see that my address -15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b -have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the -1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3 -address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address -1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt -of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far. Thank you to each and -every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The -fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given -address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to -generate and hand out a new address for each transaction. I'm told -there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or -organisation without the person or organisation revealing it -themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.
- -In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and -regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border -without declaring it. There are money laundering, tax and accounting -laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin. -If the Skolelinux foundation -(SLX -Debian Labs) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to -normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted? -Given that it is impossible to know if money can across the border or -not, should everything or nothing be declared? What exchange rate -should be used when calculating taxes? Would receivers have to pay -income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in -BitCoin? I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.
- -For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and -accepted by a lot of users. It must be possible to get easy access to -the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be -easy to spend it. At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get -access to, but there are very few places to spend it. I am not really -a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin, -so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins. I -would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs -and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time -if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby -to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular. I'm sure they -will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which -probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I -believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming -currencies.
- -The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is -CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is -competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles -to see which one get the next lump of cash). The "winner" get 50 -BitCoin when this happen. Yesterday I came across the obvious way to -join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins, -by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines -and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50 -BitCoins. Check out -BitCoin Pool -if this sounds interesting. I have not had time to try to set up a -machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones -own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining -yet.
- -Update 2010-12-15: Found an interesting -criticism of bitcoin. Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought -it was interesting to read. The arguments presented seem to be -equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.
+I går lanserte vi i foreningen NUUG +FiksGataMi, med +pressemelding +på epost til alle NUUGs annonseringsliste, medlemmene, alle +landets redaksjoner og alle landets kommuner og fylkeskommuner. +Responsen har vært formidabel, og vi har en enorm baklogg av +henvendelser å følge opp. Vi jobber oss sakte men sikkert igjennom +stabelen. Alt sendes til NUUGs RT-instans slik at ingen blir glemt. +Hvis du har kommentarer og spørsmål, bruk +kontaktfeltet på +FiksGatami, eller send epost til adressen som er oppgitt der.
+ +Pr nå er det kommet inn over 600 problemer som er rapportert videre +til kommuner og fylker. Jeg hentet ut fordelingen på kategorier nå +nettopp, for å se hva som opptar innbyggerne rundt om i det ganske +land. Det er mest aktivitet i Trondheim, fulgt av Oslo og Bergen, men +godt over 100 kommuner og fylker har fått meldinger fra innbyggerne +via FiksGatami så langt.
+ +| count | category |
|---|---|
| 398 | Hull i vei |
| 83 | Gater/Veier |
| 65 | Snøbrøyting |
| 54 | Gatelys |
| 46 | Annet |
| 30 | Fortau/gangstier |
| 17 | Tette avløpsrister |
| 10 | Trafikkskilter |
| 7 | Parkering |
| 7 | Forlatte kjøretøy |
| 4 | Trafikklys |
| 4 | Sykkelveier |
| 4 | Forsøpling |
| 3 | Buss- og togstopp |
| 3 | Vannforsyning |
| 3 | Universell utforming |
| 3 | Trær |
| 2 | Graffiti/tagging |
| 2 | Dumpet skrot |
| 1 | Park/landskap |
| 1 | Ulovlige oppslag |
| 1 | Offentlige toaletter |
Det gjenstår endel jobb med skalering før vi er fornøyd med +ytelsen, og så må vi få skrevet litt mer informasjon til kommunene om +hvordan systemet fungerer, slik at de vet mer hvordan de kan bidra til +å gjøre brukeropplevelsen for innbyggerne enda bedre.
+ +Til de som synes sitt lokalområde har dårlig kart, så er det bare +en ting å si. Bidra til å gjør OpenStreetmap bedre ved +å tegne inn ditt lokalområde! Eller få det offentlige til å gi ut +bedre kartdata uten bruksbegrensninger. :)
+ +Jeg vil presentere FiksGataMi under +Go Open 2011, så vi +ses kanskje der?