Hacker News Reader

mike_esspeon Study Suggests Link Between Dread Pirate Roberts and Satoshi Nakamoto

This seems to be the answer - some early adopter, maybe even Satoshi, used Silk Road as a coin mixer.

mike_esspeon Richest Bitcoin Addresses

If you can create a pair of (private key, public key with collision), then yes bitcoin will be broken.

mike_esspeon Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer

Karl Gray claims the transfer

https://twitter.com/paradimeshift/status/404043972646932480

https://twitter.com/paradimeshift/status/404042739127308289

mike_esspeon Someone just made a $147,239,214 Bitcoin transfer

People used silver for a long time too, but it was demonetized in 20th century.

http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/silver-a-brief-history-of-d...

mike_esspeon Richest Bitcoin Addresses

To break EC you need to get EC public key. You can't get it unless bitcoin address was reused.

If you found pre-image for ripemd160(sha256(x)), you still need to find a private key for it.

mike_esspeon Richest Bitcoin Addresses

Bitcoin address is a hash of public key. So, without address reuse you should break both EC, RIPEMD-160 and SHA-256

mike_esspeon The first Bitcoin post on HN

There are some rare metals, other than silver and gold, that did not become a currency, despite having all the same features. Why?

mike_esspeon The first Bitcoin post on HN

It's an idea for a startup.

mike_esspeon Bitcoin $600

Gold and silver were a currency and they weren't backed by government.

mike_esspeon Bitcoin $600

Silver was demonetised in 20th century relative to gold, though it was used as a store of value. It can happen with gold too.

http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/silver-a-brief-history-of-d...

mike_esspeon Bitcoin $500

It's just a Poe's Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law

mike_esspeon Bitcoin for the Befuddled – Our fancy new book and website

Isn't emergence of bitcoin falsified regression theorem?

From "Human Action":

No good can be employed for the function of a medium of exchange which at the very beginning of its use for this purpose did not have exchange value on account of other employments. And all these statements implied in the regression theorem are enounced apodictically as implied in the apriorism of praxeology. It must happen this way. Nobody can ever succeed in construction a hypothetical case in which things were to occur in a different way.

https://mises.org/humanaction/chap17sec4.asp

mike_esspeon BitCoin almost doubles previous peak.

Bitcoin is still in the early adopters phase.

mike_esspeon Gravity Battery Concept

Similar concept is already in use with hydroelectric power generation. It's called pumped-storage hydroelectricity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricit...

mike_esspeon Why Are We Building Jailbait Sexbots?

'Realistic' virtual porn producers should just be asked about source for generated scene, just like producers of real porn are asked for actors age verification (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adult_film_industry_regulation...). There is no reason to ban it just on this assumption. I think the real reason is different.

mike_esspeon Bitcoin HITS $400

Do you realize, that you still can buy it and get a 3-digits increase? :) Or lose. In that regard situation is the same as 4 years ago.

mike_esspeon The secret world of cargo ships

The main question is - why coerced prostitutes are not going to law enforcement? What prevents them? Will they be deported for that?

This problem probably can be solved with technology - make Airbnb for amateur sex workers :)

mike_esspeon Is economics a science?

Mathematical proofs are falsifiable, and there are a lot of hypotheses, that are not proved yet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_m...

mike_esspeon Shopify accepts Bitcoin

Just a point - my bank asks 2.5% commission for automatic currency conversion when buying with credit card.

mike_esspeon Bitcoins reached $300

In Russia it's common to have computer and internet, but no credit card.

mike_esspeon Plutonium Powered Pacemaker (1974)

Plutonium powered pacemaker with 34 years in service:

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc072143

mike_esspeon Majority is not Enough: Bitcoin Mining is Vulnerable

In scenario 1 the selfish pool will lose the block in most cases. Modern pools have a lot of connection to the network, so as not to waste mining on orphaned block. It will get the honest block before the selfish pool block.

mike_esspeon Daylight Saving Time Is Terrible: Here's a Simple Plan to Fix It

Can you ask your employer to shift the schedule?

mike_esspeon Design tip: Never use black (2012)

My eyes prefer better contrast. I've read WCAG 2.0 and 7:1 is a minimum contrast, not optimum. The logic is that it's a minimum contrast for a user with 20/80 vision.

mike_esspeon Here's how I deal with users who steal

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/07/16/what...

Seems like 0.07% from survey by Federal Bureau of Prisons.

mike_esspeon Trial week: Our hiring secret

Can you request from your current employer one week unpaid vacation time to compensate? If not, then why?

mike_esspeon The Decline of Wikipedia: As More People Rely on It, Fewer People Create It

It seems to be some evil bot or human, coming from different IPv6 addresses and changing the magnitude order.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polish_Armed_Forc...

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Russian_Armed_For...

mike_esspeon Self-driving cars projected to reduce injuries by 90%, save $450B annually

It's called Solowheel: http://solowheel.com/

mike_esspeon Design tip: Never use black (2012)

It have a poor contrast for text.

mike_esspeon How much can an extra hour's sleep change you?

Properly installed double glazing will block almost all sound, why not install them?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulated_glazing