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BitTorrent v2

blog.libtorrent.org

521–530 of 576 posts

Re: BitTorrent v2

#521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also fairly successful as a way to transfer money.

I am pretty lucky that I only have to transfer money to between 2 countries that have heavily linked banking systems (US -> Canada), but I am not entirely sure what Bitcoin would get me in terms of transferring money. The fees are quite small on Transferwise, and also, I have…I don’t know what you want to call it…accountability? Reversibility? Reliability? Whatever fee I have to pay, the fact I get a known third-part…

It sounds like A) you don't deal with very much money B) you don't travel much outside the first world.

Bitcoin was the backstop that saved my ass when I went to SE Asia and none of my first-class Australian or US bank cards would let me get cash.

Re: BitTorrent v2

#522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Argentina is literally in that situation now. The government charges a surplus 30% tax on any foreign currency purchase (cash, Netflix, anything outside the country), and only allows you to buy 200 usd a month legally. The inflation rate is over 50% there, Bitcoin is more stable than the Argentinian peso. Basically, the government has made it illegal for you to legally save money on a different currency than the Arge…

and yet, bitcoin use is still negligible.

Sounds like it's actually quite popular there now https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/economic-uncertainty-restric...

Re: BitTorrent v2

#523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that users do not see the behavior as the same is the problem. When the users are telling you how they use your software and you respond by saying "that's bizarre, don't do that", then there's a serious disconnect. Developers should be responsive to user feedback, not dictate how their software should be used.

I think the serious disconnect is in user expectations. Developers of paid produces should be responsive to user feedback. Developers of open source software are free (legally, ethically and morally) to care or not about user feedback exactly as much as they wish. Users of open source software are free to fork the software if the original developer isn't responsive to their particular needs. They're not entitled to d…

I disagree. It's one thing to not have the time or bandwidth to change or add a feature. Certainly free users aren't entitled to a developers time. It's another thing to disagree with a style of usage and refuse to accommodate users out of principle. The software is marketed as an open source replacement for utorrent. If he wanted to treat it as his little fiefdom, he shouldn't position it as a replacement for utorrent. If I had any expectation that a pull request for this feature would be accepted, I would fix it myself. But his demeanor suggests otherwise. That's not the way to approach software that positions itself as a community project.

Re: BitTorrent v2

#524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am pretty lucky that I only have to transfer money to between 2 countries that have heavily linked banking systems (US -> Canada), but I am not entirely sure what Bitcoin would get me in terms of transferring money. The fees are quite small on Transferwise, and also, I have…I don’t know what you want to call it…accountability? Reversibility? Reliability? Whatever fee I have to pay, the fact I get a known third-part…

I don't know if "reliable" is a good word for the legacy banking system. The banks in Cyprus for example siezed money from peoples accounts only a few years ago... its much harder for banks to seize bitcoin that you self-custody. Many wealthy people and now companies are beginning to view bitcoin as a safe haven asset because of its decentralized security model and censorship/seizure resistant properties. https://en.…

Argentina did exactly that on 2001. Life savings stolen forever. To this day, most people save their dollars in their houses because no one trust banks in the long term.

Re: BitTorrent v2

#525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people have no use for most currencies. I, for example, have no use for the Argentine peso. That doesn't make it useless for someone else, who might for example live in Argentina. The day you want to hire someone who wants their payment in Bitcoin for some reason, that's when you'll have use for it.

The Argentine peso is also useless to people living in Argentina.

Sad but true.

Re: BitTorrent v2

#526
post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice. If anyone is wondering if they should try this, picotorrent is probably the most lightweight GUI torrent client for windows (no linux/mac version).

What are you using for the GUI layer, and what's your stance on accessibility? The fact it's Windows only gives me hope.

I'm using wxWidgets, so it's the Win32 API at the lowest layer. For accessibility I want to make it support the NVDA screen reader which I think would make it support other readers as well :)

Re: BitTorrent v2

#527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this hypothetical situation you describe exist anywhere outside of the hypothetical situation posited by a character in a Neal Stephenson novel? Seriously in reality the specifics of any sort of wild situation like the one you describe matter. Which countries? Which currency? Which kind of illegal behavior? And (I ask out of ignorance) in this scenario you describe why would whatever group managing whatever bitc…

> Does this hypothetical situation you describe exist anywhere outside of the hypothetical situation posited by a character in a Neal Stephenson novel? That indeed is a bunch of real situations that have happened to me in 2014-2015 and some of that is still a thing. Check your privileges, sweet summer child. Like seriously — for the first 30 years of my life it was outright illegal to have a bank account in a foreign…

This exact situation is happening now in Argentina. If someone sends you USD, they get converted to pesos at a ridiculously low rate. That's why most freelancers use crypto as a way to get their earnings.

Re: BitTorrent v2

#528
post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does this hypothetical situation you describe exist anywhere outside of the hypothetical situation posited by a character in a Neal Stephenson novel? That indeed is a bunch of real situations that have happened to me in 2014-2015 and some of that is still a thing. Check your privileges, sweet summer child. Like seriously — for the first 30 years of my life it was outright illegal to have a bank account in a foreign…

Your 'real' situation contains fallacies. How is Russia involved in money transfers to Ukraine? UAH is hryvna. Ukraine has it's own currency since 1991. RUB is used in Russia.

Totally nothing happened in 2014 that involved Russia, da. Definitely not a war.

Re: BitTorrent v2

#529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Merkle trees are everywhere in Bitcoin (full node or otherwise). The block header has the merkle root of all transactions that are a part of that block. The witness merkle root is stored in the coinbase transaction (if the miner is segwit enabled). And proof of work is done for the block header, which includes all these merkle roots.

I pretty strongly believe that "blockchain" is a misnomer given how much the structure relies on Merkle Trees. Forks aren't some aberration in the data structure, but a direct exploration of branches in the Merkle Tree. Most blockchain algorithms, Proof of Work especially, are just very rigorous "rebase operations" in git terms.

Blocks are not organized into merkle trees in Bitcoin. Full nodes pick the longest (PoW wise) valid chain and discards any other competing chains and their blocks.

There are some alternative cryptosystem designs that do take blocks in "losing chains" into consideration using a DAG structure, like GHOST and its successor SPECTRE (by Aviv Zohar et. al). Ethereum also has a concept of "uncle blocks", which are rewarded and contribute to chain selection.

Re: BitTorrent v2

#530
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insofar as the majority of that traffic is likely illegal (in terms of sharing pirated property) I would not consider it useful.

This falls apart when you examine prohibited goods. Guns are illegal in most countries because they are very useful.

Are they though? I'm 38 and can't remember a situation in my life where a gun would have been useful. Not saying that I can't imagine such situations, I just find it a slightly weird example to make this point.
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