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not everything is about fees and how much you pay, it is about security of the network and the coin that you are using too. otherwise there are free coins like NANO (old name RaiBlock) that don't even have a fee.

As you can see, the payment channel is based on the HTLC protocol. For more information, you can track the wiki link: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Hashed_Timelock_Contracts. In short, the acceptor/ receiver has to confirm that he has accepted/ received the payment in a given time and the sender has the sum automatically without having confirmation from receiver. Moreover, L.N has its own code of committed transactions. They are are security despite a sudden conflict or other party turn into unresponsive. To better understand why L.n is safe, you can track this link: https://rusty.ozlabs.org/?p=462

Regards

The Silk Road seized, and the downfall of Mt.Gox

Silk Road is the first modern darknet market. Derived from a historical network of trade routes, which started during the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) between Europe, India, China, and countries on the Afro-Eurasian landmass. Started in February 2011, a booming online marketplace, and founded by Ross Ulbricht, a darknet market operator, known alias “Dread Pirate Roberts”. Ross as some article say American former drug trafficker, some people say he is a visionary who wants anonymity, maximize political freedom and independence, emphasizing freedom of choice, voluntary association, and individual judgment; they believe in every individual rights. He also has some business failures before Silk Road.
It produced millions of dollars in revenue, secret was simple: ensuring the anonymity of its buyers and sellers. You can access it through Tor, software that renders anonymous on the internet and as a tool for uncensored communication to Internet users. Primarily, buyers could register free, but there were a limited number of new seller accounts available; new sellers had to purchase an account thru an auction. Later, a fixed fee for each new seller account to mitigate the possibility of malicious individuals distributing tainted goods, the site had 10,000 products for sale by vendors see.
Bitcoin is the primary mode of payment, fiat to bitcoin then btc to Silk Road account, if there is a transaction the buyer’s btc will be escrow; when the buyer confirmed the legitimacy of the purchased, seller’s account will be credited. Despite its highly anonymous features, in October 2013 the U.S. Government shut it down. Intersection between the Bitcoin housed on the site, valued at tens of millions of U.S. dollars, and a key crime-fighting tool: the federal asset forfeiture program. As soon as the United States seized Silk Road, it also, by virtue of technological fiat (and, apparently, some clumsiness on the part of Ulbricht), seized the bitcoins housed therein.
This included Ulbricht’s staggering personal bitcoin supply (about 150,000 BTC), accumulated through the healthy commission Silk Road took from all sales, as well as all of the bitcoins held by its many users or housed in the aforementioned escrow accounts (about 30,000 BTC).  This meant that if a drug-seeking Silk Road user tried accessing the site after the shutdown, he would, to his likely dismay, be redirected to an FBI-generated shutdown notice. In addition, all of the bitcoins he may have stored on Silk Road would also be gone, seized by the government as part of efforts to forfeit all of the bitcoins held in Silk Road accounts. Short discussion by the federal asset forfeiture program, kindly see.

Silk Road Seize lessons: Ross was just clumsy: agreed to be interviewed by Forbes, under the show of the Dread Pirate Roberts, in the summer of 2013, revealing enough of himself to law enforcement to pierce Silk Road’s veil. As Michael Neilsen suggests, the claim that Bitcoin can be used anonymously—the claim that drove the very formation of Silk Road and other marketplaces that specialize in illegal goods—is a myth. “The block chain is public,” Neilsen argues, and “although Bitcoin addresses aren’t immediately associated with real-world identities, computer scientists have made a great deal of progress figuring out how to de-anonymize ‘anonymous’ social networks.
If FBI agents can trace the flow of the Silk Road bitcoins—or, simpler still, exploit civil forfeiture to make such tracing unnecessary—proponents of Bitcoin (particularly those who seek to use Bitcoin to facilitate criminal activity) will be forced to adjust accordingly. By virtue of the blockchain, the backbone of the Bitcoin ecosystem, Bitcoin may never be as anonymous or untraceable as it purports to be. Ironically, as Neilsen aptly suggests, Bitcoin is “perhaps the most open and transparent financial instrument the world has ever seen.” The Silk Road episode stands as evidence that existing legal structures such as asset forfeiture currently have the power to contain Bitcoin. U.S. Marshalls auction off the bitcoins from the Silk Road forfeiture, we are left to question whether this newfangled crypto-currency is any different, from a legal perspective, from an old fashioned pile of cash.

MtGox downfall.  MtGox was a bitcoin exchange based in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, as the largest bitcoin intermediary and the world's leading bitcoin exchange. MTGox stands for "Magic: The Gathering Online eXchange” founded by Jed McCaleb, now the most controversial figure in cryptocurrency and hated due to its issue with XRP. The exchange handled millions of dollars’ worth of transactions a day, just like a traditional “forex” trading platform. When BTC is sent from one public key address to another (sender used private key), funds cannot be retrieved unless the receiver physically sends the funds back (using own private key). This feature of Bitcoin is the core of its almost-totally protected transaction system, while MtGox’s exchange system avoided this security feature for the sake of accessibility and speed. This arrangement, called a web wallet, is the similar as Silk Road, meaning the private keys is with MTGox, and the only thing keeping MtGox from stealing the funds was, ironically, the prevention of legal action on the basis of contract law or criminal law. It is considered “the worst of both worlds” since it joint the irreversibility of BTC transactions (once you sent your BTC to MtGox, only MtGox could ever send it back to you) with none of the highly developed regulatory protections of the traditional financial services system. Even though users “owned” the BTC they had sent to their MtGox wallets, their claim to ownership was secured only by a simple contract—the user agreement.
In early 2014 it dramatic collapse. In February 2014, Mt. Gox suspended trading, closed its website and exchange service, and filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors. In April 2014, the company began liquidation proceedings. The disappearance of more than $400 million worth of bitcoin from MtGox, and its subsequent collapse, many Bitcoin users left with no option other than to trust the traditional legal system for relief. Whether the collapse triggered by hacking or mismanagement, its effect on customers is the same: they are unable to retrieve their funds.  Mizuho had been trying to shut down MtGox’s account for months before the collapse, and now that it is theoretically liable for the exchange’s errors, other banks who deal with Bitcoin businesses are proceeding cautiously. Bitcoin’s largest exchange and its customers have become involved in legal actions is clear evidence that the traditional legal system will continue to dominate dispute resolution for Bitcoin users.
Like Silk Road case, it proves that current legal tools like asset forfeiture can be adapted to Bitcoin’s supposedly cutting-edge usage, and MtGox case displays that bankruptcy and class actions can be applied to Bitcoin denominated business disputes.  Some developers are moving forward with systems based on Ricardian contracts (“smart contracts”) and multi-signature cryptography, application of these technologies would be a peer-to-peer exchange.

Bitcoin, in order to continue its challenge to our old financial system, it must cope up with and react to our traditional legal structures; either that or it must progress beyond them. As Bitcoin grows in popularity, so does the law’s interest in being able to reach it just like Silk Road and MT.Gox.  

Your thoughts? If you have more knowledge about these historical event, kindly reply. Let us learn together.  

Read more:RSK vs ETH

Is it going to change Bitcoin forever? Or there will be something that will emerge from inside the Bitcoin ecosystem? Your thoughts.

Since we are the future of financial system, there are some issues with bitcoin scalability, why? Because, blockchains are slow & expensive. If you have notice, when you send some bitcoins to exchange, they would receive it like 10mins. or more & you have paid a high transaction fee just to speed it up. If you apply it in a real world, it will not work. I will just use my visa to buy then.  That is the problem of our bitcoin, and lighting network is the idea that can solve scalability of the blockchains. Its idea is not all of your transactions are recorded on the blockchain.
If you would visualized, we can bypass the recording process on the blockchain and help it by carrying them off the chain. In layman’s term, we will open a payment channel between us and record its opening on the blockchain. Imagine a SDB (safety deposit box) wherein two people deposited amounts of money “and” each put a lock (sounds like a “bank”, right? SDB plus joint account). After the account opening, we can transact anytime thru our payment channel, it will stay for decades, unless we will end our contract or close our channel (that’s the time we will touch again the blockchain).
By then we can write our final rights of transactions that happened thru our channel on the blockchain, we are bound with promise of ownership. So, we only go to the blockchain upon account opening & closing of our payment channel.

Simple example:
theyoungmillionaire bought a phone worth 1.7 BTC from Daboy_Lyle and payment will be done via BTC, since:
theyoungmillionaire & TMAN have a payment channel, and TMAN & Daboy_Lyle also with a payment channel. theyoungmillionaire can pay Daboy_Lyle thru TMAN.
TMAN will send 1.7 BTC to Daboy_Lyle and theyoungmillionaire will refund TMAN with 1.7 BTC.

By these, we can offload transactions on the blockchain, thus, we can release up the chain’s bandwidth. Transactions is going to happen at lightning speed (That is why it is called lightning network), By means of a network of payment channels, millions of transactions occurred, and that too without a heavy transaction fee (NO FEE FTW).  

Being built on top of a cryptocurrency blockchain, I'm really focused on Steemit!

We need to grow the community over Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, etc...

But all new projects have bounties on those platforms! It's very hard to find some Steemit Bounties.
So, I created this topic to find what Steemit campaigns are out there!

I will start with the few I know and will update the topic with your feedback.
Feel free to point out some information to add as well as new Steemit campaign that may start.

This topic can also be used to talk about the campaigns, good/bad feedback, doubts, possible changes, etc...

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STEEMIT: https://steemit.com/@friendup BOUNTY THREAD: https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/2962099.0 VALUE: 125k FRND | ~5k USD END DATE: April 15th JOB'S: UPVOTE & RESTEEM REPORTS: After work on Bounty0x NOTES: Campaign moved to Bounty0x Platform. More info at https://alpha.bounty0x.io/bounties/host/FriendUP

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STEEMIT: https://steemit.com/@spotcoin BOUNTY THREAD: https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/3173867.0 VALUE: 404k SPOT | ~202k USD (For All Social Media Bounties) END DATE: June 4th JOB'S: UPVOTE & RESTEEM & COMMENT REPORTS: Every two weeks on Bounty Thread and G0blin Form NOTES: Upvotes and Comments are valid for every post about Spotcoin, not only from official account.      Bounty campaign is being managed by g0blin. More info at https://www.g0blin.com/spotcoin/ LINKS: WEBSITE | ANN | REDDIT | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | LINKEDIN | TELEGRAM

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STEEMIT: https://steemit.com/@smartcontainers BOUNTY THREAD: https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/3211636.0 VALUE: 75k SMARC | 20k USD END DATE: ? JOB'S: RESTEEM REPORTS: Weekly on Bounty Thread (Week end on Wednesday) LINKS: WEBSITE | ANN | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | TELEGRAM | REDDIT | YOUTUBE

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STEEMIT: https://steemit.com/@asuracoin BOUNTY THREAD: https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/3019383.0 VALUE: 8.75M ASA | ~175k USD (For All Social Media Bounties) END DATE: June 15th JOB'S: UPVOTE & RESTEEM & COMMENT REPORTS: Every two weeks on Bounty Thread and G0blin Form (Sunday) NOTES: Upvotes and Comments are valid for every post about Asura Coin, not only from official account.      Bounty campaign is being managed by g0blin. More info at https://www.g0blin.com/asura/ LINKS: WEBSITE | ANN | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | REDDIT | MEDIUM | GITHUB | TELEGRAM

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STEEMIT: https://steemit.com/@countinghouse BOUNTY THREAD: https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/3392579.0 VALUE: 50k CHT | ~30k USD END DATE: ? JOB'S: RESTEEM REPORTS: Weekly on Bounty Thread (Friday) NOTES: All Bounty hunters must go through KYC in order to receive tokens. LINKS: WEBSITE | ANN | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | TELEGRAM | REDDIT

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STEEMIT: https://steemit.com/@uncloak BOUNTY THREAD: https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/3384452.0 VALUE: 10.5M UNC | ~115k USD (For All Blog and Media Bounties) END DATE: May 20th JOB'S: FOLLOW & RESTEEM REPORTS: Weekly on Bounty Thread (Sunday) NOTES: US Residents are not allowed to participate in Bounty. LINKS: WEBSITE | ANN | LINKEDIN | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | TELEGRAM | MEDIUM | REDDIT

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~snip~

I made some images regarding the rank system, activity, merit and some FAQ on bitcointalk. Hope can help new users a little bit.  

So I decided to write an instruct-able blog post to try and help some bounty hunters to optimize their time and save potentially hours of searching through social media posts and saving links. I have been using this method for over a month now and it has saved me time and made the weekend less stressful (most of my bounties report on Sundays).

The blog post covers 2 methods for automatically tracking your social media posts and saving them in a spreadsheet in your Google Drive. Method 1 works for Twitter and Method 2 works for both Twitter and Facebook but is a bit more complicated. Both methods may also work for Linked In but since I don't have an account I haven't tried it.

This is copied from my steemit account and the original post can be found here https://steemit.com/bounty/@badman-crypto/badmans-tips-n-tricks-1-automated-bounty-tracking, and if you like this post go to the link and drop me an up-vote and follow (a little merit wouldn't be refused either ).

I think the main problem is that many ICO projects care more about the hype, rather than the business model or the technology behind it. Nowadays, investors are getting smarter and they do a thorough check on ICOs before committing any capital. So, I believe the core business model must be good and have a good use-case first. When this is true, then you must care about the hype of your project. To me, a successful ICO would be determined 60% by the business model & technology, and 40% on the hype created for the project.

To admins, high rank members and members,


We should have the right to give negative trust to a bounty managers or rate their records. This must be the answer to prevent wasting our time and efforts. In that case this will push them to examine their project carefully before they're going to post their thread here. Or else they will put their name on shame. As what I had experienced as a newbie member here, I had wasted so much time and efforts creating and sharing those project just to promote them but it ended up on nothing. I like what I'm doing but it is very stressful when you ended up on nothing! Maybe some of the Bounty manager here really know from the beginning that their project was really a scam but because of the shares they will have they intended to make a newbie account or use their secondary account just to make money through scamming. For me it is acceptable if the project ended on not reaching their soft cap rather than ended up on a scam project that's hurt a lot!

NO TO SCAM PROJECT!!
PREVENT A SCAM PROJECT!!!
NEWBIE MUST NOT PUT THEIR EFFORT IN VAIN!!!!

There are so many bounty managers here but do we know who to choose? I am suggesting here that what if, bitcointalk.org must have an accredited "Bounty Managers" ? Those bounty manager must under go on,

1. Verification, the purpose of it is to know if that person really exist.
2. Capable,  in managing the project and has a complete team members because he/she can't handle it alone.
3. Membership, bitcointalk.org must set a requirements to become a "BM", rules and regulation to be among the most trusted and accredited BM in bitcointalk.org.

1. The purpose of this suggestion is to lessen the scam project so that no efforts will be wasted.
2. To prevent blaming the BM if the project will ended up on scam. ( The BM must face consequences, like for ex. He/she is not allowed to conduct a new bounty project for 2 weeks.)
3. Participant that put the blame to the BM must also face the consequence because of disrespecting.

I hope this will help us and notice by the Admins here.

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