
Ideas I'd Like To Work On - zackattack
http://zacharyburt.com/2011/05/ideas-id-like-to-work-on/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
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petervandijck
I'd like to work on bio engineering. I think it's the new hacking. And the
_real physical world_ is the new internet.

~~~
adrianwaj
Check out Stanislaw Burzynski and his son, who claim to cure cancer by
deactivating genes that cause cancer and activating the ones that kill it, on
a patient-by-patient basis with "FDA approved gene-targeted medicines"
<http://youtu.be/tXf7r4VBDgk> <http://www.burzynskiclinic.com/>

Blows me away.

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jeromec
I do feel a bit like kicking myself for not seeing that bitcoin would end up
where it is today. I first heard about bitcoin on HN when they were worth
around .01 each, and could be generated fairly easily by simply running the
mining software in the background. I was so busy spotting the flaw in the
electricity cost creation argument I missed the fact it wouldn't matter,
because the algorithm gets harder so only "professional" miners likely end up
generating the majority of new coins, and also that there is a cap at 21
million, so generating coins was planned to stop anyway.
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1655202>)

I was looking at bitcoins as they might compare to an established currency
model, like dollars, where the rate of creation has to be controlled smartly
(not that I'm saying it is) and indefinitely. Satisfied I had spotted a money
creation flaw preventing bitcoins becoming a dominant new currency I dismissed
them quickly, never noticing the other aspects of brilliance it has.

I still see problems with bitcoin becoming a fully fledged sustained and
mature currency. Some of these have been articulated here on HN (notably by
jerf). However, I believe bitcoins still have developmental stages to go
through before failing, and because of this I actually still see upside for
them as a speculative (still risky) investment. I doubt I would do anything
with them now, but if I had got in at .01 cent, now that would be different.

~~~
a1k0n
I just found out about bitcoins last weekend, and ran the bitcoin miner, and
then found out that it will take my 2.4GHz dual-core laptop 10 years to
generate a bitcoin at the currently-established difficulty (without using my
GPU, presumably).

~~~
zach
I know, right? Now that everyone's excited about Bitcoin, the exciting part is
over. Kind of a bummer.

I see a unique opportunity here for a company with an existing virtual goods
economy or something similar such as Listia.

They create a new genesis block and new Bitcoin-protocol clients and publicly
announce they're going to turn the spigot on (announce the genesis block) a
few days later. The twist being that they will accept the new chain's currency
within their existing economy.

They not only get a lot of publicity but effectively become a central bank for
their forked currency, which allows them to compete with Classic Bitcoin via
the par value they establish.

I haven't thought this through, it's just a wild idea. What are the flaws in
this plan? Would this just actually destroy value? Is this the expected long-
run for Bitcoin anyway?

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smilliken
As an aside, thanks for putting a name to a phenomenon I've never had a proper
name for: survivorship bias. I had a "eureka" moment reading that, I've
searched several times and never found the real name.

Wiki: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias>

~~~
zackattack
[http://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan-Impact-Highly-
Improbable/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan-Impact-Highly-
Improbable/dp/1400063515/) have a field day

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shazow
I'm very excited about Bitcoin too, it feels like a renaissance for almost
every vertical. Especially since there's so much low-hanging fruit right now
and there's still a disconnect between these units of cryptocurrency and real
hard cash in people's perception. You can get people used to doing things with
Bitcoins what they normally wouldn't do with "real money".

~~~
adrianwaj
... like investing in startups.

~~~
kiba
Yes, you can invest in bitcoin microcorporations that started their IPO on the
Global Bitcoin Stock Exchange.

However, these corporations are not legally declared or chartered by the
state. They only exists in the mind of some bitcoiners.

For some reason, Bitcoin unlock the mind of hackers and encourage them to go
wild and do crazy things like creating companies that exists only
on...cipherspace.

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hortonew
I definitely like the theme of what you wish to work on (helping people). I
myself would like to work on a project like your Friend Finder (really
anything to create interactions between people), as I'm always trying to find
like-minded people nearby. I have ideas if you ever wish to team up.

~~~
zackattack
please send me an email

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mike_esspe
I'd like to build something on bitcoins too. I have several ideas (billing,
twitter-donation, p2p exchange, services exchange like LETS).

I can bring on board bitcoin knowledge (i co-founded a popular mining pool)
and scala + lift programming.

~~~
tomjen3
Lift is nice, but does it actually scale to more than one machine? If not,
then it wouldn't be something I would use for a startup.

~~~
mike_esspe
It scales with sticky sessions on load balancer

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adrianwaj
Bitcoin is firing me up.

A www.secondmarket.com for Bitcoin? Drop me a line.

~~~
palish
Do you have any plans for how to handle Bitcoin eventually being made illegal
in the US?

Or the other side of the coin --- Bitcoin being devalued when the "miners"
sell off thousands of Bitcoins (to cash out)?

It's kind of interesting to think about the implications.

~~~
adrianwaj
It's most likely going to become illegal when and if people start getting
burnt (a few bad eggs spoil the basket), but we're hackers and we don't see
obstacles, only speed humps.

~~~
Hawramani
Or if the powers that be start feeling threatened by it.

Personally I think it is too early to tell what is going to happen. I would
love to see it succeed and become something that makes the world a better
place.

~~~
adrianwaj
As soon as tax departments feel they are missing out, and people are evading
paying tax, that's really when the excrement will make physical contact with
the electric powered oscillating air current distribution device.

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stevenj
What's Bitcoin?

~~~
shazow
Start here: <http://www.weusecoins.com/>

If you want more of a third-party historical overview, Wikipedia has a decent
article: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin>

In short, it's a decentralized digital currency built on cryptography.

~~~
stevenj
So the gist of it is that I'll buy (or pay for) things online -- products and
services -- using Bitcoins instead of my debit or credit card?

~~~
shazow
Doesn't even have to be online, Bitcoins also work really well peer to peer
(unlike credit cards), and things like NFC-capable phones can take advantage
of that in-person someday soon.

It's a completely independent currency, so products and services must begin to
accept Bitcoin before you can use it to pay for things. That is, it's not
interchangeable with debit or credit cards, so you'll need to acquire Bitcoins
before you can do any of that (by buying them or earning them or mining them).

On the upside, it's much easier to send and receive Bitcoin payments than it
is with credit cards. There are no "merchant accounts", nothing you need to
fill out, no barrier to entry. Just run the Bitcoin daemon, it even has a
convenient JSON-RPC protocol.

