[Wikimedia-l] convert from BitCoin to FoldingCoin and other proofs of useful work

[James Salsman]

The Foundation has been accepting BitCoin donations. Unfortunately,
BitCoin is very wasteful in terms of electricity, and is therefore a
dirty cryptocurrency.

I recommend that the Foundation immediately cease accepting BitCoin,
and require donors who wish to donate in cryptocurrency to convert to
FoldingCoin instead. Please see: FoldingCoin (FLDC)
http://foldingcoin.net/ whitepaper:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y4MV9AwGLTRFqD-kjC4uN0AX59kHOpO1OWsabnxxUIs

This conversion will place the Foundation at the forefront of
cryptocurrency technology, and stop it from contributing to extremely
dirty waste. As other cryptocurrencies based on proofs of useful work
instead of useless work emerge, the Foundation should consider those.
FoldingCoin is based on proofs of useful prediction of protein
folding, which is useful for computer-aided antibody design, and used
in turn for cancer therapies and many other applied and research
medical fields.

I also invite anyone in the community interested in co-authoring my
forthcoming derivative whitepaper on proofs of useful intelligibility
remediation work to contact me off-list, please. I am also willing to
help with proofs of useful encyclopedia article improvement, but I am
not certain if ORES is yet robust enough to support such proof in a
secure fashion.

Best regards,
Jim Salsman

[Chico Venancio]

What would the expected energy savings be of such a move?
Accepting more cryptocurrencies may make sense if the foundation can do
that in a way that does not take a lot of effort. But to stop accepting
bitcoin seems counterproductive to our mission.


Chico Venancio

Post by James Salsman
The Foundation has been accepting BitCoin donations. Unfortunately,
BitCoin is very wasteful in terms of electricity, and is therefore a
dirty cryptocurrency.
I recommend that the Foundation immediately cease accepting BitCoin,
and require donors who wish to donate in cryptocurrency to convert to
FoldingCoin instead. Please see: FoldingCoin (FLDC)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y4MV9AwGLTRFqD-kjC4uN0AX59kHOpO1OWsabnxxUIs
This conversion will place the Foundation at the forefront of
cryptocurrency technology, and stop it from contributing to extremely
dirty waste. As other cryptocurrencies based on proofs of useful work
instead of useless work emerge, the Foundation should consider those.
FoldingCoin is based on proofs of useful prediction of protein
folding, which is useful for computer-aided antibody design, and used
in turn for cancer therapies and many other applied and research
medical fields.
I also invite anyone in the community interested in co-authoring my
forthcoming derivative whitepaper on proofs of useful intelligibility
remediation work to contact me off-list, please. I am also willing to
help with proofs of useful encyclopedia article improvement, but I am
not certain if ORES is yet robust enough to support such proof in a
secure fashion.
Best regards,
Jim Salsman
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[Alex Power]

This is an awful idea.

The primary reason the WMF needs to accept Bitcoin as a donation is due to
the substantial tax benefits accepting it gives to donors. It is an asset
that has increased massively in value, and holders can donate it and deduct
the current value from their taxes, without paying capital gains. If there
is demand, it would likely make sense to accept Ethereum donations for the
same reason.

Nobody particularly knows, cares, or has capital gains in FoldingCoin, and
it's not the place of the foundation to promote it or your whitepaper.

Post by James Salsman
The Foundation has been accepting BitCoin donations. Unfortunately,
BitCoin is very wasteful in terms of electricity, and is therefore a
dirty cryptocurrency.
I recommend that the Foundation immediately cease accepting BitCoin,
and require donors who wish to donate in cryptocurrency to convert to
FoldingCoin instead. Please see: FoldingCoin (FLDC)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y4MV9AwGLTRFqD-
kjC4uN0AX59kHOpO1OWsabnxxUIs
This conversion will place the Foundation at the forefront of
cryptocurrency technology, and stop it from contributing to extremely
dirty waste. As other cryptocurrencies based on proofs of useful work
instead of useless work emerge, the Foundation should consider those.
FoldingCoin is based on proofs of useful prediction of protein
folding, which is useful for computer-aided antibody design, and used
in turn for cancer therapies and many other applied and research
medical fields.
I also invite anyone in the community interested in co-authoring my
forthcoming derivative whitepaper on proofs of useful intelligibility
remediation work to contact me off-list, please. I am also willing to
help with proofs of useful encyclopedia article improvement, but I am
not certain if ORES is yet robust enough to support such proof in a
secure fashion.
Best regards,
Jim Salsman
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wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/
wiki/Wikimedia-l
Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,

[geni]

Post by James Salsman
The Foundation has been accepting BitCoin donations. Unfortunately,
BitCoin is very wasteful in terms of electricity, and is therefore a
dirty cryptocurrency.

They all are. The only difference is that bitcoin is Asic mined so
doesn't directly drive up the price of graphics cards.

Post by James Salsman
I recommend that the Foundation immediately cease accepting BitCoin,
and require donors who wish to donate in cryptocurrency to convert to
FoldingCoin instead. Please see: FoldingCoin (FLDC)

FoldingCoin is the one where you give fake results to ***@home
(since the maths is NP hard there is no real time way to check if your
results are real or not) in return for tokens that have little in the
way of actual value.

Post by James Salsman
This conversion will place the Foundation at the forefront of
cryptocurrency technology,

The forefront of cryptocurrency technology is coming up with new and
exciting ways to scam people. The Foundation should not be getting
involved.

Post by James Salsman
As other cryptocurrencies based on proofs of useful work
instead of useless work emerge,

Is gaming a Proof-of-Research useful? Because if so Gridcoin exist. In
theory burstcoin could be used to provide archival storage although
there are a bunch of ways of doing that without driving up hard disc
prices.

Post by James Salsman
the Foundation should consider those.
FoldingCoin is based on proofs of useful prediction of protein
folding,

No it isn't. The problem is it is based off the old ***@home which
works on the basis that most people aren't trying to scam the system.
If FoldingCoin ever became popular that would no longer be the case at
which point it becomes proof of results given to results to
***@home with no requirement that those results be real.

[James Salsman]

Post by geni
(since the maths is NP hard there is no real time way to check if your
results are real or not)

Proof is stochastic, by random audit of submitted results, as I
understand the situation. I'm not sure whether that understanding is
congruent with their whitepaper, but that's the only way I can figure
out how it could work with intelligibility remediation tasks.
Improvements to the encyclopedia is a harder problem than attempted
pronunciation or transcription.

In regard to the earlier responses, I the Foundation should offer to
convert Bitcoin to FoldingCoin for those who wish to contribute
Bitcoin.

Best regards,
Jim

Post by geni

Post by James Salsman
The Foundation has been accepting BitCoin donations. Unfortunately,
BitCoin is very wasteful in terms of electricity, and is therefore a
dirty cryptocurrency.

They all are. The only difference is that bitcoin is Asic mined so
doesn't directly drive up the price of graphics cards.

Post by James Salsman
I recommend that the Foundation immediately cease accepting BitCoin,
and require donors who wish to donate in cryptocurrency to convert to
FoldingCoin instead. Please see: FoldingCoin (FLDC)

(since the maths is NP hard there is no real time way to check if your
results are real or not) in return for tokens that have little in the
way of actual value.

Post by James Salsman
This conversion will place the Foundation at the forefront of
cryptocurrency technology,

The forefront of cryptocurrency technology is coming up with new and
exciting ways to scam people. The Foundation should not be getting
involved.

Post by James Salsman
As other cryptocurrencies based on proofs of useful work
instead of useless work emerge,

Is gaming a Proof-of-Research useful? Because if so Gridcoin exist. In
theory burstcoin could be used to provide archival storage although
there are a bunch of ways of doing that without driving up hard disc
prices.

Post by James Salsman
the Foundation should consider those.
FoldingCoin is based on proofs of useful prediction of protein
folding,

works on the basis that most people aren't trying to scam the system.
If FoldingCoin ever became popular that would no longer be the case at
which point it becomes proof of results given to results to
--
geni
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[geni]

Post by James Salsman
Proof is stochastic, by random audit of submitted results, as I
understand the situation.

Only works if most people aren't trying to scam you. Which if you've
had any experience with concurrency you will realise is not the case.

Oh and since the thing is GPU mined and not very popular there are a
bunch of people who could carry out a 51% attack tomorrow.

Post by James Salsman
In regard to the earlier responses, I the Foundation should offer to
convert Bitcoin to FoldingCoin for those who wish to contribute
Bitcoin.

But the foundation wants actual money (US$ mostly). Why convert
bitcoin into anything other than cash (which is what it does at the
moment)?


geni

[David Gerard]

Post by geni
But the foundation wants actual money (US$ mostly). Why convert
bitcoin into anything other than cash (which is what it does at the
moment)?

in fact, I believe the WMF never touches a bitcoin - BitPay takes in
the bitcoins, changes them to actual money and gives that to WMF.

So you'd need to get Bitpay to accept FoldingCoin in this arrangement.

(I predict this will never happen.)


- d.

[James Salsman]

Post by geni
Only works if most people aren't trying to scam you

What else works that way?

Post by geni
you'd need to get Bitpay to accept FoldingCoin in this arrangement

https://twitter.com/jsalsman/status/984428258530705408

Post by geni

Post by geni
But the foundation wants actual money (US$ mostly). Why convert
bitcoin into anything other than cash (which is what it does at the
moment)?

in fact, I believe the WMF never touches a bitcoin - BitPay takes in
the bitcoins, changes them to actual money and gives that to WMF.
So you'd need to get Bitpay to accept FoldingCoin in this arrangement.
(I predict this will never happen.)
- d.
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[geni]

Post by James Salsman

Post by geni
Only works if most people aren't trying to scam you

What else works that way?

Thing where most people don't have money on the line. Its
Cryptocurrency. If your first thought isn't "how could a scammer
exploit this" you are doing it wrong.

[James Salsman]

Post by geni
Cryptocurrency. If your first thought isn't "how could a scammer
exploit this" you are doing it wrong.

I've thought about that for several hours now, and I'm sure scammers
far prefer bitcoin. ***@Home's lab director is a partner
Andreessen Horowitz, so he has certainly had no lack of resources to
defend against the possibility, and I am persuaded that the Indiana
nonprofit behind FLDC is sincere and acting in good faith at present.
If the Foundation is hesitant, they might sponsor an audit of either
or both, but the ***@Home project is so established that its
article is featured on enwiki.

I have no financial interest in any cryptocurrency, and I never have,
and I don't have a familial interest with anyone who I am aware has
any either.

Best regards,
Jim