madcat123

Sure, except that tippers (users) are not likely to be in position to judge the quality of a commit, nor really want to wade through hundreds of commits to decide which ones might be worth spending money on, and for the most part, just want to support the development of the project rather than micro-manage it. It's a nice ideal us developers can dream of, but the model implemented BitHub is just easier to use.

To use a restaurant analogy, a shared tip jar that gets split evenly at the end of the night results in much fairer distribution (and includes the chef and cashier as well) as opposed to personalized tips which get unfairly / unevenly distributed between waiters. Most people tip because of the full service, from ambiance to service and cooking, not just the front-man performance.

And you can still always ways to tip individuals developers (or waitresses) personally if you so wish.

Exactly true. But even government-issued currencies are not suitable stores of value over longer time-periods due to their inflationary nature; that's why we have retirement funds etc, the game being trying to out-do inflation.

Bitcoins are inherently deflationary in nature, making them theoretically a superior store of value over longer term (e.g. retirement) than any fiat currency.

It's great that the author is successful in his choice of investments, but I think the post makes the whole thing look much less risky than it is. Real estate prices only go up, right? WRONG [1]. And if you're leveraged 1:10, when prices drop the whole pyramid comes tumbling down painfully fast.

Buying one property per year doesn't seem to be too much, but 5-6 years into it you're way more leveraged than you should be; it's easy to get carried away by imagining potential future rewards and ignore the actual risks involved.

[1] http://www.arizonarealestatenotebook.com/wp-content/uploads/...

It seems to me it's time email followed the file-sharing industry and moved to a distributed, peer-to-peer system. End-to-end encryption and no servers to shut down... There's a couple of research papers on the topic:

http://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/cse/2008/3193/00/31...

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2009/0144380.html

If

  If you can keep your head when all about you
  Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
  If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
  But make allowance for their doubting too:
  If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
  Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
  Or being hated don't give way to hating,
  And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

  If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
  If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
  If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
  And treat those two impostors just the same:.
  If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
  Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
  Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
  And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

  If you can make one heap of all your winnings
  And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
  And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
  And never breathe a word about your loss:
  If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
  To serve your turn long after they are gone,
  And so hold on when there is nothing in you
  Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

  If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
  Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
  If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
  If all men count with you, but none too much:
  If you can fill the unforgiving minute
  With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
  Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
  And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling