As all software, it took longer than I expected, but today I tagged the first version of pettycoin. Now, lots more polish and features, but at least there’s something more than the git repo for others to look at!
Author Archives: rusty
API Bug of the Week: getsockname().
A “non-blocking” IPv6 connect() call was in fact, blocking. Tracking that down made me realize the IPv6 address was mostly random garbage, which was caused by this function: bool get_fd_addr(int fd, struct protocol_net_address *addr) { union { struct sockaddr sa; struct sockaddr_in in; struct sockaddr_in6 in6; } u; socklen_t len = sizeof(len); if (getsockname(fd, &u.sa, …
Alternate Blog for my Pettycoin Work
I decided to use github for pettycoin, and tested out their blogging integration (summary: it’s not very integrated, but once set up, Jekyll is nice). I’m keeping a blow-by-blow development blog over there.
Rusty Goes on Sabbatical, June to December
At linux.conf.au I spoke about my pre-alpha implementation of Pettycoin, but progress since then has been slow. That’s partially due to yak shaving (like rewriting ccan/io library), partially reimplementation of parts I didn’t like, and partially due to the birth of my son, but mainly because I have a day job which involves working on …
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Donation to Jupiter Broadcasting
Chris Fisher’s Jupiter Broadcasting pod/vodcasting started 8 years ago with the Linux Action Show: still their flagship show, and how I discovered them 3 years ago. Shows like this give access to FOSS to those outside the LWN-reading crowd; community building can be a thankless task, and as a small shop Chris has had ups …
Effects of packet/data sizes on various networks
I was thinking about peer-to-peer networking (in the context of Pettycoin, of course) and I wondered if sending ~1420 bytes of data is really any slower than sending 1 byte on real networks. Similarly, is it worth going to extremes to avoid crossing over into two TCP packets? So I wrote a simple Linux TCP …
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BTC->BPAY gateway (for Australians)
I tested out livingroomofsatoshi.com, which lets you pay any BPAY bill (see explanation from reddit). Since I’d never heard of the developer, I wasn’t going to send anything large through it, but it worked flawlessly. At least the exposure is limited to the time between sending the BTC and seeing the BPAY receipt. Exchange rate …
Legal Questions About Localbitcoins.com and Australia
As my previous post documented, I’ve experimented with localbitcoins.com. Following the arrest of two Miami men for trading on localbitcoins, I decided to seek legal advice on the sitation in Australia. Online research led me to Nick Karagiannis of Kelly and Co, who was already familiar with Bitcoin: I guess it’s a rare opportunity for …
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Bitcoin Trading In Australia
I bought 10 BTC to play with back in 2011, and have been slowly spending them to support bitcoin adoption. One thing which I couldn’t get reliable information on was how to buy and sell bitcoin within Australia, so over the last few months I decided to sell a few via different methods and report …
Pettycoin and working with limited visibility.
At linux.conf.au I gave a last-minute talk previewing my work on pettycoin (video, slides), an experiment to shard a bitcoin-like network. The idea is to trade off some security and robustness in return for scale, but use it only for small amounts where fraud is less worthwhile. On the bitcoin network today this is already …
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