User talk:Casascius/Radial BitCoin

Radial Bitcoin is a page once created by Casascius as a satirical disparagement of tonal bitcoin. It is now, temporarily at the least, an apology piece toward the person and the idea the satire was directed toward. Not for any specific reason or in reaction to anything - rather, this morning I got up and decided that today I would post this.

I am Mike Caldwell. Casascius. A part of me has always been bothered by my having created a page here like I did and thrown out unwarranted negativity toward one of the biggest contributors to the Bitcoin project. Sure, I think I still maintain that the idea of putting something in the Bitcoin software that would be confusing to everybody other than a select few isn't in the best interest in the project, but I am pretty sure that to put the level of effort I did into making a big deal out of it was pretty uncool. It was also unnecessary.

Bitcoin, at least now and even then, is not a one-man project, and the dynamics of collaboration were more than enough to ensure only the best ideas went into the project. In retrospect, the notion that I could or should come along and stifle someone's creative spirit just for presenting an idea that from my perspective wasn't likely to fly, seems pretty shameful. I am at peace with it today and trust by now I'm forgiven, esp giving that I'm coming to a wiki to own it, in writing no less.

Luke-Jr, you are a hero. You are a man with your hands touching and working on the beating heart of an upcoming major chapter in the history of the world and you are absolutely qualified to be doing that. I owe you no less than my utmost respect and I only wish that I could claim anywhere near the same level of involvement and interaction with the core application as you have. For me to have raised a stink about tonal bitcoin has said far more about me than it ever said about you. I am sorry, and this apology is long overdue.

As I write this, I think I now recall what got me thinking about you in the first place. It was maybe a week ago I came across Electronic Frontier Foundation's blog post describing their comments to New York DFS in regards to the BitLicense proposal. I read just about all of it.

I read Ms. Hofmann refer to those back-in-the-day religious comments you put into the block chain with your mining pool. Those comments, which I of course saw in the block chain when you put them there, led me to roll my eyes in disdain at the time while conceding it was your right and privilege to put them there consistent with the established principles of how the block chain works. I'm inclined to be skeptical of religion myself. As far as I know, for me to have harbored contempt about those comments is my private behavior I have never taken credit for that I can recall, I likewise lol toward myself as to how I could have been short-sighted about them.

It was quite humbling for me to read those and point those out to NYDFS as prescient examples of protected expressions in the block chain. I found her argument to be captivating. I don't think I will go as far myself as to call your placement of them there any form of divine coincidence, but the look on my face as I write this, I think, says I don't think I'd stop you or anyone else from doing so.

At the time I was slamming tonal bitcoins to your face, I also offered to produce a tonal wall clock with my laser equipment. While I'm sure that looks a whole lot like being charitable with the right hand while throwing mud with the left, I think the driver behind that was my awareness that I was being a jerk (which offering to make a clock doesn't undo), and after some reflection I think I owe you a Casascius wall clock in the numbering system of your choice if you decide that to receive one is right for you. Just let me know what I should keep in mind as I design it, which could reasonably take me some sort of while.

I know this kind of personal correspondence, even as I make it open, probably doesn't really belong in the Bitcoin Wiki. But, admins, I hope it will survive here long enough for Luke to see it, as well as anyone who might share it. At the same time, I wouldn't be opposed to the past revision history of the spoof article being visible - I'm owning it after all. I will let Luke and others weigh in, and actually, beyond what I just said here, it probably shouldn't be my decision anyway.

Luke, keep on keeping on.

Mike Caldwell Casascius (talk) 15:14, 5 April 2015 (UTC)

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Thanks for your encouragement.

Note that my TBC patches don't actually show up as an option unless the user is detected to already have Tonal fonts installed - so I think it actually fits reasonably well with the "too confusing to new users" perspective you maintain. The main reason for not merging it to mainline Bitcoin Core at this time is the additional maintenance overhead for a niche use case.

I don't think I could honestly say I'm "owed" a wall clock, but if designing it is intriguing or of (educational/experience?) value to you, I would be interested in one. It may be more complicated than one initially considers it to be, however: not only is the "tick" interval different (~1.32 seconds per timmill), but arranging the larger unit hands to change at different rates (16s rather than 60, 60, 12) requires significant variation from the traditional dozenal and even military/24h clocks. Let me know if you decide you want to do this anyway, and I'll be glad to help think through the design more completely.

--Luke-jr (talk) 21:47, 20 April 2015 (UTC)