Increasing Donations for Calibre

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by Mansoul

Bear in mind some anti-virus/malware will flag mining code as a potential threat which could lead to some reputational damage to Calibre.

Yeah this is rather annoying, as it is calibre gets regularly flagged as malware by antivirus and I get to deal with the consequent breakage. However, the extent of the issue is hard to know without trying it.

[Katja_hbg]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

You can currently donate via PayPal, Patreon and Liberapay https://calibre-ebook.com/donate

Hi Kovid,
where is this page linked on calibre website?
I cannot see it on home or about or involved page.
Of course I see the support dialog but not the page mentioned by you.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by Katja_hbg

Hi Kovid,
where is this page linked on calibre website?
I cannot see it on home or about or involved page.
Of course I see the support dialog but not the page mentioned by you.

It comes when you click on the heart in calibre.

[un_pogaz]

opt-in? Optional?
I've never seen that term before.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

It comes when you click on the heart in calibre.

Oh. So I advise, to update the site and set the 3 buttons equally.
Currently, only Paypal is highlighted, and Patreon, you have to be attentive.
Personally, I always hide the Don button in Calibre, so it's a web-only approach.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by un_pogaz

opt-in? Optional?
I've never seen that term before.

It means it only does it if you specifically enable it. 'Opt-out' means that it's enabled by default but you can turn it off.

[Quoth]

Cryptocurrency mining is evil environmentally.
Cryptocurrency is also hyped and is suspiciously like pyramid selling.
It's only of real value to people laundering money or getting paid for blackmail.

Also I don't want anything, even "good" running as a 3rd party task EVER on any of my resources. That is too open to exploitation and malware.

So this better be a totally obvious opt-in, for people mad enough to want it.

I contribute periodically in an environmentally friendly and reasonabley secure fashion: PayPal. Folks if you use Calibre and have never contributed, send real money via PayPal.

ONE cryptocurrency uses as much electricity as Switzerland. It's a greedy parasite helping to destroy the planet.

[samcohen]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Cryptocurrency mining is evil environmentally.
Cryptocurrency is also hyped and is suspiciously like pyramid selling.
It's only of real value to people laundering money or getting paid for blackmail.

Also I don't want anything, even "good" running as a 3rd party task EVER on any of my resources. That is too open to exploitation and malware.

So this better be a totally obvious opt-in, for people mad enough to want it.

I contribute periodically in an environmentally friendly and reasonabley secure fashion: PayPal. Folks if you use Calibre and have never contributed, send real money via PayPal.

ONE cryptocurrency uses as much electricity as Switzerland. It's a greedy parasite helping to destroy the planet.

Mining defends the value of the cryptocurrency. Without it there would be no value to the currency. People who store their wealth in bitcoin to escape their current country's situations would have no way to escape. Mining is a small price to pay to help people in need all around the world.

Here is an opinion piece about how bitcoin helped a family in Venezuela store their wealth in bitcoin.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/23/o...urrencies.html

You mentioned above that you think its only value is to criminals but I would argue that is more easily traced by law enforcement and that the USD is far more widely used as a laundering tool.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/laund...behind-bitcoin

Happy to defend bitcoin to the end!

[crane3]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

You can currently donate via PayPal, Patreon and Liberapay https://calibre-ebook.com/donate

Thank you. 1st I've ever heard that Patreon & Liberapay is available; have seen references to donate via Patreon on light novel web pages. Looking into comparison between Patreon & Librapay.

[Penny_Dreadful]

I'd really prefer this as a plug-in if it does happen, as I don't really want a crypto miner on my computer opt-in or not, it's not that I don't trust you Kovid I just don't want any thing to do with cryptocurrency. I'm a supporter on Patreon instead.

[kovidgoyal]

@Penny_Dreadful: Yes indeed, it will be a download on opt-in type of thing. That has the advantage of avoiding antivirus issues for people that dont opt-in as well.

[Penny_Dreadful]

@kovid Good to know

[theengine]

Originally Posted by Penny_Dreadful

@kovid Good to know

Me too. Please ensure it can't be downloaded unknowingly.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by samcohen

Happy to defend bitcoin to the end!

OK , I'll bite.
explain how, when if/your dystopia of choice comes to pass, the world will still have a functioning internet, endless electricity for the bit mines, and enough rare metals to keep making the devices we use to trade and shop on ( and the batteries they run on)

its about as plausible as all those mad max dystopia that somehow never run out of petrol, motorcycle parts, tyres, welding gear.....

without all that 21st century infrastructure, a bitcoin stash is just a worthless emergency recovery pass phrase on a piece of paper, or some 0s and 1s on a very lonely flash drive in a safe somewhere

I am consistently wrong with my predictions of where BC is headed next, so there's no way I would speculate large; more importantly I have huge concerns over wasting enough electricity to run a medium sized country on mining and on validating block chain additions.

politically, I just don't see other world governments buying into a universal money system that only works so long as a few shady Chinese mining corps, are the "essential workers "without which it all collapses

[samcohen]

Originally Posted by stumped

OK , I'll bite.
explain how, when if/your dystopia of choice comes to pass, the world will still have a functioning internet, endless electricity for the bit mines, and enough rare metals to keep making the devices we use to trade and shop on ( and the batteries they run on)

its about as plausible as all those mad max dystopia that somehow never run out of petrol, motorcycle parts, tyres, welding gear.....

without all that 21st century infrastructure, a bitcoin stash is just a worthless emergency recovery pass phrase on a piece of paper, or some 0s and 1s on a very lonely flash drive in a safe somewhere

I am consistently wrong with my predictions of where BC is headed next, so there's no way I would speculate large; more importantly I have huge concerns over wasting enough electricity to run a medium sized country on mining and on validating block chain additions.

politically, I just don't see other world governments buying into a universal money system that only works so long as a few shady Chinese mining corps, are the "essential workers "without which it all collapses

A lot to respond to here!

You see dystopian I see utopian.

https://youtu.be/DDdwvk_L-ss
(If you watch this video it's hard not to be convinced)

You are not incorrect that it is an emergency recovery pass phrase that only works with modern tech. There are satellites in space that continually keep the bitcoin ledger safe everyday. With a little bit of solar power and the proper equipment you can connect to it to access the bitcoin network. I'm not worried about that kind of situation. I'm more worried about having wealth taken from me by force which cannot happen if you store your coins properly.

I'm glad that you admit that you are consistently wrong about BTC and unfortunately that has more than likely costed your wallet.

(Here you can see how your investment would be doing based on the amount of time you have been in)
https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/price/

Bitcoin will win because of greed. It's simple. All of the people who were on the sidelines last time will join in this time because they don't want to watch everyone around them get hilariously rich again. This cycle will continue until everyone is a part of it. Harder money will prevail.

You mention you have concerns over the electricity spend of mining but consider how much electricity the legacy financial system burns everyday!

You say you don't think world governments will buy into this universal system. The truth is it doesn't matter if they buy in or not. The fact is that if they buy early they will be in a better position in the future. Their own greed will force their hand. We may even see a change in the world reserve currency. Could bitcoin be next?

(Check out this image of the timeline of world reserve currencies)
https://www.rmegold.com/wp-content/u...ency-chart.jpg

You also make an assumption that bitcoin could not exist without shady Chinese mining corporations. This is incorrect. Without them the difficulty of mining would drop and the free market would replace them swiftly with another opportunist.

[bookaho!ic]

Originally Posted by theengine

Me too. Please ensure it can't be downloaded unknowingly.

I agree it needs to be an addin not download unknowingly.