Feathercoin Official Weekly Update #22
Tuesday 4^th March 2014

One Equal Temper of Heroic Hearts

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Feathercoin Key Stats
321 days since genesis block creation
Approx. 35,300,000 of Feathercoins created
Approx. 14.67 days behind target generation rate

Bitcoin isnâ€™t just an opportunity, itâ€™s an obligation. The biggest threat we face isnâ€™t fraud, itâ€™s the unwillingness of good people to question their previous assumptions and search themselves for their true values. In many ways frauds act to keep us honest because money isnâ€™t just a tool we use to get our needs met, itâ€™s a site that brings together both honest and dishonest intentions.

Last week I felt compelled to comment on what was going on a Gox so Thomas (MadBitcoins) and I made some videos in response to the enormous amount of FUD and confusion surrounding the story. I apologise for not being able to bring you the newsletter as normal but I felt that there was an urgent situation that needed addressing.

And so now itâ€™s over to you. The team at Feathercoin have decided that we would like you to write the Newsletters in the future as a collaborative effort. I will be on hand to write any content for the intros and TL;DRs but I will have no more say over the direction than anyone else. We feel it would be good to hand over the body of the News to the people in the community and it could give you the chance to get noticed and discover your voice.

One of the things I have tried to do with this Newsletter is to use it as a platform for all the hard working people who make Feathercoin what it is today. I think having a platform comes with a duty to help serve others so that they can see how they can help each other. I would like to see this Newsletter continue to shine a light on the people who perhaps arenâ€™t getting the attention they deserve.

Oxford Meetup #4
by @Uncle_Muddy

We has a meetup at the Oxford Blue, the local Feathercoin watering hole. It was a good evening for all who turned up with several members from the Oxford Crypto Group arriving to the meet as well. All members of crypto are welcome to attend so please do not think this event is for Feathercoiners only. There was a lot of discussion over the merits of Dogecoin and the disaster that is MtGox.

Back to the Oxford Blue

As you will know we as a community have been working together to raise funds for Prostate Cancer UK, and with your help we smashed our original target of 3,000 FTC and have set our sights on doubling that goal. Again I would like to say thank you on both behalf of Prostate Cancer UK and the Feathercoin Community. Some of these funds were raised through a raffle which was drawn at the Oxford Blue, congratulations to all the winners.

A massive thank you has to go to the following people for donating prizes:

Netnerd
MTRinser
Matl
HopeStillFlies

And whilst I have Netnerd in my mind he brought along a few of his new Gold Edition cold wallet coins and they look fantastic! Complete with Certificate of Authenticity, to show where in the limited edition run of 100 your coin is. These unloaded, DIY cold storage wallet coins will soon be available on the Feathercoin Market for purchase.

Gold Edition Coin
by @Bushstar

Warwick University Talk

by ChrisJ

Last Thursday I had the pleasure to attend Warwick University's Economics Society on a debate entitled The Future of Finance. I was expecting to met with skepticism as I was the only person there representing a crypto currency but to my pleasant surprise everyone was very curious to learn more with some of the students already mining!

The students or as I like to call them The Future

This talk made me realise something. The real battle ground isn't about winning over governments or pandering to regulators. A Cryptocurrency is already regulated in the code. The code is the law. The real battle ground is with the young as they are the ones who are going to inherit the system we leave them with.

The real battle lies outside of these chatrooms and forums, it's out there in towns and cities all over the world, it's with the people on the fringes.

My plan for the future is to spend more time pounding pavement and meeting people; there is plenty of awareness about Bitcoin but not very much understanding. This Friday I will be at Hull City Council to talk about how their local needs can be supported the power this technology provides and I would really appreciate your support.

Feathercoin 0.8.6
@Bushstar

Feathercoin has now been updated to 0.8.6 which fixes a bug experienced by some Mac users and other fixes included in Bitcoin 0.8.6. We are also including some of the excellent features that have been included in Bitcoin OMG. These include Disable Wallet Mode which allows you to run the client without a wallet attached and Coin Control so you can specify where the funds come from when sending and where the "change" should go. More control for the users is always a good thing.

Coin control gives you more choice over how your funds are moved in the wallet

To update to Feathercoin 0.8.6 please head over to the download section at the Feathercoin website. This includes the Windows, Mac, Linux wallets and a link to GitHub for those who want to compile their own.

MtGox
by @motherlode1

The MtGox fiasco has left the Crypto community shocked and confused. The exchange that started it all turned around and abandoned us. Not something anyone would have foreseen. Some members of the community are rethinking their stance on Crypto and one canâ€™t blame them for it. A lot of them have potentially lost a fortune. Add to that all the other incidents that have happened, anyone would have second thoughts. These are truly trying times for us.Those of us who were not invested in Gox can only offer our sympathy.

Our @ChrisJ is now a regular on the Bitcoin Group and the new World Crypto Network

We are limited by what we have and who we are but that does not mean we cannot push ourselves further. Bitcoin is not just an amazing piece of software, itâ€™s more than that. Itâ€™s an ideology that has brought like-minded individuals together, itâ€™s an ideology that has spurned the growth of start-ups, and itâ€™s an ideology that has given us what we lost during the industrial revolution. It has given us control over our financial future and given us the freedom of choice. And it is our duty to ensure that this piece of software lives on.

To those who are having second thoughts about Bitcoin or feel that it may not survive. I want to borrow some lines From Alfred, Lord Tennysonâ€™s poem â€œUlyssesâ€.

â€œWe are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are---
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.â€

Take from this what you will.

Feathercoin ATM
by @Bushstar

UncleMuddy our resident engineer has taken a thread started by Kevlar and turned it into a working ATM. This is excellent work and shows the talent in our community. This ATM should dÃ©but at the next Feathercoin meet in Oxford where we can buy preloaded private keys for English pounds. If you want to know more you can contact Uncle Muddy over at the Feathercoin forum.

Working Feathercoin ATM. The private key is dummy data so no need to try and scan it, I already did!

New Team Members
by @Bushstar

Please welcome to the Feathercoin team Uncle Muddy, Netnerd, MrWyrm, Draco and motherlode1. Uncle Muddy is the chap responsible for the ATM above and last weeks unofficial newsletter, you will have seen him on the stream from the Oxford Blue if you watched it, I put him on the spot by getting him to do it. He did great so do not let him say otherwise. Netnerd is a very active member of the community who has been producing physical Feathercoin wallets like the gold one pictured in the newsletter above. motherlode1 has been doing an excellent job running the Feathercoin Reddit community and has a critical mind to apply to Feathercoin. By popular demand MrWyrm has been added to the team, he is level-headed in times of chaos and we appreciate his high levels of sanity. Draco bring in years of marketing and promotional experience and plans to work in areas of general marketing, merchant adoption, brand recognition and organising charity events.

TL;DR
by @ChrisJ

Communities form around a common need and it's important to remember that fraud isn't something that happens somewhere else, it's a threat that everyone needs to aware of. MtGox provides us with an opportunity to show the world how to respond to dishonest behaviour in the financial system.

We have suffered many economic crises in the past but for the first time in history the people have the tools they need to fix it for themselves and take back control. If you work for someone who creates a climate of fear you have an obligation

You can find the last official newsletter here: Everything Points Towards Success. Today special thanks go to Uncle Muddy, Motherlode1 and Ruthie for their contributions to this newsletter.

You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook or come on to the forum to stay up to date.

Thank-you for your time.