I had a similar issue with my wallet today. I was still running 0.5.3. I upgraded thinking it would solve the issue, but it still persisted even after the upgrade. Same as what you describe with just being stuck at a block. Finally I forced a reset of the database and it got working.

Never had an issue with a stuck block like that before with this system.

I've been playing around with a way to explain BitAssets taken together as a whole rather than treating them as individual currencies that get lost on the second page at coinmarketcap.com.  What do you think of a message like this?

BitShares' BitGold is currently at 195 on coinmarketcap in traditional ranking.  This is misleading.

Since it trades against BitShares and all the other assets shown above on the #4 BitShares blockchain, its status is more a reflection of the desire people currently have to lock against gold vs some other commodity or fiat currency.  Interest may pick up this spring when we expect companies start offering direct off-ramps from BitGold and BitSilver to the physical metals themselves.  Ever try to buy physical bullion and wait for days for your wire to get there to lock in the price?  Would you like to be able to lock physical it in ten seconds? 

Yeah, I though so.

At different times the global market will perceive each of these pegs as a safe haven.  Right now, gold is seen as more volatile than the USD or CNY and therefore not where most people want to park risk-off money.  When the world fiat currencies start misbehaving, we'll see the mix adjust in about ten seconds.

Its best to look at the sum of all these BitAssets when assessing how they are catching on, since they form a common set of options inside a single "Smart Coin" implemented as the decentralized exchange known as BitShares.

You can program your Smart Coins to track any basket of BitAssets.
 -- Roll your own custom risk mix. -- 

That is the real power of BitShares.

I think its a great value add message. Now how do we get that in front of the right people who it matters too... marketing delegates.. your thoughts?

  Stan!

Could we strengthen the link between us and ethereum and both communities? Would it be possible for Dan to talk with Vitalik and do something like we're doing with Peertracks' Notes? Everyone who donated to ethereum did so using bitcoin from their own wallets if im not mistaken right? So the ethereum crew could check on to see if people are unhappy about not being able to get their coins and a snapshot would be taken and ethereum coins or whatever they are called could be issued in BitShares. Then once they have everything ready, another snapshot is taken and they freeze trading in BitShares, to be continued on their own client. To be honest I dont even know if this would be good or not for us, though it would certainly draw some attention. But it would definitely strengthen the ties between both communities or at least, it should. Just some random thought, don't even know if it's a good or bad idea lol

I think Dan and Vitalik are already in good communication. I think there are some fundamentals in terms of vision and how things should be run that don't quiet fit. It may seem in some respects to be similar but not quite the same.. like Marxism vs. communism for lack of a better comparison.. anybody can make a better comparison feel free .. figured the stateless society example was close?

Wow that was awesome!

Be good if you can upload that PDF to some social hubs.. docstoc and other places so it shows up in search better.

Awesome to see all the activity going on! 

Good news! More inroads into Africa!

If I remember correctly you're looking for about 10 million usd, this is pretty ambitious for a rewards based crowdfunding campaign.
A little searching led me to:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cold-war-bunker-building-restoration
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-the-historical-fallout-shelter
So you know it isn't easy to raise capital through this.

The difference between those 2 campaigns and your new one is, those campaigns anticipated more on charity, where as the new campaign would be more of a presale.

I don't understand that if you take this route, why you would have the need for an UIA.
And also, wouldn't it be easier to reach a wider audience though traditional crowdfunding platforms?

Awesome reply! 

A bit about those two campaigns.. they were done without ANY background in crowdfunding.. and if you never done one.. how they work from what it looks like on the front end is very different from what it takes on the back. Both those campaigns taught me a lot.. and at the same time is the answer to your question about why I would not go with that traditional platform for this idea.

Also in the hangout I said it was just at the idea stage and was looking for feedback. The hangout and other information gathered lead me to changes in what might be offered, as well as the amount to be raised. Presently half of what I originally talked about at the hangout.

Traditional crowdfunding works for certain types of product offerings primarily. It's more like a preselling funnel then anything else from what I have seen and experienced. I really don't like the platforms. They made everything fit their structure, fees were high, and they provided no added value other than having a crowdfund formatted page, which anybody who has setup a wordpress site can do. I only used them the 2nd time out of convenience and time.. and regretted it then as well. Even though we were successful the 2nd round... but with a much smaller target.

Why a UIA and not a traditional crowdfund? Why BitShares and not regular dollars?

A UIA can be whatever you want it to be (sorry to sound like an Ethereum commercial ) but that means we can make it into something awesome! I would much rather be a use case for BitShares and bring that story into the international spotlight than a traditional crowdfund built on traditional dollars.

We got a fantastic story here. Make a little more history by building it on crypto and it becomes a mega-fantastic story.

I am still working on defining BunkerShares and my other UIAs, but the more I work on it the more I am seeing it simply as a token. I never suggested it was shares in my company. I think you might have this confused with someone else in the community with a different business who is looking to use UIAs in that kind of capacity. Or perhaps that was a takeaway you got from the idea of the social consensus community driven business planning. Either way, "no", to actual shares. I do realize now that sadly the possibility of sharing profits or anything like that is simply off the table due to securities. There are other ways though.

At present I think selling tokens for access to our membership is how this would work best. How that looks or works so far I am not sure. Still figuring it all out. Rome wasn't built in a day. ... but as a persist I am finding the pieces coming together.

Sharing this link though was to see if others were considering legalities surrounding UIAs.. I know of at least one hedgefund UIA that is operating now offering investments in crypto-commodities. I realize they are not in the US, but there are laws in the US that don't even allow the sale of unregistered securities to Americans from anywhere in the world! I realize that's tough to police.. but this is an issue that some in the industry have navigated really well like Dan.. and others have crashed and burned. I would hate to see someone in our UIA ecosystem get burned because they didn't know about these things.

I read BMs post which was based on his own experience. They navigated that very well. Ethereums offering and Maidsafe are also amazing examples to me. These are largely things started out of just ideas with no real asset backing them.. which also makes the whole thing so amazing. There is a lot to learn from studying how some of these successful offerings worked. Does anybody know of any others out there that were crypto offerings that did well and handled the legalities well?

I don't know if everyone heard about late last year how SEC went after all kind of blockchain companies for offering unregistered securities in BTC LTC etc. Fines were massive.

As some of you know, I am looking at issuing a UIA soon that will be associated with raising funds. So I have had to explore the whole dimension of what legal ramification that might have with regulations.

This article here went into great analysis and used Ethereum as an example in many instances.

http://lawbitrage.typepad.com/blog/2014/11/cryptoequity-regulation.html

I think he makes some good points... it seems as though the safest route is to offer a service or product of some kind to be safe.

Does this concern your activities at all in BitShares?