It should be noted the US Dollar is still backed by a large amount of gold in Fort Knox or similar deposits; '2.3% of all the gold ever refined in the world'. The larger problem is that despite being probably the largest holder of gold, the debt issued far out weighs that asset. Part of what would occur if Dollar did decline is that gold rises which raises the value of these reserves. If something like 10k per ounce gold happened I wonder how much help that would provide towards the debt repayment, the point being its not a simple transition as USA has many commodity reserves to call on in its favor.
That makes things even worse - remember what happened to many exchanges before they went bust? First they start spending their own tokens/stablecoins, if it doesn't help they start burning BTC reserves to stay afloat, which most of the time leads to a complete disaster, because BTC reserves are not sufficient. So if USD rate starts rolling downhill and the US will start selling their gold reserves and the information about this leaks, this will lead to a financial disaster. |
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Eugenie Bouchard is back on clay court and has won her first game on clay since 2020, Roland Garros. Is there still potential left in Bouchard or is it just going to be 50+ ranked player, just hanging into the tour under 100 ranked but have no potential?
It doesn't seem that tennis is the love of her life. After the shower slipping accident she secured herself financially and lost her motivation? Some promising matches today in Charleston: Cornet v Kalinskaya Tsurenko v Jabeur Azarenka v Stephens Rogers v Collins |
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Big defeat from Kvitova, just to know about the women's singles winner had a search and found Kvitova to win the title. Her first WTA title since Madrid Open (2018). The first set of the match have went to 7 16-6 14. The second set was an easy win for Kvitova 6-2. She had won the title, but failed to win the hearts with her attitude. I don't know whether it is right or wrong, but to a child she couldn't have done it. Not GoodYeah, I agree this is not nice. In her defense, I can say that she has just won the title and the adrenaline kicked in and perhaps she didn't even notice the kid. As to the match itself, imo Rybakina lost to herself not to Kvitova. Too many unforced errors. One of the worst matches for her this year. Meanwhile, I'm switching to Charleston WTA 500 and definitely can't wait to see/bet on Monte Carlo (starting on April 9?). Clay season is starting soon, this is going to be interesting!  |
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Ukraine is no longer afraid of Russia, let alone Europe and the United States. Russia already has 10-15 percent of the previous number of cruise missiles left, it has even used part of the emergency reserve, and it can no longer produce in the same volume due to sanctions.
There are rumors about "Russia running out of rockets" circulating since March last year. Unfortunately, what we still see now are the Russian rockets flying, including newer Caliber ones. I don't know where they're taking the chips from, washing machines, electric kettles or whatever but the fact is: Russia is still able to produce hi-tech arms. Let's face it - sanctions don't work. The Russian army in Ukraine is fizzling out: the long-outdated T-54 and T-55 tanks are being removed from conservation. In all seriousness, even the issue of removing the T-34 tanks from the Second World War from the pedestals is being discussed. Cases of attacks by Russians armed with ordinary wooden sticks were recorded. The vaunted "Second Army of the World" is buried in the steppes of Ukraine.
I'd really like to see a pic of a T54 or T55 tank destroyed or captured in Ukraine. If you have any, please post a link. Russia was unable to break the resistance of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and that is why it chose the tactics of regular bombardments of civilian infrastructure. But this did not affect the situation at the front. In addition, after massive rocket attacks, when power facilities were damaged, the people of Kiev went out to the balconies of their apartments in the dark and chanted "Putin is fucked up" together. Russia will not break such a nation.
Let's make it clear: Russia is facing the entire NATO and almost the entire Western world in Ukraine. Most of the ex-Soviet tanks, APCs, artillery and anti-aircraft units of the Ukrainian army have been destroyed already. And another thing: I don't think Russian rockets are hitting civilian infrastructure because Putin is an evil and bloodthirsty monster. He's too pragmatic to afford that. The real reason is that the rockets are not precise enough and going off-target frequently. Further, during April-May, there will be a powerful offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the liberation of the occupied territories. In Russia, they are very afraid of this and are now trying by any means to seat Ukraine at the negotiating table in order to agree on a truce. But this does not suit Ukraine: it would mean freezing the war until Russia gathers new forces to continue it. The people of Ukraine clearly support the desire of their government to finish off the enemy and completely liberate all their territories.
Two main issues this offensive is going to face are: lack of experienced military personnel and lack of modern tanks and armored vehicles, artillery support and aircraft. Some of these issues can be solved, some can't (short-term). In any case, I will be following the situation closely, I believe we'll find out the result in some 4-5 months. |
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I think many have seen the graph below:  As you can see, every global reserve currency has it's lifespan and USDs lifespan is about to come to an end. Which currency will take it's place? Yuan? Bitcoin? Personally, I think it's going to be Bitcoin, the time of national currencies is over. Make sure you're ready when the time comes. BTC |
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The introduction of inscriptions on Bitcoin’s mainnet made the creation of Ordinal NFTs on the bitcoin Blockchain. I have read lot of negative comments about the effects of Ordinal NFTs on Bitcoin Blockchain and so I would like to know why it was still created despite negative effects it can have,Although there are some positive comments, The negative comments are something that can cause stressing issues later on.
In short: greed. Some people got carried away with a possibility to sell monkey pics to gullible peeps, that's all. Miners got excited too as they're earning extra buck for processing spam transactions. Again, it's greed.  |
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https://www.reuters.com/technology/musk-experts-urge-pause-training-ai-systems-that-can-outperform-gpt-4-2023-03-29/March 29 (Reuters) - Elon Musk and a group of artificial intelligence experts and industry executives are calling for a six-month pause in developing systems more powerful than OpenAI's newly launched GPT-4, in an open letter citing potential risks to society. Earlier this month, Microsoft-backed OpenAI unveiled the fourth iteration of its GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) AI program, which has wowed users by engaging them in human-like conversation, composing songs and summarising lengthy documents. "Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable," said the letter issued by the Future of Life Institute. After the recent events of the fake AI generated photo of Pope the risks to the society are clear. Technology personalities and even people from other areas such as Yuval Harari have been telling the risks of AI for years.  Risks must be correctly managed and there must be some kind of security protocols to avoid damage that chatgpt and others can do. One question I have. Does chatgpt own any btc? Can it have some hidden keys? 1. Fake images can be created using Photoshop.... ban Photoshop? 2. What damage ChatGPT can cause? I guess it's already max "politically correct" and most "inappropriate" topics are banned. 3. Why don't you ask ChatGPT itself if he owns any BTC? |
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It was so impressive watching Sinner and Alcaraz battling it out. I can clearly see them as World no.1 and 2 respectively. Both are leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the pack. Kinda sad for Dimitrov's gen and probably Zverev's that they had to endure the Big 3 and now the next gen are looking very solid. Hopefully not many injury concerns for them and we are in for a decade of top tier tennis.
Edit: Forgot to add Medvedev into the mix. Unorthodox but efficient. Entertaining tennis is here to stay.
Yeah, unlucky guys... Dimitrov, Zverev, Tsitsipas, Rublev, Thiem, Medvedev (he was late to the show) the "lost generation" of tennis. Outshadowed by the Big 3, lacking consistency and eternal "#1 material" and "golden boys". |
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WOW - what a win by Janick over Carlos in 3 sets, did anyone have Janick backed?
I watched the 2 minute highlights on Tennistv.com and OMG it looks like it was a cracking
match. Tie break in the first set and then the final two sets were definitively Janick's.
I think he has a real chance of taking the title against Medvedev and Medvedev will
probably be happier not to play Alcaraz....
Missed the match unfortunately. But yeah, Sinner is a much more comfortable opponent for Medvedev. And I think Daniil will win this time. He was not particularly confident against Khachanov, especially early in the match, but still managed to win. Only thing that makes me uncertain is that Medvedev had too much playing time lately and might be tired. Sinner is also a bit younger? Percent-wise I'd say 55% vs 45% in favor of the Russian. But I'll pass on this match, won't be betting this time. Kvitova v Rybakina Rybakina has more chances of winning, Czech veteran had less time to rest as her match was yesterday. Otherwise, both girls have great serves and hit perfectly from the baseline. h2h is tied at 1:1. One more important fact - Kvitova is 10 years older than Rybakina. My bet is on Rybakina. Get ready for another tennis night! |
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the bitcoin white paper says: "if the majority were based on one-IP-address-one-vote, it could be subverted by anyone
able to allocate many IPs".
Is it possible to create a cryptocurrency in which IP addresses are "staked"?.
If a node acts maliciously its ip address is blacklisted.
So anyone with internet access can act as a validator.
It's probably possible but what's the point? Why does the world need such a crypto? ISPs are running short of IPv4 addresses for quite some time already. Creating crypto like that would lead to further shortage and even disruptions on the networks. Also, how to treat dynamic/pool IPs? Many caveats and little reason imho. |
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How long in years should I go before I give up and close down a business that is unprofitable? I was listening to a podcast where Kelvin O'Neal 1 was featured. He said, "If you are not making money after 36months(3 years), you've gotta take a behind the barn and shoot it. It's just a hobby. It's not a business." According to him, "people can get so stuck on a bad idea that they just keep thinking that if I keep working on it, it's going to fix itself. It doesn't fix itself. It was put on your journey to teach you, what not to do." - To what extent do you agree or disagree with this assertion ? -Have you had a business that even though it wasn't profitable in the first three (3) years, then it kicked off to bring in good returns in the fourth (4th) year?
1 https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqVbhNCt0yF/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=It depends on your situation as a business may not be profitable (temporarily) for many different reasons: like for example, you have to pay off loans or investor money, or maybe you're paying exit money to your partner who decided to quit... in all these cases, a business may be profitable after you pay your dues. |
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Aka, Yet Another Ordinals Thread(warning: this topic is self-moderated. post cranky opinions for the 40th time elsewhere if you don't want them deleted.)It appears uninscribed ordinals are now being purchased in addition to their inscribed counterparts.  Now that Bitcoin has been de-fungified down to the last satoshi, the Ordinals system of satoshi numbering is giving rise to some novel (perhaps exceptionally bizarre) value propositions. One of them is the idea of rarity levels within the existing ordinal database of satoshis. Here's how the ordinals rarity system is described & defined: Humans are collectors, and since satoshis can now be tracked and transferred, people will naturally want to collect them. Ordinal theorists can decide for themselves which sats are rare and desirable, but there are some hints…
Bitcoin has periodic events, some frequent, some more uncommon, and these naturally lend themselves to a system of rarity. These periodic events are:
Blocks: A new block is mined approximately every 10 minutes, from now until the end of time.
Difficulty adjustments: Every 2016 blocks, or approximately every two weeks, the Bitcoin network responds to changes in hashrate by adjusting the difficulty target which blocks must meet in order to be accepted.
Halvings: Every 210,000 blocks, or roughly every four years, the amount of new sats created in every block is cut in half.
Cycles: Every six halvings, something magical happens: the halving and the difficulty adjustment coincide. This is called a conjunction, and the time period between conjunctions a cycle. A conjunction occurs roughly every 24 years. The first conjunction should happen some time in 2032.
This gives us the following rarity levels:
common: Any sat that is not the first sat of its block
uncommon: The first sat of each block
rare: The first sat of each difficulty adjustment period
epic: The first sat of each halving epoch
legendary: The first sat of each cycle
mythic: The first sat of the genesis block The ordinal sold above was first wrapped for Ethereum via Emblem Vault, meaning it is "vaulted" and locked on the Bitcoin blockchain side and bridged to Ethereum as an ERC721 NFT token. These make Bitcoin assets sellable on Ethereum NFT marketplaces, such as OpenSea. It is traceably the "first" satoshi of block 781463, or satoshi #1932164375000000, which was mined on Mar 19 of this year, which makes it an uncommon sat according to the system of levels above. Here is the OpenSea listing: https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0x82c7a8f707110f5fbb16184a5933e9f78a34c6ab/55140395024419181You can see the BTC address associated with the vault is this one: https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/address/1LmRqGW1vFzkNKqKShMN5FZwvi19xvwJKJYou can match the output containing the "uncommon sat" in the address to the entry for it on the Ordinals explorer, as its current "location": https://ordinals.com/sat/1932164375000000So essentially somebody paid $3,600 for $2.24 worth of BTC. Its more than 1 sat b/c there's a buffer of 7,999 sats around it that can be used to pay for tx fees if it should be moved again at some point. And it doesn't even come with a monkey picture. LOL. Shocking to say the least... I can't think of a reason somebody would want to buy that crap. Crazy m(b)illionaire? Clueless person who's not sure what he's buying? Reseller planning to sell later for more $$$? In any case, the next level of retardation...  |
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"Victory after victory"
The Kremlin acknowledged the loss of the last ally in Europe: Russia declared Hungary an “unfriendly” country
"Hungary has signed up to all anti-Russian sanctions packages," the Russian ambassador in Budapest complained.
Source? The third mobilization, at the request of the Kremlin's pathetic Fuhrer, should be 400,000 Russians, who again just go to the slaughter. Consider my forecast until the New Year 2023 - the third wave, as I planned, will be in late spring - early summer  Putin, for the sake of his painful fantasies, is ready to send another 400,000 of his citizens to the next world .... Source? Mishustin stated the increase in the hole in the Russian budget
Russia's federal budget deficit continues to grow, said Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, speaking with a report on the work of the government in the State Duma.
duma.gov.ru
In fact, feeding the article to Google Translate produced this: “We have returned the economy to a growth trajectory. Now even some international organizations are predicting positive dynamics for us by the end of 2023 and achieving GDP growth rates higher than those of developed countries in 2024,” the Prime Minister stressed. Thanks to the work of the leadership of the Central Bank, the work of credit institutions, the currency and stock markets was normalized, Russia avoided external blocking of trade operations within the country. “Payment for goods, services, transfers proceed as before. All bank cards in Russia that were used work. We also managed to reduce inflationary pressure and maintain the stability of the banking sector,” the Head of Government noted. Thanks to the support of the authorities, Russian business has rebuilt its commodity and logistics chains and adapted to new conditions, Mikhail Mishustin emphasized. According to him, in 2022, 83 companies registered in "Russian offshores", which is three times more than in the previous year. So the question is: why are you spreading propaganda and blatant lies?  Two largest Western traders announced a boycott of Russian grain Russian grain producers, who harvested a record harvest last year and earned almost $14 billion in foreign exchange earnings for the economy, faced a boycott by key Western partners. The two largest international traders, who have exported a total of 3.5 million tons of Russian grain since the summer of 2022, simultaneously decided to abandon Russian products. The American Cargill, which provided 1.4 million tons of Russian grain exports, notified the Ministry of Agriculture that it would suspend the export of grain from the Russian Federation from July 1, 2023. The company explained its step by the growing difficulties in working with Russia: although grains did not fall under the sanctions of the United States and the European Union, restrictions on banks and state-owned companies make it difficult to pay for transactions. Viterra, one of the largest agricultural traders in the world, has decided to abandon Russian grain, which is connected with the Swiss commodity trader Glencore. https://www.moscowtimes.ru/2023/03/29/dva-krupneishih-zapadnih-treidera-obyavili-boikot-rossiiskomu-zernu-a38466... Putin managed to turn Russia, located in Asia and Europe, from a country with good potential and prospects into a third world country that has degraded economically, morally, technologically! Only with negative prospects. In just 1 year! So what we've got? 4 news, 2 without sources and highly improbable, 1 fake news and an article from a questionable website sponsored/owned by the Dutch company with a connection to CIA? |
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Sabalenka losing to Cristea in two sets was very unexpected, because I didn't think Cristea was able to hold Sabalenka well but Cristea was able to save important points and didn't give Sabalenka a chance even in the second set, Rybakina's path seems to be easier with the defeat of Sabalenka because she is the strongest competitor in the women's section
Yes, Sabalenka,s defeat is simply shocking. I watched the match and I have to say the key to success for Cirstea was her great attacking return of serve. I didn't believe my eyes how Sabalenka's play crumbled under pressure of Cirstea's return. IMO it was decisive factor but how easily the Romanian did it and such a small aspect of the game turned the tide completely. Sabalenka conceded so many double-faults at the most essential moments of the match that she simply had no chance. |
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Hey guys I'm back! Missed some crazy surprising unexpected action in Miami! Many favorites are out but let's see what we're going to witness today (I can give you a hint: it's a betting nighmare ): All matches have explicit favorites but things are not that obvious I fear. ATP Ruusuvuori v Sinner Sinner has been playing flawlessly so far and his win over Rublev is a proof but.. Ruusuvuori is enjoying one of the best tournaments of his entire career (so far) in Miami. He has also managed to win Botic van de Zandschulp and Frances Tiafoe in the previous rounds. h2h is 4:0 Sinner and he's got plenty of talent so I'm saying Sinner. Alcaraz v Fritz The two haven't met before on tour. We all know that Alcaraz if #1 in the World and has been playing awesome recently but Fritz is equally good! The American has managed to overcome opponents like Shapovalov and Rune on his way to the quarterfinal. My choice is still Alcaraz but it's a slippery bet guys... WTA Cirstea v Sabalenka Sabalenka is a monster, a train pushing everyone and everything out of her way. After she fixed her serve (most double-faults on tour in the previous season) she has become almost invincible. Against her today, Sorana Cirstea, an underdog, a Romanian veteran whose performance has been perfect in the US series of tournaments so far (winning players like Garcia). Both ladies haven't played each other, this will be their first meeting. My (conservative) bet is on Sabalenka. Alexandrova v Kvitova Kvitova is approaching the end of her glorious career, every tournament can be the last for her. I can see how she's trying to enjoy these last seasons on tour. And I have to say she has played tremendously so far. Alexandrova has stunned many fans with her awesome wins against Bencic and Andreescu and she will give the Czech a good fight. Still, my bet is on Kvitova! Let's get ready for another tennis show tonight! |
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I very much doubt this. Their opinions on the subject are probably far more nuanced than anybody posting here. Unlike us, they are taking time to consider all the ramifications of potential coding adjustments to counter "blockchain spam," or if any adjustments are necessary at all.
They are carefully weighing the pros and the cons of any potential changes instead of just mindlessly repeating their first impression opinion for the 40th time.
if you say so but so far i haven't heard a peep out of them at least here on this forum so they must be doing this under heavy secrecy...  i just thought they didn't care about the issue at all. We disagree a lot of the time and that's fine, but one thing I like about you larry is you are willing to at least be reasonable. TBH I really don't know what they think about inscriptions, just seen a couple impartial murmurings from them about it on the mail list so far. But I do know our shadowy group of supercoders has been relatively successful in the past at shepherding Bitcoin development down a well-constructed path. It will be really interesting to see what changes they propose/enact (if any) to combat inscription "spam." This may surprise everybody but if they decide to somehow place new limitations on it, it wouldn't upset me. In fact, placing new limitations now would be great for everyone: normies would enjoy fast low-fee transactions and NFT freaks would finally get rich as the price of already minted ordinals would skyrocket. It's a win-win situation. |
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Back in 2020, pipeline natural gas was trading at $100 to $150 per thousand cubic meters. Now it's trading at $500 to $600 per k.cu.m (at one point in 2022, prices had crossed $3,000 per k.cu.m, but then it came down). At current levels, producing Ammonia fertilizer from natural gas is unaffordable for most of the industrial units. On top of that, the price of potash fertilizer has also risen thanks to the Russo-Ukrainian war (most of the global production comes from Russia and Belarus). And as a final nail in the coffin, the freight rates have also increased by manytimes.
You can see positive things in everything. The reserves of oil and gas on our planet are rapidly depleted. Mankind still needs to switch to alternative energy sources, especially in the light of recent events related to drastic climate change just because of the massive use of these carbohydrates. The rise in oil and gas prices will accelerate the transition to other types of energy, and above all to "green" energy. Yes but green energy has one significant drawback - it's expensive. And now, while the World economy hasn't recovered from covid blow and war blow swift migration to green energy is dangerous, because of huge expenses. Inflation, debt, layoffs etc etc and rapid shift to green energy is additional stress for common people. It should be done step-by-step and with some caution. |
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Some clarification is needed to this board due to the recent incident with ChipMixer. To all advocates of anti-anonymous Bitcoin and Internet tools: Bitcoin mixing is NOT money laundering, per se. Definition of money laundering: Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions with varying definitions. It is usually a key operation of organized crime. Definition of Bitcoin mixing: A cryptocurrency tumbler or cryptocurrency mixing service[1] is a service that mixes potentially identifiable or "tainted" cryptocurrency funds with others, so as to obscure the trail back to the fund's original source. Unless you think that every potentially identifiable coin is obtained illegally (which would be false), Bitcoin mixing does not equate with Bitcoin laundering. While it is possible to launder, hereby conceal the origins of money from an illegal activity, it is not a money laundering service, in the same manner that while it is possible to terrorize with the assistance of end-to-end encryption and peer-to-peer protocols, such a messenger is not a terrorism service. Privacy is #1 enemy of the governments in the modern world. That's the reason why we are approaching a 100% digital fiat cashless society (and then who knows a chip in your head?). They hate privacy and that's why they will keep stalking privacy services like Bitcoin mixers. |
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Binance CEO Zhao and his COO got sued by CTFC ( commodity futures and trading commission ) , why won't these people just leave this man alone?  also is this why the market is currently crashing? These people mean CZ and I hope this guy will move out of the US for good, those people are just still mad with what he did with FTX, many secrets came to the light and many aren't too happy about it. Oh c'mon this is ridiculous: they're just looking for any pretext to get rid of CZ. I guess this is going to end with Binance eventually pulling out of the US or (hopefully not) a huge fine and Binance going bankrupt. Bitcoin is suffering now because of this FUD but it's going to fade in comparison to what is going to happen if Binance will go bust. Remember Covid dump down to $3k?  |
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Another disappointing result for Casper Ruud, in the third set he was already in the lead as he managed to break his opponent's serve but he was not good enough to maintain his advantage and Botic managed to take the final set to win it. Ruud hasn't shown anything good this year unlike last year where he was able to last quite a while in a tournament.
Today's match that will be interesting is Khachanov vs Jiří Lehečka, Lehečka beat Mussetti convincingly in the previous round, in the match against Khachanov it will be more difficult for him but he has a chance to beat this opponent and could be with a long match of 3 sets. Lehečka will probably beat the seed in this tournament again, he has been quite impressive in the previous rounds.
Yes, I agree, Khachanov - Lehecka will be one of the most interesting matches today. Here's an overview of today's order of play (provisionary winner in bold): ATP Garin v Tsitsipas Easy win for the "Greek God", Garin is only somewhat good on clay but even there Stefanos is leading 2:0 H2H. Khachanov v Lehecka It's gonna be along, exhausting 3 set match. Anybody's game really. My hunch says Lehecka. Auger-Aliassime v Cerundolo Felix's time to shine today. H2H stats are with me on this: the Canadian leading 2:0. Hurkacz v Mannarino Easy 2 set match for the Pole. Sonego v Tiafoe Good performance in Indian Wells for Frances, he's good on home courts like most Americans. My bet is on him. WTA Trevisan v Ostapenko Easy match for Ostapenko if she will keep playing like she did in previous rounds. Pegula v Linette Pegula showing some spectacular performance lately. Zheng v Potapova Potapova has been great so far: consistency, accuracy, power don't see how the Chinese can overcome this hurdle. Rybakina v Mertens Mertens is recovering from her series of 1st round losses and may play well today. Still Rybakina is my favorite, her level is too high for the Belgian. Kvitova v Gracheva One way traffic, this one. Kvitova to win in 2. Andreescu v Alexandrova Alexandrova showed some awesome skill by winning Bencic. Andreescu is showing her best tennis in Miami. Grand Slam level, too high for Alexandrova to beat. Krejcikova v Sabalenka Sabalenka is on the way to another final. So far she's been unstoppable and I don't believe Krejcikova can stop her today. Although, 3 sets possible. Cirstea v Vondrousova Both girls are not top level tennis stars but average (can we say average about top50?). Hard match, this one, but my bet will be on Marketa. 3 sets highly possible. Let's bet and watch some awesome matches tonight! Good luck! |
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