lightning is not bitcoin. it actually asks users to add in the chainhash, to allow the node to know which chains to monitor. lightning is a multicoin network of IOU transactions measured in 12 decimals.

in short lightning is a visa app to different nations fiat..
(swap visa for LN and swap 'nations fiat' for altcoins)
thus making lightning a killer app for crypto currency (coins) and not a feature of pure bitcoin

if you add up the mortgage scams of banks (2007 crisis)
all the ATM card cloning
tourist pickpocketing
forged bank notes
NFC card cloning
hacking retailer websites to steal credit cards
nigerian prince/foreign family member hospital bill scam

FIAT is the most scammed currency

in the last decade TRILLIONS have been scammed out of peoples fiat pockets. (just look at the FIAT debt clock)

for those wanting a rebrand without breaking bitcoin. how about rebrand it to 'bits' as in we all start commonly measuring in 100 sat amounts.
1btc=$6500.00
1bit=$0.0065
1.00000000$6500.00(1btc)
0.10000000$650.00
0.01000000$65.00
0.00100000$6.50
0.00010000$0.65
0.00001000$0.065
0.00000100$0.0065(1bit)

that way it becomes a great opportunity for:
1. people to stop measuring things in so many decimals which get annoying
2. it automatically silences the false assumption that 'its not mass-sharable'  debate
3. it automatically silences the false assumption that 'its too expensive' debate
4. it refreshes people mindsets to a new era of bitcoin without actually changing rules
5. people become more comfortable that buying $65 gets them 10,000 units of something rather than 0.01 units of something
6. because it feels like a new era, people can still talk about the past. but have the feeling that its the past and not the present
7. then when 1bit=$1 the 'old schoolers' will see 1btc=$1m and the 'new school' sees the main common unit is only $1 so still cheap

another racist and not well thought out topic

1. "china" is not a single entity of control. there are billions of people in it. if "america" was in the same seat you should be more afraid because there are less people under that entity thus far more easy to collude.

2. many pools defined as "china" are not actually located in china or run by employees who are chinese or actually managed by china. lets take the most propagandised of them 'antpool' most people dont realise this but antpool is not one location/farm/facility. if you look at the coin reward addresses. they are not completely random. nor are they all using the same single address. antpool has like half a dozen addresses, wach one for a different facility/manager. and if you look closer some of the addresses are bech32 and some are not. which shows that the different managers have different mindsets about if they want to use segwit or not. antpool facilities are in different countries

3. other pools like f2pool have farmers/asic owners all around the world. slushpool is actually managed in thailand and farmers/asic owners around the world

4. even if we moved to GPU. firstly mining per kwh would be wildly inefficient. and then the debate would spark you "OMG AMD(ATi)" own mining

5. pools can only collate data a certain way without having blocks rejected. essentially all pools can do is only include certain transactions they like or not add certain transactions they dislike. if people see this happening and they dont like the result of it causing a backlog of unconfirms. then they can just ban certain blocks that do certain things

its the developers that have control of rule changes. not pools

imagine it like a company.
developers are the management team(node developers) and users(merchant and individuals) are the shareholders who vote for the best management teams(node) to give/control the rules of the network.
with merchants having a more majority share hold voice as individuals usually follow the merchants as users cant spend funds if a merchant decided a different team that only accepts things a certain way, thus users wont get their transactions seen if they are not using the same tool as merchants

pools are just the secretaries/PA's that just collate the company(network) data in a format the management team find acceptable

the weak point is if there isnt management teams. but one managing team and just a bunch of supervisors that just follow the single management team. as that becomes a point where the single management team can get stuck in a rutt of circle jerking one narrative of their own cabin fever desire. and the share holders have no other options but accept the narrative as there is no other unique choice

in short the diversity of nodes is more important than the diversity of blocks

1. mining cost has nothing to do with if it will replace traditional currencies.
it doesnt matter if it cost $1 to mine a bitcoin or a $1bill to mine a btc. nothing fundemental has changed. only politics can change what governments decide to tax, treasure, and publicly serve with..

2. i almost facepalmed the first couple paragraphs.. whenever someone pretends to be a economist but then mentions the market cap like its meaningful. has failed lesson one of economics. i can make a altcoin of 1trill premined coins. sell 1 for $5 and instantly have a $5trill market cap.. all for just $5. so a market cap is a meaningless bit of math there would not actually be $5tril to go around or $100-$200bill for bitcoiners

3. again fiat is about politics. assuming bitcoin could cause fiat to change. and then accuse btc of not being able to cause change is such a waste of a conversation. its like saying icecream if eaten 20 times a day by everyone will make everyone sick.. then argue there isnt enough icecream. and that not everyone could afford 20 meals of icecream a day... its like then why even bring up the subject

if the writer was actually from MIT. then he has not yet studied much. or doesnt deserve a pass

bitcoin will be its own currency. without a nation. where its like gold or art.. traded across borders without a nation owning it
yes different countries can make laws or decide to accept or not accept it. but that doesnt make a difference. you dont need art to be a national currency for people to trade it. same with gold.

knew tether couldnt last.

all those people that thought a USDT would always by 1:1 are now seeing the scam play out.. well done to the mighty duck who has syphoned 2% out of everyones dollar. well played

now lets see a bank run. where people still thinking if they sold all their 1tethers they would all get 0.98...
i can see the 'tether' snapping when people realise the mighty duck has actually took more than 2% from the "backed" account

1. "bubble" sorry Nouriel but a bubble is not the fault of bitcoin. you even proved it yourself by mentioning other bubbles that happen in anything. bitcoin is not the fault or the cause. but infact the lack of financial knowledge taught at school or in life to prepare people to understand markets and how things work is the problem.

2. glorified spreadsheet.. sorry but fiat is a glorified spreadsheet with so many lack of rules to control how the numbers formulate. blockchain is code, rules and the data is just the background stuff. EG fiat is just the .xls file while blockchain is the .exe file.. yea there are many pieces of software that are not interesting or developed and people dont need to use it. but then there are revolutionary pieces of software, where what the software does is more important then the information within it.

3. crypto is not money.   actually you are correct. crypto is an asset. money is just digits that can be added or taken away by banks and institutions.
trying to make it sound like blockchain currencies not bing exactly like fiat is to miss the point, that point being is that fiat is not that great in the first place and something better is needed.
as for scaling. for 20 years fiat was not stable. each state had their own bank note the value was volatile. people in different states valued it at different values. heck even today a $10 bank note is work 1 hours minimum labour and another state valued at 1 hour 20 minutes minimum labour..
fiat is so volatile even in one state alone they cant agree..
"As of December 31, 2018: NYC large employers: $15.00; NYC small employers: $13.50; Downstate employers: $12.00; Upstate employers: $11.10."

3b. not scalable
blockchains are scalable. its not the fault of code or limitation of technology, the restrictions are caused by the politics of developers who have taken over and wanted to make a FIAT system pegged to some blockchains and then cripple blockchains to make the fiat-esq(LN channels: bank accounts) system more appealing by having those restrictions..

3c no barter
ill quote "Since the invention of money thousands of years ago, there has never been a monetary system with hundreds of
different currencies operating alongside one another. The entire point of money is that it allows parties to transact without having to barter. But for money to have value, and to generate economies of scale, only so many
currencies can operate at the same time."

you literally counter argued yourself. to have no barter the different currencies would need to operate alongside one another.
you literally counter argued yourself. for money to have value and generate economies of scale. only so many can operate.
i guess you dont realise the point i addressed above where a $10 has many values in just the NY state area. it can buy 10 loaves of bread in one town but only 7 loaves in another town... yep, one currency one state and needing to buy one product has so many inconsistencies of value

you move onto subjects of not allowing euro or yen in america as a main currency.. well thats politics. you then say how having no barter is good.. again politics.
having no barter is actually bad. for instance pricing people labour based on where they live does not allow the employe to barter the true value(skill) that worker can give. EG anyone can employ a person to fry burgers for $10 for 40 minutes(NYLE$15) but if one person can be lazy and only flip 1 burger a minute. and another can flip 4 burgers a minute. then barter should be good to reward the efficient burger flipper. instead of treating everyone at a lazy minimum salary

also alot of retail food goes to waste because shoppers see imperfect food and just ignore it and grab the perfect stuff because there is no barter to make a deal on the imperfect stuff.. even car showrooms are becoming anal by not really doing barter no more to throw in a few extra's into a car sales deal. i remember days where paying cash got you better deals, but now people paying with debt(credit/loan) has been the thing that can only excite a sales person into doing a lil extra. barter is a good thing

again fiat has shown to be unfair to people. valuation of value based on location. even when one currency is used. treating people the same without barter doesnt incentivise efficiency. barter has shown positives. EG promotions. but if the fiat system had no barter at all everyone would work at any level of authority for the same amount

having laws to protect people is great.
no one is saying no to law. what people are saying is WHICH law
regulations are not a law to protect citizens. the financial crises proved that

consumer protection laws would protect citizens
we should not keep going in circles whre businesses have the upper hand of grabbing funds under trust so they can screw people over. all regulation does is only let certain rich groups get the "trust" to scam later because those rich groups can afford the membersbip. the membership doesnt arrest people for scamming. it arrests people for not being a member

people need to look behind what regulation really is before lobbying for it. again look to the financial criss as a big example of how useless regulation is in regards to consumer protection. realise when regulated the businesses themselves develop and implement their own policies (self regulate) again useless

what PEOPLE need is easy access to ways to get scammy businesses caught. because right now you cant just report a business to th local cops and things happen. and taking them to court is a bureaucratic nightmare.. its consumer protection that needs developing.. not regulation

for those that dont understand.
consumer protection= "power to the people"
regulation= "power to the elite corps"

"legal tender"  refers to the national controlled currency of tax, fines, treasury,public service funding...

it does not mean other currencies are illegal. it just means the government wont be printing/minting/hoarding it. they wont use that currency for its treasury/public services.

regulations dont stop scams.
regulations just add a hefty pricetag for businesses to startup. and un-organised/poor scammers wont pay.
so its not about scammers reduce due to a law. they reduce because of the pricetag to be certified

meaning RICH scammers will still scam. and poor scammers dont because the point of poor scamming is to get funds not give funds

however if there was consumer protections which had a price tag to accredit a business. the same positive result occurs where poor scammers dont accredit themselves. but the other positive is that businesses then get policed so that the rich scammers also risk penalties for screwing with customers

in short consumer protection and regulation both pricetag poor scammers out of attempting to start up, both accredit honest businesses
where as regulation would have let them scam and give the scammer privileges to police its customers
but consumer protection lets customers have rights to police the business

we all know the government want controls. but instead of making the SEC a pay for-certification agency letting businesses set up policies of how a business will stop customers doing stuff. what should happen is things like better business bureau and courts let customers have more power over the businesses they choose to interact with

basically spin the power upside down more in favour of the user not the business

regulation does not stop scams

regulation just means a scammer has paid a fee to get a sherrifs badge and then gets to police its customers.
take the banks.. how many bank managers got arrested for the 2007-8 housing criss/mortgage scam

regulations are not about decreasing scams they are just a way for an authority to get money because the authority dictates a group of people doing a certain activity need to pay a fee.

if you look at the dodgy scammers. they are not getting caught up in legal issues due to the scams. they are getting caught in legal issues because they didnt register their activity and pay the fee

what is needed is not regulation. but instead CONSUMER PROTECTION. where by access to the court system is made easier and where users can report on shady businesses easily. thus making business customers the police, monitoring and reporting on businesses.. not businesses reporting on customers

regulators dont care about scammers, as long as it doesnt cost regulators money to reimburse customers.

senators do know of bitcoin. there have been MANY senate hearings on the topic. if a senator says they know nothing. then maybe thats because they never turn up to senate hearings and should just quit if they would prefer not to turn up

(facepalm)

first lets address the hashrate plugged into wallsockets of facilities in china

now lets address the racism of "china"

and lastly.
blocks would get rejected in 2 seconds if they didnt follow the rules. all a pool can control is what transactions to include or ignore (empty block attack or spam block attack basically)

as for ASIC objectors..
ASICS are more efficient and more secure system for the blockchain than CPU/GPU based algo
and better than PoS(also requires a device with a cpu)

but lets put th scenario into practice......
oh wait i hear you scream
"OMG... AMD(ATi) own over 50% of processors and GPUs that create blocks"

mindset of typical bitcoin minimalist.
thinking this a too much for a block


where as reality is 2 decades further along and this below is the reality of 9 years of block data

china is one person.. didnt you know?
....
oh wait china is billions of people all with their own brain.

so even if "china"(sarcasm of: one entity) did own the hashpower(which they dont). we can still rip apart that "china" is a single brain

..

so to all those with the typical racial mindsets that sound like they love to read reddit and watch fox news ill say this.

when you look into the sky and see these machines in the sky with a tail of vapour behind them. they are not chemtrail dispersing machines. they are called this thing known as an aeroplane. yea surprising right. people get on aeroplanes and actually leave a country. oh and there are over 200 countries. i know you have the belief there is only usa, mexico, russia and china and they all hate each other and people should avoid leaving america and instead need a wall. but if you get on a aeroplane you can travel AROUND the world. yes the world is also round, which i know surprises you also.

in short. try experiencing the diversity of the world and stop being narrow minded and spoonfed racial finger pointing crap
(p.s im white british.. in case your narrow mind auto-rages to want to declare that i must be chinese to point out racism against china)

5800 11 month strong support
6100 3 month strong support

5800=low tide
6100=high tide

6100-20k = temporary waves above the tide (for those with confidence to surf the waves, have fun)

as for the tide over years (climate change)
2016: above $300
2017: above $900
2018: above $5800
expect the tide to rise slowly and expect there to be waves ontop

senators, and the SEC and even american courts have no clue

US courts said bitcoin is a commodity.. again lets laugh
a commodity is a raw MATERIAL used to create other produce. EG oil=plastics/fuel.. beef=burgers/steak.. wheat=cereal/bread
bitcoin is actually an asset. not a commodity.

here we go again with a racial social drama that is normally only seen by reddit and fox news dramatists

let take antpool.
did you know they have multiple facitilities. multiple managements and work in multipl countries..
OMG SHOCK..

take the block rewards of all the blocks tagged as "antpool". you will see that there is not total random address per reward. nor is it a single address for al rewards. but instead a half dozen known addresses that scoop up the rewards.

each address depicts a different facility in a different location run by different management.
you can tell there are different management as some of the addresses are bech32 and some are legacy addresses. meaning each facility gets independence to choose to support a certain feature.. or not.

ill give you a tip. most facilities are just set up and then leased out. they are not controled by or managed by asians. the asians involvement is usually just to accept rent from whoever does manage the pools. and as said above those in control of what transactions get collated into a block and who pays the electric/rent bill is most of the time not even asian

here is another example take slushpool. which many have deemed as asian.. well thats actually not "china".. because its thailand managed

f2pool is an open pool for miners around the world. so although the main stratum ip is deemed as chinese they also have other stratums. and as i said the users are from around the world.

btcc.. well lets just laugh. they dropped from double digits to now below 1% of network hashrate. no need to waste too much time on them

the real funny part is that for years altcoin GPU farmers have been screaming how asics are evil due to asia... yet guess where ATI(AMD) GPU's come from..

many scream about the pools being asian.. yet iceland georgia, mongolia, ukraine, thailand, america never get mentioned as being the actual facility locations of pools tagged as asian.. because that destroys the narrative of the trump/fox news/reddit mindset kind of people who like to racially point fingers at china

if people could actually stop just copying and pasting badly wrote scripts of out dated propaganda. and actually use their fingers to search out the sources. it would shock them how easily they are led into such social drama

this has been done before already, just using bitcoin.
many have
its kind of the bases of ETF.. btc funds are locked up and then people play with the ownership colateral(shares) to initially give fiat to the ETF and then on receipt of the share ownership sell the shares to others

its also been controversy of some doing it but not doing it right. by pretending to have BTC to scam others into giving them fiat.
(craig wright)

to do it properly. is to have coins in an address and to sign a FRESH message that truly proves you own the coin. then honourably people will trust you and its not a CWscam