The scary thing is, if we could have done something about North Korea, we would have done it long ago. The comfort lies in the fact that if they could have done something about us, they would have done it long ago.  With the release of the interview, which essentially makes fun of Kim (which is very offense to NK) gives them an additional incentive to want to do something to the US/west. The reason why the west is unable to do anything to NK is because China supports the NK government because they do not want western influence in the Korean Peninsula. If NK were to do something reckless, like say attempt a terrorist attack, then it could potentially be facing an invasion/attack from it's north border |
|
|
|
...It is programmable, better money.
... That's Bitcoin's biggest problem--it's algorithmically predetermined, it is preprogrammed. The local paranoid fringe would have you believe that it's a good thing, but it ain't. Think of it as a clockwork guidance system: instead of reacting to the terrain like an IRL driver, it only reads instructions from a piano roll: forward two feet, turn 12 degrees left, halve block reward, and so on. If something gets in its path, there is no way to avoid it, no way alter the course.Theoretically, it is possible: If the entire bitcoin network comes to a consensus. That's like driving a car by consensus--by the time consensus is reached, you're already flying through the windshield. In short, Bitcoin's a throwback to the days of gold and cowrie shells--when money supply was inelastic & controlled by scarcity. Modern money is more complex. It depends on elasticity of supply, which, in turn, depends of having IRL people at the helm. The Luddite need to undo centuries of innovation to return to cowrie shells seems attractive--everyone understands how cowrie shells work, and simple must be good, amirite? Why spend years studying economics when a bit of horse sense is enough? The problem's it ain't  To be fair, it is possible to change the "program" (aka the protocol) to adapt to changes in the environment (aka fork the network). This has been done before and will almost certainly happen in the future. Modern money does not need to react quickly and can take it's time to change |
|
|
|
I invest in bitcoin simple because I believe in this idea and vision behind bitcoin.
I really hope to get rid of banks, bank's loans etc, and achieve financial freedom and right now I think just bitcoin have the potential to help me achieve this.Also, as early adopter, I really hope that this investment will help me later financially Sadly I think many people don't think like this about bitcoin nowadays and only care about one thing: Profit. With that being said I do also personally see the massive potential for investment in the future, but I can wait. Well to be fair bank loans are one major way that people can achieve financial freedom. For example, most people are not able to purchase a house without some kind of loan from the bank (mortgage) and without this loan they would be susceptible to continuous rent increases by your landlord I don't think so. Bank loans are very clever way to make you bank's slave, until the end of your life. This is not the way how to achieve financial freedom, please believe me. I know this very well from my own experience. Many people in my country lost job, couldn't repay loan to the banks and lost their homes. I am not sure what country you live in, but this is the case anywhere. If you do not pay your loan then you will lose whatever collateral you put up. This is the importance of having some level of both job and financial stability before making such a major purchase. Some countries give loans without collateral or with half collaterals as well. This is not country specific, it is lender/bank specific. Generally all banks will give out loans without collateral, using only a person's reputation, assuming they have sufficient income and credit history, however they will be on worse terms (shorter repayment length, higher interest rates and lower amounts) then a loan secured by collateral. Even when you borrow without collateral, your assets can still be seized by your creditors, it is just more difficult to do so, and the lender needs to share your assets with your other creditors |
|
|
|
Link for the OP and others readers : https://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/difficultyDec 17 2014 39,457,671,307 -1.37% 282,449,013 GH/s
Dec 02 2014 40,007,470,271 -0.73% 286,384,627 GH/s
Nov 18 2014 40,300,030,328 1.76% 288,478,854 GH/s
Nov 05 2014 39,603,666,252 10.05% 283,494,086 GH/s The difficulty is estimated to go down by ~4.5% as of the next difficulty period. It is my understanding that this will be the longest period (except when difficulty was at 1) that the difficulty has not increased |
|
|
|
This does not make much sense to me. Why would they "use" bitcoin but not make either party aware of it? Unless the receiver is vulnerable to exchange rate movements then bitcoin is not really being used. They are likely only saying they use bitcoin as a marketing ploy
This makes perfect sense. Bitspark just acts as an instant BTC/fiat exchange. Sender gives $100 (+fee?) to the BitSpark agent -> agent sends $100 in BTC to another agent --> they convert to the local currency --> recipient gets $100 (equivalent) Bitcoin is used as a transfer tool. The parties (sender, receiver) don't really have to know what's going on in the background. I don't know how would that work on converting BTC to local currency, they'd need to either accept the risk of exchange rate changes, or have an option to 'lock' the rate. This is just adding an extra step. Unless each BitSpark agent is separate from all the others then there is no reason why BitSpark could not just have the money move internally just like Western Union does. However if each agent is independent then you would essentially be sending bitcoin to an unknown person with no real way of knowing if they can be trusted (and knowing how many bitcoin related scammers are out there, they probably cannot be). Also much of the world (even in 3rd world countries) have internet access and smartphone access and I imagine that it would not be difficult to get a BTC ATM installed in places that tend to receive a lot of money from overseas
I think you overestimate internet/smartphones accessibility in the poor countries. There are still wide areas where people have no access to electricity (or very limited). If someone does not have access to electricity then I can't see how any company would be able to be setup to know when it is appropriate to disburse money to someone else. |
|
|
|
The new Bitcoin ETF could be a game changer when it comes online - Wall Street can throw $20B around like it's nothing. Case in point - GoPro
Exactly. Wait the Bitcoin ETF of the Winklevoss Brother and you'll see (maybe) a market capitalization of bitcoin around 200 billion of dollars ! It's possible? I guess yes That might be a bit of a stretch. Just because wall street is involved in something does not mean it magically has massive amounts of value. Although additional money will likely pour into bitcoin, just not that much. |
|
|
|
This is very sad, not only because Charlie is in Jail, but because it discourages people from wanting to create businesses with Bitcoin.
I don't think people will be discouraged from starting a bitcoin related business because of this. It was mentioned previously that Charlie agreed to follow the AML rules and ended up not doing so. I think it is pretty clear that Charlie broke the law....the real question is should the law be in it's place in the first place, and is the punishment (according to the law) an appropriate punishment? |
|
|
|
What a bunch of cowards at Sony. I guess I know how to get what I want from them, threats. I have decided to not buy ANY Sony products or services until I have seen this movie in a theater. So listen up Sony or I'll rain merciless fire on you!  I think holding off on the release does make somewhat sense for sony. Most of the major theater chains decided not to show the interview so they don't even stand to make very much by releasing it even if the theaters that do show it sell out off of their showings. Plus the threat of terrorism is likely going to prevent other moviegoers from wanting to go to the movies at all as any terrorist attack would likely affect people in the entire building not a specific theater that the interview is playing in so sony's other releases will be negatively affected. |
|
|
|
So you trust big business more than the government? Look around. The companies are the wolves. I would not trust them with an inch. Hell, they would have slaves operating the internet if not for the government. I'll take my chances with an entity I can depose if need be.
"Too big to fail..." said the government. How about getting money out of politics? It seems to me that would be a step in the right direction: http://www.wolf-pac.com, or http://www.rootstrikers.org, for example, are working towards that goal. Of course, that wouldn't solve all the problems, but rather create enough of an opening that would give the population a chance to have a greater influence in the whole process. Money being in politics is not a problem. Having money in politics allows people to make a statement that they agree or disagree with something that is more powerful then just their words. Money allows you to make a statement that can be heard by others (by allowing for tv/radio/print advertisements |
|
|
|
If you don't have any self-control when you're drunk, you shouldn't be drinking to begin with, most people know how much they can take and whether or not they cope well with being drunk and frankly someone in the army should know better.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_%28United_States_law%29#Degrees_of_murder_in_the_United_States First-degree murder is any intentional murder that is willful and premeditated with malice aforethought. Felony murder is typically first-degree.[6] The definition of 1st-degree murder is similar under Canadian law.
Second-degree murder is an intentional murder with malice aforethought, but is not premeditated or planned in advance.[7]
Voluntary manslaughter (also referred to as third-degree murder), sometimes called a "Heat of Passion" murder, is any intentional killing that involved no prior intent to kill, and which was committed under such circumstances that would "cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed". Both this and second-degree murder are committed on the spot, but the two differ in the magnitude of the circumstances surrounding the crime. For example, a bar fight that results in death would ordinarily constitute second-degree murder. If that same bar fight stemmed from a discovery of infidelity, however, it may be mitigated to voluntary manslaughter. Apparently in the Philippines, 'homicide' is differentiated from 'murder' as second or third-degree is differentiated from first-degree above. He is clearly not subject to the charge of first-degree murder. All the evidence shows he did not premediate it. It is clearly a rage killing. Sorry you voters don't respect the law. How can we have a rule of law and not rule of the MOB emotions if people can't even think logically about the law as written. By your wiki definition this would probably not be considered murder, but probably rather manslaughter. Although a good defense attorney may be able to plea it down to involuntary manslaughter due to the fact that he was drunk at the time |
|
|
|
I've personally been against this movie all along (even before the Sony hack and such) and I'm glad they stopped showing it. There is a very obvious difference between parody movies (think Team America World Police) and a thinly veiled realistic threat that the US is going to use the media to assassinate the leader of North Korea. I wasn't worried about hurting Kim Jong Un's feelings, I was worried that the movie would make him more paranoid and it would put Americans or suspected Americans in danger. Look at American cinematography, there are hundreds of movies about the president being kidnapped by terrorists, aliens, the works, but they are always either fictional presidents or an already dead ones. If a North Korean movie came out about an attempted hit on the president, there would be a lot of protest and people calling it propaganda.
Am I against freedom of expression? No, but I think there is a major double standard here. That and North Korea doesn't need any more reasons somewhat fictional or not, to suspect the US of an assassination attempt against Kim.
I personally don't think the NK is capable to pulling off any major kind of terrorist attack, nor any major act of war that would do physical harm to American citizens (Americans would be the ones targeted). Any attempt of either of the above would be considered an act of war and a reason for the US government to argue that the Chinese government should no longer support NK and if the Chinese government can be convinced as such the NK government will likely quickly collapse. |
|
|
|
Africa is not stuck in the stone age, there are some great stories evolving there, incredible entrepreneurial energy being unleashed right now
M-Pesa m-pesa is one example of innovations in Africa, however most of the continent has a much lower standard of living then the rest of the world, they have a very high poverty rate and are decades behind the rest of the world in terms of technology |
|
|
|
Sounds like a super-majority of cuban americans support this buy perhaps not the way it was done behind the scenes. Naturally, there'll be major business opposition to certain Cuban products making their way into the US but too bad for them. Imo, this is a good thing but it's a phony distraction to get people riled up about pretty much nothing one way or the other when there's lots of imminent economic and spending issues that need to be fixed.
I can't imagine why the US government doesn't/hasn't overthrown the Cuban government. Even if it has foreign allies, it isn't like we haven't been able to overthrow governments without being directly at war or directly involved with the country in the past |
|
|
|
We all know Detroit is the butt of all city jokes in the U.S. The place is in utter disrepair, the city is huge compared to the taxes it receives--so naturally bad things started to happen. Business and economic growth don't exactly thrive in a place declared by the FBI as the murder capital of the U.S. So in your opinion, what can fix Detroit? Other than Robocop of course.
Stop voting for the democrats. Cuz everyone knows we're a few republicans away from Utopia? I don't know about that. I know the democrats and the unions had a free ride for their ultimate Utopia for the past 50 years. It was called Detroit. We can all see the result. It is basic History 101. I think trying to pin the failure of Detroit singularly on the Democrats is a case of over-simplification. There were far more factors that lead to the downfall of Detroit than the party in power, or the role of unions. (Two groups I am not fans of, btw... I'm not defending them.) No democrats are pretty much the only thing to blame for detroits woes. Almost every other democrat run city/state is in horrible condition, however ones with a somewhat moderate balance of power (meaning that Republicans have enough representation in the legislature to avoid the dems cramming everything they want past them, sometimes have a GOP Governor/Mayer) are not as bad off. IL is another example of a heavily democratic state that is doing horribly (although not as bad as detroit as Unions have not been able to infiltrate IL as much) |
|
|
|
|
This would be easy to get around. All that someone would need to do is host a website listing the IP address of servers that host illegal files (which would not be able to be taken down by such takedown requests) and then anyone who wanted to download illegal content could point their computers to such IP addresses
|
|
|
|
|
A Single-Payer Health Care System is the opposite direction where the health care industry/insurance industry needs to go. It is much better to use a system when the consumer pays the first health care dollar so they can question the necessity of procedures, medicines, ect instead of asking when they can get their "free" health care services that is covered by insurance
|
|
|
|
This is ridiculous.
Right. Animals are not able to understand the issues that are voted on, and thus cannot realistically be able to vote. Also if dogs were citizens then it would be impossible to 'own' them and they would need to be 'freed' but they would have no way to "support" themselves and pay for their own food/shelter ect |
|
|
|
|
It is a shame that the interview was pulled. This really is an assault on the freedom of speech. What north korea did (if they did in fact hack sony) really was an act of war.
Ironically when the interview eventually does get released (it eventually will) it will be much more popular then it otherwise would be
|
|
|
|
If you can find a miner (or mining pool) that is willing to accept your higher fee transaction as a replacement for the lower fee transaction, and you are able to get your transaction to them, then there is a chance that the higher fee transaction will be confirmed by that miner (or pool) before the lower fee transaction is confirmed by some other miner (or pool).
If the lower fee transaction is confirmed first, then the higher fee transaction will become invalid and will be thrown away.
Most miners (and pools) do not accept higher fee transactions while the lower fee transaction is still in their memory pool. Also most peers will not relay the higher fee transaction across the network while the lower fee transaction is still in their memory pool. And yes, transactions are eventually dropped from the memory pool even if the computer is not restarted.
Maybe it would be a good idea to change the "standard" logic that most pools/nodes follow to accept this kind of transaction as long as the outputs are exactly the same (or a TX has additional outputs), and the only meaningful difference is that the TX fee is increased. This would allow for someone to increase the fee attacked to a transaction without having to either wait for the old transaction to fall out of nodes memory poor nor having to risk that no no/low TX eventually gets confirmed prior to it falling out of node's memory pool |
|
|
|
|
Show Posts
