Its not useful but people don't understand the benefits of decentralization, and the risks of centralization. But everyone is giving a try at their own crypto, Governments as well. Not that i would recommend them... In the past it used to be fashionable for companies to issue their own credit cards, so i expect them to start issuing their own cryptos as well, just because they can.

But in the end most altcoins won't survive.

Actually the ultimate decentralized exchange doesn't even need a web page, its the kind you could do directly from wallet to wallet. So far this is only possible with coins supporting Segwit or equivalent, for example Bitcoin and Litecoin.

The "lite" variation which everyone knows, is the type where people remain in control of their coins, by either giving them the private keys or letting them use their own wallets in the platform.

And then there is Bisq, which is like a decentralized version of Localbitcoins. This is of course fine for pair matching, but once fiat is involved, you are surrendering any privacy. I guess if you stick to crypto, it should do the trick.

This is because you haven't lived in the other side of the fence, in a country where you can't just buy USD. And even if you do it in the black market, you end with physical money you can't use online. Paypal, no credit card? Too bad, can't use it; and hope they don't chargeback scam you... Skrill also has obnoxious rules, like Neteller and others hostility against crypto. There is AirTM trying bridge them all but their fees are outrageous.

Not all stablecoins are pegged to the USD, some are pegged to the EUR, or some other fiat or asset.

Ugh, this is awful. Can you downgrade from the 2019 firmware back to 2018? Disabling SSH is enough reason to stay away from Bitmain software.

Well then i suggest you leave ELPM disabled with LPM enabled and keep them that way. I'm not very sure if this is pool or controller related, you could try different pools but its probably not worth it.

If you are truly paranoid you shouldn't be using Windows in the first place. And after you pick a secure OS (such as Linux) use Tor instead of rogue VPNs. But hey, there is already a live distro that comes pre-configured for tor use, its called Tails.

And if you carry an usb thumb with it installed, you could even boot it from public computers without worries. Of course you could install it in your laptop, and you should...

But to each their own. Many public wi-fis have captive portals. What stops those from being infected or the owner to add malicious code so you get infected even before you start doing anything?

If you just use a VPN, you are just putting yourself in the hands of that VPN provider. Tor is a whole different league, have it already pre-configured with obfs4 bridges, even if they don't seem to be needed where you are at this moment...

It is actually funny to see people go to these lengths when they could just download a Linux iso and boot from that.

Security for Beginners? Stop using windows for starts.

You can run virtual machines in any OS, but there are much safer OSes. A live iso won't bite, you just put it into an USB stick and boot from it, simple. This might change (and save) your life...

Of course you can block ads in Linux the same way. I'd suggest you add umatrix to your ublock origin (same author), that takes care of rogue scripts.

I'd rephrase the question: Can Banks beat Bitcoin? And the answer is, no. The genie is out of the bottle, the world history changed on Jan 3 2009; there is no turning back. The best they can do is embrace it, the worse is fight it, but disappear it? Never, they just can't. They'll have to adapt to a new reality, a technology often comes that makes centuries old business practices obsolete. I'm sure they will find a different role to fill, rather than moving (non existent) money around. It is good that Crypto came to finally put an end to Fractional Reserve Banking. The Austrian economists have been warning for a century but few listened. Perhaps because they proposed going back to gold directly as currency. But now there is a digital gold, which some of them don't like, but some do, and things will and are changing, for the better.

They will adjust, but not all of them. The simple solution for banks is to embrace Austrian economics and go full reserve banking, they could also join exchanges and provide the bridge during the transition from fiat to crypto era, which might take a century.

"Remain in power" is a misnomer, perhaps their power is getting weaker, perhaps. Usually fiat currencies are controlled by the State rather than private banks, but there are exceptions such as Hong Kong where its 4 private bank groups that take care of the HKD.

They can still do lending, but they have to do it using full reserve rules. That is, no making money out of thin air. If a customer decides to open a lending account, and the bank lends it to another customer, that money becomes unavailable doing that period.

Of course they can still do plenty business, such as finance, credit, and safe keeping; again using full reserve rules.

Yes, and yet you see no military Chinese here. Last they brought was a hospital ship, now gone. They are not stupid, they have already been in contact with the Guaido group and are ready to continue "business as usual", but that remains hidden to not anger the current de-facto gov, should they survive for more years in power.

Like Russia, Venezuela has also bought some Chinese military equipment in the past, at least radars and small "trainer" jet fighters, at least during Chávez. In Caracas you can watch the Spanish version of the Chinese official TV (CCTV, now renamed CGTN) , I have seen their criticism to Maduro's "socialist" economy, subtle but present.

Either way everyone needs the economy in Venezuela to change, unfortunately Maduro and his gang of thieves are in the way.

The more socialist a country becomes, the more corrupt it is. The socialist system is a corruption factory. You see, when you replace the free market, that is: take away the power from the people to make their own choices; with bureaucrats to do the choices for them, it becomes survival to "influence" these bureaucrats. After all, in their hands depends if you eat today or not.

It also happens that those with more money have more "influencing power" than those without it, so it feedbacks itself. This is how Venezuela ended in ruins, and why its got the darkest mark. Before the soviet union fell, they also had similar corruption levels, only the transparency of a free market alleviates this, same as the blockchain: all transactions are public for all to see.

In a free market economy, people are more worried about working or starting their own business. In a socialist economy, people have to shift all their focus towards corruption, as working doesn't provide food anymore. And it doesn't help they start making everything illegal, such as resale of subsidized products. Well duh, you can't work for food anymore... If you think "capitalism" is bad, wait when you actually try "socialism"...

If you think only the sensor is the problem, while having only that single board connected, try booting from Braiins OS on an SD card. There is a cgminer option that lets you disable the sensors when you use this alternative free open source firmware replacement.

If you use this method, you only need an sd card and move a jumper. To go back just take out the sd card and put the jumper back where it was.

If you really like Braiins OS, you can install it in the controller's NAND as well.

You can also read the Braiins OS thread if you want more information.

Even if you don't like it you can go back later to Bitmain's firmware, after you confirm the problem really is just a damaged sensor.

For testing purposes, try disabling LPM and ELPM and see if it makes a difference.

Do they have something else in common? Same controller/PSU model vs the other 3 that are fine?

The first two i don't seem to be able to register, they have new accounts disabled or something. Both reddit and bitcointalk have lots of people, but you will also lose yourself in the multitude and its not easy to find a category you might excel at.

I don't think the Russians will remain for long, unless Putin takes this chance to keep a "permanent delegation" and keeps rotating them. Is Venezuela worth the trouble for Mr. Putin?

That's the same as the software fork i explained above, Litecoin being the first. Bitcoin is free open source software, anyone can take it, change it, and start it again from zero. That is not really a "coin fork" (that term would actually be misleading). Of course forking the bitcoin software usually produces a different coin...

Can you take a look at the MAC address of each? (HWaddr value when you use ifconfig after logging via ssh). Can you post more details of your network configuration?

Very well then, i stand corrected. I wonder how loud that thing is...

This is why we need jobs, to start rolling the aforementioned wheel. It all involves a free market, and rule of law investors can rely in. If Venezuela were to open its market and end crime (and corruption), it suddenly becomes seriously attractive as we have the lowest wage on the planet. Of course, that will bring a lot of low paid job offers that will start competing among themselves (Supply and Demand), and this is what ultimately will start rise up wages, not that stupid socialist "everything solved by decree" mentality that only bankrupts business and scares everyone away.

Unfortunately in 2009~10 everything seemed ok, people were content with their income and quality of life to bother stop and think the future would become so dark (literally). We are now paying the price... Offer jobs online is one of the things you can do to help. "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime"

Sending money is useless. While a good intention, it most likely goes to waste, unless properly audited by International NGOs for social aid etc (nearly impossible with the current de-facto gov.)

Have the Russians tried using it with Tor obfs4 bridges? You can activate a "socks5 proxy" in the Telegram configuration and point it to a Tor running in localhost. For smartphones its the very same thing using orbot (which is tor for Android). While you are at it you can also use that Tor to bypass internet censorship using many browsers, including tor's.