The long term impact will be pretty negligible in my opinion. The banks already use digital currencies, so all they will do is to change the software and the name. This will allow them to dump their debts.

I'm tempted to have a go at speculating on a few one cent crypto coins. If one chooses coins with interesting concepts and utility, and that have the semblance of an efficient structure, could one expect a success rate of better than 1 in 10?

In this thread, I'm not looking for members to spam coin suggestions, but I would like a discussion on the general concept of speculating in extremely low cost coins, and the points one should consider when evaluating them.

Royal assent is just a formality now. The Queen has no power to withhold it in practice.

There is no logical reasons for the Russians to use Novichok in the UK, and there is no evidence. The government is aware of this, and it refuses to allow any investigation, or to provide any analysis or permission for an external review. The only possibility that fits the facts is that the poisoning was done by a German EU asset working in Porton Down. If the Russians had done it, they would all be dead, it wouldn't have been a botched publicity stunt. The timing fits the UK agenda, and it is against any Russian interest as well.

This is the floating island Bitcoin project being started by a PayPal founder
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5744547/Worlds-floating-nation-government-cryptocurrency-launch-2022.html

and don't forget the first one - The free republic of Liberland
https://liberland.org/en/about/

You guys are missing the whole point. Russia wants Syria to be a democratic nation, and is supporting Assad to achieve this. The Eton/Oxford elite ( read the US, the UK, and the EU ) want it to be a deep state satellite under their control. Syria and Russia want to free Idlib, but that is the last of the UK white helmets terrorist strongholds, so they don't want that. They need to stir up justification for an attack on the legitimate forces, and they seek to villify Russia again with this stupid story about the "arrests". The UK needs to realise that their poisoning of Skripal failed, and they should just let the pathetic attempt fade away instead of making themselves look even more stupid and corrupt.

I wonder if Russia has managed to discourage them from trying yet another fake chemical attack to justify the US/UK attack on the civilians of Idlib.

Good - if that is their only reason for posting, then we don't want them there.

I promote it because most members don't seem to think about it. It has the potential for being a tremendous discussion platform, but it's at the end of an alleyway. If most posters walk past without even noticing the alleyway, then it will be inactive.

It's best to think of it as our secret place for the quality members to meet, and to enjoy some good conversations.

I've just visited the board, and I found a thread by a Hero that looked as if it might have had some potential, but the juniors have started to reply to it. What a shame it wasn't posted in serious discussion.

I was going to award another post with some merit, but the guy had made a full quote of a previous post for his reply, and he could have snipped out the relevant bit, so I didn't give him any merit. When will they learn to respect the readers of these threads.

Wow - he looks like a fairly extreme candidate. I read this article in Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jair_Bolsonaro

I wonder if he is motivated by the membership of any global cabal. Some of his opinions are sympathetic to their ambitions, but a few are in conflict.

I agree that government hunger for taxpayers money is ceaseless, but the hunger for personal advantage for government officials is also ceaseless. I'm starting to believe that that is the main reason they become politicians, or senior civil servants. Gold Britannias must be a great way to receive untraceable payments for creating advantages for individuals and organisations. Bitcoin will become an even better method in my opinion.

I started a project for junior members that don't have English as a first language. The idea was to translate and sanitise their better topics, and to post the translation in the Ivory Tower. They would keep full credit for the topic, and receive a guaranteed minimum of 5 merits. I did have a couple of submissions, but apart from that, support was all talk and no action.

You see that is the problem. This isn't a forum with "average pay". It is a forum that is tolerant enough to allow members to earn money, and most of them are taking the piss. Well it's time to "piss off" for them in my opinion.

Probably the reason they use throwaway accounts is because the ICO is a crappy scam. Use it as an indication of the bounty spamming projects that you should avoid. Why risk your reputation, unless you are using a throwaway spamming account of course.

Merits shouldn't really be an incentive here. I'd like to see some good discussions amongst the intelligent senior members. By that i mean sensible business and political discussions, rather than the ones one would expect to find in school debating societies. I've got loads of topics that I would find interesting, such as the rise of statins, the cholesterol and cancer myths, and the rise of unicorn politicians around the world.

Don't forget that unicorns are nasty creations by man, and were designed to lead free spirited horses into captivity and slavery.

I vote we change the name to "The senior coffee lounge".

I think it is great as it is.

The problems stem from the attitudes of members here. You shouldn't expect to be paid to post in a top quality forum. You should look on it as a priviledge to be allowed to post there.

These are the Royal Mint bullion coins, and you can see that the tax treatment differs.
https://www.royalmint.com/invest/bullion/bullion-coins/

My comment about Bitcoin and bankers is really from personal observation, and a number of reports that I've read. The strange price behaviour is another indication that some organisations are collecting Bitcoin, rather like the way they are collecting physical gold and silver. I understand that Jamie Dimon and others have been collecting Bitcoin for some time, and all the current banking instruments that are being created give me the feeling that they are consolidating their positions.

I don't think you need subsections. I'm a child of the 1950s and 60s coffee shop culture. These were great sources of political discussion ( amongst other things). The coffee shop ( or Ivory Tower board) provided the venue, and the tables ( or threads ) provided the focus point for the discussions.

Obviously what we need in the Ivory Tower is free coffee.

[second thoughts]
I like the idea of using it as a senior coffee lounge. This is something we could start without any changes to the forum.

I think a better experiment would be for every Legendary to make a post on the board.
I've started by opening a new thread.

The UK has two gold coins which are legal tender. Actually there are more because they mint half Soverigns as well, but let us just consider the main units. The Soverign has a nominal vale of £1, and the Britannia has a nominal value of £100, but it will cost considerably more to buy them from the Royal Mint - around £1,000 for a Britannia. The interesting thing about them is that they are exempt from VAT, capital gains tax, and inheritance tax, but the cheaper silver range isn't. Obviously they provide a tax free store of wealth for the rich, and a convenient currency for high value transactions. It is difficult to understand why the UK government has made these tax concessions.

Many people consider Bitcoin to be digital gold, and there is some justification for this. The bankers are moving in on Bitcoin in a fairly serious fashion at the moment, and my feeling is that they will attempt to obtain tax concessions for their investments. Do you think that the inevitable government acceptance of Bitcoin will be accompanied by similar tax advantages?