Conflating infinitesimal (spacetime) with vacuous is an error in my articulation, but not in my thought process (my visualization was a mathematical point, i.e. with no extent). An infinite speed-of-light would correspond to nothing, i.e. a vacuous spacetime. An undecidable problem is one where there doesn't exist an enumerable answer. An infinite quantity is innumerable.

My point was that without friction nothing can be observed (enumerated) and thus nothing exists:

http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=690

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat#Objective_collapse_theories


I tell you what I told CoinCube. I am not focused on this right now and it is not informational for you challenge someone who has requested to not delve into that topic right now because he is (I am) single-handedly programming and running a just launched social network, simultaneously taking on this thread, simultaneously redesigning crypto-currency, simultaneously interacting with a significant number of females (try that!). For you to expect that I simultaneously have the capacity to delve into theoretical physics is absurd unless you relish fooling yourself. I didn't even have enough free time to sleep last night. And right now I am supposedly superimposed 5 hours drive from where I actually am because of losing so much time in this thread today. And hoping to make it up by not sleeping and driving. Oh and let's not forget I have Multiple Sclerosis. Sheesh. Fuck off (because you are not interested in having a discussion but rather you want to take advantage when someone has their back turned and hide behind a sock puppet).


Or we can meet for a boxing match. It would be more informational about decoherence into reality. (I could utilize a human punching bag, that would be useful to me to relieve stress and continue my athletic climb out of the M.S.)

I was planning to offer my thoughts on this avalance effect. So now appears to about the right point for me to jump in.

Someone asked me recently what I would do with the Bitcoins if I created an altcoin and sold coins in an ICO. I replied I would sell the Bitcoins and buy my own coin. I don't view Bitcoin as my unit-of-account (no one sells me anything with a constant BTC price over time), so I might as well hold the coin with the greater upside. The greater volatility and liquidity of the smaller float is a concern that has to be weighed for any short-term liquidity needs.

But readers should know that rpietila is not vested (at this moment) in anything I might do. So I do presume he is writing not with anything about me in mind, even though we are sort of close acquaintances from the past circa 2008 but had not communicated regularly since 2013 or so.


Bitcoin was not vulnerable to such a shift before because it was moving up and it was growing fast amongst the free thinking investor and technie demographics (masses don't count because they don't drive choices about fledgling upstarts). Altcoins that gained some momentum were eroded by profit taking back into Bitcoin (and their mistakes in distribution and lack of original code and design), e.g. Doggiecoin.

Bitcoin has now moved closer to the time where it will be offloaded to the masses (the greater fools) and the smart money will look for the next big trade. Suppose we have at least a 10 bagger on the way, probably much greater maybe 50 - 100X ROI. So still it is going to be a challenge to go against Bitcoin's price momentum. Thus I don't see a reverse wealth effect on Bitcoin as viable at this time, and thus if an altcoin rises too fast it will be taken out by profit taking cashing out to Bitcoin (unless it has an ideological fervor or distribution that prevent this ). I think any coin that wants to achieve it will have to pull in adopters from outside the Bitcoin community.

There is not yet a clear "go to" altcoin for this movement. Cryptonote/Monero has introduced a very important feature, but it is not yet clear if this by itself is enough to warrant an ideological+wealth effect stampede. I was told there is still a large (500?) ongoing community in the Nxt/jl777/SuperNet. I interject to rpietila's argument that the most likely scenario is not wealth effect alone, but an ideological fervor that inflames that budding wealth effect. So I am agreeing with him and Bitcoin supporters that the attitude towards altcoins of not adding anything significant is a justified allegation.

The arbitrage factor dominates for as long as Bitcoin is growing and the challenging altcoin doesn't appear to have the oomph to cross the chasm.

No altcoin is going to displace Bitcoin's dominance of the masses (at least not in pure crypto-coin market and on this cycle). Bitcoin has won that. But who wants to? That is they dying NWO system. The Winklevosses et al are going to cash out on the big move of the masses in by giving them accounts on the behemoths. They are selling the masses (chattel) to the NWO.

Edit#1: the scenario I envision is some altcoin is going to make a big move during the 2016 - 2017 period. In 2017, BTC will offloaded to the masses coincident with the peaking US dollar and US stockmarket bubbles. That altcoin is going to gain significant early adopter attention, but it will exhale and quiet down a bit (the usual pattern of growth for fledgling upstarts). Then later from 2018 or so, it could become a go to investment as the global economy moves into radical transformation and Bitcoin has already been dumped to the masses.

Incorrect.


Correct.

Edit#1: Tortured for those readers who do not like the message. Socially engineered (and on multiple levels of perspective) because marketing is. I am interested in accomplishing a goal with a sincere outcome. It is not possible to make everyone happy all the time.

Is the ideology pitched by the Bitcoin folks here not confabulated (sufficiently misaligned with the facts) in some respects? It is not torture for those of us who see it failing the fundamental tenets? Did some of you not try to use social engineering and peer pressure to squelch our voices?

Edit#2: what is interesting is how some Bitcoin supporters view discussions about anything that is not an improvement to Bitcoin as treason or noise. I think they reason that if Bitcoin fails, our only chance fails. Because surely they could sell BTC and buy the superior coin and profit. So it must be some ideological reason they are so defensive. Perhaps it is the "safety in herds" and "fight or flight" underdeveloped prefrontal cortex instinct left over from primitive, post-paleozoic, hunter-gatherer epoch.

You can create unlinkability by creating a new payment address on each instance of receiving a payment, but as soon as you need to merge the dust left over as change from transactions, then you must have mixing (a.k.a. untraceability). Thus unlinkability is basically useless without mixing. Monero has both.

CoinJoin attempts to add mixing to any blockchain, but the problem is it is either jammable (by a determined Sybil attacker) or the anonymity must be sacrificed to master nodes (which is arguably an improvement over gmaxel's formulation if your threat vector doesn't include the State). I (AnonyMint) was the first person to point out the former in gmaxell's CoinJoin thread and I believe that is why he hates me every since. And I was the first person I believe to point out the latter in the Darkcoin thread and discussions with smooth et al in various threads reaffirmed that.

Cryptonote ring sigs mixing honors the critically important end-to-end principle of the internet, in that they are entirely autonomous and any dumb intermediary can transmit it to the blockchain for you.

Cryptonote does not obscure your IP address which is another vector of anonymity that needs to be improved. I believe I was the first person to point that out (both before Monero on Anoncoin thread and kLee can vouch for that as he was in that discussion and also first I think to raise that issue in a Monero thread which i believe led to proposal to add I2P).

Cryptonote does not help you if the government forces you to reveal your private keys under threat of dire outcomes otherwise. In other words, if you ever have a traceable funds that you tried to hide into or coming out of Monero mixing, this will fail to prevent the government from knowing you had the funds and thus the government can pressure you. So it is an all or nothing proposition in that threat context.

Slight correction because privacy can be orthogonal to legality if the technology and will is sufficient.

This excellent rebuttal demonstrates the very inferior logic skills of those who incessantly and unapologetically continue their irrational diarrhea (then ad hominem attack me and accuse me of doing what they do).

When the law became unbearable in Rome, the people abandoned their land. Later there were cows grazing in the city of Rome. The population fell from 1.3 million to 30,000 in a waterfall collapse.

My thesis is as follows.

We are headed into a NWO tempest where there is no rule of law, only a rule of oblivious addicted masses and gestapo bankster coattail goons.

I long ago gave up on keeping the world we have now, with all our Walmarts, etc..

I am ready to move forward to the world where we sell downloadable 3D printer products anonymously for micropayments, etc..

Your old world will die a slow death of increasing totalitarianism over decades. It will waterfall into collapse 2018 - 2020, then the banksters will reset the global economy on the NWO reserve and institute an increasing level of totalitarian control over humanity in the old world contexts where they can. Over decades that economy will wither and destroy itself. The capital remaining in that old economy will wither and be destroyed within that system.

Realize that the mavericks who shape our world are usually scorned and rejected when they present radical visions of the future.

Add: that doesn't mean I give up hope on every individual in the world. I want to build out the future and those who avail of it will prosper. It is not my job to hold every person's hand and force them to choose. The gate to prosperity is narrow only because the people refuse, not because the opportunity is limited or restrictive.

Did I start the discussion of BTC -> altcoin avalance effect? Did I start the discussion on Monero here?

Every one of my posts an on topic reply to what others posted on those topics I did not start. As for the thread title, no one has been posting on topic. As for the OP inquiry into Bitcoin blockchain scaling, I was posting on that topic before this latest diversion was started (not by myself!).

Your ad hominen noise bullshit is clear for anyone who wants to open their eyes.

Are you Bitards really so insecure and void of counter-points that you can't even discuss the topics without slandering anyone who makes strong points?

P.S. your pathetic attempts to make it appear that you have a consensus against me is failing. I know very well I am winning the readership. I have ways of measuring this effect. You forget I am a marketer and a programmer.

This is like the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight. Eventually you need to respond with more than a tap dance, else the public will ignore your "victory".

Thanks for the motivation to make you eat those words. Please fire me up. You have no idea who you are talking down to.

Are you really a man of dark colored skin? (yes I am aware that negros have statistically lower IQs, doesn't necessary explain this case but it might especially if you are using an avatar which does not reflect who you are but rather some image you want to present)

They don't need to outlaw Monero unless it becomes popular and used for paying for goods & services. They can just blacklist all BTC trades which didn't have KYC documentation. This effectively blacklists Monero since virtually no one pays directly in Monero for goods & services.

I don't (currently) see a niche where Monero would have any scale for users to resort to in that case. You'd have few 1000s of investors without a way to sell.

For me at this time, Monero is useful as a way to mix BTC -> XMR -> BTC. And as a speculation on people not understanding that Monero doesn't solve any other problem than that.

Sorry to be so blunt because I am really glad that Monero exists! I feel a sense of gratitude for Cryptonote and Monero, but how to express it if I also feel more needs to be done? Am I supposed to go volunteer my time to code on Monero and then have my commits be rejected due to political posturing and also probably not earn anything significant. I just don't know how to pay my appreciation without it looking like I am the enemy. Maybe I am the enemy. I'd rather be the cohort.

Any way, whether I am correct or not, this is my stance. I have given up on pop action driven by being a martyr.


In my personal case:

Altruistic: because I can be more effective by being available to code than I can be behind prison bars as a voice that the masses will ignore.

Selfish: I enjoy my life as it is now (especially I have no appear to eliminated the worst of the Multiple Sclerosis suffering from my daily life).

Remember the Biblical verse, "you are not of this world", "do not caste your pearls at swine".

I suppose I subscribe to Arlyn Rand's philosophy in the sense that I should only do what also benefits myself. I don't believe the humans should or would create a great society by acting entirely unselfishly. Without a selfish motive, I don't think evolution would function and nature would not be resilient. I enjoy being unselfish to the extent that is selfish overall (e.g. it makes me feel good, fosters a world that is better for me to live in, etc). For example when I do charity, I do it because for example I had experienced the same suffering and I know how much it would have helped me if someone had been similarly emphatic to my suffering.

As for the Americans in general, the people who existed at the time of Thomas Paine no longer exist. Even amongst the most independent-minded and rugged (rural) Americans, I bet you find them supporting all sorts of collective actions such as "Americans go kick ass on Saddam Hussein just as we did to the Japs".

The (too large) society has divided into so many pet peeves and the only thing holding it together is the debt and socialism economy. There is no cohesion and lurking is chaos because really the people have so many divergent opinions and fantasies. When the economy turns down hard, they will kill each other (actually I see this starting already on the news)

Consider this, most Americans today could not understand the language in "Common Sense"; whereas, apparently > 50% could comprehend that level of literary exposition at that time.

I am by no means claiming to be an expert on US History nor the current state of the USA, but I think it is obvious that the Puritans who suffered at the hands of the King then struggled to survive starvation in the USA, where in touch viscerally with the importance of freedom, economics, and knowledge. Whereas today Americans have never gone a day without food. They have no concept of suffering or hardship. They romanticize suffering as if something they know as "Children's International" on TV.

I come at this from the experience of being raised in pop culture in the USA and somehow rejecting it over a decade or two, and then experience real suffering and survival challenges, thus giving me perspective on my origin culture.

Some research has shown that technologically it is not usually difficult to link activity on Bitcoin.

Perhaps you are making the argument that it won't be politically or operationally feasible to do so. I offer the exhibits of England's Admiralty law and the recent application and increase of Civil Asset Forfeiture in the USA (and essentially in Europe too when they seize your cash at border inspections). And the centralization of mining is the operational solution.

I don't have time to watch the video. Summary?

I disagree entirely with rpietila that punishing the leaders will result in a public outcry. We have so many examples were it has not (even the Edward Snowden support is turning towards supporting reform that is in the lap of the banksters). Rpietila is very astute on conceptual logic, but i think he is living in a fantasy world in terms of understanding what stage we are in the cycle with the masses (and this is messing up his predictions). The masses are blissfully ignoring everything, even Hillary Clinton's blatant in your face corruption. They only care about their pop-tarts and pop culture. And this is also why I think the Bitcoin folks are deluded (they think some positive change can come via evolution or popular revolution)

I assert you have no hope whatsoever of enacting any change via words or being a public figure. The banksters and the NWO are winning (into a Dark Age of eugenics and global Technocracy). We have not yet challenged it. Monero is the first (and last or will it morph?) salvo.

Any questions on why I would never release an altcoin with my name on it?

Add: I entirely agree no man will get rich and be an island. I have been preaching that in the Economic Totalitarianism thread.

Add#2: I entirely agree the internet should be able to give us the tools to proceed without fear and unabated. But we engineers have to do our job to make it so. It won't just wish itself into existence.

Add#3: Our global society is not at the stage the USA was when Thomas Paine wrote "Common Sense" and the popular opinion shifted from 30% to majority for revolt against Britain. This is a different era and stage in the 309 year cycle.

P.S. rpietila you may be approaching it from a moral or ethical standpoint and the purpose of our lives. I am approaching it less theologically and I assert more pragmatically.

Fair point. I am in a rush and don't have time to organize and condense. I am just responding to what I see as I read through the posts since my absence.

Sorry life is not so well organized and structured as you absolutist engineers might wish it to be (hey i have German ancestry and I start off any coding project aiming for perfect, but then reality overtakes me and unlike an analist, I manage to ship the damn code). I have a zillion things to do and just get to pop in here and add my thoughts to the discussion.

Also you have to admit the main problem you have with me is you just don't like me. So it doesn't matter what I do, you will only dislike me less and not like me. My estimation of why people are offended by my posts is because I say things they disagree with  and say it with blunt clarity. I say what I think and don't try to obscure what I think with layers of political correctness, group sensitivity, or pretending I am more ambivalent than I am. I suppose anyone who is passionate is going to irk people are accustomed to viewing passionate people as drama queens or whatever.

I don't have time for all this psychological noise. I wish we could remain focused on the discussion about economics and crypto.

I don't know what your psychological problem is, but I am here to work on a serious solution to a very serious global problem. You may think I am up to some kind of gimick but you are sadly mistaken.

What I am doing now is a combination of:

1. Education (also for those who are lurking)
2. Demonstrating I have a grasp of concepts.

The only gimick you could rightfully claim is that I am making sure that the people who are with me can see clearly that I have a grasp of the issues and can retort or clarify. And correct, at some point one has to shut up if they expect to get any real work done.

It seems this discussion reached a crucial juncture wherein we are clarifying the fundamental differences that could apply to any crypto that is not Bitcoin. That is why I am participating.

I don't think you can claim that the posts I made today were vacuous.

I need to learn to use this politically astute method of making a point that would offend the reader if stated the more blunt way, "The behemoths are arguably taking over Bitcoin along with a global, societal slide into Economic Totalitarianism and if that comes true then what Coinbase is demonstrating now is only the tip of the iceberg of what is coming". Noted.

Kudos smooth. A public blockchain is a new era. Without fungibility, then it the culpability falls onto the user of the money to research the entire trail of the coin. This was never a widespread property of money in the past, even though serial numbers do exist on cash now they aren't a very viable method to blacklist because they are spent decentralized. Centralization of the mining is the key aspect the government needs so it can enforce regulation. Without enforcement, laws are impotent. The government doesn't like to enforce impotent laws that people can't possibly not ignore (e.g. anti-jaywalking law for rural roads or outlaw spending of cash via physical serial numbers), because their impotence emboldens the people towards fighting for freedom. Government exists because people are confident that government has to power to enforce its edicts.

Add: people would never slow down to MANUALLY check serial numbers on cash against a government black or white list. I have observed how difficult it is to get people in a social network format to do any simple action consistently. People are really hard-headed.

The key distinction of yore was you could escape to geographical frontiers (with your gold). Geography is no longer an option. Physical gold can't be moved without being likely intercepted.

We've entered a new era where the governments could have total control and eliminate all frontiers, if we don't build a technological solution.

You made one smart post then you muck it up. Surely you have some psychological hangup, but i don't have time to figure out where your vestment lies.

Exactly. Bifurcation is underway. I don't believe it is possible to straddle the fence and that is essentially my complaint against Monero (while also praising their effort).

(MAD magazine) Bush Jr. said, "you are either with us, or against us".

Bitcoin folks appear to think that normal commerce will be non-anonymous. I disagree. I think the normal commerce will be anonymous. Because I think commerce is going to radically change in the Knowledge Age.

They are thinking in terms of the dying paradigm of Amazon.com, Barnes-and-Noble, Facebook, Peter Thiel, Winklevoss triplets, Paris Hilton, etc..

I am thinking along the general direction of Silk Road (but in a more general sense, not just drugs) and software as micropayment service.

Popular activities now amongst the youth in dating are for example swiping to indicate you like someone. That is a micropayment action, just need to monetize it!

What people do is what is economic. You guys are afaics thinking too much in terms of physical production and commerce. You are dinosaurs. The world has changed while you were not looking. The internet changed things in ways you haven't fully observed.

(I am thinking out of the box)

Fungibility is not the only quality at risk. If the government can regulate money, they can extract all wealth to the misallocation and corruption of the Some Iron Laws of Political Economics. Early on this is tolerable, but in the end game scenario of repeating bouts of socialism where we are now, then a gestapo control over money will result in a severe economic collapse into a Dark Age.

Bitcoin proponents either fail to appreciate what stage of the cycle we are in, or they fully accept that they will go with the NWO fork of the coming bifurcation and take their chances on expropriation. Or the anonymity proponents are incorrect about the coming Economic Totalitarianism (and note there are sub-groups, e.g. some believe it is impossible technologically to make crypto that can't be effectively outlawed by government)