Oh Jamie, how common of you.  That is the old method.

In response to the government-created problem of too-big-to-fail banks, new regulation was created for all banks.  The new regulation is the same no matter how big the bank so the little ones can barely afford it and have to sell out to the big ones, creating even more too-bigger-to-fail.

Banking regulation is often the use of law/government/force against your competition to ensure your continued capability to charge the highest fee.  It is no surprise that Dimon runs to this for defense.

P2P bitcoin puts this to the lie though.  When we are all our own bank, just how much regulation can be demanded?  It is not as though there is even a way to regulate every individual in this way.  Furthermore we are not asking for "consumer protections" we are asking for the opposite of that:  Protection from your consumer protections through the use of math and code.  Let us then protect ourselves, please.

We're a few miles from Hollywood, there is a studio on every corner.
I think it needs a few rehearsals still but I have a bunch more we can do too.
There's no money in music, but its fun anyhow.

Maybe it seems bizarre from our perspective?

Take it from their point of view.  These are the descendants of the folks that have created all the central banks.  It is their divine right to govern all the world and hold it to their standard such that any who seek their own liberty are an aberrant evil needing to be quashed.  The contempt sometimes bleeds through the artful rhetoric.  It is all for our own protection, you know.  Law and government are just tools to keep the wayward in line, fat, dumb and happily chewing cud and milked until slaughter time.

OK, that maybe goes a little far, most of them are not at all like that....but there are some few there for which it does not go far enough.

In between hardware maintenance and dealing with electrical issues, we sometimes get some time for fun.

While goofing off, a couple of us put this together.
Its very rough, but figured some of you might get a kick out of it too so decided to share it.

https://soundcloud.com/newliberty-dollar/16-usbs

If anyone likes it, we can head over to the studio and do a decent recording next week.

Done.
Thank you for the kind request to correct myself, always appreciated.

Great, your Hodling.  Give it a year or two, you will be as crazy as the rest of us at 85%.

We agree it is unlikely.  Also unlikely is the families of ghash and eligius and btc guild all get kidnapped.  The point of this thread (it appears) is to identify and suggest amelioration techniques for the pool risks in proportion to their likelihood and potential harm.

We don't have transparency on which pools CEX equip is moved to, all this is speculation.  We really don't know the level of danger.

Give it a little while, if you're lax in your "rebalencing", you too many end up with 85% cryptos! 

I hope they hurry, my turn to buy Google Glass has come up.  I'm not sure I want it, but if I do get it, I'd like to pay with bitcoin.

Negligible compared to the risks of credit card fraud.

Survival until when?  Why only one?  Its 75th in the M1 rank now.  It may not survive, but is better suited to do so than half the world's currencies today.

Customers and Merchants share this interest.  It is pricing determinant in aggregate.
What is important here is the choice.  Pay more with consumer protection or less without.

They can also blow up the world many times over.  What me worry? YOLO!

You and me and that guy over there.

It doubles their profit to 4% by instant conversion to cash, and more than that if they use Bitpay, and opt for the payroll elements which let them pay their workers with it.  The business only accepts as much of the risk as they want to accept.  There are more than a few of us eager to take that risk for them that are more comfortable with that position.


These are all very good and valid points, and you may not like my answers, but they work for a growing percentage of folks.   As they improve, so will that percentage.

More remarkable would be a Federal Reserve Board member that was NOT high up at CFR.  CFR members are a very large percentage of appointments.  The same folks started the CFR as the Federal reserve anyhow.
Are there members of the president's cabinet without CFR tenure?

As to the ridicule of "US Agenda" point raised early, some there may see weakening of the USA as a world authority as a necessary element of engendering war, which is the primary means of assuring all nations indebtedness to banking (Rothchild Formula).¹  The theory being that a single "peacekeeper" national authority might presage decreased war.
Further to that, the banks have enough US debt established so to the extent that the US hedgemon can deter aggression from countries that are not currently in debt, US power runs counter to the bankers interests, as they don't need more war from the US.

From a completely cynical banker-power perspective this might make sense?

For purpose of full disclosure, I take CFR's Foreign Affairs subscription, and read much of what they put forward on many topics, but am not a member of anything related.

Also of interest from the CFR here is their paper suggestion that the IMF perform some regulatory activity in regards Bitcoin by referencing:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2248419
or
http://pastebin.com/xpBHMJMe

Of note, the CFR definitely treat Bitcoin primarily as a currency.

Essentially this shows how they are setting Bitcoin up to take the blame for some future national currency failures.  Section 5 of that paper may be of specific interest:
"V. HOW TO COUNTER THE BITCOIN THREAT VIA THE IMF"
What enforcement mechanism this may take is not determined and the document recognizes it as a problem.  Some of the mechanisms suggested would certainly take the help of someone like Gavin, others such as interfering in FOREX and Exchange markets are things they already do for other currencies.

100x?  Pump much?
As a user I'd be happier with 2x-6x with lower highs and higher lows.  As an investor, CCMF.

It may be a much higher percentage than is indicated.
Due to the way the Getblocktemplate works it may be possible for ghash to mine its own blocks from within the eligius or triplemining or other pool with this enabled. 

Although the protocol is designed with the purpose of increasing decentralization, it seems capable of also doing the opposite.
Perhaps this protocol can allow a pool owner to mask an existing 51% capability.  If used sufficiently sparingly, would this even be detected?

So the fair value for Jan 2014 is somewhere between US$180 and US$18000 per BTC?  Hard to argue with that.

“Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.”
― Zhuangzi

I dreamt I was a butterfly
dreaming it was me
Awaken! it cried
I did,
it died.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-incredible-gold-interest-rate-correlation-2014-01-22
TL;DR: Suggests proper price of AU is US$800/oz based on recent historical links to bond interest rates.

We may get gold ozt parity ahead of US$1K parity?

Wouldn't it be nice to see that list?  It might be different from what's expected.  With all the fiat that came from the CFR's forebears, they might ask for something interesting and telling, they've been at this a long time.

Unless something changes, the future leaders of the US Government will be in that room.

They can be expected to believe what they have written here:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43339.pdf
Which they reference here:
http://www.cfr.org/economics/crs-bitcoin-questions-answers-analysis-legal-issues/p32148
It cites some of the more wicked expansions of monetary authority and centralization in US caselaw.

That they are coming to you for your help in these early days is surely interesting, you will take on a bit of their taint in this transaction, and they yours.  

For charities:
http://bitcoin100.org/charities/
and of course Sean's Outpost and Satoshi forest:
http://bitcoinmagazine.com/6939/seans-outpost-announces-satoshi-forest/

The allusion was intentional, as was the torture.

Probably you are just way ahead of most of the world.  I still get better response on my waitress straw polling with PM.  By a long margin, they still like gold and silver and don't know or trust bitcoin.  They are happy to take either gold or silver as a tip but bitcoin not so much.

Whether the last 5 years has invalidated the money as memory of the last 4000 years remains to be seen.  As eager as anyone to see it happen and helping as much as I can, though am far from confidant or sure of success.

Bitcoin is in beta.  These are early days.  It can still go to zero or to the moon any anyone who knows which of those it will be is ignoring too many issues to be worth taking their advice.