... TPTB_n_w I am about as diversified as I can be given our circumstances. I hear you re .gov wanting a crackdown, and The Big Rhino has lots of power... But, a small thing that gives me some comfort is that the "War on Drugs" has not been won. As you point out (and know better than I), there is risk everywhere. Maybe we should buy a condo here in Lima like I have been thinking as a part of "Plan B". * * * Were I a great programmer, I would have written up a great new crypto-cryptocurrency in the last week or two...  * * * Although others may be offended, I like your occasional references to the Bible. Indeed, once your soul is saved, all else is very secondary. I have been on the Trail as a Junior Spiritual Practioner after decades of neglect. I still plan to HODL my gold for the benefit of our kid and any grandchildren we may be fortunate to have in the future. * * * And you have that right re your health! Worth more than gold... |
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... I have bought PMs from the below, paid with Bitcoin, all three delivered: - amagimetals.com, they have a thread here, but were slow shipping to me (2 weeks +) - veldtgold.com, they also have a thread here, my order arrived 8 days after payment - providentmetals.com, fast shipping, very strong packaging! Part of a big company. All three are competitvely priced, sometimes one will have stock of something I want, and another will not. Personal preference. |
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aminorex
I have no confidence in technical analysis. I buy gold and never let it go. Re BTC, I only spend it on Au and twice on platinum.
But I am beginning to warm to Armstrongīs cycles ideas. Thanks mucho to TPTB_n_w (and earlier akaīs...).
Also re Au and BTC, hey I just buy when I have extra $. Especially Au. I donīt even really care about the price of gold, I just stack it.
I may be very near to the amount of BTC I want to HODL. Should I spend BTC on gold, then I typically approximiately replace the BTC I spent.
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+ a friggin billion, coinits
George Soros has much to answer for despite being a smart trader. He has a very serious ethics problem, with a lack of of empathy (despite some "words"), I believe they would call him a sociopath.
I winder what other filthy skeletons he has in his closet.
* * *
Men are typically measured, we hope anyway, by their actions not their words.
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Greece and Russia would seem to be an unstable alliance, but I do not live in either nor am an expert.
Yes, Russia could build their NatGas pipeline through Greece, that would be good for both countries, but as mentioned above, there is not all that much money in it for Greece.
Ah, without good collateral, I doubt that Russia or China would loan Greece much money. No help there! I donīt see Russia ponying up billions of Euros to help Greece when Russia has its own problems.
Unless Russia and/or China gets a naval base. That would be a game changer. But, how would Greeks feel about that? And would the Greeks be able to "pass a new law to take them back"? Hmm...
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... It took long enough, but they finally arrested the guy today in London who was responsable for the May 2010 Flash Crash on the US stock exchanges. Many of you may recall that day when the Dow was down 900 points at one time that afternoon. I sure as Hell do. I had left my office to go do some recreational shooting at a nearby range, the Dow was down some 300 points when I left. I called my brother just before walking in to fire off 100 rounds or so. He told me the Dow was down 900 points... WTF!!! -600 points in 30 minutes! When I later left the range, much of the market had recovered. But still, a LOT of money and confidence was lost in our markets that day.Throw the book at the SOB. Read all about it: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-21/full-scapegoat-retard-trader-arrested-2010-flash-crashhttp://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-21/step-step-guide-how-crash-entire-market* * * This is a cautionary tale about "things digital". While I am a happy hodler of BTC, I have always recommended owning physical gold (silver and/or platinum OK too). While there IS manipulation of the "paper gold" markets, owning the metals and holding them yourselves (well hidden), gold will withstand these kinds of Flash Crashes. Note that trading BTC on exchanges (etc.) might be vulnerable to these kinds of attacks. Buy & Hold BTC is what I do... EDIT: 1) Waddell & Reed are apparently innocent, where do they go to get their reputation back? 2) Jon Corzine is apparently NOT innocent! When does he get put on trial? |
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Not long ago I bought my "Last Bitcoins" (well, weīll see). From here on I will HODL them (except probably spend some on gold), in which case I would approximately replace the spent BTC by buying some more. Gold and platinum are the ONLY things I buy with BTC.
I do like how many of you think BIG, even if it takes a while I too think that any of us would be happy to HODL most/all BTC at just $1000 with the hope of selling some at $5000, a few more at $10,000, some more at $50k...
Letīs hope some of us get to meet at The Happy Crypto Pub on Easy Street sometime. First roundīs on me!
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LiteCoinGuy
That was a nice review of the Trezor, thanks for posting it.
My experience has been similar, except that I do not run scripts nor use the advanced features (nor the MultiBit HD). For me, the hardware is good enough, I keep my Trezor well-hidden and do not use it much. I have not updated the firmware as I read something negative about someoneīs experience doing that.
Even just using the Trezor in such a basic way that I do, I am very happy with it.
* * *
As I have written before, I am also very happy with the Ledger Nano. The Ledger is cheaper, but both work well for me.
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Even though Greece recently made a payment, I keep reading of more and more problems piling up even as their .gov keeps obstructing and delaying payments. Promises, promises. Cozying up with Russia (Russia may want to re-think loaning money to Greece, even for the pipeline to transit Greece). But maybe Russia would get a warm-water naval base...? China too (after a "contribution")?
I have been reading about how Greece "will bring down the Euro" since 2010, yet nothing seems to happen. Yet, they now have Syriza, apparently hard-left (?) regime.
Today their central government has asked the municipalities to send their "excess cash" to the Greek central bank...
Anybody here know much about Greece and their financial system (in particular the consequences on non-payments)?
Would a Greek default really bring larger but similar problems like Spain and Italy?
If Italy falls then France will. France falls, Germany will. Then it hits our shores...
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I have used localbitcoins.com only to arrange meetings in person in my city at a public place with wifi (typically at a Starbucks, hey, I'm a traditionalist). I have done this about four times, all OK. I give him the money, he sends me the BTC, we wait on a confirmation, and that is that.
I just like the idea of meeting my BTC seller in person. Confidence building... Later on I will work out depositing money in one of their accounts once I more fully trust my counterparty.
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I made an order with Amagi once. It was kind of a large order for me. They delivered, and their Customer Service rep was friendly.
The problem I had was a looooonnnnngggg delivery, over two weeks even with the item in stock. I was told that their products were in a different location than where they take their orders...
Veldt (advertises here) and Provident were quicker, say eight days or so per order.
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... coinits When I referred to Jimmy Carter, it is important to understand the "zeitgeist" of many of us back then. Arab oil embargo. Sweater clad morose president. Right-wing talk radio was just getting started. That was the first (and only) time I bought some rural property (in S Central TX, remote, w/ water, nice lil ol place). I thought I was ready to head for the hills when the hammer dropped... LOL! Right, like I could farm... Through the years my feelings re the US economy have ebbed and flowed. I got concerned again in 1999 (like many others). After 9/11, I switched into a higher gear, and was lucky to get gold in the $600 range, wish I had bought a LOT MORE...  Then the 2004 - 2006 Housing Bubble, ugh. When 2007 (Bear-Stearns) and then scary 2008 (yikes!) happened, I felt like there was a 50-50 chance that something REALLY BAD was going to happen, and very soon. Ah well, not so much... Not in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and so far in 2015. Even though: NONE of our financial problems have been solved. <=== bad sign NO ONE of significance has gone to jail re the financial crisis. <=== another bad sign WHY the system has not cratered or reset yet I do not know, other than reading history which does show that dangerous financial distortions can go on for many, many years... And usually end in Black Swans, that very few can foresee. I have tried to foresee such things, and am usually wrong (short term), but my record is better given enough time. This could all go south very soon, or like TPTB_n_w suggests in 2 - 3 years. My inclination is to *guess* that King Dollar will reign a little while longer. Signs (IMO) to look for: 1) A BIG spike in the US$ (more so than now) 2) Hillary as president (OMG, did I really write that?!) 3) Iran/Middle East/China/Ukraine war starts emerging (and so far NOTHING serious there yet) 4) Grexit -- I think that the euro will have many problems after that. Not much time to prepare after that so stay alert if that happens Hey, but I'm just another Internet pundit. |
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... coinits I have been feeling that "The End Is Nigh" since Jimmy Carter (young people Google that name). IMO, something very bad will happen, probably "relatively soon", but I have given up trying to time this. Also, I have no idea what the trigger will be (a debt default perhaps, a sudden war maybe, a big attack glitch/internet attack, a "bolt from the blue", a financial trigger, etc.). The way I have dealt with these concerns is to have slowly prepped for decades. Gold. Guns. No debt. My two major holes are that I have no water & food production systems, nor a rural farm. We are pretty well set up otherwise. Note that I am NOT up to speed for TPTB_n_Wīs suggestions re a high skill set for a Knowledge Age. His thinking is of great interest, and he may be right. * * * I always appreciate when people offer up specifics, so thank you. All such information, whether the prediction comes true or not, goes into the hopper... EDIT: Erdogan and coinits psted while I was composing this... |
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I have enough BTC to want to protect them, but not large enough to really worry about it.
My solution is to keep most of them split between a Ledger Nano and a Trezor (hardware) put away in cold storage. And enough (small amount) at blockchain.info for convenience.
But, I do hide the Ledger and Trezor! I just read on another thread that the current Trezor can be defeated with a skilled user of an oscilloscope.
I know nothing about multi-sig. Someone could write a useful post (I hope) that would introduce the subject to us non-tekkies.
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... Another possible solution to the updating of databases problem (as long as you donīt have to it every single time you insert a new record) is to insert a new hashed link (once per day for example) to a database at your website or wherever. Inserting a hash into a BTC transaction, say every day or so, would not bloat the blockchain. This of course would be for databases that do not need to be used (accessed) every second... factom.org may offer even better solutions soon, as I think their goal is to put up ONE hashed transaction that would link to MANY other items. You could always ask factom... |
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There are probably ways to get around a Bitcoin ban in Russia (VPNs? TOR?).
Buying BTC might be the hardest part of the equation though. One nice thing about owning some Bitcoin is that you can take them with you... Nice way to avoid capital controls if you ever travel outside of Russia.
* * *
LOL: "In Soviet Russia, Bitcoin ban you!"
AllyrBTCrblong2us!
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Now that is ominous news, CoinCube, thanks for bringing this item to our attention.
I understand it is very difficult, but if you have no debt you are way ahead of the game. Barring that, paying debt down is just about as good as saving money by cutting spending (why does our .gov not feel the same way?).
Debt is a trap unless you luck out and have hyperinflation at the right time. And whose timing is that good?
* * *
I must point out, however, while that the credit rejection spike is huge, I would wait another month or two before making conclusions. Which does not mean to keep preparing for Economic Devastation. It is a sign, but not definitive. Again, though, a great post.
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... You can use the blockchain to store almost unlimited data by hashing... factom.org, bitproof.io and proofofexistence.com are all using variations of this general idea (of using OP_RETURN). The latter two are cheap (small fraction of a Bitcoin) to experiment with... You can put up public links to data tables for example rather easily. And it is just as easy to use the hashing function to keep data private. See my comments and example at: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=986206.20* * * I do not know how to integrate a database via hashing at OP_RETURN or if it even possible. * * * Of course, one could just put up a MySQL database on your website probably even easier... |
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As mentioned above, there are a lot of ways of looking at "the debt". The official and most often number is around $17.3 trillion (plus or minus), this is the "national debt" and would work out to some $51,000 per man, woman and child in the USA. Or some $120,000 per taxpayer (yuck). Got $120,000?
The $17tn does NOT include various big-ticket items like unfunded liabilities (social security, MediCare, etc.), which would take the total to mind-numbing numbers like $70tn - $200tn + (depending on whose numbers you believe).
This debt will never be paid back legitimately. It will be inflated away, defaulted on ("sorry, weīre not giving that COLA increase this year"), or go futher into debt -- or some combination.
In fact, this debt was never meant to be paid back...
Prepare accordingly.
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