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1581  Economy / Economics / Re: The Danger of Local Economy. on: December 12, 2021, 01:45:33 AM
No, because developing communities are not going to use Bitcoin, and that's okay.

Any crypto advocate's goal should not be that every country in the world adopts bitcoin, realistically that'll never happen. The goal of people in developing countries is merely to survive, not to thrive and so there is no incentive for them to adopt a technological "digital" currency, when they probably don't even have access to clean water, let alone any reliable electricity.

Bitcoin's adoption remains solely on large countries shift away from traditional currency systems. Whether someone in Syria or Afghanistan adopts Bitcoin is completely irrelevant to the global economy. There aren't any developing countries that have a large GDP for their economic activities to matter in the first place.
1582  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Ross Ulbricht NFT Collection Raises Over $6 Million in Ethereum... on: December 12, 2021, 01:25:15 AM
I would have more sympathy for Ross Ulbricht had he not *allegedly* tried to hire a hitman to kill an associate of his.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Ulbricht

Quote
Federal prosecutors alleged that Ulbricht had paid $730,000 in murder-for-hire deals targeting at least five people,[29] allegedly because they threatened to reveal Ulbricht's Silk Road enterprise.[36] Prosecutors believe no contracted killing actually occurred.[29] Ulbricht was not charged in his trial in New York federal court with any murder-for-hire,[29][37] but evidence was introduced at trial supporting the allegations.[29][38] The evidence that Ulbricht had commissioned murders was considered by the judge in sentencing Ulbricht to life, and was a factor in the Second Circuit's decision to affirm the life sentence.[38] A separate indictment against Ulbricht in federal court in Maryland on a single murder-for-hire charge, alleging that he contracted to kill one of his employees (a former Silk Road moderator),[39] was dismissed with prejudice by prosecutors in July 2018, after his New York conviction and sentence became final.[40][41]

Life sentence was to make an example out of Ross so it's unfortunate for him that any of these "Free Ross" NFT collections will not be enough to overturn his conviction. He didn't have to be involved in any drug trading for him to face the brunt of any consequences. God forbid there is a trading platform that does not allow the US to gain tax revenue, because let's face it, this was never about the drugs.
1583  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Do you even want all your BTC to be anonymous. on: December 12, 2021, 12:25:54 AM
If you bought a house, how would you expect to pay taxes on it if you did not register the funds with the IRS? That money can't magically be deposited into your account without it triggering a red flag? Seems to me this is more regarding taxes than anonymity, and whether the government has a right to interfere with commerce so they can collect taxes. I don't advocate that people do not pay their taxes, although that's not to say they don't have too much power to do so. Down to the technically of Bitcoin, it isn't true anonymity - your identification is merely represented with a string of characters.
1584  Other / Politics & Society / Re: American Gun Ownership: The Positive Impacts of Law-Abiding Citizens Owning Guns on: December 12, 2021, 12:00:12 AM
No, I wouldn't. To get a driver's license you need to go through medical exams (which incidentally you don't need to get a gun in the  US), and there are laws against "driving under the influence" or "driving while intoxicated". So while driving you're always assuming the risk to get pulled over, especially if you're driving erratically, while that doesn't happen if you're carrying.

What medical test? They take your blood or something just to get a drivers license and register all your biometrics? Surprised California hasn't tried to do that with gun owners yet.

To an extent, when driving, you also incur the risk of death to no fault of your own. You incur the risk of getting killed by some moron that drives like they're blind too. But, there is no call to ban vehicles when thousands either die or get severely injured by cars, it just happens to be a side effect of driving. And so in a country with hundreds of millions of guns, you'd expect a few violent incidents.
1585  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Dollar Cost Averaging Question on: December 11, 2021, 05:46:36 AM
Doesn't make too much sense to separate the transactions out if you're going fiat to crypto. I've seen people mention the fees which is a consideration, but under the assumption you're using a centralized bank account and/or converting fiat to crypto, it's more of a hassle than it's worth. I wouldn't even bother making a risk with an exchange numerous times, do one large transaction and take ownership of the crypto by taking it off the trading platform immediately. You don't own any coin in which you do not process the private key.
1586  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Do you think Doctors lie? on: December 10, 2021, 10:41:23 PM
You've heard from psychiatrists the dangers of lockdowns causing suicides and drug overdoses, I'm sure.

https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1469375764168646658

New York now implementing new mask mandates, and unironically, citing drug overdoses and suicides among other factors. Preventing Covid related suicides by masking up, sounds about right.

I'm sure the "doctors" recommended it, because politicians will only listen to the doctors that coincide with their own political ambitions, ignoring all others.

Doctors don't lie, the ones that actually stick to the medical science (so not any doctor in New York apparently).
1587  Economy / Economics / Re: The CIA Is Deep Into Cryptocurrency, Director Reveals on: December 10, 2021, 08:49:57 PM
Do you all recall what happened to the silk road bitcoin wallet owned by Ross Ulbricht?

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54833130

It was safe to say the US government and whatever 3 letter agencies (there's too many to count) are deeply involved, and have been for years. They're in the business of seizing Bitcoin, so who's to say they're not also monitoring transactions of individuals they're interested in? Perhaps monitoring ordinary citizens? I don't happen to believe the CIA are only interested in bitcoin related ransomware attacks -- they're interested in maintaining the solvency of USD, it's how they're funded.
1588  Economy / Economics / Re: I think most people still trust the USD more than Bitcoin on: December 10, 2021, 03:28:43 PM
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/10/consumer-price-index-november-2021.html

Maybe they don't trust USD so much anymore? USD inflation rate reaches 40 year high at 6.8 percent. This is even worse than it's been during the housing market crisis where the global economy almost tanked. At some point, the consequence of injecting trillions into an economy outweighs the benefit, and more people recognize that their purchasing power is decreasing every day.

The idea that government induced policies can essentially siphon money out of your holdings through reckless policy is why USD, and every other currency, is a sinking ship. This sort of inflation is not sustainable.
1589  Economy / Economics / Re: No where is actually safe on: December 09, 2021, 08:35:29 PM
If people were looking at something safe I am pretty sure they wouldn't put all of their money into some "code". I know that there is much more to bitcoin and all of crypto then just being a code, but the reality is that we are literally talking about trusting more to Satoshi's code then we trust government backed banks. That should tell you enough about how little we trust banks, the whole reason why bitcoin even has any value is because banks and fiat monetary world we live in is discouraging for people who are not wealthy already.

Definitely, you may not become as rich as Elon Musk, but all of the people who are at the for best top list right now are people who had families with money. Crypto gives people who came from nothing to have a chance, and that is why we are putting so much trust into it. Is it risky? Yes of course it is but it is surely much more equal in risk to everyone.

The faith in banking systems only exists because of the illusion that government can provide the best financial security to its citizens. It's an appeasing illusion, because any financial troubles can then be blamed on a 3rd party instead of the individual holding the funds. I'd argue Satoshi's code isn't merely an arbitrary string of numbers but an entire philosophy of decentralization. People trust banks a lot, and will do so for a long time until they're forced to recognize that the government does not have any single individual in its best interest.
1590  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Are Human capable of creating a deadly Virus? on: December 09, 2021, 08:05:15 PM
...

It can still be natural and come from a lab, you know.

If China was experimenting with bat coronaviruses and one of the strains got released, its genome when sequenced will still suggest the virus was of natural origins, easily found in nature, perhaps evolutionarily linked to some other coronavirus. Question is whether the virus was made more transmissible by human intervention, also known as gain of function research which the NIH would have funded.
1591  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Isn’t KYC anti-ethical to Bitcoin? on: December 09, 2021, 04:25:53 PM
OP I'm assuming you mean antithetical and not anti-ethical, but anyway, KYC doesn't compare well with BTC, they're two different ideas. KYC refers to an abstract concept involving anonymity, and Bitcoin itself isn't truly anonymous. Every transaction is logged publicly. To the extent you don't need KYC to own a bitcoin wallet is the line where your anonymity ends. Bitcoin is "more private" than traditional banking, I'm not arguing otherwise, but crypto mixers exist for a reason.

1592  Economy / Speculation / Re: Reason for the dump in Bitcoin and most of the Altcoin? on: December 08, 2021, 09:17:23 PM
That's another thing for sure, the expenditures that we're having every season is also affecting the market. Like the new years, holidays and other sort of seasons for which people are spending a lot.

If bitcoin goes stable to $50k for a week or two, then this would be turning again another speculation if it will go another low.

We've been through this before, though. Every year someone talks about Chinese New Year or Christmas.

Don't forget, this current bull run started last year around the same time, so if everyone was spending for Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2020, why on earth did Bitcoin go on and rise up so much, right? This time, it's clearly all the bad news from traditional stock markets.
It could also be that the new variant of covid-19 made the market plunge.

But the thing from last year is totally different, we still don't know what's next that shall come to the market.

The variant is 100 percent the reason.

People don't get this.

The reaction to the new variant was not by virtue of Covid, or the new variant, itself. It was a reaction of a reaction. The market essentially predicted that new lockdowns, mandates, and lesser economic activity would formulate as a result of government policy in response to the variant because the track record is indicative of authoritarian top-down control in the name of "safety." Turns out that even in the event of a mild variant, the government became stricter with their controls, and with that comes less economic activity. Markets react to these sorts of things, it's not difficult to recognize the sham after having gone through (3?) variants now.
1593  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Ghislaine Noelle Marion Maxwell on: December 08, 2021, 07:30:35 PM
Twitter banned the Maxwell trial tracker, had 500k followers - https://twitter.com/trackertrial

I don't believe in a grand conspiracy theory, but just in general incompetency by Twitter such that some minor rule must have been violated causing them to take action. There are other places to get info on the trial and Twitter's attempt to silence coverage will not be successful (because I don't think they tried). It's good to know their platform is dedicated to protecting the best among us. Wouldn't want any misinformation on Maxwell going around at all or anything.
1594  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Is the world safe from the threat of the corona virus? on: December 08, 2021, 04:23:52 PM
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1468588676745609217

For the vaccine fanatics that are afraid of the Omicron, reportedly no deaths from around the world, and allegedly only gives you cold symptoms, Pfizer has just the treatment plan for you. You can get a booster after your initial 2 shots and be protected from Omicron.

Though, I've read research suggesting that after being vaccinated, getting infected by Covid and experiencing only mild symptoms would provide even greater immunity than inoculation through vaccination alone, therefore, it would act in the best interest of all to get infected by Omicron given the increased virulence and lesser lethality.

So why may Pfizer, a company gambling hundreds of millions on R&D related to Covid, suggest that everyone needs a booster for Omicron? Perhaps they may not be the most neutral authoritative figure on the matter.
1595  Economy / Economics / Re: A majority of Gen Z investors think crypto will make them millionaires on: December 08, 2021, 02:56:54 PM
When I see surveys like this, I always wonder how representative they truly are. The article's also written in quite a cherry-picking way. For example, take a look at a simple one-page summary of the survey, and you'll see that the article doesn't mention that on the question of investment instruments, the most popular response for Gen Z is actually stocks, and the same goes for millennials. Also, real estate is almost as popular among Gen Z and millennials as cryptos are, and a slightly higher percentage of millennials than of Gen Z chose cryptos. Given this summary, it doesn't really look like Gen Z is so special, really, and that cryptos are so popular among them.

Thought the number was fairly large, this explains it. Stocks will remain the most popular investment for Gen Z'ers and millennials because of how much the Robinhood type crowd makes up these young investors. You can become a stock trader by owning a smart device and the first stock is free on most of these platforms. Granted these companies also allow crypto trading in addition to stocks, but still, crypto investments aren't all that popular with younger people as one might think. There's still a long way to go.
1596  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Bitcoin main use case now on: December 07, 2021, 07:36:04 PM

For payments and moving funds the stablecoins are definately best ones.
Did you know that the StableCoins, that you use, can mostly be frozen right on your address?

I'm pro Bitcoin but I agree to him, He mention for payment and moving funds meaning you are holding stable coins in a short period of time temporarily. Stablecoins is perfect for payment since it's value is fixed and the transaction speed is fast. Bitcoin value is volatile while it's transaction speed is slow so there's a chance that the value of the Bitcoin that you send will change during the confirmation time. It's good if the price change is positive but what if its a negative change?

Most of the stablecoins right now has a legal license to operate so there's no way that they will freeze randomly your stablecoins unless you get your token on a shady way. We are not on crypto pioneering era where lots of scam from project is happening. Big companies including stablecoins like USDC, PAXOS and many more is moving toward the legal way.

And you're hoping that the value of stable coins remains steady based on the fact whatever stable coin you're using supposedly has assets to protect the value of the coin. I don't see what the benefit is nor do I see how you can trust these operators. The legal right to operate does not make any of these entities anymore trustworthy than had they not had any legal licensing, it doesn't take any less effort for individuals to exit the organization completely and leave any stablecoin holders left with worthless pixels on a screen.
1597  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Covid lessons learned on: December 06, 2021, 04:13:42 PM
Lessons learned, don't believe the new variant hysteria - https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/12/omicron-covid-reinfection-vaccine-protection.html

Omicron variant has caused ZERO deaths despite its increased transmissibility according to WHO.

The new Covid restrictions, travel bans, increased alertness and call for vaccine mandates is all over a variant that has not resulted in a single confirmed death. And so, would it mean that it's in the best interest that the Omicron variant become the dominant variant, so that anyone remaining unvaccinated becomes immunized? Raises the question whether the Omicron variant is so distant from the original virus genetically that immunity against this variant may not be robust enough to capture previous variants. But if that were the case, that also means the vaccines are pointless against Omicron because the current vaccine is for the original strain.
1598  Other / Politics & Society / Re: Coronavirus Outbreak on: December 06, 2021, 03:48:33 AM
The moral virtue of advocating against lockdowns, erring on the opposite side of safety, caution and actual science (not the 'I did my own research' science, I mean the 'this is what the most qualified humans in the world say' science), has consequences as well.  Most of them uncertain both when decisions were previously made and today.  What we do know is those consequences not as bad.

Are you suggesting that after 5 million deaths worldwide, all of this could have been avoided had the world just locked down? Had we just worn more masks? Delusion.

Not interested in your appeal to authority argument, deferring to whatever the most "qualified" person in the room has to say, because opinions vary, and plenty of doctors outside the CNN newsroom have been critical of the hysteria being pushed by the modern medical establishment. It is these same experts that, without evidence, suggested children should be muzzled up in schools wearing masks. But will they admit they were wrong about the lethality of Covid to children? Will they admit they were masking up children based on politics and fear, not science? Will they admit that *more* children have died of the flu in the average flu season than children have died of Covid in a year? Nope, and neither will you. Don't tell me about what the most qualified humans say if you are unwilling to point out how they've conflated politics and facts.

Drug overdoses are just the beginning. Domestic abuse is also up, and plenty of children committing suicide because of depression, but will these "experts" ever talk about these unintended consequences of lockdowns? No, they can't, and they won't.

1599  Economy / Economics / Re: Why criminals prefer cash (Fiat) on top of crypto? on: December 05, 2021, 02:40:39 AM
There may be several reasons for this.  In general, of course, cash is less traceable than cryptocurrency.  Also, not all criminals are well versed in cryptocurrency.  Therefore, they are simply afraid to use it.  On the one hand, they are afraid that they can be identified, and on the other hand, that they will not be able to cash out the cryptocurrency in the end.

That's certainly true, mate. Physical cash will always be the leading choice for criminals, because of its anonymous nature. Not to mention, it's always stable in price. Criminals will need to exercise extreme caution when using crypto in order to avoid leaving any trace that would create a link to their identity. While there's already a solution for full-fledged privacy on crypto, it's somewhat complicated for the average person to understand. I doubt criminals will take the time to study crypto in order to use it for their nefarious actions. As Fiat is much easier to use than crypto, it'll continue to dominate the "underworld".

At least, crypto land will be able to enjoy legitimate use cases in the mainstream world. The less illegal activity there is on crypto/Blockchain tech, the better it'll be for its approval by governments worldwide. These entities will give crypto the "green light" as long as the majority is contributing towards a good cause. The day when most people conduct illegal transactions on crypto, will be such when governments crack down on the entire industry. Considering that the number of malicious actors are slightly reducing on the crypto/Blockchain space, it shouldn't be long enough before the whole industry is legitimized. I wouldn't worry about criminals on crypto, as most blockchain networks are open for anyone to explore. Governments can simply track & trace transactions on transparent blockchain networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum in order put illegal activities to rest. Just my thoughts Grin

Cash is hardly anonymous. The logistics of keeping cash on hand is a nightmare. You can never deposit it in a bank, and no retailer will accept cash on large orders with requiring documentation on the purchase. If you're talking low level criminals with small amounts on hand, that's another story, but anything in the hundreds of thousands, perhaps even less, isn't anonymous. This is why money launderers exist, taking illegitimate money and converting it into legitimate money that the government recognizes to be legitimate.

Bitcoin does not have that issue, bitcoin is a bitcoin. I'm not advocating that bitcoin is for criminals, just that government requires cash to be registered in large amounts. You cannot casually deposit large amounts in your local currency without having the government asking where that money came from.
1600  Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Banks and Bitcoin- The needed change on: December 05, 2021, 12:22:48 AM
Banks won't disappear anytime soon because people don't like change very much and it takes time to force any kind of lasting change in society.

Some people say that traditional banks will disappear due to the emergence of cryptocurrencies because it gives consumers another option when they need financial assistance; however, I think this is unfounded speculation.
Honestly, I agree with you. So far, it's not even a competition. It's hard to find precise data, somehow, but at least 1.2 billion (in reality, it's probably around 3 billion) have bank accounts, whereas only 300 million people use cryptos. Also, it's not like the vast majority of crypto users don't have bank accounts, so even this discrepancy doesn't show the real difference, as people can easily combine using banks for money and treating cryptos simply as a way to profit. I also agree that people don't like change, and people also don't like it when there's nobody in charge, nobody to guarantee the safety of your funds. So cryptos aren't likely to replace banks, not any time soon.

The ownership of a bank account is not synonymous with satisfaction of a bank account. What percentage of people are forced to use a bank account because they must subscribe to the traditional notions of modern banking, owned and operated by their country's government? What percentage of people would gladly switch to a decentralized system with more control and ownership of their funds oppose to relying on the government to sustain their account balance and purchasing power? A future without centralized banks is not as far off as you think -- the moment when people lose confidence in traditional currency is the moment modern banking collapses.
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