Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion

[El duderino_]

^^^

Dude, I think you're too kind/honest to be a politician, so it's all good, no need to worry.

But... Don't forget that we all put our letters in envelopes (even innocent letters to mum), we don't send them open so that the text can be read by anyone. Privacy doesn't necessarily mean illegal activity. Some things must be kept private, and I hate it when this privacy is violated.

Actually that been said in very nice words.... I do understand... Like I have send some text to my now Ex, its better no one reads that sh*t of-course, weak looking fool me at the time... But I only do say, no one would be able to scratch one $ out of me with any content, if i'm violated then its pity, but I will sleep the same.

[aesma]

Another 6 months of covid restrictions announced by Boris Johnson today. It’s not a full lockdown but bars, pubs, restaurants have a curfew, they must close at 10pm. You’re not allowed to socialise in a group of more than 6. No fans allowed into sporting events (stadiums) until March at the earliest.

I’m sick of this crap now, isolate the old & vulnerable & let the rest of us get on with our lives.
Covid has a ridiculously low mortality rate, feeling annoyed.

I hope bitcoin’s potentially epic bull run next year doesn't get stunted because of a bad type of flu.

Do you guys think all of this covid back drop will be bullish or bearish for bitcoin in the short to medium term?

Thanks in advance!

Regards

Very annoyed OG HODLER.

Old conservative people vote. Young left-wing people don't. So instead of imposing restrictions on the old and vulnerable, for example : "if your income is provided by the state, you're banned from getting out, the government will provide you with groceries etc.", half baked restrictions are imposed on all people, with little effect, because they're half baked, or not enforced, and too many people don't care to follow them.

[vapourminer]

The fight between Nada & Frank was hilarious. Just wear the fucking glasses man! Damn!

i think they promoted this fight scene as the longest fight on film thus far when the movie came out.

fun movie.

[Phil_S]

OT: Amazon upping their in-home spy devices game from a "hard no" to "oh hell fucking no!" level :

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rings-tiny-drone-autonomously-fly-173100481.html

But wait, there is more:

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1304450801746587648
Today in "Cyberpunk is a warning, not a suggestion" news, Amazon has released a landlord edition of its Alexa surveillance speaker that can be forced upon tenants.

[600watt]

Never mind the aliens, ... yet.

The most suprising event this year is not the assassination of the Iranian top general Qasem Soleimani, BLM, wildfires ore Covid-19 but the release of U.F.O footages from 2005/2015/2017 by the U.S goverment.

Aliens smell like farts. If they land they will stink the place out.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a29932234/what-would-aliens-smell-like/

...Which led my son to one inescapable conclusion: If aliens exist, they probably smell like farts.

I don’t know enough about farts, Mars, or aliens to refute him, so I reached out to somebody who does: Clara Sousa-Silva, a molecular astrophysics postdoctoral associate at MIT.

“Your son is absolutely correct in his inference,” she told me. “Most of my work in astrobiology looks at anaerobic environments, which have a lot in common with the environments that produce farts. So, yes, aliens are reasonably likely to smell like farts.”

Now I know what Ripley was smelling...

 Given the situation, I'd likely be smelling my own shit.

I have often wondered about alien life from other stars..if they have visited this solar system and this planet.
What possible reason would they have to invest significant resources traveling trillions and trillions of miles to visit a insignificant planet circling a unremarkable main sequence star on the outer edge of a galaxy basically in the middle of nowhere.
If they are still here observing for some reason and unwilling or unable to reveal their presence in full.
 
I think about the complexity of escaping a gravity well. The energy required just to get into orbit from Earth is immense and if the planet was just 50% larger in diameter standard physics would make that task impossible.
https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2017/07/06/if_earth_was_50_larger_we_might_be_stuck_here.html

How fortunate we that Earth has just the right atmospheric composition and density to make fire, thus being able to smelt ores into metals. Leading us into the technological age and the ability to construct machines capable of leaving our atmosphere.
It is some 11.186 km/s to escape earths gravity and a increase up to 16.6 km/s to leave the solar system. Thats leaving from Earth of course..the farther you fall into the Sun's gravity well the more delta v needed for escape.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_velocity#List_of_escape_velocities

Thats just the solar system now...if you want to travel galactic you need somewhere at the minimum of 500-600 km/s of delta v to escape Sagittarius A*'s clutches.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/proceedings-of-the-international-astronomical-union/article/rave-survey-constraining-the-local-galactic-escape-speed/8CEC76CD4DDE5F795640C2FEA0936F68#

All of the technology described above possible, but only on a limited scale with the energy densities humanity now achieves.
A civilisation perhaps only a few thousand years older than our own 'recorded' ten thousand years might be capable of such feats.
Let alone one that might have existed a million years before humans rose up from the plains. A trivial amount of time in the grand scheme of things and entirely possible.

Except for a few things...where are the signs? Besides a few grainy videos and a plethora of unsubstantiated testimony..nothing so far. And astronomically speaking..zip as well..no sub relativistic transients..or relativistic ones for that matter.
Ships traveling at any significant speed between stars in normal space would be extremely obvious in stellar photography. So would the energy signature used to achieve that speed. 

So it again begs the question..why? If they have the technology to completely mask their presence and travel the stars unobserved..why the hell are they here watching us?

A clown act? A comedy or perhaps more like a tragedy? Some form of zoo run amuck? One could claim shoddy custodianship if that is the case.

 
On the other side of that...I have thought about what it might look like if I was an alien and encountered a human for the first time. What my impressions might be.

Intelligent bipedal/binocular hominid with non-cooperative societal constructs and homicidal tendencys.   
Incredibly environmentally destructive while being adaptive to change and a prolific ability to reproduce given the right conditions.
Eats and converts matter internally into energy.
Must consumes daily liters of liquid hydrogen/oxygen and most actually enjoy bathing and swimming in the stuff.

So on to what I really was thinking and wanted to talk about.   

Dark matter and dark beings. How the Universe appears to be made up of less than 5% baryonic matter..the other 25% being dark matter and 70% dark energy.
Humanity manipulating and consuming a substance perhaps the majority of the Universes inhabitants can't see and interact with. Being made out of this rare matter, living in and on the edge of immense crushing burning oblate spheroids of the stuff.

If there are dark beings, how violent and strange our baryonic Universe must seem with all these strange particles and waves bashing around.

It could be that humanity is more alien than one might think and might be worthy of study.

/rando thursday thoughts


also..in closing

juansnow

fuck ftfy

i am sure it has been suggested here before and I guess you did already read it since it covers exactly that topic: interaction with alien civilization. Liu Cixin´s trilogy "Remembrance of Earth's Past" (1.The Three-Body Problem, 2.The Dark Forest, 3.Death's End) is a fantastic read. all civilizations come to the point where they become aware of the possibility of other civilizations existing and they need to figure out if this is a general threat. most come to the conclusion it is best to hide and preemptively destroy everything that could resemble an alien civilization in order to not get annihilated themselves.

it is an interesting intellectual challenge to discuss the pros and contras of trying to contact alien civilizations given the threat of annihilation.  

there is no doubt in my mind that life exists not only on earth. much less abundant, but in an universe of endless size that doesn't really matter, would be not just primitive life but technical advanced civilizations. imho the problem is the size of the universe. there could be millions of civilizations way too far away for any interaction. the other problem is time. given just the 14 billion years our universe is thought of being old, it is very unlikely to have another civilization synchronized to our technical progress.

and even if there was accidentally a near civilization in space and time, why would they want contact? what is there to gain?                  

on the other hand there is also the chance that such contact has happened in the past and was in fact the reason for life to get started on earth in the first place or was the reason for the evolution of humans from apes.

when smoking really good weed one could even wonder if bitcoin is an alien technology, sent to us by benevolent aliens who wanted to safe us from destroying ourselves because of an ill-designed (fiat)money system.

[Phil_S]

Haha, I just absolutely wouldn't be able to been spotted at such Island, just not that guy...

Dude, even if you're squeaky clean, and they don't have something to blackmail you with... they could still blackmail your boss, or your GF's boss, or your landlord, etc...

Think about it.

[Cryptotourist]

Actually that been said in very nice words.... I do understand... Like I have send some text to my now Ex, its better no one reads that sh*t of-course, weak looking fool me at the time... But I only do say, no one would be able to scratch one $ out of me with any content, if i'm violated then its pity, but I will sleep the same.

Actually what is even more important, is having the choice, to have privacy or not.
Cryptography BTC fixes that.

when smoking really good weed one could even wonder if bitcoin is an alien technology, sent to us by benevolent aliens who wanted to safe us from destroying ourselves because of an ill-designed (fiat)money system.

[600watt]

i am trying to find out how money transfers through banks technically work (ACH, SEPA). I cannot find anything useful, there are just general descriptions but not detailed technical descriptions. what I want to find out is to what level present day money transfers between private consumers or between business and customer are automated/digitized. how do clearing houses work under the hood? how do they receive, control and process transactions? how are their databases connected or are their kept separate? 

i am willing to rain merits for useful info. or even sats. is there a banker here or someone with prime knowledge about this topic?


thank you!

[philipma1957]

Haha, I just absolutely wouldn't be able to been spotted at such Island, just not that guy...

Dude, even if you're squeaky clean, and they don't have something to blackmail you with... they could still blackmail your boss, or your GF's boss, or your landlord, etc...

Think about it.

Also remember extortion can be very effective against most people. Your (loved ones) could get hurt you know. Car accidents happen all the time. Or some other variation of that.

[Paashaas]

Updates from Brazil (Manaus) and Sweden.

Unexpected precious cost on human resources but Manaus likely reach the herd / community immunity. Sweden probably reaches what they have been looking for at beginning.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8760031/Expert-claims-Sweden-herd-immunity-coronavirus.html
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.16.20194787v1.full.pdf
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1026-x

That escalated quickly. This will hit like a A-bomb for those people and experts praising swedish ''herd immunity''.

European cities like Cardiff, Swanse and Madrid are following aka: lockdown 2.0 incoming.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/23/sweden-shifts-no-lockdown-strategy/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8765787/Swedens-lockdown-free-coronavirus-response-risk-officials-mull-chain-breaking-measures.html#comments

[aesma]

i am sure it has been suggested here before and I guess you did already read it since it covers exactly that topic: interaction with alien civilization. Liu Cixin´s trilogy "Remembrance of Earth's Past" (1.The Three-Body Problem, 2.The Dark Forest, 3.Death's End) is a fantastic read

I'm reading that right now. The Chinese aspect is also interesting, with the cultural revolution, etc.
 

there is no doubt in my mind that life exists not only on earth. much less abundant, but in an universe of endless size that doesn't really matter, would be not just primitive life but technical advanced civilizations. imho the problem is the size of the universe. there could be millions of civilizations way too far away for any interaction. the other problem is time. given just the 14 billion years our universe is thought of being old, it is very unlikely to have another civilization synchronized to our technical progress.

With technology we know/can envision it seems possible for humanity to become a multi planet species. Not really easy, but possible. With advances in robotics especially, allowing resources to be gathered autonomously, it will get easier. So at first glance I have to think that other similar species, but with some millions/billions years on us, must have conquered significant parts of galaxies.

It doesn't mean it would be that easy to see, I know all the concepts of stuff like the Dyson sphere, but it's not obvious to me a civilization would go that far. Humanity is used to expand rapidly, consuming resources at a fast pace, but I could see things slowing down. If today all women on the planet didn't make more than two kids, it would make no difference in technological advancement of our species, but it would mean we can all fit on this planet. There would still be a drive to reach the stars, at least from some people, some of which have the will to do it (Elon Musk comes to mind), but let's say we find a Earth 2 not too far away, how many people would be willing to go there ? A few millions at most, if here is still a nice enough place. A few millions people on Earth 2 with our current/better tech, science, culture etc., they wouldn't start making babies like rabbits, there would probably never be any need to go elsewhere (until the end of the star). So expanding across part of a galaxy might take millions/billions of years after all.

Then there are other aspects of technology that would change the outcome completely. For example the interface between man and machine (something else Elon is working on). If one day we can "virtualize" our minds, become machines, or just information on a network, infinitely intelligent, maybe expanding across a galaxy wouldn't make any sense to us at all.

[Dabs]

Regarding privacy:

1. People generally do not live in glass houses. Windows have blinds. Doors can be closed and locked.
2. Snail mail is usually in sealed envelopes.
3. Most people do not like knowing that they are being observed, don't like cameras pointed at them. There are laws not to video or take other kid's pictures without their or their parent's permission, depending on where you live.

My favorite one, even though I am not American is still the one that ends with "shall not be infringed."

Opened a can here ...


Regarding Aliens (in space or other planets) ... billions of stars, up to 2 trillion galaxies, it's hard to imagine there is nobody else out there. In the Milky Way alone, there are an estimated 40 billion Earth-Like Planets in the habitable zone of their stars.

[nullius]

But... Don't forget that we all put our letters in envelopes (even innocent letters to mum), we don't send them open so that the text can be read by anyone. Privacy doesn't necessarily mean illegal activity. Some things must be kept private, and I hate it when this privacy is violated.

Emphasis mine.

Something that always amazes me about cryptography in general, is that it allows us to control our privacy without sacrificing utility. I can send a digital "letter" that's encrypted, on the open net, without fear of it being compromised (assuming your keys are safe)

^^^ T-H-I-S !

Ancient cypherpunk wisdom from the last millennium:  Don’t write anything in unencrypted e-mail (or forum PMs) that you would not send on a postcard.

Edit:  Dabs, there you go, pre-empting me while I am writing a post and multitasking:

2. Snail mail is usually in sealed envelopes.

Moreover:

(even innocent letters to mum)

All non-public communications should be encrypted.  Period.

If you only encrypt selected things, then you are red-flagging those things as “something to hide”, leaking what is in practical effect contextual metadata, and inviting targeted attackers to seek specifically the things that you wanted to encrypt.  Oops.

Because I am sick and tired of this:

Most of my personal communications are very, very boring.  Mundane.  All are encrypted.  All.  Except for limited temporary contact with people whom I am still harassing and browbeating into crypto.

My general policy is that if you don’t want to use end-to-end encrypted communications, which are easier to use than ever before (with so many things available that are easier than using gpg in the terminal!), it means that you do not want to talk to me.  Bye!  Although that is not always practical to enforce in business matters, I actually cut people out of my personal life over this.

There comes a moment:  Encrypt, or fork off.  It is just that simple.

Social pressure can work, if people want to talk to you more than you want to talk to them.  Before I became downright draconian about crypto, I had approximately 0% success at getting non-cypherpunk people into it.  Now, my success rate is infinity times 0%—and it is a useful filter to help discover who values me.  You know, it is psychologically unhealthy to pander to people who value you so little that they will not make even minimal effort to talk to you.  It means that you are a desperate loser.

[fillippone]

From time to time you find some weird commentary from Wass Stret:

This is from Bank of America

Our secular view: a secular low in inflation & interest rates nigh, driven by bigger government, smaller world, dollar debasement themes; low volatile secular returns; strategic AA of 25/25/25/25 of stocks/bonds/cash/gold or factor allocation of growth/yield/quality/inflation hedges; note CBO projects federal debt = 100% GDP in 2020 and 200% in 2050 (Chart 5); dollar debasement inevitable; periods of weak dollar & weak stocks rare, mostly "big government" period of 1970s & "smaller world" period 2001 onward with War on Terrorism (Chart 6); weaker US dollar, higher gold, higher volatility remain favorite big trades of 2021.

This is bitcoin bullish, isn’t it? When you talk about dollar debasement there is no other way to preserve your purchasing power without going into physical gold, or, better, corn digital gold:

[600watt]

i am taking a bet on CT. if price reaches $400k before next halving I lose 1 btc. if it doesn't, I win 1 btc.

already salivating...

[Paashaas]

i am trying to find out how money transfers through banks technically work (ACH, SEPA). I cannot find anything useful, there are just general descriptions but not detailed technical descriptions. what I want to find out is to what level present day money transfers between private consumers or between business and customer are automated/digitized. how do clearing houses work under the hood? how do they receive, control and process transactions? how are their databases connected or are their kept separate? 

i am willing to rain merits for useful info. or even sats. is there a banker here or someone with prime knowledge about this topic?


thank you!

This is what you might looking for 600watt.

Prepair for a long though read.

https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/sites/default/files/kb/file/2018-11/EPC125-05%202017%20SCT%20Rulebook%20version%201.3.pdf

[psycodad]

OT: Amazon upping their in-home spy devices game from a "hard no" to "oh hell fucking no!" level :

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rings-tiny-drone-autonomously-fly-173100481.html

But wait, there is more:

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1304450801746587648
Today in "Cyberpunk is a warning, not a suggestion" news, Amazon has released a landlord edition of its Alexa surveillance speaker that can be forced upon tenants.

There is even more:

Gen. Keith Alexander is joining Amazon’s board of directors, the company revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing today. (Alexander has also been added to the company board’s official site.)
...

I am not sure if Amazon or the TLAs scare me more nowadays and not sure which ones are more powerful either.

[psycodad]

^^^

Dude, I think you're too kind/honest to be a politician, so it's all good, no need to worry.

But... Don't forget that we all put our letters in envelopes (even innocent letters to mum), we don't send them open so that the text can be read by anyone. Privacy doesn't necessarily mean illegal activity. Some things must be kept private, and I hate it when this privacy is violated.

Actually that been said in very nice words.... I do understand... Like I have send some text to my now Ex, its better no one reads that sh*t of-course, weak looking fool me at the time... But I only do say, no one would be able to scratch one $ out of me with any content, if i'm violated then its pity, but I will sleep the same.

While I totally sympathize with Duderino's "I don't care what they think of me" attitude, there is a deeper problem the Dude doesn't see yet.

Imagine for a moment the General Attorney for Belgium or the USA (coz we all know they have powers everywhere) wants to get promoted by proving the Dude to be a kiddy fiddler, terrrst, money launderer, hacker etc.
Ask yourself for a moment if you've never said, email, texted, chatted any sentence or words that could - if even completely taken out of context - support the GA's case? Or if any search on Google, any location Apple has recorded from you, any books and items you bought from Amazon could eventually be used against you.

When I was a young cypherpunk we often quoted Cardinal Richelieu:

Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
==
If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. 

Even though I am sure you mean something different it can be read as "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" which is plain out wrong and reliably triggers my ranting and raving seen above 

[Dabs]

Edit:  Dabs, there you go, pre-empting me while I am writing a post and multitasking:

2. Snail mail is usually in sealed envelopes.

My general policy is that if you don’t want to use end-to-end encrypted communications, which are easier to use than ever before (with so many things available that are easier than using gpg in the terminal!), it means that you do not want to talk to me.  Bye!  Although that is not always practical to enforce in business matters, I actually cut people out of my personal life over this.

...make even minimal effort to talk to you.

Reminds me of Snowden. He kinda forced the media who were trying to help him at the time he was escaping to Hong Kong or thereabouts (according to the movies about him); encrypt or don't say anything.

I would argue that in the case of PMs (private messages) on this board, only the admins can easily read them if they were unencrypted. Mods do not have that power. The whole site goes through https, so ... there is some encryption going on, just not really end-to-end person to person. So who can read PMs here? Basically theymos and a handful of other admins, and anyone who compels them to.

So encrypt your PMs, no one can read them for sure.

Still, those who I've worked with, tend to GPG encrypt stuff, or at least sign them when it involves addresses.


As for aliens, I'd wait until we have a small ring of solar panels surrounding our planet Earth ... Not exactly a Dyson sphere (since that goes around the Sun), but it should take care of our immediate energy needs in the near future.

It would probably start with solar panels on the ground too, or on the water. So much empty land and oceans.

[bitserve]

i am taking a bet on CT. if price reaches $400k before next halving I lose 1 btc. if it doesn't, I win 1 btc.

already salivating...

How can I make a bet/hedge like that? Asking for friend...