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

[mymenace]

Better call Saul

JAMES D. SALLAH, COURT-APPOINTED RECEIVER FOR PROJECT INVESTORS

[1714006511]

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[Torque]

Uhh, really? That guy?

There had better be a fucking subpeona for Carlos Matos and all of his Bitconnect cronies too (aka the *real criminals*) or the SEC is gonna see a torch and pitchfork wielding mob on their front doorstep...

[jojo69]

That imbecile is a special breed of ignorant.

governments are pussies man

[HairyMaclairy]

[marcus_of_augustus]

http://fortune.com/longform/nyse-owner-bitcoin-exchange-startup/

It's really worth a read. This guy is big wig of ICE, a major player when it comes to global financial exchanges, who knew he got started when Enron went bust and left an open field in energy trading .... and later dragged NYSE out of stoneage and back from the death after 2008. Sounds like an interesting guy.

What is not so interesting is his insistence that he can centralise bitcoin global trading around his ICE-NYSE-BAKKT network (providing settlement for the one-true global currency) ... he sounds very dismissive of the decentralised and distributed nature of bitcoin that gives it's desirability and strengths. Doesn't sound he quite "get's it", but that seems hard to believe given his background so what he says and what he does need to watched, closely. Chances are he will get rekt like every other exchange owner who has tried to be bigger than the coin and he'll be talking his own book too ... but he doesn't mind taking on the banks for cross-border currency settlement, and that's a good thing. Ultimately, though he is just providing another siloed counter-party solution where bitcoin natively provides a platform for moving security to the edges of the network ... the tools and technologies for individuals and institutions to confidently manage their own coins and connect directly to btc network are very slow to come to the market, except for hardware wallets.


snippets ...

The founding imperative for Bakkt will be to make Bitcoin a sound and secure offering for key constituents that now mostly shun it—the world’s big financial institutions.

Along the way, Sprecher built a flailing electricity exchange that he reportedly purchased for $1 into a global trading and data empire now worth $44 billion. “In 25 years he’s gone from nothing to the most powerful exchange entrepreneur in the world,”

Sprecher and Loeffler disagree, arguing that a strong central infrastructure is precisely what’s needed, and that ICE and its partners are the ones to supply it.

The big institutions are ICE’s main customers, and Sprecher and Loeffler understood their thinking about crypto-currencies. They reckoned that Bitcoin could thrive as a mainstream investment because the big money managers recognize that ten of millions of their current and future investors want to own it––if it can be packaged as mutual funds and ETFs. “The institutions saw that Bitcoin had lots of appeal as a store of value like gold or silver,” says Loeffler.

Once Wall Street gets the flywheel whirring, Bitcoin would gain the liquidity to become a bona fide currency. Sprecher and Loeffler predict that multinationals would then adopt Bitcoin for international payments. “The banks control international payments, and the system is very expensive,” notes Sprecher.

Bakkt would be connected to the ICE Futures U.S. exchange, so that customers could seamlessly trade Bitcoin for dollars or Euros. Then, the Bitcoin would simply shift from the seller’s lockbox in the ICE warehouse to the buyer’s lockbox, as if a forklift were transferring gold bars from one storage locker to another.

[Elwar]

He wants to save Bitcoin by centralizing and regulating it.

Our savior!

Can't wait for these Bakkt coins!

[vroom]

[Globb0]

Marketing gumpf based probably...

Australian government and IBM sign $1 billion deal for blockchain, AI technologies

The Australian government has struck a deal with IBM to provide a $1 billion five-year technology service to accelerate the uptake of blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing in the public sector.

The R&D program will be driven through three hubs in Melbourne, Canberra and the Gold Coast. It is part of an innovative, cross-government technology service deal, inked by the Turnbull government with the US business tech giant, that gives all federal agencies access to IBM’s cloud infrastructure, cyber-security practice, applications and system software.

The highly strategic whole-of-government service agreement will enable the $450 billion big Australian public sector access to IBM’s technology platform. IBM is a heavyweight in the enterprise space, in particular in financial services, and already has major agreements with Canberra’s digital giants, Human Services, the Australian Taxation Office, Home Affairs and Defence.


This agreement enables the 900-plus long tail of medium to small government agencies to also tap IBM’s deep capability in data system design and application deployment, while giving the government’s big four tech shops more flexibility to explore innovative technologies and applications and cost benefits on existing contracts.

The deal, led by the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA), is the highest-value tech contract negotiated by the Australian government, and reflects the long-term anticipated value of the agreement.

The agreement represents a much more assertive approach to the big tech vendors, using the federal government’s $6-10 billion annual tech spend to leverage with IBM an ambitious embrace of three emerging foundational technologies, which many digital leaders expect will be deeply transformative for government.

Under the deal, IBM’s AI and cloud technology can be used by Australian agencies to quickly bring more self-service, automation and digitisation to government services. IBM and the Digital Transformation Agency will convene government and industry leaders to prioritise the introduction of new technologies to citizen services.

Announcing the pathbreaking agreement, Minister for Digital Transformation Michael Keenan said the all-of-government service agreement would save money and would help drive the deployment of simpler and easier services. He said it is a major step towards the government’s aggressive goal to be one of the top three digital governments by 2025.

“The deal has also been structured to enable small and medium-sized firms to engage with IBM through ‘channel partner’ arrangements to ensure they also benefit,” Keenan said.

Rapid access to emerging technologies

Keenan is also Minister for Human Services and earlier this week made an impassioned plea to take a positive view of data sharing and integration within government. Keenan declared data is not “a four letter word“, citing early examples where integration of data sets was supporting predictive applications in drug and weather data.

New DTA chief executive, Randall Brugeaud, said the five-year deal would save about $100 million over that period.

IBM’s Australian managing sirector David La Rose said this will give Australians rapid access to emerging technologies as they are developed, while helping the government re-engineer its platforms to protect and encrypt citizen data against modern-day cyber-security threats.

“This agreement is a testament to our 40-year partnership with the Australian Government. It shows trust and belief in our ability to transform and provide world-leading capabilities, leveraging our investments locally in AI, blockchain, quantum and cloud. We look forward to helping the Australian Government to redefine the digital experience for the benefit of all Australians.”

The government’s R&D accelerator programs are to be driven through three hubs in Melbourne, Canberra and the Gold Coast.

IBM has major research infrastructure and capability embedded in the Melbourne University health ad bio tech precinct, leading the world in the real-world application of AI to melanoma. This is expected to be the foundation of a research team to accelerate the application of blockchain, AI and quantum computing across the emerging public sector platforms.

Separate units of expert computer engineers and developers will also be based on the Gold Coast and Canberra to work on leading cyber-security solutions for data protection and the application of super-computing for government services.

Blockchain enables transactional data to be trusted, without the need for complex centralised control systems. Public sector pilot projects around Australia are expected to begin mature-to-early operational applications in the coming year, but technologists believes blockchain could underpin the virtualisation of major government controlled or funded systems in the health, finance, transport, safety, energy, education, regulatory and communications sectors.

AI offers the government the opportunity to deeply learn from its huge data pools sitting in its major revenue, payments, service, and safety systems and automate many of the manual systems still deeply embedded in state and federal tech platforms. AI applications are rapidly being deployed to enable computers to learn from case files what are the most effective solutions and offer a major opportunity to empower human service frontline workers by enabling them to learn from the vast amount of knowledge sitting in case management files.

‘As profound as the rollout of electricity’

Quantum is an uber powerful computing technology that promises to power up many of the heavy data processes that will come as federal, stare and local governments seek to integrate major life services, like an easy solution to wind up the affairs of a deceased family.

Quantum computing evangelists believe it will be as profound as the rollout of electricity. The Australian government has already made a $25 million investment in the UNSW Quantum lab in Sydney. The same lab also has multi-million dollar investments from the NSW government, Telstra and the Commonwealth Bank.

IBM has once of the world’s leading quantum computing labs, located outside of New York City.

The government is also negotiating with other major tech vendors to drive a better all-of-government result. Outside of the big defence primes, IBM and Telstra dominate the tech vendor space in Canberra, but with major relationships with Fujitsu, SAP and Oracle.

Keenan said the coordinated procurement process allows for better oversight of contract delivery and greater accountability of how public funds are being spent. Since 2008, whole-of-government agreements have saved the government about $1.2 billion.

The DTA agreement with IBM comes as the government’s fifth chief digital officer in just over three and half years, Randall Brugeaud, takes over as chief executive of the DTA from former NAB executive Gavin Slater, who is going back to the private sector after 12 months in the job.

The deal represents a major recovery for the US tech giant. IBM  had to negotiate a major compensation deal with Treasury, after the first all-digital census was forced to be shut down for two days in 2016, when ABS chief David Kalisch took the call not to risk the suspected infiltration of census data. IBM provided the census solution.

[El duderino_]

Uhh, really? That guy?

There had better be a fucking subpeona for Carlos Matos and all of his Bitconnect cronies too (aka the *real criminals*) or the SEC is gonna see a torch and pitchfork wielding mob on their front doorstep...

its scam and bad and all is wrong BUT the moment when i see carlos matos presenting "bitconeeeeeeect" . or "nononoooo" the walk he makes ......
its allways making me laugh when i see it again

[LFC_Bitcoin]

How often do you guys think about bitcoin & what it will (hopefully) do for you in x amount of years time?

Me & my partner own an online female clothing business but seriously I can’t wait for bitcoin to reach $50,000 - $100,000 per bitcoin so I can stop doing mundane shit & managing dumb ass women in the office every day.

I think I check the price about 20 times a day. I’m in my early 30’s, fucking hurry up bitcoin, I have a new life in my head that I’m anxious to make a reality.

When fucking MOON?

[El duderino_]

How often do you guys think about bitcoin & what it will (hopefully) do for you in x amount of years time?

Me & my partner own an online female clothing business but seriously I can’t wait for bitcoin to reach $50,000 - $100,000 per bitcoin so I can stop doing mundane shit & managing dumb ass women in the office every day.

I think I check the price about 20 times a day. I’m in my early 30’s, fucking hurry up bitcoin, I have a new life in my head that I’m anxious to make a reality.

When fucking MOON?

Haha same here also very very early 30’s watching continously to the prices 

[LFC_Bitcoin]

How often do you guys think about bitcoin & what it will (hopefully) do for you in x amount of years time?

Me & my partner own an online female clothing business but seriously I can’t wait for bitcoin to reach $50,000 - $100,000 per bitcoin so I can stop doing mundane shit & managing dumb ass women in the office every day.

I think I check the price about 20 times a day. I’m in my early 30’s, fucking hurry up bitcoin, I have a new life in my head that I’m anxious to make a reality.

When fucking MOON?

Haha same here also very very early 30’s watching continously to the prices  

Amen.

Drinks in Europe somewhere when we hit $100,000?

[El duderino_]

How often do you guys think about bitcoin & what it will (hopefully) do for you in x amount of years time?

Me & my partner own an online female clothing business but seriously I can’t wait for bitcoin to reach $50,000 - $100,000 per bitcoin so I can stop doing mundane shit & managing dumb ass women in the office every day.

I think I check the price about 20 times a day. I’m in my early 30’s, fucking hurry up bitcoin, I have a new life in my head that I’m anxious to make a reality.

When fucking MOON?

Haha same here also very very early 30’s watching continously to the prices  

Amen.

Drinks in Europe somewhere when we hit $100,000?

Absolutly 

[mymenace]

`Marketing gumpf based probably...`

And then there is the NPP implemented 2018

What a cluster f$%k

[lightfoot]

let me just HODL and when there are oppertunitie's increase the BTC stack size , nothing more nothing less

Some-time, mid-2022-ish, we should find some ludicrously overpriced private-location, and host a massive WO-party, only accessible by private jet.

EDIT: Helicopter access will also be an acceptable alternative for party-travel.

Sure, keep me on the list. I might need a head start since I'll take the turbo-prop....

C

[lightfoot]

I have always had a soft spot for the 928s but don’t know a lot about them. What does the S4 badge mean?

S4 is the later model 928 from 87 onward. 32 valve engine, bigger brakes, really nice performance, more creature comforts. The 4 refers to 4 valves per cylinder. It does have a lot of pick up from 4,000 to redline.

And rather inexpensive since it's not a 911 (which really is a rickety car) however parts, fit, and finish were all top line quality (expensive to maintain).

(Edited slightly)

[Phil_S]

Private jets, helicopters...


ARE YOU NOT INTO TRAINS?

[Rosewater Foundation]

Private jets, helicopters...


ARE YOU NOT INTO TRAINS?

+1

Train travel is seriously underrated.

[lightfoot]

Private jets, helicopters...


ARE YOU NOT INTO TRAINS?

+1

Train travel is seriously underrated.

Snowpiercer for the win!

[Rosewater Foundation]

Dentists seem to be overrepresented in the Bitcoin space. Someone should investigate this. Do they make too much money?

https://thewealthydentist.com/surveyresults/068-dentists-and-sports-cars/

Can You Spare a Sports Car?
It turns out that the stereotype of dentists driving sports cars isn’t just a silly fiction...remarkably, fully one in four dentists in this survey has owned a Porsche.

lel